WEBVTT - Are Near-Death Experiences Real? 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.120 Hey, Welcome to Science Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. My 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:06.080 name is Hoorge Champ, and today on the program, we're 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:10.600 tackling the question are near death experiences real? A certain 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:14.000 percentage of the population, when they're close to dying, report 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.080 coming out of their bodies. Some feel like they enter 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.400 a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it, 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.040 and some report having vivid conversations with people that are 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.560 already dead. But is it all real? Are they a 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.600 sign that there isn't afterlife or something beyond death? Or 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.600 can it all be explained by science. We're going to 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.919 hear from someone who's been through this experience, a psychiatrist 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.479 that's been tracking this phenomenon for decades, and a neuroscientist 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.600 who's going to tell us what happens to your brain 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.040 during your last moments of life. So don't leave your 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.879 body just yet. Stay with us as we answer the 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:56.880 question are near death experiences real? Welcome to Science Stuff, Hi, everyone. 0:00:57.040 --> 0:00:59.680 So they were tackling the tricky question of whether near 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.000 death experiences are real. And it's tricky because it's a 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.760 topic that is in that kind of gray area between 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.880 science and nonscience. It dits a little bit into the paranormal, 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:15.160 and it's also a deeply subjective personal experience, So we're 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:17.400 going to do our best to keep this as scientific 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.480 as possible. Now, a near death experience is something that 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.360 happens to some people and they've come extremely close to dying. 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.560 Maybe their heart stops during a surgery, or maybe they're 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.840 in a combat situation and they get shot and bleed out, 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.200 or maybe they're involved in an accident or a drug overdose. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.560 But then they're brought back to life, and when they 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.360 come back, the report having seen or felt things that 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.800 are really interesting and unusual. This phenomenon has been studied 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.440 by several people, but most notably by a psychiatrist named 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.360 doctor Bruce Grayson. Doctor Grayson is now a Professor Emeritus 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.040 of psychiatry and neurobehavior at the University of Virginia, and 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.320 he has been collecting and cataloging accounts of near death 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.600 experiences for almost fifty years. Here's how he explains getting 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:04.960 interested in the subject. 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.919 I think as a psychiatrist who makes my living trying 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.440 to help people change their lives. What captured me most 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.480 about new death experiences is that their incredible ability to 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.520 create profound changes in people's lives. It's much more powerful 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:21.840 than anything the tools we have. 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.040 We asked doctor Grayson to be on the show, but unfortunately, 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.280 due to a medical situation, he is unable to do 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:32.919 an interview. But he did give us permission to use 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.440 clips from one of his lectures and to talk about 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.400 his work. And his work is very interesting because in 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.040 his career, doctor Grayson has collected accounts from hundreds of 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.839 people who reported having near death experiences like this one 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.120 he got from a man named Bill Hernlund, a crash 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.240 rescue firefighter in the US Air Force who responded to 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.079 a call about a burning airplane and nearly died when 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.480 the plane exploded. Here's what he said. I was in darkness, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.959 but fully conscious and vividly aware of my surroundings. I 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.280 would say some kind of tunnel that looked like what 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.160 a tornado funnel would be. From the inside. There was 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.760 a light in the distance, and I saw the spiraling 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.679 strings of blue green light coming and going like the 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.480 Aurora borealis. The light was drawing me to it. I 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.600 moved exceptionally fast down the tunnel. It seemed that time 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.320 was different or non existent. There. Wherever there was the 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.359 light was emanating from a being that was giving off 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.120 a very brilliant light as part of his essence. He 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.000 was beautiful to look at and projected the feelings of 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.880 unconditional love and peace. He asked, how do you feel 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.000 about your life? And how did you treat other people? 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.520 As he asked, every single event of my life, from 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:48.200 earliest childhood to the plane crash projected in front of me. 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.080 There were details concerning people and things that I had 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.600 forgotten about long ago. He told me to be in 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.360 peace and said that my work in this world was 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.240 not done yet and that I had to go back. 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:04.000 Pretty wild stuff. So, after collecting hundreds of stories like these, 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:08.040 doctor Grayson found that the stories had several things in common. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:10.000 And here I asked a few of my friends to 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.400 read the accounts because I figured it'd be more interesting 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.680 than just having me read them. Here's what doctor Grayson 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.560 found first. In about half of the near death experiences 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:21.800 that he heard about, the person said that they were 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:26.000 able to think clearer and faster than usual. For example, 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.239 here's how a man named John Whittaker described to doctor 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.760 Grayson what he saw when he almost died during pancreatic 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:34.480 and liver surgery. