I've studied thousands of near-death experiences and have become convinced there's an afterlife

Seeing a bright light or hovering as a spirit over one’s own body have become cultural tropes to describe near-death experiences. Dr Long, a former skeptic, argued that years of researching the similarities among different accounts of people’s brushes with death have upended his own beliefs about a possible afterlife. Thirty-seven years ago, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association piqued Dr Long’s interest in what the authors were calling near-death experiences, something they presented without clinical or medical explanation. One user named Harry said: ‘The bits of light closest to me were my parents, grand-parent, family who all passed before - and connected to them farther away were close friends, and connected to them were people who had influenced me and whom I had influenced.’ Another named Star wrote: ‘A pure, brilliant light engulfed me and I no longer had a physical body. Dr Long said: ‘I tell them that based on my research, I’m very confident that there’s a wonderful afterlife for all of us and that we will be reunited with our deceased loved ones.