The Science of Near-Death Experiences Quotes

“If one is too confined by physicalist prejudices, e.g., believing at the outset that one is trying to fit the empirical observations into one’s model of reality (i.e., that the brain creates the mind), they risk completely missing the deeper lessons of the journey. As with any attempt to gain a deeper understanding of something as fundamental as “consciousness,” any partitioning of the subject matter is guaranteed to lead to confusion and misinterpretation. The problem is in our mindset, and is an inherent problem with the conventional scientific approach of reductive materialism. The brain is clearly related to consciousness—the fallacy is in believing the brain creates consciousness out of purely physical matter. The emerging scientific view, far more powerful in its explanatory potential, relates to the notion of the brain as a reducing valve, or filter that limits primordial (infinite?) consciousness down to the minuscule trickle of the apparent here-and-now of our physical human existence. This idea (filter theory) enables the possibility that the soul survives bodily death, and is attributed to the brilliant masters of the human psyche who worked mainly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, notably Frederic W. H. Myers, Henri Bergson, and William James.3 Physicalism and atomism (the idea of the separation of objects within the universe) often go hand in hand—and both introduce distortions in trying to understand how humans fit into the universe as a whole. The act of separating parts of the universe from the whole is artificial and detracts from approaching the deeper truth of reality. This is one of the fundamental problems with our predominant scientific model of reductive materialism that relies largely on such false separations. In spite of the wonders the world has seen from the advances of modern science and technology, there is a dark underbelly related to that progress in the form of the destruction of our planetary ecosystems, modern warfare, thoughtless homicide and suicide, etc.—much of it due to the artificial removal of human spirit from the predominant physicalist worldview. The false conclusions of physicalist science that consciousness is manufactured by physiological processes occurring in the brain, that we are nothing more than “meat computers,” automatons or zombies, that free will itself is a complete illusion, are vastly destructive as a predominant worldview. The emerging scientific view of consciousness as fundamental in the universe also incorporates the Oneness of all consciousness,16 and the importance of appreciating the connectedness of all elements of the universe in reaching fundamental truth. I foresee this top-down approach to understanding as being much more fruitful.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“A borderland when the conscious states of waking and rapid eye movement (REM) blend, forming a hybrid conscious state. REM consciousness is named for the saccadic eye movements that accompany the robust visual system activation characterizing this conscious state. Cortical activation similar to wakefulness and the atonia of non-respiratory muscles also distinguish the REM state. The most complex dreaming takes place during REM sleep in cortical regions far removed from the pontine brainstem switch triggering REM. Importantly, these different elements of REM consciousness commonly fragment, and can individually intrude into the waking state. Most often the REM intrusion occurs in the transitions between REM and waking, happening in up to a quarter of people at least once in their life.8 The blending of REM and waking consciousness takes the form of complex visual and auditory hallucinations, dream narratives, as well as the atonia of sleep paralysis or cataplexy. This borderland is unstable, lasting seconds or minutes before reverting to a more stable conscious state. The REM intrusion hypothesis of near-death experiences was first investigated by discovering that those with a near-death experience have a 2.8 times greater incidence of lifetime REM intrusion than age and gender matched controls.8 Near-death subjects possess a pontine REM switch so astoundingly predisposed to REM intrusion that the incidence of sleep paralysis does not differ between near-death and the sleep disorder of narcolepsy. Furthermore, for those who have been near death, REM intrusion happened with the same frequency before as after their near-death experience, telling us that near-death experience is but a single episode in a lifetime of REM intrusion. To understand how conscious states interplay during a crisis like near-death, it is necessary to understand how the brainstem regulates consciousness and how the REM switch reacts in crisis to blend waking and REM consciousness bringing about effective survival behaviors.