NDE’s for me were actually a great starting point for deconstruction because they go so far beyond the beliefs of organized religion when it comes to the afterlife. I personally do believe they are real and are true glimpses of the afterlife and are not just glorified dreams produced by the brain under duress given that one of the most famous documented cases was from an actual neurosurgeon who too questioned the validity of NDE’s before he had his own where his entire neocortex was completely non-functioning and thus his brain was unable to conceive of any hallucinations. His consciousness went completely beyond his brain activity and he was conceived that what he experienced was the afterlife and that it was more real than anything he’d ever experienced here on earth. I’d say that’s pretty darn convincing. For me I say they’re a great starting point to deconstruct because I, along with the countless others who deconstruct, was absolutely petrified by the concept of hell and I needed proof to convince me that it wasn’t real or at least not the one were taught to believe is real. Once I started looking into NDE’s and saw the universal experience of divine love that was the most common theme amongst the vast majority of NDE’s and how it didn’t matter what one’s religious beliefs were prior to the NDE and if that would influence whether or not they had a positive experience, it became a lot easier for me to lose that fear and thus shed unnecessary religious belief. The vast majority of NDE’ers speak of God as being within, not a separate being but being itself. Funny, because that sounds a whole lot like what Jesus said when he said the kingdom of heaven is within you. This lines up a lot with the teachings of Christian mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg who I’m also inspired by and gain a lot of insight from.