Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Secular Spectrum

Home
Nonreligious
Riding the Hippocampus Hobby-Horse with Santa and the Coca-Cola Polar Bears

Riding the Hippocampus Hobby-Horse with Santa and the Coca-Cola Polar Bears

Last updated on: January 12, 2016 at 4:52 pm by Stephanie Savage

Riding the Hippocampus Hobby-Horse with Santa and the Coca-Cola Polar Bears 2016-01-12T16:52:19-05:00 Stephanie Savage

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It was some time before I realized that my coma-dream was a form of near-death experience (NDE). In fact, it wasn’t until I began researching my Skeptical Inquirer article, “Covert Cognition, My So-Called Near-Death Experience.“ The original premise of the piece was that I didn’t have an NDE because I was an atheist who had a completely secular upbringing.

But as I learned about NDEs, I began to realize that my coma-dream had many parallels with the classic elements of NDEs. For instance, I didn’t have a life review, but almost all of my serialized dream segments were inspired by my childhood experiences and influences.

I strolled through a condensed landscape of my favorite places when I was a young girl. There was the zoo, where I watched miniature zoo animals holding a tea party. The elephant held the teapot with its trunk. I said, “It must be a kid’s show,” as if that would explain it. Dream logic. This scene reflected another childhood element—my love of funky 50s Sci-fi films, like Attack of the Puppet People, with its miniaturized people.

The zoo ran into Monkey Jungle—the Miami primate zoological park—which in my imagination had folded, yet still held a few monkeys roaming free. In reality, Monkey Jungle is miles away from the Miami Zoo, and it’s still open. But like the monkeys in my dream, the imagination is unbounded.

People who were raised with religion have religious imagery and ideas embedded in their unconscious. That’s why a few atheists have recanted their unbelief after their day trip to Heaven. This is also the reason alien “abductees” tend to draw similar images of their alien captors. Has anyone ever seen a Gray who has never viewed a depiction of them before? Hmm…what else do people do in their sleep? They frequently report feeling paralyzed as the aliens grab them. That’s telling.

There’s a form of REM intrusion—mixed dream states combining waking and sleeping consciousness—called sleep paralysis. It’s terrifying by all accounts, like something dreamed up by Edgar Allen Poe. You’re lying there awake, yet you can’t move a muscle. That’s because your body is immobilized as if it’s still in the dream state even though you’re conscious. But perhaps not fully conscious.

I once dreamed that I was abducted by aliens. The aliens sucked me up right through the ceiling. And the upstairs neighbors never even noticed. When I awoke, the ceiling was whole, as if it had never happened.

Though that dream didn’t involve sleep paralysis, I’m well familiar with another form of REM intrusion, lucid dreaming. For me, it often occurs when something bad happens. All my teeth suddenly fall out, and I think, “Thank goodness this is only a dream.” The teeth then magically reassemble in my mouth. Whew.

Being a writer, I sometimes edit dreams simply because what’s happening is contrary to reality. Duh, it’s a dream! I did this on numerous occasions in my coma-dream, such as in my ice cream-churning Big Wheel segments. In that serial dream, I was peddling around in a low to the ground trike that churned ice cream in the back. Sometimes when I did this, I was a polar bear cub. A couple of times, I thought, “I’m not a polar bear. I should be human.” Like something out of a fairy tale, I instantaneously transformed into a human being. In times like this, I wish I could tell my brain to shut up. This is fun!

The REM intrusion theory was what finally convinced me that my coma-dream was in fact an NDE. Yes, it was a dream…and so are all NDEs. Kevin Nelson, a Professor of Neurology at the University of Kentucky, conducted a study of 55 NDErs. Fully 60% of the subjects were prone to forms of REM intrusion. Only 24% of the non-NDEr controls had ever had experienced REM intrusion.

