What are your thoughts on Near Death Experiences?

[Hermit Philosopher]

What are your thoughts about near death experiences? What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?

My thoughts are that they happen…
That aspects in these experiences may be due to physical changes, like oxygen deprivation, or - in the event of being in theatre or hospitalised when they occur - due to anaesthetics and other drugs.

Have you had an NDE yourself recently…?


Humbly
Hermit

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

What are your thoughts about near death experiences? What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?

That dying brains do weird things

 

[HonestJoe]

- a dying brain is not generally a reliable brain.

Hell, a healthy, conscious brain isn't a reliable brain. With a dying one, all bets are off.

 

[Psalm23]

My thoughts are that they happen…
That aspects in these experiences may be due to physical changes, like oxygen deprivation, or - in the event of being in theatre or hospitalised when they occur - due to anaesthetics and other drugs.

Have you had an NDE yourself recently…?


Humbly
Hermit

I haven’t had one. I do find the stories fascinating though.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

What are your thoughts about near death experiences? What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?

I think they are fascinating and need to be studied more.

I hope they are authentic, meaning I hope that there really is life after death. (I'm not saying anyone is lying about their experiences.)

But there are other explanations of what is going on. For example, some scientists are simply saying that it takes a while for the brain to shut down, even after a person's heart has stopped beating and they are clinically dead. It is possible that during this time, the brain generates these images.

One thing that is of concern to me, is that the incidents of viewing procedures from outside the body, from up above, have not been completely confirmed. There are surgeons who have placed written messages high up in their operating rooms, so that if someone really is looking down from near the ceiling, they would see these messages. Yet so far, not a single NDE has reported what one of these little test messages say.

All this to say... I am withholding judgment until more research is done.

 

[Rival]

One thing that is of concern to me, is that the incidents of viewing procedures from outside the body, from up above, have not been completely confirmed. There are surgeons who have placed written messages high up in their operating rooms, so that if someone really is looking down from near the ceiling, they would see these messages. Yet so far, not a single NDE has reported what one of these little test messages say.

I believe it happens. I've been into dreams and such for as long as I can remember, and the more you 'take it in' the more seems to happen. For instance, I once saw dad angrily taking some milk out of the kitchen fridge and take it upstairs to put in his personal fridge, claiming it was his.

The thing is, when I saw him do this I was actually fast asleep. So I believe the soul can leave the body like this and experience things.

He had done it, though, and it caused what my bf and I call the milk-wars.

 

[Harel13]

True story, I've posted it on RF before and no doubt i will again

My father was mugged, he was hit across the head with a half brick that shattered his skull. During a month long coma he clinically died 3 times. He distinctly remembers dying and to this day he claims the only reason he came back was because god is a lousy poker player.

Sounds deep.

 

[ecco]

Dumb experiment. It assumes that people who are not in their physical bodies would notice such a thing in a true out of body experience. There's no reason to assume that. All the reports are that much more significant things are going on.

Put something on a shelf in plain view. Ask someone to come into the room and tell them something truly shocking. Then afterwards, ask what was on the shelf. The odds are so close to zero that they would have noticed or remembered.

Nice try at a cop-out, but it doesn't work. In the stories people tell they talk about floating above their bodies, they talk about the doctors and nurses in the room, they discuss all manner of things they have "seen" and "heard". Everything except the test items which have never been seen.

Another thing that many have in common - it's a good way to make money.

The Science of Near-Death Experiences

Near-death experiences have gotten a lot of attention lately. The 2014 movie Heaven Is for Real, about a young boy who told his parents he had visited heaven while he was having emergency surgery, grossed a respectable $91 million in the United States. The book it was based on, published in 2010, has sold some 10 million copies and spent 206 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
Two recent books by doctors—Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, who writes about a near-death experience he had while in a week-long coma brought on by meningitis, and To Heaven and Back, by Mary C. Neal, who had her NDE while submerged in a river after a kayaking accident—have spent 94 and 36 weeks, respectively, on the list.

(The subject of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, published in 2010, recently admitted that he made it all up.)​

 

[ecco]

I've been one of those soldiers and passed out.
...
That is not the same as an NDE. Doesn't have any of the same qualia. Try getting actually close to the brink of death.

I gave one example of one kind of experience related by NDEers.

https://theconversation.com/are-nea...cience-behind-this-puzzling-phenomenon-106286

People who’ve had a brush with death often report seeing and experiencing life-altering events on “the other side,” like a bright white light at the end of a long tunnel...
​

I did not say it was all-inclusive. There are many different forms of hallucinations. Ten people eating the same kind of mushroom will have ten different experiences.

But a tunnel with light at the end is common. I related how to experience it. I know from personal experience. I was close to passing out when the order came to begin marching.

 

[leroy]

What are your thoughts about near death experiences? What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?

NDE are testable,

If I have a NDE and I claim to have visited my mother who was at her house cooking pasta and hamburgers, one can verify my claim by asking my mother if she was cooking that stuff.


So the question is: are there testable examples of NDE?

 

[The Hammer]

He distinctly remembers dying and to this day he claims the only reason he came back was because god is a lousy poker player.

Reminds me of a joke.

 

[The Hammer]

But a tunnel with light at the end is common. I related how to experience it.

I agree with this. It's certainly part of what I experienced.

 

[Twilight Hue]

What are your thoughts about near death experiences? What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?

I take the experience is real but not actually something that goes on in reality outside the brain.

 

[Fallen Prophet]

What are your thoughts about near death experiences? What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?

I personally believe that these types of experiences happen to us all the time while we sleep - we just do not retain conscious memories of them.

 

[Praise Jah]

What are your thoughts about near death experiences? What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?

The Bible says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalms 146:4) Therefore, when we die, we cease to exist. The dead can’t think, act, or feel anything.

 

[ecco]

The Bible says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalms 146:4)

WHAT?!? No Heaven? The Bible says "No Heaven"? Cool.

 

[PearlSeeker]

The Bible says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalms 146:4) Therefore, when we die, we cease to exist. The dead can’t think, act, or feel anything.

That’s not all of the Bible.

 

[ecco]

That’s not all of the Bible.

What's your point? Are you suggesting that people can ignore those parts of the Bible they disagree with?

 

[IndigoChild5559]

What's your point? Are you suggesting that people can ignore those parts of the Bible they disagree with?

No, clearly he was saying that you can't base your theology on just one verse, when there are many other verses that say something quite different.

 

[ChristineM]

No, clearly he was saying that you can't base your theology on just one verse, when there are many other verses that say something quite different.

Ahh, contradictory then?