Science Almost all near-death experiences have these visions in common — study

[cduggles]

Almost all near-death experiences have these visions in common — study

Not many people have a brush with death and live to tell the tale. But those that have inched close to the void, even briefly, come back with eerily similar tales. To discover why that might be the case, a team of scientists took a dive into the macabre earlier this year.

The team found that, in a sample of 1,034 adults from Norway, Denmark and Germany, 10 percent of people reported having a near-death experience. In turn, they also found that these experiences had several weird commonalities — including dark tunnels with bright lights, spiritual sensations, and conversation with the dead.

The findings were originally presented at the meeting of the European Academy of Neurology in June 2019. In August 2019, they were published in the journal PeerJ.

In the study, the team rated near-death experiences on a scale of one to 10 called the Greyson Near-Death Experiences Scale. This helped them tease apart “true” near-death experiences from other moving psychological moments.




Interestingly, people who reported “true” near-death experiences seemed to find it a pleasant experience, even if it was also extremely intense. Most people (almost 90 percent) reported that time sped up or slowed down, while 65 percent said it felt like their thoughts were coming and going rapidly. More than half of respondents felt like they were having an out-of-body experience.

The participants’ descriptions are particularly telling (and a little scary):

Male, 28: As I was fighting, my life started flashing before me in my head[…] I felt like my soul was being pulled out of my body. I was floating and was [lifted in the air]. After a few moments I felt like I was in an enormous tunnel of darkness, and at its end there was the brightest white light I have ever seen. I remember that my dead relatives were at the gate, including my maternal grandmother.

Female, 57: I was very young when I almost drowned. I saw angels, and they were singing the most beautiful music I have ever heard.

Male, 46: I encountered a truly out-of-body experience where my eyesight and visual became incredibly abstract. For around an hour I had no sense of self or my surroundings.

The research provides a tantalizing window into an experience most people will never have. However, it doesn’t explain why some people have near-death experiences and others don’t. There are a few outstanding theories.

One controversial idea is that the brain naturally produces N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) during those experiences. Like near-death experiences, DMT “breakthroughs”include feelings of separation from the body, or entrance into alternate realms. Scientist have noted these similarities before, but there is no direct evidence linking DMT and near-death experiences.

Meanwhile, the researchers behind this study suggested a different explanation. In the study sample, people who had a sleep condition called REM sleep intrusion were 2.8 times more likely to also have a near-death experience.

Since the study was published, the researchers have also proposed migraine aura as a predictor of near-death experiences. The research is preliminary and hasn’t been peer-reviewed, but the team suggests the findings lend more weight to their theory that REM sleep intrusion and near-death experiences are related.

REM sleep is a period of the sleep cycle marked by vivid and intense dreams — the body also enters a form of paralysis. In people with REM sleep intrusion, those powerful experiences may happen while they’re awake and can result in hallucinations or temporary paralysis. Taken together, the results suggest that there is a connection between REM sleep and near-death experiences worth pursuing.

Almost all near-death experiences have these visions in common — study

Deceased relatives and dark tunnels are just the beginning.

www.inverse.com

 

[Ismene2]

How much faith do you put in peoples reports? I used to read a lot about it untill I eventually realised how many of the people claiming "I saw the tunnel to God" were actually christians trying to push their religion.

 

[Deleted member 521610]

I almost drowned as a teenager and had a NDE saw ghosts of passed on family telling me it wasent my time and this bright light far away. After decade of psychedelic use some states i have been in have been very similar. Whatever is on the other side there is still something consciouness continues on,

 

[KnowsNotWhatItMean]

I remember them all as liars who are going out with such testimonies that being their goal in other words I don't believe it.

 

[cduggles]

How much faith do you put in peoples reports?

Some, but it’s not absolute.
Was it a real experience? Were they hallucinating? Are some of them just lying for some reason?
All of the above and possibly more. It interests me, particularly when people change significantly based on such an experience, which happens.
Plus I think it’s good for an interesting discussion.

 

[tathra]

it's been long suspected that near death experiences result from the brain being flooded with endogenous dmt and 5meodmt, ofc theres going to be a lot of similarities across all people, the same way any dmt and 5meodmt trip is similar across all people

the "white tunnel" effect is something I've personally had happen when "whiting out" from a high dose of 5meodmt

"talking with long lost loved ones" sounds suspiciously like someone talking to machine elves when they didn't know they were tripping and the set/setting made them color and remember the experience a certain way

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I didn't have anything like that any of the times :/
No vision at all.

 

[Lizzy1Fair]

How much faith do you put in peoples reports? I used to read a lot about it untill I eventually realized how many of the people claiming "I saw the tunnel to God" were actually christians trying to push their religion.

there's a forum dedicated to just NDE with people that tell their story and yes, there's things that are common with many of them. People's reports are powerful. The majority of a population that is asked to tell what their experience is, most likely will be honest. Why lie? There might be a few people not being honest, but the larger amt of people will have a truthful account.
Do you have faith, believe in something higher than yourself? If not, then these stories naturally wont sit well with you.