Admittedly, this was a small study, but NDEs are difficult to study. After all, they rarely occur in laboratory settings. Professor Nelson lays out his REM intrusion theory more fully in his book, The God Impulse. To sum up his thesis, it’s no coincidence that NDEs are so surreal and dreamlike. They’re triggered by the same brain structures involved with dreams. People with a predilection for blended dream states are more likely have an NDE. This is especially true when their brains are in crisis, as the flight-or-flight survival mechanisms kick in.

Wikimedia Commons; Museum of Asian Art, Berlin

Dreams access the brain’s memories, but not its logic centers. My form of REM intrusion circumvents that because it involves the waking mind invading the dream state.

If I had been raised with religion, my possible demise might have brought forth comforting religious imagery. Popular conceptions of Heaven would’ve abounded. Not coincidentally, Christians hang with Jesus in their NDEs; Hindus walk arm in arm in arm in arm with Vishnu. And Christian’s never see Ganesh…unless they’ve been munching on magic mushrooms. My brain fed me soothing images from a happy, carefree time in my early, godless childhood, as I rode a hippocampus hobby-horse of the mind.

Upon awakening, too many of the faithful can’t accept that the seeming reality of their NDEs was due to this blending of brain states. Their desire to believe overwhelms any critical thinking. Just as lucid dreaming involves reality invading dreams, their religious fantasy world takes over their waking mind, as they accept unreality without a filter of doubt. That is, after all, what religion does.

But then, there is this account of a comatose NDE told by Discus member NoAZPhilsPhan. I found it in the discussion about a news article concerning Claire Wineland, who experienced her own coma-dream. Here’s what he had to say about his experience.

I was in a 10 day coma, medically induced the last few days, after I passed away on the OR table during emergency surgery. Many of my organs, like my kidneys shut down. I remember walking down a very, very wide hallway. On each side there were massive doors that opened up to beautiful scenes like valleys, fields with lakes, tropical beaches and the like. I remember hearing someone playing the guitar and singing, over and over again, “Knock, knock, knockin’ on Heaven’s door”. After a little while I realized it was a dear departed friend of mine who was a musician so I said “Bob, is that you?” (I could not see him only hear him). He said “Yea, it’s me buddy, but we don’t need you right now why don’t you go home.” So I turned around and walked back.

A fairly typical NDE, so far, albeit with a deceased friend instead of a family member and featuring a shout-out to Bob Dylan. But that was far from the only bit of pop culture in his NDE. And here is where he shows himself to be a natural skeptic.

I had many people say to me that it was an afterlife experience. I’m not so sure of that because all of this happened around Christmas time and during my coma I also helped Santa Claus deliver presents to Norway and England. Oh, by the way… those soda drinking polar bears are real as well…. I met them and we went sledding.

For believers, his experience poses a conundrum. If Heaven is for real, is it also for the unreal?

Image: YouTube screen-shot

Atheism

critical thinking

Near-Death Experience

alien abduction

near-death experience

REM intrusion theory

Previous Post

December 5, 2015

The Passion of the Frost

Next Post

December 17, 2015 Because the Bible Tells Me So

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Ableism Activism Addiction and Recovery Agnosticism Anti-intellectualism Arts Atheism Beauty Catholicism Charles Darwin Children China Christianity Church/State separation churchgoing communication compassionate humanism Creationism critical thinking Culture death disaster response doubt education Egypt Entertainment Environment ethics evolution Existence of God Exploration fear Foundation Beyond Belief Free speech God Health History Human rights humanism identity India Interfaith Islam labels Language LGBT Love Meaning Media Medicine Middle East misconceptions mixed belief marriage Moral argument Morality Myths Near-Death Experience Nonreligious parenting Parody Persecution complex Philosophy Poetry Politics prayer Psychology Rationality Religion religious atheists Religious privilege Republican Party Satire Schools science secular parenting Spirituality The Unpigeonholeables Uncategorized United Kingdom Wonder

Select a Month March 2021 August 2020 March 2020 January 2020 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 June 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who interpreted a dream about a tree that reached heaven?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Daniel Ezekiel Amos Joel