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“NDEs spiritual. This is important because much of the neuroscience behind mystical Oneness experience is understood. MYSTICAL FEELINGS OF ONENESS Mystical feelings of Oneness are expressed through a special quality of serotonin neurochemistry, specifically the serotonin-2a receptors. Much like a molecular scalpel, if serotonin-2a is pharmacologically blocked or parts of the limbic system containing serotonin-2a surgically removed, then the mystical expression is blocked too. In retrospect the connection between NDE and the mystical Oneness should not come as a shock since fear, the primal emotion of the limbic system and survival, often accompanies mystical experiences. Which brings up another point; when exploring brain function during spiritually transforming experience it is not just the fervor over the drama of near-death that blinds some to the importance of the brain. The grandeur of the brain’s accomplishments leads many to overlook the brain’s prime biologic and evolutionary purpose lying at the heart of many spiritual experiences. First, last and, foremost the brain needs to keep itself alive through the crisis of near-death. One extensively studied physiological crisis concerns cerebral blood flow. Crucial to its prime purpose, the brain governs its blood flow each second of life. Brain activity relies upon aerobic metabolism that demands a constant supply of oxygen and glucose at rest, in exercise, and during physiological and emotional stress. Controlling cerebral blood flow depends principally upon the arterial baroreflex that in turn pivots on the yoked opposition of cholinergic and adrenergic neurons in the peripheral and central nervous systems. Fading cerebral blood flow with looming unconsciousness, often the proximate circumstance leading to NDEs, signals a crisis to the brain that then orchestrates a cascade of survival responses, including the familiar fight-or-flight guiding our ancestors survival for millions of years. In the initial seconds of failing cerebral blood flow and dimming consciousness, there is no reason to expect the brain reacts differently between uncomplicated syncope and cardiac dysrhythmia. When the brain becomes ischemic, many times the border between consciousness and unconsciousness is indistinct, and between these two borders exists a borderland of consciousness then entered. Consciousness is lost if blood flow drops below a threshold, and consciousness can come and go if cerebral blood flow rises and falls across this threshold; this routinely happens in clinical settings. It remains a scantly appreciated observation that the eyes remain open at syncope’s onset18 and beyond. So as consciousness waxes and wanes, a person may be far more aware of surrounding events than appreciated by others tending to medical urgencies. And those stricken may later recall the episode in startling detail. Simply because one does not respond while in shock or peri-syncopal does not mean the person is unconscious or dead (for example, see the case of Ms. Martin19). Adding to this caution, evidence suggests that the brain’s electrical activity may persist even during deep coma and apparent isoelectric electroencephalogram.20 Although a misnomer a good part of the time, in one way the term “near-death experiences” aptly describes these experiences.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“As important as NDEs have now become, another variety of spiritual experience reigns supreme by the fact that it is always and exclusively spiritual, and consequently the most historically influential variety serving as the “root and center” for organized religions of nearly every sort. James identified this experience as the “mystical sense of Oneness.” Some of the many words use to describe the mystical Oneness include: boundless, ceaseless, bottomless, nothingness, fathomless, infinite, empty void, barren, abyss, abysmal, and absolute. The philosopher W. T. Stace elaborated on the mystical nature brought out by James, noting that the core feeling of Oneness could be expressed in two forms.16 The extrovertive mystical experience looks outward to the world through the physical senses and finds unity. On the other hand, the introvertive mystical experience turns inward, shuttering out the senses and transcending into a “pure” consciousness. Both James and Stace believed the core nature of mystical experience was universal to humans. NDEs also appear universal but the narratives vary widely between persons and cultures, and are not always viewed in a spiritual perspective. Little thought has tied NDEs and mystical Oneness together until recently. A sizable 42 % of near-death experience subjects feel “united, one with the world.”8 Although not as thorough a measure as other tools provide, 17 this finding suggests that mystical Oneness may play an unsuspected role in making NDEs spiritual. This is important because much of the neuroscience behind mystical Oneness experience is understood. MYSTICAL FEELINGS OF ONENESS Mystical feelings of Oneness are expressed through a special quality of serotonin neurochemistry, specifically the serotonin-2a receptors. Much like a molecular scalpel, if serotonin-2a is pharmacologically blocked or parts of the limbic system containing serotonin-2a surgically removed, then the mystical expression is blocked too. In retrospect the connection between NDE and the mystical Oneness should not come as a shock since fear, the primal emotion of the limbic system and survival, often accompanies mystical experiences.