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Near-Death Experiences: What are the most recent discoveries about NDEs?

  • A near-death experience (NDE) refers to personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light. These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or very close to death. Many NDE reports, however, originate from events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased. The experiences have been described in medical journals as having the characteristics of hallucinations, while parapsychologists, religious believers and some scientists have pointed to them as evidence of an afterlife and mind-body dualism. According to the 2013 PLOS ONE article by Thonnard et al., "near-death experiences cannot be considered as imagined event memories. On the contrary, their physiological origins could lead them to be really perceived although not lived in the reality." Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Weiss's 1972 The Vestibule, followed by Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life After Life and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1981. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. Some commentators, such as Simpson, claim that the number of near-death experiencers may be underestimated. People who have had a near-death experience may not be comfortable discussing the experience with others, especially when the NDE is understood as a paranormal incident. NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and hospital medicine.

  • Answer:

    Some research published on August 12, 2013 in PNAS investigates possible "Near Death Experiences" in rats. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/08/08/1308285110.abstract There is also a nice article in Wired about it: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/after-death-consciousness-rats/

Chris Jensen at Quora Visit the source

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One good authoritative book on  this topics is  "The God Impulse: Is Religion Hardwired into the Brain?" by Kevin Nelson. The book has case studies about various NDE victims. The tone of this book is of a casual one, so if you are looking on academic level, then references might help. It also has scientific explanations for most of the sensations associated with NDE like tunnel vision, oob experience, etc.

Raghavendran Balu

Sam Parnia, a doctor who does extensive research on the matter, was recently interviewed on NPR. You can hear, here:

John Geare

After a period of unconsciousness, we interpret the firing of neurons that occurred during unconsciousness as real events that make some sort of sense.  If the unconscious period was sleep, we call it a dream.  If the unconsciousness period was some problem that could have killed us, we call it an NDE.The end result is the same - a rational interpretation of irrational neuronal firing.If NDEs were what the religious claim they are, people of different religions wouldn't be experiencing different afterlives.  If you're dropped into body temperature water you'll consider it warm - no matter what kind of water it is, where you are or what you've experienced in your life - it's real water and body temperature water feels "warm" to anything that can understand the concept of warm.(And atheists - at least this one and a few others I've spoken with - who have been in an NDE state don't experience any "afterlife-like" state.  We're conscious, then we're confused, then we're back to normal.  There's no awareness of anything happening when we're unconscious.  Sounds to me an awful lot like a belief-driven thing, not an event-driven one.)

Al Klein

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