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Near Death Experiences- Are They Scientific?

When I was ten years old I read about a girl who had a near-death experience in a local newspaper. I was completely taken aback and couldn’t believe it was true. It intrigued me a lot and forced me to read a lot about parapsychology and experiences related to altered consciousness. The article in the newspaper was about a nine year old girl who fell inside a tree trunk, 30ft deep and survived remarkably without any injuries. The girl had a rare condition called pseudo-obstruction motility disorder since her birth and miraculously she got cured of that disease after she came out from the trunk. She also had a glimpse of her great-grandmother whom she had never met in real life during that altered state of consciousness and also mentioned seeing an angel (‘Miracles From Heaven’ By Christy Beam).

Anita Moorjani is another miracle. She was diagnosed with lymphoma and her doctors had informed her family that it was too late to save her. She was in a coma for 30 hours. Later when she came out of the coma, her tumours had shrinked upto 70% within four days and after five weeks she was cancer-free and released from the hospital. She explained that she had an out-of-the-body experience during the coma with observations and awareness of the physical surroundings(‘Dying To Be Me’ By Anita Moorjani).

Near-death experiences are defined by Dr. Raymond Moody who first conducted a research on it as an altered state of consciousness which occurs during an episode of unconsciousness as a result of a life-threatening condition. Under these circumstances, patients often report perceiving a tunnel, a bright light, deceased relatives, mental clarity, a review of their lives, and out-of-body experiences (OBEs) in which they describe a feeling of separation from their bodies, the ability to watch themselves from a different perspective and the awareness of being dead. NDEs may occur in people of all genders and all ages, educational and socioeconomic levels, beliefs, and life experiences.

NDEs can be positive or negative. The former experiences the feeling of an overwhelming presence, something transcendent and divine. A clashing disconnect separates the massive trauma to the body and the peacefulness and feeling of oneness with the universe. Yet some NDEs can be frightening, marked by intense terror and despair. Michael Sabom, a cardiologist has classified NDE into 3 types: out-of-body; transcendental involving passage of consciousness into a foreign dimension and the combined experience. NDE survivors have also reported viewing resuscitation efforts from outside, meeting a ‘being of light‘ who helped them evaluate their lives and finally deciding to return to life rather than go into the bliss of death. A tryst with death reminds us of the precariousness and fragility of life and can strip away the layers of psychological suppression that shield us from uncomfortable thoughts of existential oblivion. For most, these events fade in intensity with time, and normality eventually reasserts itself but they are recalled with unusual intensity and lucidity over decades.

Although there are neuropsychological, neurochemical or neurohumoral hypotheses about NDE, yet it is reported to be a non-pathological experience that involves the psychological processes of dissociation as a response to trauma. Depersonalization has also been suggested as a possible explanation in the face of danger. Other theories of NDE include spiritual theories which presume that consciousness has an independent existence with a belief in after life or that NDE could be described as birth memories- cultural beliefs and expectations modify the accounts of NDE. Susan Blackmore, a Consciousness researcher has described that sometimes mind can acquire a mental model of reality assumed upon imagery and memory instead of sensory impressions. Plato and other philosophers have proposed many explanations regarding the relationship between perception and reality. The commonality of the experiences suggests that NDEs might arise from something more fundamental than religious or cultural expectations. Perhaps NDEs reflect changes in how the brain functions as we approach death. Numerous after-effects have been reported, such as the development of a higher spirituality, less materialistic values or a reduced fear of death.

The scientific literature attempts to explain NDEs as the result of physical changes in a stressed or dying brain, oxygen shortage, imperfect anaesthesia and the body’s neurochemical responses to trauma. Narrowing tunnel vision is caused due to reduced blood flow to the visual periphery of the retina. Near death experiencers dismiss these explanations as inadequate. The medical conditions under which NDEs happen, they say, are too varied to explain a phenomenon that seems so widespread and consistent. The problem with the lack of oxygen explanation is that when there is a lack of oxygen, our recollections are fuzzy and sometimes non-existent. The less oxygen one has, the less one remembers. But the people who have experienced near-death can recall their death travels, describe things in a very clear, concise, and structured way.

