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A woman who ‘died’ for almost half an hour came back to life and jotted down a shocking message for her family.
Questions about the existence of an afterlife have swirled for centuries, with some folks even claiming to have seen brief glimpses of ‘the other side’ after being declared medically dead before being revived.
One such person who believes she’s seen what’s waiting for us after death is Tina Hines from the US.
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In February 2018, Tina suffered a cardiac arrest and despite resuscitation attempts from her husband Brian, she died.
As she was being rushed into hospital, medics were able to revive Tina six times, but she was effectively dead for 27 minutes.
Upon arriving at the hospital, Tina was intubated and eventually woke up, after which she immediately asked for a pen and paper and wrote down an ominous message for her loved ones.
In barely legible handwriting, Tina wrote the words 'it's real'. When she was asked what was real, she simply nodded upward.
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"It was so real, the colours were so vibrant," Tina told AZfamily.com
She said she saw a figure that she believed to be Jesus.
But experiences such as this aren't that rare.
According to studies, while most people have no memory of the period during which they were technically dead, around 10 to 20 per cent have some sort of visual or sensory episodes during the time.
And although they may seem mystical, scientists have been getting closer to finding out the truth of what happens during these near death experiences.
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Researchers at University of Michigan conducted a study on some rats in 2013.
According to reports, a surge of activity in the brain just before death is higher than during the most woke, conscious state.
The leader of the study, Dr. Jimo Borjigin, of the University of Michigan, said: "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.
"If anything, it is much more active during the dying process than even the waking state."
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The nine rats were monitored while they were dying, and in the 30-second period after the animal's hearts stopped beating, a sharp increase in high-frequency brainwaves was measured.
Could Tina's experience have just been the result of a surge in high-frequency brain waves? We'll likely never know.
Claire Reid