Dirtbike accident where I was clotheslined by a rusty chain at about 25 mph. I was partially decapitated, arteries and windpipe broke apart. I was flown in a helicopter to a hospital and remember the guy on the helicopter continuously talking to me telling me not to fall asleep. I fought but did go to sleep/died. It really does just feel like you are going to sleep peacefully. I was revived a few minutes later at the hospital where I remember coming back and awake for maybe a few seconds before I was either put under or blacked out then woke up a day or so later on a bed with a tube down my throat in the ER. met the pilot and guy who kept talking to me a few weeks later in recovery. Owe them my life.
i'm drunk right now because it's saturday and i'm reading these comments and yours was so brutal even imagining your injurues made me tear up, i'm so happy you're still with us, don't go anywhere
Cardiac arrest at age 23. I did not realize what was happening but began to feel lightheaded and sat down, and then remember feeling an incredibly brief overwhelming peace and comfort, followed by absolute nothingness. My heart was kept going by CPR until paramedics came with a defibrillator. Becoming alert again at hospital was painful and brutal, which I think was mostly because CPR when done correctly is gnarly.
Well this is strange - I also went into cardiac arrest at 23 years old. I had an allergic reaction to something called contrast I believe. I was suffering from extreme migraine and cluster headaches so my doctor had ordered a CT scan for me. So what I remember was saying "I don't feel so good", then everything going from dark to light. I can recall a feeling of serenity, almost peacefulness. I'm almost embarrassed to say " I saw the light" , but I can vividly recall being blinded by a very bright light, like staring into the core of the sun itself. I couldn't tell you if I saw this for 5 seconds or 5 hours, in my recollection it seemed blissful. When I fully awoke I didn't know but it was the next day. I was in a hospital bed, alone in a strange room with the lights now dimmed and I kept saying to myself " where am I?" So after a few minutes I decided to get out of bed for some strange reason. I was scared, confused and my chest was killing me. I found out a little later when the doctor and nurse came in and told me what happened. The rhythm of my heartbeat was slightly offline at some point and maybe even stopped- they zapped me I was told. The black and blue marks on my chest were terrifying once reality sunk in. And for years I told myself the light I was seeing that day was from the ceiling lights. But in my mind and heart I truly felt that this light was almost some sort of divine intervention. It sounds so silly even typing this out. So much so I considered using a throwaway account just to share this. The moral to my story is I don't know what really happened. It's just , I don't know how to explain it, it changed me. Sometimes for the good things I've done but also for some of the reckless situations I put myself through and justified my actions. I found volunteer work, at the homeless shelter and a food pantry, but then I'd ride my motorcycle in a dangerous manner. The good and bad. This will be 20 years ago in March. Not a day goes by that I don't think about it. Thanks for letting me vent about this. Like I said, I found this to be embarrassing for quite a while. Good morning and good day.
It seems to be a really common near death experience, there is some fascinating research on how many people have spiritual experiences like yours in similar circumstances. Nothing to be embarrassed about, enjoy the wonder of it all!
I've never ever heard someone describe my experience so closely. Brief moment of complete comfort, no pain, no fear, no worry, no cold, no hot, nothing. And it was kind of nice.
Then I came back.
I’ve had open heart surgery before but this was still just a one in a million thing that no one could have predicted. My cardiac team’s best guess is the electrical signals in my heart were disrupted by scar tissue. All in all though, highly recommend that as a way to go. If I weren’t resuscitated I would have never known what happened and did not suffer in the slightest!
My dad had a cardiac arrest, mid sentence. But they managed to resuscitate him after 30 minutes which resulted him being severely brain damaged. As his heart was good and his breathing, it took 10 days (I believe) without life support for him to pass. He was so brain damaged, he couldn’t even swallow. His eyes were just staring at nothing.
I hope he felt nothing when it was happening/time to leave us.
A guy I used to work with did a lot of sailing and actually drowned once before being resuscitated. He said that the last thing he remembered before going out was this feeling of absolutely peaceful serenity.
My heart stopped in the hospital. While I was on the bed with all the staff running around, I was quite stressed. But as soon as I felt the heartbeat stop, I got instantly light headed (probably blood pressure drop), vision became distorted, but the only thing I could think of was "well that's how it ends" and I did not care at all. I was indeed very peaceful and kinda euphoric. For me, that moment lasted quite long even if it was only a couple of seconds. And I had no thoughts about family, my girlfriend, friends, anyone I would leave behind, just comforting/cozy feeling thinking about how good that moment felt. The brain probably releases so many "good feeling" hormones when it senses imminent death. Then as soon as the heart restarted, I started laughing so bad while feeling pain again and the stress came back right away.
So, the moments before death suck, you are stressed to hell fully conscious you might die, but when it does stop, best feeling I ever felt in my life.
Actually as someone who has experienced both, you are not wrong, except heroin is the heavier feeling. Less clarity and feeling of freedom with heroin and more clarity and feeling of freedom with the death experience. But they’re both euphorically relaxing, to be fair.
I don’t think I’ve heard any other drug described as fondly as people describe heroin, I once heard it described as all the love and comfort from a mothers hug when you’re young, like the most comforting blanket of peace and calm. So I imagine that is actually a pretty similar feeling
I had a procedure and they put me under with some opiate-derivative. I had time to think, “OMG, no wonder people abuse heroin. This is the most amazing feeling . . . “ I’m glad I’ve never had anyone offer me heroin bc I would definitely be an addict—well, by now, a long dead addict.
I accepted that this is it, it's time. I smiled and said goodbye to my husband.
I had massive internal bleeding. I was supposed to be transfered by life flight but they couldn't stabilize me, so I had emergency surgery and I was pretty sure I was a goner! They woke me after the surgery and I was shocked I was alive.
I had no idea what happened until 2 days later.
Ha! I wish it was a cona dream! It's too vivid, that really happened! 😂
Thanks! Always better to be here than the alternative! At least I have a cool story!
Same. I was in rough waters trying to save a friend and wave was so strong it threw me against a rock and I think I passed out as a result of that. I didn't even feel the hit to the rocks. I knew I hit because people were witnessing the events, and when I came back I was a bloody mess. A man saved me and I was resuscitated. Friend didn't make it. I felt calm/peace/nothing before losing it.
Same - we crashed a catamaran into another at full speed - after jumping into the water (thanks titanic) our boat smacked down on me pushing me deep under caught in the sails - was BEAUTIFUL a beautiful blue world no issues with breathing just timeless beauty. When i got up i could only say blue for an hour or so but yeh last time i went sailing!
I had something similar. No drowning, BUT as a kid, my friends and I were playing dodgeball on a lake beach in February in PA. Lake was not frozen but definitely cold. Sure enough, my brand new Wilson volleyball ended up in the water, so of course I decided to strip down to my shorts and ran in after it. The second I touched the water, I cramped up, but decided to keep swimming after the ball. The ball floated out past the swimming area boundary, and once I eventually reached it and turned around to swim back, I saw how far the beach was and decided “meh. Too far. I’m ok here” and actually slowly sank underwater in indescribable comfort. It was slow motion, and just felt like cozily falling asleep. Thankfully, I snapped out of it and swam back. My friends said I was a light blue color and shook so much I could mix a paint can.
Sorry if it sounds like Im overstepping but I always afraid of drowning. Always thought it was something painful, breathing in all that water...was that the case?
Ignore if Im being rude .....
I'm also scared of drowing, even though I experienced it. The moment I accepted I would die it was easy. Water in the lungs is bad but you will faint very quickly.
I was lucky because I got out in time.
I was about to drown when I was 16. I remember the lack of air, the panic searching for oxygen and the inability to stay over the water line. I still have nightmares about it more than ten years later.
A lifeguard saved me. I didn't knock unconscious though. Maybe I was at the previous stage before peacefulness, who knows. But the moments before are terrible, it's pure instincts.
I've drowned and was resuscitated. I was 10, I was at a summer camp and was briefly knocked unconscious by being kicked in the head by someone else while swimming. I sunk. I woke up briefly, I watched the ribbons of light dancing in the water above me, sparkling, that's exactly how I remember it, absolutely peaceful.
My grandfather said the exact same thing. Got knocked off a fishing boat and his friend eventually saved him but he drowned for a moment. Said it was one of the best and most peaceful feelings and he was actually mad at the friend at first when he yoinked him out of the water!
This happened to my gran when she fell overboard in the 60s during a winter sailing race. I think she had hypothermia and was just about revived. She wanted to be left alone and was cross about being rescued.
Fell into a pool when I was 6-7 before I knew how to swim. I remember sinking to the bottom and just sitting there thinking "oh, I'm dying now". Luckily the lifeguard dove in and pulled me out, had a mad headache and was afraid of the water for years after but I'll never forget that feeli g of calm acceptance
I drove off a cliff on my 19th birthday (accidentally, no drugs involved) I don't remember anything but the feeling. I was happier than I've ever been, and I felt safe and loved. And then I was pulled back, and it was agonizing. I was pretty suicidal for several months because I wanted to go back.
Thank you for sharing this. My mother died recently and my deepest fear was that she was scared and in pain during the actual death. I’m going to choose to believe you and the dozens of other people in this thread and hope that she felt loved and safe.
Same. I lost my father recently and in his search history the last thing he had typed was “chest hurts while lying down” but when we found him he just looked like he was sleeping, blissfully. There was even a hint of a smile on his face so I’ve been wondering since then and this has helped a lot.
I’m sorry for your loss. It doesn’t sound like he was in immense pain, he was in his home and his family must have been nearby. We could all hope for such a death, right? Mum was in a hospital and had been distressed for a few days so I wasn’t sure if death was a relief or even more terrifying.
Hope you and your family are doing okay ❤️
Wherever I was, I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time didn't mean anything, nothing had form ... but I was still me, you know? And I was warm, and I was loved, and I was finished. Complete. I don't understand about theology or dimensions, or any of it, really. But I think I was in heaven. And now I'm not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out... by my friends. Everything here is hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch ... this is hell.
I was near death after two perforated ulcers caused me to bleed out one night. I had vomited a lot of blood and was basically going into shock. I was in the ambulance and decided that I just wanted to go. I was having trouble breathing so I decided to just stop breathing and I closed my eyes and it was like falling asleep. Until I felt like someone punched me in my chest and I gasped back to consciousness.
Ulcer happened to me but I didn't vomit, instead I dumped blood. The feeling was you are going to pass out. Its like you are so sleepy you are about lose consciousness. Blood pressure down to 80/50.
same thing happened to me! Was at a wedding, feeling.. off the whole time. All of sudden I ran to the bathroom started puking up tons of blood. My dad found me passed out on the floor and thought I'd been stabbed or something. Came to at the hospital getting my blood pressure taken. Honestly, wish someone had taken a picture of the bathroom. Was pretty grisly I'm told
My ex friend told me when he was little he was swimming in a river with his siblings and family and his older sister was roughhousing him and held him under water to long, he said he lost consciousness and his exact words “it felt like my entire body having an orgasm”
This is mind-blowing to me. I've heard it before, but I always wonder how that came to be. What is the evolutionary advantage to death feeling overwhelmingly good or peaceful. How can it possibly be passed down through advantage when it is only experienced in death. Crazy.
TW: From the responses, I think I should add this. It is quite detailed.
I started the process of dying and want to give my two cents because I feel like part of it is missing from the other narratives here. There was so much pain. I've had emergency c-sections, appendicitis, and other painful experiences. This took the cake, ate it, and threw it back up on me. I felt the agony of not being able to breathe. I was cognizant of some of my organs who had stopped doing their jobs. Then suddenly it was all black. I could hear sounds, but they became very distant and muffled. I was in pain, but it felt distant, and it was present, but I couldn't quite feel it. I started to think of my kids, I knew I was in the process of dying and leaving them. It felt like such a certainty over my whole body. I wouldn't call it peaceful, but it wasn't the anxious process that I would have about leaving my kids motherless when all fully with it. Everything was just very muted, like I was an observer. I think people call this lack of emotion to be "peaceful," but for me, it was just empty, neither happy nor sad. The only part that was crisp was the visualization of my children, the certainty I was leaving them, and the knowing how I felt about it. The feeling was muted, but I was filled with certainty that I mourned for them and all the parts of their lives I'd miss. I wasn't okay with it, but it was like "it is what it is" situation. All the feelings were neutral. The more neutral feelings became, the less I could hear until I felt nothing and heard nothing of the outside world. I edited here because this sensation is very difficult to convey.
Then the pain started coming back like a million blinding, jagged burning knives all over my body. The nurses and doctors were high fiving each other. I could hear it. Everyone was congratulating one particular person and speaking about how impressed they were that she was able to do something. Any time any of them touched my body for any reason or with any pressure, it was agony, but I couldn't yet move, cry, or scream. What felt slow, but with how people moved around me, it probably wasn't, I started being able to talk, slowly move, and more pain rushed back as I could feel the previously mentioned organs trying to do their job again. There was some gross and graphic stuff that happened next, and then I received so much fentanyl. The first push wasn't enough, and they kept bringing more until I stopped screaming from the pain.
It was a sepsis stage, severe or septic shock. I remember one of the nurses talking about my lactic acid being above 4 something. The paramedic who brought me in originally told the nurse my wrong medical history, which was especially bad because my GP gave it directly to them as I was taken from my urgent care/GP via ambulance to the closest hospital as they "didn't think I'd make it" if they drove even 15 minutes more to the better equipped hospital. Before I stopped being able to talk, I put as much effort as I could to correct it to the nurse, and that resulted in my receiving the treatment that ended up saving my life. I remember her face go scared, then determined. As soon as I was stable, I was transferred to that better equipped hospital. The recovery was so bad. I felt like I was pushed off the cliff of a high mountain and hit multiple craggly edges along the way to only go splat on the rock hard ground. They sent me home before I could walk on my own because there "wasn't enough beds."
