For centuries, people have wondered what awaits us after death. Is there some new world outside of life, or is there nothing more beyond the last line? It is impossible to prove the existence of an "afterlife", but there are people who, having experienced clinical death, talk about what they managed to "see" beyond being.
Some describe a white light and a dark tunnel, others claim to have seen "frames" of their lives. Users of the popular portal Reddit share their stories. To believe their stories or not is up to everyone, but it's definitely worth learning about how people felt while the doctors tried their best to bring them back to life.
"I've seen my whole life like the pictures in a book"
A user with the nickname monitormonkey experienced a clinical death five years ago during a complex operation. In fact, he died for a few minutes.
I woke up in some space where there was neither light nor sound. I didn't stand, I didn't float, I just was there. I did not feel heat or cold, there was no feeling at all, except for the realization that somewhere nearby there is a light that radiates love. But I didn't want to move towards him. I remember that I recalled my life, while it was as if the pages of a book were opening in front of me, which I lazily turned over. And then I woke up on the operating table. I can’t say that after this “journey” I stopped being afraid of death, but now I think that there is something beyond life.
"I saw my dead brother"
The girl with the nickname Schneidah7 crashed in a motorcycle accident. While the ambulance was driving to the scene, the victim did not show any signs of life. But later the girl told what she really felt.
I remember lying on the sidewalk, and everything around gradually became dark and the sounds went somewhere far away. The only thing I heard was someone's voice: “Wake up! Get up! Get up! I opened my eyes and saw my brother, who was squatting next to me and gently tugging at my shoulder. I was very surprised: my brother died a few years ago. Noticing that I opened my eyes, he looked at his watch and said: "Don't worry, they will arrive soon." And then he left. A couple of minutes later, an ambulance arrived.
"I was in a blooming garden"
Many storytellers note that outside of life they found themselves in a kind of void. But the user with the nickname IDiedForABit was “lucky” to be in another place. His heart stopped because of the allergic shock he experienced. And while the doctors brought him back to life, the man saw an amazing place.
It looked like a big flowering garden. At the same time, I was not alone there: in the center of the pastoral picture there was a large carousel on which a girl and a boy rode. They were absolutely happy. I felt that I could choose whether to stay here or leave. But at the same time, my attempts to return back to my body did not want to end in success. And only when I remembered my mother, realizing that I could not leave her, that she would not survive this, was I “allowed” to leave the garden and return to life. The doctors said my heart didn't beat for six minutes.
"I didn't want to come back to life"
As a teenager, a user with the nickname TheDeadManWalks had to undergo several sessions of chemotherapy. As a result, his blood vessels were so weakened that one day his nose began to bleed, which could not be stopped. The teenager's condition began to deteriorate rapidly, in addition, an infection got into the body. This led to clinical death.
The most amazing thing about everything that happened was that I did not want to return to life. It was easy for me, there were no worries. But they persistently tried to return me to the body. You know, it's like when the alarm goes off, but you really don't want to get up. You switch it over and over and it rings again and again trying to wake you up. And you understand that you need to get up. Same here. The doctors managed to bring me back to life, although I did not want to. Of course, now I am glad that I have “resurrected”.
"I didn't see anything"
And here is another motorcyclist who claims to have seen absolutely nothing when he had an accident and his pulse stopped for two minutes.
I just felt empty. There was no light, no visions. Just NOTHING. And then I seemed to emerge from this void: it turned out that a friend managed to make my heart beat again.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences N.P. Bekhtereva notes about autoscopic perceptions that occur in a state of clinical death and in stressful situations: but from the "name" of the soul that has separated from the body. But the body does not react, it is clinically dead, it has lost contact with the person himself for some time! .. "
1975, April 12, morning - Martha became ill with her heart. When the ambulance took her to the hospital, Marta was no longer breathing, and the doctor accompanying her could not feel her pulse. She was in a state of clinical death. Later, Martha said that she witnessed the entire procedure of her resurrection, watching the actions of doctors from a certain point outside her body. However, Martha's story had another peculiarity. She was very worried about how her sick mother would take the news of her death. And just as Martha had time to think about her mother, she immediately saw her sitting in an armchair next to the bed in her house.
“I was in the intensive care unit, and at the same time I was with my mother in the bedroom. It was amazing to be in two places at the same time, and even in such a remote place from one another, but space seemed to be a meaningless concept ... I, being in my new body, sat on the edge of her bed and said: “ Mom, I had a heart attack, I could die, but I don't want you to worry. I don't mind dying."
