Near Death Experiences: Sober Reflections on Why They Exist
The subject where in my mind, all parties are fair game for affectionate teasing
First of all, this isn’t written by an obnoxious drug user, a hippy, a fanatic, a ‘psychedelic explorer’ *shudder*, a fundamentalist, a creationist, someone who misuses any word with the root-word ‘spirit’, a lukewarm Christian, a religious apologist, someone who thinks crystals are a thing, or other such back button-pressing catalysts — just a fair mind with some rationally justified insights, more than a little informed by the imagination.
Most of what you’ll read here is based on my conversations with Atheists. I’ll include TL;DR versions of my thoughts where I can in order to give you ample opportunity to scoff and justify not reading on. Independent investigation of truth is after all, assuming God is involved in that truth, only 50% a matter of reason. The other 50% involves something that despite our best attempts, we don’t have a word for.
Let’s jump right in:
“Near Death Experiences? Bullshit. You see at death, a surge of neurotransmitters…”
I agree, but hear me out. DMT is the molecule responsible for the NDE as we know it, as well as dream and meditative states. It’s been nicknamed the ‘Spirit Molecule’, and yes the idea attracts some weirdos. We in the West, did what we know best. No we didn’t nuke it, but upon discovering this molecule from its traditional use in shamanic rituals, isolated it in a lab and consumed it in it’s purified form, turning it from a gentle ferris-wheel ride into a faster-than-light jump straight into…well…the destination is debated.
Once again, a historically religious phenomenon has a tangible physical explanation.
My approach to this relates to questions such as ‘Okay Islam, does God only speak Arabic?’, or ‘So you need Jesus to be saved? What about an orphan in X who’s never heard of…’ and so on and so forth.
The TL;DR version of my response is the idiom ‘One God, many paths’.
Well done, you made it past the first hurdle! Character building isn’t it? Anyway, let’s be honest: for God to make sense, he would need to not just provide one religion at a time for all of Humanity when we didn’t know the Earth is round, never mind that the rest of it even existed.
Given the massive differences in culture across geography, it makes sense that methods and means of worship reflect the uniqueness and diversity that the Earth harbours due it’s size and historical lack of aeroplanes.
In my mind, whilst the World’s major religions were led by clergy, indigenous tribes and their generally more respectful attitudes towards nature, might have made them suitable, or ‘mature’ enough to use substances such as DMT responsibly. Whilst our western ancestors had congregational prayer, they had this. Our ancestor’s might have needed to feel that God’s revelation was having an impact on society (what better way than collective singing to an room-size organ with the timbre of a German hate speech?), whilst ‘Green Forest’ or whatever less ignorant and offensive stereotype he was called, might have had to actually take a ‘trip’, and get a first-hand look at what’s around.
The key word here is ‘uniqueness’, and looking at all the different deities that were worshiped throughout history, it doesn’t seem that anywhere was completely deprived of a personalised approach to God until later when it was imposed under communism. Some will argue with me on that last point, but because in my mind pretty much anything positive is worship, it might not lead anywhere.
On DMT itself, why shouldn’t there be a molecule that seems to separate the soul from the body in one way or another? Religion has been antonymous with science for so long that it’s bred a culture of harmful polarity on the matter. We evolved one infinitesimal bit at a time, each change a response to physical, environmental factors — geared at the survival of our genes and species — when we’re in pain, our bodies release endorphins that allow us to GTFO of danger, but at death there doesn’t seem to be any reason for a ‘nice lil experience’ when, from a Darwinian perspective, it holds no benefit for us or anyone compared to good ol’ unconsciousness. In my opinion, all creation recognises God in one way or another — humans to a much greater degree than animals, and DMT, combined with everything else that allows us to transcend nature the ways animals can’t, allows us to do so with increasing levels of complexity until it allows us to leave our bodies at death.
“One guy saw Thor”
Believe me, if it was on the first page of Google, I’d link it. I can’t find the source, but I trust the friend who told me about this one. Summary: A guy had an NDE and saw Thor.
TL;DR: I can’t think of one but I’m feeling generous so have a green thing anyway.
Here’s a secret: I was spiked once. I unwittingly consumed three hits of LSD and it launched me into the most terrifying experience of my life, depriving me of sleep for years after — but also allowing me to quit drinking and turn my life around once I got out of hospital. It taught me many things, but one of them was:
Your death will be the most personalised thing that will ever happen to you.
Remember how we talked about the God who makes sense? One rational way that sense must needs be made is that at death, instead of some going to hell and some to heaven, we each receive a personalised report on our lives, complete with pictures and according to some NDE’s, a view of our actions from the perspective of those we affected, allowing us to actually feel the emotions we dealt, rather than being a fly on the wall and saying, “Ha LOL I was a dick” (Yes, my point here is based on NDE reports, but bear in mind I’m only trying to provoke thought and for some my DMT hypothesis will be more convincing than others). Frankly, if justice is a quality we admire, then there actually isn’t a fairer way of achieving it.
Someone always brings up Hitler at this point so I might as well — not a great guy by some standards but he makes for a great case study:
Let’s say Hitler smoked.
Let’s say I smoke. (I do)
For me, smoking is a much bigger issue than it would be for Hitler. That seems obvious, but there is a tendency among atheists and believers to think that judgement implies complete equality, whereas it might make more sense that consequences for actions, good or bad, are on a proportional bases, based upon the hand we were dealt at birth, the choices we were given etc.
I for example could have quit smoking at numerous points throughout my teens. It’s given me palpitations since I was 16, stunted my growth and so on, yet I continued. That is not commendable.
Hitler on the other hand was narced up on countless meds, and was a man with a very different role to play than I. Smoking may have just been something he did. In his life it was an issue that was completely negligible in comparison to his responsibility as the leader of a nation.
Going back to Thor, we’ve talked initially about the personalised nature of worship, now we’ve talked about the personalised nature of death. I have a question for you now which is based upon the axioms that both worship and death are uniquely personal:
How would you expect NDE’s to reflect this?
Here’s what I think:
David the good Christian would die and meet Jesus.
Abdul the good Muslim would die and meet Muhammad.
Hitchens the good Atheist would die and (I hope) is relieved as he’s shown a Truth he could never have imagined existed.
Green Forrest the good Shaman would die and see…I’m not sure…a big Earth or something? Who knows?
The truth is, this seems to pretty much be the case. There are plenty NDE reports of Christians meeting Jesus, Muslims meeting Muhammad, or people simply meeting unknown beings. There have also been some negative ones, but the result of these has nearly always been positive on the individuals (I’d link some but I need to pee and am struggling to finish this in time for breakfast. Google: Negative NDE or something).
Get my point? The guy who saw Thor, I can’t be sure of his circumstances. Either he believed in Thor, had no idea what to expect when he died, or simply constantly made that joke that atheists make that goes something like “When you say God, I have to ask, ‘which one?’ If I were Norse I’d believe in Thor…” — and God, having a sense of humour and mercy decided to show himself as Thor.
The conclusion I draw is this, however you connect with God, be it religion, art, hard work, friends, family, being nice, sex, drugs — that is your unique trademark as a unique human and your perception of the unknown will reflect it when the time comes.
I’ve read a lot of trip reports and NDE reports in my life, and where everyone, even my most rational friends seem to not find any connection, I see one in their uniqueness. It’s hard to apply hard science to the spiritual realm if it exists, but not is difficult to apply the scientific method. I’ve worked back from what we know about NDE’s, psychedelics etc. and hypothesised, somewhat creatively how they came to be in the manner they are.
You can now do two things:
- Treat it with the open-mindedness you’d exhibit toward any other theory.
- Call it science fiction.
I like either.
