George's thread triggered this thought.

When you heart stops, you are dead by many standards.
I have acquaintances that have had cardiac arrest and been revived from a flatline.
I pleased I never joined that group so far.
Do we still have any on the forum?

I have an acquaintance named Dave who worked out at White sands in the desert.
It's a 45 minute drive into work.. About halfway there his chest tightened up and he was having a heart attack.
He turned around and drove back to the hospital in Alamogordo. They gave him a life flight to Las Cruces 75 miles away.
He died twice on the flight.

 

Did he see the other side? Of course no everyone believes in that but I do.

I've never been close to dying.

 

Never close and hope I never get close.

 

I have personally met two people who have clinically died (both in a hospital setting) and have described an afterlife. In addition, they described what happened in the OR/ER including conversations in rooms down the hall. They both said the doctors and nurses confirmed those observations and said it was impossible for them to know what they accurately discussed.

I tried to find a study I just read a little over a week ago that looked at a number of clinically dead people and reports of after death consciousness. They verified the patients responses with medical staff to check the accuracy of statements. Not everyone who "died" and came back had those experiences. However, of those who did, they were perfectly accurate 92% of the time and the rest were around 60% accurate with only one detail not quite right.

Most reported going through some sort of tunnel after observing the surroundings of their "death". They said they had a life review and everything was analyzed quickly and completely, outside of time. They were all told their time was not up and they had to go back.

 

I never thought of the afterlife much in the past, growing up in a strict Roman Catholic family you were just forced to believe what was taught in religious classes. As an adult I have come to believe in the afterlife through some experiences and interactions, not just because someone told me one existed or that it was written in a book.

I now think we spend too much time grieving the loved ones who have passed away, as we will all be together again in the future, I think the ones who have passed tend to be in a better place and at peace and if they had ailments here in our world they are free of the ailments in the afterlife.

Our time on earth is very small , so we have a lot to look forward to once we leave this world. No need to be sad for those who passed, the celebration of life is the best way to appreciate loved ones who pass. I never want to go to an Italian funeral again, they got it all wrong, with crazy overwhelming grief and sadness, it is so very depressing.

 

I would be happy to never attend another funeral in my life. Morbid, sad, and chances are the deceased would not approve. I much prefer a celebration of life.

I've never had a near death experience. Thankful for that.

 

I have not died but I have had a surgeon tell me that if i hadn't had the bypass surgery the next pain I felt in my chest would have been the last. He said i would be dead before I hit the ground!

 

Hopefully you never have to attend a funeral of anyone with an Italian background, and the Portuguese are very similar (my wife's ethnicity). I've been to funerals where older Italian mothers have lost children, and they had to be held back from trying to jump into the grave as the coffin was being lowered into the ground. The grieving can be over the top. We were so concerned about my mother at my sister's funeral that my other sister (a nurse) gave her a sedative to reduce her stress level. It worked.

 

Given you bypass history, you were one of the people who I was thinking of when I wrote this.
I think of Harry as well.

 

A number of the after death experiences also detail somewhat mind bending views of unpleasantness because of a life not well spent. Those individuals have a real turnaround when they come back. Good thing they did and had time again to set things right for eternity.

I know well everyone has varying views of our purpose in life, the afterlife, and belief in God. All I will say is I approached things from the logic of the certainty of death and the varied potential outcomes shaped by our choices. It seemed to me the only world view that avoided a possible catastrophic outcome was a search for God. I was shocked at how real and personal that God, and Saints, made themselves known to me in real, physical and supernatural ways to this former skeptic.