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There are rare occurrences where someone can be medically pronounced dead before miraculously coming back to life, and one man who suffered that fate after being struck by lightning has revealed exactly what he saw.
Simulations have been constructed to picture exactly what it feels like just before you die, and studies on the brain have shown that your life is quite literally likely to flash before your eyes as it continues to 'work' beyond your death.
There's nothing quite as authentic as experiencing the real thing though, although understandably that's impossible for many as you're not able to return from the dead.
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However, one lucky man has proved quite the opposite, as in a miracle he managed to survive what technically left him medically dead after being struck by lightning all the way back in 1975.
As reported by the New York Post, Dannion Brinkley suffered a horrific incident where he was smote by lightning in what can only be described as a freak event:
"It went into the side of my head above my ear, it went down my spine," Brinkley explained. "It threw me up in the air, I see the ceiling, it slams me back down, a ball of fire comes through the room and blinds me. I am burning. I am on fire. I am paralyzed."
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Certainly an unpleasant experience to go through, and doctors on the scene actually reported that he had died, taking him shortly to a nearby hospital morgue.
It was there that Brinkley actually 'returned' from the death, resuscitating around 30 minutes after being struck by lightning, and he described the period where he'd technically passed away as possessing a light and a flashback of your life.
Dr. Sam Parnia, associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, explains that this process tracks scientifically with how our brains function after death:
"We were not only able to show the markers of lucid consciousness - we were also able to show that these experiences are unique and universal," Dr. Parnia illustrates. "They're different from dreams, illusions, and delusions."
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This might just be what the 'afterlife' amounts to in a sense, where you almost experience flashes of your life again that appears more than a vision projected from your brain.
"Nobody dies. It never happens," Brinkley argues in reference to the afterlife. "It's not a part of the nature of reality, it's not."
He has since used his more-than-near-death experience to spread his teachings on spirituality and religion, arguing that his connection with Christianity allowed him to experience the afterlife and avoid all the bad stuff.
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"So, when you learn you don't die, when you learn you're a spiritual being, you're not going to go to hell," argues Brinkley in favor of inspiring religion in others. "That's enough to inspire you to change."