NDEs (near death experiences) and MDMA

[oz_steve]

There was an article on the BBC website today about the biological basis of near death experiences, or NDEs. This is the sensation people have when close to death of seeing shining white lights and feeling spiritual peace. Here's a partial quote:

Near death experiences have a biological explanation rather than a spiritual one, research suggests. The US team said the same parts of the brain are activated when people dream as in near death experiences.

Those with near death experiences were more likely to have less clearly separated boundaries between sleeping and waking, the scientists found.
People who have had near death experiences commonly report being surrounded by a bright light or gazing down on themselves in an operating theatre.

Many of these sensations are also common to experiences of being in the dream state, or rapid eye movement (REM), stage of sleep, the researchers said.

Near death experiences were defined by the University of Kentucky researchers as a time during a life-threatening episode when a person undergoes an outer body experience, unusual alertness or sees an intense light or feels a great sense of peace.

They found 60% of those who reported such experiences said they had experienced the REM state of sleep during periods of wakefulness.

This is fascinating stuff. When SWIM was a regular MDMA user in the 90s he regularly experienced sleep paralysis, in which he became mentally aware whilst physically asleep.

Initially SWIM found this quite terrifying (the paralysis is literal and complete, and it seemed impossible to deliberately wake). Then, after a few times, it became very enjoyable. SWIM learned to manipulate events to the point where waking dreams were possible. SWIM can still do this to a very small extent, but nothing like was possible then.

The point is that MDMA seemed to provide a direct pathway to this interesting state. Does anyone know about any writings or research on this?

SWIM is very much inclined to physiological and pharmacological explanations for such phenomena, rather than spiritual ones. In SWIMs opinion this makes them more, not less, interesting!

Reputation Comments on this post:

Interesting