...And Died Happily Ever After

Although there have been many mentions of resurrection in human culture and religion, the scientist is quick to dismiss the possibility that the dead can return to life. As medicine develops, it becomes more evident that the cessation of vital functions in a human body leads to an irreversible state of decay. Nevertheless, some patients have been revived after a short period of clinical death, and relate near-death experiences. Many religions advocate eternal life in some portion of their edict, along with the rare occurrence of a deity returning someone to Earth to accomplish some Godly purpose.

It's worth mentioning that various magicians have found it beneficial to demonstrate the power to invoke immortality. There are voodoo rituals that involve the use of elaborate drugs to invoke a death-like trance, and witnesses claim it's very convincing.

There have been documented cases of people being taken to be dead when they are, in fact still alive. It's easy to see how primitive cultures may have made this mistake, only to find a relative that was thought to be deceased walking about, scaring people half to death. Epidemics have led to mass burials, in which, inevitably, a person in comatose might have been buried along with the rest of the bodies, only to wake, finding themselves in a pit surrounded by corpses, underneath six feet of dirt.

Some people sleep like the dead.