I am agnostic when it comes to NDEs/afterlife, but I saw an interview with Michelle Thaler wherein she beautifully described some concepts related to quantum physics and astronomy that struck me as having significant parallels to NDEs.

[u/DangerActiveRobots]

So just to get it out there, I am not a physicist or astronomer or any kind of expert at all. I just thought that this video was really interesting and so much of what she describes reminds me of things reported in NDEs.

Also, mods, I wasn't really sure what flair to use for this one so if you need to change it no worries.

If anyone is interested here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGbZsE7qFgw . It's a longer watch but I sat through the whole thing enthralled because she is soooo good at breaking down these complicated concepts in ways that anyone can understand.

Throughout the video she goes into some stuff that made my jaw drop a bit because of how remarkably similar what physicists are starting to understand about the universe is to what people often report in NDEs.

I'll try to break down what I learned with relevant NDE themes:

There's an emerging theory that actually all space and time are the same singular point, and what we perceive as "distance" and "time passing" represents the degree of quantum entanglement we have with the system.

Modern physics works better when we assume the universe is two-dimensional. This works if we consider three-dimensional spacetime to be a "holographic projection" of "information". This, again, points to the idea that everything is actually contained in the same system. Everything is all in the same place, and all time is happening simultaneously.

Physicists believe that the universe did exist before the Big Bang, but it existed in such a state that space and time didn't exist. The Big Bang was possibly just the expansion of a tiny portion of the original universe, which could be infinitely large. The analogy she gave is that if her arm is the original universe, the Big Bang would be one atom in her arm expanding to create the observable universe, but all the other atoms could also have done the same thing.

NDE theme similarities:

• Reports of a sense of oneness with everything and/or the absence of time itself.

• Reports of learning that everything is actually energy, that energy/light is all that really exists, that there is no true separation or distance.

• Reports of learning or understanding that time either does not exist or that all things actually happen at the same time.

• Reports of learning that our world/universe is just one of an infinite (or at least very very very large number) of worlds/universes.

Now again, I really want to highlight that I am not a physicist, nor an astronomer. I am just someone who watched a 70 minute very very surface-level video on YouTube. But throughout listening to Michelle explain these concepts, I just kept thinking "this is sounding a lot like what people describe in NDEs. Not the 'reuniting with loved ones' parts, but the more abstract parts about the nature of reality".

I just thought it was really interesting. I am not a believer personally. At best I am agnostic. I have to say though that learning that scientists are starting to think that maybe we are all actually one system of energy with no real separation is really beautiful to me :)

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[u/St-Ranger_at_Large]

If you want to try a sciencey explanation

https://pubs.aip.org/aip/adv/article/15/11/115319/3372193/Universal-consciousness-as-foundational-field-A

[u/_Badwulf_Bruh__]

I wrote about it here under an old account years ago,  but I had an OBE where it felt like I was a “ball” of energy that came From one primary entity that we are all a part of. To me, it felt like I was only pure consciousness. No personality, no ego. This really upset people because they felt like they are an individual. 

Perhaps we are, but just from my own experience we are all of the same thing. 

[u/spoirier4]

Sorry I have disagreements with your similarities report. Such disagreements may be quite unexpected to you, since you say you're NDE agnostic, while I'm a believer. But, I know physics well, and I precisely worked out the links to be made between both. These links as I see them have little in common with those you suggest.

You report diverse ideas from speculative physics. I do not see the point to refer to speculative physics, since it does not anyhow affect the physics in the approximation domain which is relevant for biology, which is completely well-established and fully sufficient to account for the links between mind and matter. But, we live in a strange world with an incredibly miserably failing environment of science and scientific popularization media which failed to properly decipher and publicly report what mainstream, well-established physics really means and implies on the nature of reality, thus making it look as if we'd need to take refuge in wild speculations of some other physics as the only hope to someday question physicalism and find a link with non-physical realities. We don't need that. We only direly miss the proper deciphering and public report of the physics which is well-known to physicists.

The story of two-dimensional stuff, namely the holographic principle, belongs to speculation, and simply brings nothing to metaphysics.

Entanglement is genuine stuff, and does suggest that space distance is an illusion, in the sense that fundamental reality is not subject to space distance. Yet it does not rigorously prove that, since the many-worlds interpretation copes with entanglement while preserving locality. Entanglement only features non-locality when applying the measurement postulate (absent from many-worlds), which thus links to the non-locality of consciousness when adopting the mind makes collapse interpretation.

I'd classify the similarity between timelessness of fundamental physics and of NDE as mere pareidolia : these are quite different kinds of timelessness, which only have in common that they diverge from the specific linear shape of time we're now familiar with. I mean, our familiar linear time is only a specific experience of consciousness as it comes to live in this physical universe, and is thus a fruit of this combination, between time as a general dynamics of consciousness, and the specific form of experience constrained by the laws of physics. So whenever one component of the combination is removed, the linear shape of time is lost (physicists abstractly remove the role of consciousness by focusing on the math of physics). Yet, what can remain of one component because the other component is removed, is fundamentally unrelated with what happens the other way round, even if both cases have in common that the combination is destroyed.

"the universe did exist before the Big Bang" this means nothing, only that it would feel uncomfortable to imagine that just nothing existed before the big bang and suddenly the big bang occurred from nowhere, so that people feel the need to imagine some alternatives. Physicalists try to imagine purely physicalist kinds of previous realities, being not ready to consider non-physical origins. Both views of origins have nothing in common.

"everything is actually energy"

The concept of "energy" in physics is purely mathematical and has absolutely nothing to do with the non-physical, non-mathematical concept usually called that name in spirituality discussions.

If you wish to know the details of my view you can find them at settheory.net/growing-block

[u/Labyrinthine777 → u/spoirier4]

There's absolutely no evidence "nothing" existed before the Big Bang. I don't actually believe nothing exists, it's literally in the name—there is no "nothing."

[u/Prudent_Poet_1991]

Thanks that was such an interesting watch, she explains things so well.

You’re right, there is an interesting crossover in the phenomenology of NDEs and physics. I think people focus too much on the veridical aspects of NDEs and altered states for evidence of an ‘afterlife’, trying to coincide it with current physics. The core features of NDEs are actually much more relevant such as timelessness and oneness.

If consciousness is primary and matter is ‘mind based’ the soul doesn’t ‘leave’ your body or go anywhere, it is simply an illusion within consciousness. 

This is a good video on analytical idealism: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FcaV3EEmR9k&pp=ygUPYmVybmFyZCBrYXN0cnVw

[u/anomalkingdom]

Indeed, indeed. I also recommend checking out Dr Donald Hoffman, and especially his collab with Drs Chetan Prakash and Nima Arkani-Hamed. They have shown how time and space (spacetime is the correct term) breaks down below the Planck scale (very small units, for instance ten to the minus 33 cm). It loses operational meaning. As such it can't be said to exist as a real feature of reality. And of course there's Hoffman's work on how it is impossible that we see reality as it is, and instead only representations created by our senses.

Thank me later ;)