While we're unlikely ever to know for sure, says author Theresa Cheung, there are a startling number of accounts from those who have had near death experiences that point towards the possibility of an afterlife. What do you think?
Do you believe in life after death?
It’s unlikely that we will ever have solid scientific proof that there is life after death, but we do have something that comes extremely close and that is accounts of people who have actually died and returned to tell their stories.
These voyagers to frontiers unknown report astonishing glimpses of a world beyond, a world that shimmers with light, magic and love. Hailey sent me her story:
"In 2005 I nearly died on the operating table. I haemorrhaged and my doctor later told me that everyone thought they had lost me. I recall floating above my body and seeing the surgeon and staff panic as they tried to save my life. I didn't feel any panic myself. It was as if I was watching an interesting novelty. I wasn't involved.
Suddenly, I felt myself being blown feet first into a grey mist. I don't know why but I remember seeing my legs and bare feet bathed in yellow light floating into the mist. When I was in the mist I lived my life again. Can't explain it very well but I remembered everything and again there was that feeling of interested detachment. I wasn't involved. I just watched. Then I found myself in this beautiful place. It was the most gorgeous and glittering place I have ever seen – like a garden but so much more than a garden. I felt nothing but completeness and happiness. My mind was still. I heard music but music that I have not heard on earth before and the scenery about me was like nothing I have seen on earth either – it was so vivid and beautiful. It shimmered like crystal and diamonds. Then everything vanished and the next thing I recall is waking up feeling very sore and tired in the recovery room.
I don't know why but I remember seeing my legs and bare feet bathed in yellow light floating into the mist. When I was in the mist I lived my life again.
Everyone who knows me will tell you that afterwards I changed. I know I have changed. It sounds corny but I feel like I was somehow born again, starting my life again. I am more compassionate and considerate of myself and others. I live in the present. I'm not afraid to be loving and spontaneous. I see more clearly now."
Near death experiences (NDEs) occur when a person is clinically dead or dangerously close to death. There are many questions about NDEs but one thing is certain and that is they exist. There are thousands of reports from people who believe they have glimpsed life after death, and a recent scientific study led by Dr Sam Parnia from the University of Southampton, has tentatively proved that consciousness can survive bodily death by at least three minutes.
Initially, when I began to collect afterlife encounter stories, I thought the experience was extremely rare, but I could not have been more wrong. Over the years the stories have flooded in and one reason for that may be modern resuscitation techniques because thirty or forty years ago these people would have died and taken their golden stories with them.
Not surprisingly, there have been many doubts about the validity of NDEs and chief among these is the argument that the experience is simply a hallucination but this cannot explain why all over the world and throughout history thousands of men, women and children have reported similar sensations during NDEs despite radical differences in cultures and belief systems. How is that possible? Surely, if the experience was hallucination wouldn't each person imagine something different? Why are there such strong similarities? Why after their NDE do people consistently report that they have lost their fear of death?
Theresa's book The Ten Secrets of Heaven: Mysteries of the Afterlifeis published in paperback by Simon & Schuster, and is available from Amazon. You can also find Theresa on Facebook here.
By Theresa Cheung
Twitter: @simonschuster
Imo, our afterlife lives on in the memories of others. How I would love to be a writer, composer, lyricist, artist etc, where ones life lives on for ever.
My life may be remembered for a generation or two, then it will fall into the realms of genealogy, nothing of me will remain for all time. 
I'm sure there is an afterlife. I have always believed so. This belief was strengthened when I saw a ghost in my bedroom in the middle of the night about 15 years ago. I was asleep and I suddenly woke up and saw an old lady standing by the side of the bed, fortunately the side furthest away from me! I propped myself up on my elbows and looked at her. I was very scared and my heart was beating very fast and I thought I wouldn't be surprised if I have a heart attack. She was looking at me with an angry face as if to say what are you doing in my house? I can remember exactly what she looked like and what she was wearing. I was staring at her face so was not aware of what she might have been wearing below her waist, but I remember she had a dress/top of navy and white small print, and grey hair and very baggy eyes. After a few seconds that seemed like ages, she gradually faded and disappeared. If anyone had told me this had happened to them I would have said I would have got up and run out of the room, but I could not move. I felt like I was frozen to the bed. I laid there until it got light and then I got up and went downstairs. I have never slept alone in that room again since that day. I believe it must have been the old lady who lived in my house before I bought it. Maybe she died in that room. I have always been scared of the dark and sleep with a dim light on. I'm not sure what would have happened if the room had been in total darkness. I had a touchlight on the bedside cabinet and as soon as she had disappeared I put it on the brightest setting until daylight came. I did not sleep any more that night after I had seen her. 
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