Explaining the Near Death Experience

Scientists Have Found Evidence of Mundane Causes of NDEs

Sep 1, 2009

Though many people who have undergone a near-death experience believe they have glimpsed an "afterlife," the explanation may be simple brain chemistry.

According the a Gallup poll conducted in 1992, over 8 million Americans claim to have experienced a near-death experience (NDE). This phenomenon is generally associated with some type of bodily trauma, such as surgery or a car accident, and is usually characterized by a feeling of being outside one’s own body, seeing a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it, and sometimes seeing loved ones who have passed away previously.

While not all those who have NDE’s report all of these occurrences, enough do that scientists became interested in studying what causes the phenomenon. And though many who may have experienced an NDE claim that it changed their lives or affirmed their belief in an afterlife, studies suggest that NDEs are simply a function of a brain in an altered state of consciousness.

The Out-of-Body Experience (OBE)

According to a study in the Lancet, only about a quarter of patients studied report experiencing feelings of being out of their bodies; most of these describe the sensation of floating several feet above the ground and looking down at themselves.

For this reason, a large scale study of OBE’s (led by Dr. Sam Parnia of the University of Southampton) has focused on placing various images in operating rooms, in places where the patient would only be able to see it if some part of him or her was actually floating above his or her body. The study has raised ethical concerns, as patients obviously cannot consent to participate in the experiment boforehand.

Skeptics also point out that the study may be a waste of time, as out-of-body experiences, far from being the separation of body and “soul,” can easily be triggered by mundane causes like sleep deprivation, electrical stimulation of the brain, or ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs like ketamine or LSD.

The Tunnel Into the Light

In the mid-1970s, psychologist Stanislav Grof theorized that the ubiquity of the “tunnel” metaphors described by those who had undergone NDE’s was caused by some residual memory of exiting the birth canal. Skeptics were quick to point out that not only do babies have no capacity for remembering their own birth, but also that people who had been born by Caesarian section had also experienced NDE’s.

Psychologist Susan Blackmore has proposed a more believable scenario: That lack of oxygen to the brain prior to death causes interference with the neural firing in the visual cortex, producing a sort of receding stripe or spiral pattern that the brain may interpret as a tunnel. In various lab tests, subjects who took hallucinogens reported seeing similar patterns and tunnel-like images.

Seeing Gods, Angels and the Afterlife

In some cases, patients undergoing NDE’s later claimed they had seen dead loved ones waiting for them in a beautiful heavenly realm, or said they saw gods or angels; some claimed to have felt a tremendous sense of well-being.

Skeptics and scientists believe these images are simply the products of a traumatized or dying brain, much like hallucinations or dreams that can seem very real to the person experiencing them. As previously mentioned, sleep deprivation and certain drugs can trigger vivid hallucinations and feelings of peace or oneness with the universe, just as some NDE patients have reported.

Moreover, skeptics have argued that people of different religions experience NDE’s in the context of the religion they are familiar with, and see what their religious tenets prepare them to see. For this reason, it is unlikely that the various gods and angels appearing in these near-death experience visions have any objective reality outside of the mind.

The copyright of the article Explaining the Near Death Experience in Psychology is owned by Jenny Ashford. Permission to republish Explaining the Near Death Experience in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.