NDEs are not HALLUCINATIONS:  Outside of the control group of 121, Mel Morse interviewed 37 children that had been treated with mind-altering medication (anesthetic agents, narcotics, Valium, Thorazine, Holdol, Dilantin, antidepressants, mood elevators, and painkillers.  None of the children experienced an NDE or anything close to an NDE.  One child specifically due to the nature of her medical condition, was helped to hallucinate.  Nothing she described resembled an NDE.  Further, she told Morse that she was fully cognizant of being hypnotized.  Closer to the Light, Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children, Melvin Morse M.D., with Paul Perry, Ballantine Books 1991, pg 23-24.

Do you think that hospice patients who see deceased relatives are merely hallucinating on morphine?

My reply is that I have observed people who are hallucinating on medications.  During those hallucinations they can not hold a logical conversation with me.  They are completely lost in their hallucinations.

In contrast, I have interrupted dying people who were conversing with deceased relatives that I could not see.  When interrupted, they could talk with me in a completely rational fashion and make complete sense.  When we completed our conversation, they went back to talking with their deceased relatives, clearly preferring their company to mine at that moment!  Later they are often glad to tell me about the conversations that they were having  with their deceased relatives when I interrupted them.

 In my mind there is a profound difference in the recollections of a person who has been hallucinating and one who has been conversing with deceased relatives.

A special thanks to Dr. Pam Kircher, a hospice doctor and a member of the IANDS board of directors.  

Does a reaction to "ether" chemically simulate a tunnel vision, so commonly seen in NDEs?  

Ether notoriously can cause a spinning feeling which can be nauseating.  This ether experience can be perceived as a tunnel. Usually the ether 'tunnel' experience is different from the tunnel experience of NDEs where there is no 'vertigo' sensation.  Another distinguishing feature is that the NDE tunnel experience almost always is a highly lucid experience with full conscious alertness.  Ether 'tunnels' are just before you go to sleep, and would not be expected to be lucid. 

A special thanks to Dr. Dr. Jeff, a radiation oncology doctor, member of the IANDS board of directors.

What is the difference between the psychiatric problem of seeing double and the out of body experience when the NDEr describes seeing themselves?

The psychiatric syndrome of autoscopy is the characteristic "doppelganger" of literature.  In classical autoscopy, the person's consciousness remains in his or her physical body, and the person sees a "double" of him- or herself, which usually imitates all the actions of the physical body.  Most typically, the autoscopic "double" is hazy, colorless, and transparent, and only includes the face and shoulders, rather than the whole body.  The "double" may move toward or away from the physical body, and the person having the autoscopic vision is usually quite sad.

By contrast, in the NDE, the person's consciousness is not in his or her physical body, but is rather in the "double."  The person sees his or her own physical body from the point of view of the "double," and the physical body is usually motionless, while the person moves about in the double.  The vision of the physical body appears as the whole body, and appears real and lifelike.  Sadness is quite rare in NDEs.

A special thanks to Dr. Bruce Greyson, one of the founding fathers of NDE research.  Bonner-Lowry Professor of Personality Studies, Department of Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia Health System

Are there any medical or emotional explanations for NDE, such as lack of oxygen to the brain or images produced from fear chemicals of a dying brain?

The van Lommel study cited in the Lancet, can be cited for major NDE scientific findings, the largest being that NDEs are not medically explicable. pg. 2039.  Van Lommel proved under rigid methodology that the occurrence of the NDE was not associated with 'duration of cardiac arrest or unconsciousness, medication, or fear of death prior to the cardiac arrest.'  Near Death Experience In Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands, Pim van Lommel, et al, THE LANCET ' Vol 358 ' December 15, 2001.

Given the similarity in physiological make-up of the sample population, one would expect that most of the 344 patients should experience an NDE. pg. 2039  This would take into account the skeptic argument of cerebral anoxia (dying brain cells).  However, that is not the case.  The findings were that 18% of the 344 cardiac arrest patients had an NDE, with 12% of the 18% reporting a 'core experience.' Id.  Therefore, NDE is not correlated with physiological causes of death.  However, the study did find that age might play a factor in the occurrence of NDEs in that younger experiencers were more likely to have an NDE and more likely to have a core experience.  Id. at 2043.  Near Death Experience In Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands, Pim van Lommel, et al, THE LANCET ' Vol 358 ' December 15, 2001.

The same argument pertaining to physiological make-up could be made for those in the sample population who were psychologically afraid of death right before the cardiac arrest.  However, there was no difference between those who were afraid and reported an NDE as opposed to those who were afraid and did not report an NDE.  Id. at 2039.  Therefore, NDE doesn't appear to be caused by emotional make-up such as fear.   Near Death Experience In Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands, Pim van Lommel, et al, THE LANCET ' Vol 358 ' December 15, 2001.

ANOTHER STUDY

The children in Morse's study were also hypoxic, had acid-based balance disturbances, and had high CO2 levels, and every combination you could imagine.  Yet they had nothing like an NDE. Closer to the Light, Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children, Melvin Morse M.D., with Paul Perry, Ballantine Books 1991 Pg 48

Are NDEs caused from sleep deprivation, bad dreams, or the subconscious awareness of surgery?

Morse published 3 articles in the AMA's pediatric journal as a result of his studies.  The scientists and physicians who reviewed his protocol were very complimentary about research design and scientific validity of the results.  Closer to the Light, Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children, Melvin Morse M.D., with Paul Perry, Ballantine Books 1991, Pg 49 .  His findings from his carefully designed research eliminated the theory that NDEs are the result of drugs or sleep deprivation or that they are merely bad dreams or the subconscious awareness of surgery. Id. at pg 46.

"How could a clear consciousness outside one's body be experienced at the moment that brain no longer functions during a period of clinical death with flat EEG?"  

But the truth is that nobody knows when the NDEs reported by these patients occurred.  Was it really during the period of flat EEG or might they have occurred as the patients rapidly entered or gradually recovered from that state? THE LANCET * Vol 358 * December 15, 2001 COMMENTARY p. 2010

This is perhaps one of the more ludicrous skeptical arguments.  All one has to do is to read the experiences on the website.  Notice that many describe the out of body part of the experience.  It is hard to believe that a person can describe events (many times in the operating room) that occur after death.  For instance, we had one experiencer talk of floating down the hall and hearing word for word what the nurses were saying about her death.  We also have several reports of experiencers reporting word for word how relatives reacted to news of their death.  

Are NDEs caused by misfiring neurons in a dying brain?

Although, van Lommel could not find any medically explicable explanation for why NDEs occur, he did acknowledge that the neurological processes had to play a part in the NDE, noting similarities between various other phenomena such as electrical stimulation of the temporal lobe of the brain.  Id. at 2044.  However, he also commented on the fragmented and randomness of the memories derived by these other mechanisms.  Id.  Only the NDE had clear recall in a sequential order as evidenced by the life review.  Near Death Experience In Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands, Pim van Lommel, et al, THE LANCET ' Vol 358 ' December 15, 2001,  2044.

The commentary in the Lancet talks of NDEs being the result of false memories.  Interestingly, if this were true, then this rationale could not explain why the study found that people could recall their NDE exactly over the span of a 2-year and an 8-year period.  Id. at 2041.  a misfiring brain after death could not explain the perfect memory recall and the sequential occurrence of events.