A man named Kevin nearly died in a motorcycle accident that left him unconscious. As he approached the point of collision, his life flashed before his eyes. After the incident, when Kevin was lying motionless, he believes his soul had left his body. That was the moment when Kevin met Jesus, according to an article published on November 3, 2020, in the British tabloid Express.
As sensational as they may seem, experiences like Kevin’s are not uncommon: scientists associate near-death experiences and the associated “divine” visions with a surge of activity in the human brain. The neuroscientist Christof Koch, in an article published in Scientific American in June 2020, explains how our brain functions under extreme conditions.
Near-death experiences occur in life-threatening conditions when the body is injured, the patient is in shock, or loses consciousness. About one in ten patients suffering a cardiac arrest in a hospital setting undergoes such an episode. In that moment, he/she may experience pain relief, a feeling of peace, the appearance of bright light at the end of a tunnel, separation from the body, the sensation of floating above it or even flying into space.
There are some basic physiological explanations for these sensations, such as the progressive narrowing of tunnel vision due to the decreased blood flow to the optic periphery of the retina. When the brain lacks blood flow and oxygen, the patient loses consciousness and their electroencephalogram (EEG) flatlines. However, why our brain perceives the struggle to maintain its functions as something positive, rather than causing panic and alarm, remains a scientific mystery.
