Question about the whole NDE concept and Dr. Jeffrey Long

[Violeta-1998]

Welcome Violeta! Have you done an intro thread yet?

The fact that they are similar regardless of culture (if indeed they are and the claim is reliable) is most easily  and obviously explained by the fact that we are all the same species with roughly the same physiology  I don't understand why it should be surprising that we experience similar phenomena  in similar conditions.

I am willing to bet that Mr. Long has not convincingly debunked that NDEs are hallucinations in the widest sense. Can you give a short summary of his argument concerning this point so we have something to discuss?
That "hallucinations cannot feel that real" is just an arbitrary assertion. When the brain is under extreme conditions, all kinds of things can happen that you don't know in normal day to day life. The NDE is very different from a normal hallucination too in that the experience is likely not in real time but constructed after the fact, only seemingly spanning the period of time when the brain was down, because its internal clock assigning a relative time to experiences is not working properly.

Thank you for your answer! Unfortunately I don't have the book with me right now. I read it about 2 years ago. Also, it is interesting that you mention that the "experience is likely not in real time but constructed after the fact". I do remember that Long's book does nothing to challenge that. There are many possible gaps that pro NDE people try to fill- the fact that the current "natural" explanations we have for NDEs are false. There are two big "gaps" that these people never seem to address. Firstly, the idea that Near-Death is not actual death. Secondly, the fact that these experiences could theoretically be taking place either before or after the stage of clinical death or when the brain is functioning at its lowest level. I wish I knew the exact methods used for taking these NDE experiences.

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Welcome to the forum

I remember reading there is a very good explanation for the "bright light" a lot of people see, but I can't remember where I read it.

Your brain hallucinates under extreme conditions. That seems to be the most likely explanation. As Alex said, we're all very similar so similar experiences aren't that surprising. Where details do come in, such as religious stuff, it tends to be the mythology the person has been most exposed to.

There's no need to make statements like, "Nothing else at all is going on here". Science doesn't work like that. Science deals with what we can test. If a coherent, testable hypothesis is formed regarding anything else that might be happening during these experiences, then people will be all over it I'm sure. But just reading anecdotes and coming to conclusions through those is hopelessly unreliable. It's well known the brain is not experiencing just real things already, at this stage.

Science doesn't "know everything", but that's not a license to make stuff up, as woo-style people tend to do. If their methods of finding out what they claim to know are rigorous, then they too are science.

Thank you very much for your answer, and your time. I really appreciate your answer and I agree. Many of these experiences are anecdotes at best. Also, there have been some (not a huge amount) of NDEs recorded where there is a particular religious figure involved. I do know that one man named Howard Storm (atheist who reported seeing hell, then converting to become a Christian minister of some kind) who claimed that he saw Jesus. I have also heard of People in India who practiced Hinduism and saw Yamraj or other deities which depict the Hindu faith. The only reason I thought that Dr. Long might have a point is because he used so many experiences with consistency to make his arguments. However, I agree that it could be biology, as well as some expectation.