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the incidence of NDE is only 30 percent of those revived. I haven't heard of any of these, but I did have one woman who almost died in childbirth who said she saw Jesus.... Even Father Groechel of EWTN, when he was hit by a car and expected to die and was in a deep coma, said he remembered nothing.

On the other hand, there are too many incidents by folks not especially religious, who faced death and felt peace and a presence. This includes a lot of folks who lived through the "miracle on the Hudson" and others who faced death, but didn't have the hypoxia and drugs on board of those who died and were revived, so aren't included in the NDE experience.

I agree there is a strong cultural bias about this, and that there are a lot of reasons sceptics will not see in this a proof of life after death.

But some folks' lives change from the experience, and like falling in love, it is not easy to put into a logical box.

one more note: The movie Tombstone had Wyatt's brother not seeing anything when he died, but if you saw the whole thing, they had Doc Holliday seeing a light as he died in the hospital. I wouldn't rely on fiction to prove such things

Wyatt Earp's brother did in fact tell Wyatt he saw nothing. The report comes from sources other than a movie.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has an interesting article titled "AFTERLIFE." The article has a discussion on NDE's and gives additional websites where on can find further articles on the subject.

Once again I think a more naturalistic approach to NDE's will provide more information on their nature than will a "metaphysical" approach.

As far as I'm concerned there is too much variability in the subject matter of the reports upon which to base a theory that they represent a reality of an afterlife.