This web page in no way aims at discrediting any personal experiences with near death encounters. Its goal is to use critical thinking and analytical skills to ask the questions no one else is willing to ask.

NDEs are a fascinating subject that deserves a lot more attention than it gets. While there has been a significant amount of research in the scientific community, the mainstream on the other hand has mainly placed NDEs in the same categories as UFO sightings. I have read many NDE accounts over the years, and I will list here the recurring themes I have encountered. Then I will elaborate on each theme and point out inexplicable contradictions.

Recurring themes found in NDEs:

• We choose our lives beforehand
• We are here to learn, to complete a mission
• Shortly after passing, we are met by a relative
• There is an immutable plan at play
• The NDE can be either positive or negative

1.We choose our lives beforehand

This is a scary thought and I will explain why. A common theme is how we chose our lives from the afterlife (or in this case "beforelife"?) based on a specific set of experiences that must be learned. In some accounts, patients have reported learning that we even choose whom we are born to.

This strongly implies, and has even been said, that the event of our lives have already occurred. So here is the terrifying question no one has asked: if all the events that make up my life have already occurred and my life has already been lived, who lived it?

If I am able to choose a specific life, and I can see exactly how it will unfold, then the actions and events must have already happened at some point. In order for that to be true, one must conclude that a life has already been lived before a soul jumps in.

This begs another question: does the soul not have any impact on its life on earth? If you know beforehand what will happen, then you are by definition unable to change it. That would mean that the soul is but a spectator in its human life. So who are we? Are we our soul, or are we the vessel through which the soul learns what it needs to learn?

Demographics may offer the strongest argument against this claim. How can we possibly choose our lives, when birthrates dictate where souls would be needed? If we believe every human has a soul, then we must also believe that for some unknown reason, the majority of souls choose to go to Africa.

There is of course another possibility. What instances do we know of where one can choose a predefined life that was never lived? A character in a video game would fit this criteria. You power on your game system, pick a game, and in that game you pick a character that follows a programmed story. That story is written, but is not "lived" until a player selects it.

Either way, this has grave implications for our lives here on earth. We either have no control on our destiny whatsoever, or we are in an advanced simulation.

2.We are here to learn

Let's assume for the sake of the argument that we did have choose this life from another realm, and that we did so because we needed to learn from specific experiences. What can we possibly learn in this life that will be of any use in the afterlife?

Are we here to learn about love and empathy? Surely those two things already exist in the afterlife. Why come here and learn about suffering if there is no suffering in the next realm? If the afterlife was so perfect, there would be no need to come here in the first place. In fact, some cases have reported the feeling of getting the entire knowledge of the universe instantly uploaded into their afterlife brain. I do not see how both can be true, that on one hand, we need to come here to learn, but on the other, we can have instant access to all knowledge.

We are in effect saying that in order to have a fuller life in the afterlife, we must come here on earth and learn the human way of life, only to go back and live a non-human life. Why isn't anyone else seeing this paradox? Even in the event that we were indeed here to learn about those emotions, I hardly see this life on Earth as the most practical way to do it.

But what if? Let's try to see this from another perspective. What if as humans, we could choose to experience life as a different specie? What would we learn from living as an insect for short while, then going back to being human? I see a few possibilities where this could be useful, mainly for science. We might also grow a new found appreciation for our lives as humans. While this is possible, this would also imply life on earth is not special at all, and is actually considered a lower life form.

If we assume this is true then here is the frightening part: you do not leave heaven, a place that knows no suffering, for earth unless it is seen as either a science experiment or some form of punishment.

Lastly, to further complicate things, we may also be here to complete a mission, except we have no idea what we're here to learn or accomplish. Similarly with the so called mission, I have to ask, what could we possibly do on earth that has any impact whatsoever on an afterlife where we live as light beings? While good decisions have a positive impact here on earth for ourselves, and future generations, they are limited in scope. Paying for someone's Starbucks at the drive-thru may be considered good, but cannot possibly make sense for anyone in the afterlife. That would be like asking the Sims to be good and thinking it has an impact on reality.

3.We are met by relatives

I will keep this one short because it is pretty much self explanatory. People who have experienced NDEs almost always describe an encounter with a deceased relative. If we choose our lives beforehand, and have done so multiple times, are we really related to anyone in the afterlife in the same sense we are on earth? Here is the guy who chose to be my father on earth, but now he's a ball of light. If all those memories of our previous lives became accessible during an NDE, I would think it would be awkward more than anything, "Wow, we were just pretending this whole time?".

4.There is an immutable plan at play

This particular argument could also be made with Religious texts. "God has a plan". Everything in our lives has been carefully planned, down to the minute. Except now, you are experiencing an NDE in which you are told that your death wasn't planned.

This is another recurring theme of NDEs, you die only to be told it is not your time. So which one is it? How can our lives be planned and at the same time contain unplanned events which are themselves caused by a tedious series of supposedly "planned" events? Was the NDE part of the plan? It seems to be in direct contradiction with the first paragraph. If we chose our lives, and they're so carefully crafted, then an NDE would not be necessary. If on the other hand, it was not a planned event, then our lives are not written in advance. In any case, both propositions cannot be true.

5.The NDE can be either positive or negative

NDE accounts report different experiences when it comes to being judged on what we have accomplished here on earth. Some say there is no judgement, we were simply here to learn. Others have terrifying and unsettling accounts of encountering a place similar to what we think of as "hell". Those encounters seemingly come with no explanation or judgement.

What does that imply? If we are to believe it at face value, it implies something very absurd: the American justice system is somehow more fair than the afterlife. Are we to believe that such a complex realm, that somehow put our whole universe into existence, but also asked souls to come to earth to live a predefined life, would condemn us to eternity in hell without the possibility of defending ourselves? Moreover, why would we choose a life that guarantees an eternity in hell?

Conclusion

While we cannot possibly know for certain what happens when we die, we should use critical thinking when presented with options. Unlike religion, NDEs have no agenda. People who have experienced them simply tell us what they saw without forcing any one to believe. The question is not so much if those stories are made up - I don't believe they are, but rather, are they real experiences at all?

Science argues that the brain will release certain chemicals at the time of death which may be responsible for NDEs. However, I don't think that this alone would account for the remarkable consistency throughout many accounts.

Nevertheless, a simple exercise in logic reveals NDEs are full contradictions. It is possible that they are all true and that we simply cannot understand how the afterlife operates. In any case, we should not stop asking questions, and we should not be afraid to go looking for answers.