What does the Bible reveal about near death experiences? It seems that many people have experienced a NDE where they saw "the Light," heard a "Voice," felt "Peace," warmth, and love, saw a deceased loved one, saw a tunnel, floated above their body, ascended to Heaven or descended into Hell etc.
It appears that a NDE is experienced when it is not the individuals "time" to die. The Bible indicates that there is an "appointed" time or appointment that humanity has with death.
In this case a Muslim man sees satan after he drowns.
Yeah, most of the affects of NDE's have been reproduced in laboratory settings. These include hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. By sending electrical impulses to the brain areas that are most active during common NDE's, people can experience the same affects without the trauma.
The "tunnel" or "light" affect also has to do with this. When our bodies go into shock or are afflicted with severe trauma, various bodily functions shut down. The body thankfully prioritizes these functions so that the first ones to go aren't life-threatening. Among those shut down very early is eyesight. Vision becomes blurred, and actually goes dark around the edges as our visual functions are shut down. This is often while retaining consciousness. Thus, you're given the sensation of seeing a white tunnel, because only the center of your vision is receiving light for a period of time.
Which isn't to say we understand everything about NDE's. The science behind them isn't perfect. But we have a pretty good understanding of where a lot of it comes from.
Blargh, I don't want to muck this up with my layman's understanding. let me see if I can find the article and video where I originally encountered this.
Here's the video. There was an accompanying article in a Skeptic Magazine, where they went into it a bit more fully. But I think the video does a pretty good job of explaining what's going on:
Iirc, the article went into a bit more detail about the chemical affects of sudden trauma, fear and terror, and fight or flight responses that are often triggered. but again, I don't want to spout details for fear of being only partially correct (i.e. wrong).
You're claiming that NDE's offer us insight into the afterlife. Everyone else in this thread is saying they are a product of brain states during traumatic situations. The video I posted is a good example of how it happens. Shakya is asking you what evidence you have that refutes or overrides this evidence.
The video I posted explains how we experience what we do during NDE's. The exact same sensations as the video you just posted, can be created by proper neural stimulus. Nothing the guy says in that video explains otherwise. He just doesn't fully understand what he's experiencing.
Testimonies tell us nothing, especially when we know exactly how most of the affects of NDE's are experienced biologically. It's as if someone tells you they just saw a ghost, and just before that you saw a guy put on a white sheet and run into the room. Which is the more likely explanation, man in a sheet or a ghost?
The video also has a lot of extraneous material about him and his internal thoughts. It makes for a compelling story, but they aren't enlightening us with any evidence, they're just building a narrative to make the whole thing seem more dramatic.
I could also go into the fallibility of memory, especially under extreme circumstances, but I'd like to see you grasp my first point before moving on.
My Mom had a NDE she drowned in a beach in the coast of Australia. She saw a bright light and communicated with people before she was saved by a lifeguard and brought back to life.
A dream state? possibly/ but I have had similar occurances.
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Apr 25th, 2012 05:26 PM
