What happens after we die? Well obviously you take your last breath, your heart stops, your brain stops functio- Oh where do we go? Well, there are plenty of people who have claimed to have died and come back to life, however, it is undeniable that these stories have many common themes. The stereotypical term “seeing the light” is quite overlooked, as it is what most people see when they die.
After being caught in a lightning storm, orthopedic surgeon Tony Cicoria, unexpectedly felt his body fly backwards. Cicoria claims to have turned around and had seen his own body lying on the ground, and accepting the fact fairly easily. “Then I was surrounded by a bluish-white light … an enormous feeling of wellbeing and peace,” he told the New Yorker. “The highest and lowest points of my life raced by me. I had the perception of accelerating, being drawn up… There was speed and direction. Then, as I was saying to myself, ‘This is the most glorious feeling I have ever had’ – slam! I was back.” The touch-and-go experience was like any other.
As Young Ernest Hemmingway knew it, he was dead. Hemmingway, an American novelist, was badly injured by a deadly exploding shell on a World War 1 battlefield. He would later write a letter to home describing death as “simple”.
“dying is a very simple thing. I’ve looked at death, and really I know. If I should have died it would have been very easy for me. Quite the easiest thing I ever did.”
However, the near-death experience was anything but peaceful. The blow knocked him unconscious and landed him buried in the earth of the dugout; injuring all over his body. TIME magazine stated Ernest was “so badly wounded in a burst of shellfire that he felt life slip from his body, ‘like you’d pull a silk handkerchief out of a pocket by one corner,’ and then return. He emerged with 237 bits of shrapnel (by his own count), an aluminum kneecap, and two Italian decorations. Years later Hemmingway would recollect his experiences in his short stories.
Many times these influential experiences can lead to a permanent change in life and mindset. Thousands of survivors of these experiences tell of leaving their crippled bodies behind and encountering a place beyond everyday existence, unbothered by everything surrounding us. Depending on who you ask, the answer is always different. Does our spirit leave our body and continue to move on, Do we enter Heaven or Hell, is Reincarnation real? What really happens after we die?
