What Causes Near-Death Experiences?

The light at the end of the tunnel, the peacefulness, your life flashing before your eyes—it's all been documented thoroughly in pop culture. What usually gets left out, though, are the potential scientific explanations for what happens to your brain during a brush with death.

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[powerstation]

What's so strange about some experiences is that some people can describe things about a place or occurrence they have no possibility of being aware of with frightening accuracy. Like being clinically dead but accurately being able to describe the scene in which they were being revived. What people were saying, doing, what they looked like and what their own body looked like before being brought back to consciousness. With such little concrete evidence as to what causes this is what makes these experiences so cryptic and fascinating.

[Master_Therion]

This year for Halloween I'm dressing up as the Grim Reaper. Everyone around me will have a near Death experience.

[francoislacombe]

Everybody dreams, but not everyone remembers it. So, everyone who almost die could be experiencing near death phenomenons, but not everyone would remember it. After all, people who have almost died often remain unconscious for some time afterward, which would allow any memories of their experiences to fade.

[wonderdogbenji]

I have had a near death experience. While receiving a blood transfusion at age 14, I had an allergic reaction to the blood they were giving me. All of a sudden my heart stopped, and that's when i had the experience.
I was awake and sitting in the transfusion chair, and I got up from the seat and turned around 180 degrees to see my body still in the chair and seeing the nurses rush in to revive me. Everything looked like someone turned up the brightness on everything while slowly reducing the definition. I could see the nurse run in with the adrenaline, and then all of a sudden I was back in my body. I was really confused as to where i was when coming to, and the whole out of body experience only lasted several seconds to a minute. Ever since then, I have had almost no dreams, or nightmares, when I sleep.

[elinobenjamin]

Gonna go out on a limb here and guess "almost dying" causes near-death experiences.

[EchadLevShtim]

I died February 2016. My heart stopped and I quit breathing after a blood alcohol .48. i looked back at my body curled up in the hallway while I walked away from myself as if I was discarding it. Went to the exit and the door flashed me into a dark screen. Then some guide said I have to go back to witness something. I didnt seem to care when I woke up in the hospital, but I began changing into a better person and quit drinking a few years ago, as well as other angel works. Like I was reprogrammed to do a mission I wasnt on. I was living an echo and broke free. Where I was broken I was then restored.

[Alverant]

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.”
Terry Pratchett

[madmat]

What causes near death experiences? I know they're often preceded by the phrase "Hold my beer and watch this"

[brookwoodgang]

Death once had a near Chuck Norris experience

[julieowens]

From my understaning of what I've been reading and watching on NDEs, researchers have trouble explaining them because they happen when the person is unconscious and the brain not functioning. Thus hallucinations can't be had and memories can't be made.

[jacobmortimore]

I've had a near death experience and let me tell you, it's almost identical to being on a large dose of ketamine so definitely some dissociation going on there.

[penelopeclaire]

I can't tell if this counts. One time I was at the dentist getting a tooth pulled out and they gave me way too much lidocaine. I overdosed. My lips started to turn blue and I had no pulse. Thankfully my mom started doing cpr. I did have a dream but it wasn't the cliche near death experience. I was just having a pleasant conversation with some girl with a ponytail. I also didn't know who I was. Like I had my same personality, but I couldn't remember my name or what I looked like or even my gender. Idk. People have told me that the girl was an angel but if you ask me, it was just brain activity before my body was about to shut down. It felt like I just fell asleep for a second. My heart did stop but I didn't know I was dying. I didn't come to any religious epiphanies or anything but I did realize that my own death is nothing to fear. I didn't feel terror until I woke up to my mom screaming my name. I'm not afraid of dying anymore. Dead me will be fine. I'm afraid of the stress it would bring on those who love and need me.

[thatweirdkid]

I used to suffer dissociation a lot as a teenager, during which I felt like I had floated up out of my body and was watching myself from above and behind myself. It was really eerie moving my limbs, and even looking in a mirror, because it didn't feel like I was actually in my body, and sometimes it felt like I wasn't even really "me." I would experience this for several minutes whenever it happened.

[Nurpus]

The whole video I was trying to figure out why Hank looks tired and kind of messy.

Then I remembered - he's a dad now.

[starspawn]

It’s *generally* frowned upon to almost kill someone in an FMRI machine.

WHEN IS IT NOT FROWNED UPON?!

[gryphonshire]

My heart stopped twice back in 1996, but great Medical folks restarted it successfully. I was disappointed that I didn't get to have a NDE. Maybe next ;-)

[darkphilosopher]

It is important to note that plenty of blind people including people who have been blind since they were born also float above their bodies and see and describe things that they would have had no way of knowing about. I find near death experiences to be absolutely fascinating and if humans do have some kind of soul, or immortal consciousness, then near death experiences may lay the ground work for scientifically identifying it and beginning to learn what it is and how it forms. Always remember that when dealing with anything that if it exists it can be quantified and if it can be quantified then it can be understood within the laws of science.

[mrtannzr]

Hank's memories are in third person...

[SweetMsAdventure]

Another interesting topic! I'm so happy I subscribed to this channel :) Cheers

[SoulDragonWithFlow]

My near-death experience had no lights or floating bodies. Almost the exact opposite. While in the hospital I had a dream. I felt my body fighting but shutting down. Then, everything went black. I was floating in a void and the darkest black you can imagine. Then, I saw the reaper circling me. Because of the darkness, I didn't see him in the traditional sense but I knew he was there. The figure best resembled the reaper figure from The Three Brothers in Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I said out loud (in my head" "Death, if you are going to take me, just take me."
It later turned out that my breathing tube had fallen out and my oxygen levels had dropped to dangerous levels. The nerses got it back in again but still a stange nightmare, and just one of many nightmares I had while in ICU