science

Near-birth experience

Near-birth experience is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Near-birth experience rather than just read about it. In short: A near-birth experience (also known as a pre-birth experience or pre-mortal experience) is an alleged recollected event which occurred before or during one's own birth, or during the pregnancy, an alleged remembering of one's own pre-existence, or an alleged encounter with the unborn child (usually via dream) experienced by relatives or close family friends. Under this usage, the term "near-birth experience" is anal…

Key takeaways

Near-birth experience belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Near-birth experience to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Near-birth experience from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A near-birth experience (also known as a pre-birth experience or pre-mortal experience) is an alleged recollected event which occurred before or during one's own birth, or during the pregnancy, an alleged remembering of one's own pre-existence, or an alleged encounter with the unborn child (usually via dream) experienced by relatives or close family friends. Under this usage, the term "near-birth experience" is analogous to the term "near-death experience."

History

Psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, in 1954 researched LSD in Prague, and after 1967, he explored ketamine, and other methods for exhibiting non-ordinary states of consciousness like holotropic breathing. Grof concluded that some near-death experiences (NDEs) are virtual recollection of birth memories, actual re-experiencing of parts of the process in symbolic form, and "movement towards the light tunnel being a memory or symbolic re-experience of being born: a memory of the 'near-birth experience'." According to Grof, the NDE reflects memories of the birth process with the tunnel representing the birth canal. In 1979, science writer Carl Sagan also supported the hypothesis that near-death experiences are memories of birth. The parapsychologist Barbara Honegger (1983) wrote that the out-of-body experience (OBE) may be based on a rebirth fantasy or reliving of the birth process based on reports of tunnel-like passageways and a cord-like connection by some OBErs which she compared to an umbilical cord. The hypothesis was refuted in a statistical study by Susan Blackmore.

Criticism Psychologist Chris French has written that "the experience of being born is only very superficially similar to the NDE" and the hypothesis has been refuted as it is common for those born by caesarean section to experience a tunnel during the NDE. Psychologist and skeptic Susan Blackmore has claimed that the near-birth experience hypothesis is "pitifully inadequate to explain the NDE. For a start the newborn infant would not see anything like a tunnel as it was being born." Notable skeptic Michael Shermer has also criticized the hypothesis and concluded that "there is no evidence for infantile memories of any kind. Furthermore, the birth canal does not look like a tunnel and besides the infant's head is normally down and its eyes are closed."

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Near-birth experience

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Near-birth experience claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Near-birth experience before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Near-birth experience ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Near-birth experience

In research: Near-birth experience appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Near-birth experience in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Near-birth experience is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Paranormal terminology, Parapsychology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Near-birth experience outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Near-birth experience in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Near-birth experience means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Near-birth experience out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Near-birth experience in simple terms?

Why does Near-birth experience matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Near-birth experience?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Near-birth experience.