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Plain English Summary
Ever wonder about that famous "bright light" people see during near-death experiences? These researchers have a wild explanation: your dying brain might literally be glowing. When the brain runs low on oxygen, it overproduces molecules called free radicals, which can trigger real, measurable light emissions (biophotons) in the visual parts of the brain. They measured this in rat brains and found light output skyrocketed twentyfold during oxygen deprivation. So the tunnel of light might be your neurons actually lighting up like tiny biological flashbulbs! They also suggest NDE imagery could work like dreaming, pulling stored visual memories during REM-like brain states. Then things get really speculative: they propose consciousness itself might involve quantum entanglement through these biophotons, possibly even surviving outside the body. That last part is a big leap, but the core idea — that a suffocating brain produces its own light show — is genuinely fascinating and grounded in real biochemistry.
Actual Paper Abstract
Recently, we proposed a novel biophysical concept regarding on the appearance of brilliant lights during near death experiences (NDEs) (Bókkon and Salari, 2012). Specifically, perceiving brilliant light in NDEs has been proposed to arise due to the reperfusion that produces unregulated overproduction of free radicals and energetically excited molecules that can generate a transient enhancement of bioluminescent biophotons in different areas of the brain, including retinotopic visual areas. If this excess of bioluminescent photon emission exceeds a threshold in retinotopic visual areas, this can appear as (phosphene) lights because the brain interprets these intrinsic retinotopic bioluminescent photons as if they originated from the external physical world. Here, we review relevant literature that reported experimental studies (Imaizumi et al., 1984; Suzuki et al., 1985) that essentially support our previously published conception, i.e., that seeing lights in NDEs may be due to the transient enhancement of bioluminescent biophotons. Next, we briefly describe our biophysical visual representation model that may explain brilliant lights experienced during NDEs (by phosphenes as biophotons) and REM sleep associated dream-like intrinsic visual imageries through biophotons in NDEs. Finally, we link our biophysical visual representation notion to self-consciousness that may involve extremely low-energy quantum entanglements. This article is intended to introduce novel concepts for discussion and does not pretend to give the ultimate explanation for the currently unanswerable questions about matter, life and soul; their creation and their interrelationship.
Research Notes
Provides a specific naturalistic mechanism for NDE light perception through biophoton biochemistry, while also venturing into quantum consciousness speculation. Relevant to controversy #7 — partially reductionist, partially survival-compatible. Core biophoton hypothesis addresses only one NDE feature.
A biophysical hypothesis proposes that brilliant light perception during near-death experiences arises from bioluminescent biophoton emission caused by unregulated free radical overproduction in retinotopic visual areas during brain hypoxia and reperfusion. Rat brain studies showed ultraweak chemiluminescence rising from 11±15 to 231±35 counts/10s-g during hypoxia, with spectral peaks at 480–700 nm consistent with singlet oxygen species. The model extends to visual imagery in NDEs via REM sleep-associated dream-like biophysical picture representations from long-term visual memory stored as epigenetic codes. The authors further speculate that self-consciousness may involve low-energy quantum entanglements via biophotons, potentially persisting outside the body during NDEs.
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Related Papers
Cites
Cited By
- Neuro-Functional Modeling of Near-Death Experiences in Contexts of Altered States of Consciousness — Romand, Raymond (2023)
- Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness — Facco, Enrico (2015)
Companion
- There Is Nothing Paranormal about Near-Death Experiences: How Neuroscience Can Explain Seeing Bright Lights, Meeting the Dead, or Being Convinced You Are One of Them — Mobbs, Dean (2011)
- Non-local Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest — van Lommel, Pim (2013)
- Quantum Aspects of the Brain-Mind Relationship: A Hypothesis with Supporting Evidence — Kauffman, Stuart A (2023)
- Explanation of Near-Death Experiences: A Systematic Analysis of Case Reports and Qualitative Research — Hashemi, Amirhossein (2023)
- Neuro-Functional Modeling of Near-Death Experiences in Contexts of Altered States of Consciousness — Romand, Raymond (2023)
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📋 Cite this paper
Bókkon, István, Mallick, Birendra N, Tuszynski, Jack A (2013). Near death experiences: a multidisciplinary hypothesis. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00533
@article{bokkon_2013_nde_multidisciplinary,
title = {Near death experiences: a multidisciplinary hypothesis},
author = {Bókkon, István and Mallick, Birendra N and Tuszynski, Jack A},
year = {2013},
journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience},
doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2013.00533},
}