Interesting stuff.

I'll give it a read later. I've always found NDEs fascinating. Especially reading Jung's personal experience and learning of the psychological changes after one.

I don't think these hallucinations are exclusive to those going through physiological trauma. I know people that have experienced some of these things hours and days after they've lost a really close loved one (brother, mother, etc). I would hypothesize that this would be related to the abnormal dopamine function noted in the essay. Death is such a heavy and permanent thing that it has a very real physiological effect(for those of you that have experienced this can attest to it being akin to being "hit in the gut").

I love the wording of this passage:

A visual disorder, such as glaucoma, can also result in loss of peripheral vision leading to tunnel vision. Indeed, such tunnel vision is associated with extreme fear and hypoxia (i.e. oxygen loss), two processes common to dying.

Pity the people who need to read this are the kinds who distrust (and will generally dismiss) science if it contradicts their superstitious beliefs.