However, she did not look at me. Apparently she didn't hear me. “Mom,” I kept whispering, “it’s me, Martha. I need to talk to you." I tried to get her attention, but then the focus of my mind returned to the intensive care unit. And I was back in my body."
Later, when she came to herself, Marta saw her husband, daughter and brother, who had flown in from another city, by her bed. As it turned out, his mother called his brother. She had a strange feeling that something had happened to Martha, and she asked her son to find out what was the matter. Calling, he found out what happened, and the first plane flew to his sister.
Was Martha really able to travel without a physical body a distance equal to two-thirds of the length of America and communicate with her mother? The mother said that she felt something, i.e. something was wrong with her daughter, but she could not understand what it was, and she could not imagine how she knew about it.
Martov's story can be considered a rare, but not the only case. Martha, in a certain sense, managed to get in touch with her mother and convey to her "a sense of unease." But most fail to do so. However, observations of the actions of doctors, relatives, including those who are at a certain distance from the operating room, are amazing.
Once a woman was operated on. In principle, she had no reason to die from the operation. She did not even warn her mother and daughter about the operation, deciding to inform them about everything later. However, clinical death occurred during the operation. The woman was brought back to life, and she did not know anything about her short-term death. And, having come to her senses, she told about the amazing “dream”.
She, Lyudmila, dreamed that she had left her body, was somewhere above, saw her body lying on the operating table, doctors around her and realized that she most likely died. It became scary for the mother and daughter. Thinking about her family, she suddenly found herself at home. She saw that her daughter was trying on a blue polka-dot dress in front of the mirror. A neighbor came in and said: "Lyusenka would have liked it." Lyusenka is she, who is here and invisible. Everything is calm, peaceful at home - and here she is again in the operating room.
The doctor, to whom she told about the amazing "dream", offered to go to her house, to calm the family. The surprise of the mother and daughter knew no bounds when she told about the neighbor and about the blue dress with polka dots, which they prepared as a surprise for Lyusenka.
In "Arguments and Facts" for 1998, a small note by Lugankov "Dying is not at all scary" was published. He wrote that in 1983 he was tested with a suit for astronauts. With the help of special equipment, blood was “sucked” from the head into the legs, thereby simulating the effect of weightlessness. The medics fastened his “space suit” on him and turned on the pump. And either they forgot about it, or the automation failed - but the pumping continued more than necessary.
“At some point, I realized that I was losing consciousness. I tried to call for help - only a wheeze escaped from my throat. But then the pain stopped. Warmth spread through my body (which body?) and I felt extraordinary bliss. Scenes from childhood appeared before my eyes. I saw the village guys with whom I ran to the river to catch crayfish, my grandfather, a front-line soldier, the deceased neighbors ...
Then I noticed how the doctors with confused faces bent over me, someone began to massage the chest. Through the sweet veil, I suddenly felt the disgusting smell of ammonia and ... woke up. The doctor, of course, did not believe my story. But I don’t care if he didn’t believe me - now I know what cardiac arrest is and that dying is not so scary. ”
The story of the American Brinkley, who was in a state of clinical death twice, is very curious. Over the past few years, he has spoken about his two post-mortem experiences to millions of people around the world. At the invitation of Yeltsin, Brinkley (together with Dr. Moody) also appeared on Russian television and told millions of Russians about his experiences and visions.
1975 - he was struck by lightning. Doctors did everything possible to save him, but ... he died. Brinkley's first trip to the Subtle World is amazing. He not only saw luminous Beings and crystal castles there. He saw the future of mankind there for several decades to come.
After they managed to save him and he recovered, he discovered that he had the ability to read other people's thoughts, and touching a person with his hand, he immediately sees, as he himself says, "home cinema". If the person he touched was gloomy, then Brinkley saw "like in a movie" scenes that explained the reason for the gloomy mood of the person.
Many of their people, upon their return from the Subtle World, discovered in themselves parapsychological abilities. Scientists became interested in the parapsychological phenomena of the “returned from the other world”. 1992 - Dr. Melvin Morse published the results of his experiments with Brinkley in the book Transformed by Light. As a result of the study, he found that people who have been on the verge of death, paranormal abilities manifest themselves approximately four times more often than ordinary people.
Here is what, for example, happened to him during the second clinical death:
I burst out of the darkness into bright light into the operating room and saw two surgeons with two assistants who were betting whether I could survive or not. They looked at my chest x-ray while they prepared me for the operation. I saw myself from a position that seemed to be largely above the ceiling, and watched my arm being attached to a shiny steel brace.
