The younger sister of my life partner died yesterday after an extended battle against cancer after being in a coma for a few days.  She was a warm exciting person but being at a considerable distance from where she lived with her husband (their children were grown and married) I cannot say she was at all close to me.

I have now heard several stories of a clearly mystical or supernatural sort, but not identifiable with Christianity (as I would have expected since they were a strongly Christian family) but instead of a generic sort (temperature changes, restlessness, some sort of glow in a vision/dream, and so on -- the details don't interest me).

I certainly do not reject these reports, even though I'm normally of a skeptical frame of mind.  They are credible to me knowing the individuals and from the fact that it does not seem to be some pious effort to convert others to their beliefs.  Saying that someone has no reason to invent a story is of course not enough -- people invent stories all the time whether or not they have reason (and often the stories go beyond the telling so it is not possible to even question motives).  Thus there is no basis for using this as evidence or any sort of proof of anything.

Still, I really don't think they were fabricated nor imagined out of emotional responses.  It doesn't fit, but I would not rule such an interpretation out either.

The implication is some sort of after-life and efforts by the deceased, immediately after death, to send a signal.  That of course would be a lot to swallow too.  I think most people, including myself, have experienced "feelings" or something more tangible, on learning of someone's death.  I did with the death of my father.  Memories are unreliable and one is never sure whether the feelings preceded the arrival of the news, although that is my memory and that is what is said to be the case here.  Even if the feeling did precede the news, with the knowledge that the person is near death it doesn't mean much.

One need not believe in God or angels or spirits or anything in particular to nevertheless think that there is much more to the phenomenon of mind than electrochemical neurochemistry, especially given the mechanical interpretation usually applied to physical phenomena.  Consciousness and sentience and the experiential rather than mechanical way we exist, and of course things like the conviction most of us have that at least some of the time we are capable of will, leads to the thought that in some way or another something -- maybe not the person but something -- does persist.

Still, skepticism is essential: otherwise we end up with no end of nonsense, some of it dangerous nonsense.  I guess I have to just say not only do I not know but I can see no way of knowing.