Near Death Experiences...do you believe?

[Lisa]

For centuries people have been talking about near-death experiences, where the patient has an out-of-body experience and remembers seeing a bright light and feels a great sense of peace. We have linked this experience with knocking on the doors of heaven, to many other spiritual explanations. According to a new study, there might be a biological explanation for this.

FULL ARTICLE

I have, luckily, never had a near death experience nor do I know of anyone who has. I think the human brain is a very interesting organ, and I don't doubt that people could have "dreams" of going to a better place but I am skeptical about the whole "light" aspect.

What about you? any near death experiences? Anyone you know ever have one? What do you think they are?

 

[terryl965]

I know when I had my heart attact it really did feel like death but I guess not because I never ever saw heavens door or for that matter the other door as well.
Terry

 

[Slippery_Pete]

Once...i was sitting on the back of a houseboat on the boundry waters and i had a seizure and fell into the water...most people who know me would think i was kidding...lucky for me the girl sitting next to me didnt think i was kidding and jumped in the water as i started sinking...she in essence saved my life because no one knows how deep the water was but it was deep enough that i wouldnt be coming back up alive if i had gone too far...as far as feeling like your "life flashes before your eyes"...not really...maybe you have to know you are going to die...

 

[elder999]

Been really near death a lot-I was sick as a child, and I have had dangerous jobs most of my career-so I've had "near death" experiences, including being revived.....
No tunnel, no light, no one waiting for me on the other side, though....don't know if I "believe" in "near death experiences," or not, though......

 

[Hand Sword]

I've never had any. However, I think the term belief says it all. It's a person's opinion. If you believe, it's true. Any argument is your word against theirs. There is no way for either side to prove anything.

 

[elder999]

No tunnel, no light, no one waiting for me on the other side, though....don't know if I "believe" in "near death experiences," or not, though......

Maybe I was going to hell!:uhohh:

 

[MA-Caver]

When I was younger (much younger) I had a series of dreams. These dreams were very realistic in the effect that I was able to have all my senses functioning during them... meaning I was able to smell, taste, hear, see, feel everything going on in the dream. Just as I (we) do in the waking world.
What these dreams entailed however was my dying, or in the process of dying in a myriad of ways; Being run-over by a semi, getting stabbed in the heart, shot in the back with shotgun, shot in the head, someone breaking my neck, falling (lots of people have these but falling down a ravine and feeling every bump, rock and bounce on the way down ... not free falling), being attacked by various large animals including but not limited to bears, sharks, tigers, wolves, elephants, bulls, etc. etc., being crushed, being pulled apart and so forth. Of all these dreams I always woke up right before the final moment of death. These dreams were in succession (and at random from the above listing) until the drowning, of that I recall vividly...
Seems I was swimming (but location is vauge at this point, could've been a swimming pool, ocean, lake, pond, where-ever) and dove under the water... but when attempting to surface, it was as if someone laid a large piece of plexiglass over the surface of the water and I couldn't get through. I fought and punched and kicked frantically because I didn't take a deep enough breath to hold for very long. I could feel/taste the water going in to my mouth and lungs and filling them, replacing what precious air I had left.
Eventually my efforts weakened and finally I began to sink and drift. I recall the sensation clearly of my mind's eye fading to grey then closing to darkness, I could feel my-"self" leaving my body, being at peace, being content, ready to go where-ever.
But at the last moment I fought and kicked my way back to the surface, wholly determined to break the barrier above me. My hands outstretched I reached the barrier and shoved as hard as I could.
Cold air hit my face and from the light of the streetlamp outside my bedroom window I could catch a faint imprint of my face on my pillow, breathing hard and rolling over and finally sitting up... I realized how close I came to suffocating on my pillow. I recall that I flung my pillow to the far corner of my room and didn't sleep for the rest of the night.
Since that night my "death-dreams" stopped and never returned. To this day I'm still trying to make sense of them and what they mean... I was never fascinated with death nor did I watch horror movies or read horror novels frequently. Later I did (and still do).
I honestly think that if I didn't decide at the last second before my soul/ spirit/life-force/essence/WHATEVER left my body my parents would've found me dead the following morning of asphyxiation/suffocation.

