Near Death Experiences – Real, or just Hallucinations?

I was astonished to read this week that approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience!

I have some interest in this subject as I had several out of body experiences in my youth, and although this is different to a near-death experience which is a profound psychological experience during a physical or emotional trauma, a life-threatening health crisis, or actual clinical death, it renewed my fascination with the potential insight these events might give us into the after death experience.

Apparently the “classic” NDE is pleasurable and occurs in stages; feeling separated from their body and floating, becoming aware of their physical body and the environment around them, meeting a deceased loved-one or spiritual entity, some see a tunnel, and some report a life-review. Then they return to their physical bodies, and around half are given the choice to return or not.

But Neuroscience says that consciousness is a consequence of the brain which is a construction of simple matter and therefore is subject to distortions of awareness and dies with the body. Some scientists say that NDE’s provide evidence which suggests that the mind and brain are not the same. In which case the mind may survive death?

And skeptics casually dismiss this phenomenon as superstition, a modern myth, or hallucinations. Mystics and spiritualists claim this is proof of life after death.

So what do you think? Is an NDE is a real experience or simply a hallucination?
Have you had one?

Cicero

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