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:39.040 I was aware of an enhanced state of consciousness in 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.839 which my mind was extremely active and alert to what 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.120 I was experiencing. I was very observant during the state, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:46.880 and my thoughts seemed to go almost twice to the 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:47.599 normal speed. 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.000 So some near death experiencers, even though they're usually in 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:56.880 super stressful situations where they're literally dying, report feeling like 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.160 they could think super fast and super clearly, almost like 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.720 they're removed from the situation. Another thing in common that 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.760 doctor Grayson found in all of these near death experiences 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.320 was that three quarters of the people reported feeling a 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.520 change in their sense of time. For example, here's what 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.840 a man named Rob told doctor Grayson about the time 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.359 that he nearly died when he slipped and fell off 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:20.040 a ladder. 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.920 The actual fall was slowed way down, almost like a 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.120 series of camera steel pictures being taken a sort of 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:34.040 clickficial progression, and then slowing down dramatically increased my thinking time, 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.520 which resulted in me being able to size up how 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.120 I could maneuver the ladder. Not only did the fall 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:43.480 slow way down, but my thinking became very clear. There's 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.440 wonderful slowing down which allowed me to think clearly and 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.000 split seconds was phenomenal. 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.960 So during near death experiences, time slows down for some people, 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.880 like the world goes into slow motion or bullet time 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.160 from the matrix. Doctor Grayson also that in about two 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.640 thirds of the near death experiences he collected, the person 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.400 felt that they had extra vivid senses, meaning that they 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.479 were able to see or hear super clearly, or that 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.680 they could see or hear unique colors and sounds. For example, 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.799 here's how a woman named Jane Smith described to doctor 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.599 Grayson what she saw when she almost died from a 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.680 bad reaction to anesthesia when she was giving birth to 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.120 her baby. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.400 I found myself in a meadow, and this was a 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:34.040 beautiful green meadow with beautiful flowers, lit with this glorious, 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.359 radiant light, like no light we've ever seen. There was 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:42.120 sky grass, and I remember so well looking at them 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.640 and thinking I have never seen some of these colors. 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.400 I realized I was seeing the inner light of all 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.800 the growing things. It was not reflected light, but a 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:55.360 gentle inner glow that shone from each and every plant. Overhead. 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:59.120 The sky was clear and blue, the light infinitely more 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:00.719 beautiful than any light we know. 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.040 So some near death experiencers also get a heightened sense 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.679 of awareness. They can see tiny little details all around 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.480 them that they otherwise wouldn't even notice. They can see 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.640 things much more vividly, even though again they're in an 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.720 extremely dangerous and deadly situation. Next, doctor Grayson found out 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.320 about a quarter of all the near death experiences involved 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.680 a life review, which is basically when your life flashes 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.960 before your eyes. For example, here's what a man named 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.040 Greg Nome told doctor Grayson that he saw when he 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.760 almost drowned going over a waterfall. 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.640 The images began with the living color scenes of my childhood. 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.040 It was as if someone else was running the projector 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.920 I was looking my life objectively for the first time ever. 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.960 I saw myself sitting in a baby's highchair and picking 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:50.880 up some food with my hand and throwing it on 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.520 the floor. Next, I saw myself at a lake in 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.000 a summer vacation we took when I was about three 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.400 or four years old. I was amazed at how many 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.120 scenes I was seeing that had long since been forgotten. 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.120 I also saw traumatic events in various ways. The images 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.280 continued at high speeds, Then the images ceased. There was 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.280 only darkness and a feeling of a short pause, like 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:13.800 something was about to happen. 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:16.200 Yeah. 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:16.320 So. 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.600 Near death experiencers also report seeing their life flash before 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.600 their eyes. This is very commonly portrayed in movies and 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.200 TV shows where someone's about to die and they suddenly 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.960 see this collage or montage of all the scenes from 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.480 their lives, and a lot of people report seeing things 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.200 they thought they had forgotten or things they feel they 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.120 shouldn't be able to remember. Finally, according to doctor Grayson, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.920 about eighty percent of the people who report near death 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.520 experiences say they had an out of body experience, where 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.160 they say they could actually see their bodies from outside 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:50.760 of themselves, usually from the ceiling. For example, here's what 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.760 a woman named Jane told doctor Grayson about the time 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:55.520 she almost died during labor. