I recently read quite a few reports of NDEs for my own personal interest and noted something interesting. Not all NDErs report real events. In one case I read about, a schoolboy who briefly "died" at school reported seeing empty classrooms as he moved down the corridor at his school. Of course school was in and the classrooms full at the time. He knew that himself, but what he saw was different to what was actually happening. This contrasts with the reports in the article where there is apparent independent confirmation of actual details and events.
The reports of people blind from birth having what seem to be visual OBEs are intriguing (it is reported that people blind from birth do not have a conception of what it is like to see, and in fact they do not even "see black").
Even after spending some time reading about the phenomenon I was unable to draw any conclusion whatever. The reports are highly perplexing regardless of your perspective.