Near-death experiences not glimpse of the afterlife

• time for revising some out-dated apologetic arguments? at least be cautious when using it...
• still something for further research. even though we can explain "the visions of tunnels and bright lights," what about those common experiences like seeing a man and hearing some words or seeing some actions from him? How is that formulated by our brain? If that's really common for people from different parts of the world, from different religions etc, could that be something engendered in the human being? a code left by the Creator?  
• if noradrenaline is identified as the main cause, can we extract them and repeat these experiences for a normal person? 
• thus to me, the relationship of these near-death experiences to the possible reality of afterlife is still to be studied. but this should be a welcoming first step if we hold a "faith seeking understanding" approach. 

source

Why near-death events are tricks of mind

Near-death experiences are not paranormal but triggered by a change in normal brain function, according to researchers.

Psychologists who reviewed a range of phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, visions of tunnels of light or encounters with dead relatives, say they are tricks of the mind rather than a glimpse of the afterlife.

Reactions in the brain

Researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge say that most of the experiences can be explained by a reaction in the brain prompted by a traumatic and sometimes harmless event.
The researchers say that many common near-death experiences could be caused by the brain’s attempt to make sense of unusual sensations and perceptions occurring during a traumatic event.

Multi-sensory processes

Out-of-body experiences, for example, may happen when there is a breakdown in the brain’s multi-sensory processes, and visions of tunnels and bright lights could stem from a breakdown in the brain’s visual system caused by oxygen deprivation.
The new study also points to the effects of noradrenaline, a hormone released by the mid-brain which, when triggered, may evoke positive emotions, hallucinations and other features of the near-death experience.

Biological links

Approximately three per cent of the US population say they have had a near-death experience, according to a Gallup poll. Near-death experiences are reported across cultures and can be found in literature dating back to ancient Greece.

Some of the studies we examined show that many of the people experiencing a near-death experience were not actually in danger of dying, although most thought they were. The scientific evidence suggests that all aspects of the near-death experience have a biological basis.

Caroline Watt

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

The research is published in the Journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
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