LATELY in the Western world, a new study of human peculiarities has been initiated. It relates to the remarkable mental Journeys of people who had come close to death but had not died. The study has Its skeptics; yet it seems interesting to get acquainted with some of the ideas put forward by Its supporters. To many these ideas may seem extraordinary and bizarre. However, since some scientific foundation is claimed for these ideas, we may attempt an outline of them to satisfy our Intellectual curiosity. This upsurge of interest in so-called neardeath experiences is no doubt a consequence of the fact that more than ever before, people can be "brought back from death's door". Medical science can now resuscitate patients who have suffered cardiac arrest, who have stopped breathing and who have little discernible brain activity — people, that is to say. who years ago would have died.

According to some of these para-psychologists, the neardeath experiences fall into three types: autoscopic (an out-of-body experience); trancedental entry into a spiritual realm) and experiences that mix the two. Some protagonists of the study claim that there are compelling evidence that the people who had out-of -body experience had a unique perspective on the hectic activities attending their last moments.

According to this Interpretation the following are among the traits that define the neardeath experience:

a) A sense of being dead : At first many people do not realize that the experience they are having has anything to do with being near death. They find themselves floating above their body and feeling confused.

b) Peace and painless : During a near-death experience, all pain from an illness or accident vanishes. In its place, peace and painlessness prevail.

c) Reluctance to return : Many find their unearthly surroundings so pleasant that they do not want to return.

d) Out-of-body experience : Frequently people feel themselves rising up and viewing their own bodies below.

e) The tunnel experience : This generally occurs after an out-of-body experience. For many, a portal or tunnel opens and they are propelled into darkness.

• 1) Once people pass through

the tunnel, they usually meet beings of intense light, which permeates everything, and fills them with feelings of love.

The challengers of thia interpretation claim that near-death experiences can better be explained by ordinary science. There are some fundamental problems with the notion that survivors have actually experienced death.

There is a basic confusion about the definition of death, which in recent years has been revised to mean complete brain death. According to the skeptics, what near-death ex-Eeriences reflect is not death.

ut the dying process. What the people undergoing these experiences pass through ts/an altered state of consciousness presumably associated with the changes taking place in a dying brain.

There are also other physiological explanations for the near-death experience, according to critics. When the body is badly injured, the heart stops, the brain Is deprived of oxygen. Its effects are well documented. At first there may be a sense of well-being, probably the result of the brain's« endorpin response to extreme trauma. As more neurons are damaged by lack of oxygen, the brain's ability to make critical Judgments becomes Impaired and reality becomes vague or illogical and hallucinations occur.

Some have also suggested that the near-death experiences are similar to the hallucinatory experiences induced by drugs, which are directly related to states of excitement and arousal in the central nervous system and are accompanied by disorganisation tn the brain's regulation of Incoming stimuli. Just as psychedelic drugs can trigger such neuronal frenzy, so too can anesthetics. fever, exhaustion, and probably the emotional and physiological process involved In dying.

Others have suggested that a kind of "depersonalization" ' process may be at work during an near-death experience. What this means Is that the near death experience to actually a psychological reaction to the prospect of facing Imminent death, a coping mechanism used to struggle with a distressing, traumatic altua-s Uon. .<

However, because of the highly intriguing nature of the subject further scientific enquiry and research Into the matter are needed to satisfy our hunger for knowledge for the unknown,