Near death experience: neuroscience perspective

Abstract

The cycle of life starts with conception and progresses to birth, maturity, old age, and death. We know a significant amount about what happens during most of these stages; however, the final step, death, defies many of our attempts to study and comprehend it. The cultural rituals that surround death attest to our fascination with this concluding stage of life. Cultures often look at death as a transitional stage that sends us on to the next stage of existence, a new reality and consciousness (1). As such, it is only natural that we have significant interest in near-death experiences, where individuals who experienced life-threatening situations report identifiable features of their dying process.