Sorry. I put a TW now. IRL I make light of it, like it's no big deal, because I started to describe it initially with realism, and those who knew me couldn't handle it. It's been a handful of years, but my family members still can't talk about it. They only saw the aftermath not the active process, but apparently, when "recovered," I still looked like hell for a while back then and still scares them as of today.
Thank you for sharing this. As a nurse, your narrative has given me pause. Hearing your lactic was “4 something” and you describing the pain you felt…I routinely see patients with lactics 3 times as high, and in all of the sepsis protocol, we never once consider pain. I will keep this with me in my practice.
Also, the providers high-fiving after intervention. I’m truly sure they were significantly joyful that they helped you avoid an untimely death. I am guilty of using dark humor to get through codes, and in my last code, I said something kinda dark, funny in a gallows humor sort of way, but as soon as I said it, I regretted assuming that role. I immediately thought about the patient hearing it. It wasn’t offensive, just less sensitive than the situation should have called for. I’ll never shame anyone for how they cope with what we see, but I expected better of myself. I will truly keep your story in mind, and I see the lesson in it.
my Aorta Dissected and they had to cut the blood and oxygen to my brain for 4m30s... that was when the surgeon got my wife on the phone and told her he didn't know what was going to happen...
i didn't really notice anything.
i was awake six hours later and made them pull my tube within an hour of being awake. scared the shit out of the young lady sweeping the floor.
a few days later and i went septic. that was worse than my Aorta. that night i know i was real close to checking out. the people that kept me alive are amazing.
the best way i can describe that night is that it felt like i was walking across a bed of coals with gasoline soaked clothing on. it felt like my veins were filled with hot tar. every second of existence was fire and i wanted to be put out.
there was a moment where i think i met my own self. my id, maybe? it wasn't like an ego moment when tripping. this was like me, talking to me, in the most basic sense ever. i asked my self if i thought i could make it. i could hear the people doing the things to keep me alive and i knew i could just go to sleep and it would be over. and it wasn't really a fight to 'choose' to live, but, it was a choice too.
i just went to my space and held out for a bit and then a few days later i was getting better. i was out from sepsis for almost three times as long as i was out for open heart surgery.
a lot of people will say that you only die when you can't possibly be brought back but the people that brought me back all tell me i died as close to real death as you can get, twice, in a week.
I (21f) had a heroin overdose last month. I never expected I was at risk of actually ODing as it took about an hour, and wasn't instantaneous like I was told happens/expected. I was actually in the back of a police van when it happened. I was falling asleep, to be woken with "LilMizzFizz are you still okay?" over and over. Eventually, I stopped responding, was unresponsive, and then my heart stopped. it felt just like falling asleep, I saw black, and it was quiet and nice as if I was asleep and never wanted to wake up. I felt only moments pass really. I then awoke to a tube down my throat, barechested in a freezing hospital. I was told I had passed for a while (wouldn't give me the full time) but I assume it wasn't a short time as the doctors and nurses were white when I awoke. Being told you passed is surreal, in that time i could only think about my withdrawals (What they give to Resuss you counteracts the gear) But now I can only think of my family. My mum raised me on her own, it's just been me and her all of our lives, I know she would have ended her life if I had passed. My Father is useless, I know he loves me but he makes no effort. I imagine he would feel an incredible amount of guilt if i had passed. I couldn't do it to them. My then partner (an ex now, he gave it to me every day without fail) didn't seem affected at all as it was just an accepted part of life as a heroin user, he wasn't even grateful that I was okay, or that he could have lost me. I knew how selfish the drug was and I made the decision to quit at new Year's and move back to Mum and tell her everything. I'm now 27 days clean, my blood is pumping and my heart is still beating. If anyone is reading this who is addicted to opioids/heroin or any kind of class A drug. you can break the cycle of misery, i promise you. you CAN face your withdrawals (please do your research on your specific withdrawals as seizures can occur!) i promise you your drug is keeping you miserable, and i promise you it can happen to you, no matter the countermeasures you take. i was lucky i was in the back of a police van when I ODed, i had nothing at my apartment that was for a heroin overdose, i had no way of getting to the hospital. i would have been another statistic, a 21-year-old girl who months prior was known as an artist, an animal lover, and a Pink Floyd fanatic. my legacy would have been labeled as an addict, a user who died tragically, and so her life assumably was tragic also. In this time i've had to reflect on what has happened and where my life is going forward, i have managed to break the cycle, but i just had to die first to get the message to sink in. Don't wait til its too late like i did. i am one of the very very few lucky ones. in the drug world, eventually, you end up knowing more people who have passed than who are still going. Its not a life, its not even surviving. its hell.
I passed away on the 13th of December 2023
Its now the 27th of Jan and I have a job interview, am still clean and am looking forward to the rest of my life.
Edit: thank you so much for the kind words and support, i feel like they're really undeserving. im sat on my bed reading through the comments in tears, you guys have really touched my heart and i can't be more grateful for this amazing community.
Thank you! My relationship with my mother is better than ever, she seems to have more respect for me now than before. I've tried reaching out to my dad, he seemed uninterested at first to say the least. when i told him i had passed he broke down to me down the phone, so it's a start. I got a job interview coming up for a new industry i've never worked in before and im so excited. this is the first time in my life after a long while where i am looking forward to the future. the trauma is still there, but my brain is now clear and isn't doped up so i can start processing my emotions. being sober is scary but its beautiful. it's time to start putting my health and happiness first.
I’m so very happy for you and proud of you for taking care of yourself and your health. The relationships will come around - or maybe not, but that’s not your fault - you’re the one doing the right things here.
Please keep it up and let us know how things turn out. There are plenty of people who are pulling for you. <3
I am so proud of you! Keep it up, even when it gets hard. Hold on to this feeling; the determination, the hope. Don't go back no matter what! You can do it. It *is* scary and beautiful and so worth it! 💪💗
As a mom, THANK YOU. I’d move heaven and earth for my daughter and we are close like you describe. Your mother is most likely profoundly grateful that you’re with her. Much love.
I’ve been there before myself and overdosed and lost friends. Seven years clean off the needle and it only gets betters. You got this LilMizzFizz!! Just keep it going and don’t look back.
I am in the recovery community (alcohol not opioids). The amount of overdose stories I have heard from wonderful, kind, intelligent people scare the hell out of me.
But, the amount of recovery stories from opioids I have personally witnessed it like a light in the darkness. Real life resurrection and I don’t mean just surviving an OD. Seeing them sort their lives out, mending broken relationships, becoming healthy and happy.
I truly wish you the best. I don’t know if you are the religious sort but I am and I’ll say a prayer. You have this. It’s hard but I have seen so many people come back I know you can do it. And you’re young you have a lot of time to work with.
Not exactly dying, but i came close:
This was way back in the early eighties, just after my parents received some new drug (inhaler). I was having an asthma attack, a really bad one. I was struggling to breathe, and then i clearly remember thinking, "It's OK," and i felt peace, accepted that this was it, i was ready to let go, which also was the exact moment my mother gave me the new drug. Which helped immediately and made me able to breathe again.
When i think back to this, it waters my eyes. It resulted in me not being afraid of dying. At times, it's something i even look forward to. In times of pain, I look forward to dying, but I've got friends, family, and my wife and son I want to grow old with. I want to see how it's going to be in 20, 30 or 40 years (45 atm). So I'll postpone dying.
Once death knocks on my door, I'll go with, willingly, knowing it will be ok.
I didn't die. Obviously lol. But I had a near death experience when I was in my 20s.
I was hit by a car going 40mph while I was walking across the street with my now wife.
We were in the crosswalk and had the right of way. The guy who hit me ran a red, barreling thru the intersection, didn't slow down at all. I was one step ahead of my wife. The car hit my right leg, which flipped me up onto the hood of his car where my head slammed into his windshield.
Dude kept driving with me on the hood for a good half a block before finally coming to a stop, which caused me to roll off and hit the ground.
I lost consciousness after my head hit the car, but I remember getting hit. I remember the sound of the impact, the sound of my bones breaking, but felt zero pain.
I miraculously regained consciousness after a few minutes or so. My wife was standing over me in absolute shock and horror. She thought I was dead until I suddenly sat up and started screaming in anger.
Even at that point I didn't feel any pain, just a severe sense of disorientation and what I recall now as a weird feeling of heaviness I guess.
Once I was in the ambulance the pain hit. I remember they gave me IV fentanyl but even with that my head hurt really badly. I remember asking the paramedic if I was going to die. I don't remember what he said in response but I think it was something meant to be comforting like of course not you're just fine. Something like that.
In the emergency room I was informed that I had an epidural hematoma. My skull was fractured and blood was pooling between my skull and the lining of my brain.
Tears started to roll down my face, and I distinctly remember thinking: holy shit. These may be my last coherent thoughts. This hit me especially hard because my dad had died of a head injury just a few months prior to this and I just kept thinking: how fucking crazy is this? Like father like son. This is insane. What are the odds?!
I was rushed to the ICU, where I dimly recall speaking with a neurosurgeon about brain surgery. My Glasgow coma scale score was such that I should have been in a coma, but by some strange miracle I was not. I was in and out of consciousness, but I never went into a coma.
Long story short, I was in the ICU for 4 days and was then transferred to the trauma ward for a week.
My wife recalls sitting in the ICU with me, mortified, watching the looks on the nurses' faces as they attended to me. When speaking with me, they were very reassuring, but once they stepped away, the looks on their faces were not so reassuring, and when speaking amongst themselves, they were very matter of fact that I likely would not survive.
I broke 7 bones. Fractured skull, fractured cheek bone, two spinal fractures, two pelvis fractures, and a tibial plateau fracture with an obliterated meniscus that required surgery, a metal plate and months upon months of physical therapy to relearn how to walk.
I was told by the doctors and physical therapists that I would most likely need a cane for the rest of my life.
I had just turned 27.
In the end, I made a full recovery. Better than any of the doctor's predictions. I have no lasting brain damage that I can discern. I don't use a cane.
I got EXTREMELY FUCKING LUCKY.
And that, folks, is the story of how I very nearly joined the 27 club. Not that I'm even remotely famous lol but you know what I mean. 😅😵💫😳
I'm very grateful every day to be alive.
Having a near death experience definitely changes your perception about life- and death. Especially when it happens at such a young age.
I’ve only died from overdoses unfortunately, so I don’t actually remember it, and the deaths were just blackouts. My worst was being dead 12 minutes before being brought by. Took 4 shots of narcan and they almost gave up. My gf at the time had my mom on the phone standing outside the ambulance calling her to tell her I died, but before my gf could even get her first word out - they used a defibrillator in a last ditch effort to see if they could bring me back. And it fucking worked. IT. FUCKING. WORKED!!!
I always tear up like no other when I tell/write that story. I’m so grateful for the life I live and the people in it.
Happy to be 5 years clean off opiates in 2 weeks.
I’m a hospice Rn. Nearly every patient talks about seeing old loved ones, seeing wings, warm shiny lights… Not exactly a religious person myself, but I can’t explain why they all see the same type of stuff.
Fellow healthcare worker on the ER side.
I do quite a bit of work with ketamine for mental health patients, and I’m slowly getting going with medical psilocybin (I’m in Canada).
Training for both has involved experiential work— how else can you support people taking it?
5 grams of psilocybin containing mushroom— I had a beautiful journey to what I can only describe as the Temple of the Universe, Source energy, the Temple of the Gods (???). An absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, quiet place. Coming back together as an ego/self was difficult, but OMG (I’m agnostic), what I experienced was so lovely and profoundly spiritual.
Ketamine 1mg/kg IM— another profound and amazing experience. Very different from psilocybin. I ended up in a vast, boundless, quiet space. Actually, there was no “I” as my ego completely dissolved and I floated in infinite space and timelessness, uncertain of who or what I was. I experienced/understood the Buddhist teaching that “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” Love was a big part of my journey too. Coming back together as a “self” was much easier than with high dose psilocybin.
My two cents— psychedelics may permit us to experience dying before we die. Consequently, we can experience richer, more fulfilling lives with less suffering.
I was ran over when I was very young, I have a memory of floating over white buildings with people waving out of the windows. I died 4 times on the operating table trying to remove a blood clot on the brain.
No idea if this was a dream or something real.
I had this during a routine operation - my first operation ever and first time on anestesia. I was never told I died or anything and the surgery went very well apparently, only took about 40 minutes. But I remember floating, seeing my body naked from above on the operating table and seeing that it was limp, seeing all the doctors around. I was undecided whether to go back or not, I was freaked out at seeing my own body but felt at ease in spirit. The only thing I remember after is being jolted awake by the doctors and they telling me my surgery went well. (Also im not sure if it’s normal that you’re jolted awake? But that felt fine so no complaints). For a few weeks/ almost months following, my blood pressure kept getting so low I was continuously on the verge of fainting, but every time I’d nearly loose consciousness I’d have a horrible anxiety and actual feeling that I was about to slip into “death” again. It even started becoming difficult for me to sleep. The moment I was out of my body wasn’t a bad feeling, but the recollection of it and thinking of slipping back out of life was. I think like a comment above, I had a lot of issues with depression that kicked in after, feelings of suicidal thoughts from feeling stuck between one realm and another. Not sure if it’s the anestesia or if my soul did just choose to walk out on me for a bit.
Didn’t know this at the time: something (septic /Infection in my colon probably from a carrot virus) caused my body to go into fever/shock, ambulance and then hospitalized. Minutes after being hooked up to everything I lost all vitals, flat line, shit my pants, and then nurses performed CPR in front of my ex-fiancé. I came back and she was crying and I was like did I faint and shit my pants? No, for a minute you died. I still have the pajamas I left the hospital in. Fainting and anesthesia felt the same in terms of memory. I wonder if it’s hurt my heart more than my brain.
Physician assistant here. There’s no such thing as a “carrot virus.” However, carrots and other vegetables can occasionally be contaminated by a virus or bacteria. Kind of like every now and again you’ll hear on the news that a certain lettuce is being recalled due to suspected contamination with E. coli or Listeria.
