What Happens When You Die?

Everyone on the planet wishes to know what happens to them after they die. And, hey, there are billions of people who already know the answer. Unfortunately, they won't be able to tell them anything because, well, they're all dead.

The afterlife — or lack thereof — is one of humanity's oldest unanswered questions. Will people all float away into eternity? Will the wicked among them be damned to Hell? Will people's consciousness simply vanish when people's bodies die? Or are people all going to be reborn as angry hippos or fluffy cats?

Scientists have discovered the first stages of death. They understand how the human body begins to shut down. Your body's cells begin to blink off one by one, like store employees turning off the lights after closing hours until your heart and brain stop working.

What happens after your brain switches off, on the other hand, remains a complete mystery. Many people who have had near-death experiences and then resurrected talk about tunnels of light, flashbacks to life events, or conversations with loved ones who have died. All of those sensations could have biological causes, such as a lack of oxygen or wild biochemical fluctuations.

This is one of the many questions about the universe that people can't answer. Instead, people will all be left wondering, looking for some sort of meaning in death.