how do atheists or agnostic explain nde (near death experiences) where people have seen themselves out...?

Question

of their body. Pls don't say its not true b/c there have too many experiences in different areas of the world that have been documented even with Scientists for years. what is your explanation

Justsyd- well? what is YOUR belief?

Justsyd-what are they a matter of then? Pls support your claim.

salient2 and CHIPPY108- Your responses do not explain how their experiences are almost always precisely the same. Tunnel, light, etc...We're not talking different random hallucinations!

New Age Sensitive Witch- Not pushing faith on anyone and people give comments all the time on things they never experienced. If you don't care as stated, why answer.

Elphaba-your comment didn't make sense,where's evidence of this. Not a very intellectual statement. thanks for trying.

spamanham-so what if they don't recognize the symbol? Big deal! That doesn't prove or disprove anything.

Journey- although i don't agree at least your answer makes good sense!! Thank you

DEAZONE-On most NDE accounts the person (when in the hospital, OR or ER) has actually died. Maybe they should call it DE's for most cases.

Elphaba- aww you feel bad b/c you can't support response...boo hoo!

Answer 1

Well, if people claim it happened then it must be true.

Answer 2

For agnostics and atheists who havent been through a death experience - there is no explanation that they should give. Why would they explain an experience that they have never felt or seen before? Ppl have the right regardless of religion or context to believe whether it is or isnt true.

I appreciate and respect anyone that has been through it but pushing ones belief on other ppl is out of the question. It has been documented by scientists - all scientists without religious bias say that as the brain dies a chemical reaction occurs in the brain causing hallucinations. Who knows? I really dont care, in the long run it comes down not to scientific specifications - but down to a persons faith and what they want to believe in.

I have heard of atheists and agnostics who have had this experience and it has changed their life totally. Thats cool, great as a matter of fact. But noone can give the meaning of these experiences scientific or religious wise. It all comes back down to jumping into that faith and embracing it.

Answer 3

The human brain is an amazing thing. I am an agnostic and I don't pretend to know the reality behind an NDE. I have heard many scientists explain that the brain goes into shock and creates hallucinations to shield the mind from the pain of death. However, I won't discount the possibility that something else exists beyond our physical materialization. No one knows, and you know what? It doesn't matter. We're here on this Earth for just a little while and we ought to worry more about life than death.

Answer 4

I don't know. That's why I'm agnostic. NDE's, lucid dreaming, visions, ESP and other unexplained events are why I'm agnostic and not atheist. However I must say that I make a distinction between the "paranormal" (outside of the norm) and the "supernatural" (some divine/spirit being). I don't believe in the supernatural, but I do believe in paranormal occurances. I think that paranormal activities are entirely possible within the human potential, we just haven't discovered enough about them yet. Many of these disciplines are considered psuedo-science at this time. Perhaps these "talents" are part of the next human evolution. I hope so.

Answer 5

I have offered an ethical and low cost experiment to verify NDE's to several NDE promoteres, and thus far, no one seems interested in actually testing this crap.

The experiment rests on the very premise you proposed, that people look down on themselves in NDEs. The experiment involves placing easily recognizable symbols (squares, circles, etc) facing toward the cieling, above the height where doctors and nurses could see them, in ERs and ORs where so many of these things supposedly happen. Once people recover, ask them if they are willing to participate in an NDE experiment, if they say yes, ask them if they had one. If they say yes, ask them if they noticed the symbol facing the ceiling, and what it was.

The control group would consist of those who came form ORs and ERs set up exactly the same way except that there would be no symbol at all.

No-one seems interested in actually carrying out this simple experiment.

Until they do, I am under no obligation to explain anything at all. This stuff is presumed to be crap until they prove it.

Answer 6

People dying hallucinate because the brain is malfunctioning. The hallucinations are consistent with their memories and beliefs.

You see the same type of behaviour in artifical neural networks when you damage them.S.L. Thaler, a physicist at McDonnell Douglas, has been systematically chopping up artificial neural networks. He has found that when between 10% and 60% of the network connections have been severed, the program generates primarily nonsense. But, as the 90% (near-death!) level is approached, the network's outout is composed more and more of previously learned information. ie ( hallucinations based on memories and beliefs ). The Hallucinations can be extremely creative.

Answer 7

It's what is known as "The Brain's Last Fling" Your brain dies at a slower rate than the rest of your body, therefore producing all sorts of images, sounds, hallucinations, emotions and sometimes, people are revived before the brain completely dies. Therefore, they "come back" Actually, if you do consider it for a moment, people have died and come back. A chemical called ketamine was proven to cause those "afterlife" visions, but there have been some people who were dead for several minutes and seen nothing. You cannot dismiss this. Where is your proof that Jesus actually rose from the dead, a sworn statement from god?

Answer 8

The brain does funny things especially when deprived of oxygen and/or the body/head has suffered trauma. It is simply neurophenomenon.

People also tend to see what their preconceived notions of what life is like after death. We never hear of a Christian coming from an NDE saying they saw Mohammed or a Muslim saying they say Jesus.

I'd say most of what people say about their NDE is not true. It is human nature to seek attention and it is very easy to exaggerate what they actually saw, not to mention the trauma they had just went through and meds they are on would skew their perception quite a bit in itself.

Answer 9

The mind feels the stresses upon the body and escapes within itself. The body protects the mind by helping it concentrate on surviving. Just like if you were in complete pain, you'd become numb. It's all about survival. Your mind is concentrating on surviving by "being elsewhere".

But it's no use explaining my point of view because all you're going to do is read with your nose in the air thinking, "Stupid Atheists, they're actually trying to explain something I absolutely know is untrue, because I am God, erm, I mean WITH God."

Response: Do you not realize you just did what I predicted you were going to do? I'm done with you.

Answer 10

there is a chemical
ketamine i think
is a hallucinogen released when the brain is deprived of blood and oxygen, creates the sensation of floating as well
also not everyone reports they go to see their relatives or see hellfire
some report more bizare experiences like bubbles
or other bizare ****
also how do you know the nde didnt happen when the person was alive, but unconcious, either before or after they died temporarily
that is how i respond

Answer 11

The scientific explanation is usually that the near-death experience is a hallucination caused by oxygen deprivation and the brain starting to shut down.