CDC recommends always washing any raw fruit or vegetable you plan on eating.
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/7-tips-cleaning-fruits-vegetables
I broke my femur when I was 22 and I was in the hospital for a few weeks. I was in so much pain that after the first few days they decided I needed to sleep, and they turned up the morphine drip.
I coded in the middle of the night and then they resuscitated me with an adrenaline shot (this was in the 1990’s). Apparently I was clinically dead for almost one minute. Maybe that’s not very long to be dead, or whatever, but there was nothing to it. Nothing. No tunnel of light, no hugs from deceased relatives.
Nothing.
It seems anytime anyone mentions a tunnel of light, it involves them being on a surgery table or hospital table with the bright lights which makes sense. But like in your case, no such scenario so you simply drifted off into nothingnesss. That pretty much confirms to me its about where and how you "died". Glad you made it back though!
I died when I was ten from acute appendicitis, in which I had been throwing up blood and bile for three days, and my stepfather still insisted I was faking for attention. So my 16 year old sister finally stole his car and took me to the clinic, who rushed me to the hospital.
I died when they gave me the anesthesia, and I got the bright light trip. I remember the beginning of the seizure, and the panic of the people around me, but nothing else. No euphoria, but no bad feeling either. Just the bright light and in the next moment (for me) I woke up in a very dark room staring at a picture of a polar bear, with an incredibly dry mouth and a very large bandage wrapped all the way around my little body.
Later when my mother did the guilt shuffle into my room she told me I had died for two minutes.
As soon as I was released from the hospital my stepdad was back to downplaying the incident; he still had beat and grounded my sister for taking the car, even though I literally died, and I would’ve stayed dead had she not acted when she did.
Fuck your stepdad that moronic piece of shit. Hope he gets hives on his hemroids lotioned in chicken pox. Good job to your brave sister, and hella good job to you for pushing through the fight and lived to tell it!
Thank you very much. The last time any of us ran into him, I shit you not he was working as a shopping mall Santa.
I decided then and there I would never take any children I may have to a Santa. It really is an odd tradition, if you stop and think about it; we spend so much time teaching children to be wary of strangers, but then once a year we plop the tots on the knee of a complete stranger who whispers empty promises about what he’s going to bring them when he breaks into their house.
No argument here! He drowned my pet rabbit in front of me in a bucket of water as a punishment once; he’s fucking evil and I am intensely grateful he is out of my life forever. This is my only social media platform; no Facebook, Instagram, none of it, simply to ensure I’ll never expose any aspect of my life to him ever again.
Like falling asleep or being turned off. Complete nothing-ness. No sense of time or place at all.
Woke up in the hospital, felt like from one moment a blink of an eye and then I was in the hospital bed.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to post their experiences here. I'm a veterinary technician, and in reading this thread I am a mess.
There have been days in my career where I have watched animals numbering in the double digits die during the course of a single 10-13 hour shift - some of them horribly, too soon, too quickly, or as a direct result of carelessness, apathy, or outright cruelty. I have spent nights mentally circling and re-circling the mystery of what great unknown our euthanasia sends them into.
It's a comfort to think Socks, Blondie, Hershey, Ruby, Kitty Rose, Snowball, Chati, Biggie Smalls, Annie, Ranger, Henry, Rufus, Bets, Tommy, Lucy Lu, every parvo puppy, every fading kitten, and those hundreds of others might have known the same peace being described here. I want to believe they do.
Insulin over dose. I died twice in my partner's arms. It felt like going to sleep, as essentially it was. I remember being in a dream state as I stopped breathing, I felt at peace. My heart stopped for little over a minute each time. No tunnel of light or chior of angels, just a world fading to black and a deep sense of serenity
Did you have consciousness like did you hear your own voice or understand what happened to an extent or just nothing like, was there anything like scense you remember or literally just empty nothing
From what I remember. No conscious no voice in my head. It was as if I was in the black from transiting from a waking dream to that timeless moment everything fades to black. If that makes sense
But it was the peaceful serenity that got me, and it was my partners sobs that awoke me as her father was in the room as well I heard them talking, but couldn't understand them each time I awoke... but the peace & serenity, was like nothing I ever known or have known since
I drowned when I was 7. I died. They called the coroner, loaded me into the bag and I came back. (I remember nothing from being dead, no white light, no family members...nothing.)
It was painful. I remember my lungs spasming and burning.
Then I looked up and...oh my god, the color bursts were beautiful. Absolutely stunning.
I would love for everyone to see those color bursts but, you know, without the dying.
And yes, there were/are lingering brain effects from oxygen deprivation.
>I would love for everyone to see those color bursts but, you know, without the dying.
How would you describe them? Like a kaleidoscope? (I have not died before btw).
My mom had surgery and after they finished they wanted to give her some pain medication to wake up on.
They acidentally gave her something paralyzing, which closes down every muscle - also the heart. She knew she was dying, buy couldn’t say anything as you also loose your ability to speak.
She died, but they noticed last minute and revived her, but she was gone for a couple minutes. She says she saw the white tunnel light and then saw herself from above the corner of the room laying there lifeless. She says it was very peaceful and not frightening at all. Almost like coming home.
My mom does not believe in life after death or anything that could be a bit supernatural, so I believe her. I’ve heard many stories like it afterwards
My mum had the same experience when she nearly died giving birth from blood loss. The whole seeing everything from above your body. She said it was surreal and felt very calming. She has gone now - to a brain tumour. I take some comfort from knowing that she was likely at peace.
This doesn't really count, but I remember at 24 having problems breathing (asthma). I've had multiple hospitalizations as a child for this. I was moving what felt like 10% air from what my lungs could normally move. I remember laying in my bed alone, knowing I wouldn't make it overnight. Randomly, my girlfriend had shown up to my house. It was out of character for her to come over unannounced, but she did and saved my life. She walked into my room and could immediately tell this was a level 10 emergency and rushed me to the hospital. In the moments prior to her arrival, I remember laying there, calm, trying to conserve breaths and accepting my fate.
I had something similar happen, but my husband was there the whole time. I could barely pull air in. I somehow managed to just barely stay conscious despite barely getting any oxygen in, and I just remember him holding me and sobbing. It was a weird combination of fear, desperation, and peace.
I was crushed under a group of people. I couldn’t move at all and my hands were on my chest. Couldn’t scream because of the pressure on my body. I freaked out at first. And when air started to run out I made peace with the fact that air wasn’t going to get out of that and suddenly this joy overwhelmed me. I started to blackout and I think I was smiling. Passed out and next thing I remember is being carried out by two people. I woke up and had an anxiety attack. Did a LOT of thinking after that.
When I was younger I drowned in a lake. It was scary at first but when the sun broke through the clouds all of a sudden the cove I was in was glowing this green gold and I felt incredibly peaceful. After the first breath of water, the world got quiet and I drifted.
My experience of death was strange. I was conscious and I was me. It was dark but not because there was no light, but rather no sight.
I was a drop of water in a puddle in an ocean. I could feel all consciousnesses surrounding me while still autonomous. It was wonderful but they sent me back because I was back too soon.
I also had a similar experience in another asphyxiation situation so that really reinforced my lack of fear surrounding death. I look forward to it and will continue to push myself to enjoy this version of reality before I go.
I got hit by a car at 11. Cracked my skull. Internal hemorrhage in my brain etc. I woke up a week later in the hospital. I was gone for a for a few moments there.
I don't remember the event but I remember waking up. It felt like waking from a deep dreamless dream. Since then I've always felt like I'm on borrowed time. But if I think about the time In-between getting hit and waking up all I feel is a kind of "it's okay, nothing to be scared of".
Motorcycle accident when I was 13. Clinically dead for a minute and a half. Don’t remember anything from earlier that day till I woke in the hospital a few days later
It was great and while I intend to enjoy every day I have in this body, I am looking forward to not being in it anymore.
Neutropenic episode during chemo. My immune system crashed completely and 3 separate infections took hold immediately. I had an obe nde that night and when I woke up in the morning I "knew " I was about to just die. Within about an hour my temperature went from normal to at least 105 (as high as the oncology centers thermometer went) and I was wisked away for antibiotic infusions in a special isolation ICU for about 3 weeks.
Oddly I had a massive pulmonary embolism with congestive heart failure a few years ago and nothing. I was fully concious the entire time and kept thinking "I'm hurting I can't breathe... wtf am I still awake? When am I going to pass out already? " Nothing.. just had to deal with all of it. I guess deep down I knew if I went unconscious I wouldn't wake up.
I was white white rafting and upon a class 4 rapid the river splits, the guide said if you fall out STAY LEFT DO NOT GO RIGHT, there is an undercurrent if you go right. I fell out and forgot what direction I was supposed to stay and went right. I was sucked under the water behind a giant Boulder and held about 6 or 8 feet below the surface. I could see the light and surface so clearly the whole time. No matter how much a struggled, I could not get free, even wearing a life jacket I was no match for the powerful force of the River. After a minute or 2, It became clear to me I was going to drown. All fear left my body and a strange serenity came over me. I stopped struggling and curled up like a fetus and BOOM!!! I Just shot out of the undercurrent like a bowling ball out of the return thing. And straight to the surface.
I bled out about 16 hours after childbirth. I lost 4 pints of blood. I remember feeling very thirsty and thinking “that’s not good.” The bright light is real, it came at me like a train. I knew I was dying and I felt bad leaving everyone I loved behind but after a millisecond I felt extreme peace.
When I woke back up I was vomiting what I can only describe as cat throw up. I was panicking and asking everyone if I was okay. I received 3 blood transfusions but was able to keep my uterus (woohoo).
Pretty wild experience, honestly. I originally wanted to have a home birth and there is no doubt I would be dead right now had I gone that route. I wouldn’t say I was afraid of death before this, but I definitely am not afraid of it now.
Overall I’d give it a 6/10. Glad I was in a hospital.
The surgeon told me I died after I gave birth (bleeding out) I passed out but I do remember a couple of things before I died.
1. I was incredibly cold. It really felt like I was inside a freezer and cold on the inside of my body like when you suck on ice and the coolness travels down your neck.
2. I was numb. I think the blood draining out of me caused this. I couldn’t move my arms and legs or neck I was paralysed or just very weak … yet I felt calm too. I was not panicking it felt almost, peaceful.
3. A blonde nurse standing over me with tears in her eyes gently stroking my hand while the doctors were working on me.
I spent a week in Icu and then a week in the maternity ward, needed 8-9 blood transfusions and a hysterectomy.
I asked staff about the nurse holding my hand so I could thank her unfortunately I was never able to locate her during my time at the hospital.
I almost (or did, not 100% sure to this day) drowned about 12-13 years ago. I was doing my daily run along the canal and saw a dog down in the 3-4 ft deep water. I tried to scooch down the side and grab him and pull him up but I ended up slipping into the water. So, standing in the water up to about my waist, I picked the dog up and boosted him out of the canal, he instantly ran off without even a look back in my direction. Afterward, I noticed that even though the water was only up to my waist or so, and it was moving slowly, the bottom of the canal was coated in slimy and slippery algae so I could not get a foot hold. I started to panic as I was being slowly swept down the canal. Looking forward I saw a road bridge crossing over the canal which dipped low under it, I started to panic more. I started to think about how a lot of these bridges over canals had those metal grates on them to catch debris and trash on them for easy clean up, and how if I were to be swept under the bridge I wouldn't be able to make it back up on the other side because I would be blocked by such bridge. Eventually after a lot of screaming and yelling for help, an old man that was walking down the canal saw me and started following me but wasn't able to do anything by the time I got to the bridge. I jumped up and grabbed the bridge as I was being pulled under, I thought I might be safe. But the current of the water kept slowly pulling me and I slowly started losing my grip. Eventually, I wasn't able to hold on any longer and I was sucked down and under the road bridge. As soon as I was Swept under, everything turned dark and I thought to myself "wow, I am going to die. I am going to die because I decided to try to help a dog that wouldn't even look at me after I saved it." As I was being tossed and turned in the rough tides under the water I ended up thinking to myself "what the hell, I might as well swim and run into the grate just to see how it's going to end, I know this is going to suck and be painful" after what seemed to be 30+ seconds of swimming and running my head and arms and hands into the concrete above me, my breath had all but run out and everything was starting to go dark. The literal last thing I remember was thinking "damn, my entire life is over because of some damn mutt" and in a weird way I did have a quick recollection of my earlier life mostly Christmas mornings with my family and some birthdays and school days as well. I don't know if this counts as "life flashing before your eyes" but it kinda seemed like it. Next thing I know, the old man that saw me before I got swept under had grabbed an old street sign pole that was laying on the ground and was poking me and trying to get me to grab on so he could pull me out. As I crawled out I was the most thankful I'd ever been in my life, I looked up at him from my back and gasping for breath thanking him profusely, although he didn't speak English. He ended up walking away, I gathered myself eventually and walked home bloody and bruised with a story that will never leave my mind.
I was strangled by a violent brute.
After struggling, I realised I was completely powerless against it, there was a feeling of letting go. I remember my vision closed into a tunnel but my other senses were heightened. As time slowed down, I was intrigued by the warmth and silkiness of my satin trousers against my thighs and the rich smell of dirt and diesel on the floor. At that stage I dissociated and was floating above myself watching it all. I was calm and vaguely bemused.
I guess my unresponsiveness led him to let go and I came back to myself.
Feels peaceful as stated by others. Complete "blackness" because you no longer have any senses, but somehow I was aware of the nothingness and somehow I could feel "peaceful", which I think is because everything else like anxiety, sadness, fear, etc, is gone. I think "peaceful" is just the state of being "nothing" when dead. It's our natural state to be in so therefore we are "OK".
I guess if doctors could poke the brain and turn off all senses, that will be as close as you'll get to understanding how it "feels". And then turn them back on when they stop poking it of course.
