lekatt I know you said you’re finished but before you go…
On the topic of NDEs…
wikipedia says the following symptoms are commonly associated with the phenomenon, and these seem to mesh with what’s been described here…
How is any of this explained by supernatural forces? When you are in that situation, your brain is starved of oxygen. When your brain is starved of oxygen, neurons either shut down or start firing chaotically.
I submit to you, the temporal lobe, which contains the hippocampus.
1. A very unpleasant sound/noise is the first sensory impression to be noticed;
Hearing is also the first thing neurologists will tell you is associated with the temporal lobe, both low level auditory processing (hearing sounds) and high level auditory processing (speech). So you hear a noise? Colour me unsurprised.
2. A sense of being dead
What does this even mean? Things I would associate with this (out of body experience, lack of senses, calmness) are covered elsewhere, like…
3. Pleasant emotions; calmness and serenity
Oxygen deprivation - pilots experience it under g-forces.
4. An out-of-body experience; a sensation of floating above one’s own body and seeing the surrounding area
Lack of sensory input, caused by oxygen deprivation. Lying down doesn’t feel like floating, because you can feel the bed beneath you. Take away that sense, it feel like you’re floating. Add to that the fact that your sense of balance is askew, for the same reason, and it feels like you’re floating.
5. Floating up a blue tunnel with a strong, bright light or garden at the end
Oxygen deprivation - pilots experience it under g-forces. This is well documented - the tunnel effect is caused by randomly firing neurons, the bright light is the same, the garden is a halluciantion.
And guess which part of the brain is (partly) responsible for high level visual processing?
6. Meeting deceased relatives or spiritual figures;
Hallucination caused by, guess what, oxygen deprivation. If you feel your body slipping away, your senses shutting down, some part of you is going to start thinking about your own mortality. Little wonder the halluciantion subject will match your train of thought.
Point to add: not everyone meets anyone, and sometimes they meet people who are still alive. Want to know why?
HALLUCINATION
As I mentioned above, the temporal lobe is used for high level visual processing, as in recognition of faces and scenery. Starting to see a pattern here?
7. Encountering a being of light, or a light (often interpreted as being the deity or deities they personally believe in)
See point five. Some sense are still coming through in all this oxygen deprivation, so the image of someone standing over you, coupled with the oxygen deprivation, causes a being of light to appear. Either that or it is a full blown hallucination.
8. Being given a life review (the “life-flashing-before-your-eyes” phenomenon)
No mystery - the hippocampus is closely bound tot he temporal lobe, and together they are responsible for all your memory regulation. Misfiring neurons bring old memeories to the surface, whether you wanted them to or not.
9. Reaching a border or boundary
I don’t know what this sensation would feel like. If it is like you were floating but you suddenly stop, it would either be your sense of balance returning, or your sense of balance disappearing entirely.
10. A feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance.
Wow. Isn’t that the same as saying feeling is returning, and your sense of balance is returning? Big mystery.
11. Feeling of warmth even though naked.
Hippocampus is responsible for temperature regulation. Some other part of the brain is responsible for temperature sensing.
Not addressed is the feeling of universal love and acceptance, but did you know that oxygen deprivation makes you high? A similar high to that felt by religious people, that one which makes you feel like you can sense the very heartbeat of the universe around you? That the universe is intrinsically good, and you are loved, and life is good? That feeling doesn’t come from God, at least not directly - it is built into the human brain.
And would you look at that? All symptoms of NDE can be explained through basic neurology - in fact, most of it is isolated to the same part of the brain! There is an elegance to that, don’t you think? But you go ahead and tell yourselves that your misfiring neurons were a touch from heaven, and that science could never, ever explain it away. Frankly I don’t expect much more from you.
It’s “so difficult” for me because you can’t seem to make up your mind.
)
But you know it doesn’t work for non-believers (or in their presence). :rolleyes: