Moonshiner, you would like the book I’m reading, Journey Into the Light – Exploring Near-Death Experiences by Richard Abanes (published by Baker Books). Abanes is a well-known evangelical apologetics expert & Baker Books is a conservative Christian publisher, but in his book, Abanes agrees with your views. He lays out the common NDE (near-death experiences) elements (leaving the body, rapid life review, bright light, rushing/ringing noise, the tunnel, seeing departed loved ones, seeing a Being of light, utter bliss, etc.), then cites chapter after chapter of medical advice showing that it is not a ‘spiritual experience’ but entirely natural.
Abanes makes a compelling medical case that people who died & then come back to life relating amazing ‘experiences’ have actually not completely died in the first place, so the entire experience is very likely simply frantic brain activity. He states that dying is not an ‘event’ that happens when the heart stops beating, breathing stops, or brain waves stop. Dying is an ongoing ‘process’ that can extend up to an hour or more after all these external signs of life have ceased. People have been stiff & cold & blue & come back to life. Death, in its strictest sense, only happens when the body tissue begins decaying & passes an irreversible point, after which the corpse can no longer be resuscitated.
He points that many of the elements of NDE are also repeated in certain drug experiences, jet pilots fainting under heavy G-LOC, sensory deprivation tanks, miners trapped in darkness & FDEs (Fear-Death experiences). An FDE is where someone has actually not died (has not even begun the dying process) but is only in a dangerous situation & thinks that they are about to die. This fear alone triggers out-of-body experiences, rapid review of life in split seconds, tunnels, light, etc.—yet the person has not even been physically hurt. Then Abanes says:
In short, NDEs are probably little more than intensified FDEs. In some cases, as we have seen, near-death experiences are not very different at all from fear-death experiences. If such a conclusion is surprising, even more shocking is the fact that various neurobiological changes associated with physical & psychological trauma can easily account for every NDE element. (pg.97)
He cites medical doctors who name the particular parts of the brain that are affected by oxygen deprivation & hypercarbia (carbon dioxide buildup), names the drugs that probably cause the feelings of blissful peace (endomorphins & possibly the neuro-transmitter serotonin) & concludes that Limbic Lobe Syndrome (Temporal Lobe Seizures) are probably the main causes. He quotes Daniel Carr, a neuro-psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who says that the vividness of near-death visions is a sign that they are complex hallucinations with an origin in limbic lobe dysfunction. Carr specifically identifies stimulation of the hippocampus as the cause of NDEs. Also, endopsychosin is possibly the chemical that causes life review. (pg. 102–105)
Abanes goes on to say:
Individuals who equate NDEs with being temporarily out of one’s body & in another realm of existence are usually referred to as objectivists, because they believe that NDEs are objectively real. Those who reject the out-of-body interpretation of NDEs are known as subjectivists because they hold that all NDEs area subjective experience generated from within each individual NDEr. (pg.107)
He states that most objectivists are New Agers, Christians, Hindus, Native Americans, Hindus, etc. because ‘NDEs are popular with such people because the experience can be used as a means of “proving”just about any concept of life after death.” He adds:
Subjectivists are usually staunch agnostics, atheists, or humanists who discount the existence of a spiritual realm & an afterlife. Which view is completely correct? In my opinion, neither. You might call me a “modified subjectivist.” I do not support the notion that NDErs leave their bodies, but instead, believe that NDE’s take place entirely in the mind.’ (pg. 108)
So what do I think? Well, I haven’t finished reading the book yet so I have to see if he answers all the questions I have on the subject, but I find all this very interesting & compelling reading so far. If by the end of the book I feel Abanes has fully explained my ‘experiences’ then like I said earlier, I’ll gladly accept that it was brain-induced & not spiritual. I still have some reading to do.