Death is not the end of your story! Oncologist shares real-life experiences of life after death

The belief that the soul endures beyond the physical body's cremation has intrigued humanity for centuries. From ancient scriptures to contemporary debates, the question of life after death continues to captivate the human imagination. Is there an existence beyond this one? What awaits us after we die? Across cultures and religions, many people hold firm beliefs in some form of afterlife, whether it is the concept of heaven and hell, reincarnation, rebirth, or a spiritual realm where the soul carries on, often reuniting with loved ones who have passed before.

From a purely medical viewpoint, life is defined by brain activity, heartbeat, and respiration. And so when these 3 stop, a person is dead, ceasing all and any form of life. But now, many researchers are studying near-death experiences, cases where people have been declared clinically dead but come back to life minutes later, and then define something completely unknown to them. Some scientists explain this as chemical reactions in the brain during trauma, while others believe it could suggest that consciousness exists beyond the physical body.

When it comes to life after death, different religions have their own versions. Christianity says that souls go to heaven or hell based on their faith or deeds. Hinduism says that the body is burnt but the soul takes birth again, living in another body, Buddhism talks about rebirth, and when the soul reaches enlightenment, it finally breaks free from this cycle.
And then away from religion is the near-death-experience concept, that has sparked debate about life after death.

A near-death experience, or NDE, as it is called, occurs when someone is dead for a brief period, minutes at max, but comes back to life. People who go through NDEs and then come back, talk about seeing bright tunnels or light, feel a sense of peace and detachment, talk to their deceased relatives, and more. And these experiences are surprisingly in people, be it someone from India, or the US.

Dr. Jeffrey Long, an oncologist practicing in Kentucky, has spent years treating terminally ill patients. After hearing hundreds of stories from patients who had near-death experiences, he became deeply interested in the subject, and he soon became the founder of the Near Death Experience Research Foundation.
In a conversation with Business Insider, Long talked about how one fine day, for his research, he was skimming through books, and then found a book that talked about NDE and the afterlife. And eventually, after talking to hundreds and thousands of people, he realised that these experiences are too consistent, too detailed, and too emotionally powerful to ignore.

Dr. Long elaborated about how thousands of people across the globe have had similar NDE, and they described how things were as they were dead for a certain time. They could feel the intensity, the tension around them, could hear doctors and nurses trying to bring them back to life, and much more.
People also described meeting loved ones who had passed away, often in a younger or healthier form, entering a bright tunnel of light, where they felt unconditional love and peace, and even had conversations with divine beings.
When people say that these are mere hallucinations or hear-say in people’s brain, he talks about how little children too had the same experiences.

To prove life after death is a rather difficult task, and most of the research also falls into a gray area. While people agree that the brain stays active for quite some time after death, there is also the argument that people who experienced an NDE hallucinated because of the traumatic event.