Ispectrum Magazine Ispectrum Magazine #11 | Page 30

PSYCHOlOGICAl THEORIES AND EvIDENCES One of the earliest psychological theories for the NDE was put forward by Grof and Halifax in 1977. They were looking for a psychological explanation as to why NDE reports are so universal. Their birth - memory - activation model postulated that a close shave with death triggered repressed memories of the process of birth. After all, everyone is born in generally the same way, so that would explain why there is such consistency in NDE reports. The peace and transcendent feelings alongside the advancing through a tunnel is in fact a subjective recountance of being born and travelling through the birth canal, with the peace and light at the end representing the feeling of being born into the world. However, there are obviously major issues with this, not least that being born is a painful experience for the baby. Also, the infant does not have the capacity to remember this experience so it 43 29 Photo : ©Piku is highly unlikely that it can remain buried and be activated by the moment of death. No empirical evidence supports this theory, and scientific evidence strongly indicates that infants simply do not have the mental pro-