One of the most well-known researchers into the experiences of people who had apparently died, and then returned to relate their story is Dr. Kenneth Ring, a professor of psychology, and author of several books, including "Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience."

At death, many people speak of encountering a brilliant light, and feeling a sense immense compassion radiating from this light. Many other researchers find similar experiences.

What is this light?

Dr. Ring's interpretation is quite extraordinary. Rather than being some sort of separate force or being, Ring suggests that the brilliant golden light that people experience at a certain stage of their death is actually their own life - their total self with which they are reunited at death.

He writes:

"This higher self is so awesome, so overwhelming, so loving, and unconditionally accepting, and so foreign to one's individualized consciousness that one perceives it as separate from oneself, as unmistakably other. It manifests itself as a brillant golden light, but it is actually oneself, in a higher form, that one is seeing."

Part of Dr. Ring's work is included in "Life & Death: A Buddhist Perspective", by James Hilgendorf, a wide-ranging tapestry that weaves together Buddhist history and ideas, science, psychology, near-death experience research, and practical insights into the subject of Life and Death - all from a Buddhist perspective.