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“CONSCIOUSNESS As a neurosurgeon, I was taught that the brain creates consciousness. Consciousness, based on that conventional view, is an illusion manifested by the subatomic particles, atoms, and molecules of the brain all simply following natural laws. The same line of conventional thinking necessarily concludes that we are all acting at the whim of the natural laws governing all of those subatomic particles and their more complex arrangements in molecules and cells of the brain. In other words, none of us actually has free will at all. To put this challenge in perspective, it is important to point out that the only thing any one of us truly knows to exist is our own consciousness. What we call “the external world” is actually a model constructed in our minds. Conventional neuroscience would remind us that every experience and memory we’ve ever had is nothing more than the patterns of electrochemical flickering of 100 billion neurons encased in a three-pound gelatinous mass floating in a warm dark bath. Nothing more. A model of reality, and perhaps a mechanism for processing reality, but not reality itself. Thus the many physicists and cosmologists who claim to be close to defining a “theory of everything” seem woefully premature, given that a far more robust understanding of the phenomenon of consciousness is necessary for any alleged theory about the nature of reality. Only a few recent physicists have actually risen to this challenge, including Roger Penrose, Henry Stapp, Brian Josephson, and Amit Goswami. But the mystery of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics—which says the observer’s mind is intricately involved with the physical reality being observed, i.e., that consciousness is fundamental, not an illusion created by the physical brain—drove many of the brilliant founding fathers of quantum mechanics, including Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, Louis Debroglie, Sir James Jeans, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, and Albert Einstein, into mysticism as they sought deeper understanding.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“2. Reductionism: “It was only . . .” As a response to a distressing experience, reductionism has been described as the “defense [that] allows one to repudiate the meaning of an event which does not fit into a safe category” and to “treat the event as if it did not matter.”6, p. 35 A woman whose anaphylactic reaction precipitated an NDE with both loving and frightening elements concluded, There are actual rational explanations for what I experienced. . . . The brain, under stress, releases natural opiates that stop pain and fear. . . . Lack of oxygen disrupts the normal activity of the visual cortex. . . . Too much neural activity in the dying brain causes stripes of activity. . . . Our eyes, even closed, interpret those stripes of activity as . . . the sensation of moving forward in a tunnel. . . . There are more brain cells concentrated in the middle of the cortex than on the edges so as we get closer to death, the brain interprets all those dense cells with their crazy activity as a bright light in the middle of our visual field. It’s all very scientific.7, p. 95 Her conclusion is that, based on the scientific evidence, the experience had no ontological meaning. Any lingering anxieties will go unaddressed. A woman who had a terrifying experience during childbirth likewise dismissed the reality of the experience: “Perhaps it was the effect of the ether and not an NDE.” A woman attacked by a lion dismissed the memory of her DNDE as hallucinatory: “I often wonder if, in the shock of the attack, my mind played tricks on me, and that I may have just been unconscious and my brain deprived of oxygen.” A man who for many years had spoken publicly about his radiant NDE had a second experience in which he felt attacked by gigantic, sinister, threatening geometric forms, leaving him with a deep-seated pessimism and terror of dying. Learning that drug-induced hallucinations include geometric forms, he concluded that his second NDE was “only a drug reaction.” This may be an appropriate conclusion clinically, but the experience remains. Reductionism provides a temporary buffer to mask questions and anxieties, but does nothing to resolve them.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“An NDE of the “void” is an ontological encounter with a perceived vast emptiness, often a devastating scenario of aloneness, isolation, sometimes annihilation. A woman in childbirth found herself abruptly flying over the hospital and into deep, empty space. A group of circular entities informed her she never existed, that she had been allowed to imagine her life but it was a joke; she was not real. She argued with facts about her life and descriptions of Earth. “No,” they said, “none of that had ever been real; this is all there was.” She was left alone in space.