Don Piper was killed in a car crash over 20 years ago. Medical personnel covered his body, and proceeded with clearing the rest of the scene, remains from a 16-wheeler semi-truck striking Don's Ford Escort. But, an hour-and-a-half later, Don Piper was very much alive. He says he spent those 90 minutes behind the pearly gates and wrote a book called 90 Minutes In Heaven, recounting what it was like to be dead, then come back to life.

Don Piper "died" then came back to life. (squidoo.com)
The book was written in 2004 and has sold over 400,000 copies. Now, though, an international research team is trying to use Don's story beyond its entertainment value to try to piece together how and why "out-of-body" experiences happen, and what the experience of death is like. The study is called AWARE (Awareness During Resuscitation).

Dr. Sam Parnia is the lead researcher on the team and appeared on the TODAY show Monday. He said: “When you think about it, most people out there think of death as a moment; you’re either dead or you’re not. But what we’ve found is there is no moment of death; it begins when your heart stops, and it goes on for a period of time.”

Dr. Parnia's team hopes that by using firsthand accounts like Don's, along with concrete science, they might be able to answer some hard-pressing questions about death and possibly even help resuscitate more people in similar tragic situations.