Near-death experiences (NDE­s) are common enough that they have enter­ed our everyday language. Phrases like “my whole life flashed before my eyes” and “go to the light” come from decades of research into these strange, seemingly supernatural experiences that some people have when they’re at the brink of death. But what exactly are NDEs? Are they hallucinations? Spiritual experiences? Proof of life after death? Or are they simply chemical changes in the brain and sensory organs in the moments prior to death?

Near-death experiences (NDE­s) are common enough that they have enter­ed our everyday language. Phrases like “my whole life flashed before my eyes” and “go to the light” come from decades of research into these strange, seemingly supernatural experiences that some people have when they’re at the brink of death. But what exactly are NDEs? Are they hallucinations? Spiritual experiences? Proof of life after death? Or are they simply chemical changes in the brain and sensory organs in the moments prior to death?

Near-death Experience Traits

Most NDEs share certain common traits, but not all NDEs have every trait and some NDEs don’t follow a pattern at all. Here are the traits that “typical” NDEs share:

•­­Int­ense, pure bright light – Sometimes this intense (but not painful) light fills the room. In other cases, the subject sees a light that they feel represents either Heaven or God.

•Out-of-body experiences (OBE) – The subject feels that he has left his body. He can look down and see it, often describing the sight of doctors working on him. In some cases, the subject’s “spirit” then flies out of the room, into ­the sky and sometimes into space.

•Entering into another realm or dimension – Depending on the subject’s religious beliefs and the nature of the experience, he may perceive this realm as Heaven or, in rare cases, as Hell.

•Spirit beings – During the OBE, the subject encounters “beings of light,” or other representations of spiritual entities. He may perceive these as deceased loved ones, angels, saints or God. ­

•­The tunnel – Many NDE subjects find themselves in a tunnel with a light at its end. They may encounter spirit beings as they pass through the tunnel.

•Communication with spirits – Before the NDE ends, many subjects report some form of communication with a spirit being. This is often expressed a “strong male voice” telling them that it is not their time and to go back to their body. Some subjects report being told to choose between going into the light or returning to their earthly body. Others feel they have been compelled to return to their body by a voiceless command, possibly coming from God.

•Life review – This trait is also called “the panoramic life review.” The subject sees his entire life in a flashback. These can be very detailed or very brief. The subject may also perceive some form of judgment by nearby spirit entities.

Near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences are sometimes grouped together, but there are key differences. An OBE can be a component of an NDE, but some people experience OBEs in circumstances that have nothing to do with death or dying. They may still have spiritual elements or feelings of calm. OBEs can happen spontaneously, or drugs or meditation can induce them.

Who Has NDEs?

­In 1982, pollster George Gallup, Jr. and author William Proctor released “Adventures in Immortality,” a book about NDEs based on two Gallup polls specifica­lly addressing near-death and belief in the afterlife. This poll remains the most widely used source for statistics about NDEs.

Gallup and Proctor found that 15 percent of all Americans who had been in near-death situations reported NDEs. Of those, 9 percent included a “classic out-of-body experience,” while 11 percent included entering another realm or dimension and 8 percent featured the presence of spiritual beings [ref]. Only 1 percent reported negative NDEs. But these numbers are more than 20 years old, and other researchers, whose studies are usually on a smaller scale, report statistics on NDEs that can vary widely from the 1982 poll.

Supernatural Theories

­Theories explaining near-death experiences fall into two basic categories: scientific­ explanations (including medical, physiological and psychological) and supernatural explanations (including spiritual and religious). Of course, these explanations can be neither proven nor disproven. Acceptance of supernatural explanations is based on faith and spiritual and cultural background.

The most basic supernatural explanation is that someone who goes through an NDE is actually experiencing and remembering things that happen to their disembodied consciousness. When they are near death, their soul leaves their body and they begin to perceive things that they normally cannot. The soul goes through the border between our world and the afterlife, usually represented by a tunnel with a light at the end. While on this journey, the soul encounters other spiritual entities (souls), and may even encounter a divine entity, which many subjects perceive as God. They are offered a glimpse into another realm of being, often thought to be Heaven, but they are then pulled back, or choose to go back, into their earthly body.

Belief in astral projection connects NDEs with other forms of out-of-body experiences. Astral projection is the ability of an “astral self” to travel outside the body. In an NDE, this astral self, or soul, spontaneously leaves the body and travels freely to other places. A few cases of NDEs seem to offer proof that people actually experienced events from a point of view different from that of their earthly body. People who were unconscious, non-responsive, had their eyes closed or had been declared clinically dead have reported details of procedures done to them and people who were present in the room [ref]. Some NDE subjects who suffered from permanent blindness have reportedly been able to identify the color of a doctor’s shirt, for example [ref].

For those with a strong belief in Judeo-Christian theology, NDEs represent proof that we have souls, that they continue to exist after we die and that Heaven and Hell are real places. Some believe that NDEs are the work of Satan, who seeks to exploit people’s vulnerability at the time by appearing as “an angel of light.” Satan’s ultimate reason for this deception is unclear.

Other NDE theories are a bit more esoteric. Some believe that an NDE represents a psychic connection to higher-level intelligent beings from another dimension. These beings may be humans who have evolved their souls beyond the birth-death-reincarnation cycle, thus offering a glimpse of humanity’s future as high-order spiritual beings. Sometimes, an NDE can even offer a literal view into the future, as in the apocalypse prophecy NDEs mentioned earlier.

It is interesting to note that non-Judeo-Christian religions have stories and descriptions of death that seem to explain many of the common NDE traits. Buddhism, for example, describes “the clear light of death,” as well as demonic embodiments of moral failure. The soul’s goal is to recognize both the light and the apparitions as projections of the soul’s own nature, not something objectively real. If that happens, the soul may escape the birth-death-reincarnation cycle and reach nirvana.

Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-perceptions/near-death-experience.htm