I experienced the “life flashing before my eyes” once. It was a situation where I thought I was about to die. It was like a very high speed real of all my memories playing. I was amazed (while it was happening) that it was happening just like I’d heard about - so at least in my opinion it wasn’t an invented memory later. Of course I might say that even it was. My theory is the mind was desperately trying to find a similar situation as a hint of how to get out of the current situation, but it’s just a guess. I lived :)
I almost died at 10 years old from choking. I had some of my life replay like a PowerPoint floating above my vision, where each would float and fade in from the left in a cinematic vignette, then float to the right and fade out as the next came in. I had a distinct sense that I was about to die, and my overwhelming feeling was “wow totally lame I can’t believe I’m dying of choking”. Then a soda was given to me and it dissolved the blockage.
I am religious. I believe in life after death of some sort. I don’t see any evolutionary purpose for seeing a life review before death. I believe the creator made the universe and we have a purpose within it, even after death.
Well, I was with someone who had threatened to kill me, and I took that threat very seriously, as it was also made very seriously. It was sort of watching a film that was doing fast forward through my life. I could see it playing in front of me. I guess the room was there in the background. The whole thing took place in about 5 seconds, and my background thought (besides being concerned about dying) was just sort of “huh, so this really happens”. The person then showed that they weren’t going to kill me, but explained how they had been planning it earlier in the day. I never visited that person again.
