What Are Near Death Experiences?
Scientists Study What Goes on in the Brain When a Person Nears Death
Do near death experiences provide proof of life after death or do they mean we need to study how the human mind works a little bit more?
Near death experiences have been reported around the world for millennia. In an era of television, radio, and the Internet, computer users can choose to read about the theories behind near death experiences at almost any time of day. Strangely enough, for the scientist, the debate does not center on whether or not they happen, but on what near death experiences are.
Common Features of Near Death Experiences
Many near death experiences have common features including being near death, feeling an overwhelming sense of euphoria, and often the person experiencing the near death experience is told that it is not his time to die and that he needs to return to his body, according to Time Magazine. Somewhere between 4 to 18 percent of people who are revived after having a heart attack will report having a near death experience.
Brain Functions Cause of Near Death Experience
Skeptics maintain that the near death experiences are caused by an oxygen starved brain. Skeptics also point out the reports of NDEs contain elements that can be explained by scientific processes. Believers in the phenomenon state that science cannot account for all of the events that take place during a near death experience. Although what happens in the brain can be explained by neurochemistry, supporters argue that consciousness can exist independent of a functioning brain. A study conducted at the University of Virginia examined the accuracy of observations by people who claimed to have undergone a near death experience. Many reports made by such patients were accurate.
Near death experiences should not happen at all as they occur at a time when the brain should not be able to function, yet the time between lack of brain function and the patient coming back to consciousness indicate that people are capable of forming clear memories while being clinically dead. Not everyone who undergoes a near death experience experience that puts him or her at death's door will experience the phenomenon. The lack of universality caused a team of Dutch researchers to suggest that NDEs had a purely physiological explanation.
Differing Reports of Near Death Experiences
Not every near death experience includes the light at the end of the tunnel. Some people come back and report being tortured by elves or demons. Theologians, Priests, Imams and people who make their living studying the will of God point to the reports of near death experiences as proof of an afterlife, while skeptics insist that the varying accounts merely mean that it is something going inside the head of the person undergoing a near death experience.
Scientists believe the most likely explanation for near death experiences is the result of a brain state entered when the heart goes into cardiac arrest coupled with the effects of anesthesia. Similar experiences have been duplicated by fighter pilots undergoing rapid acceleration.
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