Such ecstatic and mystical experiences have been reported when ingesting psychoactive substances from a class of hallucinogens linked to the neurotransmitter serotonin, including psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms), LSD, DMT(N,N-Dimethyltryptamine), opiates and 5-MeO-DMT, consumed as part of religious, spiritual or recreational practices. This leads the scientific community to assume that NDE is nothing but an after-effect of the drugs which are given as a treatment to alleviate pain.

When the brain is starved of blood flow and oxygen, the patient faints in a fraction of a minute and the electroencephalogram, or EEG, becomes flat. This implies that large-scale, spatially distributed electrical activity within the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, has broken down and local regions of the brain go offline one after another. The mind, whose substrate is whichever neurons remain capable of generating electrical activity, does what it always does: it tells a story shaped by the person’s experience, memory and cultural expectations. Given these power outages, this experience may produce the rather strange stories that make up the NDE reports. To the person undergoing it, the NDE is as real as anything the mind produces during normal waking. When the entire brain has shut down because of complete power loss, the mind is extinguished, along with consciousness. If and when oxygen and blood flow are restored, the brain boots up, and the narrative flow of experience resumes.

Many neurologists have noted similarities between NDEs and the effects of a class of epileptic events known as complex partial seizures. These fits partially impair consciousness and often are localized to specific brain regions in one hemisphere. The seizure may be accompanied by changes in the perceived sizes of objects; unusual tastes, smells or bodily feelings; déjà vu; depersonalization; or ecstatic feelings. Neurosurgeons are able to induce such ecstatic feelings by electrically stimulating part of the cortex in epileptic patients who have electrodes implanted in their brain. Patients report bliss, enhanced well-being, and heightened self-awareness or perception of the external world. Exciting the gray matter elsewhere can trigger out-of-body experiences or visual hallucinations. This brute link between abnormal activity patterns—whether induced by the spontaneous disease process or controlled by a surgeon’s electrode—the subjective experience provides support for a biological, not spiritual, origin.

It is intriguing, though, that the outer limit of the spectrum of human experience encompasses other occasions in which reduced oxygen causes pleasurable feelings of jauntiness, light-headedness and heightened arousal for example in scuba diving, high-altitude climbing, sky-diving, etc. Why the mind should experience the struggle to sustain its operations in the face of loss of blood flow and oxygen as positive and blissful rather than as panic-inducing remains mysterious.

Thank You.

What do you think?

526 Points

Written by Krutika Popat

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Ilhaam Shaik

Wow! If was informative and fascinating at the same time

Rizul Gupta

That is an amazing presentation linking near death experiences with science, well done!

Vanshika Nagda

I am so glad I read this article, Krutika. It was extremely informative and a treat for me because I have always wanted to learn more about this topic. Thank you for putting it all together 🙂

Smrithi.S

That was very informative.

Aanchal

Hey, i didn’t knew about this. Very nicely explained Great Work!

Karisma

A seriously well written article. I personally got to know about NDEs when I watched a Netflix’s series names ‘OA’ and then a movie ‘Flatline’ which both had were bases on the characters having and NDE which alters their life after, but I didn’t know the theory behind it. Reading this article really helped me get more knowledge about it. It’s amazing what mystery our mind and mental states hold.

A.Basu

very informative and really good work..keep it up

Karisma

A seriously well written article. It contains the right amount of information. Personally I had come across the term NDE when I saw a Netflix series bases on it named ‘OA’. But now reading about it theory, definitely helped me expand my knowledge about it. Indeed it’s truly amazing how mysterious our mind and mental stats are.

Kritika Bhair

Heyyyy krutika
This was very informative article
Great work!!
Thank you for sharing this with us

Good luck!!

Vinaya Parthasarathy

That was a very insightful read, I learned a lot and was amazed by the different near to death experiences!!

