Are NDEs caused by false memories?
It has been suggested that NDEs are not memories of events that actually happened, but rather are “false memories,” products of the imagination. This idea comes in part from recent psychological studies suggesting that it is possible to implant false memories into research subjects so that they truly believe imaginary events actually occurred to them. However, those psychological studies that implant false memories take considerable effort to suggest to the subject that the experience really did happen, using repetition and encouragement of suggestible children to recall experiences suggested by the authoritative experimenter. If that model were used to explain NDE, who is it that is making those efforts to implant the false memories in NDErs, repeatedly suggesting to them that they had an NDE? Although I do not think implanted “false memories” are a plausible explanation for NDEs, there are real questions about how to interpret NDE accounts, especially from people who do not recall th
