mike said:
has anyone else had this happen
once when i was climbing a cliff (without ropes etc) i found myself in a situation where i was convinced i was going to die, and my whole life did indeed flash before my eyes, was bizzare it seemed like every memory i ever had was replayed very very fast, but with very high detail.
i did obviously survive, but only by taking a risk and "throwing" myself at an outcrop that was out of reach and hoping it was strong enough to hold me,
My friend Willem was in a car accident, and he was actually thrown through the front windshield of his car. He said that while he was in the air, time seemed to slow down and he was absolutely certain that he was going to die. He didn't feel afraid, but strangely calm. The scenes of his entire life flashed before his eyes and he said to himself, "Wow, your life really does flash before your eyes."
Fortunately, he ended up surviving to tell the tale.
I had a similar experience in Peru during one of my ayahuasca ceremonies, but I don't think it was exactly the same. I was convinced I was going to die, and images of people I knew throughout my life flashed before my eyes, and with each one I saw I experienced an intense emotion that was associated with them. It wasn't as quick and frame-by-frame as other people's experiences, it spanned a long period of time.
Judging from my experience and the stories I've heard, I definitely think there is some significance to the "life flashing" experience. If I had to speculate (which I like to do), since the experience almost exclusively happens when one is convinced they're going to die, I'd guess that this life flashing is something like a psychological preparation for the experience that follows death, whatever it is. Maybe something like a cleaning of the slate.
This leads me to think about ghosts and how they are generally associated with people who died a sudden, tragic death. Perhaps if a person dies suddenly or without any foreknowledge of their impending death, then they don't experience the life-flashing and they're somehow stuck behind. Just a thought.
Interestingly, in the Carlos Castaneda series one of the tasks which a man of knowledge is required to do is a conscious recapitulation of every person that they've known throughout their lives. This task is apparently crucial for freedom from attachment to the physical world, which has sort of a buddhist flavor to it.
