People Who Have Died And Came Back Describe What ‘The Other Side’ Was Like

(photo: @elsateng)

1. I had been very depressed for a while and decided it was time to go. I downed a shit ton of pills and washed them down with a ton of rum. While “dead” I was in a completely dark area all alone.

The peace I felt in this area was amazing. I found myself talking to a mysterious voice who told me he was God. We talked for what felt like an entire lifetime. He told me my heaven was this dark secluded area where I could finally be at peace. We also talked about nearly everything that had to do with anything. He ended with telling me that I couldn’t stay because I still had business to take care of. Before I awoke he told me I couldn’t tell anyone of what we spoke about.

When I woke up my body felt healthier than I have ever felt and I had this peace about me that hasn’t gone away. I feel like I can remember what we spoke about I just can’t put it in words. I equate it to trying to describe a new color to someone. Anyways I haven’t been nearly as depressed since then and I completely took control of my life for the better.

 

2. Atheist here. Bright light. I knew there were people waiting for me where the light was coming from. Over there. Absolute ecstasy was the feeling. Then I remembered I had a new born baby and was instantly back.

 

3. When I was 8 years old, I was run over by a car. Ripped me off my feet, leg got caught in the wheel well, slammed my head into the concrete. Instant blackout. I remember walking (floating?) through this blue tunnel, like a cave that was bright enough to see in. The tunnel wasn’t smooth. It was natural, with overlapping layers. At the end, there was the white light that everyone talks about. Before I knew it, I was in it. A disembodied hand reached out to me, and though it was this warm, welcoming feeling, I knew I didn’t want to go. It wasn’t as if I was scared of what was waiting on the other side, I just felt it wasn’t time to go yet. I remember audibly saying that I wasn’t ready yet.

I woke up in the ambulance, with the EMT hovering over me. Coming back into reality was slow going, and his voice was a groaning mockery of my choice. “Everything’s going to be alright.” Combined with the darkness of the ambulance, I though my refusal to go with whoever offered me their hand led me to a fate far worse than just dying.

To be fair, I was a pretty crappy kid.

 

4. When I was dead, it was black. I didn’t hear, see, or smell anything. It might be because I was only dead for such a short time. When they restarted my heart, I felt a pull on the center of my chest and it was like I was literally ripped out of the dark.

 

5. I was about 5, in pain from a migraine. My mother tried to calm me down and then gave me a chewable painkiller of some sort. As soon as that thing touched my tounge I heaved as I had been crying pretty heavy just beforehand and it got caught in my throat.

I was clinically dead for over 6 mins as they tried to dislodge it and had it not been for my grandmother frantically running outside to wave down the ambulance they had called I wouldn’t be here today.

What I saw though, I will never forget. Small golden doors closed to me. Light behind them but no way in. Next to me, however, stood a man in a Black Top with a long tailed suit coat (also black). He has haunted me ever since.

 

6. Atheist here. I was hit pretty hard by a speeding car near my neighborhood. I had this amazing feeling of energy/ecstacy as this light became brighter. In a way, I felt good to go towards this light because as I got closer, I felt warmth, happiness. But I felt it was wrong to continue. I promptly wake up and I’m in the hospital with my mom crying over me. I don’t feel this has affected my religious views or anything. But I did learn that your body tries to make death the most comfortable it can for you.

 

7. Failed suicide attempt around age 13.

Once I passed the “point of no return,” all the pain and depression, fueled by anger and a desire to kill (myself), I was overcome by this calm. I saw myself as I floated over my body. Then I sort of “flipped over” and was going down this tunnel of light.

At the end was some kind of barrier like a film. I remember touching this film and I knew I had touched some kind of all-encompassing omnipotence. As i became aware of it, I sort of became it, and a part of it at the same time. I suddenly knew everything, and for a nerd like me, that was all I ever wanted. The concept of all-knowing is hard to recall, but I remembered two things:

The first is when you know everything, you lose the concept of what a question is. You don’t even ask questions; you just know the exact same moment because there is no preface to knowledge anymore. Knowledge is not something you seek, you are the knowledge.

Second, in this state, I knew I had to go back and keep living. I also knew that I would not understand when I woke up alive why I should keep living. But I knew and I carried back to my body the feeling that I had to keep living even if I did not understand why yet. Like I once understood, but what I understood would get lost in the translation. So all I could do was know, at one point, it made sense and I agreed to it. If that makes any sense.

Waking up, I felt so small, like my mind could not fit in this teeny tiny mortal coil. And I was so distraught at being alive, I wailed and mourned that I was forced to endure my utter contempt at self and environmental misery.

My life got better, but sometimes I feel like death is this place in space and time where the ultimate safety and comfort dwells. And I do not fear death because it’s going to be okay. Like, more okay than any okay we know as blobs of walking meat.

