Can anyone come up with a scientific answer for people that die and see heaven?

Question

Iv heard storys of people who have died and claimed to see heaven and stuff like that and i believe in god and jesus christ but to those science whiz people what is the explaination for that.

Answer 1

Well, people who have fully and completely died don't tell these stories, because they are gone. For those that come back, we can never even be sure when the "Heaven" they remember was experienced. It may have been a vision they had 30 minutes before they were temporarily dead, or 30 minutes after, that they isolate as occuring during their temporary death later on. From everything we know about how the mind works, being dead does a lot to preclude neural activity, so it is very likely that the light at the end of the tunnel and everything else associated with these events occured when the patient was living.

An even better way to explain it is as a variant on the "mystic" experiences that have been around for thousands of years. Taking psychadelic mushrooms can lead the user to feel like they have died and then come back, to feel that they have experienced heaven, and so on. The same goes for mystics who seek their experience through many other means - various drugs, fasting, whirling, or whatever they choose. All these experiences exist because our brain is functioning in a not-so-ordinary way. If the brain were to stop functioning completely and forever, then say goodbye to the visions of heaven.

Answer 2

When you are dying your brain sets off chemicals to ease your nerves, to help your passing. It is simmilar how if you jump from a plane and your parachutte does not open you do not feel fear. This is because you know you are going to die and there is nothing you can do about it, actually most people are dead before they hit the ground. Even in the bible it states that you cannot see the afterlife until after doomsday. That is because supposedly you go into a long sleep, and there you stay until doomsday where you are then judged. I am not christian so I do not believe that, but that is something for those of you who are christian to know that these people are lying, whether they know it or not.

Answer 3

Here is a great review of scientific explanations for the near death experience.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/near-death-experience3.htm

Quick points:
1. The mechanism behind some of these strange experiences is in the way our brains process sensory information

2. Some have theorized that "neural noise," or an overload of information sent to the brain's visual cortex, creates an image of a bright light that gradually grows larger

3. Your brain interprets faulty information about where the body is in relation to the space around it. The result is the sensation of leaving the body and flying around the room.

4. The peaceful, calm sensation felt during NDEs may be a coping mechanism triggered by increased levels of endorphins produced in the brain during trauma.

5. The experiences of people whose out-of-body adventures allow them to see and hear events that their unconscious body shouldn't be able to perceive are more difficult to explain. However, it is plausible that unconscious people can still register sensory cues and prior knowledge and incorporate them into their NDE.

Answer 4

Pilots experiencing high g-forces have had near-death experiences - travelling outside of their bodies, seeing loved ones, bright lights, heaven, etc. But they were in no danger of dying. Apparently, that's what your brain does when it's freaking out due to high stress to your body. It goes to a happy place to calm you down so you don't do any (more) damage to your body. We've known this for a long time.

Answer 5

http://www.csicop.org/si/2004-05/near-death-experience.html

This article covers it rather well from a scientific standpoint that, "Stories of darkness, tunnels, and bright light told by those who report near-death experiences actually have a basis in the structure and functioning of the eyes, the brain, and other sense organs that operate during these experiences."

For example, here's two quotes from the article -

Pupil widening is indeed a likely reason she saw a "lovely brightness."

...both tunnel and darkness experiences could be caused by oxygen starvation.

Answer 6

There are numerous reports of light being "seen" as part of near-death experiences. It appears that this is simply an artifact of the brain's reaction to extreme stress.

Answer 7

Hallucinations

Answer 8

I've head someone explain the 'light at the end of the tunnel' as what happens as your optic nerve ceases activity.

Interesting.

Answer 9

The human mind is an incredible thing. Have you never had a dream that was so realistic that you were convinced it actually happened?

Answer 10

I think that it is a chemical reaction in the brain that triggers the senses. that is why you hear of people seeing lights etc.