People who have died and came back, what was your experience?

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I don’t want to discuss the incident in detail because it was very traumatic, but long story short, I had a near-drowning incident when I was 12 (technically not a drowning because I survived). I was technically dead for several minutes.

I saw nothing. total blank. I remember flashes of struggling to get to the side of the pool one moment, and flashes of waking up in an ambulance the next. then it cuts out again, and then I woke up in a hospital room with tubes in all my holes (plus some tubes in new holes) and surrounded by my mom and brothers.

I don't know if this counts. I had a stroke while I was sleeping. I had very vivid nightmares that night, almost the worst nightmares I've ever had. It's made me terrified of dying in my sleep. If my final experiences are going to be like that I absolutely do not want to go out in my sleep.

"He died peacefully his sleep" is something people only say for catharsis.

My dad did. He's never fully went into every detail, but he has talked about it in bits in pieces over the years and he said quite a bit as I was struggling with the passing of my mother. From what I know he had a major heart attack and there was a point where the chest pain just... stopped and one second he was there and the next second he just wasn't. He described it as like, leaving his body in some way and being surrounded by light, warmth and peace. He apparently met and was hugged by family members and relatives he hadn't seen in years. He's always been pretty limited beyond that, but from what I gather it felt like they were there to greet him briefly but didn't have the expectation for him to stay with them. Kind of like "hey, we're here but it's not time yet" in the way he's talked about it.

There's been claims in the family he has always been hesitant to talk about but apparently he saw relatives there that died long before he was even born and was able to recognize these dead relatives in extremely old family photos. I don't know how true that is, but whenever anyone in the family tries to discuss it he actively avoids the conversation.

FYI, there is a community, !nde@lemmy.world, if anyone here is interested in this kind of thing.

I suffered a traumatic brain injury as a pedestrian who didn't look both ways. My answer isn't very fun but I technically qualify as I had to be resuscitated on scene.

I was in a coma for a few days and then--despite being conscious and over time regaining awareness, then vocalization, then even conversational speech--I wasn't writing any new long term memories for a couple of months. My experience of that dark period, to the extent that it isn't nothing, is pretty vague. The memories of months preceding injury are pretty blurry until the injury which I don't remember and then the next I remember is being tied to a hospital bed and chewing on the Posey mitts. I remember some hallucinating in that period, one instance is an ordinary piece of a day interacting with nurses and therapists but perceiving everything as if drawn in the Family Guy cartoon. I post-hoc interpret that memory as a vague basically dream state that got mashed in with a Family Guy memory.

So no, no afterlife experience or memories of the other side.

First time I got shot my heart allegedly stopped for about a minute. My vision was getting blurry, I was getting dizzy, and I had a hard time breathing, but for the last few seconds or so of consciousness I lost all physical sensation. No pain, couldn't feel the wind, the deep in your chest vibration from all the shots around me, nothing. I thought I was paralyzed for a second, but then the lights went out. When I came to, I had been pulled back behind cover, and I felt like I was just waking up from a very deep sleep. Then the pain kicked back in almost immediately. I was told they lost my pulse for a bit. Maybe it did, maybe the hectic situation made it harder to find it, so maybe I didn't really die and just came close. Either way, I don't recommend it.

Side note: I don't know if I was clinically dead in any of these.

I have three experiences. When I was 10 I was hit by an SUV travelling 50+ mph while walking across a highway. It knocked my shoes off and threw me dozens of feet. I still don't remember anything. Apparently I was unconscious for awhile. First responder said they saved my life while waiting for an air lift to take me to the hospital. It was the kind of nothing when you sleep and wake up.

The second I mixed a bunch of drugs. I think I was on 5 different ones. I took an absolutely massive rip of air duster and instantly my body was gone and so was anything resembling reality. I remember thinking ohhh I'm dead. My being and/or individuality was melting / merging into this infinitely recursuve fractal pattern. The sense I was an individual was an illusion. Then I snapped back into consciousness.

The third I definitely don't think I was dead, but it was a very relevant dream. The kind of dream that is so vivid it is indistinguishable from reality. I was completely sober at this point in my life (in part because of the experience above and another experience with hallucinogens where I saw the exact same thing the VFX artists made in the exorcism of emily rose, but I saw it before the movie was even made).

The dream started with me at my own funeral. I was for lack of a better word a spirit. I've never had dreams like this before or after.

The most fascinating thing was the sense of need and/or desire was completely gone. I felt the most free I had ever felt in my life. But I did have tasks. I had to visit my best friend Brant. He was in a very dark small place that I kind of transported to he was dead/ a spirit too. He apparently hasn't had a source of light here and I apparently had a small bit of shine. Because the room lit up a bit when I entered. We laughed about how weird it was that there were shadows even though we were semi transparent. Then my dad (whom I never saw but apparently was guiding me through my tasks) said I don't know how long you have left you need to go. So I left and I visited/transported to my mom who was also a spirit. We danced together. She was skinny and wearing a bright red dress. There was more light here but it was still nondescript. Then I woke up .

I sobbed like a baby for probably 30 minutes when I woke up. The biggest change was that I had desires again. I desperately wanted to stay in that state I was in during the dream. The best I can describe it is if you had a good job, had great sex, ate an amazing meal, than sat in your most comfortable chair next to the people you love, for a brief moment you wouldn't feel any base human level desire just a vague satisfaction. It was like that but times 100 and it was just the default state.

Since they dream I've only told it to strangers and Brant. Brant had since died via suicide at age 25. My mom who has been obese most of my life, has lost significant amounts of weight and now owns a strikingly similar dress. Honestly I don't know what to make of it. It still spooks me. It changed my life.

I would not really compare it to dying, but having had seizures, you can appear dead and then wake up really disoriented and scared. Your brain basically shuts off for a moment.

I didnt actually die, but I came pretty close. I lost a ton of blood, started tk get tunnel vision, blacked out, then there was nothing, then I regained consciousness after getting a transfusion. Not sure how long I was out, but they said I was white as a sheet.

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This is a topic that fascinates me. I’ve read extensively about it. I am an atheist but sometimes I ponder after hearing these stories.

Well I got better!

There's just a gap in my memory like going to sleep and not dreaming. The waking up was brutal though. I had zero context of anything around me but my brain was still fully functioning. It was weird. For context I was dead for half an hour and in a medical coma for a week or so.

I imagine that's how the first true ai will feel. It still will "know" information, how to speak, etc, but it will have no idea wtf is going on

Edit: apparently people haven't heard of CPR and doubt my claims.

Here's your evidence

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/hero-teacher-helps-save-teens-struck-lightning/story?id=11829631

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Can you define "death" in the context of your question? I feel you might have referred to some forms of reversible coma.

I was sitting in nothingness, in front of me a meticulously sorted grid of worlds. I was in the process of putting earth back into its place when I woke up. For the next couple of minutes I was convinced that I'm literally god.

If someone died, they won't come back. That's what dying means.

I've been very lucky and haven't come close to death (yet), but I have had some dream experiences that resembled NDEs.

I tried three times to control what I dreamed about. The dreams weren't like dreams, is the best way I can put it - they were very short, very vivid, and clearly linked to the "intention" I'd requested. The second dream featured a pair of strangers trying to tell me something.

The last one, I went down a long tunnel (like a storm drain) and ran into people who, indeed, drove me out and told me I shouldn't be there. After that, I wasn't able to do it again.

Unsure if just weird dreams or if I actually got too close to something. The thing that makes me think there might be something in NDEs, tbh, is the stories palliative care nurses seem to have.

WHY IS THERE NO HENRY KISSINGER EMOJIS?!?!?!?!?!