My sister smeared my body with brown antiseptic and covered me with a clean sheet. Someone else injected some liquid into my tube. The surgeon then made an incision across my chest with a scalpel and pulled back the skin. The assistant handed him a tool that looked like a small saw, and he hooked it to my rib, and then opened the chest and inserted a spacer inside. Another surgeon cut the skin around my heart.
After that, I was able to directly observe my own heartbeat. I couldn't see anything else as I was in the dark again. I heard the ringing of bells, and then the tunnel opened... At the end of the tunnel I was met by the same Being from Light as the last time. It drew me to Itself, while expanding like an angel spreading its wings. The light of these radiations swallowed me up.”
What a cruel blow and unbearable pain relatives receive when they learn about the death of a loved one. Today, when husbands and sons are dying, it is impossible to find words to reassure wives, parents and children. But maybe the following cases will be at least some consolation for them.
The first case was with Thomas Dowding. His story: “Physical death is nothing!.. You really shouldn't be afraid of it. ... I remember very well how it all happened. I waited in the crook of the trench for my time to take over. It was a wonderful evening, I had no premonition of danger, but suddenly I heard the howl of a shell. There was an explosion somewhere behind. I involuntarily squatted down, but it was too late. Something hit so hard and hard - in the back of the head. I fell while falling, did not notice even for a moment any loss of consciousness, found myself outside of myself! You see how simply I tell it so that you can understand it better.
After 5 seconds, I stood next to my body and helped two of my comrades carry it along the trench to the dressing room. They thought that I was just unconscious, but alive… They put my body on a stretcher. I always wanted to know when I would be inside the body again.
I'll tell you what I felt. It was like I ran hard and for a long time until I got wet, lost my breath and took off my clothes. This clothing was my wounded body: it seemed that if I didn’t throw it off, then I could suffocate ... My body was taken first to the dressing room, and then to the morgue. I stood next to my body all night, but I didn’t think about anything, I just looked at it. Then I lost consciousness and fell fast asleep.
This incident happened to US Army officer Tommy Clack in 1969 in South Vietnam.
He stepped on a mine. First he was thrown into the air, then thrown to the ground. For a moment Tommy managed to sit up and saw that he was missing his left arm and left leg. Clack rolled over on his back and thought he was dying. The light faded, all sensations disappeared, there was no pain. Some time later, Tommy woke up. He hovered in the air and looked at his body. The soldiers put his mangled body on a stretcher, covered him up and carried him to the helicopter. Clack, watching from above, realized that he was believed to be dead. And at that moment he realized that he had actually died.
Accompanying his body to the field hospital, Tommy felt peaceful, even happy. He calmly watched as his bloody clothes were cut, and suddenly he was back on the battlefield. All 13 guys killed during the day were here. Clack did not see their thin bodies, but somehow felt that they were near, communicated with them, but also in an unknown way.
The soldiers were happy in the New World and tried to persuade him to stay. Tommy felt happy and at ease. He did not see himself, felt himself (in his words) just a form, felt almost one pure thought. Bright light poured from all sides. Suddenly, Tommy found himself back in the hospital, in the operating room. He was operated on. The doctors were talking to each other about something. Clack immediately returned to his body.
Not! Not everything is so simple in our material world! And a man killed in a war does not die! He's leaving! He leaves for a clean, bright world, where he is much better than his relatives and friends who remained on Earth.
Reflecting on his encounters with Beings from non-ordinary reality, Whitley Strieber wrote: “I get the impression that the material world is only a special case of a larger context, and reality unfolds mainly in a non-physical way ... I think that the Luminous Beings are, as it were, play the role of midwives when we appear in the Subtle World. The Beings we observe may be individuals of a higher evolutionary order…”.
But the journey into the Subtle World does not always seem to be a "beautiful walk" for a person. Doctors noted that some people have hellish visions.
