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By Benjamin Radford
Do you believe in life after death?
Many people believe in ghosts and heaven, and about three in 100 Americans report actually having near-death experiences (NDEs). These typically include an awareness of being dead, out-of-body experiences, meeting dead people, entering tunnels of light, and so on.
But these are stories and anecdotes; what does science have to say?
A new article published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences by neuroscientist Dean Mobbs of the University of Cambridge's Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and Caroline Watt at the University of Edinburgh find that "Contrary to popular belief, research suggests that there is nothing paranormal about these experiences. Instead, near-death experiences are the manifestation of normal brain function gone awry, during a traumatic, and sometimes harmless, event."
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