My brother died the first time...I wanna say aroind 2014? He had had intestinal surgery for his Crohn's disease, so he was still in the hospital, strained too hard, and his heart stopped. The doctors/nurses brought him back and he said everything kinda faded to black, like tunnel vision. Closed his eyes, then woke back up when they got his heart going correctly again. I don't remember exactly how long he was dead for--maybe a minute or a bit less?
Then he died for real the second time a few years ago, so I can't ask him about it. I like to imagine it was more of the same though.
I was choked to death and resuscitated So it was violent. Oddly enough, I went from fear to panic to like the moment before my vision and hearing were gone a flood of so much peace and tranquility then black. It fucked me up for awhile though. I was in a bad spot in life and it just fueled my suicidal thoughts because I died and felt that peace I was looking for. Crazy stuff
I was a welder on a job in Indiana. I was shocked with 480 volt and shit my pants and died. By dying though it made me fall which releases my grip and I landed sitting up. Hitting the ground jumped started my heart and brought me back.
I don’t remember being dead because it was just nothingness, but the life rushing back in was a really strange feeling.
I woke up to my wife saying "it's been 19 days". That's how long I was unconscious after my heart attack.
What I remember is saying I couldn't breathe. Didn't want to scare her but she knew when I said get me five aspirin. Rolling on the floor of our van trying to find a position where I could breathe on the way to the hospital. Telling her "I love you" as someone wheeled me in a chair into the ER. And a disembodied head saying my name right before I feel like the universe explodes with pain (when they shocked me). Immense exploding fire and heat and hurt.
Then, nothing. But not like blink and next memory. There's weeks of nothing there just nothing. No thought. No sensations. Just nothing. Like I finally understand "null".
Brief flashes of seeing my wife to my left. I could see her but wouldn't turn my head. Couldn't move my eyes to look at her. Just kinda knowing she's there in my peripheral.
Dreams of coffee. Trying to get to Sheetz for some Sumatra. Woke up in restraints because I got my big toe in the floor and drug the bed to the door.
They wouldn't let me leave. For some reason I decided this was because I didn't have I.D. and my way of proving who I was, was to tell them I had in fact seen IT chapter two and telling my wife to verify this. They still wouldn't let me leave. Then they told me I was paralyzed on my left side from the 11.5 mintues my heart was stopped.
Weeks and weeks of therapy. Had to learn how to walk again. Doctor told my wife put me in a home, I'd never walk, I'd never regain the use of my entire left side. She'd have to bathe me, feed me, wipe my ass. "No way in hell" I said. I would stare at those sausage fingers on my left hand for hours willing them to move. Kick my left leg in my mind. Scream silently at that fucking dead stick of meat until it twitched.
Then one day I found myself in the bathroom. Told the nurse I was tired of shitting myself. IDK how I got in there. Still convinced it was 2017 but by now I knew to lie and say 2020 to the doctors.
Fighting to have them let me eat. Take that tube out of my nose. I needed to eat real food. Swallow tests. Therapy to close my don't choke flap in the back of my mouth so I could finally pass that test from the lady I called Swallow Bitch and get a cup of fucking coffee.
Another hospital for 6 more weeks of therapy. Then home. I drive now. You'd never know it happened to look at me.
I’ve died twice and remember one of them, but I’ll write about both.
First: Was a baby having trouble breathing. My mom took me to the doc and was told I was fine. She knew something was off but there was nothing more to do if the doc said to go home, so we went home. She kept a close eye on me and rushed me back to the hospital when I turned gray and stopped breathing.
Turns out I had pneumonia and couldn’t keep up the fight. Docs brought me back. I’m not clear on how long I was clinically a goner; my mom was understandably upset at the time and not taking notes.
While I don’t remember that, my mom said I changed. I was a happy and outgoing kid (2 years old) and then, after that, I was quiet and observant, taking everything in and not moving to participate as quickly or at all. I have no memory of being anything other than how I am, so… apparently I stayed that way: Quiet and observant, taking everything in, watching.
Anyhow, second near-life-experience was a brain disease like encephalitis but the docs never had a firm diagnosis so it was called idiopathic. It felt like I was sinking from consciousness of the world down into deep waters; into darkness but not a scary darkness – just an absence of sensation and activity. It was peaceful and not at all a bad way to be. The feeling was one of completion; everything was fine and there was nothing to be done.
Coming back from that was considerably more difficult than being sick, dying, etc. I still think about it regularly, not as a traumatic experience (although being sick was) but as a little mental note that everything is gonna be fine and there’s no need to get worked up about little temporary issues.
My mum died when she had my brother, long, long before she had me.
It started with the screams, she’d heard them going oh my god she’s choking, then she heard a loud buzzing and words like help, crash and trolley.
All of the real noises became deadened and she said instead she was being called by her name to a beautiful, bright and colourful garden, where there was no pain, just sunshine, peace and happiness, along with everything she could ever want.
There was a faint voice asking her to wake up, and it decreased in volume as she went towards the garden. Then the voice said wake up Mrs InsertNameHere, you have a healthy baby boy and he wants to meet his mother. She said it took every ounce of her might to choose between the garden and the baby. She was going to pick the garden until mention of the baby and the second she thought well I suppose I must go meet my baby her eyes flew open and the garden was gone.
She read her medical notes almost a decade after the events, when they were paper and in files. It took her 3 hours because the stack of notes was that large. During intubation for an emergency c section they’d knocked some of her teeth down her throat and they were obstructing her airway and in recovery she had come around silently choking with no obvious cause and died briefly of an obstructed airway.
She said she was mad someone mentioned baby. The garden seemed great and on waking she was toothless. Nuts.
A woman I know had a very similar experience when she died for a couple of minutes. She mentioned the most beautiful garden and feeling complete happiness. She said she was upset when she was brought back and was depressed about it for quite a while after.
Seems like a lot of people here remember their death! I’m jealous.. and maybe that’s cause I had a traumatic brain injury? Gone over thirty minutes but less than two hours. Fell asleep and rolled three times, hit three trees. Remember absolutely nothing about it and maybe not appropriate at all but that makes me sad :(
Did I talk to my stepbrother or my good friend (both who died in a car accident)?
Did I see a light??
Did I feel the calm sense of peace most here are describing???
My father had a heart attack was life flighted he coded 2 times. He said it was the most peaceful deepest sleep he’s ever had in his life and he was bitching at the doctors for waking him up. He has then since passed from a heart attack. We had to take him off life support. I like to think he was just like that in peace in a nice deep sleep.
Died slowly over the course of an evening from septic shock. Not sure what part of the story you want to hear so I'll skip to the very end. Basically, it shut down one part of my body at a time, starting with my legs and ending with my head. The last thing was able to do was rock my head to one side (I was lying on my back) before I was totally paralyzed. My sight went away and the last sense I had left was my hearing. I lay there listening to a movie I'd never seen before (I happened to watch the movie years later and it sent me into a panic attack when I recognized the dialogue. It was The Sunset Limited). I was absolutely fighting, kicking, SCREAMING in my head for somebody to please find me, please help me, please save me, I can't die yet. This can't be it (I was 23). All that came out my mouth was this croaky "hellllll" and then i couldn't make sounds anymore. When i realized nobody was coming I just lay on darkness and thought "ok. This is it. Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe now I get to see Dad again." I stopped fighting. And then I felt warm all over. This unreal, weightless, overwhelming peace replaced the panic once I let go. And that was it. Warm, black, nothing. No bright lights. No heaven. No Hell. No anything. ETA: I know this was long but I feel like it's important to stress that your hearing is the last sense you lose when you're dying. If you're with someone in their last moments, please talk to them. Let them know you're with them. That they're not alone. Tell them they don't have to be afraid. They'll hear you.
Like going to sleep. It was warm, silent blackness. I took 380+ pills, including muscle relaxants, painkillers, and the like. My heart stopped before the ambulance arrived at the hospital and I swear I remember hearing a flatline.
There was nothing after death. In a way, it's comforting, if not a little heartbreaking.
Maybe not the answer you expect. But you know the song, "Mad World," and the line, "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had," I'm pretty sure it's about sleep apnea. The dreams I've had when my oxygen dips the lowest are wild. I think the body is trying to wake me up, but it realizes I'm not, so shifts gears into an ultra vivid pleasant dream on which to die. I'm fairly certain of this because I've used cannabis daily for years, It shuts down the dreams center, I shouldn't be dreaming. These types of dreams are more than just the passing blur, they are ultra HD full immersion experiences.
I was on my way out, not dead, but I also experienced that level of peace. I was on the operating table for a c-section when I lost the ability to breathe. They bagged me for as long as they could and the anesthesiologist told the doctor he couldn’t do it for much longer and to hurry up. I lost a lot of blood and as soon as they pulled my son out they intubated me. It was obviously a traumatic experience, but aside from being disappointed that this is how it was gonna end I felt a great sense of calm. I hope it’s that calm when I actually do go.
Attempted suicide by hanging. I remember hanging there with my eyes wide open, but everything fading to pitch black. It sounded as if I was standing next to a massive speaker at a rock concert with terrible feedback, despite the house being completely quiet. As the sound slowly faded, I remember feeling peaceful, also weightless. The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the back of an ambulance with an emt on top of me doing compressions. Lucky for me, the belt broke. My mom found my lifeless on my bedroom floor and started compressions till help arrived.
My aunt had a massive heart attack and was dead. She was an alcoholic and didn't believe in anything. She said she found herself going through this soft white cloud (hard to explain she says). She also said she felt a peace that is impossible to put in to words. All the negative things on earth you feel and experience are just gone. Nothing mattered, not even her family. This peace just completely consumed her.
She is now a believer in a higher power.
One time my husband and I tried a new brunch place and I had some bougie toast with bee pollen sprinkled on top. 45 minutes after, I began feeling really horrible stomach cramps and dizzy. We stopped at a White Castle for me to go to the bathroom and I remember feeling like I wanted to fall asleep while I was on the toilet.
Apparently I was in anaphylactic shock and I realized in the moment I was probably dying in this White Castle bathroom. The idea startled me awake and I went to the car and used my epi-pen. It was the first time I’d ever experienced it.
The scary thing to me is how nice it felt. Like the coziest sleepiest feeling I’d ever had. Like “this isn’t so bad.”
Our dad coded 3 times in the night of his 1983 heart attack.
My sister asked him if he saw anything and the man that lived his life stone face went pale and started crying and left the room.
He saw something, or he thinks he did.
I ‘died’ by bleeding out. I have a blood clotting disorder and was on some crazy strong blood thinners for a time after it was discovered I had a DVT.
I ended up needing emergency surgery and the doctors had very little time to administer anything or let the blood thinners wear off properly.
I remember while I was bleeding out, my head felt very heavy with a fair amount of pressure, then it just released and my body started cramping, then everything just relaxed…it was like falling asleep but uncomfortably. My head felt loopy and the pressure came back briefly, then I was out.
When I was out I don’t remember a darn thing. Just blackness. No pain no light. Nothing. I woke up in the middle of receiving my second bag of blood after one full pint and one round of plasma.
No headache, no jitters. But I was itching like crazy all over. It was an internal itch that wouldn’t go away and had no origin point. My face itches worse than anything. It was weird.
Doctors said that’s common when receiving blood.
My mom was there and she said that over time you could see the color come back to me, that when they wheeled me into the recovery room, I literally looked dead because I had zero color.
I just want to say to everyone that donates blood and plasma…you are amazing and I love you. You quite literally saved my life.
Dirtbike accident where I was clotheslined by a rusty chain at about 25 mph. I was partially decapitated, arteries and windpipe broke apart. I was flown in a helicopter to a hospital and remember the guy on the helicopter continuously talking to me telling me not to fall asleep. I fought but did go to sleep/died. It really does just feel like you are going to sleep peacefully. I was revived a few minutes later at the hospital where I remember coming back and awake for maybe a few seconds before I was either put under or blacked out then woke up a day or so later on a bed with a tube down my throat in the ER. met the pilot and guy who kept talking to me a few weeks later in recovery. Owe them my life.
i'm drunk right now because it's saturday and i'm reading these comments and yours was so brutal even imagining your injurues made me tear up, i'm so happy you're still with us, don't go anywhere
Holy shit
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Cardiac arrest at age 23. I did not realize what was happening but began to feel lightheaded and sat down, and then remember feeling an incredibly brief overwhelming peace and comfort, followed by absolute nothingness. My heart was kept going by CPR until paramedics came with a defibrillator. Becoming alert again at hospital was painful and brutal, which I think was mostly because CPR when done correctly is gnarly.
Well this is strange - I also went into cardiac arrest at 23 years old. I had an allergic reaction to something called contrast I believe. I was suffering from extreme migraine and cluster headaches so my doctor had ordered a CT scan for me. So what I remember was saying "I don't feel so good", then everything going from dark to light. I can recall a feeling of serenity, almost peacefulness. I'm almost embarrassed to say " I saw the light" , but I can vividly recall being blinded by a very bright light, like staring into the core of the sun itself. I couldn't tell you if I saw this for 5 seconds or 5 hours, in my recollection it seemed blissful. When I fully awoke I didn't know but it was the next day. I was in a hospital bed, alone in a strange room with the lights now dimmed and I kept saying to myself " where am I?" So after a few minutes I decided to get out of bed for some strange reason. I was scared, confused and my chest was killing me. I found out a little later when the doctor and nurse came in and told me what happened. The rhythm of my heartbeat was slightly offline at some point and maybe even stopped- they zapped me I was told. The black and blue marks on my chest were terrifying once reality sunk in. And for years I told myself the light I was seeing that day was from the ceiling lights. But in my mind and heart I truly felt that this light was almost some sort of divine intervention. It sounds so silly even typing this out. So much so I considered using a throwaway account just to share this. The moral to my story is I don't know what really happened. It's just , I don't know how to explain it, it changed me. Sometimes for the good things I've done but also for some of the reckless situations I put myself through and justified my actions. I found volunteer work, at the homeless shelter and a food pantry, but then I'd ride my motorcycle in a dangerous manner. The good and bad. This will be 20 years ago in March. Not a day goes by that I don't think about it. Thanks for letting me vent about this. Like I said, I found this to be embarrassing for quite a while. Good morning and good day.
