Why don't you make sure you know what it means by studying the Bible. Instead of saying,
"it could mean that the souls/spirits go back to the Heavenly Father." The answer is in the Bible and its only one interpretation.
The first thing you've got to understand, is the different ways the Bible uses the words
"spirit" and
"spirits" and in what context.
The Bible uses the word
"spirit" to mean breath of life in the context of creation and death. In
Genesis 2:7 we are told,
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." The KJV it uses the word living soul not being. So God created Adam physically but God had to breath in him the breath of life then Adam became a living being. The Bible uses breath of life and spirit interchangeably in verses about death (
Ecclesiastes 12:7; Psalms 104:29; Acts 7:59).
This spirit is the breath of the life that characterises a person. It is God who gave it to us (
Isaiah. 42:5), and it is He who takes it back when we die (
Ecclesiastes 12:7; Psalms 104:29; Acts 7:59). Nowhere in the Bible is the spirit defined as a self-conscious entity that existed before the body was created or continues after death. I explain this in more detail in
this post in my thread: Death, the State of the Dead, and Resurrection according to the Bible.
When we die the opposite of life takes place. Our spirits (breath of life) return to God and our bodies return to the dust where we came from and we stop being living beings/souls. When that happens, we have absolutely no consciousness at all. We cannot dream, hallucinate, communicate etc. NDE's happen with the living.
"... the explanation that made the most sense is ..."? Shouldn't you find out the one true answer instead of choosing from different explanations what makes more sense to you?
1 Timothy 4:1, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons."
The first Spirit mentioned in this verse with a capital S that I've underlined is talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit said some people will depart from the true faith of God and believe false doctrines of deceiving spirits and demons. Demons are fallen angels and the deceiving spirits involve both deceiving people and demons.
The Bible sometimes uses the word
"spirits" to mean angels. There are good and evil spirits in the Bible. Here are few examples:
Hebrews 1:14, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?"
Revelation 16:14, "For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
Another way the Bible uses the word
"spirit" is to define us as individuals and what characters we have. We read about people with a
“haughty spirit” (
Proverbs 16:18),
“spirit of jealousy” (
Numbers 5:30),
“spirit of wisdom” (
Exodus 28:3),
“spirit of the world” (
1 Corinthians 2:12),
“gentle spirit” (
1 Corinthians 4:21), etc. These are all character traits that express the nature of a person, what a person has become. Because we have spirit, a life force, we are able to direct our lives, to be architects of it, to develop our own characters with or without God. When we die God preserves our characters, and at the resurrection we are brought back to life with the character that we had developed before we died.
The deceiving spirits in
1 Timothy 4:1 include people who deceive in terms of their characters. But they are not dead since dead people cannot do anything under the sun including lying.
2 Corinthians 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."
The verse says we will all be judged. That includes both dead and alive and this harmonises with what the whole Bible teaches from the Old to the New Testament about judgement. Biblically, every single person that has ever lived on this earth is going to be judged.
If you believe that NDE's could be a spiritual experience beyond the physical world then I'm sorry to break it to you, that is occult teaching because its not from the Bible is it? It is a variation of what occultism teaches. Just like purgatory is a different variation of what occultism teaches. Its all false doctrine. The Bible is very clear that a person cannot be dead physically and their spirit be alive somewhere else.
As I also posted before one can believe in Jesus with the wrong doctrine. In fact most Christians do but that doesn't make it right. Wrong doctrine is very dangerous and demonic because it keeps us from understanding God as we should. It distorts who God really is.
John 16:13 says,
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." The Holy Spirit won't guide us into half truths, it will be all truth. Biblically mixing truth with error or light with darkness is wrong. The Bible says,
“A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (
Galatians 5:9).
"Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent looking and, therefore, more dangerous. God hates such a mixture! Any error, or any truth-and-error mixture, calls for definite exposure and repudiation. To condone such is to be unfaithful to God and His Word and treacherous to imperiled souls for whom Christ died." -H. A. Ironside
Plus the Bible tells us to expose deception,
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them" (
Ephesians 5:11).
No one not even doctors know why these experiences happen. We have to accept that certain things are unexplainable and we will never understand them in this world. If we make it to eternal life with Christ, we will understand many things that baffled us in this world.
You've read some of my threads and posts. I don't just quote scripture. I try to explain it as much as I can (as I've done here) and when I can't, I quote other people who do a better job of explaining than I can. Its the reason why a lot of my posts are long (like this one). Its also the reason why I have entire threads on one subject from the Bible. However some Bible passages are self explanatory.
Remember though that understanding scripture is something the Holy spirit helps us with and guides us to. A person has got to be willing to understand God's truth, be willing to study the Bible and to invite God through prayer for the Holy Spirit to help them understand His Word and to be able to discern truth from error.