It's a question which has occupied all of our minds at some point, but what actually happens to our consciousness after we die?
Well, according to one US woman who spent close to half an hour being clinically dead, she might have an answer for you.
Unless you're a firm believer in the afterlife - be it the concepts of heaven and hell, reincarnation or ghosts - thinking about death can be more than a little daunting.
Advert
But before you spiral into complete existential crisis, why don't we look at accounts from people who've made brief trips to the beyond and returned a firm believer that our existence continues beyond that fateful last breath.
On 12 February 2018, Arizona woman Tina Hines suffered an almost fatal heart attack while out hiking with her husband Brian, collapsing on her driveway.
After contacting emergency services, Brian frantically attempted to resuscitate his wife before paramedics eventually took over.
He would later learn that paramedics had brought her back to life several times before reaching placing her on a defibrillator. In total, it's believed that Tina was clinically dead for around 27 minutes. She was ultimately stabilised and intubated before waking up.
Advert
Now you'd imagine that a person's reaction after regaining consciousness following such a traumatic event would be one of shock, disbelief or even fear. But not for Tina, who reacted by asking for a pen and paper in order to write down a message for her loved ones.
In the barely legible handwriting, she wrote 'it's real'. When asked to elaborate on what she meant, Tina pointed upwards, suggesting that heaven was very real for her.
Like many other people who've experienced near-death experiences (NDEs) Tina went on to say the moment changed her life, even writing a book about the subject titled Heaven... It's Real: How Dying Changes Living in 2021.
"It was so real, the colours were so vibrant," Tina told AZfamily.com of the experience, before going on to claim that she'd seen a figure which she believed to be Jesus.
Advert
"Unbelievable rest and peacefulness of what I experienced," she added to Christian Broadcasting Network.
"She just started making marks, and I couldn't tell what it was, and I was almost shaking," her husband added. I was fixed. I just held the book steady because I didn't want it to drop."
What causes near-death experiences?
It's hard to know what exactly causes someone to have a near-death experience, however, similar accounts from people who've spent an extended period of time clinically dead aren't uncommon.
Advert
Attempting to further understand what people go through during NDEs, researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a study back in 2013, discovering the brain is more active in the moments before death than in most other conscious states.
"A lot of people thought that the brain after clinical death was inactive or hypoactive, with less activity than the waking state, and we show that is definitely not the case,"Dr. Jimo Borjigin, of the University of Michigan, said.
"If anything, it is much more active during the dying process than even the waking state."
Brenna Cooper