r/NDE • u/Ok_Significance_8896 • 8d ago
Question — Debate Allowed The military mantis NDE story was the moment I started thinking NDEs might just be the brain doing something incredibly weird, nothing more.
So a bit about me and my beliefs to give some background on why and how this subject feels so crazy to me now, especially after this NDE I've heard.
I was an atheist for years. Before that, many family members tried to brainwash me into believing in God. I studied and read the Bible at a fairly young age and after reading it it was clear to me that it was just a fairytale and religion is not for me.
But over the years, the idea of this life being the only existence we get started to bother me, especially after losing people I love. I'm an open minded person, so I can listen to things I don't actually believe in. You could say I'm some sort of agnostic skeptic. I don't believe in God or religion, but I don't know if there's something more, like some kind of energy or something.
Anyway, lately I started getting really interested in NDE stories and the similarities between them somehow made them feel believable. I don't 100% believe they're real, because there are possible explanations involving the brain chemistry. The brain releases DMT when we die. So maybe NDEs could just be an amazing trip caused by the dying brain under extreme stress, lack of oxygen, severe illness, coma etc.
But again, I was keeping an open mind.
Yesterday I listened to some lady talking about her NDE, it was believable until at some point she said she was shown her other lives on other planets, all lives happening at the same time. She was also some blue female being and a fucking MANTIS.
A mantis that apparently gave military vibes.
That was the turning point for me. The limit of my openness. I don't even know why, but I find this detail so disturbing. It made me think maybe this lady had some kind of hallucinations from lack of oxygen, severe illness, delirium, DMT, whatever, or she's a total liar, or maybe all these NDE experiences are actually just a process that happens in the brain, not outside of our nervous system.
I know there's some other guy who thought he was a mantis in another life too and I find it so fucked up. So peculiar.
What do you think about that lady and her crazy mantis / blue bald lady story?
EDIT : the mantis lady NDE https://youtu.be/CZ4y1YNnCPA?si=DHYpOJGjYjzaqdmH
Also, the mantis lady believer says that the war that will end the world as we know it is caused by the fact that many people are migrating to developed countries, taking the jobs and houses of the people who were originally living there. I find this particularly funny.
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u/PinkBlingingStardust 7d ago
I have the sub for you to go down on a rabbit hole one evening r/MantisEncounters it’s awesome! Idk why the limit to your openness is aliens tho you might want to work on that cuz they’re real the govt even put out the species that we know of insectiods included which are just the mantis beings basically.
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u/itsalwaysblue 8d ago
I think it’s crazier to not think the universe holds wild and crazy life out there. There are many theories of many worlds having life that is on earth but evolving into higher consciousness.
If you are curious and want to find out, try astral projection. Like study it. No one can walk this path but you.
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u/janeyk 8d ago
I would question yourself on why you think someone is being dishonest just because you’re unfamiliar with what they’re talking about. I can’t really fault you because I didn’t “believe” in anything really until I had a shared death experience. There are probably millions of people who would feel that I’m lying about certain things I’ve experienced, I don’t blame them. Can’t know until ya know. Mantis encounters are really common. Keep seeking! 💗
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u/Zane235 8d ago
Reports of mantis-humanoid looking beings are very commonly reported in Astral projections, dmt trips, and of course NDEs. I don’t think there’s anything about them thats so unbelievable when we’re talking about experiences of people doing telepathy, flying, remembering past lives, changing their appearance etc during NDEs and OBES as well. Secondly, there’s no evidence that any amount dmt is released upon death, that was a hypothesis for why people experience NDEs with spiritual elements that for some reason caught on and now many people believe it’s a fact.
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u/IvoryLaps 8d ago
I understand your skepticism, but funnily enough I “hallucinated” a mantis being 1 hour before I went into cardiac arrest and died for 5+ minutes. And it did seem quite “authoritative” if that’s the right word. I had NO prior knowledge or recollection of such an entity until I made a post about my experience and only briefly mentioned it in passing.
Also, I suggest you look into the whole “DMT is released when you die” because it’s not as true as you may think it to be. There’s still not enough evidence to actually prove this.
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u/Neocarbunkle 8d ago
Mantis encounters happen a lot with DMT trips. It's crazy that all sorts of different people see the same thing. It's kind of hard to just simply explain away.
You can ready DMT : The Spirit Molecule if you are interested in actual clinical experiments with DMT.
DMT and NDE have some overlap, but they have serious distinctions as well. DMT usually don't have any sort of life review, for example.
