Extremely good read, thank you.

A very interesting concept I have heard that go with these is....
Our life has a predetermined time span that we personally live, eg. if we prematurely die our consciousness mergers to another reality where we don't die and we continue life none the wiser but everyone else in this reality know's we died.

Another interesting concept to add to this idea is Purgatory (as per Christianity) being a transitional dimension for our consciousness before moving to a higher dimension.

If you haven't seen the movie "Einstein's God Model" have a look, it's a very interesting take on your post.