Near death experiences

No, only in the sense of illness, hallucination, medication

Evidence suggests they do.
I feel comforted by the fact that people who have been close to death have had such a positive experience.
Who knows for sure?

I have had near death experiences from anaphylactic shocks needing resuscitation. Sadly I have never had any visions of another existence or loved ones who have passed on. But have had calmness and peace when brought back, don't know what that is about but strangely comforting .

Yes because I had one in 1979.

My mum and I moved into a tiny flat as she'd left her 2nd husband. Unbeknown to us the flue to the gas fire was blocked and carbon monoxide was coming into the flat.

We were both feeling unwell, sick and headaches. My mum took our small dog out for a walk so got out into the fresh air. When she got back, I went into the kitchen to wash up and fainted.

I remember hearing her voice but it seemed a long way away. I could see myself and her as if I was looking down on us from above. The only way I can describe what happened next is to say it was like a film camera being pulled backwards from the room it was filming in at great speed.

I felt as if I was floating but could still hear my mum telling me to wake up. I felt really peaceful and then was surrounded by the brightest white light I have ever seen.

My mum told me afterwards that she'd gone outside to try and get help but because she'd been affected, was staggering and it took a time for a car to stop, probably because they thought she was drunk.

I heard a voice say my name and tell me to go back because it wasn't my time but I wanted to stay there, where ever it was because I felt surrounded by love and a peace that I'd never experienced before, and have never felt since.

The next thing I remember was coming round in hospital early the next morning.

The doctors told my mum and Mr. S. (we were engaged at that time) that I was lucky to be alive as my entire central nervous system had been badly affected.

Despite what some say, that it's due to hallucinations and the brain not working properly due to medication or in my case, the affects of carbon monoxide, it was real.

I have had one, too. After an operation I was sure I was ready to get up. I stood up and must have fainted. I saw the bright light others have mentioned and had the feeling of tranquility and warmth.

When I came to, my sister in law (who was in the next bed to me following a mastectomy) was laughing her head off. Apparently, whilst my head had been on cloud 9, my limbs had been fighting and flailing furiously and the nurse had had to call for help to hold me down.

Oh wow ..... I do like to read such things, because it brings me comfort to think, that when we die, there is the hereafter. Why were we humans created different from animals? There must be a reason.

Years ago I had severe sudden back pain. Tried to get out of bed, fell back. DH said my eyes rolled back and looked quite different to a faint.
Meanwhile I was hurtling down a tunnel towards a light. I suddenly stopped and clearly heard “wrong direction” and then I hurtled back-to find DH telling me to BREATHE!
I can only say what I experienced.
I am (and was) a committed Christian so death holds no fear for me-although not so keen on the dying part having watched some loved ones really suffer.

A few years ago my brother fell down stairs and seriously damaged his head. He was rushed to hospital and operated on immediately.

In the early hours of the morning he woke up in his small hospital room, and the shape of a man was sitting on the chair by his bed. He was in shadow and brother couldn't see him well. Nothing was said, but the stranger, according to my brother, gave out a glow of love, calm and compassion.

On leaving the hospital some weeks later my brother asked staff if they knew who the man could have been and no one had any idea. My brother, who was a total disbeliever believes it was an angel who had come to help him through the night he almost died.

Having read Prof. Ian Stevenson's work on life after life (so to speak) I am a firm believer that there is something: whether we go on to another life, some of us just cease, or do the religious go to a heaven? I have no way of knowing.

But Stevenson's 47 years of meticulous scientific research convinced me we don't just stop.
And if we did, what a waste.

I experienced that sensation of looking down on myself following three sessions of surgery, one after the other in a period of five days, which actually saved my life. My body was in the hospital bed and I was above it. I remember there was a bright light and I was totally calm. I 'heard' the voice of a colleague, who I clearly recognised at the time, calling me back and saying something like, 'it's not time' or 'not this time'. I never told him about that.

I experienced horrible hallucinations caused by morphine and can still 'see' the images from that experience, but the out of body sensation was one of total peace and calm, which I found very reassuring at the time and still do.

I watched so many near death experiences on Youtube (more people from all walks of life have them than I first realised) that the proof so many of them offer has fully convinced me that life doesn't end when we 'die'.

NDEs exist. Hallucinations exist.

I think what you seek is an explanation for NDEs.

Most people nowadays look to neuroscience to explain subjective effects such as NDEs and hallucinations.

True, life after death may be subjective and still exist for a subject of experience . If I believed that I'd have to also believe a soul or a mind can live apart from its accustomed body.

Ginny, I experienced an event of peace and calm which has done me lasting good as a remembered experience, even although I know it was caused by a flood of dopamine in my brain. Your experiences were true for you as mine was true for me.

BTW I'd be surprised if morphine was the sole cause of your unpleasant hallucinations.

Here is an account of an NDE where no illness or medication was involved - a friend who was trapped in his house during a sudden flood from a nearby river (it came unexpectedly during the night time), had managed to scramble and cling to furniture and keep his head above the rising water, but was trapped inside a room.

He said that as he accepted that he was going to die a feeling of the utmost peace and serenity enveloped him and he felt completely calm and at surrounded by what he called "perfect love".

He was rescued when emergency services broke a window in the room and reached him. He does not consider it to have been a hallucination.

My MIL had one many years ago. She was very ill with pancreatitis and 'died' on the operating table. She said she was looking down on herself as they worked on her but also saw her sister and husband outside the theatre both crying. She also saw the bright light and felt very peaceful and wanted to tell them she was alright. She was then pulled back into her body. I like to think when she finally did pass away 40 years later she felt the same peace.