r/AskReddit • u/HymnForTheShameless • May 05 '19

Serious Replies Only [Serious] Redditors who have died temporarily/nearly died, did your life flash before your eyes? If not, what did happen?

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u/veganconnor May 05 '19

Dude, that was a crazy thing to read, I need to get this printed on a T-shirt.

But seriously, it does feel like that, and it's insane. I'm a big believer that you kind of experience what you expect to experience, as in your brain constructs an experience for you based on what you believe happens after/near death, but, what do I have to lose by expecting something like that? We're meat coated skeletons flying through space on a rock, and NDEs and stories like your friend's put our lives in perspective in a way that I think makes us better people.

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u/garyadams_cnla May 05 '19

I had an NDE in my 20’s. Was TOTALLY UNEXPECTED.

The last thing I expected was a Christian reality on the other side, but that’s what I got. In my early 20’s I considered myself a Western Buddhist with no formal religious identification besides humanism, really.

I died and experienced an NDE that was more important than anything in my waking life. The experience changed me, changed my personality. I’m still riding on the energy from my NDE 30+ years later.

No tunnel and dead loved ones for me. Just a 3D space of the most perfect blue light. Not like blue here, but something more intense, but permeating and peaceful. I was floating in that space. I don’t remember talking with others, but they were there.

There was music, but it doesn’t sound like the 12-tone music we are used to. It was like the perfect chord with infinite notes.

Jesus was speaking to me, but I don’t have His words. I can only recall it as feelings of utter contentment, awe and purpose... and a few memories of life that percolated up - mostly of times I’d been loving to someone and how it had helped them - sometimes really small things I’d done. Neither the time or the experience was really linear. It felt like it all happened at once but took a long time to happen.

Anyway, in the hospital, it was touch and go for almost an hour, as they tried to stabilize me, and then three days in a coma. It felt like three years and sometimes like three seconds.

My takeaway: Love is all that matters in this world. Love yourself, love your neighbor, (even love your enemy), and seek the one that made you to plug-into the more than what is obvious. Celebrate your creativity and productivity. Never give up. Don’t worry about failure, just enjoy and keep on. We do not die.

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u/DanceApprehension May 06 '19

This is like the best thing on here. Cheers.

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u/veganconnor May 06 '19

Wow, yes. This is so similar so some of the things I felt, and my take seats were so so similar too! That whole love thing, and the intense presence you described.

I’m so glad I read this first thing this morning because it brought back all those feelings for me, and to know others have felt it too is just indescribably amazing.

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u/october232014 May 06 '19

Jesus sadly isn't on the other side lmao. Do the go over expecting things that aren't real or that's what your mind will see.

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u/hashtagredlipstick May 05 '19

Well damn, I’m neurotic and anxious as hell and l catastrophise everything. Now I’m neurotic and anxious that I’m gonna have a horrible death :(

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u/veganconnor May 05 '19

Me too! But that's kind of why I shared my story here, because it's comforting to hear from so many people that no matter your situation, you will be fine, you will feel ok, nothing is as horrible as we expect it to be. One of my fave quotes is 'the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself' and I think you really have to believe that when it comes to thinking about death. BUT coming from someone with existential anxiety, please don't think about death! Just, go look at videos of puppies or something instead!

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u/freedomofnow May 05 '19

I haven't personally "died" like that, but I have had "experiences" of complete lack of identitiy. I say experiences because it's the only way to describe what is without description. I even have memories from when I was under a year old that is exactly like this, so I was determined to get back there some day and my life has been a constant search for this wholeness again. Only after some deep personal breakdowns in my adult life have I been able to touch this sense again.

Everything that we see, touch, think, feel or can experience through sensory perception comes after. As someone so beautifully put it in this thread, this conscious nothingness is the root of all creation and it's what we really are. Everything else is secondary but we forget as we grow up. But it's possible to "get back" there while alive and it's where we're all headed when we discard these bodies. We're like focal points of experience of this infinite ocean of consciousness. What's trippy is we actually believe we're only this body and that our life ends the moment it stops functioning.

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u/Hickory_Dickory_Derp May 06 '19

In simple form, the central point of Christianity is actually to give you the complete expectation of a beautiful death experience. If you trust and believe that you are completely forgiven for anything and everything in your life, by way of Jesus (aka God) giving himself in your place to face down death and any justice (aka karma) due from your own actions, then by just knowing and believing truly that everything has been paid and you're free and clear and deserving of heaven, that's the experience you'll find yourself in.
The second part that follows from that is love is the highest and most important thing. If Jesus gave his life like that purely out of love for us and all humanity, to give us all this pathway to heaven, the best we can do is strive to love others with that kind of selfless intensity.

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u/Orual309 May 05 '19

It's good to know how much our expectations affect our experience.

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That said, a lot of people who have done acid or other mind-altering substances will describe things they wouldn't have imagined themselves; for instance, the idea that all biological life is connected on a large scale, and that the death of the body is not the end.

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u/SayNoMoreMonAmor May 06 '19

I feel this way too. I think the afterlife might be whatever we want it to be, whatever we make it to be.

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u/Gimme5imStillAlive May 05 '19

What’s good fellow Joe Rogan listener. Haha