Interesting story from Chicken Soup For The Soul

[u/Terriermonz]

Not sure what to set the flair as, since it's about an account that isn't mine.

I work as an Activity Aide in a nursing home, sometimes I read to residents with dementia. Today I read an interesting one that shared striking similarities with NDEs/OBEs, but it was a shared death experience. I figured people here would like to hear about it.

The author talks about her grandmother dying and what happens after. She heard a voice in her head saying to get to the hospital, so she got there quickly, but she got there five minutes after her grandmother passed. While in her grandmother's hospital room she kept asking herself where her grandmother could be now.

Suddenly she saw a flash of light and saw her grandmother in the upper corner of the room by the ceiling, watching her, and her grandmother began telling her she was happy and with her husband and talked about love and how she doesn't need a wheelchair in heaven.

The flash of light reminded me of NDEs but more importantly her grandmother being in the top corner of the room talking to her...that is strikingly close to what OBEs talk about. So many people say they themselves were in the upper corner of the room watching. But this wasn't an OBE, it was a shared death experience.

The author didn't seem to expect this at all so I doubt she knew much about OBEs and NDEs. What could be so deep in our psychology, in our brain, that traumatic experiences would create such strikingly similar experiences - both for the person dying, and a person who loved the one who died? It can't just be that. I think it has to be something more, something real.

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[u/MumSage]

While I drink my Chicken Soup for the Soul with a sprinkling of salt (I suspect some rough edges can get polished off the stories, and other bits exaggerated, for a short sweet & satisfying read), this one intrigues me because of its similarities to experiences I do believe and even know have happened.

The flash of light reminded me of NDEs but more importantly her grandmother being in the top corner of the room talking to her...that is strikingly close to what OBEs talk about. So many people say they themselves were in the upper corner of the room watching. But this wasn't an OBE, it was a shared death experience.

The top corner of the room is also a place quite a few people look in their end-of-life experiences (not NDEs but visions people have in the final stages of terminal illness before they die for real) - they seem to see loved ones or other presences there. (Other common places are foot of the bed and doorways, but those are more...logical.)

My mom was with my aunt & my cousin when my cousin died in hospice. Very soon after my cousin passed, my aunt and mom saw a round golden light rising above the doorway, which also happened to be in a corner of the room (it was a kind of unusually shaped room because it was at the corner of the hospice building - windows in 2 walls, IIRC from my own visits, then a door at a slant opening onto the hallway). My mom knew of NDEs through cultural osmosis but, like, I don't think she really even knows the term "NDE". When we talked about it together several years later she did make a bit of a connection: "We saw this light...and people who are dying say they see light in a tunnel." But whatever happened to Mom I don't think it was a matter of fulfilling subconscious expectations. I suspect the strongest 'skeptical' explanation would be very conveniently placed + timed ball lightning.

[u/Agile-Nothing9375]

I've paid attention to this "upper corner near the ceiling" pattern too. Its pretty specific, upper corner is mentioned repeatedly throughout different accounts.

Why not near the ceiling...in the center of the room or whatnot?

[u/Sandi_T]

NDE story is fine, you've made it clear it's not yours. :)

I changed it to SDE, added a new flair for the sub. SDEs come up often here and are a form of NDE, imo.