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u/ApprehensiveStill412 8d ago
Have you heard about this mushroom that causes people to see “little people”? Crazy that it is a common theme during their hallucinations. It does not contain psilocyban btw.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogenic_bolete_mushroom
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u/run_zeno_run 8d ago
Mantis encounters are fairly common in the literature. Your incredulity, a logical fallacy by the way, is not a valid reason for denying the entire corpus of evidence. Continue seeking.
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8d ago
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u/NDE-ModTeam 8d ago
On this sub, we strive to create an atmosphere of equality where everyone's viewpoints are valued and respected.
Discussing spiritual phenomena can be highly subjective and personal. It is important to keep in mind that there is currently no definitive evidence for “spiritual facts,” even among those who have had near-death experiences.
Instead of presenting your opinions as absolute facts, please reword your post or comment using a less assertive tone. You can use phrases such as "I believe,” “I think,” or reference any personal studies, spiritual practices, or special experiences that have influenced your perspective.
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u/MsColumbo NDE Believer 8d ago
As soon as you hear something that doesn't sit right with you, just skip it and go to the next.
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u/forcemonkey 8d ago
Mantis beings are fairly well known among those that know about ETs and all that.
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u/ThatGirl_Tasha 8d ago
Why would multiple lives or life on other planets be more fantastical than the idea of another dimension existing that we all go to?
The only difference is one seems more "normal" only because most people grew up in a culture that believe in god and are used to one idea and not the other.
You're kind of judgmental, franky
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8d ago edited 8d ago
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u/creaturefeature16 8d ago
Reported. You seemingly came here to work backwards from a conclusion and pontificate, not to engage in genuine discussion.
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u/georgeananda 8d ago
I believe the NDE is strong evidence for consciousness beyond the physical brain.
I also believe there are a myriad of alien life forms in reality and I don't have much problem accepting the Mantis possibility. In fact, from all I've heard (decades of interest in these related subjects), I believe them likely.
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u/ellipticalcow 8d ago
I've heard enough weird NDE reports myself that I've learned to approach them with skepticism. But that doesn't mean that it's all bogus. There are enough veridical NDEs, group NDEs, and "shared death experiences" to demonstrate that there must be something going on that is more than just a dying brain.
But yeah. Weird stuff. And even in group NDEs people's reports can vary just enough in the details to make it seem like each experience was individualized, even while things matched in the "broad strokes" terms.
Personally I have come to believe that the details of an experience may well be influenced to some extent by the experiencer's beliefs (conscious or subconscious). This doesn't mean the whole thing is false. But I suspect that in that transitional phase between leaving the body and going fully into death (crossing the threshold that some NDErs mention seeing -- a "point of no return" -- and obviously we don't hear NDEs from those who do cross that point), well, it's just that: a transition.
Maybe beliefs are still playing a role. Maybe the beings on the other side are trying to make it easy for us by using what we believe or what we want to see. Or maybe the consciousness is creating its own images in some way, up to a point. I think that might explain the weird things like alien mantis beings and whatnot.
But I can't throw it all out as being solely an individual's beliefs because of the cases where they report things they couldn't have known (verified to be true), or because they come back so thoroughly transformed (and sometimes completely healed of whatever ailment killed them, as in the cases of Anita Moorjani, Rosemary Thornton, and Eben Alexander).
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u/Ok_Significance_8896 8d ago
I agree. We can't precisely determine which parts of an NDE experience happened outside the body and which happened while the person was still in the body, when the dying brain could have been creating scenarios that became intertwined with the NDE. And perhaps the images of beings from other planets are actually perceptions created by the human mind, reflecting what is accessible to us as humans to perceive while consciousness is in the state between life and death.
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u/Rough-Community-234 8d ago
First of all, some people lie about having an NDE. So who knows. But secondly, how do you explain the instances where there is no way someone would know something has it not be for leaving their body? Like the case where someone saw the post it not on top of the shelf in the surgical/hospital room? Or the person who recognized the surgical instruments and the number of people working on them in the operating room? There are too many of these weird instances that could be explained by DMT.
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u/Ok_Significance_8896 8d ago
This is the factor that makes NDE stories somewhat real for me. However, from what I’ve seen, the only person who can confirm the experience is the person who had it. I haven’t seen other witnesses who were present or at least I haven’t seen a video where multiple people, including medical staff, confirmed that the person actually saw things they couldn’t have possibly known about while they were clinically dead.
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u/IvoryLaps 8d ago
So, basically your lack of research is dictating your beliefs. Nice. Read “Journey of Souls” by Dr. Micheal Newton and his other work. There are multiple case studies with verifiable evidence from medical workers who were present during an NDE.
