Near-death and out-of-body experiences arise from living brains re-awakening, not from souls escaping into an afterlife. Early-phase near-death experiences show dream-like illogicality consistent with loss of cortical control, while late-phase experiences reflect conscious awareness intruding into subconscious mentation. Tunnel phenomenology results from vestibular-generated sensations combined with restored circulation to visual centers. Out-of-body experiences stem from central vestibular activity in dormant patients, producing bodily reduplications and sensed presences. The spiritual interpretations offered by authors are inconsistent with classical Judaeo-Christian accounts of divine disclosure. The experiences, abruptly terminating as consciousness erupts, are transient and originate from reawakening, not moribund, brains.
Near-death and out-of-body experiences do not prove existence without a functioning brain. Despite expectations that cardiac patients would report seeing strategically placed markers during resuscitation, no corroborative empirical evidence for extra-corporeal cognition has emerged. These experiences occur as consciousness returns, not during brain death, and the memory required for recall is set down at that return. Most recollections are geo-physical, anthropomorphic, banal, and dream-like, offering nothing revelatory about life without a brain. With prevalence rates below 1% globally, subjects may have predisposed brains, and the experience itself may be a transient epiphenomenon similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.