Whew, glad this dodged the "woo". I've seen similar reports like this, that fail to detect any parapsychological assertions. I often wonder if people who have these experiences have ever done hallucinogens. I have a feeling that if someone has previously experienced the flimsy nature of perceived reality, they wouldn't be so quick to ascribe near-death experiences to something supernatural.
There are many NDE experiences who have experience with psychedelics and discuss the comparison! As far as I've seen they are more or less unanimous is asserting a categorical difference, but I haven't seen done any systematic research or anything.
Considering that a popular hallucinogen today, DMT (with or without the ayahuasca ritual), commonly leaves users with the conviction that the drug really opened a portal to another dimension inhabited by godlike entities, and didn’t just scramble their synapses like e.g. LSD – I think that the experience you suggest wouldn’t necessary dissuade people from reaching for a supernatural explanation.
I agree - it always just sounds like a heavy psychedelic experience like 5-meo or high-doses of mushrooms etc.
But then again, part of the beauty of the psychedelic realization of the 'flimsy nature of perceived reality' is also realizing that our non-intoxicated / non-NDE mental state is also not necessarily 'true reality' either.
So IMO still plenty of room for ghosts in the machines :)
I've had several NDEs and also worked with plan medicines (facilitating and dieting in the amazon) for close to 10 years.
In my experience there's a very different feeling between a perceived reality and an NDE vision (or similar visions that cut through the illusory nature of reality).
