It's one of the great mysteries: what happens to us when we die? Since those affected cannot answer this question, the doctor belongs to Dr. B. J. Miller probably to the people who come closest to death day after day and are therefore most likely to have an answer to it. In the show 'SuperSoul Sunday' he now told moderator Oprah Winfrey how he experienced dying.
I was dealing with people who were dying and with those who had just died. And there is definitely a persistent moment – a kind of transition.
It is a kind of atmosphere that suddenly surrounds the dying. A feeling that the hospice and palliative care doctor from the University of California in San Francisco knows only too well. He already had near-death experience when he lost both his lower legs and one forearm in an accident.
One thing that my accident taught me is that I don't need to know what happens after this reverberation. I even love not knowing it now. It's just a wonderful moment. You are really in contact with the continuum of life, the knowledge that life goes on during this time. One person has left, but life goes on.
That is exactly why we should respect and honor this moment, Miller continues.