Today in class we were discussing why individuals enjoy the feeling that accompanies near-death experiences. After all, many people are drawn to sky-diving or bungee-jumping just to get that thrill, that moment of clarity. Obviously in these situations people are experiencing this feeling without the danger of actually dying. But, what about those who claim that upon drowning or dying temporarily in surgery they had certain visions? I was curious about this and looked up "near-death experience" on Google. It brought me to a site that is run by the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, which is made up of doctors attempting to solve the mysteries of such experiences. In one part of the site individuals could share with others what their near-death experiences were. One person "recalled" stepping into a peaceful place and being greeted by a person in white when having almost drowned at age two. Another, when temporarily going unconscious from an illness, recalls being suddenly on a sunny beach, and having a woman with a child wave him to go back from where he came. Yet another person remembers while having almost drowned as a teenager, floating upwards above their body and feeling a force pull them into a light before meeting their deceased grandmother who bid them to go back.
So, it is clear that many of these experiences have common themes. Often, people remember going to an extremely peaceful place and not wanting to leave. Then, usually some individual bids them to go back because it is "not their time." This is all so fascinating, and I wonder whether people are just hallucinating due to oxygen and blood flow being restricted to their brains, or if they really did experience these things. Obviously there are many unexplained things in this world, and just like religion, people's near-death experiences probably will never be proved to be true. As I have mentioned before in my discussions on religion though, stories do come from somewhere. They may be exaggerated over time, but they most likely have at least a slightest bit of truth to them. Is the same true of near-death experiences? Do they really happen or is a person just imagining it? The way I consider things, out of all the things scientists have been able to replicate in a robot or clone, they have not been able to recreate the human soul. I am not saying that all supernatural phenomena necessarily exists, but there definitely are things that humans are not able to understand. If it cannot be understood how a human gets a soul, it would therefore be logical to conclude that a soul could still exist outside of the body after the person is deceased. Unfortunately, none of us will find this out until we meet our own end. Have you or someone you know ever had a near-death experience? Did it change you/them?
This is the website I was referring to. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see people's accounts of their own near-death experiences.
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