If you believe there is no soul, how do you explain the similarities of thousands of near death experiences?

Question

these happen with believers and non believers, all you have to do is search "near death experiences" on the web to read thousands of examples. How can you explain this?

The simularities I am speaking of are...
the feelings of new knowledge of the way things work, a sense of peace and being overwhelmed by love and comfort more than they have ever known. These are not orintated to a perticular religion or country.

24years ofnaturalp....what ever that means. the logic I use is simple if in fact there is something after death then I refer to our condition then as a soul for lack of any other words to decribe existing without a body.
and don't worry about this spiritual being making you look bad your handling that on your own. the only stupid question are those not asked.

the confirmed athiest...No I am not sadly mistaken, all over the world people give the same acounts of sudden understanding, of peace, and being embraced by a feeling of love and comfort.
also I never mentioned religion, it was a universal statement .
pehaps you should change pictures if you want to be taken serious.

It amazes me how many of you take on faith unfounded explanations from so called scientist, who for the most part are nameless, that have no proof only any opinion that supports anti religion. when in fact scientific studies are taking place now that supports an out of body experence, like puting signs near ceilings in hospital rooms which can only be read by someone floating near them.and if you read about these experences a lot of them happened to doctors,read what they have to say before excepting hearsay or maybes from others.

Keltasia.....there is no question our brain goes through the same process prior or during death, for we are all human flesh, the same and must travel the same road. however seeing activety in the brain and calling it anything, is like seeing electrical impulses travel through a phone wire and guessing what the conversation might be.
until there is proof, why should you not believe, respectible people who sware by their experiences, or at least believe it as a possibility. there is no proof these people are mistaken, only confusion by people who want to prove them wrong.

also....the alien thing, I've never been obducted or seen an alien to my knowledge, but can't prove they don't exist nor that some haven't been obducted. but that doesn't mean it's not true.

Answer 1

cuz all memories start heading back to God when the heart stops

Answer 2

Dont you mean Skeptics? Atheists can beleive in an afterlife too you know. and the tunnel of white light is from the brains natural function of what happens when it shuts down and there is also a natural hallucinigen in our brains. Yet they havent actually linked this to the seeing deceeased loved ones, just the light part so far. There have been scientific tests on this before. I dont think it counts untill theyve seen things they shouldnt know or have been dead for like half an hour at least. A lot of near death experiences happen with people deaf for 2 hours or something sometimes even O_o

Answer 3

There was a documentary on the TV a few weeks ago and some doctors where studying this. They have concluded it is a trick of the brain .
Don't ask me exactly how they came to this conclusion as i didn't see all the program but it had some thing to do with experiences being almost all the same and how many people who claimed they had these experiences where not actual in risk of dieing.

Answer 4

I am not an athiest, but in the name of logic I am answer your question.
your question is no rational reasoning. Things cant be explained does not mean it is casued by the existense of soul in your personal understanding, or what you think belong to most understandings of people. Just like if one or countless of people cant explain the natural wonder and greatness of the world, that does not mean they are created by a certain God in a certain religion.

Know this you cant explain why, does not make the only possibility in your common sense to be the law of the world.

Following you reasoning, one or many can/mighty come up with a conclusion that there is after life. However not thing has to do with soul, beside after life and soul are not necessary equal to each other. There is NO known knowledge stating that after life truly exist and soul is NECESSARY, but there is only believe. Remember belief in you and in me is differnt, there are thousands million freewill out there.

Remember common sense may seem common, but they are not that similar amount populations. Plus personal believe is based on common sense.

I personaly believe in that ghost in the machine theory by Rene Descartes, who was a great Philosophier, mathmatican, Catholic, Scientist and Writer. Dont know that philosophier? Well, the saying "I think therefore I am" is from him. Relatively moive the Matrix series is based on his Philosophy, what was date back to 16th century.

Please try and ask logicaly and humbly, so the rest of spiritual individuals like my-self wont be looking bad becasue of you :) lalala

Answer 5

Everyone of those people who claim a NDE have a brain. The reactions are similar because the brain reacts much the same way for any oxygen deficit episode. NDE are nothing more than the brain going into an hallucinatory state because of severe trauma, blood loss, shock, etc. as a means of protecting itself and the person. There is absolutely no other-worldly connections or anything religious or spiritual about it.

Answer 6

Ms_coktoasten is right. There have been medical studies done that show its part of the brain function. But, I still like the thought of the white tunnel and seeing those who have passed before me. And I do believe we have a soul.

Answer 7

DMT released just before death or near death.

I explain it through science and the similarities of all these experiences from people of all religions or none at all strengthen the scientific argument.

Addition: Just to add to the DMT thing, many people who have taken large doses of exogenous DMT report experiences with aliens. Kind of interesting that these NDEs that are claimed to be religious in nature bear similarity to people claiming to have interacted with aliens.

Answer 8

NDEs result in chemical changes in the brain and subjective experiences related to these changes are quite similar for everyone, in much the same way that chemical changes related to particular drugs are experienced similarly. the meaning attached to the experiences varies quite a lot though - often they are interpreted as compatible with whatever religion the person happens to be.

Answer 9

Sir wayne, I'm sorry to inform you that you are sadly mistaken. NDE's are not universally similar, and vary accordingly with culture. Do you really think that Japanese NDE's are the same as American christians? Please, use multiple sources from multiple areas if you're going to make universal statements. That means looking at more than just the U.S.

Answer 10

There are certain chemicals, naturally produced by the brain, that can induce the same sensations experienced by people who have nearly died.

The rest -- the visions and such -- can easily be explained by normal, garden-variety delusions -- things people have convinced themselves of after the fact. Never underestimate human beings' capacity for self-deception.

Answer 11

There are no similarities between near-death experiences amongst people from different religions. Hindus have different experiences than do Christians.

It's a type of hypnogogia or hypnopompia... basically a lucid dream.