Vision of an American from Roy Island. Her doctor said: "When she came to, she said, 'I thought I was dead and ended up in hell.' After I was able to calm her down, she told me about her stay in hell, about how the devil wanted to take her away. The story was intertwined with listing her sins and outlining what people think of her. Her fear increased, and the nurses were having difficulty keeping her in a supine position. She became almost insane. She had a long-standing sense of guilt, perhaps due to extramarital affairs that ended in the birth of illegitimate children. The patient was oppressed by the fact that her sister died from the same disease. She believed that God was punishing her for her sins.” Feelings of loneliness and fear were sometimes recalled from the moment when a person felt drawn into an area of darkness or vacuum during near-death experiences. Shortly after a nephrectomy (surgical removal of a kidney) at the University of Florida in 1976, a 23-year-old college student collapsed due to an unexpected postoperative complication. In the first parts of her near-death experiences: “There was total blackness around. If you move very fast, you can feel the walls moving towards you… I felt alone and a little scared.” A similar darkness enveloped the 56-year-old man and “frightened” him: total darkness… It was a very dark place, and I didn’t know where I was, what I was doing there, or what was going on, and I was scared.”
True, such cases are rare. But even if a few had a vision of hell, this suggests that death is not a deliverance for everyone. It is the way of life of a person, his thoughts, desires, actions that determine where a person will end up after death.
There are a lot of facts about the exit of the soul from the body in stressful situations and in clinical death! .. But for a long time there was not enough objective scientific verification.
Does this, as scientists say, phenomenon of continuation of life after the death of the physical body really exist?
Such a check was carried out by carefully comparing the facts indicated by patients with real events, and empirically, using the necessary equipment.
One of the first such evidence was received by the American doctor Michael Sabom, who began research as an opponent of his compatriot Dr. Moody, and completed them as a like-minded person and assistant.
In order to refute the “crazy” idea about life after death, Seibom organized verification observations and confirmed, and in fact proved that a person does not cease to exist after death, retaining the ability to see, hear and feel.
Dr. Michael Sabom is Professor of Medicine at Emory University (America). He has vast practical experience in resuscitation. His book Memories of Death was published in 1981. Dr. Sabom confirmed what other researchers have written about. But the main thing is not this. He conducted a series of studies, comparing the stories of his patients who experienced temporary death with what actually happened at the time when they were in a state of clinical death with what was available for objective verification.
Dr. Sabom checked whether the stories of the patients coincided with what was actually happening in the material world at that time. Were the medical devices and methods of resuscitation used, which were described by people who were at that time on the verge of life and death? Did the things that the dead saw and described actually happen in other rooms?
Sabom collected and published 116 cases. All of them were carefully checked by him personally. He drew up accurate protocols, taking into account the place, time, participants, spoken words, etc. For his observations, he selected only mentally healthy and balanced people.
Here are some examples from Dr. Sabom's posts.
Dr. Sabom's patient was clinically dead during the operation. He was covered with surgical sheets and physically could not see or hear anything. He later described his experiences. He saw in detail the operation on his own heart, and what he told was completely consistent with what actually happened.
“I must have fallen asleep. I don't remember how they moved me from this room to the operating room. And then suddenly I saw that the room was lit, but not as brightly as I expected. My consciousness returned… but they had already done something to me… My head and whole body were covered with sheets… and then I suddenly began to see what was happening…
I was a couple of feet above my head… I saw two doctors… they were sawing my breast bone… I could draw you a saw and a thing that they used to spread the ribs… It was wrapped all around and was of good steel… a lot of tools… the doctors were called with their clamps… I was surprised, I thought there would be a lot of blood, but there was very little of it… and the heart is not what I thought. It is large, larger at the top and narrower at the bottom, like the continent of Africa. The top is pink and yellow. Even creepy. And one part was darker than the rest, instead of everything being the same color...
The doctor was on the left side, he cut off pieces from my heart and twirled them this way and that and looked at them for a long time ... and they had a big argument whether to do a bypass or not.
And they decided not to do it ... All the doctors, except for one, had green covers on their shoes, and this weirdo was in white shoes covered with blood ... It was strange and, in my opinion, unhygienic ... "
The course of the operation described by the patient coincided with the entries in the operating log made by a different style.
And here is the feeling of sadness in the descriptions of near-death experiences when they "saw" the efforts of others to resurrect their lifeless physical body. A 37-year-old Florida housewife recalled an episode of encephalitis, or a brain infection, when she was 4 years old, during which she was unconscious and lifeless. She remembered "looking down" at her mother from a point near the ceiling with these feelings:
The greatest thing I remember was that I felt so sad that there was no way I could let her know that I was okay. Somehow I knew I was fine, but I didn't know how to tell her. I was just looking… And there was a very quiet, peaceful feeling… In fact, it was a good feeling.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by a 46-year-old north Georgia man as he recounted his vision during a cardiac arrest in January 1978: “I felt bad because my wife was crying and seemed helpless, and I couldn’t help . You know. But it was nice. It doesn't hurt.” Sadness is mentioned by a 73-year-old French teacher from Florida when she talked about her near-death experience (NDE) during a severe infectious illness and grand mal seizures at the age of 15:
I split up and sat much higher up there, watching my own convulsions, and my mother and my maid were screaming and yelling because they thought I was dead. I felt so sorry for both them and my body… Only deep, deep sadness. I could still feel sadness. But I felt that I was free there, and there was no reason to suffer. I had no pain and I was completely free."
