NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—When people report having profound out-of-body experiences during close brushes with death, skeptics often attribute it to physiological and psychological factors.
Robert Mays, who has studied near-death experiences (NDEs) for some 30 years, looked at some of these factors during a talk at the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 2014 Conference in Newport Beach, Calif., on Aug. 29.
Hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, is one often-cited cause. Another is rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. REM is characteristic of the sleep state in which people often dream. REM intrusion is when REM activates during wakefulness, and some say the scenes of the afterlife, interactions with dead loved ones, life-reviews, and more, are a result of REM.
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