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“1. nonmaterial, 2. material, and 3. transmaterial.2 In the nonmaterial aspect, the NDEr experiences a peaceful, floating sensation without respect to their physical body; there is no perception of either material or transmaterial phenomena and no clear sense of consciousness either being or not being associated with their physical body—hence the term “nonmaterial.” In the material aspect, the NDEr perceives their consciousness to be functioning—typically lucidly or hyper-lucidly—at a location apart from their physical body, most commonly above the body but including even locations remote from it. From this location, the NDEr perceives the material, physical world, although attempts to interact with the material world typically fail, such as trying to communicate verbally with a living person or reaching out to touch a living person and finding their “hand” passes through her or him, in either case without an indication that the person—either at the time or upon later questioning—sensed anything. In the transmaterial aspect, the NDEr, again typically with lucidity or hyper-lucidity, perceives phenomena—entities and/or domains—that are not of a material, physical nature. Entities include deceased loved ones (discarnates) and/or spiritual beings, sometimes identifiable religious figures but often unidentifiable yet usually deeply familiar, such as spiritual guides, angelic beings, or, more rarely, demonic entities. Environments include those of exquisite, unearthly beauty in which earth-like phenomena have unearthly characteristics such as sentience in every blade of grass; they also include structure-like phenomena such as halls of knowledge and cities of light; again, more rarely, they include hellish scenes. During the transmaterial aspect the NDEr not only perceives but also interacts with transmaterial phenomena, most often involving mind-to-mind communication with entities.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“The NDERF website has received additional case reports of near-death experiences among those functionally and/or legally blind. For illustration, the following NDE happened to Marta, a five-year-old blind girl who walked into a lake: “I slowly breathed in the water and became unconscious. A beautiful lady dressed in bright white light pulled me out. The lady looked into my eyes and asked me what I wanted. I was unable to think of anything until it occurred to me to travel around the lake. As I did so, I saw detail that I would not have seen in “real” life. I could go anywhere, even to the tops of trees, simply by my intending to go there. I was legally blind. For the first time I was able to see leaves on trees, bird’s feathers, bird’s eyes, details on telephone poles and what was in people’s back yards. I was seeing far better than 20/20 vision.“16 An NDERF survey question asked 1,122 near-death experiencers, “Did your vision differ in any way from your normal, everyday vision (in any aspect, such as clarity, field of vision, colors, brightness, depth perception degree of solidness/transparency of objects, etc.)?” In response, 722 (64.3%) answered “Yes,” 182 (16.2%) said “Uncertain,” and 218 (19.4%) responded “No.” A review of narrative responses to this question revealed that vision during NDEs was often apparently supernormal. Here are some illustrative examples from NDEs: “Colors were beyond any I had ever seen.” “Everything seemed so much more colorful and brighter than normal.” “My vision was greatly increased. I was able to see things as close or as far as I needed. There was no strain involved it was almost like auto zooming a camera.” “I had 360 degree vision, I could see above, below, on my right, on my left, behind, I could see everywhere at the same time!” Vision in near-death experiencers who are blind, including those totally blind from birth, has been described in many case reports. This, along with the finding that vision in NDEs is usually different from normal everyday vision and often described as supernormal, further suggests that NDEs cannot be explained by our current understanding of brain function. This is also further evidence that NDEs are not a product of what NDErs would have expected to occur during a life-threatening event.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“Once outside the building, I was immersed in a bluish white light that had a shimmering appearance as if I were swimming underwater in a crystal clear stream. The sunlight was penetrating through it. The visual was accompanied by a feeling of absolute love and peace. What does the term “absolute love and peace” mean? For example, scientists use the term “absolute zero” to describe a temperature at which no molecular motion exists; a singular and pure state. That was what I felt; I had fallen into a pure positive flow of energy. I could see the flow of this energy. I could see it flow through the fabric of everything. I reasoned that this energy was quantifiable. It was something measurable and palpable. As I flowed in the current of this stream, which seemed to have both velocity and direction, I saw some of the high points and low points in my life pass by, but nothing in depth. I became ecstatic at the possibility of where I was going. I was aware of every moment of this experience, conscious of every millisecond, even though I could feel that time did not exist. I remember thinking, “This is the greatest thing that can ever happen to anyone.” Suddenly, I was back in my body. It was so painful.