If you're an atheist, how can you explain out of body experiences?

Question

How can you explain how SO MANY people have claimed to have left their body and seen dead relatives?

And what about ghost sightings? If you randomly ask people on Yahoo! answers if they've ever seen a ghost, at least a few will say yes.

Answer 1

It's easy to explain. Out of body experiences don't occur. People who claim to have experienced them are refering to a dream or delusional activity. And there are no such things as ghosts. People who claim to have seen a ghost are experiencing the results of a vivid imagination, perhaps mixed with anxiety or fear. And that's a shame, because I so love a good ghost story.

M

Answer 2

1st, I will address the ghost. I personally don't think people have seen ghost, but if there are ghost that doesn't mean there is a god, it means that people go on, but not that there is necessarily a god. In fact, I think ghost is against god. What, he's letting these poor people be miserable on earth, nice guy that god.

2nd, the out of body experiences. There is much scientific evidence to support this. One-when you are dying or the body is under extreme duress, such as looseing a lot of blood, the body kind of goes haywire. People who are dying are not the only people to have had these experiences. Astrounauts who have been put into machines that make them pass out because of a lack of blood to the brain have reported the exact same thing and they had just passes out.
Also, when the mind is dying it looses light sensory from the out side in, which in essence creates a tunnel. Hmmm, does that sound familiar.
Lastly, there have been experiments done where a woman placed one of those signes that constanly show pharses by using lights in a doctors office way up on a shelf, so that if anybody were to be floating in air they could see it. Not one person who has had an out of body experience who claims to have seen what was happening to them has also reported seeing this sign.
Finally, I feel if my brain is dying, it is not going to see people I don't know, but hmmm, maybe familiar people I do know. The brain is getting a lot of input from the outside while it is going haywire during these times and it all blends together for what seems like a heavenly expereince. It's not.

Answer 3

Your question shows some good thinking...I only hope my answer does also....
The persons who allege that they have had an out of body experience.(OoBE) are nearly all who have been in a severe medical condition at the time ie after an major operation or like after an auto accident with a long period of being in a coma. The subcounscious part of the psyche realizes that the body is going through a near death trauma. The brain then goes into a visualization process where all the stories of OoBEs that the person has heard or the ideas of what will occur at death that the person has thought of in the past..even back to childhood..are imaged in the brain. The person wakes with those images in memory even stronger than the normal dream or nightmare. Reports of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or seeing relatives long dead is the accepted norm and is a standard part of the illusion. This is not to say that the person did not have what he or she truly believed to be an OoBE.

Answer 4

Hallucinations. The chemicals in the brain as it shuts down could send false perceptions to the mind. Same thing with the white light people claim to see shortly before death. As a person who suffers from multiple sclerosis, my nerves often perceive things that do not reflect reality. As an example, sometimes I will have the perception that my foot is on fire, and the feeling is very intense. But in reality absolutely nothing hot is anywhere near my foot. I also have feeling of "unreality'. very similar to out of body feelings. I also have perceptions that a bug is crawling on me. I'll look and nothing is there.They are entirely induced by the fact that the sheath on my nerves (called mylin) is being broken down by my disease. The mind can be easily deceived by many medical conditions.

Answer 5

A certain percentage of the human race is nuts. It's a fact of life. As such, we will have UFO, ghost, and out of body sightings.

If you believe every nutjob trying to sell you a cock and bull story, you'd wind up in a religion.

Answer 6

There's no such thing as a ghost. Everyone who says they have seen one is either lying or was hallucinating.

Pilots in test flights have reported near-death experiences under high g forces - bright lights, relatives, out of body experiences - but they were no where near dying. It's just your brain freaking out.

Answer 7

Out of body experiences .... LOL.....usually while they are in some type of semi-conscious or unconsciuos state. These experiences are only the workings of the subconscious mind, much the same as dreams. Or do you also put actual events to dreams also? These out of body experiences have been study in great detail and there has been no evidence to support any of the wild claims.

Answer 8

Atheism means we don't believe in a god. It never said anything about anything else.

I believe in the soul. I've had an o.b.e before. I practice astral projection.

As for ghosts, when a person dies, their brain emits a shockwave of brainwaves. These brain waves, when they reach something they can't pass through, will be reflected off of the surface. Could a ghost not be the images produced by these reflecting brainwaves?

Answer 9

You're dreaming. People mistake waves for the Loch Ness monster and you think eye witness accounts are credible enough to prove the existence of ghosts?

Answer 10

Actually the same way as non atheists do. Religion does not allow for out of body experiences.