ROBERT J.R. GRAHAM: Near Death Experiences Increase with Better Medical Technology

By Chris Capps

Most people at some point in their lives wonder about the soul’s destiny after death. Indeed after thousands of philosophical lectures, schools, and some of the greatest minds in the world the final destination of mankind does seem to still be a big mystery. So when people go to the edge of death and come back talking about what they saw it’s always a point of great interest. And with better technology in resuscitation and other medical advances it seems like the number who have seen the afterlife is increasing as well.

Accounts of near death experiences are perhaps most perplexing when they mirror one another with what appears to be perfect ease. A patient is near death and they finally cross over. Their heart rate drops and they flatline. Soon they find themselves leaving their bodies and hovering over themselves looking down at the commotion surrounding them as doctors attempt to bring them back to life. A light appears nearby and they either walk or float into it. Shortly after that they find themselves wrapped up in positive feelings and an unexplainable warmth. At this point they may see someone who has already crossed over into the other world who tells them it’s not their time yet. And then shortly afterward they travel back into their bodies and are once again alive. Was it a paranormal experience? Or were they simply reliving some strange artifact of the brain?

Skeptics have always said these near death experiences are overwhelmingly unreliable. They suggest the brain undergoes an intense transformation after death that can result in experiences very similar to hallucinations. Rather than simply looking at death as an objective thing that happens in an instant some have even suggested that the act of all the brain cells in the brain dying may take a subjective eternity as the synapses within fire off at rates far quicker than at any other time in life. Time would essentially have no meaning. And others say it’s just folklore.

But there are accounts that suggest there’s quite a bit more to the phenomenon. As those who have been near death often relate, there is something more to it – something far more intense that one must experience to be able to describe that goes beyond any conventional explanation that can be applied to it. And then there are accounts of people being able to recall information from these experiences far beyond what they would ordinarily be able to recall. Some have even said the events that transpire have brought them information about their already deceased relatives that would have otherwise been lost forever.

But even as the number of actual near death experiences reported increases far beyond what it was at any point in history, there will continue to be a split between the believers and those who say there’s nothing to it.

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