Is it scientific to deny near death experiences (NDE)?

Not an atheist, but I feel it my obligation to call BS where I see it. The studies commit several fallacies: 1)  The anecdote fallacy.  That many people have experienced this doesn't change the fact that it is the anecdote fallacy.  It hasn't been studied statistically -- how many people get NDE's when they are close to death?  Is it 100% or is it just a small but vocal fraction of people? 2)  Confirmation bias.  Only cases where NDE's were experienced are reported on in depth, whereas cases where the subject was near death but never had an NDE is not well reported. 3)  Bandwagon fallacy.  They experienced it?  Oh, then I should have one, too!  Even if I don't actually have one, I can make something up and make it sound good. 4)  Composition fallacy -- that a small group or even an individual must be representative of the entire population. Refusing to study it because the dogma of the scientific community says so is unscientific, but so is accepting it without a thorough statistical analysis and having repeatable experiments on a random sample of the population (e.g. not by volunteer, but rather by going to random people who are near death). We'll see if it ends up being good science or if it is relegated to the fate of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_rays and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywater, both of which were picked up on by the scientific community, caused a craze and had lots of prominent researchers doing work on them, then ended up being junk.

There is a commonality in the experiences of people with anoxia. This is not surprising.  Anoxia is a very odd state for the brain and it would be surprising if it did not have some consequence. This is something that can be studied scientifically. Although it is not safe to do so intentionally. It's not clear whether the reported experiences occurred during the anoxia event, or are false memories constructed after the event. But there is an attempt to explain these experiences as supernatural in origin or evidence of an afterlife.  This interpretation seems faith-based and cultural. There is no actual evidence supporting this interpretation. The only "scientific" trial. Parnia's AWARE project, has yet to produce any evidence of reliable out-of-body experience.

Here's something for you. In an oxygen deprived state the brain has a certain order it shuts down in to preserve neurons. Let's say your heart stops and it releases various chemical compounds important to jump start the brain. Well, if the situation doesn't get better immediately, ain't no brain got time to retract these compounds. They're too busy conserving oxygen and trying to prevent cell death. It's important to note that some of the mono amines in the brain are normal signal molecules we think of often. Sometimes, however, the brain produces rather exotic chemicals. One of these chemicals would be endogenous dimethyltryptamine. Edit: Because I feel as though I let you off too easy, reading the comments you have under people's comments: You don't actually die when you "die" medically - anyone who's been revived is clinically dead, but brain function is the last thing (other than in certain kinds of organ failure or, well, a brain injury) to be compromised almost without fail - your body would rather you die by heart failure, lungs collapsing, septic shock, etc, you're evolved to protect the brain at all costs. So yeah, they revived people. And what ended up happening was that they dreamed. If you talked about how you saw god after being in a coma, well... people would tell you that you were dreaming. This is pretty much the same. Don't be confused about this. If there was no activity in the brain, you wouldn't be able to bring them back. That's just how it is. So they aren't dead-dead until their neurons don't respond to electrical charges anymore.

See this article a few years ago before these doctors started off a research with skepticism into NDEs.... http://www.topnews.in/health/scientists-set-demystify-near-death-experiences-24490 Now check on the Wikipedia about the lead researcher Sam Parnia...he appears to have been "converted" after doing research and has published two books on NDE!

Wayne Dyer had a person on a recent PBS show (wishes fulfilled) who was describing their NDE.  Feeling "overwhelming universal love", "perception of loved ones, even dead", etc.  I can say personally I have been through the *exact* same *experience* after not sleeping for 3 days.  The experience is subjective and arises from a time of crisis in the mind/body.   So what if the experience is common it's a feature of the human machine.  Sure, odd experiences happen, there is nothing to deny there.  That would be like denying that dreaming happens. What can it prove about life after death?  Nothing.  Do not project experience during stress to physics facts.

Ultimately, we do not have the scientific equipment or tools to study NDEs.  There is no way to externally measure what the brain thinks.  We don't have a way to measure what happens during apoxia.  Therefore, until we can come up with measurements and experiments, this will have to be a mystery to us.

The hypoxia theory was debunked in a study where not all patients that died had a lack of oxygen  in fact there is no physiological explanation yet for NDE experience . Source Sam Parnia. The results of Sam parnia havent been released yet , they are coming out this fall apparently, lack of NDE with an OBE component is apparently a reason for the study so far being unable to get a successful hit on the image above the ceiling  as they were in other locations  however Sam Parnia said that other things were succesfully verified from the OBE component of their experience.