Near death experience

• Near death experiences (NDEs) can be seen as evidence for dualism, the soul survives after death
• NDEs have been reported from all cultures, since Plato's time
• Book X of the Republic tells the story of Er, a soldier who comes back to life on his funeral pyre after being killed in battle. He described his journey into an afterlife
• NDEs are most commonly reported in hospitals, where the chances of resurrection are much higher
• What people may see

  • Bright lights
  • Feelings of peace and serenity
  • '3 beings of light'
  • Dead relatives
• Neuroscientific studies of NDEs are generally reductive and say they are products of the dying brain
• NDEs have cultural and religious specific interpretations
• The people have not actually died, so it is not evidence for what happens after death
• People have given detailed, sighted experiences despite being blind from birth and having no optic nerve