Nice to see some culture sneaking in. If you could work in some references to Histories by Herodotus, that would be great...

if Julia Roberts is doing the resuscitation.

The one with the two pennies in the pocket please..

... a photo of the LHC?

So the end of the world is nigh.

Keiffer Sutherland, Flatliners! All you need to know about NDE!

From the picture it looks like the LHC could well be a near death experience...

Just Vista, or Microsoft in general?

I was expecting a report on the progress of the hypothesis that memory resides in the mylar sheathes of neurons - it having already been established that bona fide memories can be retrieved of episodes when a patient is clinically brain-dead, as instrumented by cranial probes. Zilch.

Or at least some nonsense about the frikkin' DARPA laser heads having plans to temporarily kill some willing grunts so they can do a bit of remote viewing before they start decomposing in their armchairs. Zilch again.

Welcome back Lucy.

I agree with, Mike. Let's add FLATLINERS to his list, where near-death experiences were mixed with a heady bout of electronic voyeurism and lashings of crap acting !

Been there done that!

One look at GW Dubya Bush and you'll learn all you need to know about near death experiences !!

Why is it called a "near-death" experience, rather than a "not-death" experience?

So, you're talking about light at the end of the tunnel. Or more commonly experienced during high-G blackouts, where the retina starts to shut down from the outside inwards, resulting in dark outer regions, with a white circle slowly getting smaller.

the same reason aircraft 'almost hits' are called "Near Misses" and British/UN peacekeepers being shot at by Americans is called "friendly fire" complete oxymorons but they look good as headlines!!

I am interested though; I've had a couple off similar experiences in my life (almost truncated at the time)...once when I almost drowned in a canal....the oddest part is the sensory sharpening and seeming slowness of time once you escape the situation that could've killed you....anyone else ever had that?

...that NDEs are your brain giving you one big trip before you go out - IIRC there are all sorts of endorphines and stuff that whizz around the brain during that period of 'on the edge', but I may have been drunk whenI read that.

WRT to the picture for the story, an interesting mix of claustrophobia and agrophobia [specifically not enjoying *in the slightest* being around large groups of people - it's right fucker of a mix] really can make the Tube feel like death in a terribly unfunny, panic-stricken way.

And where do I work? The wrong side of the river from Kings Cross - fucking typical!

Ah well, makes the commute to work, er, interesting some days...

Steven R

That is.... an Out of Body Experience. Was a most peculiar experience. All I can say is, if that's what it's like when you die, then I have no fear of death: Peace, calm, serenity, wellbeing, supreme self-confidence, and yes, there was a bright pinpoint of light in the very far distance...

Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field involving consciousness during clinical death, explains that contrary to popular perception, death is not a "specific moment".

"It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning – a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.

He's been reading the "Tibetan Book of the Dead" - every Buddhist knows this - it takes 49 days (subjective) to find a rebirth.

My Mala is in the pocket.

What? Rite nigh? Before beddy-bies?

Dash it.