This has been the debating question among the religious and not.  I for one have always been slightly afraid of death, but mostly because I do not know much about it, or what happens once a person dies.  I am also not super religious, I believe there might be a higher power, but I do not necessarily believe there is a “God”.  I believe in the proof of what science offers, which in several instances proves the bible to be wrong.  I also believe in fate and that everything happens for a reason.  I believe when it is your time, it is your time. 

The reason I bring this question up is because death has been brought up around me twice in the last week.  Once with a friend mentioning his near death experience, and the other, my boyfriend's grandfather passing away.  Not to mention a few of my friends with cancer and my own personal medical problems.

My friend was telling me about his near death experience when he was in the Marines.  He told me that he was over in Iraq when they were in the middle of a missile attack.  A missile blew up right where he and his guys were hiding and all of them died but him, leaving him needing massive face reconstruction, a rod in his shoulder and several broken limbs.  When he was flown into the hospital, he was in a coma for two months and in the mean time, he had reconstruction surgery and his body was healing up.  I asked him if he had remembered anything from his coma.  He told me he only remembered one thing and it was very vivid.  He told me that he was dreaming that he, his cousin, his Marine friends and his twin brother were all playing basketball and having a blast.  The thing is, his cousin and his Marine friends were all dead… After playing for awhile, his twin brother told him they had to go home, but he didn’t want to leave his friends and cousin because they were having so much fun.  His brother begged and cried for him to come home, so finally he gave in and went home with his brother.  As they were walking home, he walked into a bright light and woke up from the coma.   He believes that if he would have stayed with his buddies and cousin he would have died.

I told this story to a few friends of mine and then they shared with me their stories. My best friend also had a near death experience, she was pronounced dead for one minute.  She remembers seeing her grandma and her grandma telling her it wasn’t time yet, she walked into the light and came back to life.  My boyfriend had also told me a story of his uncle and his grandma.  Both were in the hospital at the same time.  His uncle wasn’t doing very well, nor his grandma, but his uncle had fallen asleep, so everyone went to go visit his grandma.  His grandma awoke from a dream where she was walking with her son side by side and they came to a fence where only one person could fit through, he went through the fence, leaving her behind.  When she awoke, she told everyone to go check on her son, my boyfriend’s uncle.  Sure enough he was dead.

This makes me wonder if there really is an afterlife.  My step mom was in a coma for thirteen years.  She was pronounced legally brain dead, but her body continued to breathe on its own, and she never woke from her coma, leaving her daughter the responsibility to turn off her feeding and let her die. I remember having a dream where she came to see me and then left into a white light.  My boyfriend’s grandpa who is somewhat responsive, but not enough, is being let off oxygen tonight. His wife kept telling him to fight, and he would shake his head as if he had tried, but just could not do it any longer.  Before his heart surgery, which is the reason he is where he is right now, he said his goodbyes to all of his family and they had a “last meal” for him before his surgery.  I wonder if he has seen something and is ready to let go?

Death has always been a scary topic for me.  To make myself feel better about it, I think there is an afterlife of people hanging out, having fun, such as my friend’s dream before he woke from a coma and then once they are ready they can be reincarnated.  That is just my thoughts on death, but I must say, hearing these stories of what people have seen, whether their religious background influences these “dreams” or not, they are comforting to me to think that there may be a life after death.