Nobody knows what happens after death.

Whether there's nothingness or something else,

we each have to come to terms with that unknown

by choosing how or what to believe,

or just by trying not to think about it.

But what if medical science could open up a window

into the experience of dying?

Believe it or not, that does seem to be happening.

Breakthroughs in resuscitation research are changing the very definition of death.

I'm Anne Strain Champs, and today, onto the best of our knowledge, beyond death.

From WPR.

It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anne Strange Champs.

We all know we're going to die. Most of us have no idea what that'll be like, but there are a few people who do.

Hey there.

Hey.

People who actually started the process of dying and then came back. Sebastian, it is so great to meet you.

Thank you. Like Sebastian Younger, what happened to him began like this?

I'm a former war reporter. I gave that up years ago, and I started a family, and I was living at the end of a dead-end dirt road, deep in the woods, in a rural part of Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, specifically, a property with no cell phone coverage. The landlines would go out when it rained. It was paradise, in other words.

We had two little girls, who at the time were three years old and six months old.

In June of 2020, in this remote place, I was woken at dawn by an absolutely terrifying dream.

You know, I should say right now, right up front, I'm an atheist, I'm not mystical, I'm not woo-woo.

I'm a relentless rationalist, right? Or like to think so.

...