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Many other forms of religious experience tied to abnormalities in temporal lobe functions

Near-death experiences involve common elements, including clarity, sense of peace, traveling through dark tunnel toward light, etc Most often interpreted in the context of religious experiences Frequency of about 10% of the nearly-dead Unknown cause.

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Many other forms of religious experience tied to abnormalities in temporal lobe functions

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  1. Near-death experiences involve common elements, including clarity, sense of peace, traveling through dark tunnel toward light, etc • Most often interpreted in the context of religious experiences • Frequency of about 10% of the nearly-dead • Unknown cause • Many other forms of religious experience tied to abnormalities in temporal lobe functions • May be the opposite of PTSD • May represent abnormal response to threat/distress

  2. Depth electrical stimulation of temporal lobe and temporal lobe seizures can cause similar profound, religiously-interpreted experiences Hypothesis: Could NDEs reflect altered temporal lobe function?

  3. METHOD Two groups: NDE (N = 23) >6 on the NDE Scale Control group (N = 20) no near death illness EEG recording during one night sleep Several paper and pencil tests

  4. RESULTS 21.7% of the NDE show epileptiform-like activity associated with left temporal lobe and abnormal sleep pattern 5% of control group showed similar pattern but over right temporal lobe Temporal lobe symptoms checklist showed significant difference (p < .005) So did the Complex Partial Epileptic signs test (p < .001)

  5. RESULTS In line with the hypothesis, NDE patients showed greater EEG and self-report data implying temporal lobe epileptiform activity than control patients

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