RE: My Simulation Theory Hypothesis
Personally I think option 1 is the most likely to be true. Although I'd like to believe otherwise, the history of the human race thus far does not lead me to be wildly optimistic. It would be awesome if we're actually living in a vast computer simulation like the Matrix. If we were, then perhaps dying is akin to simply waking up (assuming that we ourselves are not just sophisticated AI programs). Maybe near death experiences are glimpses of what life is really like, momentary glitches in the simulation where the user temporarily gets unplugged. Could the bright light at the end of the tunnel actually be the bright light in the room where your real body is being stored? Keep asking those questions and I see how one could get sucked very deep down the rabbit hole indeed.
Check out this 5 minute video by the BCC for a little optimism on the history of humanity:
Also, give Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined a read. It's not all bad news.
I looked into NDE's before and I think the strongest argument going for it now is the brain releases a ton of chemicals as a last ditch effort to keep things going and those chemicals create hallucinations and leave people with memories which are similar because our brains our similar. That my current thinking, anyway.
Ah, thanks for that shot of optimism. Just what I needed to kick start my Monday morning!
That explanation for NDEs seems quite plausible. Yay science for being a downer sometimes. But it's still fun to speculate about wilder alternatives. ;-)