Explanations of Near Death Experiences

There will always be elements of near death experiences (NDE's) that are difficult to explain scientifically. This is partly because researchers are entirely dependent on the reports people provide of their individual experience, which means the data is received second-hand and there is no way of verifying that the report given is accurate. Some researchers have tried to address this by artificially simulating NDEs in laboratories, using drugs. Even here though, the researchers are still not able to directly experience the NDE for the participant. However, by using a mixture of different methods which explore real-life experiences as well as laboratory-induced ones, it becomes possible to triangulate these findings in order to increase our understanding. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that research will give us a full understanding of NDEs and, even if it did, it is unlikely that everyone would accept these insights; whatever causes NDEs, the effect of having one seems to be highly profound, meaning people are likely to formulate their own explanations of what they experienced in order to draw meaning from their own vivid experience. (With thanks to our sponsor 'Curriculum Press' for providing content for this podcast)