During the past few years the worldwide press has seen a virtual explosion of headlines claiming that a condition called “REM intrusion” explains near-death experiences. The media’s excitement makes it sound like a final solution. However, the people who really know NDEs say, “Not so fast.”

REM intrusion is a condition that occurs when some characteristics of the common REM sleep state—such as rapid eye movement, low muscle tone, and dreaming—activate during wakefulness. Without question, there are marked similarities between REM intrusion and NDEs, just as there are similarities with other much-hyped earlier comparisons such as temporal lobe epilepsy, oxygen deprivation, and the effects of some drugs. However, once again, what the world’s media overlooked in presenting the REM findings are their marked differences.

In this paper NDE researchers Drs. Jeffrey Long and Janice Miner Holden respond in-depth to the numerous flaws they see in the study’s methodology and findings.

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