‘My dead brother spoke to me’: People who’ve ‘died’ reveal what the afterlife is like

WE might not like to dwell on it, but pretty much all of us have wondered what dying is like at some point or another.

There's always talk of bright white lights and a tunnel, but apparently that's not how it is for everyone.

Stepping in to tell us what it's really like are the good people of Reddit, who jumped at the chance to tell their stories when asked what it's like to have momentarily died. Some didn't see anything, but these are the most interesting stories.

Cutting the power

The Bawlrus said: "It was like turning off a TV. One second things were working and the next I'm waking up surrounded by doctors and nurses with my feet in the air and a unit of blood being shot into me at high speed.

"'Heeeyyyyy budddyyyy...how ya feeling? We uh..lost you for a minute there.'"

Sometimes nothing isn't good...

"Two months ago I was OD'd on anesthesia in an oral surgeons office. Coded in the ER and was dead for under a minute, but fuck it, it counts," Hobojesse said.

"Between me going out and me waking up in the ICU there is nothing.

"No black void, lost loved ones, messages from the other side. Nothing. Processing it since then, I don't know if there's nothingness is comforting or terrifying."

Seeing someone you've lost

Schneidah7 had a motorbike accident and was medically dead when he got to hospital, but was then revived.

"I just remember being on the pavement and things slowly going black and quiet.

"When I opened my eyes I saw my brother squatting on the pavement next me to. This was odd because my brother died from an overdose several years ago.

"The only other thing I remember is him glancing at his watch and saying something like 'They'll be here soon' and then walking away."

Mark two

Ori15n had an out of body experience when battling meningitis.

"[I saw a] man who had all the trademarks of an older man. He was frail, gray, hunched over, and he just had that "grandfatherly" vibe.

"He was smiling at me. But that is when I noticed the weirdest part, he had not a wrinkle on his face.

"His face was young. And quite honestly it looked a lot like me (well, me today. Not me at 5.) I had never seen this man, ever.

"Years after this... I found a box of old pictures in my grandparent's house... I met my great grandfather, yes."

A tranquil garden

IDiedForABit had an allergic reaction to some food and had to have their heart restarted.

"I remember a feeling of being sucked backwards, extremely slowly like being pulled through water and this blackness fading in and out.

"At one point it faded back in and i was staring out at a garden.

"It wasn't filled with flowers, just dust and patchy grass. There was a playground with a merry-go-round in the middle and two children running around it. A boy and a girl."

A deep sleep

7StoriesUp wrote: "The heart stopping must've hurt and the asthma attack, but actual death is painless.

"It isn't scary, though like all humans I do fear it. It also isn't some magical experience... you're just sleeping, except sometimes you can wake up from it, like I did, and sometimes you can't, like my daddy who died when I was a child."

Bashing the snooze button

User TheDeadManWalks lost a lot of blood while he'd been having chemotherapy as a teenager.

"If you want to know what it's like to be that close to death, it's tempting.

"It's like wanting to hit the snooze button on your alarm at 7am. And maybe you do hit it once or twice but then you remember that you have work or school and that sleep can wait because you've still got s*** to do."

Completely at peace

"Dying itself was strangely peaceful," BuyMyMixTapeee said.

"I could hear my heart rate decreasing on the monitor and time seemed to slow.

"It felt like floating on a warm sea, slowly being dragged by the tide, while you feel your body unravelling and the warmth of the water diffusing into you. It was probably the most peaceful thing I've experienced."

It's a laugh

Altburger69 said: "Had a heart attack last year and my heart stopped three times in the ER.

"Apparently, each time they shocked me back I 'woke up' (how it felt) and told the staff a different knock-knock joke each time.

"No lights or whatever, just felt like sleep."

Spinning and stars

"My vision started to blur in and out of focus, and I had the strangest feeling I was forgetting to do something," TwistedIniquity said.

"Then the room started spinning and pulling me further and further down. (not literally as I was already in bed.) My vision got dimmer and dimmer.

"Then there was a swirling mass of stars and I kept spinning. Swirling down and down and down. It felt like I was being sucked into a black hole. It seemed to go on forever."

Like skimming a book

User monitormonkey said: "I remember thinking over my life, but it wasn't like a montage. More like I was idly flipping through a book and snippets stood out here and there.

"Whatever it was, it changed my thoughts on a few things. I am still afraid to die, but I'm not worried about what happens after that."