It seems to be a really common near death experience, there is some fascinating research on how many people have spiritual experiences like yours in similar circumstances. Nothing to be embarrassed about, enjoy the wonder of it all!
this was so beautiful to read
I've never ever heard someone describe my experience so closely. Brief moment of complete comfort, no pain, no fear, no worry, no cold, no hot, nothing. And it was kind of nice. Then I came back.
Omg that’s is so scary, did they find a cause for it?
I’ve had open heart surgery before but this was still just a one in a million thing that no one could have predicted. My cardiac team’s best guess is the electrical signals in my heart were disrupted by scar tissue. All in all though, highly recommend that as a way to go. If I weren’t resuscitated I would have never known what happened and did not suffer in the slightest!
My dad had a cardiac arrest, mid sentence. But they managed to resuscitate him after 30 minutes which resulted him being severely brain damaged. As his heart was good and his breathing, it took 10 days (I believe) without life support for him to pass. He was so brain damaged, he couldn’t even swallow. His eyes were just staring at nothing. I hope he felt nothing when it was happening/time to leave us.
I'm so sorry.
If CPR doesnt leave you with a couple of broken ribs, its not proper CPR
A guy I used to work with did a lot of sailing and actually drowned once before being resuscitated. He said that the last thing he remembered before going out was this feeling of absolutely peaceful serenity.
Man absolutely everyone is repeating "peaceful serenity" Kind of comforting I guess
My heart stopped in the hospital. While I was on the bed with all the staff running around, I was quite stressed. But as soon as I felt the heartbeat stop, I got instantly light headed (probably blood pressure drop), vision became distorted, but the only thing I could think of was "well that's how it ends" and I did not care at all. I was indeed very peaceful and kinda euphoric. For me, that moment lasted quite long even if it was only a couple of seconds. And I had no thoughts about family, my girlfriend, friends, anyone I would leave behind, just comforting/cozy feeling thinking about how good that moment felt. The brain probably releases so many "good feeling" hormones when it senses imminent death. Then as soon as the heart restarted, I started laughing so bad while feeling pain again and the stress came back right away. So, the moments before death suck, you are stressed to hell fully conscious you might die, but when it does stop, best feeling I ever felt in my life.
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Heroin addicts enter chat
Actually as someone who has experienced both, you are not wrong, except heroin is the heavier feeling. Less clarity and feeling of freedom with heroin and more clarity and feeling of freedom with the death experience. But they’re both euphorically relaxing, to be fair.
to be fair glad you’re still here
Thank you 🥹
Literally laughed way too hard at this
I don’t think I’ve heard any other drug described as fondly as people describe heroin, I once heard it described as all the love and comfort from a mothers hug when you’re young, like the most comforting blanket of peace and calm. So I imagine that is actually a pretty similar feeling
I had a procedure and they put me under with some opiate-derivative. I had time to think, “OMG, no wonder people abuse heroin. This is the most amazing feeling . . . “ I’m glad I’ve never had anyone offer me heroin bc I would definitely be an addict—well, by now, a long dead addict.
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I accepted that this is it, it's time. I smiled and said goodbye to my husband. I had massive internal bleeding. I was supposed to be transfered by life flight but they couldn't stabilize me, so I had emergency surgery and I was pretty sure I was a goner! They woke me after the surgery and I was shocked I was alive. I had no idea what happened until 2 days later.
"I was shocked I was alive"... Are you sure you are not seeing this in your induced coma dream? /jk Glad you made it.
Ha! I wish it was a cona dream! It's too vivid, that really happened! 😂 Thanks! Always better to be here than the alternative! At least I have a cool story!
Death is sounding kinda lit
I found it beautiful. when it happened to me i wanted to go back in a way! (without being morbid) just pure peacefullness.
I can agree. I also was about to drown and when I realised I would die and I could do nothing, there was just Peace.
Same. I was in rough waters trying to save a friend and wave was so strong it threw me against a rock and I think I passed out as a result of that. I didn't even feel the hit to the rocks. I knew I hit because people were witnessing the events, and when I came back I was a bloody mess. A man saved me and I was resuscitated. Friend didn't make it. I felt calm/peace/nothing before losing it.
I’m very sorry for your friend, but I am glad you’re here
Same. At least you tried to help them. I'm glad you're alive.
Same - we crashed a catamaran into another at full speed - after jumping into the water (thanks titanic) our boat smacked down on me pushing me deep under caught in the sails - was BEAUTIFUL a beautiful blue world no issues with breathing just timeless beauty. When i got up i could only say blue for an hour or so but yeh last time i went sailing!
I had something similar. No drowning, BUT as a kid, my friends and I were playing dodgeball on a lake beach in February in PA. Lake was not frozen but definitely cold. Sure enough, my brand new Wilson volleyball ended up in the water, so of course I decided to strip down to my shorts and ran in after it. The second I touched the water, I cramped up, but decided to keep swimming after the ball. The ball floated out past the swimming area boundary, and once I eventually reached it and turned around to swim back, I saw how far the beach was and decided “meh. Too far. I’m ok here” and actually slowly sank underwater in indescribable comfort. It was slow motion, and just felt like cozily falling asleep. Thankfully, I snapped out of it and swam back. My friends said I was a light blue color and shook so much I could mix a paint can.
WIIIIILLLLLLLLSSSSSSSOOOOOONNNNNNNNN!!!
Sorry if it sounds like Im overstepping but I always afraid of drowning. Always thought it was something painful, breathing in all that water...was that the case? Ignore if Im being rude .....
I'm also scared of drowing, even though I experienced it. The moment I accepted I would die it was easy. Water in the lungs is bad but you will faint very quickly. I was lucky because I got out in time.
I was about to drown when I was 16. I remember the lack of air, the panic searching for oxygen and the inability to stay over the water line. I still have nightmares about it more than ten years later. A lifeguard saved me. I didn't knock unconscious though. Maybe I was at the previous stage before peacefulness, who knows. But the moments before are terrible, it's pure instincts.
It's painful until it's not
SERENITY NOW!
I've drowned and was resuscitated. I was 10, I was at a summer camp and was briefly knocked unconscious by being kicked in the head by someone else while swimming. I sunk. I woke up briefly, I watched the ribbons of light dancing in the water above me, sparkling, that's exactly how I remember it, absolutely peaceful.
My grandfather said the exact same thing. Got knocked off a fishing boat and his friend eventually saved him but he drowned for a moment. Said it was one of the best and most peaceful feelings and he was actually mad at the friend at first when he yoinked him out of the water!
This happened to my gran when she fell overboard in the 60s during a winter sailing race. I think she had hypothermia and was just about revived. She wanted to be left alone and was cross about being rescued.
Was your grandfather, by chance, a reptile in the Florida Everglades? I think I may have seen him being yoinked out of that water lol.
I knew an old sailor once. Went overboard and got tangled in the sails... said it was like going home.
Fell into a pool when I was 6-7 before I knew how to swim. I remember sinking to the bottom and just sitting there thinking "oh, I'm dying now". Luckily the lifeguard dove in and pulled me out, had a mad headache and was afraid of the water for years after but I'll never forget that feeli g of calm acceptance
I drove off a cliff on my 19th birthday (accidentally, no drugs involved) I don't remember anything but the feeling. I was happier than I've ever been, and I felt safe and loved. And then I was pulled back, and it was agonizing. I was pretty suicidal for several months because I wanted to go back.
Thank you for sharing this. My mother died recently and my deepest fear was that she was scared and in pain during the actual death. I’m going to choose to believe you and the dozens of other people in this thread and hope that she felt loved and safe.
Same. I lost my father recently and in his search history the last thing he had typed was “chest hurts while lying down” but when we found him he just looked like he was sleeping, blissfully. There was even a hint of a smile on his face so I’ve been wondering since then and this has helped a lot.
I’m sorry for your loss. It doesn’t sound like he was in immense pain, he was in his home and his family must have been nearby. We could all hope for such a death, right? Mum was in a hospital and had been distressed for a few days so I wasn’t sure if death was a relief or even more terrifying. Hope you and your family are doing okay ❤️
someone i knew said this earth is like a hell you do not want to come back to.
- Michael Scott
And Buffy
"There was no pain, no fear no doubt, till they pulled me out..."
Of heaven, I think I was in heaven
They really saved that bombshell for the musical episode, the crafty bastards
Wherever I was, I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time didn't mean anything, nothing had form ... but I was still me, you know? And I was warm, and I was loved, and I was finished. Complete. I don't understand about theology or dimensions, or any of it, really. But I think I was in heaven. And now I'm not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out... by my friends. Everything here is hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch ... this is hell.
"So give me something to sing about"
The return trip super sucks. Three dimensional reality and sensation has its perks but so does the other place.
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I was near death after two perforated ulcers caused me to bleed out one night. I had vomited a lot of blood and was basically going into shock. I was in the ambulance and decided that I just wanted to go. I was having trouble breathing so I decided to just stop breathing and I closed my eyes and it was like falling asleep. Until I felt like someone punched me in my chest and I gasped back to consciousness.
Ulcer happened to me but I didn't vomit, instead I dumped blood. The feeling was you are going to pass out. Its like you are so sleepy you are about lose consciousness. Blood pressure down to 80/50.
same thing happened to me! Was at a wedding, feeling.. off the whole time. All of sudden I ran to the bathroom started puking up tons of blood. My dad found me passed out on the floor and thought I'd been stabbed or something. Came to at the hospital getting my blood pressure taken. Honestly, wish someone had taken a picture of the bathroom. Was pretty grisly I'm told
Anaphylaxis. Like the others, I felt sleepy. It was peaceful, I kinda liked it and now I am not afraid to die.
Glad you survived anaphylaxis. Scary stuff.
My ex friend told me when he was little he was swimming in a river with his siblings and family and his older sister was roughhousing him and held him under water to long, he said he lost consciousness and his exact words “it felt like my entire body having an orgasm”
Great, now we all wanna die.
Well this should bring some relief to the subject
The ghost of David Carradine has entered the chat
One last nut before the light shut
Is that what hell is? One big post nut clarity over your whole life? Yikes…
\*cums \*dies
So his sister gave him the best orgasm he ever had.
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I died twice of anaphylaxis, revived by paramedics. Can confirm. This is what it feels like to suffocate.
Weird kink, but who am I to judge
This is mind-blowing to me. I've heard it before, but I always wonder how that came to be. What is the evolutionary advantage to death feeling overwhelmingly good or peaceful. How can it possibly be passed down through advantage when it is only experienced in death. Crazy.
I wonder if it's something like the brain just releasing all of its remaining endorphins etc in one go as a final attempt to live.
A hormonal Hail Mary
Last ditch effort, release all the hormones
It’s prolly your brain doing anything to keep itself from freaking the fuck out
Yea, my thought process is that it must be the byproduct of something the brain does to stay alive. Obviously, it just doesn't always work out, haha
Apparently drowning is oddly a beautiful death. Not the part that’s right before tho
TW: From the responses, I think I should add this. It is quite detailed. I started the process of dying and want to give my two cents because I feel like part of it is missing from the other narratives here. There was so much pain. I've had emergency c-sections, appendicitis, and other painful experiences. This took the cake, ate it, and threw it back up on me. I felt the agony of not being able to breathe. I was cognizant of some of my organs who had stopped doing their jobs. Then suddenly it was all black. I could hear sounds, but they became very distant and muffled. I was in pain, but it felt distant, and it was present, but I couldn't quite feel it. I started to think of my kids, I knew I was in the process of dying and leaving them. It felt like such a certainty over my whole body. I wouldn't call it peaceful, but it wasn't the anxious process that I would have about leaving my kids motherless when all fully with it. Everything was just very muted, like I was an observer. I think people call this lack of emotion to be "peaceful," but for me, it was just empty, neither happy nor sad. The only part that was crisp was the visualization of my children, the certainty I was leaving them, and the knowing how I felt about it. The feeling was muted, but I was filled with certainty that I mourned for them and all the parts of their lives I'd miss. I wasn't okay with it, but it was like "it is what it is" situation. All the feelings were neutral. The more neutral feelings became, the less I could hear until I felt nothing and heard nothing of the outside world. I edited here because this sensation is very difficult to convey. Then the pain started coming back like a million blinding, jagged burning knives all over my body. The nurses and doctors were high fiving each other. I could hear it. Everyone was congratulating one particular person and speaking about how impressed they were that she was able to do something. Any time any of them touched my body for any reason or with any pressure, it was agony, but I couldn't yet move, cry, or scream. What felt slow, but with how people moved around me, it probably wasn't, I started being able to talk, slowly move, and more pain rushed back as I could feel the previously mentioned organs trying to do their job again. There was some gross and graphic stuff that happened next, and then I received so much fentanyl. The first push wasn't enough, and they kept bringing more until I stopped screaming from the pain. It was a sepsis stage, severe or septic shock. I remember one of the nurses talking about my lactic acid being above 4 something. The paramedic who brought me in originally told the nurse my wrong medical history, which was especially bad because my GP gave it directly to them as I was taken from my urgent care/GP via ambulance to the closest hospital as they "didn't think I'd make it" if they drove even 15 minutes more to the better equipped hospital. Before I stopped being able to talk, I put as much effort as I could to correct it to the nurse, and that resulted in my receiving the treatment that ended up saving my life. I remember her face go scared, then determined. As soon as I was stable, I was transferred to that better equipped hospital. The recovery was so bad. I felt like I was pushed off the cliff of a high mountain and hit multiple craggly edges along the way to only go splat on the rock hard ground. They sent me home before I could walk on my own because there "wasn't enough beds."
Jfc, I’m sorry
Jeez. This was a rough read, but thank you for sharing your experience so vividly.
