Humanists believe that no one ever returned from the dead, not even Jesus. Doctors only record anybody as being dead when all brain-stem activity ceases. Though your heart may stop, you are still alive while your brain is still functional.

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel is easily explained as dreamscape & pineal brain activity. If you’re concussed or knocked unconscious you see such lights (Hence the familiar phrase, seeing stars).

" I was dying. I was outside myself seeing the doctors trying to save me. There was a buzzing noise. I saw a blue, warm light. It took me to Heaven. Family and friends who had died were there. My life passed before me again, and Jesus came with words of comfort and love and then I got better."

EXPLANATIONS - You would think from the literature available, that Near Death Experiences (NDE’s) are very common events. Not so. Most people who have been close to dying recall nothing whatsoever of the experience of nearly dying. 60% of those survivors surveyed by NDE investigator, Ken Ring, only experienced a sense of ‘peace’. Just 37% saw the tunnel of light. A mere 23% went into or along the tunnel. Only 10% saw the Heaven within or beyond the tunnel. A measly 5% had a flashback of their life experiences. Children who have almost died don’t see dead friends and relatives on the other side, but live ones. They haven't lived long enough to know too many people who have died. Older people have more experienceof bereavement, generally speaking.

THE EVIDENCE IS INCONSISTENT. It’s all dreams and hallucinations, I’m afraid. You often See tunnels of light in dreams, and meet people who have died. Dreams have the same surreal vague feel as the anecdotes of Heaven received from people brought back from near death. False Memory Syndrome (FMS) also plays a part. We can vividly recall experiences we never actually had. People surviving a NDE try to make sense of a confusing series of images and vague memories. FMS is inevitable. We fill in the gaps in our memory with idealized images.

FLASHBACKS? You won’t see your whole life in the few minutes between nearly dying and becoming conscious again, especially if you’ve lived 73 years. You may see edited highlights, but not everything. After a prolonged illness My Grandfather died preoccupied in trivial thinking of a neighbour’s dog he only saw a few times in life. There was no thought of immediate loved ones or talk of tunnels, lights, or meetings with God.

When the brain is starved of blood and oxygen, as happens when the heart stops beating, our thoughts can become erratic, random, and vague. See the Rosebud references in the film, Citizen Kane for a classic example of this. In trying to make sense of NDE’s after recovery, we think of the light, and glimpses of people we recall seeing in the dreamy state we found ourselves in. That‘s all that happens in an actual NDE! Death itself is absolute. No one comes back from that. No one!

"Happiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting." Bertrand Russell.

SOURCES; Interview with Susan Blackmore (NDE investigator) The Skeptic, (U.K) Vol.. 7 #3. The Encyclopaedia Of The Paranormal, Edited by Gordon Stein. Keith Augustine - The Case Against Immortality (Skeptic (US) Vol. 5;7 1997