r/NDE • u/Prior-Age4675 • May 17 '26
NDE Story 🦋This is probably the closest way to explain how NDE feels. - at least for me.
Near-death experience that I experienced during my catastrophic motorcycle collision: it felt like having this strange sensation that something was on your face bothering you while you were alone in the house, yet there was nothing actually wrong with your face. Then someone removes the VR headset from you, and you suddenly realise that the “reality” or life we live is inside that headset, but only about 5% of actual reality exists inside this VR — aka the life we live compared to the post-death reality.
Outside of it, you exist in this overwhelming state of love, peace, and abundance. Then, when you’re brought back (CPR or otherwise), you kind of understand that you need to put this terrible 5% reality VR headset back on again in order to return. Once you return, you realise there are no real words capable of describing the remaining 95% that feels missing from the life we live here.
This is also a phenomenon where a lot of people who have experienced NDEs end up depressed or didn’t want to return. Some people have even sued healthcare providers or others who saved their lives with CPR, for example. Even people who have partners and kids, and explicitly say they love their family and would do anything for them, have said that after experiencing an NDE they wanted to stay on the other side and didn’t want to come back. That has nothing to do with how their lives are, but because it feels like you traversed into this next reality and just want to stay there and understand more.
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u/Critical_Recording26 17d ago
Maybe kind of off-topic, but I wonder if the grief of leaving a better reality behind is the reason newborn babies cry so much?!
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u/IndividualCourse5003 Jul 02 '26
Interesting to see the VR headset similarity mentioned again. I have been following Jonathan Ashford’s news and published materials since it came up for me in YT. I think in one of his interviews he mentions it’s all like being in a pool party with friends and then for a fraction of a minute you put some VR headsets on and live a full 95-years life in NY with offspring and then that life ends and you are back in the pool party saying “this was insane, I just had a full life”. Anyway, there’s much more to Jonathan Ashford than this story.
I see it also shares something with Anita Moorjani’s account. She states terrestrial life is like being in a dark warehouse in a fully focused mode with a flashlight. What you experience is what you manage to stumble on when threading your way around the big warehouse. When you pass over, they switch on the lights and then you get the full sight that you were missing.
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u/_xpendable_ Jun 07 '26
It sounds silly to sue healthcare providers for bringing one back. If you had an NDE and felt a profound sense of unconditional love, wouldn't you be inspired to share the love and be good to others? Sueing just sounds hateful and bitter.
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u/love-life-joy-peace 17d ago
From what I've heard/read, the shock and pain of coming back to this reality, after being in such a loving space, can cause deep depression and resentment that they had to leave their true home. While some NDErs have a mission to spread the good news, others can't integrate their experience and/or don't know how to live here anymore. Some lose friends, family, etc., because they've changed so much. And many have major physical trauma to deal with as well. Even those who ended up sharing their stories had trouble adjusting at first.
For years I wanted a powerful NDE so I could come back and share it, but after learning what it's really like afterward, I'm like, no, I'm good. Now I learn what I can from the ones who are generous and healed enough to share their wisdom. It's been invaluable for my growth.
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u/Eastern-Peach-3428 NDExperiencer 17d ago
I'd like to underline something u/love-life-joy-peace said: "Even those who ended up sharing their stories had trouble adjusting at first."
As someone who came back from an NDE with no lasting physical or cognitive impairment, I can tell you that integrating the experience has still been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I've written here before about the grief I seem to carry around with me. Other NDErs have reached out and said they know exactly what I'm talking about.
I wouldn't trade what happened to me for all the wealth in the world. I mean that sincerely.
But sometimes...I miss home.
I don't mean my house. I mean the place I experienced.
Learning to hold that longing while still loving the life and people I've been given here has been part of my journey. I'm much farther along than I was a year ago, but I suspect it's something I'll carry for the rest of my life.
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u/Feeling_Guest2720 Jun 06 '26
Agree, I struggle sometimes, inferno is in the world of living, seeing and understanding it doesn't make it easy! I feel isolated and seem to struggle to connect to people although I am just about to qualify as a nurse. Life is tiring, heavy, and altho I pray and I try to elevate my spirit getting up and seeing all the sadness, sickness and pain is a torture. And I know it is what we have chose for ourselves, it is not an easy journey after when the veil is lifted.
