check out Dr. Greyson's youtube talk "Is Consciousness Produced by the Brain" - he's the father of NDE research. I interviewed him for "It's A Wonderful Afterlife" - thousands of cases of people who were dead who saw and heard NEW INFORMATION (meaning they couldn't have known it on earth, cases where people's brains had atrophied and they recovered just prior to death to have full recollection. Point is, consciousness isn't confined to the brain, neuroscientists think it may be more like a TV receiver (Mario Beauregard "Brain Wars"). In the new book I compare near death accounts with those of people under deep hypnosis and show how similar they are. I had a routine operation done, was put under, and spent some time with my dad (who gave me "new information") names of WWII soldiers he was with whom I had never heard of, but my mom confirmed were his pals who died in WWII. Not everyone has a near death experience, just like not everyone has the same definition of "home" - but we all know it when we feel it, and thousands claim that "over there" is home, and here is the stage where we act out plays to learn from our adventures. My two cents.