I've researched a lot about this stuff and I feel like the biggest thing about NDE's is that it's very hard to readily replicate those experience for a lab setting, and so the surreal nature of them remains unconvincing to many (and tbh I'm very much on the fence) And the fact that not everyone experiences and NDE around death too (only about ~10-23%). Anyways to a materialist (which I feel is going to be most of the forum and a lot Millenials/Gen z considering they are the most atheistic generation). saying something like "I got hit by a car and saw myself standing in the air looking at my body" sounds crazy. But honestly? We have no idea how the brain truly works, and who knows if its more a like a signal (awareness) and a reciever (our body) or if its strictly an emerging property of the brain. We have our sides but we don't conclusively know for certain.
but I know a lot of people who have begun to believe in spirituality after experiencing an NDE. And these expereiences definietly are something that you could only understand through living through them I think rather than taking their word for it. It's morally ambiguous to kill people "a little bit" to test these things anways.
My qualms with NDE's come with the idea of it being more than just a dying brain going haywire, these vivid hallucinations being a swansong of everything that composed you. I'm not a neurologist so I'm not sure how it works but the Pam Reynolds case (you should look it up) was a large topic of discussion that made me think about researching more about this stuff. It's notable because they tracked her brain waves during surgery (IIRC she had a tumor that was located in a spot that forced the doctors to do a specific type of procedure that stops her heart and drains the blood from her brain-- and this is before she went into the operating room) She showed no response in her brain and yet was able to describe a near-death expereinece where she able to accurately describe the tools being used and what the displays on monitors said (despite never seeing any of it before) and said that a light grew on the cieling- and that her grandfather stopped her from entering that light (at her detest) and it ends with her grandfather pushing her back into her body at the end. The doctors that did the surgery have said they have no idea how she knew all of this. Looking at Nderf.org (they have an archive of people telling their experiences in detail) too most people's expereince essentially amount to this too. Seeing dead loved ones urging them to stay in the realm of the living. Though some people see popular religious figures, it remains a minority (and arguably, if we were to entertain this as true, how do they know if they were the religious figures, or if they thought they were? big difference imo)
There's also terminal lucidity and hospice workers knowing that if the persons they take care of talk about seeing dead people or otherwordly spirits they'll die soon. I remember the same person that had an OBE talked about going to the hospital with someone they cared about and said "Do you not see that angel?" He was ofcourse confused, and she offered to draw the entity (she was an artist). Ultimately he wrote it off but that night she died. It was these expereinces that pushed him to leaning as an idealist. And I don't blame him tbh. I grew up christian but I feel like whatever is outthere it isn't the abrahamic religions. I would reincarnate but if I could negotiate I would want to live a long life helping people. But I don't think I'm good enough for that. I'd probably be punshed and live some sort of horrible life. But they say its all love amongst the stars so maybe they'll be forigiving. Honestly, I wouldn't mind some aspects of me being the same considering we cut our stories short. But maybe being a completely different person won't lead me being here again.
If there is an omniscent God, I'd ask him why? Why would you create knowing people in life will do nothing but suffer? Why must some of your most devoted believers live nothing but horrible lives? If you already know the outcomes of their tests why not send their souls straight to heaven or hell? Why above everything do you permit evil? And for me personally, why did my and everyone around me's life have to be this way? We are to beg at your feet yet get none of your miracles? What the heck bro. And if suicide is a cardinal sin why do you smite the person who is already struggling with eternal damnation? That dosen't seem much fair.
Anyways we can talk about this more depending in how interested you are with the subject, I'm totally down because these things interest me greatly.
