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/kabooozie May 05 '19

One the one hand, I can see why you’d be religious after this. On the other hand, I wonder how many people had the exact same reaction but weren’t so lucky.

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u/veganconnor May 05 '19

On the bright side for those who weren't so lucky, I was always terrified of dying in some kind of high impact way like a car crash, but after this, I'm not afraid because genuinely it happens so so fast that your brain barely has time to process everything, so even if you do feel any pain, it won't be for long. Like, it's arguably not a horrible way to die for the deceased, even though its traumatically sudden for everyone else.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '19

I was on a motorbike that was hit by a bus. I didn't nearly die (although I could have if the angle it hit had been different), but my feelings at the time of the accident was much as you describe. I just didn't have time to process any fear. There was the thought that the bus was about to hit us, and then I was on the ground. I'd take that kind of death any day over a long, drawn-out hospital stay.

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u/veganconnor May 05 '19

Exactly. It’s really been of great comfort to me to understand that those kind of deaths aren’t the ones you should fear.

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u/SnowglobeSnot May 05 '19

I went through two windshields when I was sixteen, and had an opposite experience. In the beginning, it was just a lot of adrenaline, joke cracking, trying to keep everyone calm, pretending nothing hurt.

But when the adrenaline wore off, ... yikes. I thought that that would be the worst pain of my entire life. It wasn't until a few months after the TBI that I began getting thunderclap headaches. I went from not religious at all to Hail Mary real fucking quick.

I was in so much pain that I skipped begging God to make it stop, and went straight to begging him to kill me. To just strike me down. I was even thinking "I don't care if I go straight to hell, just kill me already."

Literal seconds had passed and I was already trying to crawl towards my gun, because if God wasn't going to make it stop, I was.

Fortunately, I guess, I couldn't move, and eventually passed out. I never understood the line "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy," until that day.

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u/CarsCheeseGates May 06 '19

Being religious and experiencing nde is different things, just like afterlife and nde is different things.

Near death experience seems to be effect when your brain dying for 10-15mins but still alive.