Is the Near Death Experience evidence of life after death? If we look only at the cases that happen during clinical death just the fact in itself that people with no breathing, no heartbeat an no pulse come back from death and tell the same story is pretty extraordinary. But also the scientific evidence in support of near death experiences is in fact pretty strong.
We
can predict scientifically that about 20 percent of people with cardiac arrest
who are successfully resuscitated will have a near death experience. When someone has cardiac arrest it means that the heat has stopped beating and once the heart stops beating the blood flow to the brain also stops, and within 10 - 20 seconds the brain activity that supports consciousness shuts down.
The fact that near death experiences are reported during a state where the brain is
completely inactive strongly suggests that these experiences are neither
hallucinations nor any other kind of explanation that involves brain activity,
because during flat EEG - no brain activity - clear conscious and coherent experience should not be possible. Our present scientific paradigm is therefore left with a very challenging paradox and to date on skeptical theory can explain all the elements of the near death experience (NDE).
Between
80 - 90 percent of people who have a near death experience are convinced there
is life after death and the most compelling evidence is the depth and sincerity
of their testimonies. Most people who have NDEs do not see themselves as being
near to death but actually in death, and because of the power of the
experience, there is seldom any doubt of its reality.
The other side or realm is convincing beyond any doubt due to the sheer power of experiencing it and most NDErs call the experience ‘hyper-real;’ more real than anything in this dimension. One study found that 96 percent of NDErs said that the experience was not a dream but real unlike anything they had ever experienced in this world.
Another fact that strongly suggests that the NDE is not a dream or illusion is
that the experience has a very powerful positive life changing effect. Studies
continuously find that most people who have NDEs report that their life has
been affected in a profound way. Since both dreams and hallucinations do not
have this same effect on people, the life-changing effect of the NDE is strong
evidence that the NDE is very real to the experiencer and not something that we
can simply disregard.
