There is no bigger question in life than what happens after we die.
So much of humanity has come from theories and hopes about what happens once we leave our misshapen meat sack of a body for the afterlife (or whatever). Heaven or hell? Eternal darkness? We have no idea and the thought can keep people up at night (ironically leading to their early death).
Reddit user u/Aidanmartin3 decided to go straight to the only living source that knows what they might be talking about, people of Reddit:
“Redditors who were pronounced dead and resuscitated, what did you go through mentally while being pronounced dead.”
The results ended up being pretty freaky.
Here are the 20 stories from Redditors who say they’ve “seen the other side.”
1.
“I’ve died once. I don’t remember much about it except there was a nice, dark nothingness which I guess felt kind of cozy, but I also knew it was the end, so I’d better not … I don’t know, I knew I wasn’t supposed to go into the dark. Like I was in the dark, but I wasn’t supposed to be enjoying it, because if I embraced it too much I would die. I’m generally not that scared of death these days.
It was kind of like falling asleep and kinda vaguely remembering a dream when you wake up. All I really have are feelings, not a solid picture or an image or anything like that.” –CedarWolf
2.
“Felt like third person security camera footage of my body, then slowly zooming out and rising up, felt really really cold and then I started hearing really loud clanging sounds and woke up in the ambulance to the sound of the gurney bouncing on a rough road. It was surreal, haven’t feared death since then tbh. It was almost 6 years ago and I still think about it a few times a month.” –hemptations
3.
“I have been dead, and resuscitated twice. The first time was after drowning. I remember a feeling of great peace, some flashbacks to my life, but mostly just a remarkable feeling of connectedness. It’s a feeling that changed the course of my whole life.
The second time was from anaphylactic shock from contrast solution. Again I remember feeling of incredible warmth and connectedness. Total peace. The second time however when I woke I remember feeling a deep sense of compassion to all the people around me. Which has stuck with me.
These experiences have led me to a 20 year Buddhist practice. Working in organizational psychology, and a life dedicated to trying to help others and myself be the best, most peaceful, most compassionate loving people we can be. I have no fear of death.” –drumbubba
4.
“As My family was saying goodbye to me I remember seeing 3 shadow people at the foot of the hospital bed (me thinking it was family) I asked “who are they” my mother then proceeds to tell me they were angels but I perceived them as my dead relatives there to bring me to the other side. The nurses then proceeded to put me under anesthesia so the doctors could hopefully get my brain to stop bleeding. They were successful and I’m still here! I was told later on that they lost me during the surgery but I would have never known that on my own. I went under then woke up, that’s all I knew.” –Magicman0181
5.
“Yeah, they told me I was dead for 3 minutes. I remember those clips of people saying they experienced some kind of near-afterlife, but for me it was like sleeping. I woke up, they told me how I almost died, I said “oh yeah?”. They explained a bunch of stuff and then offered me a grilled cheese. I had Doritos too. 10/10 would die again, it’s just nothingness, not scary at all.” –zackkorth
6.
“I don’t remember anything from the whole day. It happened one afternoon. Only thing I remember is waking in the hospital two days later to a surprised nurse. Turns out they thought I was going to be in a coma.” –GozerDGozerian
7.
“It felt like I was in a long tunnel, just floating and feeling very tired. I remember falling asleep and having a dream that I was in the kitchen in the house where I grew up in and my dad was cooking breakfast. I could hear a commotion and chaos at one end and at the other end there was a warm light that felt peaceful. Then all of a sudden I was abruptly in the chaos of an emergency room.” –Free_Hat_McCullough
8.
“I got hit by a car. I could still see with my eye that didn’t have blood in it. I could hear all the commotion. I felt getting forced into my back and then cpr. I felt my first heartbeat and then blood flowing through my body and at that point I felt all the pain took a deep breath and then everything went black.” –outsider531
9.
“I wasn’t pronounced dead but from what I was told I wasn’t far. I experienced nothingness. Like when you black out from drinking. Or when you get home from a super long day to fall on the couch and just fall asleep. it was like absolute restfulness and peace, but in absolute darkness. It’s not scary at all, and it’s really eliminated my fear of dying. The only thing I worry about are those that love me after I pass – otherwise I could really go at any point and I wouldn’t mind. It made me stop thinking about good and evil and made me think more that people are just human.
I just remembered how fucking awful the headache I had was when all the blood was rushing back to my brain. super weird and uncomfortable, that part was dumb.” –mmm-pistol-whip
10.
“My dad died briefly and said that he went down a long hallway to a door. When he was going to open it he felt himself being sucked back into his own body.” –whiskeynostalgic