A: The video portion embedded below addresses this issue from the perspective of Swami Anubhavananda. Below the video some important points have been raised and explained.

If embodied soul is just a concept and in reality there is only one soul/consciousness expressing via different points of observations, let us see how can we explain things like i) NDEs ii) Out of body experiences iii) Past lives (assuming these reports to be true). When consciousness expresses itself as mind through the body, we have a human. Generally, a human has the point of consciousness (point of observation) located at the forehead (try watching something at some distance and notice if you feel as if you yourself have gone far). In some situations (when the left brain is affected in certain manner) this point of observation can change. When this happens strange experiences (epiphanies) can take place and things unknown earlier can be known. Many people having NDEs say that the time is not linear in that realm and that if at all they notice past lives they are not really past lives as they happen all at once. It is more like parallel lives than past lives. This means that if a boy A claims that he had past life as B and is able to tell many things about B correctly, it is possible that he could know about boy B by having different point of observation or identical point of observation as that of B. Many people having NDEs say that they were seeing the things as if they were seeing from the top. This is possible if the point of observation changes and moves towards the ceiling of the room. It is also possible that one point of observation expands and no longer remains as point as it gets detached from the body. Since, it is just consciousness which is responsible for everything, it should be possible to know almost everything by change of the point of observation. It is just that it is not easy to change the point of observation. Moreover, consciousness is the knower and hence does not require senses to know things unless it is expressing through the body. People having NDEs report of knowing things in the other realm without physical body and senses.