# Near death experiences **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 15, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591 "2012-01-15T12:36:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/21 "2012-01-15T21:04:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > In the last few days, I’ve heard several different people say that, but never have before. Do you think it means anything? You funny. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/22 "2012-01-15T23:53:49Z")
It’s the central nervous system shutting down the peripheral nervous system in a bid to conserve itself and survive. Native American Ghost Dancers brought themselves to the same state of hallucination by deliberate exhaustion, hunger, dehydration and pain. They saw a white bison because that’s what they were told they’d be seeing. I’d go through a white tunnel and see my childhood pet because that’s what I’ve been told I’ll see. I hope I don’t take the wrong tunnel, because I’m not scooping up that bison’s shit. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/23 "2012-01-16T00:02:10Z")
Same reason most of us have the same sort of weird dreams-- the showing up naked at a party dream, the big test that we are completely unprepared for, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/24 "2012-01-16T00:09:59Z")
Sometimes, when I’ve eaten a big meal, and then gone to a bar, and drank three beers, and then walk outside, I’ve gotten a dizzy feeling and the world becomes very bright. Is this a near stomach capacity experience? ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/25 "2012-01-16T00:24:50Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > Ultimately it’s about what you choose to accept. > > Different people accept different things. I realize this is not the Pit so I will keep my criticisms tame, but may I ask what kind of contribution your namby-pamby statement makes to the debate? It is NOT about what you choose to accept. There is true and untrue. It is NOT true that the world is flat, and it is true that the world is a sphere (or almost, if you want to split hairs). Different people accept different things to be sure. The ones who accept untrue things are what we call “wrong”. The acceptance of untrue things is usually the result of stupidity, misinformation, sloppy thinking, or a desire to believe something that makes you feel good (like religion). The ones who accept true things are what we call “right”. ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/26 "2012-01-16T00:42:43Z")
I read about a “test” that is used by a doctor in a hospital somewhere (sorry I can’t be more specific, but I DO remember reading this – any links would be appreciated) to debunk claims of patients that their spirit was “floating” around the operating room while they were in surgery. Since these patients always claim they could see the room from up above and could look down on their own body, the doctor has hidden some visual “target” on top of a cupboard in the operating room, placed in such a way that anyone floating around near the ceiling would **have** to see it. The doctor refuses to say what the target object is, but it cannot be seen by someone standing on the floor or lying on an operating bed. It is apprently something quite noticeable and impossible to miss. As soon as a patient starts to recall floating around and looking down on their own operation, he asks them what else they could see. - The doctors and nurses? \*-- Oh yes! \* -The whole of the operating room? _–Oh yes!_ -And what do you remember seeing on top of the cupboard near the door? _– Huh???😃_ I am certain I read about this guy, and it was not an out-of-body experience. Can anyone find the story? ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/27 "2012-01-16T01:38:25Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > That’s why I’m also fascinated by NDE accounts. I’m also fascinated by stories of UFO abduction, alien encounters, stories about ghosts and the supernatural. So do I, but I do not see them as proof of the supernatural or extraterrestrials. ---
**Author:** ![Mgalindo13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@Mgalindo13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mgalindo13)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/28 "2012-01-16T03:34:49Z")
> [@pati12812](#): > > We’ve all heard stories about people dying and then coming back. What is the truth about Near Death Experiences? Is there reason to think that although hundreds of thousands of people have had similar accounts of what happened while they were briefly dead, that it means nothing? My two cents: I’ve been dead on an operating table (aortic dissection). No light, no love, no relatives. ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/29 "2012-01-16T03:40:02Z")
> [@Mgalindo13](#): > > My two cents: > > I’ve been dead on an operating table (aortic dissection). No light, no love, no relatives. Plenty of people have been medically revived while in a state of clinical death, but not all of them have come back to report life-changing NDE’s. I wonder why that is? ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/30 "2012-01-16T03:41:22Z")
> [@Foggy](#): > > So do I, but I do not see them as proof of the supernatural or extraterrestrials. And that’s okay. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/31 "2012-01-16T03:42:20Z")
> [@Zep\_Tepi](#): > > My sister was dying in the UK and on the day and hour of her death, I was walking in a City called Port Elizabeth when a feather floated down and landed on me. I said to my wife, my sister has passed. Makes sense if your sister was a bird. ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/32 "2012-01-16T03:51:08Z")
Zep Tepi, what was the significance of the feather? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/33 "2012-01-16T03:54:28Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > Plenty of people have been medically revived while in a state of clinical death, but not all of them have come back to report life-changing NDE’s. I wonder why that is? Because they came back…_as soulless undead abominations!!!_ They went into the light…and _something else_ came back! _\_ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/34 "2012-01-16T04:41:36Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > Plenty of people have been medically revived while in a state of clinical death, but not all of them have come back to report life-changing NDE’s. I wonder why that is? Different people will have different hallucinations. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/35 "2012-01-16T04:50:15Z")
I hadn’t heard from someone in a few days and had an awful feeling that something had happened to her; just a haunting intuition that something was wrong. Then she called me and I found out there was nothing wrong after all. ---
**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/36 "2012-01-16T10:45:50Z")
> [@Valteron](#): > > I read about a “test” that is used by a doctor in a hospital somewhere (sorry I can’t be more specific, but I DO remember reading this – any links would be appreciated) to debunk claims of patients that their spirit was “floating” around the operating room while they were in surgery. The experiment you describe is similar to something tried by Parnia and Fenwick about 10 years ago. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10856683&postcount=233](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10856683&postcount=233) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/37 "2012-01-16T23:59:07Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > In the last few days, I’ve heard several different people say that, but never have before. Do you think it means anything? It probably means you were driving a red van. I’ve noticed that most people who notice confirmation bias seem to be driving red vans. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/38 "2012-01-17T01:00:42Z")
Great. Now I’ll start seeing red vans like I started seeing Mustang IIs a few months back. Brother wanted to buy one. We debated the wisdom of it long enough that someone else bought it, but now I see every damned Mustang II that goes by. Fortunately, that’s not many because they were crap cars 35 years ago and haven’t improved with age. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/39 "2012-01-17T03:47:55Z")
I kinda like the idea of seeing a white light and your deceased loved ones welcoming you to cross over to the Great Beyond. But you never hear about the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591/40 "2012-01-17T03:54:01Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > I hadn’t heard from someone in a few days and had an awful feeling that something had happened to her; just a haunting intuition that something was wrong. Then she called me and I found out there was nothing wrong after all. This happened to me: a friend of mine lived with his elderly father. One night I dreamed that his dad died. The dream was incredibly powerful: I woke up crying. I wrote him and he replied that everything was fine. Then his dad died - ten years later. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/near-death-experiences/609591.md?page=3)