Another happy experience, one woman was cut short by feelings of remorse over having to leave her children during a post-operative complication that left her on the verge of death and physical unconsciousness: “Yes, yes, I was happy until the time I remembered the children . Until then, I was happy that I was dying. I was really, really happy. It was precisely a jubilant, cheerful feeling. "Interesting newspaper"
Survivors of clinical death say that they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, said goodbye to relatives, looked at their body from the side and experienced the feeling of flying. Scientists cannot understand this, because the brain almost completely stops its work in this state shortly after the heart stops. It follows that in a state of clinical death, a person, in principle, cannot feel or experience anything. But people feel. Collected stories of people who survived clinical death. Names have been changed.
Novel
A few years ago I was diagnosed with hypertension and admitted to the hospital. The treatment was murky and consisted of injections, systems and various tests, but there was not much to do in the afternoon. There were two of us in a four-bed ward, doctors say that in summer there are usually fewer patients. I met a colleague in misfortune, and it turned out that we have a lot in common: we are almost the same age, we both love to pick electronics, I am a manager, and he is a supplier - in general, there was something to talk about.
The trouble came suddenly. As he later told me: “You spoke, then fell silent, your eyes were glassy, took 3-4 steps and fell.” I woke up three days later in intensive care. What do I remember? Never mind! Nothing at all! I woke up, very surprised: pipes everywhere, beeping something. I was told that I was lucky that everything was in the hospital, my heart did not beat for about three minutes. I recovered quickly - in a month. I live a normal life and take care of my health. But I saw no angels, no tunnel, no light. Nothing at all. My personal conclusion: it's all lies. He died and there is nothing more.
Anna
- My clinical death occurred during pregnancy on January 8, 1989. Around 10:00 pm, I began to bleed profusely. There was no pain, only severe weakness and chills. I realized that I was dying.
In the operating room, various devices were connected to me, and the anesthesiologist began to read their testimony aloud. Soon I began to suffocate, and I heard the words of the doctor: “I am losing contact with the patient, I don’t feel her pulse, I need to save the child.” The voices of those around him began to fade, their faces blurred, then darkness fell.
I found myself back in the operating room. But now I feel good, easy. Doctors fussed around the body lying on the table. Approached him. It was me lying. My split shocked me. She could even float in the air. I swam to the window. It was dark outside, and suddenly panic seized me, I felt that I must certainly attract the attention of doctors. I began to scream that I had already recovered and that there was nothing more to be done with me - with that one. But they didn't see or hear me. I was tired from the tension and, having risen higher, hung in the air.
A shining white beam appeared under the ceiling. He descended to me, not blind and not burning. I realized that the ray was calling to itself, promising liberation from isolation. Without thinking, she walked towards him.
I moved along the beam, as if to the top of an invisible mountain, feeling completely safe. Having reached the top, I saw a wonderful country, a harmony of bright and at the same time almost transparent colors that sparkled around. It cannot be described in words. I looked around with all my eyes, and everything that was around filled me with such admiration that I shouted: “God, what a beauty! I have to write all of this." I was seized with a burning desire to return to my former reality and display in the pictures everything that I saw here.
Thinking about it, I found myself back in the operating room. But this time she looked at her as if from the side, as if at the screen of a cinema. And the movie looked black and white. The contrast with the colorful landscapes of the wonderful country was striking, and I decided to go there again. The feeling of charm and admiration did not pass. And every now and then the question arose in my head: “So am I alive or not?” And I also feared that if I went too far into this unknown world, there would be no return. And at the same time, I really did not want to part with such a miracle.
We were approaching a huge cloud of pink mist, I wanted to be inside it. But the Spirit stopped me. "Don't fly there, it's dangerous!" he warned. I suddenly became anxious, I felt some kind of threat and decided to return to my body. And found myself in a long dark tunnel. She flew over it alone, the Most Luminous Spirit was no longer around.
