This social media user, unnamed, recounted collapsing in the street back in 2003.
Although they felt completely well earlier in the day, the boy suddenly had a cold sweat, struggled to breathe, and suffered ventricular fibrillation – a life-threatening heart rhythm responsible for most sudden cardiac deaths.
The person reports that paramedics found their heart had stopped. After six minutes of intense resuscitation efforts in the ambulance, their heart restarted.
They experienced no lasting harm, and considers themself among the few to briefly leave this world in a near-death experience.
These events, which have captivated medical professionals and the general population for many years, are thought to happen when people are clinically “dead,” with very little chance of living.
Numerous individuals who have undergone such experiences claim they saw the afterlife.
Sharing the story on Reddit, where it gained over 12,000 upvotes, the person stated: “While there, I found out things about our universe that I now regret knowing.”
‘It began with light. Blinding, white, pervasive. It bathed me, calmed me. It was everything they tell you about. Beatific, welcoming, the stuff of spiritual experiences.
‘I had the distinct feeling of ascent, like the light was lifting me skyward. I passed through several sets of gates, which my dizzied consciousness hardly registered.
‘I arrived in a place without dimension, a place beyond reality. It only made sense while I occupied it.’
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In addition, they asserted experiencing multiple emotionless, derisive, monster-esque entities who communicated ‘terrifying realities concerning being’.
They further stated: ‘Initially, due to my religious background, I thought these beings were celestial messengers.’
‘In my incorporeal form, I made the spiritually-equivalent gesture of opening my arms, anticipating their embrace.
‘Instead, I felt myself shackled by their powers, like a collared dog.
‘Humiliation and terror came over me. These were not the ethereal beings I’d been led to believe await us.
When the meeting ended suddenly, they were back in their physical form on Earth.
Furthermore, they reported that the beings had instructed them ‘to keep their existence a secret from other humans’.
‘I can’t imagine anything worse than what I experienced, subsumed beneath an ineffable grief and torment.’
She elaborated: ‘For several weeks, I attempted to describe my experience to every available person.
‘Everyone told me I’d suffered a very serious and traumatic experience for a young man, that the event left scars on my psyche as well as my heart.’
The story, shared online, relies on a single, unconfirmed incident. Despite this, Redditors are captivated by the man’s viewpoint, resulting in over 400 comments expressing astonishment and dismay. Amber Cavanagh earlier recounted to MailOnline that she was 43 when she experienced two strokes and entered heaven’s ‘meeting point’. Mrs. Cavanagh, from Canada, stated she could observe her husband ‘crying over’ her physical form.
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| Amber Cavanagh informed MailOnline that at the age of 43, she had two strokes and experienced a near-death experience she called the ‘meeting point’ of heaven. |
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| Mrs. Cavanagh of Canada reported observing her husband (shown in the image) crying over her body during clinical death. |
There is a scientific foundation for reports of visual and auditory sensations during clinical death. Studies indicate that, despite apparent cessation of activity on standard scans, the human brain retains functionality for a short duration after the heart stops. Research also demonstrates bursts of brain activity even an hour post-oxygen deprivation during resuscitation efforts.
These findings prompt some medical professionals to advocate revising the conventional three-to-five-minute oxygen deprivation period for declaring death, suggesting potential for resuscitation beyond this timeframe.
People have described out-of-body experiences such as seeing lights and meeting deceased relatives, and some have visions of an afterlife.
While research continues into post-clinical death brain phenomena, the similarity of experiences is debated. One theory proposes that brain changes remove inhibitory controls, creating intense, lucid recollections. This is only a hypothesis, and other experts disagree.
Clinical death differs from brain death. Brain death, occurring when a person on life support lacks all brain function and cannot regain consciousness, means the body can’t survive without assistance. The UK legally defines brain death as death. Families may struggle to accept this due to visible breathing and heartbeat from the ventilator. Illness or injury that cuts off oxygen and blood to the brain can cause brain death, and the condition is separate from a vegetative state.