Who says that they're witches? O.o

Eh, it's a form of superstition. I like this site's definition of religion as something that one believes MUST be done. We all do something from time to time that can't be proven effective. Witchcraft is just a hobby for many of us.

Anecdotal "evidence" is NOT "documentation", never has been, never will be......

My late friend Chris Bower died 3 times. The first two he said that he never saw any pearly gates, hellfire, etc. I'd ask him about the 3rd, but is is permanently dead now.

@AnneWimsey

I think we may be mincing words here.

I just meant to say that these cases have been observed by very educated medical and scientific professionals who have even used instruments like EEGs to measure brain activity and EKGs to verify that the heart has stopped. The reports of the subjects have, obviously, been subjective and open to wide interpretation. However, many neurologists and other experts believe that any visions or other sensations the dying person may have are merely just randomly firing neurons still trying to be interpreted by what is still functioning of the cerebrum.

Having worked on a post surgical floor of a major hospital, I can attest that people do clinically die and are then resuscitated, so near death experiences do happen; different people go through them daily. However, what the person senses during those moments is a huge unknown; we only have their accounts to go by.

@TheGreatShadow

Until recently, I never personally knew anyone who claimed to have a near death experience. At least no one I viewed as being credible. However, about a year ago a friend of mine who is also an atheist, intelligent, and well educated had a brush with death in the hospital as a result of an accident. He reported a spiritual experience replete with vivid imagery and auditory and olfactory hallucinations. What these were a product of, no one really knows for sure. All I know is that he is absolutely convinced he had a near death experience. Who am I to disagree with him? Who knows, he may be right?

I am still skeptical that it is in any way connected to a spiritual realm, but much like extraterrestrial life, we have yet to definitively confirm or refute it. I may not believe in deities or religion, but I do believe there are aspects of our physical and natural universe that we are either not aware of yet, or do not fully understand. And I am okay with referring to these phenomena as "spiritual" for lack of a better word, or as a placeholder until science can explain it.

@Piratefish FYI, i myself have died twice, once strangled by first hubby, once during a stroke. And....?
Did I return wanting to save humanity, full of glorious visions, blah blah blah?...no, I came back to pain, fear, multiple disability from the stroke, and in the first instance, still married to that abusive asshat. I would Greatly distrust anyone building a speaking career/writing books based on their "surviving"....PT Barnum is/was/ always will be Right!

yeah, I figured they were more or less asking if witches were something to be afraid of.

the issue here is that saying witches, as in practicioners of superstition known as witchcraft, don't exist is like saying that Christians don't exist.

Yes, you can. You can make as many random posts as you want.

You just did