The eternal human obsession with death explains our intense interest in the experiences that come as close to it as possible. I also think it's obvious that, even if death "feels like" something, these experiences are probably nothing like it. There's a huge difference between rotting in the ground and having your heart stop for a minute.<p>One of my relatives had a near-death experience quite a long time ago. While he was unconscious, he says he met Jesus, who offered him the choice to rise to Heaven then and there, or stay behind with his children. He chose the latter and (somewhat miraculously, actually) recovered and is still alive today. It probably goes without saying that he's a devout Christian. Now, I don't believe he actually met Jesus, but I do believe that's what he experienced. It's interesting, and somewhat comforting, that the brain can have these intensely emotional and personally meaningful experiences in the moments before death. Maybe his "choice" even had some bearing on his recovery.
"(And given the centrality of Christianity in all this, where are the return reports from hell?)"<p>Well, that's easy; five seconds with Google with the obvious search will answer that question. (Intended as a comment on how deep the article actually grapples with the problem, not as endorsement of anything that search may pull up.)
The strangest NDE I've heard of was a woman in Seattle who had been totally blind from birth. During her NDE she could see, but she had no concept of how to "see". She reported that it took her awhile to understand what she was seeing, how to understand and distinguish colors, that that blob was a person and she now knew what people looked like, etc. After her NDE she was still totally blind (of course) but was able to describe things that only a sighted person could know. Freaky.
I remember hearing about a study where they placed placards on top of cabinets and such in the operating room. When a person said they had a near-death experience during surgery and saw themselves from above, the experimenters asked them what the letter was on the placard. Not surprisingly patients didn't know.
I once ate 10 mg LSD by accident. It was a dilution error. The peak lasted ~10 hr. At some point, I saw the top of my head. But hey, maybe it was just an hallucination ;)
I have unfortunately experienced actual "almost died" and experienced none of this. I wonder if it's due to my lack of religious training?
It's worth pointing out that the notion of "near death experiences" is not Biblical.<p>These are modern, Western fantasies superimposed on Christianity.
1) Hacker News?<p>2) You can reliably induce near death experiences with high g-forces and drugs, for instance the experiences commonly happen to fighter pilots during training when they are subjected to high g forces in training.<p>The reason for the white light and tunnel and floating above your body, is that's how the brain shuts down due to loss of blood. We know this now. No need to speculate. "Hell" is a less common motif, because that's a less common brain state under those circumstances.<p>Next mystery, please.