My hypothesis on this is influenced by this article from National Geographic and this article, along with my status as a cognitive science healthcare provider.
Verified in rats and likely similar in humans, low gamma waves connecting the brain for searching memory and our sensory areas for vision and hearing may become hypersensitive because it is aware of a crisis (death). This causes sensations of light, ability to hear conversations while dead, and since the ears are involved with balance, the floating sensation.
Interesting, thanks for sharing those articles and thoughts! I got back and forth. I find neuroscience to be fascinating, and believe that much of our experience is chemical and electrical reactions, in some sense. But, I also question it - what does that even mean? I tend to take the stance of Dr. Stanislav Grof - We understand how th TV works and everything within the TV set needs to be there for the signal to come through, but you don't go looking into the TV set to find the picture. It simply does not exist.
Psychedelic research is also really fascinating and helping to shed light on consciousness research. For example, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, seems to decrease blood flow to the default mode network, which is like the "orchestrator of self." With decreased blood flow, this region of the brain simply begins to take in whatever, and has a hard time accurately predicting and making sense of the external world. This region also seems to control perception of self, ego, and etc. More information about this - Dr. Carhart-Harris
I find the science and research to be fascinating. But I always get caught up on -- ok, so we know what's going on in the brain, but what does that actually really mean? Maybe these are mechanism that need to happen to produce an experience?
I found this quote in the Atlantic article to be funny/true:
Ah, so many questions and thoughts! Thanks again for sharing!
I technically disagree with your example of the television. I argue that the image is perceivable within the television in that moment, our perception of a collection of lights produced on the screen of the television. It sounds similar to the example in the article that argues the opposite.
I assumed that quote would resonate haha. In my opinion, 100% understanding the neuroscience behind the feelings of a "soul" and a "collective consciousness" is unnecessary for benefiting from the experience. I am glad to hear it has helped you focus on living rather than wasted on fear and anxiety about death. Thanks for the discussion, looking forward to having more!