Okay, okay—let’s get this straight from the start.  If you’re reading this expecting another one of those rapturous going-down-the-tunnel-wait, wait-don’t-walk-toward-the-light kind of stories about a brush with death—forget it.  Ain’t happening.  Maybe I wasn’t dead enough.  Maybe dying brains conjure hallucinatory experiences, and mine is just so anchored in this reality that it wouldn’t take me there.  I will never know until I do this again, and when that moment comes, it’s very unlikely that I will be interested in having this discussion with you.