I have been reading about "near death experiences" (that is, the ones that are supposed to give a foretaste of life after death). The issue troubling, because of how inconsistent they are. Supposedly around 80% of the experiences are "positive" and 20% are "distressing".
Of the positive experiences, out of body experiences are common. People frequently see dead relatives, and see a bright light. The light is sometimes interpreted as God, Jesus, or some other being. Some see the light as strictly impersonal. Some people report having detailed interaction with the light. Sometimes these comport with Christian teaching, and sometimes they don't. There may be a "life review." Frequently, people are told it is not their time to die, and then they return to their body.
Then there are others who may see other things, for example, Hindu deities who tell them that they are here by a clerical error; it is really someone else in the next village who is supposed to be die... and so they return. I have read about NDEs that comport with Buddhist teachings.
And then there are the 20% of distressing NDEs... people have reported various stereotypically hellish experiences. Some report being tormented by monstrous beings or even being menaced by geometric shapes. Others experience being abandoned in a void. Here is a particuraly vivid example I read about:
https://dancingpastthedark.com/articles-2/an-experience-of-the-void/ Others experience stereotypical NDE type events (floating out of the body, seeing relatives, but they are terrified by the experience.
There appears to be
zero relationship between the life of a person and what their NDE is like. You have lifers in prison having heavenly NDEs and children with hellish ones. You even have some people with two NDEs at different times, one pleasant, one terrifying. This is the issue I find most inexplicable, if they are supposed to be real experiences.
People respond to these NDEs in different ways. You have atheists become fervent Christians; and Christians decide that religion doesn't mean anything, and all that is important is "love." Most of the ones with pleasant NDEs lose their fear of death. For the unpleasant ones, the effect is quite the opposite. Almost everyone believes that their NDE is very real. The only exceptions I found were some with distressing NDEs who told themselves that the experience must be a hallucinations.
You might say people see what the expect to see, but
sometimes they don't. I read a detailed NDE of a Buddhist monk that supposedly saw Buddha in hell. And then you have Christians (like the woman in the above link) who experience things that don't comport to any Christian teachings. There are some really weird NDEs, like this one by an atheist philosopher:
http://www.philosopher.eu/others-writings/a-j-ayer-what-i-saw-when-i-was-dead/I have met a man who had a heavenly NDE after a car accident; and I know a doctor who had a patient terrified by a hellish one.
Frankly, given the contradictory messages from these NDEs, most reasonable explanations I can come up with is that they are hallucinations. I find it the issue deeply disturbing.
