MarioWorldGamer

During hallucinations and near death experiences, you can experience certain experiences and mental states you had in the past. These experiences and mental states can be brought back to you during a hallucination. But can this also include the altered and strange mental states we experienced in our dreams and nightmares? In nightmares, for example, you are able to experience these completely altered mental states which are horrible. There is no way to describe what they are like. They are entirely new experiences unlike any other. So I am wondering if these mental states can also be brought back during a hallucination/nde. I am wondering if these mental states can only be experienced during the dream state or if they can actually be experienced during a hallucination/nde during your waking life.

I don't even think therapy can resolve something like this. That depression in my nightmares was beyond anything imaginable and any therapy to try and help me not worry about experiencing that again during an nde might not work. It is too much for me to not be worried and troubled by for any possible therapy to help. If that depression wasn't all that bad and was nothing more than just something very unpleasant, then therapy would help and I would no longer be worried. I don't know where to turn to. I am traumatized and very troubled by this. The idea that I could possibly be fully conscious and experience that is the worst thing imaginable to me. I don't know for sure if you are fully conscious during negative ndes or not like you said. I have no definite proof. Not knowing the definite answer has me troubled by the possibility that I could be fully conscious and experience that level of depression. So that is why I am instead trying desperately to ease my mind here. You say that the negative experiences happen after the blissful experiences and are not mixed in. But I don't think this is true. For example, when someone has a blissful and peaceful nde in which they go through a tunnel into a heavenly realm, they then have a life review and experience painful emotions as painful flashbacks are witnessed during the life review. After which, the person will experience bliss afterwards again and more unpleasant feelings mixed in as well.

My concern was with the negative ndes which you said were nightmares. You come to this conclusion based on the fact that the brain produces endorphins in the near death state and that it is impossible to experience unpleasant feelings such as depression and misery. But I'm not sure you should come to such a simple conclusion because people have mixed experiences during their blissful ndes. They experience pain and misery during their blissful ndes. So maybe there are brief moments where the endorphin release stops since painful experiences are obviously getting through somehow. Something is allowing these painful experiences to get through.

Now there are people who have ndes just from knowing that they are about to die and there are those fully conscious who have them just from severe stress in their lives. So I don't think that they would be dream states in these situations. Also, does neuroscience say for sure that ndes are lucid dreams and not conscious waking states? If so, could you link me to the website that says this?

So you are agreeing with me that ndes are not dream states since people who have distressing ones sometimes end up with PTSD.

I tried my best to ease my mind here, but this is now in a therapist's hands.

Do other neuroscientists say that negative ndes are not nightmares and that they are waking states more wakeful than conscious reality? If so, I would have to remain unsure as to whether what you say is true or if what they are saying is true. I can read and study all I want, but I will always remain agnostic both on this issue as well as the issue of the afterlife/paranormal.

People will say different things. Some would say what you said while others would say that it really was a conscious state greater than waking life and not a lucid dream. If that is the case, then to experience that horrible depression that is as powerful as my nightmares while fully awake, then that is the worst thing imaginable to me and I can't stop worrying about it. I am open to what you said, but remain open to what others say as well. I am even open to the idea that the soul leaves the body and visits other realms in a hyper conscious state. If I knew for an absolute fact that I have nothing to worry about and that it would all be nothing more than like one of my bad nightmares, then I wouldn't worry. But since I remain open to other interpretations, then I remain worried since this means that the possibility that I am worried and troubled by could be true.

These were people under cardiac arrest. They say they were in hell or an empty void in which they felt torment and despair worse than their nightmares. They say it was more wakeful than normal waking life. Some do report reliving negative life experiences whether it be through a life review or a flashback. Also, what I am concerned about is experiencing depression at the level I did in my nightmares during an nde. I am concerned about experiencing that all over again just as bad or even worse than my nightmares. I was also really concerned whether ndes were waking experiences more wakeful than normal waking life as people claim them to be because if they are, then to experience that level of depression I did in my nightmares while fully awake and aware of this horrible experience would be the worst thing imaginable to me which is why I cannot just let it go and not worry about it.

That's strange because I heard that people who have had hellish or distressing ndes say that negative emotions were more intense than their worst nightmares.

I have another question. How much more intense are negative emotions such as hopelessness during a hellish or distressing near death experience than what is experienced in a nightmare?

But assuming they aren't conscious experiences, then any powerful negative emotions I might experience during a hellish or distressing nde should have a powerful effect on me like they do in my nightmares? As a matter of fact, I heard that emotional experiences during ndes are more powerful than what is experienced in dreams and nightmares. So considering this, if I ever have a hellish or distressing nde, then it should be worse than even my worst nightmares since the negative emotions will be far more powerful.

But let's assume for a moment that near death experiences really are conscious states greater than normal waking consciousness, if I were to have a hellish or distressing nde, then would I have that power and resistance against any powerful negative emotions experienced? I mentioned earlier how in my waking conscious state that I seem to have power over my feelings in such a way that they can't effect me as they did in my nightmares even if they were to somehow be just as intense in my waking life as in my nightmares.