I opened my eyes. I saw doctors, a room with beds. I was on one of them. There were four people dressed in white around me. Raising my head, I asked, “Where am I? And where is that beautiful country?
The doctors looked at each other, one smiled and stroked my head. I felt ashamed for my question, because they probably thought that I was not all right with my head.
So I survived clinical death and being out of my own body. Now I know that those who have gone through this are not mentally ill, but normal people. Without standing out from the rest, they returned "from there", having learned such feelings and experiences that do not fit into generally accepted concepts and ideas. And I also know that during that journey I acquired more knowledge, comprehended and understood more than in my entire previous life.
Artem
- I did not see my body from the side at the time of death. And I'm very sorry about that.
At first there was just a sharp refracting light, after seconds it disappeared. It was impossible to breathe, I panicked. I realized that I was dead. There was no appeasement. Only panic. Then the need to breathe seemed to disappear, and this panic began to pass. After that, some strange memories began of what seemed to be before, but slightly modified. Something like feeling like it was, but not quite with you. It was like I was flying down some space and watching slides. All this caused a deja vu effect.
In the end, the feeling of being unable to breathe returned again, something was squeezing my throat. Then I started to feel like I was expanding. After he opened his eyes, something was inserted into his mouth, resuscitators fussed. I was very sick, my head hurt. The sensation of revival was extremely unpleasant. In a state of clinical death was about 6 minutes 14 seconds. He didn’t seem to become an idiot, he didn’t discover any additional abilities, but on the contrary, he temporarily lost walking and normal breathing, as well as the ability to ride a bem, then he restored all this for a long time.
Alexander
- I experienced a state of clinical death when I studied at the Ryazan Airborne School. My platoon participated in reconnaissance group competitions. This is a 3-day marathon for survival with extreme physical exertion, which ends with a 10-kilometer march in full gear. I approached this last stage not in the best shape: on the eve I cut my foot with some kind of snag while crossing the river, we were constantly on the move, my leg hurt a lot, the bandage flew off, the bleeding resumed, I was in a fever. But I ran almost all 10 km, and I still don’t understand how I did it, and I don’t remember it well. A few hundred meters before the finish line, I passed out, and my comrades brought me there in their arms (by the way, participation in the competition was credited to me).
The doctor diagnosed "acute heart failure" and began to revive me. I have the following memories of the period when I was in a state of clinical death: I not only heard what others were saying, but also watched what was happening from the sidelines. I saw how something was injected into my heart, I saw how a defibrillator was used to revive me. And in my mind, the picture was like this: my body and doctors are on the stadium field, and my relatives are sitting in the stands and watching what is happening. In addition, it seemed to me that I could control the resuscitation process. There was a moment when I got tired of lying around, and I immediately heard the doctor say that I had a pulse. Then I thought: now there will be a general formation, everyone will tense up, but I deceived everyone and I can lie down - and the doctor shouted that my heart had stopped again. Finally I decided to return. I will add that I did not feel fear when I watched how I was revived, and in general, I did not treat this situation as a matter of life and death. It seemed to me that everything is in order, life goes on as usual.
Willy
During the fighting in Afghanistan, Willy Melnikov's platoon came under mortar fire. He was one of thirty who survived, but was seriously shell-shocked. He was unconscious for 25 minutes, his heart did not work for about eight minutes. What worlds did he visit? What did you feel? Willy Melnikov did not see any angels and devils. Everything was so fantastic that it is difficult to describe.
Willy Melnikov: “I moved in the depths of some bottomless-endless essence, matter, comparable to Stanislav Lem's Solaris. And inside this Solaris I moved, keeping myself as such, but at the same time I felt myself a part of it all. And I heard some languages that I had never heard before. Not that they were heard, came from there - they lived there, and I had the opportunity to breathe them.
He continued his journey and reached a mound of unimaginable height. Behind it stretched a space of indescribable depth. There was a great temptation to break down, but Willy resisted. Here he met strange creatures that constantly changed.
“It was a kind of symbiosis of plant, animal, architectural and, perhaps, some other field life form. And benevolence, and friendliness, such a kind invitation that came from these creatures.
Like many other people who found themselves in a state of clinical death, Willy Melnikov did not want to return. However, upon returning, the 23-year-old boy realized that he had become a different person.
Willy Melnikov today speaks 140 languages, including those that have disappeared. Before he experienced clinical death, he knew seven. He did not become a polyglot overnight. He admits that he always liked to study foreign speech. But he was very surprised when, in the first post-war years, he inexplicably remembered five dead languages.