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.320 My blood pressure dropped and nurses were in a panic. 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.640 When I heard an nurse say, oh my god, we're 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.320 losing her. I was out of my body at once 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.160 and on the ceiling of the operating room, looking down 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:09.600 watching them work on a body. It took me a 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.240 while to recognize the person I was viewing was me. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.760 I watched my doctors arrive and procedures being done, heard 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.280 conversations and saw my baby being born. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.840 So some near death experiencers also reported out of body experiences, 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:28.559 meaning they felt like they left their bodies and they 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.439 floated up to the ceiling and they could see themselves 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.960 being operated on or being resuscitated. So those are some 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.560 of the common themes among the near death experiences or 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.719 MDes like doctor Grayson recorded. Now, what's interesting about these 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.320 near death experiences is that they seem to happen across 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.559 different cultures and across different times. Here's how doctor Grayson 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:50.160 describes it. 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.760 We found over the past fifty years studying NDEs from 0:09:55.760 --> 0:10:00.440 different cultures, different religious groups, and throughout the centuries that 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.679 the cultural background and your religious background do not affect 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.240 whether you're going to have an experience or what type 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.319 you're going to have, but it does influence the metaphors 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:11.439 you use to describe it. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.840 So what doctor Grayson is saying is that near death 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.880 experiences seem to happen in different cultures, but different cultures 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.600 might describe them in different ways. For example, people from 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.360 one culture might describe the feeling of going through a 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:27.800 tunnel and seeing a light at the end of it, 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.640 but other cultures that are not as familiar with tunnels, 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.800 might describe them as going into a well or a cave, 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.360 or even through a pipe. And what's even more interesting 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.560 is that the people who report near death experiences, as 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.920 strange as those experiences might be, say that they felt 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.120 very real. In fact, some people say that their near 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.319 death experience feels more real than real. Here's how doctor 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:52.400 Grayson describes it. 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:55.760 I've had people look at me after an experience to say, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.559 my talking to God in the NDE is more real 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:01.120 than my talking to you right now. 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:02.160 Now. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.400 I'm not sure what that means. They don't know how 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:06.880 to judge what's more real than something else, but they 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:08.160 consistently say that. 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:10.040 Now. 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.880 Doctor Grayson and his team of researchers have tested people 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.760 have had near death experiences with psychological tests that can 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.000 measure to some degree whether a memory is real or 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.040 whether you just dreamed it or hallucinated it. These are 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.200 tests that are used, for example, to tell if a 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.720 kid who says they've gone through a traumatic experience actually 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.200 went through that experience or if they imagined it. Here's 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:33.280 what doctor Grayson found. 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.719 We find that the memories of the NDEs are like 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.480 the memories of real events, not at all as the 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:45.200 memories of imagined events. In fact, on this objective scale, 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.479 they look more real than the memories of real events. 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.920 It's more real than real. We did this research at UVA. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.480 It was also replicated at the University of Liasian Belgium 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.280 and the University of Padua in Italy. And in fact, 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.440 the Italian group also measured the brain waves of people 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.040 as they are remembering their events, and they reported that 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.560 the brain waves of people remembering NDEs look like people 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.880 remembering real events, not like people remembering dreams or hallucinations. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.960 So, as far as the researchers could tell, near death 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:24.560 experiences are indistinguishable or basically the same as real experiences. 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.800 Okay to recap. Near death experiences are strange and sometimes 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.400 impossible experiences that happen to people as they're dying or 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:35.400 as they're about to die, and they seem to be 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:40.120 a consistent and widespread phenomenon. According to doctor Grayson and others, 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.280 about ten to twenty percent of people who have close 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:47.880 brushes with dying report having a near death experience. Now, 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.680 some people say that because these experiences happen to so 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.040 many people and because they are sometimes inexplicable, they are 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.800 a clue that there is something beyond death, that somehow 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.319 our consciousness or our spirits can leave our body, or 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.280 talk to dead people, or exist out of time. And others, 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.800 of course, say that this can all be explained by 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:12.360 science and that there isn't anything supernatural going on. So 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.560 we're gonna do two things for the rest of the episode. