People who have gone through what they describe as a "Near Death Experience" often report afterwards a renewed lease on life. They are somehow changed. If only such a mechanism could be formulated to stimulate the parts of the brain required to produce the same effect but without the risk. The technique itself would require inducing the brain to release those chemicals which it does when in the near death state. The amount required would be negligable, as most people who report near death experiences also note that the time they seemed to be "in the tunnel of light" or whatever is not proportiionate to the amount of time they were in a near death state. One might extrapolate from this that a very small amount might produce a lighter effect. A pick-me-up of the most grim proportions.
-- thelumberjack, Aug 06 2002

Canned Near Death Experience http://www.halfbake...0Death_20Experience
Similar idea [-alx, Aug 06 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

(?) Hollywood's Version http://members.fort...atliners/liners.htm
The Flatliners movie [PeterSilly, Aug 06 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Skeptic's Dictionary http://www.skepdic.com/nde.html
Discusses the physiological basis of near-death experiences - tunnels, the sense of calm, ringing sounds - and how ketamine can reproduce these. [pottedstu, Aug 06 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Suspended Animation http://www.halfbake...spended_20Animation
How to turn a body off without actually killing it. [Vernon, Aug 09 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Carbon Dioxide Therapy http://www.erowid.o...arbogen_info1.shtml
Gas yourself to near death [pluterday, Oct 04 2004]

Amazing as it might sound but this has actually been baked. A scientist profiled people who had near death experiences and found that a certain psychological type experienced them. He experimented further and announced he was able to reproduce near death experiences with people that fitted that profile.

Unfortunately I have forgotten both his name and his methods.
-- Aristotle, Aug 06 2002


Baked - I think my boss has one of these already. We're all hoping that he might have a near-life experience sometime soon (and sign off on the new budgets).
-- 8th of 7, Aug 06 2002


Apparently the anaesthetic Ketamine produces all the main features of near-death experiences (see link). Ketamine is also sometimes used as a rave drug, so consult your local dealer for more information (and therefore I would say this is baked).
-- pottedstu, Aug 06 2002


Isn't this a well-publicized sexual kink?
-- DrCurry, Aug 06 2002


Yes, this is indeed baked in the form of the street drug/horse anesthetic Ketamine("Special K"?), despite the fact it is illegal. You could also simulate it by putting a floodlight at the bottom of a vertical windtunnel and turning on the fans.

Would this idea be better placed in the category Health: Recreational Drug?
-- BinaryCookies, Aug 06 2002


I find it amusing that you people missed the point entirely. I'm not talking about drug abuse, i'm talking about therapy for depressives etc. It's typical that people would automatically assume I mean illegal drug use. It says a lot about the level your minds operate on.
-- thelumberjack, Aug 07 2002


Therapy for depression = Near death experience?

I don't see myself missing any point here.
-- BinaryCookies, Aug 07 2002


Call it a life-changing event. You don't realise how good life is until you've come up against death. I should know. I'm recovering from a brain tumor.
-- thelumberjack, Aug 08 2002


I don't intend to sound callous by saying this, but I swear to the deity of your choice that near-death experiences (the bright light, numb feelings, etc) are a lot like going to the dentist. Who is really an alien. So what you could do, drug-free, sort of, is put people in front of a bright light, numb 'em up a little...

I dunno. What made your experience, lumberjack, so powerful is that you really were somewhere along the path to death other than the standard path. I am assuming that you had a NDE. Giving someone who is not obviously in the path of death, the feeling of such, is like manufacturing psychosis to cure someone of depression et al. I just can't crois this path.
-- polartomato, Aug 08 2002


Congratulations on your new-found greater appreciation for life, lumberjack. Do you envision this as being //A pick-me-up of the most grim proportions// in a controlled environment - such as truth serums are used in?
-- thumbwax, Aug 08 2002


Whether a 'near death experience' or other psychological state (whether spontaneous, or chemically or electrically stimulated) has a positive psychological outcomes, depends on the beliefs of the person experiencing it. I can't see a quick fix here, any more than dropping a tab of acid is. Good for some, bad for others, is my observation.
-- pfperry, Aug 08 2002


Why go for the simulation, when you could have the real thing? As I wrote in an annotation to "Canned Near Death Experience", if your body is STOPPED by the process known as "Suspended Animation" (see link), then you can find out for real if near-death experiences are a brain-chemistry thing, or a soul-thing.
-- Vernon, Aug 09 2002


This is a movie, right? "The Game" with Michael Douglas?
-- yesto60, Sep 14 2002


[Aristotle] Many years ago, Dr. Joseph Atkinson, using the Meduna mixture (80% O2, 20% CO2, as I recall) was able to induce the classic NDE in his patients, which he reported to have considerable benefit. This effect is usually ignored or brushed aside by people writing about the near death experience, probably because it seems to provide a unifying biological explanation, i.e., the build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood. Ketamine produces a different effect entirely.
-- pluterday, Feb 09 2003


It's actually the case that a variety of very serious temporary conditions -- fevers and comas and things -- are for some reason effective against psychosis and severe depression. Insulin coma therapy was widely used against schizophrenia before effective and (comparatively) safe antipsychotic drugs came along. ECT is related to these other, earlier "shock" therapies. There may not be anything specifically useful about NDEs.

I sort of sympathize with the basic idea here, though. I've often thought it would be nice to be able to recalibrate our stress responses. This can probably better be done by voluntarily undergoing some sort of apparently life-threatening experience, of course.
-- Monkfish, Feb 09 2003


It's perhaps significant that [8th of 7] didn't give any notable signs of being newly engaged in an active celebration of life after trying to implement one of FarmerJohn's more insanely dangerous ideas. If anything, the experience seemed to make him strangely bitter and unwontedly cautious.
-- Monkfish, Feb 09 2003


I've been put out using ketamine a few times nad it's a pretty unusual experience, esp if given without conmcomitant sedation. Noise around whilst you are waking up gets 'interwoven' into vivid halucinations. Not as much fun as an NDE
-- oneoffdave, Feb 10 2003


i once fell from a 3-story tree and cracked my head on a rock. i saw a vivid whitish-blackish-greenish-red. i honestly thought i was going to die, although apparently i only managed a small concussion. i'm not any happier for it.
-- neo_, Nov 27 2009


I have experienced that sensation of hurtling through a long tunnel full of light.

I emerged in France, and it was pleasant but not life- changing.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 28 2009



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