Near-death experiences (NDEs) in Thailand do not demonstrate the episodes most noted in those collected in the West, but they do show con sistent features. I argue that these features, including harbingers of death, visions of hell, the Lord of the underworld, and the benefits of making dona tions to Buddhist monks and temples, can be understood within the framework of beliefs and customs...
The interpretive cortex has in it a mechanism for instant reactivation of the detailed record of the past. It has a mechanism also for the production of interpretive signals. Such signals could only be significant if past records are scanned and relevant experiences are selected for comparison with present experience. This is a subconscious process. But it may well be that this scanning of past...