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.760 In the next segment, we're gonna talk to a neuroscientist 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.079 who's gonna tell us what are some of the things 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:24.240 in these near death experiences that science and brain science 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.600 can explain. And then in the last segment, we're gonna 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.559 talk about some of the things that science currently can't 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:34.440 explain about near death experiences. So let's dig into the 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:38.360 science and the mystery of near death experiences. But first 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:51.600 let's take a quick break. You're listening to science stuff. Hey, 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:55.040 welcome back. So we talked about what near death experiences are, 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.559 how often they happen, and how they feel more real 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.600 than real to the people that have them. I mean though, 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.720 that there are people whose consciousness has left their bodies 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.480 or that have gotten a glimpse of the afterlife. Like 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.080 I said, we're gonna do two things. First, we're gonna 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.960 talk to a neuroscientist to see what he thinks could 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.840 be behind these experiences that some people have. And then 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.360 later in the program, we're gonna talk about the things 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:22.080 that science can't explain about near death experiences. So to 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.760 break it down for us, I called my friend neuroscientist 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.400 Dwayne Godwin. Doctor Godwin is a professor of neuroscience at 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:34.000 Wake Forest University specializing in neurophysiology, addiction, epilepsy, and traumatic 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.040 brain injury. Doctor Godwin and I also co wrote a 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.960 book together called Out of Your Mind, which you should 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:45.200 check out. Here's my conversation with neuroscientists Dwayne Godwin. Thanks 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:46.320 for talking with us today. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:47.600 Oh, it's my pleasure. 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.560 Have you had any near death experiences lately? 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:50.800 I try to. 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.520 Avoid those as much as possible. I think most people 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:54.720 do well. 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.640 First of all, maybe for folks, what is a near 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.240 death experience to a neuroscientist like you, Wow? 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:00.800 Well, you know. 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:05.080 Near death experiences are these events that happen to people 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.160 where they see these really interesting and unusual things and 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.560 they bring these stories back from this rush with their 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:17.040 own potential death. There is this concept that it's probably 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.720 based in something that is happening in your brain. At least, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.160 that's all that scientists can really speak to. It's not 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.560 to say that people's experiences aren't real to them, but 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.560 a lot of the evidence suggests that these experiences are 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.360 rooted in physical workings of the brain. You know, it's 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.520 not that hard to explain that when something weird like 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.320 that is happening to you, and especially when it's happening 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:41.720 to your brain, that your brain is going to try 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:43.640 to make sense of it, just like it tries to 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.240 make sense of everything else. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.080 Okay, here, doctor Godwin is talking about the idea that 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.640 near death experiences are caused by what is happening to 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.000 your brain in certain situations, because the one thing that 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.920 all near death experiences have in common is that they 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.520 happen near death. Here's how doctor Godwin describes it. 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:08.440 They happen under extreme stress, and what's more stressful than dying. So, 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.920 you know, we're talking about things like oxygen deprivation, changes 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:16.960 in brain chemistry, the electrical activity going haywire not functioning normally, 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.920 so it's producing these weird sensations and perceptions. It's like, 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.200 you know, imagine your computer suddenly losing power. You might 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.480 get some weird glitches and error messages before it completely 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.640 shuts down. Is that kind of thing that's happening in 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:32.600 the brain during a near death experience. 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.680 So near death experiences could just be how some people's 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.680 brains react when they're dying. Now, this, of course is 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.560 hard to prove because it's hard to predict when someone 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:44.840 is going to have a near death experience, and so 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.280 it's really hard to test for it, at least in 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.000 a consistent and ethical way. But there is something scientists 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:51.640 can do. 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.840 And there are several things that scientists have done to 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.640 try to provide a neurological explanation. So, for example, there 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.880 are overlaps with other brain states like those that are 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.840 induced by certain drugs and even some forms of epilepsy, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:11.480 and all of those similarities suggest a common neurological mechanism. 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.439 So how scientists try to explain near death experiences is 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.720 by pointing out common neurological mechanisms or things that happen 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.720 in the brain that are similar to near death experiences, 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.800 because then you can infer or reason that near death 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.720 experiences are caused by the same thing. So we're going 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.520 to break it down into two categories. The first is 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.600 the out of body experience, and the second are the 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:38.359 visions that people have during near death experiences. We'll start 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:41.280 with the out of body experience and actually scientists have 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:44.480 a name for it. It's called autoscopy. 