That was an interesting read.
My grandfather "died" of a heart attack in 1974. Cardiac arrest for some 4 minutes (estimated). He, being rather UN-religious, experienced nothing but complete darkness during his unconciousness. He was jump started with an adrenaline shot, and recalled the aftermath of that quite well. "Like being cut to pieces and every piece tortured seperatly" he said. It was the kick of his blood running again after a standstill.
Anyway, he was dead for long enough to get a slight brain damage, yet not long enough to "experience" the other side.
So, that was his case. I had a different one, and managed to make a proper fool out of myself because of it.
You see, I sometimes see dead people.
Sounds like a cliche, but really, I am serious!
I know of two cases. The first one was a guy I used to work with. I was at his place (big family) and briefly met him, - just a mere salute as he passed me. I recall that I could not smell him as usually (his work left him with a definate odour). Anyway, some month or two later, I got the news that the guy had actually been dead for a year!!!
A second time was just a rough year ago. I had to go to the bank, and I noticed this old guy I know sitting in the passenger seat of his car. I waved, but he did not see me. He did not look too well, but he was quite old.
A few months later (maybe 2), I was dining with his grand daughter and her husband. I asked how the old guy was, only to get an uncomfortable answer. He died a year ago. I had missed that one.
One's brain may fail at times, but in this case I think it was nothing of the sort. Especially the first encounter, it was close, and took some few seconds. (I saw the guy after just getting his boots on). So, Ghosts I guess, which would mean some sort of an after-life.
Just my little input. I've had much more, but these two are the ones where I openly made a fool of myself, - in other cases I managed to hide it.