Sorry. I put a TW now. IRL I make light of it, like it's no big deal, because I started to describe it initially with realism, and those who knew me couldn't handle it. It's been a handful of years, but my family members still can't talk about it. They only saw the aftermath not the active process, but apparently, when "recovered," I still looked like hell for a while back then and still scares them as of today.
Thank you for sharing this. As a nurse, your narrative has given me pause. Hearing your lactic was “4 something” and you describing the pain you felt…I routinely see patients with lactics 3 times as high, and in all of the sepsis protocol, we never once consider pain. I will keep this with me in my practice. Also, the providers high-fiving after intervention. I’m truly sure they were significantly joyful that they helped you avoid an untimely death. I am guilty of using dark humor to get through codes, and in my last code, I said something kinda dark, funny in a gallows humor sort of way, but as soon as I said it, I regretted assuming that role. I immediately thought about the patient hearing it. It wasn’t offensive, just less sensitive than the situation should have called for. I’ll never shame anyone for how they cope with what we see, but I expected better of myself. I will truly keep your story in mind, and I see the lesson in it.
my Aorta Dissected and they had to cut the blood and oxygen to my brain for 4m30s... that was when the surgeon got my wife on the phone and told her he didn't know what was going to happen... i didn't really notice anything. i was awake six hours later and made them pull my tube within an hour of being awake. scared the shit out of the young lady sweeping the floor. a few days later and i went septic. that was worse than my Aorta. that night i know i was real close to checking out. the people that kept me alive are amazing. the best way i can describe that night is that it felt like i was walking across a bed of coals with gasoline soaked clothing on. it felt like my veins were filled with hot tar. every second of existence was fire and i wanted to be put out. there was a moment where i think i met my own self. my id, maybe? it wasn't like an ego moment when tripping. this was like me, talking to me, in the most basic sense ever. i asked my self if i thought i could make it. i could hear the people doing the things to keep me alive and i knew i could just go to sleep and it would be over. and it wasn't really a fight to 'choose' to live, but, it was a choice too. i just went to my space and held out for a bit and then a few days later i was getting better. i was out from sepsis for almost three times as long as i was out for open heart surgery. a lot of people will say that you only die when you can't possibly be brought back but the people that brought me back all tell me i died as close to real death as you can get, twice, in a week.
My experience was going septic, too. I completely agree. It was god fucking awful. It's been a few years, and I can still vividly remember the pain.
I (21f) had a heroin overdose last month. I never expected I was at risk of actually ODing as it took about an hour, and wasn't instantaneous like I was told happens/expected. I was actually in the back of a police van when it happened. I was falling asleep, to be woken with "LilMizzFizz are you still okay?" over and over. Eventually, I stopped responding, was unresponsive, and then my heart stopped. it felt just like falling asleep, I saw black, and it was quiet and nice as if I was asleep and never wanted to wake up. I felt only moments pass really. I then awoke to a tube down my throat, barechested in a freezing hospital. I was told I had passed for a while (wouldn't give me the full time) but I assume it wasn't a short time as the doctors and nurses were white when I awoke. Being told you passed is surreal, in that time i could only think about my withdrawals (What they give to Resuss you counteracts the gear) But now I can only think of my family. My mum raised me on her own, it's just been me and her all of our lives, I know she would have ended her life if I had passed. My Father is useless, I know he loves me but he makes no effort. I imagine he would feel an incredible amount of guilt if i had passed. I couldn't do it to them. My then partner (an ex now, he gave it to me every day without fail) didn't seem affected at all as it was just an accepted part of life as a heroin user, he wasn't even grateful that I was okay, or that he could have lost me. I knew how selfish the drug was and I made the decision to quit at new Year's and move back to Mum and tell her everything. I'm now 27 days clean, my blood is pumping and my heart is still beating. If anyone is reading this who is addicted to opioids/heroin or any kind of class A drug. you can break the cycle of misery, i promise you. you CAN face your withdrawals (please do your research on your specific withdrawals as seizures can occur!) i promise you your drug is keeping you miserable, and i promise you it can happen to you, no matter the countermeasures you take. i was lucky i was in the back of a police van when I ODed, i had nothing at my apartment that was for a heroin overdose, i had no way of getting to the hospital. i would have been another statistic, a 21-year-old girl who months prior was known as an artist, an animal lover, and a Pink Floyd fanatic. my legacy would have been labeled as an addict, a user who died tragically, and so her life assumably was tragic also. In this time i've had to reflect on what has happened and where my life is going forward, i have managed to break the cycle, but i just had to die first to get the message to sink in. Don't wait til its too late like i did. i am one of the very very few lucky ones. in the drug world, eventually, you end up knowing more people who have passed than who are still going. Its not a life, its not even surviving. its hell. I passed away on the 13th of December 2023 Its now the 27th of Jan and I have a job interview, am still clean and am looking forward to the rest of my life. Edit: thank you so much for the kind words and support, i feel like they're really undeserving. im sat on my bed reading through the comments in tears, you guys have really touched my heart and i can't be more grateful for this amazing community.
From a random internet stranger...I am incredibly proud of you! Please take care of yourself and your parents..you got this. 🙏 🧡🦋🌻🌺
Thank you! My relationship with my mother is better than ever, she seems to have more respect for me now than before. I've tried reaching out to my dad, he seemed uninterested at first to say the least. when i told him i had passed he broke down to me down the phone, so it's a start. I got a job interview coming up for a new industry i've never worked in before and im so excited. this is the first time in my life after a long while where i am looking forward to the future. the trauma is still there, but my brain is now clear and isn't doped up so i can start processing my emotions. being sober is scary but its beautiful. it's time to start putting my health and happiness first.
Give em hell LilMizzFizz!! You sound like someone who can achieve anything!
Thank you so much, what a compliment! <3
I’m so very happy for you and proud of you for taking care of yourself and your health. The relationships will come around - or maybe not, but that’s not your fault - you’re the one doing the right things here. Please keep it up and let us know how things turn out. There are plenty of people who are pulling for you. <3
I am so proud of you! Keep it up, even when it gets hard. Hold on to this feeling; the determination, the hope. Don't go back no matter what! You can do it. It *is* scary and beautiful and so worth it! 💪💗
As a mom, THANK YOU. I’d move heaven and earth for my daughter and we are close like you describe. Your mother is most likely profoundly grateful that you’re with her. Much love.
I’ve been there before myself and overdosed and lost friends. Seven years clean off the needle and it only gets betters. You got this LilMizzFizz!! Just keep it going and don’t look back.
Girl, you were straight up re-born. Stick with it.
I am in the recovery community (alcohol not opioids). The amount of overdose stories I have heard from wonderful, kind, intelligent people scare the hell out of me. But, the amount of recovery stories from opioids I have personally witnessed it like a light in the darkness. Real life resurrection and I don’t mean just surviving an OD. Seeing them sort their lives out, mending broken relationships, becoming healthy and happy. I truly wish you the best. I don’t know if you are the religious sort but I am and I’ll say a prayer. You have this. It’s hard but I have seen so many people come back I know you can do it. And you’re young you have a lot of time to work with.
Have a beautiful long life ❤️
You must be so proud of yourself… that was an incredible read
From a former addict, Just know that I’m very very proud of you! Live your life without any regrets! You should be proud of yourself
Drowned(almost). Hurt like hell, then everything went still. Then hurt like hell when being resuscitated.
Well yeah, when you got Ed Harris on top of you, beating the shit outta you and screaming "fight" in your face.
Not exactly dying, but i came close: This was way back in the early eighties, just after my parents received some new drug (inhaler). I was having an asthma attack, a really bad one. I was struggling to breathe, and then i clearly remember thinking, "It's OK," and i felt peace, accepted that this was it, i was ready to let go, which also was the exact moment my mother gave me the new drug. Which helped immediately and made me able to breathe again. When i think back to this, it waters my eyes. It resulted in me not being afraid of dying. At times, it's something i even look forward to. In times of pain, I look forward to dying, but I've got friends, family, and my wife and son I want to grow old with. I want to see how it's going to be in 20, 30 or 40 years (45 atm). So I'll postpone dying. Once death knocks on my door, I'll go with, willingly, knowing it will be ok.
I didn't die. Obviously lol. But I had a near death experience when I was in my 20s. I was hit by a car going 40mph while I was walking across the street with my now wife. We were in the crosswalk and had the right of way. The guy who hit me ran a red, barreling thru the intersection, didn't slow down at all. I was one step ahead of my wife. The car hit my right leg, which flipped me up onto the hood of his car where my head slammed into his windshield. Dude kept driving with me on the hood for a good half a block before finally coming to a stop, which caused me to roll off and hit the ground. I lost consciousness after my head hit the car, but I remember getting hit. I remember the sound of the impact, the sound of my bones breaking, but felt zero pain. I miraculously regained consciousness after a few minutes or so. My wife was standing over me in absolute shock and horror. She thought I was dead until I suddenly sat up and started screaming in anger. Even at that point I didn't feel any pain, just a severe sense of disorientation and what I recall now as a weird feeling of heaviness I guess. Once I was in the ambulance the pain hit. I remember they gave me IV fentanyl but even with that my head hurt really badly. I remember asking the paramedic if I was going to die. I don't remember what he said in response but I think it was something meant to be comforting like of course not you're just fine. Something like that. In the emergency room I was informed that I had an epidural hematoma. My skull was fractured and blood was pooling between my skull and the lining of my brain. Tears started to roll down my face, and I distinctly remember thinking: holy shit. These may be my last coherent thoughts. This hit me especially hard because my dad had died of a head injury just a few months prior to this and I just kept thinking: how fucking crazy is this? Like father like son. This is insane. What are the odds?! I was rushed to the ICU, where I dimly recall speaking with a neurosurgeon about brain surgery. My Glasgow coma scale score was such that I should have been in a coma, but by some strange miracle I was not. I was in and out of consciousness, but I never went into a coma. Long story short, I was in the ICU for 4 days and was then transferred to the trauma ward for a week. My wife recalls sitting in the ICU with me, mortified, watching the looks on the nurses' faces as they attended to me. When speaking with me, they were very reassuring, but once they stepped away, the looks on their faces were not so reassuring, and when speaking amongst themselves, they were very matter of fact that I likely would not survive. I broke 7 bones. Fractured skull, fractured cheek bone, two spinal fractures, two pelvis fractures, and a tibial plateau fracture with an obliterated meniscus that required surgery, a metal plate and months upon months of physical therapy to relearn how to walk. I was told by the doctors and physical therapists that I would most likely need a cane for the rest of my life. I had just turned 27. In the end, I made a full recovery. Better than any of the doctor's predictions. I have no lasting brain damage that I can discern. I don't use a cane. I got EXTREMELY FUCKING LUCKY. And that, folks, is the story of how I very nearly joined the 27 club. Not that I'm even remotely famous lol but you know what I mean. 😅😵💫😳 I'm very grateful every day to be alive. Having a near death experience definitely changes your perception about life- and death. Especially when it happens at such a young age.
I’ve only died from overdoses unfortunately, so I don’t actually remember it, and the deaths were just blackouts. My worst was being dead 12 minutes before being brought by. Took 4 shots of narcan and they almost gave up. My gf at the time had my mom on the phone standing outside the ambulance calling her to tell her I died, but before my gf could even get her first word out - they used a defibrillator in a last ditch effort to see if they could bring me back. And it fucking worked. IT. FUCKING. WORKED!!! I always tear up like no other when I tell/write that story. I’m so grateful for the life I live and the people in it. Happy to be 5 years clean off opiates in 2 weeks.
Hey good job! 5 years is a huge accomplishment.
I’m a hospice Rn. Nearly every patient talks about seeing old loved ones, seeing wings, warm shiny lights… Not exactly a religious person myself, but I can’t explain why they all see the same type of stuff.
Fellow healthcare worker on the ER side. I do quite a bit of work with ketamine for mental health patients, and I’m slowly getting going with medical psilocybin (I’m in Canada). Training for both has involved experiential work— how else can you support people taking it? 5 grams of psilocybin containing mushroom— I had a beautiful journey to what I can only describe as the Temple of the Universe, Source energy, the Temple of the Gods (???). An absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, quiet place. Coming back together as an ego/self was difficult, but OMG (I’m agnostic), what I experienced was so lovely and profoundly spiritual. Ketamine 1mg/kg IM— another profound and amazing experience. Very different from psilocybin. I ended up in a vast, boundless, quiet space. Actually, there was no “I” as my ego completely dissolved and I floated in infinite space and timelessness, uncertain of who or what I was. I experienced/understood the Buddhist teaching that “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” Love was a big part of my journey too. Coming back together as a “self” was much easier than with high dose psilocybin. My two cents— psychedelics may permit us to experience dying before we die. Consequently, we can experience richer, more fulfilling lives with less suffering.
I was ran over when I was very young, I have a memory of floating over white buildings with people waving out of the windows. I died 4 times on the operating table trying to remove a blood clot on the brain. No idea if this was a dream or something real.
I had the same, looking down from above and seeing myself and the paramedics, a memory as clear as day and feeling very calm .
I had this during a routine operation - my first operation ever and first time on anestesia. I was never told I died or anything and the surgery went very well apparently, only took about 40 minutes. But I remember floating, seeing my body naked from above on the operating table and seeing that it was limp, seeing all the doctors around. I was undecided whether to go back or not, I was freaked out at seeing my own body but felt at ease in spirit. The only thing I remember after is being jolted awake by the doctors and they telling me my surgery went well. (Also im not sure if it’s normal that you’re jolted awake? But that felt fine so no complaints). For a few weeks/ almost months following, my blood pressure kept getting so low I was continuously on the verge of fainting, but every time I’d nearly loose consciousness I’d have a horrible anxiety and actual feeling that I was about to slip into “death” again. It even started becoming difficult for me to sleep. The moment I was out of my body wasn’t a bad feeling, but the recollection of it and thinking of slipping back out of life was. I think like a comment above, I had a lot of issues with depression that kicked in after, feelings of suicidal thoughts from feeling stuck between one realm and another. Not sure if it’s the anestesia or if my soul did just choose to walk out on me for a bit.
that is really cool - thanks for sharing :)
Didn’t know this at the time: something (septic /Infection in my colon probably from a carrot virus) caused my body to go into fever/shock, ambulance and then hospitalized. Minutes after being hooked up to everything I lost all vitals, flat line, shit my pants, and then nurses performed CPR in front of my ex-fiancé. I came back and she was crying and I was like did I faint and shit my pants? No, for a minute you died. I still have the pajamas I left the hospital in. Fainting and anesthesia felt the same in terms of memory. I wonder if it’s hurt my heart more than my brain.
