People who died and came back to life reveal what they saw on the other side

‘The other side’ sounds pretty scary for some

Whether there is an afterlife and our “spirit” goes somewhere after death is what has divided scientists, philosophers and religious people for centuries, even millennia.

While there is no scientific evidence that there is a “soul” in the first place, or that after death it goes to another dimension, this hasn’t stopped people from sharing their near-death experiences.

According to research, people tend to describe these sensations as their life being replayed in front of their very eyes, having out-of-body experiences, dreaming and or being in meditative states.

On Reddit, several people gave their take on the subject, and what truly happened once it felt as though they were kicking the bucket.

In a thread on the social media platform, titled “People who died and came back to life, what did you see/experience?”, several users described their experiences.

Unsurprisingly, some said they didn’t experience anything that they can recall.

A user, as they explained being taken by an ambulance, said they felt absolutely nothing.

Some said they felt absolutely nothing

“Nothing at all. One minute I was in the ambulance and remember saying ‘I really don't feel well’. I saw the emt in the back with me lean up to the front and heard him say ‘you should probably turn on the sirens and blow the lights’. Next thing I know, I am in a hospital bed and a doctor and two nurses are saying ‘there you are’”, user BackgroundGrass429 wrote.

Similarly, another user shared their wife’s emotions during her near-death experience.

“My wife had cardiac arrest in a big box store. Off-duty nurse saw her go down and started CPR within a minute. Emergency squad arrived in 7 minutes and used their De-Fib. She woke up in the hospital after 7 days and remembered nothing about it. 3 days later came home and is doing well 6 years later”, said Rogerdodger1946.

User Primary_Bunch2899 had a similar experience, in that what they felt was total, absolute void.

“100% nothingness. I don't remember anything, last memory was like 10 or so minutes before I got struck by lightning, next I know I'm roughly 50 miles away in a hospital being told I got lucky”, they wrote in the Reddit thread.

Some experiences were frightening and bizarre

Another user had a way more memorable experience, even if a little frightening.

Fantastic_Side_7773 wrote: “A little over 40 years ago a horse I was riding went over backwards, and when I landed it severed my hepatic vein. At the hospital I remember going in to emergency surgery - I was talking to the medical team, and heard one say 'I can’t believe she’s still conscious!' Then I was having a lovely nap, and heard a nice voice asking if I wanted to die. Very non-judgmental, just pleasant”, the user wrote.

“I thought about it and said 'oh no, I’m only 28, and my dad would be so disappointed in me if I died just from falling off a horse!' (For the record, I had awesome parents who would have been way more than 'disappointed,' they would have been gutted.) Anyway, that lovely voice said, 'Well, then, you need to start fighting.' After I woke in ICU I learned my heart had stopped on the operating table, and it took 32 units of blood to save me. Had an awesome surgeon who had served in Vietnam during the war and was no stranger to trauma. He called me his brown pants case. Technically I didn’t die, but it was too close.”

Another surreal, frightening experience was reported by user lemelisk42, convinced that they saw an odd-looking animal as they had a near-death experience.

To make the experience even weirder, they say the animal even spoke (albeit not in words) as they were on “the other side”.

“I did not die, but close. Brain was shutting down from smoke and oxygen deprivation. A phosphorescent bison came to me. He spoke in pure emotions, essentially all is well. (He didn't use language, just feelings) Went from panic to calm acceptance just like that. Was a pivotal moment in my life”, they said.

User EarthEmbodied said they realized that they were going to pass away, then saw bright lights following total darkness.

Following the eye-opening experience, the user said they now don’t take life for granted.

“I remember realizing I was going to die, using my last moment to do what I could and to apologize to my little brother for him being there, total blackness, and then I was sucked back in with the brightest light and put back into my body where I was met with the most extreme pain but knowingness that I was alive. My life was forced back inside of me and I have never taken it for granted. I was 12 years old in a multiple casualty car accident”.

Another contributor to the thread, going by the name WoodpeckerBusy2675, said they saw vibrant colours, as they were drifting away.

“I hit my head on concrete went into a seizure with multiple concussions. I felt myself drift quickly away and then I was on my grandmother's lawn in the sun painting a green fence white. All the colors were incredibly vibrant”, they wrote.

“I thought to myself its a beautiful day and i think id like to lay on the lawn and feel the sun on my face. I felt somewhere distantly that I was shaking but it was very remote, like a distant memory. I started to drift to sleep and I thought this will be the best sleep I ever had.”

“The deepest most wonderful sleep. When suddenly a voice said, if you go to sleep now, you will never wake up again- i thought this is death. The voice said wake up. It was very commanding. I forced myself awake. I woke up, couldn't walk. Had lacerations, memory loss, etc. That moment is slipping away as I've gotten older. It was a very strange moment in my life”, they added.

Is there an afterlife, after all?

While the experiences shared by some of the users seem very convincing, it must be said that major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism, and metaphysics.

In some belief systems, such as many pagan ones, the dead go to a specific place (like heaven or hell) after death, as determined by their god or gods, based on how they acted and what they believed in during life.

On the other hand, science generally treats the afterlife as a non-empirical, unproven concept.

According to scientific research, consciousness is an emergent property of the brain that ceases upon biological death.