Have you ever had a near death experience?

When I was giving birth to my third child I remember thinking very clearly how closely this equates to death. Our bodies are doing something that they are going to do, whatever we might do or think. And our only option is to go with the flow as nature does what it will. I remember thinking that in a way it was like dying - nature will have its way and we just have to go with the flow.

I remember my Grandmother telling me the night before she died that she had seen my father who had died aged 47, over a wall. Apparently he had said "Come on Mother".. (My uncle had died aged 39) The next day, she died, and I hope she is with them both , because she adored both her boys

That's lovely Peaseblossom. It doesn't matter what is thought to be the presumed cause of these happy releases its how it feels that matters.

I was with my aunt in hospital. She was the youngest of her brothers and sisters and the last living. She was recovering from a heart operation.

I sat beside her bed talking about nothing when she looked up at the door and said “Oh, I have to go now,” and tried to get out of bed.

I said, You’re in hospital. You can’t go anywhere.”

She said, “Look they’ve all come for me” smiled and died.

I was very close to death after an operation which went rather wrong. After three more ops over the next couple of days, my children were being told to say 'goodbye'to each time they left my bedside in ICU. When I did wake up several days later I had absolutely no memory of anything during the whole of that period. Obviously, I am not worth any sort of near death experience!!!

I have read that the light and tunnel is to do with oxygen deprivation of certain part of the brain - which is why it is so common for people to experience.

I have a terrible fear of serious illness and death and your stories have helped me. Thank you.

I'm open minded on this but it didn't feel as if my grandmother was hallucinating when she chatted to my Auntie Jessie then went with her.

I tried to explain it away as the brain shutting down, too but I think there is a bit more to it than that. I could never explain the clear voice, it wasn’t anyone in the hospital. My mother in law saw her recently deceased brother just before she died and started to talk to him. The people at the hospital tried to explain it away by saying she was hallucinating but I’m not so sure.

Thank you Aveline for your sympathy it is much appreciated. My son died 35 years ago but I still vividly remember it . I’m not afraid to die as I’ll see him again.

My grandma died/nearly died of pneumonia in her twenties. She said that she walked through a tunnel and came out into a beautiful garden. There was small fence with a gate. Her family and friends were on the other side of the fence but told her not to walk through the gate because she had her babies to look after so she turned and walked back. When she came round the doctor told her that they thought they'd lost her.

I was with her when she passed in her seventies. She was talking to my Auntie Jessie who had passed away before I was born and told me to give up my chair so that Auntie Jessie could sit down. So I stood next to an 'empty' chair whilst she chatted to Auntie Jessie. Then is she said it's time for us to go and passed away.

Was it her imagination or had her long passed sister actually come to take her over the other side? I don't know but it seemed real at the time and she genuinely believed it was happening.

I was never too sure about near death experiences and the tunnel of bright lights. I thought it was a chemical reaction in the brain at the point of death where you visualise brightness due to low oxygen levels.
But I did nurse a little girl who was dying from leukaemia many years ago. I was at the bedside with her parents and she started saying about the smiling lady with grey white hair with open arms. She wasn't upset and peacefully died. Her mother told me afterwards that the description was of her own mother who had died before the child was born. She felt comforted that her mother would be there for her little daughter. So strange,that was nearly 50 years ago and I still remember the look on the child's face. I have kept the hope that I will one day meet my parents and brother again on my death.

Wow. Some touching stories here. Some of you have had terrible experiences yet the feeling of calm seems to be felt.
I'm so sorry about your son Twiceasnice but what an incredible consolation in a way.

My husband had a severe brain bleed, he always said that he was very aware that he had a choice of staying alive or ‘going’ as he called it.

Involved in a horrendous car accident( not my fault) trapped in the car and the bonnet on fire I stopped struggling to get out and felt really peaceful knowing I was going to die. The lorry driver who had caused the accident managed to pull me out of the car just before it exploded. Just felt really calm and that everything would be ok where I was going.

The day my son died I felt something wonderful in the room with me and knew they had come to take my son to Heaven and he would be ok . Didn’t stop the grief but helped me so much

Having been in a serious RTA, when a container lorry hit the side of the car at forty miles an hour, driver killed, I was thrown through the windscreen with life threatening injuries.
Losing four pints of blood as I lay unconscious on the road, I did indeed see a lovely light at the end of a tunnel, for all the world I wanted to go to it - however a paramedic shouting to his colleague saying ' I think she's a goner ' soon brought me back to life, I did not want to come back from the tunnel, but I was told that I shouted back to the paramedic 'I'm not dead'.

I feel sure that was a near death experience, and have no fear of death now.

I havn't had one but I know two people who have. They both reevaluated their lives as a result. One cancelled his engagement and the other got divorced.

I went into septic shock almost 3 years ago and my family were told to expect the worst. I remember being in resus and I was looking down on myself as loads of people were working on me and my family were sitting there crying. Later I remember trying to take my oxygen mask off when I was icu and a nurse telling me I must keep it on. My last thought was this the end for me as I drifted down a white tunnel. No voices or anything until I woke up over the worst, 48 hours later. I know am lucky to be here and I am no longer afraid of dying

Yes, but I didn’t know I was near death at the time. Mr. B was told I wasn’t expected to still be alive the following morning. WhenI was, they upped the estimate to 48 hours. After that they moved me into a recovery room, then rehab and here we are.

During all this I was floating along happily on a morphine haze, thinking I was being held in my father’s arms while he told me I would be alright. He had been dead for 7 years.

I've not worried about it since my Gran talked of her feeling like she was walking towards a beautiful garden filled with everyone she wanted to see again. She was most disgruntled to be revived.

My mum told the same story about the tunnel with a light at the end, and the feeling of not wanting to go back, she spoke of the scent of flowers and a floaty totally relaxed feeling.
If death is as lovely as she described it we have nothing to worry about.
I do hope you're right.

I was living on a 1930’s yacht in Stornaway harbour many years ago and had sailed to the Isle of Skye in a friends boat overnight to give a friend a lift there to pick up another boat. On the way back the following night there was just two of us and my friend decided to have a sleep. I was exhausted having been up for 2 nights. I brought the boat into Stornaway harbour, we tied up and I went to get back to my own boat in the dark. The boat tied up next to the harbour which I had to cross over to get to my own was pointed at both ends (a fact which I had forgotten) I stepped into what I thought was solid boat and went straight into the water knocking myself out in the process. I came to at the bottom of the harbour and really thought I had died and was floating through the clouds to heaven. It was the most wonderfully peaceful feeling which I will never forget.
However I was very fortunate and floated up to the surface where I came to and screamed. A couple of guys passing grabbed me by the wrists and heaved me out. I still have the scar in my chin where I hit the boat and count myself very lucky to be alive.

I was in a serious road crash 17 yrs ago I was trapped in my car and for a few minutes after the crash when all was silent I did think my end had come, all I thought about were my family no light at the end of a tunnel.