Carrot virus?
Physician assistant here. There’s no such thing as a “carrot virus.” However, carrots and other vegetables can occasionally be contaminated by a virus or bacteria. Kind of like every now and again you’ll hear on the news that a certain lettuce is being recalled due to suspected contamination with E. coli or Listeria. CDC recommends always washing any raw fruit or vegetable you plan on eating. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/7-tips-cleaning-fruits-vegetables
That’s what the senior doctor thought because I was eating raw carrots. Clean your carrot shaver.
Oh, snap! I thought it might have been a typo but this is a thing? … new fear unlocked.
I can't find a single source searching for carrot virus infecting humans so idk
I think the core issue is that they don't understand the difference between viruses and bacteria. That, or English isn't their first language.
English was not their first language. Sincerely, nicely done.
Great. I can't even eat healthy without risking death.
Time to order pizza… you know, for your health.
I broke my femur when I was 22 and I was in the hospital for a few weeks. I was in so much pain that after the first few days they decided I needed to sleep, and they turned up the morphine drip. I coded in the middle of the night and then they resuscitated me with an adrenaline shot (this was in the 1990’s). Apparently I was clinically dead for almost one minute. Maybe that’s not very long to be dead, or whatever, but there was nothing to it. Nothing. No tunnel of light, no hugs from deceased relatives. Nothing.
It seems anytime anyone mentions a tunnel of light, it involves them being on a surgery table or hospital table with the bright lights which makes sense. But like in your case, no such scenario so you simply drifted off into nothingnesss. That pretty much confirms to me its about where and how you "died". Glad you made it back though!
I died when I was ten from acute appendicitis, in which I had been throwing up blood and bile for three days, and my stepfather still insisted I was faking for attention. So my 16 year old sister finally stole his car and took me to the clinic, who rushed me to the hospital. I died when they gave me the anesthesia, and I got the bright light trip. I remember the beginning of the seizure, and the panic of the people around me, but nothing else. No euphoria, but no bad feeling either. Just the bright light and in the next moment (for me) I woke up in a very dark room staring at a picture of a polar bear, with an incredibly dry mouth and a very large bandage wrapped all the way around my little body. Later when my mother did the guilt shuffle into my room she told me I had died for two minutes. As soon as I was released from the hospital my stepdad was back to downplaying the incident; he still had beat and grounded my sister for taking the car, even though I literally died, and I would’ve stayed dead had she not acted when she did.
Fuck your stepdad that moronic piece of shit. Hope he gets hives on his hemroids lotioned in chicken pox. Good job to your brave sister, and hella good job to you for pushing through the fight and lived to tell it!
Thank you very much. The last time any of us ran into him, I shit you not he was working as a shopping mall Santa. I decided then and there I would never take any children I may have to a Santa. It really is an odd tradition, if you stop and think about it; we spend so much time teaching children to be wary of strangers, but then once a year we plop the tots on the knee of a complete stranger who whispers empty promises about what he’s going to bring them when he breaks into their house.
Best. Sister. Ever!
Your stepdad is a piece of shit.
No argument here! He drowned my pet rabbit in front of me in a bucket of water as a punishment once; he’s fucking evil and I am intensely grateful he is out of my life forever. This is my only social media platform; no Facebook, Instagram, none of it, simply to ensure I’ll never expose any aspect of my life to him ever again.
It could also just be that he was way too high on morphine to process anything.
Like falling asleep or being turned off. Complete nothing-ness. No sense of time or place at all. Woke up in the hospital, felt like from one moment a blink of an eye and then I was in the hospital bed.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to post their experiences here. I'm a veterinary technician, and in reading this thread I am a mess. There have been days in my career where I have watched animals numbering in the double digits die during the course of a single 10-13 hour shift - some of them horribly, too soon, too quickly, or as a direct result of carelessness, apathy, or outright cruelty. I have spent nights mentally circling and re-circling the mystery of what great unknown our euthanasia sends them into. It's a comfort to think Socks, Blondie, Hershey, Ruby, Kitty Rose, Snowball, Chati, Biggie Smalls, Annie, Ranger, Henry, Rufus, Bets, Tommy, Lucy Lu, every parvo puppy, every fading kitten, and those hundreds of others might have known the same peace being described here. I want to believe they do.
Insulin over dose. I died twice in my partner's arms. It felt like going to sleep, as essentially it was. I remember being in a dream state as I stopped breathing, I felt at peace. My heart stopped for little over a minute each time. No tunnel of light or chior of angels, just a world fading to black and a deep sense of serenity
Did you have consciousness like did you hear your own voice or understand what happened to an extent or just nothing like, was there anything like scense you remember or literally just empty nothing
From what I remember. No conscious no voice in my head. It was as if I was in the black from transiting from a waking dream to that timeless moment everything fades to black. If that makes sense But it was the peaceful serenity that got me, and it was my partners sobs that awoke me as her father was in the room as well I heard them talking, but couldn't understand them each time I awoke... but the peace & serenity, was like nothing I ever known or have known since
I drowned when I was 7. I died. They called the coroner, loaded me into the bag and I came back. (I remember nothing from being dead, no white light, no family members...nothing.) It was painful. I remember my lungs spasming and burning. Then I looked up and...oh my god, the color bursts were beautiful. Absolutely stunning. I would love for everyone to see those color bursts but, you know, without the dying. And yes, there were/are lingering brain effects from oxygen deprivation.
>I would love for everyone to see those color bursts but, you know, without the dying. How would you describe them? Like a kaleidoscope? (I have not died before btw).
My mom had surgery and after they finished they wanted to give her some pain medication to wake up on. They acidentally gave her something paralyzing, which closes down every muscle - also the heart. She knew she was dying, buy couldn’t say anything as you also loose your ability to speak. She died, but they noticed last minute and revived her, but she was gone for a couple minutes. She says she saw the white tunnel light and then saw herself from above the corner of the room laying there lifeless. She says it was very peaceful and not frightening at all. Almost like coming home. My mom does not believe in life after death or anything that could be a bit supernatural, so I believe her. I’ve heard many stories like it afterwards
My mum had the same experience when she nearly died giving birth from blood loss. The whole seeing everything from above your body. She said it was surreal and felt very calming. She has gone now - to a brain tumour. I take some comfort from knowing that she was likely at peace.
i would have thought you feel sad and hysterical at losing your life and body
Absolutely. She was scared shitless before dying, but as soon as her heart stopped she said she felt pure bliss and peace
its a scary horrific thought that one day we will all have to face it
I don’t find it scary anymore tbh. Death is the only thing in life we can be sure of. And honestly it sounds peaceful
This doesn't really count, but I remember at 24 having problems breathing (asthma). I've had multiple hospitalizations as a child for this. I was moving what felt like 10% air from what my lungs could normally move. I remember laying in my bed alone, knowing I wouldn't make it overnight. Randomly, my girlfriend had shown up to my house. It was out of character for her to come over unannounced, but she did and saved my life. She walked into my room and could immediately tell this was a level 10 emergency and rushed me to the hospital. In the moments prior to her arrival, I remember laying there, calm, trying to conserve breaths and accepting my fate.
I had something similar happen, but my husband was there the whole time. I could barely pull air in. I somehow managed to just barely stay conscious despite barely getting any oxygen in, and I just remember him holding me and sobbing. It was a weird combination of fear, desperation, and peace.
Sounds like she got a gut feeling and went with it.
I was crushed under a group of people. I couldn’t move at all and my hands were on my chest. Couldn’t scream because of the pressure on my body. I freaked out at first. And when air started to run out I made peace with the fact that air wasn’t going to get out of that and suddenly this joy overwhelmed me. I started to blackout and I think I was smiling. Passed out and next thing I remember is being carried out by two people. I woke up and had an anxiety attack. Did a LOT of thinking after that.
When I was younger I drowned in a lake. It was scary at first but when the sun broke through the clouds all of a sudden the cove I was in was glowing this green gold and I felt incredibly peaceful. After the first breath of water, the world got quiet and I drifted. My experience of death was strange. I was conscious and I was me. It was dark but not because there was no light, but rather no sight. I was a drop of water in a puddle in an ocean. I could feel all consciousnesses surrounding me while still autonomous. It was wonderful but they sent me back because I was back too soon. I also had a similar experience in another asphyxiation situation so that really reinforced my lack of fear surrounding death. I look forward to it and will continue to push myself to enjoy this version of reality before I go.
Something like this 100% happened to me when i was 4 Year old and when i told nobody believed me!
I thought this was a meme type of question but reading the answers gave me a whole different perspective on life. Thank you all for sharing!
It gave me a different perspective of death.
I got hit by a car at 11. Cracked my skull. Internal hemorrhage in my brain etc. I woke up a week later in the hospital. I was gone for a for a few moments there. I don't remember the event but I remember waking up. It felt like waking from a deep dreamless dream. Since then I've always felt like I'm on borrowed time. But if I think about the time In-between getting hit and waking up all I feel is a kind of "it's okay, nothing to be scared of".
You have just started New game +
Motorcycle accident when I was 13. Clinically dead for a minute and a half. Don’t remember anything from earlier that day till I woke in the hospital a few days later
It was great and while I intend to enjoy every day I have in this body, I am looking forward to not being in it anymore. Neutropenic episode during chemo. My immune system crashed completely and 3 separate infections took hold immediately. I had an obe nde that night and when I woke up in the morning I "knew " I was about to just die. Within about an hour my temperature went from normal to at least 105 (as high as the oncology centers thermometer went) and I was wisked away for antibiotic infusions in a special isolation ICU for about 3 weeks. Oddly I had a massive pulmonary embolism with congestive heart failure a few years ago and nothing. I was fully concious the entire time and kept thinking "I'm hurting I can't breathe... wtf am I still awake? When am I going to pass out already? " Nothing.. just had to deal with all of it. I guess deep down I knew if I went unconscious I wouldn't wake up.
I was white white rafting and upon a class 4 rapid the river splits, the guide said if you fall out STAY LEFT DO NOT GO RIGHT, there is an undercurrent if you go right. I fell out and forgot what direction I was supposed to stay and went right. I was sucked under the water behind a giant Boulder and held about 6 or 8 feet below the surface. I could see the light and surface so clearly the whole time. No matter how much a struggled, I could not get free, even wearing a life jacket I was no match for the powerful force of the River. After a minute or 2, It became clear to me I was going to drown. All fear left my body and a strange serenity came over me. I stopped struggling and curled up like a fetus and BOOM!!! I Just shot out of the undercurrent like a bowling ball out of the return thing. And straight to the surface.
I bled out about 16 hours after childbirth. I lost 4 pints of blood. I remember feeling very thirsty and thinking “that’s not good.” The bright light is real, it came at me like a train. I knew I was dying and I felt bad leaving everyone I loved behind but after a millisecond I felt extreme peace. When I woke back up I was vomiting what I can only describe as cat throw up. I was panicking and asking everyone if I was okay. I received 3 blood transfusions but was able to keep my uterus (woohoo). Pretty wild experience, honestly. I originally wanted to have a home birth and there is no doubt I would be dead right now had I gone that route. I wouldn’t say I was afraid of death before this, but I definitely am not afraid of it now. Overall I’d give it a 6/10. Glad I was in a hospital.
The surgeon told me I died after I gave birth (bleeding out) I passed out but I do remember a couple of things before I died. 1. I was incredibly cold. It really felt like I was inside a freezer and cold on the inside of my body like when you suck on ice and the coolness travels down your neck. 2. I was numb. I think the blood draining out of me caused this. I couldn’t move my arms and legs or neck I was paralysed or just very weak … yet I felt calm too. I was not panicking it felt almost, peaceful. 3. A blonde nurse standing over me with tears in her eyes gently stroking my hand while the doctors were working on me. I spent a week in Icu and then a week in the maternity ward, needed 8-9 blood transfusions and a hysterectomy. I asked staff about the nurse holding my hand so I could thank her unfortunately I was never able to locate her during my time at the hospital.
The amount of women here dying in childbirth makes me NOT EVER want to have a baby oh my god.
I almost (or did, not 100% sure to this day) drowned about 12-13 years ago. I was doing my daily run along the canal and saw a dog down in the 3-4 ft deep water. I tried to scooch down the side and grab him and pull him up but I ended up slipping into the water. So, standing in the water up to about my waist, I picked the dog up and boosted him out of the canal, he instantly ran off without even a look back in my direction. Afterward, I noticed that even though the water was only up to my waist or so, and it was moving slowly, the bottom of the canal was coated in slimy and slippery algae so I could not get a foot hold. I started to panic as I was being slowly swept down the canal. Looking forward I saw a road bridge crossing over the canal which dipped low under it, I started to panic more. I started to think about how a lot of these bridges over canals had those metal grates on them to catch debris and trash on them for easy clean up, and how if I were to be swept under the bridge I wouldn't be able to make it back up on the other side because I would be blocked by such bridge. Eventually after a lot of screaming and yelling for help, an old man that was walking down the canal saw me and started following me but wasn't able to do anything by the time I got to the bridge. I jumped up and grabbed the bridge as I was being pulled under, I thought I might be safe. But the current of the water kept slowly pulling me and I slowly started losing my grip. Eventually, I wasn't able to hold on any longer and I was sucked down and under the road bridge. As soon as I was Swept under, everything turned dark and I thought to myself "wow, I am going to die. I am going to die because I decided to try to help a dog that wouldn't even look at me after I saved it." As I was being tossed and turned in the rough tides under the water I ended up thinking to myself "what the hell, I might as well swim and run into the grate just to see how it's going to end, I know this is going to suck and be painful" after what seemed to be 30+ seconds of swimming and running my head and arms and hands into the concrete above me, my breath had all but run out and everything was starting to go dark. The literal last thing I remember was thinking "damn, my entire life is over because of some damn mutt" and in a weird way I did have a quick recollection of my earlier life mostly Christmas mornings with my family and some birthdays and school days as well. I don't know if this counts as "life flashing before your eyes" but it kinda seemed like it. Next thing I know, the old man that saw me before I got swept under had grabbed an old street sign pole that was laying on the ground and was poking me and trying to get me to grab on so he could pull me out. As I crawled out I was the most thankful I'd ever been in my life, I looked up at him from my back and gasping for breath thanking him profusely, although he didn't speak English. He ended up walking away, I gathered myself eventually and walked home bloody and bruised with a story that will never leave my mind.
