I would think that it wouldn't. Most people who report near death experiences describe it in fairly pleasant terms. They also describe things like seeing white lights, which are also what jet pilots report at around 9g's. It appears that the brain sorta spasms when it has to dealing with trauma.
Can you imagine bleeding to death though? Or being poisoned? Perhaps the final moment when the soul detaches itself from the body is a release and is more welcoming than painful, but Id imagine the process of the body losing vital energy and shutting down organs would be unbearable (haha) painful even if only for a few moments!
I think those who are sufferig from alot of pain, or those who are leaving us from old age, I think they reach a point where they may welcome death as a peaceful release. And I dont think we are able to really understand that thought process if we havnt reached such a point. I dont think death is painful, although how you get there may be.
The DMT hypothesis isn't strongly supported. Here you go. From the Skeptical Inquirer. http://csicop.org/si/2004-05/near-death-experience.html
Lights out Pain is an interpretation, we can endure much of anything with will power... if death is soon to come, I imagine its either the most peaceful moment or the most terrifying moment... pain isn't such a concern at that point - think fox chewing its leg off to get out of a trap. Also think MASH theme song....
I have to wonder about the people that had their heads cut off with a guillotine. Does their brain continue to function for a few seconds while their head is in the basket? It would take that long before the brain runs out of oxygen and passes out. What would they experience for those few seconds when they realize their head is no longer attached to their body? With their spinal cord cut I'm sure they wouldn't be able to feel the rest of their body, and with having their throat cut they wouldn't be able to speak, but could they still feel or see through their eyes? I would like to think that dying would feel like falling asleep. Your brain would disconnect itself from being able to feel your body therefore there would be no pain, so that would create the illusion of peace. If you have ever gotten injured real bad you my have experienced short term loss of vision where everything goes black. What you see is a form of tunnel vision where it all goes black from the outsides in, this explains the long tunnel. All the experiences reported by near death have logical explanations that can be reproduced in a laboratory setting and have nothing to do with actual death. All the things that people describe in their near death experiences are normal experiences of the living, not actual death. So you ask what runs through your mind a few seconds before you die. I guess that would depend on what kind of person you are and the way you think, along with what the cause is for your death. But the final second of your life would be the same as passing out where you would get tunnel vision and your body would go numb. If you were asleep when you died, you wouldn't experience anything out of the oridinary, it would be like turning off a light switch.
If not seconds, a moment of being aware that your head is falling off I'm sure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine#Living_heads The quote at the end is intriguing.
Death is the release from pain, the end of a journey. It's the many things that can happen before we reach that point.
Wow, it generally takes a lot to really creep me out but that guillotine thing gave me the willies...
i have seen a man die. it didnt look too fun. but then again it may have been the manner in which he died..
My blood pressure went dangerously low and the DR and nurses started doing all this stuff to get it back up. I felt like I was dying. I felt super cold and scared... like I had no control over slipping away... but it wan't like sleep... it was slipping into coolness. Ice.
It would be the same as going to sleep. Everyones felt pain, and everyone has slept, so theres no way it could hurt.