 

8. Its a very odd feeling and somewhat hard to explain. First right after the incident that caused me to be resuscitated(car accident). The whole accident was in slow motion. I remember getting onto the on ramp hitting a huge pot hole and the van I was driving start to spin sideways and hitting the curb that caused my van to flip. The last thing I remember was being upside down in the air before the van finally hit the ground. It literally went from me thinking I’m going to die to nothing. Everything just went black. I had no feelings or thoughts. It was nothingness. Nothingness tends to scare people but you don’t even know that you existed. Its not painful or scary you just simply cease to exist. The one interesting thing about it is it all happens so fast that you have no real idea whats going on. While I was being resuscitated is when things get kind of weird. It went from nothingness not even knowing you existed to me seeing my girlfriend. It was still black but I could see her and then I started hearing her say wake up over and over again until i eventually came too.

 

9. Not me personally, but my brother-in-law (Catholic) had a severe heart attack and had to be brought back three times on the operating table. Afterwards, during his recovery period, he went through quite a deep depression because he had seen absolutely nothing during those three times.

 

10. I almost died this past 4th of July. I was ejected from my motorcycle headfirst. My lung collapsed And my collar bone punctured the top half of my lung. I was left for dead on the side of the road. During this time, I had a near death experience. It felt as though I was sinking into a deep dark pool of water. Everything around me was black and the world we live in kept getting smaller and smaller. It was like I was sinking slowly into a world of unknown. Sound began to act as though it was farther and farther away. In a strange way, I felt in peace. My pain was gone and the weight of the world passed me by. I recall having memories of my friends and family. Then next thing you know, I shot back to life. It must have lasted a few minutes, but to me it felt like a few hours. Death is an eventual reality for us all. This experience taught me to cherish today.

 

11. There’s no excitement or struggle or really any awareness of what’s going on. You just kinda fade and slip away. Everything’s kinda insubstantial, like it’s there but not. You sort of know something’s not quite right, but somehow that’s not important.

You know that feeling you get when you dream yourself awake, and you get up, brush your teeth, make breakfast, and then you wake up for real and find yourself still in bed, disoriented?

Coming back is kinda like that. You know things were different just moments before, and it’s really hard to put a finger on it, but everything’s kinda there… but at the same time, you’re not quite sure that you’re back in the real world, either.

 

12. About two years ago I was clinically dead for about eight minutes the doctor told me due to a heroin overdose. It was a pleasant feeling however it may have just been because I was insanely high (obviously) but it was scary at the same time. I felt like I no longer had any care in the entire world and I could finally be at peace. My heart was beating fast, my entire body was sweaty, and everything felt like it was going in slow motion. I remember right before I fell out in the ambulance one of the ems guys yelled, “We’re losing him.” I let out my last breath that I can remember then calmly went to rest. When I woke up in the hospital a few hours later everything was spinning. I was very confused and disoriented and couldn’t see straight until the next day. All in all it wasn’t terribly bad but I still wouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone else. Also, needless to say I don’t do heroin in anymore.

 

13. To me it felt a bit like slipping into a dream. Everything in the dream feels and looks bright and colorful, and feels like it lasts hours, but when I came back, I had only been gone for less than 3 minutes. The subject of the dream, or anything about it I didn’t remember. I knew none of it made sense, but it felt peaceful, almost uplifting. When I came to, it sounded like I was in a large crowd for a few seconds, but woke to a nearly silent room. Then my vision came back. It was slow, almost like what an old CRT TV looks like when it turns on. dim at first, very fuzzy, then everything got brighter and more defined. That’s when I noticed my whole body had been numb from the neck down and slowly started gaining feeling in my hands and feet and slowly started radiating towards the center of my body. I was very disoriented. It was very hard to remember what I was doing before I went out, or even who the people around me were, or even where I was. After about 5 minutes,everything had come back to normal, except for the pounding headache.

 

14. My little brother has type 1 diabetes, and when he was about 10, he went into hypoglycemic shock overnight. I remember waking up to 6 paramedics running up the stairs in my house, and hearing “he stopped seizing. There’s no pulse.” They loaded him up in the ambulance and told my parents at the hospital, that it was a miracle that they were able to resuscitate him on the way. So when I went to go visit him, I asked him how it felt, to which he had replied “Everything was getting louder, and louder, until suddenly, it started fading away and I was just floating on one of those tubes at sportsworld (local waterpark) with no one around. And it was nice. Can we go there once I get out of here?”

 

15. You feel like you’re going to the deepest sleep (in fact you are) and when waking you’re confused as hell and don’t really understand what happened, just that everyone is SO CONCERNED for you. Extremely unnerving and scary in a detached way. I kept asking what time it was and slipping back ‘down’. No memories of the other side, just that feeling of being so unbelievably tired and that if I just slept everything would be OK.

 

16. It feels like falling asleep. You start to feel darkness but it isn’t scary and you’re not completely conscious of what’s going on and then all at once you’re gone and you didn’t even realize you slipped away. Ifyou wake up from it though, everything’s hazy and confusing.

 

17. All I felt prior was the feeling of falling. Just infinitely falling even though I was already on the ground. Then the next thing I know I just felt like I woke up. EMTs were crowded around me and my mom was there and a good friend of mine. When they brought me back all I felt was as if I had been asleep. Not very good sleep, like a shitty 10 minute nap on a pile of rock in July while you’re throwing up everywhere kind of nap.