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“In this concept, consciousness is not rooted in the measurable domain of physics, our manifest world. This also means that the wave aspect of our indestructible consciousness in the non-local realm is inherently not measurable by physical means. However, the physical aspect of consciousness can be measured by means of neuroimaging techniques like EEG, fMRI, and PET-scan. There is a kind of biological basis of our waking consciousness, because during life our physical body functions as an interface or place of resonance. But there is no biological basis of our whole, endless, or enhanced consciousness because it is rooted in a non-local realm. Our non-local consciousness does not reside in our brain and is not limited to our brain, and our brain seems to have a facilitating, and not a producing function to experience consciousness. One cannot avoid the conclusion that endless or non-local consciousness has always existed and will always exist independently from the body, because there is no beginning nor will there ever be an end to our consciousness. For this reason we should seriously consider the possibility that death, like birth, can only be a transition to another state of consciousness. According to this idea death is only the end of our physical aspects, and during life our body functions as an interface or place of resonance for our non-local consciousness. This view of a non-local consciousness also allows us to understand a wide variety of special states of consciousness,13 not only near-death experiences, but also mystical and religious experiences, deathbed visions (end-of-life experiences), shared death experiences, peri-mortem and post-mortem experiences (after death communication, or non-local interconnectedness with the consciousness of deceased relatives), heightened intuitive feelings and prognostic dreams (non-local information exchange), remote viewing (non-local perception) and perhaps even the effect of consciousness on matter like in placebo-effect or neuroplasticity,14, 15 where in EEG, fMRI and PET-scan studies functional and structural changes in the brain are demonstrated following changes in consciousness (non-local perturbation).”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“We saw in them a greater interest in spirituality and questions about the purpose of life, as well as a greater acceptance of, and love for, oneself and others. The conversations also revealed that people had acquired enhanced intuitive feelings after an NDE, along with a strong sense of connectedness with others and with nature. Or, as many of them put it, they had acquired “paranormal gifts.” The sudden occurrence of this enhanced intuition, or non-local perception, can be quite problematic, as people suddenly have a very acute sense of others, which can be extremely intimidating. The integration and acceptance of an NDE is a process that may take many years because of its far-reaching impact on people’s pre-NDE understanding of life and value system. Finally, it is quite remarkable to see a cardiac arrest lasting just a few minutes give rise to such a lifelong process of transformation. For obvious reasons most people feel nostalgic about their NDE because of the unforgettable feelings of peace, acceptance, and love they encountered during the experience, and the feeling of being forced to return back into the body. We identified a distinct pattern of change in people with an NDE and revealed that integrating these changes into daily life is a long and arduous process because there is at first hardly any acceptance by oneself as well as by others, like doctors, nurses, family members, partners, and friends. This lack of acceptance can make the process of coming to terms with the experience difficult and painful. So the NDE is often a traumatic event with many years of strong feelings of depression, homesickness and loneliness.6”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“search for knowledge; and greater appreciation for nature.6 These aftereffects have been corroborated by interviews with near-death experiencers’ significant others and by long-term longitudinal studies.17 Negative Effects Although NDErs sometimes feel distress if the NDE conflicts with their previously held beliefs and attitudes, the emphasis in the popular media on the positive benefits of NDEs inhibits those who are having problems from seeking help. Sometimes people who have had NDEs may doubt their sanity, yet they are often afraid of rejection or ridicule if they discuss this fear with friends or professionals. Sometimes NDErs do receive negative reactions from professionals when they describe their experiences, which discourages them even further from seeking help in understanding the experience.18 Family and friends may find it difficult to understand the NDEr’s new beliefs and behavior, as many