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.639 Autoscopy is this really interesting phenomenon where people have the 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.320 sensation of seeing themselves from outside of their own body. 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:54.800 So it's like you're watching a movie or yourself, but 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.480 you're also somehow still in the movie. 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.879 This concept of otoscopy is important because you can get it, 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.320 not just in near death experiences. For example, about six 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.760 percent of people with epilepsy report feeling like they leave 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.000 their bodies when they have seizures. And actually scientists think 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.960 they found this specific part of your brain that gives 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.240 you that out of body experience. Here's what doctor Godwin said. 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.760 Scientists have been studying otoscopy. They've penpointed a specific area 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:25.840 of the brain that seems to be involved. And this 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.200 area is really important because it helps you sort of synthesize, 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.879 you know, your sense of body and the rest of 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.720 your experiences. It's likely integrating the sense reinformation to create 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.880 a coherent sense of their body in space. It's called 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.760 the temporal parietal junction and it's located roughly above and 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:43.719 behind your ears. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.800 So this area of your brain, the temporal parordal junction, 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:50.840 is a part of your brain that gives you that 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.120 sense of being in your body. It takes everything your 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.080 eyes and ears are seeing and hearing about the world, 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.040 and everything your skin and muscles are feeling, and it 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.679 tell us the rest of your brain okay, this is 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.040 where you are. And scientists note, this is what that 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.040 part of the brain does, because you can turn it off. 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.399 The note is that when people have epileptic seizures in 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.399 that part of the brain, those people suddenly feel like 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.080 they're leaving their bodies. They've also done experiments where scientists 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.000 can scramble or tweak that brain area and cause someone 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.080 to have an out of body experience. Here's how doctor 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:26.199 Godwin explains it. 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.960 So there was this fascinating study where scientists use transcranial 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:35.320 magnetic stimulation. I'll call it TMS just because it's a 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.359 long word. TMS is basically a way to temporarily disrupt 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:43.359 the activity of specific brain regions using magnetic pulses. And 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.120 so these pulses scramble brain activity and when they targeted 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.000 the temporal parietal junction, people have trouble sensing the position 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.760 of their own limbs even when they could see them. 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.480 Wait, this sense like if I look at my arm, 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.160 I can I have the feeling that it's my arm, 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.520 that I can contry that it's a part of me. 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:02.119 Yeah. 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.240 Yeah, But when you take out this particular brain area 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.639 in your ability to sort of integrate that sense of 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:09.080 your body is disrupted. 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.480 So scientists can actually scramble this area of the brain 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:18.320 called the temporal parietical junction using special electromagnets and give 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.120 you that sense of not being in your body or 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:23.960 not knowing where your body is. Could that be what's 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.639 happening in a near death experience? And the idea is 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:29.720 that maybe when your body is freaking out because it's 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:32.199 dying or close to death, then somehow that part of 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.119 the brain gets affected or what. 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:36.639 Yes, you know, nobody knows for sure, so we have 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.280 to be very careful about that. But I would propose 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.920 that TMS scrambling your brain is not that different than 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:44.760 death kind of scrambling your brain. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:48.960 Okay, So now the question is what could be scrambling 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.320 that area during a near death experience? And this ties 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.120 into what is happening to your brain? In general when 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:56.399 you're close to dying. 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.560 Brain death is a very complex thing that even physicians 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.600 don't always get right. They don't always make the call correctly. 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.560 It's not even sure that the brain dies all at once, right, 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:10.920 So some parts of your brain can die and other 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.560 parts remain alive and kicking it. But generally what happens, though, 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:16.959 is that the brain relies on a lot on a constant 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:19.800 supply of oxygen. The estimates are that the brain uses 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:22.399 about twenty percent of the body's oxygen, and when that 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.919 supply is cut off, things start to go downhill pretty quickly. 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.199 Without oxygen, doctor Godwin says, neurons lose the ability to 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:36.000 control how ions like calcium and potassium go into and 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:38.879 out of the neurons. And these are the same chemicals 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:42.000 that neurons use to activate how they talk to each other. 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.040