Near death experiences

midlandsmissus

I am very interested in Near Death experiences, mainly because I've had one myself, but also because they appeal to the scientist in me. They are something that I can analyse and study. You will find that alot of near death experience studies have been carried out by doctors, who were intrigued after hearing patients recount similiar details.

I'm a Christian myself, but I think it would be good to have a discussion with athiests/agnostics about it. I mean, what do you think about them? Do you think they are just not important, or a physiological reaction, or something that really could document what might happen after we die?

I'll recount my own experience:

I was very sick with an illness last year, and as we didn't realise how sick I really was at the time, I was staying in my mothers house, in bed, trying to get better.
It was late at night and I couldnt get to sleep. I was feeling really bad, and my chest really hurt with each breath. Eventually I started to feel really short of breath and was struggling to breathe, and then I couldn't breathe at all.

I didn't see my body like some other people have recounted, but immediately I felt like I was in this white building.
I was floating upwards diagonally, facing backwards, like I was standing on an elevator facing down, and I could see all of these floors below me. Two floors below me I saw two men, I knew one of them was Jesus and I didnt recognise the other one. On the floor above him, on my right, I saw a man with massive white wings, bigger than the length of his body, looking at me.
It was at this point that I realised I was dead. I was thinking really coherently, and I remember thinking 'I'm actually dead, that's what's happened'. The next thing I thought of was my mother, I was in the house on my own with her at the time, and I was thinking of how she would come in in the morning and find my dead body, and how it would absolutely kill her.
I then remember thinking 'I can't let her find my dead body, I can't do that to her, I have to go back'
And the next thing I felt like I was falling down from a great height, and then I was back in my bed.

This is how I remember it word for word. I'm open to interpretations, this being the A&A forum, you've got to put your experiences out there to be scathingly reviewed!
I was a Christian at the time of my experience, so you could say I was seeing what I expected to see, I was dreaming, hallucinating, brain cut off from oxygen, anything. They are all acceptable alternatives to it actually happening. I would just like to hear different viewpoints on the topic, and also if anyone else on here has had an NDE, please share.

CerebralCortex

You're not very skeptical are you. I'd put money that you were hallucinating.

Sam Vimes

midlandsmissus wrote: »

I was a Christian at the time of my experience, so you could say I was seeing what I expected to see, I was dreaming, hallucinating, brain cut off from oxygen, anything. They are all acceptable alternatives to it actually happening.

In fairness, in the A&A forum that's about the best answer you're going to get

midlandsmissus

I would classify not being very sceptical as something along the lines of ..."I met the lord, don't dare tell me otherwise!"

I don't think that, I like looking at all the possibilities.

Well if the mods don't think it's appropriate here, maybe it should be moved to the Christianity forum? I don't know - wherever is best to get a discussion going.

Turtwig

OP,

How many dreams do you have?
What % of these can you remember clearly?
Out of this assumed small percentage has anything in these dreams defied the rules of the natural world?
Now how many times have you been close to death?
What % of these can you actually remember?
Out of this assumed small percentage has anything in these NDEs defied the rules of the natural world?

The point is having one experience of being near death and having an NDE is never going to convince any rationalist seeing that you've only had the chance of being near death once. More so, the rationalist will simply reply saying thousands of people are close to dying everyday and they experience NOTHING. Others from other religions experience their version of Gods so if we are to assume that everyone is telling the truth then God is merely as Cosmic joker that loves confusing everyone.


For the record,
I've dreamed of a future event before it happened and I've actually had one NDE even though I've almost died on, ahem, more than 6 occasions:D.

Zombrex

It is well understood that due to things like shock, fever or other stresses on the body the mind will go into a dream like "relax" mode as a form of last ditch self preservation. This leads to hallucinations. I would imagine if you were actually close to death that would explain the sensations you experienced.

Aparently there is a study underway in England to put signs on top of shelves in operating rooms to see if any NDE where the person is floating out of their body can actually see these signs, or is the senstation simply the perception of floating in a constructed version of the room in the persons own mind.

NothingMan

I know when I am in a state where I have been sick in bed and I have slept so much that I am half sleeping half just dazing I have very strong dreams. I have woken up on a few occassions wondering what was going on. One point I was still really upset that me and my girlfriend broke up, and I had to concentrate really hard and back track events and then realised I was actually dreaming. It was very strange and I honestly felt it was real even 10 mins after waking up.

I guess this could be even more intense if you were extremely sick, and possible taking prescription drugs as well.

robindch

midlandsmissus wrote: »

I would just like to hear different viewpoints on the topic

I pretty much agree with most of what Susan Blackmore writes in this piece:

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/si91nde.html

...basically, that amazingly cool and all as they certainly are, NDE's don't appear to be anything more than the product of a partially-functioning brain.