of their new attitudes and beliefs are so different from those around them. Difficulty reconciling the new attitudes and beliefs with the expectations of family and friends can interfere with maintaining old roles and lifestyle, which no longer have the same meaning. NDErs may find it impossible to communicate to others the meaning and impact of their NDE on their lives.18 Researchers have noted that the value incongruities between NDErs and their families lead to a relatively high divorce rate among NDErs. The effects of an NDE “may include long-term depression, broken relationships, disrupted career, feelings of severe alienation, an inability to function in the world, long years of struggling with the keen sense of altered reality.”19”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“However, NDE-like phenomena are almost never seen in temporal lobe seizures, and electrical stimulation of the temporal lobes typically elicits fragmented bits of music, isolated and repetitive scenes that seemed familiar, hearing voices, experiencing fear or other negative emotions, or seeing bizarre, dream-like imagery, in addition to a wide range of somatic sensations that are never reported in NDEs.17 These putative neurological mechanisms, for which there is little if any empirical evidence, may suggest brain pathways through which NDEs are expressed or interpreted, but do not necessarily imply causal mechanisms.17 EFFECTS OF NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES Positive Effects Regardless of their cause, NDEs can permanently and dramatically alter the individual experiencer’s attitudes, beliefs, and values. The literature on the aftereffects of NDEs has focused on the beneficial personal transformations that often follow. A recent review of research into the characteristic changes following NDEs found the most commonly reported to be loss of fear of death; strengthened belief in life after death; feeling specially favored by God; a new sense of purpose or mission; heightened self-esteem; increased compassion and love for others; lessened concern for material gain, recognition, or status; greater desire to serve others; increased ability to express feelings; greater appreciation of, and zest for, life; increased focus on the present; deeper religious faith or heightened spirituality; search for knowledge; and greater appreciation for nature.6 These aftereffects have been corroborated by interviews with near-death experiencers’ significant others and by long-term longitudinal studies.17 Negative Effects Although NDErs sometimes feel distress if the NDE conflicts with their previously held beliefs and attitudes, the emphasis in the popular media on the positive benefits of NDEs inhibits those who are having problems from seeking help. Sometimes people who have had NDEs may doubt their sanity, yet they are often afraid of rejection or ridicule if they discuss this fear with friends or professionals. Sometimes NDErs do receive negative reactions from professionals when they describe their experiences, which discourages them even further from seeking help in understanding the experience.18 Family and friends may find it difficult to understand the NDEr’s new beliefs and behavior, as many of their new attitudes and beliefs are so different from those around them. Difficulty reconciling the new attitudes and beliefs with the expectations of family and friends can interfere with maintaining old roles and lifestyle, which no longer have the same meaning. NDErs may find it impossible to communicate to others the meaning and impact of their NDE on their lives.18 Researchers have noted that the value incongruities between NDErs and their families lead to a relatively high divorce rate among NDErs. The effects of an NDE “may include long-term depression, broken relationships, disrupted career, feelings of severe alienation, an inability to function in the world, long years of struggling with the keen sense of altered reality.”19”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“However, NDE-like phenomena are almost never seen in temporal lobe seizures, and electrical stimulation of the temporal lobes typically elicits fragmented bits of music, isolated and repetitive scenes that seemed familiar, hearing voices, experiencing fear or other negative emotions, or seeing bizarre, dream-like imagery, in addition to a wide range of somatic sensations that are never reported in NDEs.17 These putative neurological mechanisms, for which there is little if any empirical evidence, may suggest brain pathways through which NDEs are expressed or interpreted, but do not necessarily imply causal mechanisms.17 EFFECTS OF NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES Positive Effects Regardless of their cause, NDEs can permanently and dramatically alter the individual experiencer’s attitudes, beliefs, and values. The literature on the aftereffects of NDEs has focused on the beneficial personal transformations that often follow. A recent review of research into the characteristic changes following NDEs found the most commonly reported to be loss of fear of death; strengthened belief in life after death; feeling