People Who Died And Came Back To Life Describe What The Experience Of Death Was Like [Article]

Disclaimer: This article was originally written and published on Huffingtonpost.co.uk  by Natasha Hinde on August 4, 2017, and updated on May 1 2020.

Nobody knows what happens when we die; some belief in an afterlife, others in reincarnation, and still others believe nothing happens. You simply perish. That is all there is to it.

In a fascinating thread, Reddit users who clinically died for a few minutes and then resurrected have been sharing what they remember from “the other side.”

While most people describe an overwhelming sense of nothingness and peace, some have had more visual experiences, such as seeing bright lights and stars.’ One individual claims to have had a conversation with someone.

Here are their amazing stories.

 1, Tekniqqq: “When I was three, I was hit by a car. My heart stopped for about two minutes. I’d lost a lot of blood and was dealing with insane amounts of nerve-ending trauma. “I had a bizarre out-of-body experience. It was as if I were looking down. My mother was sobbing, and my father was literally holding her arms back from approaching me as they all swarmed around me.

There was this yelling and this equipment. I saw it through the eyes of a toddler, so that’s how I remember it.

“I had the feeling it was time to leave, so I kept an eye on my mother as I walked away. I felt like I was sucked into a vacuum and ended up in this… space. It wasn’t black; it was just void. And all I felt was like when you really need a hug when you’re at your worst.

When a single kind of touch causes your emotions to burst. That multiplied by a million. I felt as if I were being hugged close to… I honestly don’t know how to put it into words. It had the feel of a “welcome home” message. Then everything went black, and I woke up in an ICU, terrified of the beeping and tubes, and screamed until my father came in and comforted me.”

 

2, Prymaal: “I was 12 years old and very sick. I had a high fever and recall going to the hospital, having people visit me, and watching a lot of TVs (back when MTV and VH1 played music videos). Apart from that, I have no recollection. Years later, my mother allegedly told me the rest of the story, in which my heart stopped and I had to be defibrillated twice. I have no recollection of it.”

 

3, Asinus_stultus: “I died from a full cardiac arrest when I was much younger (12 years old). This occurred during a high school football (American) game. “I can only recall flashes of memories from a few hours before the incident until two weeks later. I recall a lot of blacks that quickly enclosed themselves like a shell into a tunnel.

The tunnel itself was made of metal and resembled the Bespin tunnel where Luke ended up. My mind couldn’t comprehend what it was seeing, so it filled in the blanks as best it could.

“However, the sensation was incredible. There are no words to describe it unless you’ve seen it. I believe this is because I am unable to convey my emotions and feelings to you. They are extremely intense. For a little more than four minutes, I was dead with no heartbeat.”

 

4, Traspen: “I died twice in an ambulance after being involved in a motorcycle accident. The last thing I remember is my face colliding with the hood of a car at 60 mph (without a helmet) and waking up in the hospital emergency room. I say ‘in an ambulance’ twice because it is my understanding that I was already dead when the ambulance arrived and died on the way to the hospital.

“There is nothing between the accident and the hospital… I mean absolutely nothing.”

 

 5, Oleboogerhays: “It was serene. There are no lights, pearly gates, or angels; only peace. I was in a terrible car accident, and a blood clot passed through my heart, and I briefly died. Everyone was yelling at me to breathe when I awoke.

I was irritated because not only was I certain that I was breathing, but I had just awoken from the first good night’s sleep since my accident. On the other side, there is nothing but peace and comfort.”

 

6, Mysterious_baker:  “What I remember is a vast nothingness; it’s difficult to describe because we’re always surrounded by something no matter where we go. Suddenly, in the midst of this vast nothing, appeared a blinding pinprick of light that grew larger. Either I was approaching it or it was approaching me.

As it got closer, what appeared to be a single light transformed into one, then several, then millions upon millions of stars of various shapes, sizes, and colours, as well as a plethora of nebulae.

“It was the most stunning thing I’d ever seen. As I approached the centre, it seemed as if I was joining a universal consciousness; a being composed of everyone and everything who had ever lived’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences.

I’m sure it was all a hallucination caused by the trauma I’d experienced in the previous few days, combined with my heart/breathing stopping, but there’s a part of me that hopes what I saw is what happens when we die.”

 

7, Primaryvisualcortex: “I was in a coma for a few days before dying for three minutes. The coma itself was empty, with no sense of time, blackness, or anything else. Now and then, I’d come to a small area and see brief hazy flashes of scenes of a visitor (they lived out of state at the time, so I was confused/happy to see them but couldn’t physically talk to them) worst feeling EVER, then the next thing I remember was the famous LIGHT! But not just one, but two lights. They were circling each other and getting bigger and bigger (almost as if they were trying to save me?).

“Then I woke up in various hospital rooms, eventually being told, ‘hey, you died for a bit, and we are changing your catheter now’ (not verbatim), a strange experience that I forget even happened most of the time. In a matter of days, I was able to re-learn how to walk. If I think about it long enough, I can still feel the very distinct vibe. It’s almost like happy nostalgia.”

 

 8,  OldBelgianSmurf: “Last year, I nearly drowned and the experience changed me. I’d been dead for an undetermined number of minutes. They were able to pull me out of the water and revive me. I’m not sure how long I was dead. They say it only took two minutes to resurrect me on the beach. Basically, all I saw was blackness, followed by a slew of lights, which turned into stars, which turned into something I can’t describe. I didn’t have any feelings.”

 

9, Idunnostopaskinme“My uncle was a heavy drug user who frequently overdosed. He had to be revived only once, and it was at that point that he decided to stop using drugs completely. He had been gone for two minutes. All brain activity ceased, as did the rest of his body. He told me that the only good place in his memory was sitting at a picnic table in this park behind the house where he was raised. He was sitting there with someone he knew he loved but didn’t know who it was. He claims to have just spoken to them but has no idea what was said, only that the person said, ‘I’ll see you later, remember me.’ After that, he was resurrected.

“He was and still is a little crazy, but I doubt he would lie about this.”

 

10, Growingshadow: “I had the tunnel, then there was nothing. There is nothing.”

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