Harnaaz kaur

Wow! This was amazingly put up with well researched points and facts! Kiddos to you.
I’ve never thought about this in such a details, but I’ve also heard about the incidents which you mentioned and those always use to leave me in awe. But reading this in details was surely a treat to the eye.
Thank you for sharing this with us :’)

Sakthiswaari R M D

This article has a involved a various details about the near death experiences, I don’t accept with all the cases given in the article because some has scientific cure especially the case of the person with the tumour .
The person has been taken care for a long time with a continuous medications though it didn’t express the decrease in the tumour at the initial stage, maybe the reason could be due to the malfunction of the body organs during the time of coma. when the person started gaining the consciousness the organs would have functioned properly which could have led to the rapid decrease int he level of the tumour in that person

Shubhangi

an excellent article, i have been wondering about this topic for some time now. Thank you for clearing it up. I am so thankful that all the stories mentioned in this article are the result of how someone was saved from the jaws of death.

Srushti BM

Hey, I personally find this topic really interesting and the fact that you have given an entire article explaining so many things , it has definitely fascinated me. Amazing work girl !!!

Kirti manaktala

This article got me absolutely hooked. It was so informative, engaging and super interesting. The style of writing is so beautiful.
Looking forward to reading more content from you.
Stay safe and take care

Afreen

Woah!!! I had never thought of looking into this topic before! What an incredible read! I love reading fascinating theories and research about topics like these where you can only guess of what might be true!
Thank you for sharing this new concept with us!

Sneha Goswami

Hi !
It was a great experience reading your article. It covered both aspects of near-death experiences, i.e. scientific and psychological. I love how you have narrated real-life experiences from newspaper excerpts. This displays a sound foundation for your article.
Overall, it was an amazing read.
Best wishes,
Sneha

vrinda tuteja

2 years ago, I watched a movie called flatline that talks about the same out-of-the-body-experience. after reading this article, the movie has begun to make more sense. thank you lots 🙂
keep up!

Aratrika

Amazing article and very well-written with so many details. However, you can add more illustrations or pictures to hold the interest of the readers as the article is lengthy and divide it into various parts

Pooja Gupta

This article is one of its kind. The examples that you have quoted are so realistic and it has made the article so worthy. Also you are very much right about the fact that such experiences alarm us and force us to think upon the fact that life is so fragile.

Divya Chopade

Very fascinating!
Keep writing & keep enlightening us ❤️

Ragini Prasad

Honestly it’s very interesting story and related information. It’s surprising to know how table turn around in life and bring up things.
You mentioned complete story and it’s analysis well.

Elon bhengra

hey well done
this is one of the topic i wanted to learn about and the information you provide are very helpful and knowledgeable one.

Yuvanue chauhan

Very different topic very nice .i am in love with your work as i am also curious about these tyoe of things .keep growing

Disha Dhage

this is a intresting topic to write on and honestly you have done a good job.
the article is informative and nicely written.
could have used some pictures tho
overall, amazing!
🙂

Vanshika Kothari

very nicely written.
well done.

Saumya Srivastava

I recently read about people’s NDE on quora too. I loved how you put a scientific angle to it. Personally, though I’d like to believe that this is a spiritual experience that allows people to have a glimpse into the before and after of this life while also making them realize the importance of life itself and how easily it can be taken away. Loved reading this article!

Gauri Kakar

Absolutely thrilled after reading this article. It was so informative, engaging and super interesting. The style of writing is so beautiful.

Simran

Hey it was an interesting article. I was quite fascinated by its title. However you could try concluding it in a different way next time

Bushra Khan

The moment I saw the title I was intrigued! It is such a well-written article, the topic in itself is so fascinating.

Janvhi Agrawal

Reading this article, I was once again amazed my the inner working of human brain. Reading ND experiences always sends chills down my spine, even though we think we have know what is going on in our minds, the reality is far fetched and so is the understanding of human psychology. Going through this article took me a little closer to understand much bigger issues.

Janvhi Agrawal

Reading this article, I was once again amazed my the inner working of human brain. Reading
about such experiences always sends chills down my spine, even though we think we have know what is going on in our minds, the reality is far fetched and so is the understanding of human psychology. Going through this article took me a little closer to understand much bigger issues.