specially favored by God; a new sense of purpose or mission; heightened self-esteem; increased compassion and love for others; lessened concern for material gain, recognition, or status; greater desire to serve others; increased ability to express feelings; greater appreciation of, and zest for, life; increased focus on the present; deeper religious faith or heightened spirituality; search for knowledge; and greater appreciation for nature.6 These aftereffects have been corroborated by interviews with near-death experiencers’ significant others and by long-term longitudinal studies.17 Negative Effects Although NDErs sometimes feel distress if the NDE conflicts with their previously held beliefs and attitudes, the emphasis in the popular media on the positive benefits of NDEs inhibits those who are having problems from seeking help. Sometimes people who have had NDEs may doubt their sanity, yet they are often afraid of rejection or ridicule if they discuss this fear with friends or professionals. Sometimes NDErs do receive negative reactions from professionals when they describe their experiences, which discourages them even further from seeking help in understanding the experience.18 Family and friends may find it difficult to understand the NDEr’s new beliefs and behavior, as many of their new attitudes and beliefs are so different from those around them.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“However, many NDEs are recounted by individuals who had no metabolic or organic malfunctions that might have caused hallucinations, and patients who receive medications in fact report fewer NDEs than do patients who receive no medication.14 Furthermore, organic brain malfunctions generally produce clouded thinking, irritability, fear, belligerence, and idiosyncratic visions, quite unlike the exceptionally clear thinking, peacefulness, calm, and predictable content that typify the NDE. Visions in patients with delirium are generally of living persons, whereas those of patients with a clear sensorium as they approach death are almost invariably of deceased persons. Patients who are febrile or anoxic when near death report fewer NDEs and less elaborate experiences than do patients who remain drug-free and are neither febrile nor anoxic. That is, drug- or metabolically-induced delirium, rather than causing NDEs in fact inhibits them from occurring or from being recalled.14 Neurochemistry NDEs have been speculatively attributed to a number of neurotransmitters in the brain, most frequently endorphins or other endogenous opioids, a putative ketamine-like endogenous neuroprotective agent acting on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, serotonin, adrenaline, vasopressin, and glutamate. These speculations are based on hypothetical endogenous chemicals or effects that have not been shown to exist, and are not supported by any empirical data.17”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“Near-death experiences are important to physicians for three reasons. First, NDEs precipitate pervasive and durable changes in beliefs, attitudes, and values.6 Secondly, they may be confused with psychopathological states, yet have profoundly different sequelae requiring different therapeutic approaches.7 Third, clarification of their mechanisms may enhance our understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain function.8 One of the problems with research into NDEs is that, with a few notable exceptions, almost all NDE research has been retrospective, raising the question of the reliability of the experiencer’s memories. Autobiographical memories are subject to distortion over years, and memories of unusual or traumatic events may be particularly unreliable as a result of emotional influences. However, memories of NDEs are experienced as “more real” than memories of other events,9 and memories of NDEs have been shown to be unchanged over a period of 20 years.10 EXPLANATORY MODELS Studies of near-death experiencers have shown them collectively to be psychologically healthy individuals who do not differ from comparison groups in age, gender, race, religion, religiosity, mental health, intelligence, neuroticism, extroversion, trait and state anxiety, or relevant Rorschach measures.11 Expectancy A plausible hypothesis postulates that near-death experiences are products of the imagination, constructed from one’s personal and cultural expectations, to protect oneself from facing the threat of death. Comparisons of NDE accounts from different cultures suggest that prior beliefs have some influence on the kind of experience a person will report following a close brush with death. However, individuals often report experiences that conflict with their specific religious and personal expectations of death; people who had no prior knowledge about NDEs describe the same kinds of experiences as do people who are quite familiar with the phenomenon, and the knowledge individuals had about NDEs previously does not seem to influence the details of their own experiences;”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“What should a physician do when a patient recovers from an almost fatal illness or injury