“It is amazing that rather exotic languages of the native inhabitants of the Philippines and the Indians of the Americas “came” to me. But there are two more that I still haven't identified. I can speak, write, think in them, but what they are and where they come from, I still don’t know.”
Clinical death is a condition in which the brain is still alive, but the heart no longer beats. Usually this condition does not last more than ten minutes and is considered reversible.
We found four Kazakhstani women who survived clinical death and found out what it is like.
Anna, 40 years old
Clinical death happened to me due to the inattention and arrogance of the ambulance staff. It all started with a myasthenic crisis that overtook me at home. The medical staff arrived quickly, but they did not want to call intensive care, although my relatives warned me about my breathing problems. When they took me to the car, it turned out that the oxygen tank was empty. I lost consciousness.
It may sound strange, but I have never felt so great - incredible lightness and calmness (The feeling of flying can be caused by ischemia and serotonin production - Note. ed.). I saw the faces of those present in the ward, it certainly did not seem like a figment of the imagination. There was a feeling that I was being held and not allowed to dissolve. When I came to my senses, I was upset that I had to fight the harsh reality again. The doctor solemnly announced: "You are lucky, the brain was not damaged." My clinical death lasted 15 minutes. Recovery took place in the intensive care unit. Two weeks later, she was able to sign papers stating that she did not intend to stay in the medical ward.
After clinical death, there was confidence that the departure of a person is not the end at all. I realized that you need to study regardless of age: after leaving the physical body, the mind will fly after the soul - and now it depends on your efforts how filled and not stupid you will fly further.
When I came to my senses, I was upset that I had to fight the harsh reality again.
Zhibek, 55 years old
The first clinical death occurred after severe bronchitis. My sister called an ambulance when I started to choke. At some point, they inadvertently lifted and blocked the breath completely. I began to shake, because of the anxiety I no longer understood anything, I heard only a loud beating of my heart. I remember that after a few minutes the agony fell into a state of bliss - it became easy and free. All pain and fears are gone. They saved me, but I had to learn to walk again.
The second clinical death occurred a year later due to a reaction to an antibiotic. I was on a ventilator (artificial lung ventilation - Note. ed.) in intensive care: on the first day, nausea began, spots began to appear on the body. On the second day, a new shift of resuscitators decided to put the same drug anyway. They began to drip, instantly became ill, a veil went before my eyes, I could no longer make out the words of the doctor. She noticed that oxygen through the tube did not enter one lung, she began to say something to the nurse. I felt a familiar state of lightness. Then I thought that was it. She looked at the doctor, smiled at her and hung up. I was pumped out again, but this time my whole body ached. Been gone for almost six months.
After these cases, I changed: I no longer make large-scale plans, I try to appreciate life in any of its manifestations. I fell in love with the silence in everything I see, I realized that you need to live here and now.
Since then, a terrible thought has accompanied me - I wish I could go back there.
Malika, 32 years old
Clinical death was provoked by a reaction to lidocaine. I underwent a bronchoscopy study and treated the mucous membrane in the throat. The result is anaphylactic shock.
Within five minutes, resuscitation began right in the doctor's office. At some point, I simply stopped feeling the body, I heard only noisy rapid breathing. In the background, the voices of nurses could be heard: "Hurry, she's leaving." And then silence. First I saw a light, and then a sharp darkness. At the same time, it was a state of bliss, a time of sparkling infinity. The resuscitators managed to save me, after which I had to recover for about two months. She chose not to tell her family about what had happened.
I can not say that life has changed a lot. But she noticed that she began to react more sharply to events, and also write poetry. Since that incident, a terrible thought has accompanied me - if only I could return there, feel that bliss, peace, silence. I try to drive her and move on.
Zinaida, 75 years old
Clinical death occurred in 1997. Then my mother died, I suffered the loss hard. One night I even had to call an ambulance. They gave me an injection of magnesia, I don’t remember anything further. Just the thought "I don't want to die."
I felt that they were trying to help me, giving injections, running around. At some point, it seemed to fly into a pipe with a kaleidoscope: yellow, red, green colors, it became very easy. It didn't last long. When I woke up, the doctor said that I had experienced clinical death. .
After this incident, I began to notice little things. Nature suddenly acquired a special beauty, people became kinder. I looked at the relationship with my husband differently, we were just on the verge of a divorce. We managed to reconcile and ask for forgiveness from each other.
