Do Near-Death Experiences Provide Evidence of an Afterlife?

[PIT2]

In this topic, i wish to discuss near-death-experiences. Not only do i want to know the arguments for and against NDEs being 'real', i would also like to hear ur personal views on whether they are hallucinations or actual glimpses of the afterlife. What do u believe?

I shall admit right now that i believe the latter.

Here is one example of an NDE:

I do not know whether it happened the first day of my hospitalization there or a few days later. However, my impression is that it was the first day. Once again I was outside my body, to my right and above my head. I looked down at my body and then looked straight ahead of me where I saw a light, a clarity. I was puzzled by this and I distinctly recall asking myself if I wanted to go see what it was or return to my body. I chose to go back to my body, but part way back in I changed my mind and returned to the area above my bed. This time I saw a tunnel leading to the clarity. I don't remember seeing it the first time. Somehow I knew that if I chose to go through the tunnel I would die, but, strangely, it didn't seem to matter to me.

...

As I stepped into the tunnel this out-of-body experience became quite different from the others...

...

When I entered into the tunnel there was no attachment to nor memory of the physical world as we know it. This is my experience; I don't know about "others'" experiences. I did feel like I was swirling, at first slowly, then faster and was accompanied by "others" after I got part way through the tunnel. As I approached the clarity at the far end I was disoriented but as soon as I exited from the tunnel I heard voices "Gerry's here. Gerry's here!" Some people having had similar experiences report having seen relatives, friends or religious figures. I did not recognize any "beings".

...

Several things struck me. First of all was the feeling of joy, of euphoria. No other word even comes close to describe what is inexpressible. Nothing negative was evident. I did not encounter or see any "bodies" such as our physical bodies. What I "saw" were a few (three or four) what I can describe only as essences, clear in substance (if there was substance) shaped like inverted drops. After 30 years I'm inclined to think "they" may have been different vibrations of light and that perhaps that is precisely what spirit is. Communication was not speech as we know it, but rather similar to what we call"mental telepathy'". There was immediate recognition of the meaning of the communication. I cannot express well enough the feelings of joy and euphoria (what some call love) that not just permeated the experience but which was its very essence. It was an expression of total acceptance only spoken of on the physical plane. There was a point where I said to myself" this must be where I'll see my past go by me". If I had that experience I didn't bring it back to this plane with me.

http://iands.org/berk.html

It is often said that a lack of oxygen in the brain produces a 'tunnel and light' effect. What i want to know is, in non NDE experiences, is this lack of oxygen then followed by similar experiences of entering another realm?

 

[GOD__AM]

I imagine that most people that experience this are drugged in some way. That added to the fact that a lot of people have heard about the tunnels and such leads me to think they are like dreams.

Also people have had similar experiences of being clenically dead and do not claim to have seen these strange things.

 

[Overdose]

Most people will tell you its a hallucination brought on by lack of sensory input and yes lack of oxygen to the brain. The truth is no one is enitirely sure, there have been a couple of cases of brain-death where people have reported conversations and incredible details going on around them and in ajoining rooms during an OBE. But at the same time there have been cases where people have reported seeing the room around them and getting furniture muddled around (.i.e seeing it in a position where it actually isnt).
So this could mean the brain is trying to approximate its surroundings, (although the problem being in cases of brain-death we'd have to say what brain? lol) or it could mean that some kind of future or past is being perceived where the furniture was placed in a different fashion or any number of things.
I think buddhists call this state of OBE 'bardo' if i remember right, meaning that the soul has traveled out of its body but it is in a muddled state and sees illusions before it, and these illusions are just a veil through which true-life after death exists.
From what i understand this accounts for the mythical and religious imagery people sometime experience, this is too guide and 'ease' people into their new state of being.

Woops i rambled a bit too much, i hope that gives a few different views of what might be happening in OBE's anyway : p

 

[PIT2]

I imagine that most people that experience this are drugged in some way. That added to the fact that a lot of people have heard about the tunnels and such leads me to think they are like dreams.

Not really, since these experiences do not only occur in hospitals, but everywhere a person can (almost)die. I agree that there are some similarities to dreams (lucid dreams that is). However, during lucid dreams, people realize that they are dreaming. During NDEs, they realize that they are dying.

Also the transformational effect of an NDE on a persons life is much greater than any dream. In that same experience i quoted above, the woman writes:

Even today, nearly 34 years later, I make adjustments due to what I experienced in the NDE. I spoke to a 65-year-old who told me the same thing ... his experience was in childhood! And, the experience is as vivid as the moment(s) it occurred.

Also people have had similar experiences of being clenically dead and do not claim to have seen these strange things.

This is true. Perhaps the experience doesn't make it into the memory, just like a dream often doesn't hang around in the memory.