I’m a doctor – here’s what a near death experience really feels like and why you shouldn’t be scared
DEATH is a scary prospect, but it comes to all of us at some point.
For some, even a brush with death is terrifying, but experts have said it’s something we shouldn’t be afraid of.
That’s because many people who have had near death experiences (NDE) report feeling peace, comfort and calm.
Dr Ajmal Zemmar explained that it can be hard to understand what the brain and body is doing in this moment.
The expert previously authored a study that looked at the brain scan of an 87-year-old man who was having a heart attack.
Writing in the Frontiers of Aging Neuroscience journal, the experts found that in the 15 seconds leading up to the man’s heart attack, he experienced high-frequency brain waves called gamma oscillations.
These are thought to play a role in creating and retrieving memories.
“It is very hard to make claims with one case… but what we can claim is that we have signals just before death and just after the heart stops like those that happen in the healthy human when they dream or memorise or meditate,” Dr Zemmar previously told Insider.
A study in rats also previously found that people experiencing NDEs have a flood of serotonin.
Serotonin is a chemical that carries messages between the nerve cells in the brain and throughout your body.
It can play a huge role in sleep and is also known as the happy hormone’.
Dr David San Filippo, an associate professor at National Louis University said this could be why people who have NDEs, experience feelings of euphoria and pain relief.
He added that people he has studied who have had NDEs also recall feeling calm and now say they no longer fear death.
Jonathan Rasouli, a doctor in the department of neurological surgery at Staten Island University Hospital said learning more about these experiences could help people who are dying and feel turmoil become more comfortable.
He added that treatments to help ease this discomfort could help dying “become less mysterious and subsequently, less frightening” .
Dr Kathryn Mannix who specialises in palliative and end of life care, previously described dying as it simply being a “process”.
She said: “In my humble opinion, dying is probably not as bad as you’re expecting.
“We’ve lost the rich wisdom of normal human dying and it’s time for us to talk about dying and reclaim the wisdom.
“Dying, like giving birth, really is just a process. Gradually people become more tired, more weary.
“As time goes by people sleep more and they’re awake less.”
A&E doctor Thomas Fleischmann said that as we die, all our anxieties are gone and there is peace, calm and tranquility.
At a TED Talk he said near death survivors have reported seeing “beautiful surroundings, beautiful colours, some say beautiful music and the feeling of unconditional love”.