At The Hour of Our Death

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1657919,00.html

The first argues that an NDE is a purely physiological phenomenon that occurs within an oxygen-starved brain. "There's nothing mysterious about NDEs," says Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. "Many people want it to be a religious, paranormal or supernatural phenomenon. The fact that NDEs can be explained scientifically detracts from the mystique."

This article argues that many people have similar near death experiences involving light and euphoria and that these experiences may or may not be able to be explained scientifically.