Rereading Memories or a New Experience: A Critical Review of the Theory of Rereading Memories in Near-Death Experiences
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) November 1, 2025 Hamidreza Shakerin
Near-death experiences (NDEs) resist explanation as mere memory reconstruction. The memory-reconstruction hypothesis, which claims NDEs are the brain's rereading of stored memories, fails to account for veridical perceptions (accurate observations of hidden or distant events), perceptual anomalies (360° vision, undistorted underwater sight, hyper-speed life review without blur), reports by congenitally blind individuals who gain sight during NDEs, children's accounts of unknown deceased relatives, shared experiences across cultures, and profound post-experiential transformations. The hypothesis lacks empirical support, contradicts known neurophysiology and optics, and cannot accommodate present-time or future-oriented information later verified. NDEs thus support non-material soul dualism and afterlife beliefs, undermining physicalist reductionism.