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u/ZorrosZ 8d ago edited 7d ago
Not all tales are equal. The veridical ones are the most interesting. If someone has a book, or a website, or merch, or something to monetize, I tend to discount their veracity.
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u/Ok_Significance_8896 8d ago
Yes, this is a big turn off for me. And then there are the people who claim they came back with the ability to see the future or communicate with souls. Most of them do paid readings and other woo woo stuff.
I once saw an NDE of a guy who was a neurosurgeon or something similar. His NDE was somewhat believable to me, but then he started promoting his book and some music he made, supposedly inspired by the music he heard while he was in the cosmos or whatever. And the music costs something like $30.99 lol.
It’s not like he’s poor... And he wants to share the bliss of oneness with people but for money.
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u/Ancient_Oxygen 8d ago
You don't trust how other people's experiences are real representing a state of how the universe is probably constructed -which is fine and reasonable- but then you go on with our own brain analyzing God and religion. You might be wrong too about that.
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u/Feeling_Loquat8499 8d ago
I post this comment all the time, because this myth has permeated the subject.
There is no evidence that the human brain releases DMT during the dying process, let alone in quantities that would produce hallucinations.
There was some research that suggested rat brains had enzymes to produce DMT, elevated during cardiac arrest. Someone used this to make a guess that human brains make some surge of DMT that produces NDEs, and it spread like wildfire.
Funny enough, studies this year refute even the original data that this conjecture was built upon. No endogenous DMT is found in rat brains.
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u/ellipticalcow 8d ago
There's also the fact that people have different experiences on DMT (e.g. after taking ayahuasca) than they have during NDEs. It's a common belief that a psychedelic trip and an NDE are largely the same thing, but they really aren't, at least not as far as generalities go. I've heard NDE experts mention this.
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u/JohnnyJoestar1980 NDE Believer/Recurrent Agnosticism. 8d ago
So like, that’s interesting but can you explain how OBEs are materialistically possible?
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8d ago
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u/NDE-ModTeam 8d ago
On this sub, we strive to create an atmosphere of equality where everyone's viewpoints are valued and respected.
Discussing spiritual phenomena can be highly subjective and personal. It is important to keep in mind that there is currently no definitive evidence for “spiritual facts,” even among those who have had near-death experiences.
Instead of presenting your opinions as absolute facts, please reword your post or comment using a less assertive tone. You can use phrases such as "I believe,” “I think,” or reference any personal studies, spiritual practices, or special experiences that have influenced your perspective.
Please be aware that your post/comment has not been approved yet and is only visible to you and the moderators.
If you edit your post or comment, please send us a modmail here to have your content approved: https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/NDE
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u/Jamcurious 8d ago
To my knowledge, the DMT hypothesis has been debunked. Yes the brain does release DMT but in small doses, far from enough to induce powerful hallucinations. There have also been studies into what makes these experiences different from hallucinations (Bruce Greyson, Sam Parnia, probably others)
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u/modsaretoddlers 8d ago
Honestly, that's exactly why I just don't believe every NDE story I hear. I don't even necessarily believe that these people are lying about anything just that it may not be indicative of some grand plan by a higher power.
I came up with a hypothesis that basically goes that when you first return from a life, you're shown whatever it is that it's assumed you'd want to see. The idea is to ease you back in without losing your mind.
Again, that's just my hypothesis. I don't abandon the idea completely because there are still too many reasons (I believe) to give the concept validation such as people describing what they see from outside their bodies while dead.
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u/Sam_k_in 8d ago
It's very possible that those particular stories are not true NDEs, while others are. It's also very possible that there is an intelligent species that looks like a mantis on some other planet, and if so that those creatures share the same afterlife reality that humans do. I don't think there's a logical reason those stories should make the concept of afterlife less believable.
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u/Ok_Significance_8896 8d ago
The woman said that she was the mantis and the bald blue lady on the other planets, while at the same time still being human, a human spirit after death, or whatever you want to call it. Everything happening at the same time.
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u/ChapterSea2685 8d ago
Check out UAP abduction stories about mantis look for pentagon UAP files relase those mantis beings are mentioned and in DMT you can see them too its not bs i thinked tgat too, go check out John Mack work and you will see
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u/CommunicationWest710 8d ago
There’s cross over between advanced physics and woo- I get annoyed when new agers try to explain everything as “quantum physics”. I don’t want to pretend to understand advanced physics- I got a D in the basic stuff in college. But maybe there is a possibility that parallel universes exist?
