Analysis of An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge paragraph III

As I read through the paragraph, towards the beginning it seemed as though the author was giving solid details as to what was occuring at this point in the story. If you continue to read through the paragraph it becomes more ambiguous rather than absolute. For example in the beginning it speaks of the "sharp pressure upon his throat" and "a sense of suffocation". These are giving main details to his state at that period in time. As the reader may continue, you can notice that the author says that 'he' is swinging through unthinkable arcs of oscillation. In my opinion this could mean that he is in fact hanging already or just thinking of what it will be like to be hung. The author then contradicts him self when he states, "the light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud plash". This made me think of after he was hung (if that did happen-->ambiguious) maybe it was reffering to after life in heaven. Soon after though the author contradicts what he says by writing, "a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and dark". This sentence could possibly represent hell or just can so much more add to the fact that he may be dead already and just losing feeling in his body.