NDE - good topic. i offer two comments.
it's always seemed perfectly clear to me that NDEs,
like other mind epiphenomena, are simply electrochemical
processes and reactions. but of course the dualists would
disagree with me. one objection that is often raised to
the 'materialist' explanation of NDEs is the similarities,
across cultures and socio-economic strata, reported by
those who have NDEs. the argument runs, essentially, that
if people of widely different backgrounds report similar
sights, feelings and symbolism within their NDEs, then they
must be 'plugged into' or experiencing something 'outside'
them, something independent of their learned knowledge.
the leap from there is to reincarnation or some other form
of life after death, depending on the one making the assertion.
besides obvious flaws (such as ignoring that a common genetic
origin may be responsible for cross-cultural NDE similarities,
and the possibility that hearing of accounts of the NDEs of
others may influence experience) i recently encountered
another possible explanation which relates to the DMT
research cited above. there have been some pharmacological
studies done on a drug family known as the 'harmala alkaloids'.
apparently this stuff originates in some South American vines
and is used in tribal ceremonies to induce a powerful mystical
hallucinogenic state, featuring colours, shapes, pictures
sounds, and symbols. the experience is reported to be 'cinematic'
in nature. as opposed to less powerful [!] psychoactives
such as LSD and psylocibin, which distort existing objects in
the visual field, harmaline leaves the background unchanged, and
superimposes brightly-coloured hallucinations over top of it
[sounds pretty damn fun to me, but never mind]. i am not making
the claim that NDEs result from a harmala alkaloid; instead, the
relevant point is that the research with this drug produced one
very interesting result: the experiences were found to be cross-
cultural in nature. South American tribal Indians and middle-
class Chileans reported similar experiences, including specific
shapes and symbols such as masks, demons, angels, spirits guides,
etc.
the researchers hypothesized that the drug somehow affects a
part of the brain which activates certain non-culture-specific
types of imagery and experiences. now, where those images
originate (if this theory is even correct) is a whole other
ballgame. i suppose the dualists might try to convince me that
harmaline and NDE induce the same process in the brain, and
that fact doesn't necessarily invalidate their assertions.
but such a theory as that seems, if nothing else, to violate
Occam's Razor. if harmaline and NDE activate the same 'image
centre' in the human brain, why do there necessarily need to be
any other components to the explanation? isn't a purely materialist
(electrochemical) explanation quite sufficent to explain the
phenomenon of NDE?
and now for my second comment, let me dabble in the murky
waters of evolutionary psychology. many NDEs feature a
bright light, full of peace and love, which draws the
near-dead-person towards it. the thing that baffles me is
that one would think that the brain, which is essentially
designed to facilitate the survival and reproduction of itself
and its host, at almost any cost, would be fighting
tooth-and-nail to keep that person alive. calm and soothing
light? fuck that. it should be showing the most terrible,
horrifying, repulsive sights in the mind's eye, coercing the
individual back to life. one would think that an NDE would
discourage death, as an extension of the instinctive fear of
death. but reports seem to indicate it does not. if we accept
the accounts of NDEs as true and accurate, then why is it that
the brain seems to malfunction in those last moments of life?
i invite comments, corrections, enlightenment.
---corey