There's a chapter on this in Mary Roach's book Stiff[1]. The book was published in 2003, so this has been going on for a long time.

1 - https://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp...

For a more varied look at what can happen after you die, I recommend the book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach [1].

I think my favorite is to donate your body to a body farm [2].

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_farm

Incapacitation is hard. The common belief that when you get shot you quickly go down and either pass out or are in too much pain or shock from the injury to do anything is pretty much a myth from movies.

There's some great information on this in the book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach [1]. Even getting shot through the heart often leaves the person several seconds where they are conscious and able to act, giving them enough time to shoot back or shoot hostages.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/...

This reminds of when I read Stiff (an amazing book, by the way) [0], and how scientists in the good old days were weighing bodies before and after death, trying to find a weight of the soul, or any other quantitative values for the soul. I found that funny, but off-putting and disturbing.

My take: people are looking for any proof of the afterlife, holding onto a sliver hope proven by any scientific, factual account. I call the gamble on the afterlife faith, and why it cannot be guaranteed, but hey, that is way out of the scope of this conversation.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/...