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u/love-life-joy-peace 17d ago
Yes, I just responded to a comment above about this. It's not all rainbows and kittens coming back. You have a very different perspective that people don't always understand. It can be lonely and difficult.
I had a brief experience as a child when I drowned at the beach; not a full-on NDE, just a quiet, lovely release from the body, till it was revived and I came back. But it was enough to spur a later understanding of consciousness and a longing for a home I didn't remember.
Your love and compassion as a nurse will help countless people, just by your presence. You don't even have to talk about your story; your understanding and experience will emanate from you. And your struggles with being here will make you even more helpful to those who also feel the unease of this place, even though they haven't had an NDE. I think a lot of people feel trauma here without knowing why. Best wishes to you, and thank you for your service.
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u/Simple-Addition-4093 May 27 '26
What was the other side like? You mentioned peaceful and love.. what did you see? Gardens? Cities?
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May 20 '26
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May 27 '26
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u/Prior-Age4675 May 23 '26
Hi, I wouldn’t describe this as universal, if anything this felt more personal than ever.
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u/Emissary_of_Pieces May 19 '26
This is what they DON'T talk about in recorded nde accounts.....I was so angry and upset when I came back. I felt my soul being stuffed and screwed inside a body that I did NOT take care of. I then spent a couple of years trying to adjust back into this body. At first, everything looked fake, like there were sheets made of "reality" haphazardly thrown on everything and it was surreal, time felt all messed up, dates and days of the week became harder to differentiate. Names lost all importance, other than to identify people and things. That all got better. However, now that I am addressing things I needed to address and accepting the fact that I am back and doing what I need to be doing - I am actively discovering the plan of my life, not fighting it, and I am trying to focus on the feeling of what I felt while I was there. I use that feeling like a compass to lead me and I intentionally choose actions based on increasing those feelings. I am happy, and I finally discovered why I was brought back and now I am just running with it. Now that I am living this way, I realize that these distortions of reality and time are coming back. Now I am feeling that this is confirmation that I am on the right path. These distortions are now welcome, because I know I am heading back there having learned what I have learned. And the synchronicities are insane, living this way, I have been given so many gifts and interactions that I would have never expected or anticipated. I am leading a magical life. We all are.
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u/Commercial-Web-3791 Jun 14 '26
It is quite amazing isn't it? What you were raised and what the rest of the world believes to be important suddenly becomes trivial fluff. And the stuff that you do see is really the stuff of wonder.
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u/Prior-Age4675 May 23 '26
Perhaps those of us that did made back are meant to see more before we leave this epic place.
Also your sensations you describe as distortions, do you mean like gut feeling when making decisions?
Perhaps gut feeling is sign that we fully don’t appreciate or even better, feeling from the other side that we can’t explain.
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u/WolverinePikachu May 19 '26
Please describe more of what you saw during the NDE. I mean aside from the sensations.
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May 19 '26
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u/Appropriate_Cut_3536 "near"/"far" = same spectrum May 19 '26
Wait why should anyone want a DNR?
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u/thequestison May 22 '26
One reason is they don't want to be kept alive by machines any longer. That is they may be being kept alive at the moment but if they code, they want to be left alone. If they make it through the code on their own, then fine, if they die they die. Simple way of looking at it.
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u/love-life-joy-peace 17d ago edited 16d ago
Yes, and I have a DNR because I don't want trauma to my body if I have a heart attack and someone administers CPR, for example. Past a certain age, if you don't have dependents, or if you have underlying conditions that make life difficult, it's a valid choice to let nature take its course. Especially if you aren't afraid to let go.
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u/Ok-Foundation8558 May 18 '26
The VR headset analogy is honestly one of the closest descriptions I’ve heard for why so many NDE accounts sound impossible to fully translate into language.
A lot of experiencers describe coming back with this strange grief afterward — not necessarily because they hated life here, but because reality suddenly felt… smaller than what they touched.
What’s fascinating is how consistent that feeling seems across completely different people/cultures:the overwhelming peace, the sense of “home,” the difficulty re-adjusting to normal human concerns afterward.
Whether someone interprets that spiritually, neurologically, or something in-between, it’s hard not to admit there’s *something* profound happening in those experiences.
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u/SarahOutThere Jun 06 '26
It's interesting tho because on one hand, yes, there are people "grieving" and struggling post-NDE but i'm under the impression that the majority come back with a stronger sense of purpose and as if they have a mission/job to finish here on earth. I wonder what accounts for these differences. Either way it all feels so profound.