Turtwig

robindch wrote: »

I pretty much agree with most of what Susan Blackmore writes in this piece:

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/si91nde.html

...basically, that amazingly cool and all as they certainly are, NDE's don't appear to be anything more than the product of a partially-functioning brain.

Awesome stuff from a skeptic

Did anyone see the woeful self professed skeptic on Joe Duffy's spirit level who said that he was a rationalist, blah de blah but now he was 100% convinced it was all true??

fatmammycat

When I was a kid, my Gamma and me came down with flu.
I've never been as sick in my life. Real flu is...well it's pretty bad actually, 8/9 days of shivering and vomiting, of being freezing cold one minute, roasting the next, every surface hurt my skin, standing was almost impossible, even making it as far as the bathroom was an epic battle. On the third day I hallucinated like crazy, I saw local people call into the house, my dead granddad, my best friend wearing some really weird dress that I still remember to this day. I had conversations, I went on walks, I went on little trips, all with out leaving my bed. I had no concept of time. I was loony tunes from fever.
My point is that under incredible stress the mind and the body can disconnect from reality in a most peculiar way. There's nothing really supernatural about it.
I was electrocuted as a kid too ( oh yes, I'll just test this two bar-heater and see what happens... BAM!! I shorted out the whole house with that one) and went la-la for a few looooong minutes until my brain rescrambled my thought processes. My father, who found me on the other side of the room from the heater, said I was talking gibberish when he pulled me out of the wardrobe.
Do I think any of my rambly scrambly visions were heavenly? Was my gibbering babel? Nope. Just the body coping as best it could.

cavedave

This is not scientific midlandsmissus but you can get some similar feelings from breath hold diving. If you hold your breath underwater you get raised co2 and lower oxygen in your brain. This can lead to euphoria, tunnel vision, starry vision etc.

Not that changes in co2 and o2 when you have difficulty breathing explain all your symptoms.

ShooterSF

That time of year again OP?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055424069

Ickle Magoo

I was nearly killed in a road accident, I got a very vivid weird floaty safe sensation, like I was looking down on myself. I had exactly the same sensation several years later while very much alive & on a morphine drip. While I think they were both chemically induced and nothing to do with ethereal intervention, they certainly reminded me of the fragility of my own mortality. :eek:

Goduznt Xzst

midlandsmissus wrote: »

Two floors below me I saw two men, I knew one of them was Jesus and I didnt recognise the other one. On the floor above him, on my right, I saw a man with massive white wings, bigger than the length of his body, looking at me.

Please explain how you where able to recognize Jesus.

Funny thing, in primary school, kids would always come in after Christmas and claim they'd woken up in the night and seen Santa Claus out their window on his sleigh. Oddly it was always the Santa Claus from the Coca Cola Adverts.

bakkiesbotha

I had a near death experience once. I was looking to change lanes on the N7 and was paying more attention to my wing mirror than the road in front of me. When it was too late, I realised that the car in front of me had come to a stop. Luckily there was nobody coming up on the inside lane and I was able to swerve into it on time, just missing the other car.

I continued on my way and resolved to drive more safely in future, but thinking about it still gives me the willies.

Goduznt Xzst

bakkiesbotha wrote: »

I had a near death experience once. I was looking to change lanes on the N7 and was paying more attention to my wing mirror than the road in front of me. When it was too late, I realised that the car in front of me had come to a stop. Luckily there was nobody coming up on the inside lane and I was able to swerve into it on time, just missing the other car.

I continued on my way and resolved to drive more safely in future, but thinking about it still gives me the willies.

Congratulations!!!

Thread Title Reading Ability: +1
Actual Thread Reading Ability: -100

bakkiesbotha

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

Congratulations!!!

Thread Title Reading Ability: +1
Actual Thread Reading Ability: -100

Only 2 more posts to go for you and you'll hit 1,000. Maybe you'll learn to read between the lines before you get to 10,000.

Dades

@bakkiesbotha - you have been warned. Post something relevant or begone.

NothingMan

I think what Bakkiesbotha meant by reading between the lines was that he almost crashed, but didn't put it up to devine intervention. Just drove on his way and learned from the experience. A lot of religious people put these situations of near death experinces, be it seeing the light, or a very near miss up to God's intervention rather than accepting it for what it is.

Dades

An "experience" in the context of this thread is not intended to encompass situations merely where someone had a close shave with the grim reaper. Clearly to be relevant some form of 'supernatural' experience is required.

pts

Relevant article:
Out of your head: Leaving the body behind

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