Reva Garg

Hey Krutika! This is such an amazing article. The concept of ‘Near Death Experiences’ always intrigued me but I never followed up on it until I read this. This is very informative and has such an easy flow from one point to another.
I especially liked the statement “A tryst with death reminds us of the precariousness and fragility of life and can strip away the layers of psychological suppression that shield us from uncomfortable thoughts of existential oblivion.”
However, I do believe that it could have been a little easier if the meanings of scientific terms were given as well.
Thank You so much for writing this amazing piece of work! Kudos to your hardwork and research <3

Prachi Piryani

Hello. It is a very informative article. Loved the facts you stated. Some tips:-
# Include flowcharts and write points instead of long long sentences.
# Make the article a little short because the reader might tend to loose attention and interest in between.
# Include pictures and references
# Write a concluding paragraph so that the reader gets an overall gist about the article.
I hope you take all of these positively and apply in your next post.
Good Job.
Keep it up. 😀

Harshita Vaswani

Kritikaaa I’m stunned. I’m really stunned. I have never read anything as such. This is totally new to me. I’ve heard one of my seniors talk about parapsychology but I never really looking into it this opens a new view for me.

I’m a believer of materialism and I’m an atheist (keep an open mind as I tell you this and that everyone can have their own beliefs) but I totally used to ignore anything like this, because for me it meant that
a) either people are on drugs
b) they are making up things
But this is like the last piece of puzzle that you gave me❤️
Thank you for writing Kritika!
It means to us and I hope you keep on writing like this cause you are brilliant! ❤️

Andrea Shannon

Well written.
The facts that was stated were good.

Kirtika Tiwari

I loved the facts and correct information and data that was collected for the article
It was very informative.
The writer maintains a level of curiosity and interest throughout the article.
I loved how she started the article with real life experiences and incidents.
Though the article was very well written but it could be simplified for general audience.
Writing a detailed article is very good but to maintain the same level of interest throughout the length of the article could have been a little less.
I love how the writer connects all the dots and takes into consideration all kinds of scientific,mystical and logical approach.
There were few points and instances which weren’t very relevant and could be skipped.
Keeping in mind all the things I really appreciate the vast research the writer has done to write the article.

Shatakshi Garg

Wow Krutika! This topic was absolutely new to me. It was very fascinating and I’m gonna study more about it. Thankyou for introducing this to me. ❤️

Kriti Misra

This is such an interesting read. Reignites my fascination with the working of our mind and bodies. Such a different topic to write on. I really liked the part where it was written how our mind, during deficit of oxygen, creates that whole story for us based on our own past experiences and how the origin of such NDE’s has been linked to science. Thank you for this article.

Ritu raj

Death is the worst nightmare. I found this very interesting thank you so much for sharing this

Vandana Jaiswal

Very well written and informative and interesting.
All the facts were stated in proper way ..and wasn’t really hard to understand considering how different your topic is

LISHA KALRA

I got goosebumps while reading your article. LITERALLY. The universe works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it? I can’t possibly provide you with any suggestions on adding more points, because you’ve covered everything beautifully. WOW!

Dhriti Chadha

Extremely Informative piece of work. I don’t think I believed in all this, but well you put it up so nicely that NDE’s are scientifically proven.

Nalini

This is such a unique topic to write on, a hard one too and still you’ve done such a great job at it! Absolutely loved reading it! Do include illustrations the next time! Hoping to read more from you!

Harshita Das

Damn.. always had confusions about parapsychological activities and psychology being science. your article was very informative and the facts were stated in it, in such a creative manner. The whole article was presented in a fascinating way.

Hrushitaa

Wow! This article made me rekindle and retrace a lot of my NDEs and understand their connection to my thought processes and how they developed over time! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this article!

Siya V. Kumar

This was so interesting! Thankyou for sharing this.

Vaishnavi Aher

I had no idea that people have done full fledged research on NDEs. Really interesting. Well done!

Gaurvi

very facinating!

Riya Rajkotiya

Damm Good Concept
Enjoyed reading it