Right now, I can honestly say that I do not fear death. I don't want to die of course like any normal SANE human being and will FIGHT to stay alive, but afraid to die... no because it's not as terrible as it seems... not the final moments.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Interesting article. Could be the brain making the experience of death a little easier to go through.

Jeff:idunno:

 

[Hand Sword]

You mean like the way it numbs the body of animals while Lions are eating them, and they're still not dead yet?

 

[SFC JeffJ]

You mean like the way it numbs the body of animals while Lions are eating them, and they're still not dead yet?

Exactly what I was thinking.

Jeff

 

[bushidomartialarts]

haven't had one myownself, but my grandfather has a story he'll tell if you ask.

he was on a destroyer in wwii. hit by two kamikazes, one below the waterline. 30 seconds after impact, the ship is underwater and half the crew is dead (including 2 of the 4 young men in grampa's gun crew). grampa makes it offboard and into the water in his life jacket.

so he's in the water, which is coated with several inches of oil. the oil catches fire. grampa makes it away from the slick.

so he's away from the fire. that's when several other planes begin strafing the survivors.

and then grampa was eating breakfast with his mom and brothers in the kitchen of the house he grew up in. he stayed there until he was hauled into a british rescue ship.

in extreme situations, the brain just takes us someplace more enjoyable. i figure the 'near death' tunnels people talk about are related to that phenomenon.

of course, i've been wrong before.

 

[MA-Caver]

You mean like the way it numbs the body of animals while Lions are eating them, and they're still not dead yet?

How do they know that is exactly what's happening to them? Big cats tend to go for the throat or better still try to break the neck which immobilizes their prey, with the spinal cord damaged or severed it's usually assumed that a animal would feel nothing. Same with bears, wolves, hyneas and other (large) predators... seems natural to try and immobilize their prey asap. Won't matter to them if their prey is still alive or not... the kill is fresh... I would think that matters more to them than the suffering of their prey.

 

[Hand Sword]

I just remember seeing footage of a pride starting to eat, ripping open the belly, etc.. and the prey was just sitting there, eyes open, occasionally yelling out. Pretty Gruesome!

 

[swiftpete]

haven't had one myownself, but my grandfather has a story he'll tell if you ask.

he was on a destroyer in wwii. hit by two kamikazes, one below the waterline. 30 seconds after impact, the ship is underwater and half the crew is dead (including 2 of the 4 young men in grampa's gun crew). grampa makes it offboard and into the water in his life jacket.

so he's in the water, which is coated with several inches of oil. the oil catches fire. grampa makes it away from the slick.

so he's away from the fire. that's when several other planes begin strafing the survivors.

and then grampa was eating breakfast with his mom and brothers in the kitchen of the house he grew up in. he stayed there until he was hauled into a british rescue ship.

in extreme situations, the brain just takes us someplace more enjoyable. i figure the 'near death' tunnels people talk about are related to that phenomenon.

of course, i've been wrong before.




Wow thats a pretty amazing story. People often complain about being 'stressed' from mundane activities like shopping, work commitments or other inconveniences.
To me that experience is the true definition of a stressful situation. I often think about people going through things like that when I hear people talk about their stress levels. One of the reasons I never say 'I'm stressed'. When i think about what some people have had to go through in their lives, most of the time the day to day so called stressful situations are often not comparable.

 

[Hand Sword]

Very insightful! I started thinking this lately while dealing with homeless at work. I can't say after some of that stuff the my life stinks.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

of course, to be fair, stress is what happens when our million year old fight-flight response kicks in and we're not in a position to fight or flee.

in the case of a truly bad day, fight and flight are real options.

that said, most people who go on about how 'stressed' they are are just whiners.