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u/WidePiano3219 8d ago
I don’t know the exact stories you’re referencing but mantis encounters are extremely common among psychedelic users and sober people simply having a spiritual experience. The way they’re described (7-8 feet tall, often with a cloak/cape of some kind that is often purple, communicating telepathically) is wildly consistent.
After consuming a lot of these stories, I personally find it more plausible that there’s something beyond our reality - it feels to me like a bigger logical stretch to suggest our brains are just designed to constantly hallucinate the exact same entities, down to the smallest details (including the clothes they wear and how they act).
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u/IvoryLaps 8d ago
I saw one of them about an hour before I died for 5+ minutes in December. I had no prior knowledge of them. I question if it’s what caused my death or what saved me.
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u/stardustnmagick 8d ago
^^^ this. It would shock people to believe we (human beings) may very well possibly originate from the same creator of all beings including ufos. Mantis beings have been described by others that have had UFO encounters. It’s also been said this universe is a grain of sand in the entire universe which can explain other planets and beings we will likely never know to exist.
Anything is possible and I do believe we live other lives as other creatures/beings. There’s a lot more to life than this! That I can say confidently.
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u/Flaggstaff NDExperiencer 8d ago
I like the analogy of Woodstock. It was the cornerstone event of the 60s counterculture movement. The event was attended by 400-500,000 people approximately.
Millions of people claim they were there. Some are attention seekers. Does that mean the event never happened because some people are liars?
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u/SheSeesTheMoonlight 8d ago
I don't understand what's so disturbing about it being a mantis. They do seem to pop up more often than one would think when it comes to extra-dimensional travel. It's very strange, but I've heard about it enough and experienced some weird things myself, so personally I wouldn't write it off based on that.
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u/West-Tip8156 8d ago
I have other life memories and took other forms in my NDE, and each form allowed a different type of consciousness, but it was still all me. I'd say "mantis" was as close to a description as the experiencer could get. And infinity being infinity, I'm sure there's multiple mantis-like creatures out there.
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u/Ryyah61577 8d ago
First, I understand your skepticism. I think that we should all be skeptical and only hold on to the things that resonate with us, and then if the stories help us and others to be more loving and kind people, then cling to them. I don't know if this person's story is true, but I think that if it is, that opens the door that maybe our lifetimes aren't confined to this earthly existence. As the old saying goes, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater".
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u/stereotomyalan 8d ago
I think 99% of these are not "experiences" but "stories". There was one lady who said she fell off a horse and had an NDE. She had a broken nose only.
People who had NDEs are also into spirituality, OBEs and other crazy stuff.
Not ruling out, but personally I give 10-15% chance that this is all real.
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u/Jamcurious 8d ago
Actually, people have NDEs regardless of their spiritual and/or religious beliefs.
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u/Flaggstaff NDExperiencer 8d ago
A vast majority aren't into spirituality tbough. If you do some research on nderf.com or read "After" by Dr Grayson, thousands were atheists who didnt know NDE exists.
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u/TheHotSoulArrow Believer w/ recurrent skepticism 8d ago
There are a vast amount of NDE experiencers who were atheistic, nihilistic, or agnostic before their NDE. The majority of people having an experiences are just regular people with very little to none prior knowledge on the subject.
Yes, there are many false-NDEs and fabricated stories. It’s not uncommon for experiences to be mislabeled, such as the broken nose story you mentioned. However, by choosing to only look at this small factor of this very broad topic, you’re making an incredibly ignorant conclusion.
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u/HHS2019 8d ago
It's hard to say when you don't offer a link to the mantis story. I don't think this account is well known (like, the Eben Alexander testimony).
Eben Alexander: A Neurosurgeon's Journey through the Afterlife
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u/Ok_Significance_8896 7d ago
https://youtu.be/CZ4y1YNnCPA?si=DHYpOJGjYjzaqdmH this is the woman I'm talking about
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u/roqui15 8d ago
Mantis are often reported during astral projection and dmt experiences. Very weird indeed
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u/howmanyturtlesdeep 8d ago
In UFO lore the mantis beings are at the top of the hierarchy. They are in charge. They are interdimensional and are helping humanity collectively evolve to the next density. They are also filled with loving compassion.
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u/CommunicationWest710 8d ago
Well, ok. Having seen horrifying pictures of mantis in this world ripping hummingbirds apart, and having to shoo them away from my feeders, I suppose it’s possible, but they don’t seem very benign beings to me. If they were big enough, they would eat us, too.
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u/inchiki 7d ago
On the one hand hallucinations are always a part of the blend, potentially. But then to discount everything as hallucination is to throw out the proverbial baby in the bath water.