Near Death Experiences

 I would say a near death experience is possible from the perspective of someone having one. There are a number of criteria that must be fulfilled in order to have an NDE, and as I will explain below, most people do not fulfill all these criteria.

The three most common NDEs are: Out of Body Experience, seeing a bright light and entering the light, life review, and meeting with one or several beings. All these elements occur in different combinations but we can see that living individuals often fulfill them.

First of all, a person must be alive, although that is not always the case. In fact some patients who had an NDE never really died at all and they are just in a coma or deep sleep.

If a person has an NDE and dies, at some point he must return to life; otherwise it wouldn't be called 'near'. If the person doesn't come back to life the experience cannot be considered as such.

The NDE must also be reported by the person who experienced it. If the experience is just another hallucination of a brain that is dying then there can't be any real near death experience.

Finally, for the NDE to be considered real the person who experienced it must not have a pathological disease. Those who are mentally ill or whose brain is damaged cannot have a NDE.

The first thing to note is the general lack of similarity in near death experiences. This suggests that it doesn't matter if you're religious or not, what matters is your state of mind when you die. A person who dies peacefully will likely have a peaceful experience; one who dies scared out of their wits probably won't.

In addition, there are some near death experiences that have no relation to religion at all, such as out of body experiences (where the person sees themselves from above), or just a feeling of peace and tranquility.

These suggest that it's not the afterlife, but a state of mind which is common to all humans. This suggests there may be some sort of separation between the body and conscious thought. When your brain stops working, your thinking ability doesn't have to.

The out of body experience could be explained by the fact that we have a strong connection between our sense of sight and visual cortex. It is therefore likely that when your brain stops working, your vision continues on.

The feeling of peace and tranquility might be explained by the fact that we have a strong connection between our sense of hearing (particularly low frequencies) and our auditory cortex. When your brain stops working, you can hear all sorts of things.

As such, it's likely that when your brain stops working, you continue to see and hear things. This explains why some near death experiences involve seeing a tunnel of light or meeting god; these are simply the last sensations you feel before death.

There are many global benefits to a near death experience. The most obvious of these is the potential for knowledge acquisition. If you, as a human being, were to die and then return to life, your first-hand account of what happens after death would be extremely valuable in various fields of study including philosophy, science, medicine and religion. These accounts could also potentially provide answers to certain questions regarding the afterlife that have long perplexed mankind.

It is also worth considering that, in a hypothetical situation where you did undergo a near death experience, the knowledge acquired by your second self could be shared with your first self prior to your 'return' from death. This would ensure that when you are revived, you already have this precious information at hand.

As well as being a source of valuable information, the act of dying and then returning to life could be considered something of an initiation or rite of passage. I believe that if you were to undergo this experience, it would have a profound effect upon your psyche. In particular, I think there would be several positive effects.

Firstly, by experiencing a near death experience you would be able to 'dye' your neurons with the memory of what happens after death. This would ensure that even if you were to undergo a temporary global amnesia, this information could still be retrieved from your neural network.

Secondly, I think that undergoing a near death experience would enable you to become more comfortable with the idea of your own mortality. This could result in an increased willingness to face challenges head on and even potentially increase your overall happiness as a human being.

Finally, I believe that a near death experience could potentially have a transformative effect on your personality. It is possible that you would emerge from the experience with an altered set of values and/or priorities.

The topic of 'Near death experiences' is a good one to examine. I believe that the human mind works in two modes, with consciousness being switched on and off depending on its needs. When awake, your brain processes information from the senses and creates an internal model of what you see around you, which includes a representation of yourself as part of the world. This simulation allows for accurate modeling of reality using fewer processing resources than would be required if conscious awareness was always active.

Consciousness is a very useful tool for survival, and it has evolved many times over in different species to achieve this end. However, consciousness presents the mind with a paradox. It allows you to accurately model reality when awake so that you can think about possible interactions with your environment and decide on appropriate actions to take, but being aware of yourself as part of the world leads to a disconnect between perception and your internal representation.

Imagine you are standing before an open window and a bird flies by. You can see it with your eyes, but the brain also creates a simulation of this image in its internal model of reality. The senses send information about the bird to the mind, which processes it into an accurate representation of what is seen outside. However, there's a problem: Your internal model includes you as part of that picture.

This internal representation makes it impossible to perceive the world exactly as you would without being aware of yourself. The model is constantly creating a simulation with you in it, which means that your perspective on reality can never be fully accurate.

What does this have to do with near death experiences? When the brain loses oxygen and is about to die, consciousness fades away. However, a sense of self remains even when it's no longer aware of its surroundings. The model stops representing reality, but without sensory input there's nothing for it to base itself on except you.

This is why people who have had near death experiences report feeling a sense of peace and well-being. Even though they are not conscious, some part of the mind still simulates their body continuing to function even when it no longer has any physical senses.