Near-death experiences
Throughout history, there’s been a fascination with the transition from what’s known in this life to what may lie beyond. Witness the great writings of Plato. Over two millennia ago, in the Republic, Plato recounted a gravely wounded soldier’s journey toward “a straight light-like pillar, most nearly resembling a rainbow, but brighter and purer.” Near-death experiences aren’t fresh to popular literature, either. Thirteenth-century monks wrote of a farmer who returned from the edge with tales of “corridors of fire” and “icy” paths to the afterlife. But near-death experiences go beyond fascinating. They’re also baffling with any number of explanations.
As death approaches, for many people, mortal fear gives way to a strangely serene state of mind. They believe that they are having out-of-body experiences, encountering people who are dead, entering tunnels, and seeing mystical bright lights. Popularized in numerous books, movies, and television shows as proof of an afterlife, these kinds of near-death experiences are, nonetheless, real clinical phenomena, which could be explained as either psychological events, physiological changes in the brain, or some combination of both.
Researchers have reported that up to one-third of people who come close to death have a near-death experience. They occur both when the threat of death is real and when it is just believed to be real. Many people ascribe religious and spiritual significance to their experiences. But apart from those interpretations, recognizing that people who believe that they are about to die may experience a profoundly different state of consciousness can help doctors, families, and friends provide better care and comfort to the dying. Moreover, a clearer understanding of the near-death experience can also help with counseling people who survive a nearly fatal catastrophe.
Life After Life
Obviously, what we know about near-death experiences comes from survivors. Raymond Moody coined the term near-death experience in Life After Life, his 1975 book about 150 patients who nearly died. These people reported vivid experiences (such as the flashing back to childhood or coming face-to-face with Christ). He found that those who had undergone near-death experiences became more altruistic, less materialistic, and more loving. The near-death experience was first described in a clinical way in 1892 by Albert von St. Gallen Heim, a Swiss geology professor. Prompted by his own nearly fatal fall in a mountain climbing accident, Heim published a collection about the mental experiences of other people who had fallen, been wounded in war, or nearly drowned.
The content of the near-death experience varies by culture and expectations about death. Some of the most common elements, however, include a sense of peace, out-of-body experiences in which the people believe they can see themselves being rescued or resuscitated, perceptions of entering a tunnel with a bright light at the end, and a panoramic life review.
Within the medical community, some claim they’re caused by the physical effects of anesthesia, narcotics, or an oxygen-starved brain. Others in the medical community accept them as significant experiences that are beyond their ability to explain. Beyond science and medicine, there’s the view that near-death experiences simply confirm the notion of life after death.
A psychological defense mechanism?
Scores of psychiatrists and neuroscientists have sought to uncover the roots of these powerful experiences. The standard psychological explanation for the near-death experience is that it is the mind’s attempt to pressure the “self” against the looming reality of death. It has features of what psychiatrists call depersonalization, a sense of detachment or estrangement. Some have suggested that the out-of-body experience is an extreme extension of the detachment aspects of depersonalization. Yet in other situations, depersonalization is often unpleasant and brings on anxiety, panic, and a feeling of emptiness. Some believe that the near-death experience more closely resembles an episode of dissociation, a psychological state when strong and usually unpleasant emotions get separated from ideas or situations so that a person can delay experiencing the emotions — or avoid them altogether. Daydreaming is a mild, often enjoyable form of dissociation. But dissociation is also used to describe the psychological escape experienced by trauma and rape victims. Bruce Greyson, a
Some have suggested that rather than being an escape from reality, the near-death experience is actually based on the realistic sense of relief that the pain and suffering of dying is over. It has also been suggested that the near-death experience may be the mind’s way of conserving energy reserves. Still others see an altruistic streak to the near-death experience: it has survived through the thousands of years of evolution because it makes death less frightening to others.
Physiological Explanations
Seeking the greater certainty of controlled observations in the laboratory, a number of researchers are taking a physiological approach to uncovering the causes behind near-death experiences. Michael A. Persinger, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, has induced many of the characteristics of a near-death experience — the sensation of moving through a tunnel, the brilliant white light — by stimulating the brain’s right temporal lobe, the area above the right ear responsible for perception, with mild electromagnetic fields. In
Physiological findings have led many researchers to view near-death experiences not as glimpses into the world beyond but as insights into the world within the human mind. “I think it is an evolutionary adaptation,” says Sherwin Nuland, the National Book Award-winning author of How We Die. He ascribes near-death experiences to the actions of opiate-like compounds known as endorphins, which are released by the brain at times of great physical stress to deaden pain and alleviate fear. On the other hand, Daniel Alkon, chief of the Neural Systems Laboratory at the US National Institutes of Health, says anoxia (oxygen deprivation in the brain) lies at the root of all near-death experiences. When death appears certain, he argues, the body will often shut down and “play dead” as a last course of action. His skepticism is significant because many years ago, as a result of a hemorrhage, he had a near-death experience himself.
Despite the studies in explaining near-death experiences through clinical and laboratory investigations, some researchers believe that the physiological approach is insufficient. “These are just armchair speculations. Finding a chemical change in the brain does not necessarily prove that it causes near-death experiences,” argues Greyson. For Greyson and others who view near-death experiences as mystical experiences, the skeptics in the lab are only solving a small part of the puzzle.
Recovery From The Experience
But not even the diehard skeptics doubt the powerful personal effects of near-death experiences. “This is a profound emotional experience,” explains Nuland. “People are convinced that they’ve seen heaven.” Persinger adds, “The fact that we’re studying a neural basis for it doesn’t demean its significance.” Greyson observes that those who have had such experiences “become enamored with the spiritual part of life, and less so with possessions, power, and prestige.”
For the many who believe they have been privy to a glimpse of life after death, no amount of clinical explanation will shake their faith. Nancy Evans Bush, president emeritus of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, says the experience is revelatory. “Most near-death survivors say they don’t think there is a God,” she says. “They know.”