 

[Ganjcat]

I seen an evil death omen when I was a kid floating evil face I have spoken about it on here

 

[Xorkoth]

I have long thought that the process of death must be about far more than DMT release in the brain, though DMT is evidently used as a neurotransmitter or at least is produced as a waste product in the body, as it is found in cerebrospinal fluid in trace amounts. There is a study that is linked to in the NPD forum where some researchers induced cardiac arrest in rats and measured the brain activity and presence of DMT. Interestingl;y, they found that for some of the rats, there actually was a flood of DMT, but for some, there wasn't. I'm cautious to try to say that DMT is responsible for this, especially since people aren't reporting endless fractals and other phenomena that recreational DMT use produces. But it's really interesting.

Related reading: https://www.bluelight.org/xf/thread...d-when-dying-new-study-and-discussion.878938/

 

[Ganjcat]

I have long thought that the process of death must be about far more than DMT release in the brain, though DMT is evidently used as a neurotransmitter or at least is produced as a waste product in the body, as it is found in cerebrospinal fluid in trace amounts. There is a study that is linked to in the NPD forum where some researchers induced cardiac arrest in rats and measured the brain activity and presence of DMT. Interestingl;y, they found that for some of the rats, there actually was a flood of DMT, but for some, there wasn't. I'm cautious to try to say that DMT is responsible for this, especially since people aren't reporting endless fractals and other phenomena that recreational DMT use produces. But it's really interesting.

Related reading: https://www.bluelight.org/xf/thread...d-when-dying-new-study-and-discussion.878938/

The dmt produced on death is pure natural its the real thing just like heroin and such are good but dose for dose cannot compare to a true natural endorphin high that's what I assume anyway

 

[Woodburner]

it's been long suspected that near death experiences result from the brain being flooded with endogenous dmt and 5meodmt, ofc theres going to be a lot of similarities across all people, the same way any dmt and 5meodmt trip is similar across all people

the "white tunnel" effect is something I've personally had happen when "whiting out" from a high dose of 5meodmt

"talking with long lost loved ones" sounds suspiciously like someone talking to machine elves when they didn't know they were tripping and the set/setting made them color and remember the experience a certain way

Why would everyone have even similar experiences? Just look on here and read how very differently any given drug affects people, Ihave yet to read two accounts being anything other than vaguely similar, and those are the ones that are posting because they can relate to the OP.
e.g. lots of people get high on mph, I don't. not at all, it doesn't seem to do ANYthing. On the other hand, I got visions off cannabis, which is apparently rare. So, why should DMT be the same for everyone?

 

[Painful One]

Wow! Interesting!

I have Narcolepsy and I had a Near Death Experience that is WAY, WAY beyond a ten on their scale!

I need to discuss it with my Doctor. I am sure it would blow his mind!

I have already blown his mind that I am still alive after 40 years of Undiagnosed Narcolepsy.
I just got diagnosed on December 5th.
He said to me “How are you still alive? I have never met anyone who has made it this long without killing themselves!”
“You are strong!”

I was just thinking “ yeah, I know. I was just about to sign up for assisted suicide.”

 

[Painful One]

Why would everyone have even similar experiences? Just look on here and read how very differently any given drug affects people, Ihave yet to read two accounts being anything other than vaguely similar, and those are the ones that are posting because they can relate to the OP.
e.g. lots of people get high on mph, I don't. not at all, it doesn't seem to do ANYthing. On the other hand, I got visions off cannabis, which is apparently rare. So, why should DMT be the same for everyone?

Because it shows you The Truth and The Truth is the same for everyone!

 

[Painful One]

Every other Near Death Experience story I have read- I understand exactly how far they went and what they are trying to describe with words.

I went ALL the way HOME and BACK again!

 

[Painful One]

Here is an interesting bit of information for you.
Check this out!

Neuroscientist Dr. Anil Seth has a popular TED talk on YouTube titled, “Your Brain Hallucinates Your Conscious Reality.” In this presentation, Seth gives examples in which humans utilize patterns of recognition to form a perception of reality. He stated, “We don’t just passively perceive the world, we actively generate it. The world we experience comes as much if not more from the inside out as from the outside in.” This recent study produced by the University of Michigan seems to have provided a biochemical basis for Dr. Seth’s notion that the “brain hallucinates conscious reality.”

If reality is indeed a “hallucination,” perhaps the visions reported from near-death experiences are as real as anything else humans perceive during “normal” states of perception. Further research must take place in order to better understand the nature of reality and DMT’s role in it. Dr. Borjigin and her team are leading the charge in terms of exploring the biological correlates of extreme moments of perception. Unfortunately, NIH funding has been scarce for this field of research. It’s unfortunate, as these DMT studies generate compelling data to help provide nothing less than a framework for the underlying truth of reality. If you’re interested in helping her research ventures and providing financial support to these extremely interesting studies, you can do so by donating directly to her lab here.

 

[Painful One]

This is REALLY worth the listen. This is The Truth!

 

[tathra]

Why would everyone have even similar experiences?

the outline is always the same for a given chemical, even if the details of the story turn out vastly different

 

[Woodburner]

Because it shows you The Truth and The Truth is the same for everyone!

Not according to the scientists

 

[Painful One]

Some, but it’s not absolute.
Was it a real experience? Were they hallucinating? Are some of them just lying for some reason?
All of the above and possibly more. It interests me, particularly when people change significantly based on such an experience, which happens.
Plus I think it’s good for an interesting discussion.