News, Opinions - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 13:52 - 1 Comment

Faulty sleep switch may cause near-death experience

Death is an undiscovered country, Shakespeare said, from whose bourne no traveller ever returns. What about the doughty travellers who go near death but do not die? They may have what’s popularly called a near-death-experience (NDE).

Usually brought on by a life-threatening episode such as a car accident or a heart attack, the NDE includes euphoric feelings of extraordinary peace and calmness, a sense of being lifted out of your body and seeing an intense light at the end a tunnel of darkness.

This does not gel well with the extremely awful view of death and dying that people have. For some, NDEs validate the existence of the paranormal — of a peaceful continuum rather than a wrenching termination. For others, NDEs are the ultimate anodyne, meant to buffer your brain from the bodily trauma of extinction.

Since life seems to have programmed us so elaborately for the drama of birth and development, they argue, NDEs could well be life’s way of providing for the final exit in a graceful manner. But it does not answer why only 20% of the heart attack survivors recall some elements of the NDE.

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