Many believe that the most likely explanations for NDEs are dreams or wishful thinking. Some critics further argue that the powerful physical, mental and emotional responses of a person close to death are likely to colour their perceptions, thoughts and feelings making accounts of NDEs highly unreliable.
There are a number of characteristics of NDEs that make explanations of this kind most unlikely.a) The core events described, and their sequence, are largely independent of the person‘s age, sex, race, culture or religious beliefs. This would not be expected if NDEs were the product of dreams or wishful thinking. (Ring)
b) Most dreams are superficial, rarely making a deep impression whereas most NDEs are so overwhelming that they affect the individual‘s whole life, changing their behaviour and mode of living. Those who experience an NDE often lose all fear of death and may consider it to be the peak experience of their life. (Moody, Ring).
c) Individuals reporting NDEs describe their state of mind as clear and lucid leaving no doubt whatsoever about the reality of their experience. (Ring, Sabom)
d) Children under ten years of age consistently report the same classic NDE content as older children and adults. This is very significant since it is known that children under ten have very little understanding of death. In addition they don‘t have the conceptual skills to imagine or hallucinate to the level of detail found in such cases. (Rogo, Moody)
Another possible explanation for the NDE is hallucination caused by administered drugs, natural endorfins released by a traumatised body, or low oxygen levels in the brain.
This hypothesis however does not satisfactorily account for the following.a) In many cases NDEs occurred before drugs (if any) were administered and with sufficient oxygen levels in the brain.(Grey)
b) The content and structure of drug-induced hallucinations are highly variable and idiosyncratic in stark contrast to the remarkable degree of consistency found in NDEs. (Sabom, Rogo)
c) A high percentage of NDEs contain detailed descriptions of events that the person observed while unconscious - and sometimes even clinically dead.
NDEs experienced in a hospital operating theatre have included descriptions of operating procedure, descriptions of surgeons or nurses who were only present for the operation, or descriptions of places visited in the hospital while in the out-of-body state. In these cases specific details not obtainable by unconscious patients were independently verified. (Sabom)
d) In some NDEs the dying individual describes encountering, and communicating with, very recently deceased relatives that the individual did not know were dead. (Grey, Ring)
e) NDEs are reported by individuals who had flat EEGs indicating no mental activity capable of producing an hallucination. (Moody)
f) NDEs are reported by very young children who do not have the conceptual skills to produce such elaborate hallucinations. (Rogo)
Many psychologists believe that the NDE is merely a form of depersonalization well known to psychology.
While there may be occasional similarities between some episodes of depersonalization and NDEs most researchers agree that the two have little in common. Dr Gabbard and others found that people suffering from depersonalization very rarely experience out-of-body incidents of the kind reported in most NDEs.Dr. Morse compared a control group of patients who were not close to death but very likely to suffer from either drug induced imagery or depersonalization with a group who had been very close to death. He found that no one in the control group had any experiences like NDEs whereas every patient who had been close to death described NDEs. ”They went down tunnels, viewed their bodies from outside of themselves, saw beings of light. All of them had virtually identical experiences.• (Moody)
Some people believe the NDE results from physiological causes triggered as a person approaches final death. The images in NDEs are believed to result from the dying brain trying to construct reality from data obtained through a dying sensory system.
While providing a possible explanation for a sequence of identifiable events, physiological explanations do not account for either, the verifiable content of NDEs, nor for the mental clarity that patients describe.Dr S. Blackmore however, admitted in New Scientist (5 May 1988) that evidence suggesting ”that patients have seen things during near-death experiences that they could not possibly have reconstructed• presents ”a big challenge• to the physiological explanation.
According to Dr. Morse, who was originally sceptical of NDEs:
”After looking at all the other explanations for near-death experiences, I think that the simplest explanation is that NDEs are actually glimpses into the world beyond. I‘ve read all the convoluted psychological and physiological explanations for NDEs and none of them seem very satisfying.(Moody)
Some scholars believe that NDEs originate as archetypal symbols deep in the subconscious mind. The death archetype, it is argued, resides in humanities collective unconscious and is essentially the same for men and women across all cultures.
There are however some problems with this hypothesis. It does not explain why people see their own body instead of an archetypal body. Nor does it explain the fact that NDE content that can be independently validated. It also fails to account for the lucidity of NDEs.
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