of being dead has been associated with the co-calledCotard syndrome,a
condition in which patients after trauma, in advanced stage of typhoid, or in
multiple sclerosis, think they have died (Mobbs & Watt, 2011, p. 447). The
tunnel of light has been associated with retinal ischemia, the condition of
reduced oxygen supply to the retina, as well as tunnel vision that occurs in
extreme fear (p. 448). Meeting deceased people could be explained by various
factors, including hallucinations in Alzheimer’s or progressive Parkinson’s
disease, abnormal dopamine (see section 7.7) functioning after partial removal
of the globus pallidus (paleostriatum) to relieve involuntary movement and
muscular rigidity, or visual experiences due to the degeneration of the macula
(central part of the retina) (Mobbs & Watt, 2011, p. 448). Feelings of bliss,
euphoria, and acceptance accompany the administration of different drugs
and could arise from the natural release of dopamine and opioids into the
brain under extreme danger (p. 449). Many of these suggestions are tentative
and less elaborated than the explanations related to OBEs, yet they certainly
take the phenomenon from the realm of mystical speculation into the domain
of empirical science.
A natural condition that has proved fruitful in accounting for a range of
extraordinary subjective experiences issleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is a
“transient, conscious state of involuntary immobility occurring immediately
prior to falling asleep or upon wakening,”generally thought to be related to
the so-called REM (rapid-eye-movement) phase of sleep, in which dreaming
typically occurs (Cheyne et al., p. 319). While people are immobilized in this
state, they are able to open their eyes and later report their experience. Sleep
paralysis can be frequent and dramatic in patients with sleep-disorders.
Hallucinatory experiences in this condition include seeing lights, animals,
strangefigures, demons; hearing heavy footsteps, humming or buzzing noises,
noises of heavy objects moved; a sense of a monitoring“evil presence,”
pressure on the chest, suffocating, choking,floating, being out of the body,
andflying (Cheyne et al., 1999, p. 320; Holden & French, 2002, p. 167). Other
sleep-related experiences include hypnagogic experiences at the onset of sleep
(which occur with or without sleep paralysis), including sudden acquisition of
knowledge, seeing lights, panoramic landscapes, vivid and colorful images
such as honeycombs, webs, tunnels, and spirals (Marsh, 2010, pp. 138–41).
Related auditory sensations include hearing one’s name called and being
addressed by the persons visualized. Sensations offloating upward, falling,
weightlessness,flying, rapid acceleration, being“wrenched out of one’s body,”
spinning, swirling, being hurled through a tunnel, or being moved rapidly
forwards also characterize this state.
The list of subjective experiences that are known to arise under some
physiological conditions (although not yet necessarily understood in detail)
could be continued. Drugs and anesthetics result in a variety of experiences
that partly overlap with the ones already mentioned. The examples discussed
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