90 minutes of near death experience

Reading the reviews of 90 Minutes in Heaven I could see two sides of the arguments. One critics gave 9/10 with the following statement "...obviously the negative reviews all come from the godless liberals who hate Jesus...". The other side gave 1/10 (zero is not allowed) saying "...what a load of nonsense. Funny how Heaven is surrounded by a wall and gate. Why would anyone even read the proper scientific explanation for the bright lights we experience and the many memory flashes of friends and family we experience when the brains become oxygen deprived" 

A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound psychological event with mystical elements. It typically occurs in people close to death, or during situations of intense physical or emotional pain, but may also happen after heart attacks or traumatic brain injuries, or even during meditation and syncope (loss of consciousness due to a fall in blood pressure). They’re surprisingly common, with a third of people who have come close to death reporting having experienced one.

Despite several theories used to explain NDE, getting to the bottom of what causes them is difficult. Religious people believe near-death experiences provide evidence for life after death – in particular, the separation of the spirit from the body. Whereas scientific explanations for near-death experiences include depersonalisation, which is a sense of being detached from your body.

The most widespread explanation for NDE is the dying brain hypothesis. This theory proposes that near-death experiences are hallucinations caused by activity in the brain as cells begin to die. As these occur during times of crisis, this would explain the stories survivors recount. The problem with this theory, though plausible, is that it fails to explain the full range of features that may occur during near-death experiences, such as why people have out-of-body experiences.

Near-death experiences are medically inexplicable and cannot be explained by known physical brain function. Many of the preceding lines of evidence would be remarkable if they were reported by a group of individuals during conscious experiences. However, NDErs are generally unconscious or clinically dead at the time of their experiences and should not have any lucid organized memories from their time of unconsciousness.

The great majority of more than 1,000 near-death experiencers believed that their experiences were definitely real. For the majority of us who have not personally experienced an NDE, we should be very cautious about labelling NDEs as “unreal.” 

The NDE phenomenon is particularly fascinating because the psychological and physiological factors are intimately tied to social and cultural. For instance, the NDE of a 40-year-old white male from Nebraska might include visions of a shimmering white, bearded male beckoning him through pearl-encrusted gates; the NDE of a 12-year-old boy from Papa New Guinea probably will not.

The Mapuche people of South America and residents of Hawaii are more likely to see landscapes and volcanoes, whereas NDEs in Thailand and India rarely involve landmarks, tunnels or light; for Tibetans, light features more heavily, as do illusions of reincarnation. Europeans and North Americans often visualize beautiful gardens; intriguingly, the Kalai of Melanesia are more inclined to see an industrialized world of factories.

Back to movie, the poorly reviewed film showed a loss at the box office despite the book it was based on was twice on the New York Times Best Seller list, was listed as a USA Today best-seller, and has sold 7 million copies in 46 language. Obviously movie based on best seller book does not always sell.