well i did some research on that NDE stuff and i got a really great answer!
it seems that each NDE is strongly biased toward whatever religion or culture the person grew up with...for instance an atheist who grew up with Christianity would have a christian sentiment in his NDE,But if he was Muslim he would have a Islamic NDE and see Islamic figures,and so on with Catholicism and Mormon and all that crap
And yes this has been studied and tested on people
so it's all crap basically.when your in a state of NDE your brain is going totally fucking insane and haywire so it's common that it would conjure up visions of your childhood religion,or the religion you are in right now....its kinda like a dream conjured by the brain when it's confused and hurting.
and it also goes through extreme pain...explaining the whole..."i went to hell bit"