What do near death experiences mean

Though often a feature of NDEs, they also occur in the general population; one survey of 13, people found that almost 6 percent had had an OBE.

Most of the time, says Nelson, they occur during the transition between wakefulness and rapid eye movement REM stages of sleep. Movement between two of these states — wakefulness and REM sleep — is controlled by a switch deep in our brainstem.

Nelson suggests that under certain crisis situations, like cardiac arrest, this switch malfunctions, causing a blending of REM and waking consciousness, also known as REM intrusion, as if the brain were stuck between gears. In a study of 55 NDErs published in Neurology , Nelson and his colleagues suggest that under life-threatening circumstances, people who had experienced REM intrusion in the past were more likely to have an NDE.

Many of these NDE trademarks, such as the light that some describe during an episode, says Nelson, can be traced back to this hybrid state of consciousness. Greyson has challenged several of these theories. He also mentions studies that show NDErs have the same, or even higher, oxygen levels as those who have never experienced near-death, addressing the notion that fading cerebral blood flow helps trigger the event.

Greyson parsed through many of the supposed explanations in a paper. But when you look at the data, it contradicts it. Parnia makes even bolder claims regarding his research — namely, that consciousness appears to continue when the brain is shut down completely. For now, though, Nelson remains unconvinced. In the past decade, plenty of popular nonfiction on NDEs has blurred that boundary between faith and science — and made some decent cash in the process.

It spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Perhaps the most oft referenced of these works, at least among the scientific community, is Proof of Heaven , written by neurosurgeon Eben Alexander. In the book, the doctor describes how he spent a week in a coma that he says was caused by a rare case of E.

It sold nearly 2 million copies; Alexander was featured on the cover of Newsweek and made an appearance on Fox and Friends. Fischer, the philosopher, offers a similarly harsh critique.

But a neurosurgeon is not really specially trained to tell me about metaphysics. For Fischer, these examples highlight the potential for nonscientific works about NDEs to capitalize on, and even exploit, our fear of death. Researchers like Parnia, however, are continuing to harness rigorous research approaches in their work.

He even prefers to avoid the term NDE, because of how it has been used and interpreted. With the research tools available today, explaining those experiences, whatever scientists decide to call them, will likely remain an exercise in philosophy just as much as hard science.

Alex Orlando is an associate editor at Discover. As hospice physician Christopher Kerr puts it, dying is a paradox. The researchers found that nearly 90 percent of patients reported having at least one ELE, which can include extraordinarily vivid dreams or visions.

These dreams often featured both living and deceased loved ones. The frequency of ELEs also increased as people came closer to death. Overall, more than 60 percent of patients found their dreams comforting, while around 19 percent reported that they felt distress.

Kerr notes that, unlike with NDEs, the patients are often healthy and lucid for these events. In the end, ELEs tend to be life-affirming, according to Kerr. He found peace. Register or Log In. Was he reliving them? Not quite. They came at high speed, almost all at once, in a wave. And yet he could process each one individually. In fact, he was able to perceive everything around him: the rush of the water, the sandy bed, all of it brilliantly distinct.

And, despite being trapped underwater, he felt calm and at ease. He remembered thinking that prior to this moment his senses must have been dulled somehow, because only now could he fully understand the world, perhaps even the true meaning of the universe. Eventually, the imagery faded. Nome recounted this story at a support group in Connecticut, in , four years after the experience. He had survived, but now he hoped to understand why, during a moment of extreme mortal crisis, his mind had behaved the way it did.

The meeting had been organised by Bruce Greyson, now a professor emeritus in psychiatry at the University of Virginia. As Nome spoke, Greyson sat in a circle of 30 or so others, as if at an AA meeting, listening intently, nodding along.

Greyson had been hearing of events like these for years. This made no sense to him. Growing up, the physical world was all there was.

For years, he tried to put the account behind him, but repeatedly he faced heady stories of people experiencing other-worldly events, either when they had been pronounced clinically dead or thought they were close to it, before being wrestled back to life.

Greyson is 74 now. When we talk, he is at home in Charlottesville, Virginia, waiting out the pandemic in a pressed shirt and tie, kind and affable. Over the years, he has collected hundreds of near-death experiences, he says, either from people who, aware of his research, have volunteered their stories, or from patients who happened to have episodes in hospital. Greyson presents his research in a new book, After , which is bound by a series of case studies. The accounts are mystical, like those we know from TV and books, but there are common themes.

Some people recall out-of-body experiences, or report travelling through a long tunnel; others meet entities they think of as God or Allah or long-dead family members; some feel time bend and warp, as though it were elastic.

Please click here to read a cad emic p ublications on the subject of NDEs written by Dr. Greyson and his collaborators. Click here to view books about near-death experiences authored, co-authored and co-edited by Dr.

Bruce Greyson-one of the leading authorities on the study of near-death experiences. Please see Dr. View videos, listen to selected podcast and radio interviews, and read articles about our research into near death experiences. Learn More. Division of Perceptual Studies. Near-Death Experiences NDEs Near-Death Experiences are intensely vivid and often life-transforming experiences, many of which occur under extreme physiological conditions such as trauma, ceasing of brain activity, deep general anesthesia or cardiac arrest in which no awareness or sensory experiences of any kind should be possible according to the prevailing views in neuroscience.

View Dr. Veridical NDEs We are particularly interested in studying NDEs that may bear on the question of whether the mind can function outside the physical body, and on whether we may survive bodily death. Near-death experiencer Anita Moorjani and Dr. Brian Walker Dr. Near-death experiencers Anita Moorjani and Dr.