The Near-Death Experience Part 2

Astonishing Legends

Researchers have now documented thousands of personal accounts from Near-Death Experiencers. Logic would suggest that it's unlikely that all NDE stories are fabrications and that at least some of these experiences are real and accurately described. And if so, then examining the commonly experienced features of the NDE seem to indicate that these defining perceptions are universal, while remaining a uniquely relevant and personal occurrence to the individual. Most NDE experiencers have described sensations like being in a tunnel leading to a brilliant light, floating away from our bodies, reuniting with deceased friends and loved ones, of a peaceful and loving communion with a higher power, while some have described a hellish event. On the other hand, skeptics would argue that these features are standard because the human brain is the same for everyone. Some researchers have claimed to produce these sensations by external stimuli, such as electric current, extreme G-force, and psychoactive drugs, or conclude that these perceptions are merely scenes of a final movie played by a dying brain starved of oxygen. In the second part of our discussion of the Near-Death Experience with Richard Hatem, we discuss the points of this debate, and whether the skeptical viewpoint can fully explain the phenomenon or if it falls short of an explanation of the personal context of these experiences. At the heart of this debate is the question of whether consciousness is a product of the physical brain or if it can reside apart from the body. If consciousness exists independently of the brain and this could be scientifically proven, then the possibility of living beyond our physical world – the reality of an Afterlife, changes the debate and how we think about our own lives. Perhaps this is something that can never be proven, something we are not meant to know, but those that have gone through an NDE will tell you that it has changed them, usually for the better. To them, the NDE was a message, and whether a good or bad experience, it was a message of hope or a reminder that redemption is possible, and that a greater awareness awaits us. And what message could be better at the close of an old year and the beginning of a new one?

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