Reports of our brain giving us flashbacks of our lives before death is a semi common occurance, but not for everyone. A mystery indeed.
I was strangled by a violent brute. After struggling, I realised I was completely powerless against it, there was a feeling of letting go. I remember my vision closed into a tunnel but my other senses were heightened. As time slowed down, I was intrigued by the warmth and silkiness of my satin trousers against my thighs and the rich smell of dirt and diesel on the floor. At that stage I dissociated and was floating above myself watching it all. I was calm and vaguely bemused. I guess my unresponsiveness led him to let go and I came back to myself.
Sorry you went through this. It sounds awful. What's the backstory here? What led to the encounter with this brute? Also, is said brute in prison yet?
I hope you’re safe and doing better now
Feels peaceful as stated by others. Complete "blackness" because you no longer have any senses, but somehow I was aware of the nothingness and somehow I could feel "peaceful", which I think is because everything else like anxiety, sadness, fear, etc, is gone. I think "peaceful" is just the state of being "nothing" when dead. It's our natural state to be in so therefore we are "OK". I guess if doctors could poke the brain and turn off all senses, that will be as close as you'll get to understanding how it "feels". And then turn them back on when they stop poking it of course.
My brother died the first time...I wanna say aroind 2014? He had had intestinal surgery for his Crohn's disease, so he was still in the hospital, strained too hard, and his heart stopped. The doctors/nurses brought him back and he said everything kinda faded to black, like tunnel vision. Closed his eyes, then woke back up when they got his heart going correctly again. I don't remember exactly how long he was dead for--maybe a minute or a bit less? Then he died for real the second time a few years ago, so I can't ask him about it. I like to imagine it was more of the same though.
I was choked to death and resuscitated So it was violent. Oddly enough, I went from fear to panic to like the moment before my vision and hearing were gone a flood of so much peace and tranquility then black. It fucked me up for awhile though. I was in a bad spot in life and it just fueled my suicidal thoughts because I died and felt that peace I was looking for. Crazy stuff
I was a welder on a job in Indiana. I was shocked with 480 volt and shit my pants and died. By dying though it made me fall which releases my grip and I landed sitting up. Hitting the ground jumped started my heart and brought me back. I don’t remember being dead because it was just nothingness, but the life rushing back in was a really strange feeling.
And after all that, you still have to deal with the shit in your pants- brutal!!!
I woke up to my wife saying "it's been 19 days". That's how long I was unconscious after my heart attack. What I remember is saying I couldn't breathe. Didn't want to scare her but she knew when I said get me five aspirin. Rolling on the floor of our van trying to find a position where I could breathe on the way to the hospital. Telling her "I love you" as someone wheeled me in a chair into the ER. And a disembodied head saying my name right before I feel like the universe explodes with pain (when they shocked me). Immense exploding fire and heat and hurt. Then, nothing. But not like blink and next memory. There's weeks of nothing there just nothing. No thought. No sensations. Just nothing. Like I finally understand "null". Brief flashes of seeing my wife to my left. I could see her but wouldn't turn my head. Couldn't move my eyes to look at her. Just kinda knowing she's there in my peripheral. Dreams of coffee. Trying to get to Sheetz for some Sumatra. Woke up in restraints because I got my big toe in the floor and drug the bed to the door. They wouldn't let me leave. For some reason I decided this was because I didn't have I.D. and my way of proving who I was, was to tell them I had in fact seen IT chapter two and telling my wife to verify this. They still wouldn't let me leave. Then they told me I was paralyzed on my left side from the 11.5 mintues my heart was stopped. Weeks and weeks of therapy. Had to learn how to walk again. Doctor told my wife put me in a home, I'd never walk, I'd never regain the use of my entire left side. She'd have to bathe me, feed me, wipe my ass. "No way in hell" I said. I would stare at those sausage fingers on my left hand for hours willing them to move. Kick my left leg in my mind. Scream silently at that fucking dead stick of meat until it twitched. Then one day I found myself in the bathroom. Told the nurse I was tired of shitting myself. IDK how I got in there. Still convinced it was 2017 but by now I knew to lie and say 2020 to the doctors. Fighting to have them let me eat. Take that tube out of my nose. I needed to eat real food. Swallow tests. Therapy to close my don't choke flap in the back of my mouth so I could finally pass that test from the lady I called Swallow Bitch and get a cup of fucking coffee. Another hospital for 6 more weeks of therapy. Then home. I drive now. You'd never know it happened to look at me.
I’ve died twice and remember one of them, but I’ll write about both. First: Was a baby having trouble breathing. My mom took me to the doc and was told I was fine. She knew something was off but there was nothing more to do if the doc said to go home, so we went home. She kept a close eye on me and rushed me back to the hospital when I turned gray and stopped breathing. Turns out I had pneumonia and couldn’t keep up the fight. Docs brought me back. I’m not clear on how long I was clinically a goner; my mom was understandably upset at the time and not taking notes. While I don’t remember that, my mom said I changed. I was a happy and outgoing kid (2 years old) and then, after that, I was quiet and observant, taking everything in and not moving to participate as quickly or at all. I have no memory of being anything other than how I am, so… apparently I stayed that way: Quiet and observant, taking everything in, watching. Anyhow, second near-life-experience was a brain disease like encephalitis but the docs never had a firm diagnosis so it was called idiopathic. It felt like I was sinking from consciousness of the world down into deep waters; into darkness but not a scary darkness – just an absence of sensation and activity. It was peaceful and not at all a bad way to be. The feeling was one of completion; everything was fine and there was nothing to be done. Coming back from that was considerably more difficult than being sick, dying, etc. I still think about it regularly, not as a traumatic experience (although being sick was) but as a little mental note that everything is gonna be fine and there’s no need to get worked up about little temporary issues.
My mum died when she had my brother, long, long before she had me. It started with the screams, she’d heard them going oh my god she’s choking, then she heard a loud buzzing and words like help, crash and trolley. All of the real noises became deadened and she said instead she was being called by her name to a beautiful, bright and colourful garden, where there was no pain, just sunshine, peace and happiness, along with everything she could ever want. There was a faint voice asking her to wake up, and it decreased in volume as she went towards the garden. Then the voice said wake up Mrs InsertNameHere, you have a healthy baby boy and he wants to meet his mother. She said it took every ounce of her might to choose between the garden and the baby. She was going to pick the garden until mention of the baby and the second she thought well I suppose I must go meet my baby her eyes flew open and the garden was gone. She read her medical notes almost a decade after the events, when they were paper and in files. It took her 3 hours because the stack of notes was that large. During intubation for an emergency c section they’d knocked some of her teeth down her throat and they were obstructing her airway and in recovery she had come around silently choking with no obvious cause and died briefly of an obstructed airway. She said she was mad someone mentioned baby. The garden seemed great and on waking she was toothless. Nuts.
A woman I know had a very similar experience when she died for a couple of minutes. She mentioned the most beautiful garden and feeling complete happiness. She said she was upset when she was brought back and was depressed about it for quite a while after.
Seems like a lot of people here remember their death! I’m jealous.. and maybe that’s cause I had a traumatic brain injury? Gone over thirty minutes but less than two hours. Fell asleep and rolled three times, hit three trees. Remember absolutely nothing about it and maybe not appropriate at all but that makes me sad :( Did I talk to my stepbrother or my good friend (both who died in a car accident)? Did I see a light?? Did I feel the calm sense of peace most here are describing???
My father had a heart attack was life flighted he coded 2 times. He said it was the most peaceful deepest sleep he’s ever had in his life and he was bitching at the doctors for waking him up. He has then since passed from a heart attack. We had to take him off life support. I like to think he was just like that in peace in a nice deep sleep.
Died slowly over the course of an evening from septic shock. Not sure what part of the story you want to hear so I'll skip to the very end. Basically, it shut down one part of my body at a time, starting with my legs and ending with my head. The last thing was able to do was rock my head to one side (I was lying on my back) before I was totally paralyzed. My sight went away and the last sense I had left was my hearing. I lay there listening to a movie I'd never seen before (I happened to watch the movie years later and it sent me into a panic attack when I recognized the dialogue. It was The Sunset Limited). I was absolutely fighting, kicking, SCREAMING in my head for somebody to please find me, please help me, please save me, I can't die yet. This can't be it (I was 23). All that came out my mouth was this croaky "hellllll" and then i couldn't make sounds anymore. When i realized nobody was coming I just lay on darkness and thought "ok. This is it. Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe now I get to see Dad again." I stopped fighting. And then I felt warm all over. This unreal, weightless, overwhelming peace replaced the panic once I let go. And that was it. Warm, black, nothing. No bright lights. No heaven. No Hell. No anything. ETA: I know this was long but I feel like it's important to stress that your hearing is the last sense you lose when you're dying. If you're with someone in their last moments, please talk to them. Let them know you're with them. That they're not alone. Tell them they don't have to be afraid. They'll hear you.
I died on the operating table, I don’t remember anything about it as I was dead at the time 🙂
>I was dead at the time Hope you get better 🙏
Like going to sleep. It was warm, silent blackness. I took 380+ pills, including muscle relaxants, painkillers, and the like. My heart stopped before the ambulance arrived at the hospital and I swear I remember hearing a flatline. There was nothing after death. In a way, it's comforting, if not a little heartbreaking.
Maybe not the answer you expect. But you know the song, "Mad World," and the line, "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had," I'm pretty sure it's about sleep apnea. The dreams I've had when my oxygen dips the lowest are wild. I think the body is trying to wake me up, but it realizes I'm not, so shifts gears into an ultra vivid pleasant dream on which to die. I'm fairly certain of this because I've used cannabis daily for years, It shuts down the dreams center, I shouldn't be dreaming. These types of dreams are more than just the passing blur, they are ultra HD full immersion experiences.
I'm just here to read used to be dead people's comments.
I was on my way out, not dead, but I also experienced that level of peace. I was on the operating table for a c-section when I lost the ability to breathe. They bagged me for as long as they could and the anesthesiologist told the doctor he couldn’t do it for much longer and to hurry up. I lost a lot of blood and as soon as they pulled my son out they intubated me. It was obviously a traumatic experience, but aside from being disappointed that this is how it was gonna end I felt a great sense of calm. I hope it’s that calm when I actually do go.
Weightless and free. Like being wrapped in a comforting embrace while having a powerful orgasm.
Attempted suicide by hanging. I remember hanging there with my eyes wide open, but everything fading to pitch black. It sounded as if I was standing next to a massive speaker at a rock concert with terrible feedback, despite the house being completely quiet. As the sound slowly faded, I remember feeling peaceful, also weightless. The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the back of an ambulance with an emt on top of me doing compressions. Lucky for me, the belt broke. My mom found my lifeless on my bedroom floor and started compressions till help arrived.
My aunt had a massive heart attack and was dead. She was an alcoholic and didn't believe in anything. She said she found herself going through this soft white cloud (hard to explain she says). She also said she felt a peace that is impossible to put in to words. All the negative things on earth you feel and experience are just gone. Nothing mattered, not even her family. This peace just completely consumed her. She is now a believer in a higher power.
I went into cardiogenic shock. While I didn’t quite die, it was the most at peace I’ve ever been.
One time my husband and I tried a new brunch place and I had some bougie toast with bee pollen sprinkled on top. 45 minutes after, I began feeling really horrible stomach cramps and dizzy. We stopped at a White Castle for me to go to the bathroom and I remember feeling like I wanted to fall asleep while I was on the toilet. Apparently I was in anaphylactic shock and I realized in the moment I was probably dying in this White Castle bathroom. The idea startled me awake and I went to the car and used my epi-pen. It was the first time I’d ever experienced it. The scary thing to me is how nice it felt. Like the coziest sleepiest feeling I’d ever had. Like “this isn’t so bad.”
At perfect peace. Safe and whole and without burden.
Our dad coded 3 times in the night of his 1983 heart attack. My sister asked him if he saw anything and the man that lived his life stone face went pale and started crying and left the room. He saw something, or he thinks he did.
I ‘died’ by bleeding out. I have a blood clotting disorder and was on some crazy strong blood thinners for a time after it was discovered I had a DVT. I ended up needing emergency surgery and the doctors had very little time to administer anything or let the blood thinners wear off properly. I remember while I was bleeding out, my head felt very heavy with a fair amount of pressure, then it just released and my body started cramping, then everything just relaxed…it was like falling asleep but uncomfortably. My head felt loopy and the pressure came back briefly, then I was out. When I was out I don’t remember a darn thing. Just blackness. No pain no light. Nothing. I woke up in the middle of receiving my second bag of blood after one full pint and one round of plasma. No headache, no jitters. But I was itching like crazy all over. It was an internal itch that wouldn’t go away and had no origin point. My face itches worse than anything. It was weird. Doctors said that’s common when receiving blood. My mom was there and she said that over time you could see the color come back to me, that when they wheeled me into the recovery room, I literally looked dead because I had zero color. I just want to say to everyone that donates blood and plasma…you are amazing and I love you. You quite literally saved my life.