and reports a near-death experience? From talking with thousands of such patients, I find most simply want someone to listen to them noncommittally. They want to talk about what happened to them and to ventilate the powerful emotions and memories associated with their near-death experience. After listening, it also helps to reassure the patient that he or she is not alone, that millions of other individuals have had such experiences. Listening and reassuring them helps set them on a lifelong course of integrating what for most is their most profound transcendent event. Intervening with their families can often save such patients considerable unnecessary discomfort and interpersonal conflicts. The family should know that the patient is not mentally ill nor are NDEs rare. Patients with near-death experiences are generally convinced from the outset that the experience was real and that they are not “crazy.” They often worry that other people will make fun of them or doubt their sanity.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“They say that in the bright light they feel comfort, joy, peace, and love so intense as to be almost palpable. They say that they perceive the spirits of deceased loved ones, departed relatives, and friends who seem to be there to welcome them. These patients also say that they re-experience in vivid detail the events of their lives in a sort of holographic, full-color panorama. Although it takes only an instant, they report reviewing the actions of their lives empathically, from within the consciousness of others with whom they had interacted rather than from their original perspective. Patients differ as to how they got back. For some, at one moment they were immersed in the light and the next moment they were back in their hospital beds with no sense of a transition. Other patients say that they were told, perhaps by one of their deceased loved ones, that they had to go back; that they had things left to complete. Yet other patients say they were given a choice. They could either stay in the light and continue that experience or return to the life they had been living. Most commonly, these patients say that for themselves they would have preferred to stay in the light; however, they chose to go back for someone else, usually to raise their young children. Upon returning, these patients remark that their near-death experiences profoundly changed their lives. They say that their experiences convinced them personally that there is an afterlife so they no longer fear death. These patients say that whatever they might have been pursuing in their lives before—power, wealth, fame or something else—their experiences convinced them that the most important goal in life is to learn to love. Although they still find that goal as difficult to realize as anyone else, their near-death experiences commit them to pursuing love. Not everyone who recovers from a near-death event reports a near-death experience. Nor does everyone who has a near-death experience report the whole, prototypical series of events. Some recall only a brief out-of-body experience with a view of their own physical body below, followed by a quick return. Others get only as far as the dark passageway, while others proceed all the way into the light. We do not know the reasons for all these variations. Notably, much of what “common sense” suggests about near-death experiences turns out not to be true.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences

“Nancy Evans Bush, MA, Previous President of IANDS, and Bruce Greyson, MD, recently retired Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, in Chapter Ten skillfully present the little discussed “distressing near-death experiences” (DNDEs). Their review of over 30 years of NDEs literature concludes that DNDEs may occur as often as one in five cases and that both external and internal barriers to reporting them make them under-reported. The DNDE has distressing connotations to the hallmark events of the pleasurable NDE. The context of the DNDE is a “void” with feelings of aloneness, isolation, emptiness, even a sense of annihilation. Lastly, in the DNDE the “heavenly and redemptive” themes of most NDEs are replaced by a “hellish and damnation” experience. Much time and effort is required by these individuals to work through the debilitation and negative residua of the DNDEs. Three mechanisms often employed are “I needed that” in which the individual seeks to make amends in their life and become a better person. Movement to a dogmatic religious group is common. A second methodology is reductionism in which the DNDE is explained away or repudiated as a hallucination or an adverse drug reaction. A third group struggles for years trying to comprehend why the DNDE happened to them and why they cannot shake off its negative aftereffects. They often commit to long-term psychotherapy which is usually ineffective. Neither NDEs nor DNDEs are pre-conditioned by the conduct of an individual’s life—a saintly person may still have a DNDE while felons and misanthropes may experience pleasant, redemption-giving NDEs.”
― John C. Hagan III, The Science of Near-Death Experiences