In this article we are going to examine the near death experience, and take a closer look at the explanations, and potential implications they may have in revealing what may await us all after we die. So if you are curious as to what may happen after death, read on as we explore this fascinating topic in a bit more detail!

The notion that we survive our bodily death is clearly not a new one. All societies and most religions have some sort of model for eternal life, a heaven, a hell and some form of perpetual life force.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is one of the earliest and most complete examinations of the human body, soul, and its transition from this life, to the next. Is this simply a "feel good" sort of story that we all want to believe, or could there truly be hard science applied to this pursuit?

Many scientists right now are engaged in exactly that: The pursuit of "hard evidence" that would support the notion that the human spirit does indeed survive the death of the physical self!

Let's take a quick look at some of the phenomena that may be suggestive that there is a bit more going on than the power of wishful thinking. Advances in medical technology have allowed an increasing number of patients to be resuscitated, or brought back from the brink of physical death.

Studies have shown, and many doctors have acknowledged, that approximately 20% of those who have been clinically dead DO report something that resembles a traditional nde, complete with a tunnel of light, a life review, seeing deceased relatives, and many other common elements. Often time's patients will describe things happening at a distance, in corridors or hallways that would be completely outside their field of view.

Many times a person having an nde will "come back" with information from a deceased relative they reported to have seen, that is later verified and would seemingly have been impossible for them to have known. Studies are taking place right now, by real scientists, in Emergency Rooms throughout the world, documenting and meticulously analyzing the information gleaned from these extraordinary encounters.

Of course there are skeptics, and people who believe the totality of the experience is relegated to a dying, desperate brain, eager to trick its "owner" into thinking better things await on the other side. But the more nuanced the science becomes, and the more researchers understand about the human brain, the less plausible many of these explanations seem to be.

Many have reported these rich, lucid and transformational experiences while having no brain activity at all, and nothing in the present model of brain science could explain how these people could have had any thoughts, let alone ones so powerfully transformational that their world view will never be the same.

It's exciting stuff for sure, regardless of what side of the spiritual street you fall. And it's one that we may never have a satisfactory consensus opinion on either, at least while we're still alive! The implications of course are simple, if you believe the NDE experience is real, our lives may indeed have far more purpose, and a lot longer spiritual shelf life than we may have previously imagined. And that's an interesting thought to ponder for sure. I know it is for me!