h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Although scientists have done a number of studies in this area they have come to no definate conclusion about this subject.Some have recreated some of the components of an NDE under laboratory conditions but they have failed to produce the biggest element of an NDE.The permanent life changes it Produces in the genuine experience.They have never been able to totally recreate this widely reported phenomenon.

Why?

If it is just something to do with the brain then they should be able to do this and in doing so be able to change extreme behavior of some of the elements in society bringing about mass benefit for the population as a whole.

What are your opinions on this subject?
Both sides are welcome to debate this topic but as always please keep it civil.
Thank you

I am not very familiar with this subject at all, but from what I have heard...

People who undergo NDEs tend to see whichever religious symbols that fits their belief system. This alone calls into question the belief that your soul is leaving the body and on its way to heaven/hell. If it really was, then how come people who do not accept Jesus as their savior see another symbol instead, as oppossed to simply finding their way into Hell? Jesus is the only way into Heaven, according to Christians, after all.

Every experience fits into a certain pattern, regardless of religion: bright light, tunnel: that sort of thing.

I've heard either a scientist or doctor say it was simply the physical process of the brain dying.

As far as the scientific community's failure to produce the "life changing" experience that NDE produces in a lab, my explanation is simple. The experience does not change the subject's life, because the subject knows that he is in a lab and, therefore, has no cause to belief that his soul left his body. Outside a lab, the experience is profound and unscripted, so the individual believes that he really saw God/Jesus/Auntie/Buddha/etc.

Also note that in a controlled environment with human test subjects, going "all the way" and causing brain trauma is undesirable... so I would accept "close enough" in this case.

Again, this is not a topic which I have researched, but I imagine www.skepdic.com has an entry, so go check it out if you want to read arguments from somebody who actually researched the topic. I'll go do that now, actually.

In any case, isn't the ability of the scientific community to replicate the experience even a little bit a serious cause to reconsider the belief that your "soul" has gone for a stroll?

I think that I might have heard a story, though, somewhere about somebody describing what the doctor was doing while they were having their NDE.