But what about the rat studies which pointed out that rats had brain activity greater than waking consciousness: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/08/12/211324316/brains-of-dying-rats-yield-clues-about-near-death-experiences

But near death experiences are not like dream states. They are fully awake (conscious) states since people who have them report that things were more real than real (that they were more awake than normal wakefulness).

But if I were to ever have a hellish or distressing near death experience in which those feelings will be just as powerful as in my nightmares, then will they still not effect me as they do in my nightmares since I would still be fully conscious during an nde? As long as I am conscious, then shouldn't those feelings, no matter how powerful they are, not effect me like they did in my nightmares?

I'm not sure about this. I had a nightmare with horrible depression and that feeling lingered on in my waking life. Even if you were to go and intensity that feeling just as it was in that nightmare, I don't think it would be as bad as it was in that nightmare. Me being fully awake and conscious somehow gives me power over my feelings so that they don't have such an effect on me as they do in nightmares even if they were to be just as strong in my waking life as in my nightmares. I'm not sure how to explain this. Perhaps certain brain regions are turned off during the dream state. These would be the brain regions that allow me to be resistant to feelings so that they don't have such an impact. So maybe when I am fully conscious, those brain regions are turned on and I have far more resistance to those feelings. So that being the case, would I also have this sense of power over my feelings during a hellish or distressing near death experience as well since I would also be fully conscious during these experiences? Or would my feelings have power over me as they do in my nightmares?

Thank you. I will see a mental health professional for help. The reason I came here was to ask the question if being fully aware of the experience would be worse than being less aware during a nightmare. I was wondering if having full awareness somehow makes the experience worse. It is a scientific question which is why I came to this science forum.

The reason this worry has completely taken my life away from me is because I can't let it go. I absolutely cannot let this go since that depression I experienced in those nightmares was beyond anything imaginable and to experience that again fully conscious and aware during a hellish or distressing near death experience has completely troubled me. There is no way I can let something like that go and just enjoy this life. I am thinking that being fully aware and conscious of the experience during a near death experience would obviously be far worse than being less aware of it during a nightmare. That is something that has completely and seriously troubled me. I can hardly function in life.

I have had horrible depression in my nightmares and if I ever have a hellish or distressing near death experience someday, I could experience that same level of depression while fully awake since people who have near death experiences are fully conscious during these experiences. I am seriously troubled by this because I wonder if being fully conscious (aware) of that horrible depression during a near death experience would be worse than being less conscious (aware) of the experience as in during a nightmare.

I am talking about near death experiences in which people are fully conscious during these experiences and experience negative emotions just as intense as they would in their nightmares. My question is, if these are the exact same emotional experiences (one from a nightmare and another during the near death experience) and they are both just as intense, then would it be worse during the near death experience since the person is fully conscious (aware) of the experience? Does being fully aware of the experience make it worse? Or would it be just as bad as during a nightmare even though there is less awareness during a nightmare?

I also have another question. If you have a horrible emotional experience in a nightmare, you are not fully aware of that experience since you were not fully conscious. But it was still obviously a horrible experience. But if you were to be fully awake and have that exact same emotional experience just as you did in that nightmare (both the same type of feeling and the same intensity level), would that experience be worse since you are fully aware of it? Or would it be just as bad as what you experienced in your nightmare? I ask this question because I wonder if being fully aware (conscious) makes the experience worse since you are fully aware of that experience.

I've had horrible nightmares and I don't wish to experience those feelings just as they were in my nightmares during a near death experience. Some people who have ndes have distressing ones in which they experience those feelings just as they were in their nightmares. I was wondering if the prefrontal cortex being offline during the dream state makes emotional experiences during nightmares worse than they would be in waking life. When, for example, I am fully awake and my prefrontal cortex is on, then any unpleasant emotional experiences I have here in my waking life are just simply unpleasant experiences no matter how intense they are. But the emotional experiences in my nightmares are far worse than any emotional experience I could possibly have here in my waking life and I was wondering if it has something to do with the prefrontal cortex being offline during the dream state that makes those emotional experiences worse. So if I were to have a distressing nde in which I am fully conscious during the experience where my prefrontal cortex is fully on, then I was wondering if any distressing emotional experience I were to have won't be that bad as what I would experience during my nightmares. People are more conscious than normal waking conscious during ndes and, even though they report very intense negative emotional experiences during distressing ndes, I was wondering if those emotional experiences aren't as bad as they are in nightmares since these people are more conscious than normal. Their prefrontal cortex is more active than normal.

Is it worse to experience an intense negative emotion in a nightmare or to experience that same emotion at the same intensity while awake? Does being fully conscious somehow make the emotional experience worse? Or would both emotional experiences be just as bad?

That was a bit hard for me to understand. So could you answer this question I am about to ask here with a yes or a no? Negative emotions (such as hopelessness) are said to be powerful and intense just as they are in nightmares. But the difference here is that you are not fully conscious during a nightmare while you are fully conscious during a near death experience. So does the fact that a person is fully conscious during a near death experience somehow make the experience of depression not as bad as it would in a nightmare even though the depression is just as powerful of an experience in a nightmare as it is in a near death experience?