Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm curious if anyone here knows someone who had an after death experience. I had an uncle who clinically died because of a reaction to medication during an operation and had all the classic things happen.
The out of body experience, watching the doctors trying to revive him, the tunnel, ending up in a place he couldn't describe because it was so beautiful and being told it wasn't his time yet and that he had to go back. He was depressed for a while after that because he had wanted to stay on the other side so badly.
One thing I was told was that because of his observing them during his out of body experience, he knew where everyone sat in the waiting room and what they wore while he was being operated on. He told them about this after he came out of recovery with 100% accuracy.
Thoughts on this?

Such things should always be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.

After all, the one thing most 'Near Death Experiences' have in common is the person in question being dosed up on various drugs. The 'long white tunnel' should this be whats going on, would most likely be the large lights used to illuminate the treatment area. The feeling of being detached from your body would be the anaesthesia. After all, if you're conscious under full body anaesthetic, it would be a very odd sensation.

Not saying this is the truth, but well worth considering. As for your Uncle being able to describe who was sat where, good guess, or possibly the power of suggestion ala 'mind readers'. Not suggesting malice either btw.

I don't know anyone who's had one, but I think they're entirely possible.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Such things should always be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.

After all, the one thing most 'Near Death Experiences' have in common is the person in question being dosed up on various drugs. The 'long white tunnel' should this be whats going on, would most likely be the large lights used to illuminate the treatment area. The feeling of being detached from your body would be the anaesthesia. After all, if you're conscious under full body anaesthetic, it would be a very odd sensation.

Not saying this is the truth, but well worth considering. As for your Uncle being able to describe who was sat where, good guess, or possibly the power of suggestion ala 'mind readers'. Not suggesting malice either btw.

To be truthful, I'm not sure what to think on this one myself. The power of suggestion could be a possibility, but my uncle was a potatoe farmer and about as basic as you can get. He would have had to have pulled this over on 6 grown people who were not given to believing such things, as well as telling them not only where they sat, but what they were wearing.

The relief of your Uncle pulling through after an important surgery would affect your family. Thus, his description, if even dimly accurate, will soon become peoples recollections.. Not for a second suggesting your Uncle was pulling anyone's leg, just offering up a possible explanation.

I once told the Wife to shut up. That led to an after death experience on my part...

A scientific program once tried to explain that the light at the end of the tunnel was in fact the synapses in the brain breaking down and detaching from one another, many of which are the ones that control the eyes and therefore caused the eyes to think they were seeing light.

The hearing voices was a result the body entering a dream state as it gets starved of oxygen and so on and so on. It was all very scientifically presented but not in a way that it could be taken as proof and was supposedly taking place within two seconds from the actual apparent death before eventually being revived possibly many minutes later.

Just putting it out there.

When I first read this thread's title...I thought "ZOMBIES!"

Then I realized you meant a Near Death Experience, and thought how much cooler After Death Experience sounds.

I've always wondered that, with how commonly described the "light at the end of the tunnel" thing is, might it be a psychological thing by this point?

I mean hell. Everyone knows it's a light at the end of the tunnel.

I wonder how people of different, non Judaic Religions interpret Near Death Experiences?

After all, not all Religions have the same interpretation of 'Heaven'. Buddhists, and several other Eastern Religions, have some form of Reincarnation. Not terribly up on such things, but thought I would flag it up anyways.

The afterlife is my crutch dont you take it away science or I give you a total death experience.

Cereal (serious it is my crutch..)

Frazzled wrote:I once told the Wife to shut up. That led to an after death experience...

Frazzled is indeed wise.

I heard that upon nearing death, the body releases DMT into the brain - this causes massive hallucination. However this is not conclusively proven yet.