Near-death experience: A glimpse of the afterlife?

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 (NDEs) are, nonetheless, real clinical phenomena, which can be explained as either psychological events, physiological changes in the brain, or spiritual experiences.

Throughout history, there’s been a fascination with the transition from what’s known in this life to what may lie beyond. So stories about strange events in the borderland between life and death are hardly new. Over two millennia ago, in the Republic, Plato recounted a gravely wounded soldier’s journey toward “a straight light like a 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.

Until recently, however, these experiences were usually dismissed as hallucinations or after-the-fact inventions. Many who were convinced they had glimpsed an afterlife were afraid to describe their experiences for fear of being labeled crazy. The medical community’s perception of these reports began to change in 1975 when Raymond Moody published Life After Life, a book that coined the term near-death-experience to describe this hard-to-define phenomenon. Moody interviewed 150 near-death patients who reported vivid experiences (flashing back to childhood; coming face-to-face with Jesus Christ). He found that those who had undergone NDEs became more altruistic, less materialistic, and more loving.

Scores of psychiatrists and neuroscientists have since sought to uncover the roots of these powerful experiences. The task is complicated by the personal nature of the experience; researchers must obviously rely on hearsay that, by definition, cannot be corroborated. Seeking the greater certainty of controlled observations in the laboratory, a number of researchers are taking a physiological approach to uncovering the causes of NDEs.

Physiological Explanations

Michael A. Persinger, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada, has induced many of the characteristics of an NDE — the sensation of moving through a tunnel, the brilliant white light. He has done so by stimulating the brain’s right temporal lobe, the area above the right ear responsible for perception, with mild electromagnetic fields. In England, Karl Jansen has zeroed in on the brain’s reaction to shifting levels of ketamine, a powerful neurotransmitter. Sometimes ingested as a recreational drug, ketamine frequently causes the out-of-body sensation common to NDEs. The US Navy has managed to replicate many of the sensations of an NDE by subjecting test pilots to massive centrifugal force – a physical stress that can induce the presence of a patriarchal figure interpreted by some as God. “There’s nothing magical about the NDE,” Persinger asserts.

Physiological findings have led many researchers to view NDEs not as glimpses into a world beyond but as insights into the world within the human mind. “I think it is an evolutionary adaptation,” says Sherwin Nuland, the US National Book Award–winning author of How We Die. He ascribes NDEs 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. He scoffs at those who view NDEs as a temporary bridge to an afterlife. “I think that the mind is just trying to save itself from the horror of unbelievable trauma,” he says.

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 NDEs. When death appears certain, he argues, the body will often shut down and “play dead” as the last course of action. His skepticism is significant because many years ago, as a result of hemorrhage, he had a near-death experience himself.

Despite these strides in explaining NDEs through clinical investigation, 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 NDEs,” argues Bruce Greyson, a University of Virginia psychiatrist and researcher who has spent much of his professional life investigating these events. For him and others who view NDEs as mythical experiences, the skeptics in the lab are only solving a part of the puzzle.

Psychological Defense Mechanism

The standard psychological explanation for the NDE is that it is the mind’s attempt to preserve 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 NDE more closely resembles an episode of dissociation, a psychological state when strong and usually unpleasant emotions get separated from ideas or situations so that the 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.

Greyson published a study in the February 5, 2000 issue of Lancet, consisting of 96 people who had had NDEs and, for comparison, 38 who had not. Based on questionnaires designed to tease out dissociative symptoms, Greyson concluded that dissociation, as a response to stress, is the most plausible explanation for NDEs.

Some have suggested that rather than being an escape from reality, the NDE 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 NDE may be the mind’s way of conserving energy reserves. Still others see an altruistic streak to NDEs: It has survived through the thousands of years of evolution because it makes death less frightening to others.

Spiritual Experience

Beyond science and medicine, there’s the view that NDEs simply confirm the notion of life after death. Greyson says that those who have such experiences “become enamored with the spiritual part of life, and less so with possessions, power, and prestige.” No matter what the nature of the experience, it alters lives. Alcoholics find themselves unable to imbibe. Hardened criminals opt for a life of helping others. Atheists embrace the existence of a deity, while dogmatic members of a particular religion report “feeling welcome in any church, temple or mosque.” Having stared eternity in the face, Greyson observes, those who return often lose their taste for ego-boosting achievements.

Not even the diehard skeptics doubt the powerful personal effects of NDEs. “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.”

Diane Komp, a pediatric oncologist at Yale, was transformed by witnessing children’s NDEs — an eight-year-old with cancer envisioning a school bus driven by Jesus; a seven-year-old leukemia patient hearing a chorus of angels before passing away. “I was an atheist, and it changed my view of spiritual matters,” recalls Komp. “Call it a conversion. I came away convinced that these are real spiritual experiences.”

For the many people 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.”