• People prone to hallucinations do not have near-death experiences more frequently than other people. Near-death experience are similar to dreams in many respects. Out of body experiences with their typical falling, flying and hovering sensations also happen at times during dreams. In lucid dreams, wherein the dreamers are aware that they is dreaming, the world is perceived similarly “real” and alive as in near-death experiences. There are however a whole series of phenomenological and psychological differences between the two phenomena. • In contrast to lucid dreams, near-death experiences cannot be assigned to any of the known ECG recorded sleep states. The lucid character of near-death experiences and many clairvoyant dreams, ergo the clarity and vitality of the experienced world, is according to my opinion an indicator of the reality of what is being experienced. I assume that elements of another existence that shows itself to the individual in a dream-like changeable form, appear in those elements of near-death experiences that seem rather dreamlike and hallucinational: The subconscious might dress extrasensory perceptions in individual images and contents. This would explain the religious and cultural differences of basically identical experiences. Near-death experiences are, according to my opinion, clear and indirect indicators of life after death. What is certain is that near-death experiences take place - even if differently from the usual - in a perfectly functioning brain. These experiences cannot solely be put down to a lack of oxygen and oversupply of carbon dioxide within the brain, because they also take place when oxygen levels are normal. The body’s own opiates seemed to play a role in these experiences, also neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and GABA. All of these substances do however also play a role in other psychic functions, so that they do not tell us anything specific about the neuropsychology of near-death experiences.
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