The Popularity of Near-Death Experience
lareviewofbooks.org
lareviewofbooks.org
One of my relatives had a near-death experience quite a long time ago. While he was unconscious, he says he met Jesus, who offered him the choice to rise to Heaven then and there, or stay behind with his children. He chose the latter and (somewhat miraculously, actually) recovered and is still alive today. It probably goes without saying that he's a devout Christian. Now, I don't believe he actually met Jesus, but I do believe that's what he experienced. It's interesting, and somewhat comforting, that the brain can have these intensely emotional and personally meaningful experiences in the moments before death. Maybe his "choice" even had some bearing on his recovery.
You could argue that "existential crisis" is the fundamental bedrock on which we all stand. From eating to sex/procreating to jobs to addictions to sports to escapisms to you know name it, existential crisis lingers over it all.
And it's been posited that this all derives from a fluke of the brain/consciousness. The consciousness's mistaken assumption that the "I" exists ( aka Illusion of the self ).
The image of Jesus then transformed into a ball of light. This ball of light communicated to the man that it initially appeared as Jesus because the man had a Christian upbringing and was familiar with the character of Jesus. It was essentially to make him feel more at ease.
I'd like to think that young children who pass away aren't trapped in an adolescent mindset after death. Growing up in heaven is equally unbelievable.
Instead I think it's highly probably that these near death experiences are more similar to deep meditation where we explore our innermost selves.
Instead of our mind saying plainly, "we're soon to be fertilizer," its perspective on the world is one of obsessive self-importance--such an inconvenient reminder that we will recycle our carbon is manipulated into a motivational and awe-inspiring event to help us pass on our DNA in a time when we are clearly likely to die. Maybe it is both comforting, and absurd, in the same way as our other daily experiences? We're not the most important thing in the universe, but our mind can sometimes treat us as such, and it seems this leads to entirely strange experiences all the time, they just don't seem particularly absurd, compared to meeting Jesus, because they're so common.
Think about all of the injustice in the world. One's mind typically isn't going to get worked up about "I really should do something about getting off this planet, or what about that Gulf of Tonkin incident, if I don't do something that kind of awful thing could happen again in the universe (like maybe in Iraq)." But when your time comes, yes of course, the Universe and God have concern about You.
Well, that's easy; five seconds with Google with the obvious search will answer that question. (Intended as a comment on how deep the article actually grapples with the problem, not as endorsement of anything that search may pull up.)
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1...
Also, reading about a few NDEs, they sound quite similar to a DMT trip, and they seem to have similar effects in terms of how a person completely changes afterwards. The range of possible conscious experiences is really something extraordinary and most humans only ever experience a miniscule fraction of it.
(Which is probably irrelevant, but some may find it interesting)
These are modern, Western fantasies superimposed on Christianity.
To traditional Christians (Orthodox and Catholic), it involves the soul departing the body, experiencing a good, bad or in between afterlife, then the resurrection of the dead where they're reunited with their body at the end of the world to either live in paradise or be chucked into a fiery lake. Some mystics also describe a period where the soul wanders or is 'lost', and various traditional prayers support such theories. There's also the concepts of Hades/Sheol, Abraham's bosom, toll-houses or purgatory, and so on. Quite a bit of room for experiences roughly equivalent to some near-death experiences.
To most evangelicals, it's an instantaneous journey to heaven/hell. Protestants range from more traditional beliefs to soul-sleep to instant judgement.
For Jews, it's more of a nebulous existence in Sheol (roughly equivalent to the Greek Hades), which isn't particularly great nor horrible.
And then of course, the possibility that what every religion describes is allegorical and not literal.
2) You can reliably induce near death experiences with high g-forces and drugs, for instance the experiences commonly happen to fighter pilots during training when they are subjected to high g forces in training.
The reason for the white light and tunnel and floating above your body, is that's how the brain shuts down due to loss of blood. We know this now. No need to speculate. "Hell" is a less common motif, because that's a less common brain state under those circumstances.
Next mystery, please.