Zhanar Idrisova
resuscitator
Clinical death is a state of the body that occurs after the cessation of cardiac activity and respiration. It lasts from three to five minutes, that is, until irreversible changes occur in the higher parts of the central nervous system. This is a state as close as possible to irreversible biological death.
In the occurrence of clinical death, as well as other terminal states, the main role is played by hypoxia (oxygen starvation of the body). In this case, severe metabolic disorders occur, especially rapidly developing in the brain and with the greatest consequences: the main energy substrate of cells, glucose, disappears, and the reserves of phosphocreatine, glycogen, and ATP are exhausted. Gradually, waste and toxic substances accumulate in the brain tissue. In a state of clinical death, the electrical activity of the brain completely disappears.
Clinical death is a reversible stage of dying. In this state, with external signs of death (absence of heart contractions, spontaneous breathing and any neuro-reflex reactions to external influences), the possibility of restoring the vital functions of the body remains.
According to statistics, about one in ten people who have been in a state of near-death experience have seen something unusual. We will tell the most interesting stories about the afterlife, as well as the opinion of scientists regarding this phenomenon.
Some believe in life after death, and some consider it nonsense. In the borderline state between life and death, people often see something unusual, which they talk about after being saved. This makes people afraid of death, because such stories convince them that there really is another life after it.
History on the verge of fantasy
This story happened to one man in 1997 in Canada, in the city of Calgary. He was hit by a car, but the ambulance drove for quite a long time, because of which the man fell into a state of clinical death for about 2 minutes. This is what he said when he woke up in the hospital:
“I don’t know if it was a dream or some inexplicable journey to the other world. I woke up on the pavement and saw myself being taken away in an ambulance. I ran and yelled for them to stop the car, to wait for me, because I don't want to die. The ambulance drove farther and farther, and then I felt an extraordinary warmth spreading through my body. I was blinded by a bright light. I woke up not immediately, about 10-12 hours later. I will remember this mini-dream for the rest of my life. I think I was dead and running after myself in the ambulance."
Meeting with a long-dead mother
Often people in a state of clinical death see dead relatives. One such case occurred in Spain in 2001.
“I had to do a very important and complex operation on the heart, during which it could stop. I agreed to it, although I had a bad feeling and many doubts.
I remember feeling like I was floating like a bird. Then I saw the light and opened my eyes in my vision. I realized that I couldn't breathe. Next to me was my mother, who died 15 years ago. She held my hand and said in a quiet calm voice: “Breathe, dear. Not now. Still early". Then I calmed down and took a breath, after which the vision ended. The most interesting thing in this story is that my mother died on the same day - April 27th.
Chance meeting on the other side
An interesting story was told by a resident of Australia named Kurt, who fell into a coma after a terrible accident on a high-speed road. During a coma, he experienced a state of clinical death when doctors operated on him. Here's what he saw:
“I was walking along a dark street, where there were no people at all, and then I saw a child in a sick coat. I followed him, but I couldn't keep up, so I quickened my pace and then started running. I strayed some streets and came to the hospital, which I immediately recognized. I went after this child, but he stopped abruptly, and I followed him. After that, he turned to me and said: "Don't follow me, you can't go there." I woke up a day later in a hospital bed, but the image of the boy never left my mind. Two or three months later, I accidentally learned that on that very day a child had died in that hospital. I do not remember his face, but I am one hundred percent sure that I saw him in a dream.
The opinion of scientists about clinical death
The first thing you should pay attention to is the rather high percentage of people who have seen something strange during near-death experiences. 10% is a lot, so scientists in the second half of the 20th century became very interested in studying this effect.
In most cases, people see a bright light, someone feels light, sees dead relatives. Dreams are very vivid, clear and memorable. What seems to patients to be life after death is nothing more than a residual result of our brain work. When we stop breathing and the heart stops beating, the brain is still working for about half a minute, and in a fairly active mode. It is at this time that most people see a bright light.
Of course, some stories are really creepy and creepy, but no one can scientifically explain them. Skeptics say that people are making it up, even though no one has yet tested them with a lie detector. Scientists believe that people in the very period of clinical death are unlikely to see any vivid visions. They believe that these visions come after leaving this state, when the person has not yet fully recovered, but the brain and heart are already working.
Some experts, despite having devoted most of their lives to science and research, believe in such stories and in their special secret meaning. One such scientist is Robert Lanza, who recently tried to provide evidence that death does not exist. Good luck and don't forget to press the buttons and