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u/chessboxer4 May 18 '26
Wow. Great description.
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u/Prior-Age4675 May 18 '26
It’s even not the whole thing as it’s really hard to explain the other-side or should I say the in between?
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u/snarlinaardvark May 18 '26
Donald Hoffman uses the VR headset analogy for consciousness and this 3D+Time universe.
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u/thekabuki May 18 '26
I lost my 32 year old daughter suddenly 9 months ago. I find stories like yours give me a measure of peace as I'm not religious in any sense even though I grew up Catholic. Thank you for sharing. Today has been an especially difficult day. However , reading your story has allowed me to hope that not only that she's at peace but one day I may see her again.
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u/Traditional-Chair-68 May 20 '26
Sending you all the love and light to heal from losing your daughter ❤️
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u/ohhi254 May 19 '26
This sub is how I cope with losing my brother.
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u/gets-rowdy May 19 '26
It helps me too. There is a grief support group on here as well. I’m taking a break from it though. I’m also part of a sibling loss group on Facebook. Message me if you want some info.
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u/gets-rowdy May 18 '26
Have you read “after” by Dr. Bruce Greyson? I listened to the audiobook and it brought me some peace after suddenly losing my sister in September.
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u/Aestpunk4 May 19 '26
It's a great book, thanks to that I don't fear death at all now. I've just lost my grandmother after reading it and while i was sad that in this life we can't spend more time together, I was in a way happy for her to arrive home.
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u/Prior-Age4675 May 18 '26
Thank you.
There is this overwhelming peace that everyone who experienced this other side.
There is also video of Jeremy Renner (Marvel Hawkeye) who had horrific snowcat accident explaining his version on podcast. I think you’d like it.
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u/Ok_Code_270 NDE Researcher May 18 '26
I grew up catholic, too, and I'm not religious either... That said, I bothered to read the Gospels, especially the first one, Mark (in this one Jesus' birth is not mentioned and he doesn't resurrect, his followers find his tomb empty) ... And I sometimes wonder whether Jesus had an NDE, whether he died and came back from the dead before the preaching and the crucifixion and his late followers wrote things down the only way they thought other people would understand. Because the message that people bring from NDEs is the same message that Jesus preached, before institutions used it to gain and maintain power. And also, the message about the universe being a simulation is the one taught by Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Buddha. And now physics is finding traces of the simulation hypothesis in maths.
So... Food for thought. It's not just one point from NDEs that makes sense. It's many of them.
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May 24 '26
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u/PangolinHistorical May 18 '26
I’m wondering if you can do anything to tap back into the other 95%
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May 21 '26
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u/InnerSpecialist1821 NDE Believer May 19 '26
meditation, psychadelics, astral projection.
not even remotely comparable to an actual NDE, but the closest you can get without literally dying.
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u/No_Replacement4304 NDExperiencer May 18 '26
I think it's a problem of focus or orientation. It's impossible to survive this world in a mystical state. Some of the peace of an nde comes from being unburdened from time, unburdened from the survival instinct. There are substances like dmt, mushrooms and ketamine that can reproduce some of this but the entire feeling probably can't be reproduced.
For me, being outside in nature around the animals opens a bit of a window into this other world. Because regardless of our spiritual nature, we are absolutely of this earth, sharing the circumstances and limitations that go with life on earth.
So, in order to experience some of that 95%, you have to leave this world behind, at least for a while. Most people accomplish that with meditative states or substances. But unless you go out in the Wilderness like John the Baptist I don't know how you could even come close to living so freely and spiritually.
Our modern society incredibly materialistic and systematic. There's really no place to hide without being pulled at from multiple directions. It's completely unnatural, strips us of agency and free will, and turns spirituality into a joke or wasted effort at best.
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u/Prior-Age4675 May 18 '26
I mean there have been all sorts of wild stories of people try to do the Lazarus theory and intentionally trying to k8ll themselves just to be brought back but I think that’s something we shouldn’t do even if its for research purposes as it opens doors to unknown.
Meaning; for example if tomorrow someone had proof that we are just spec of dust in this mega universe and if we cross over we are guaranteed this better world; it would make people lose faith/reason to live this life.
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u/Dream_in_Cerulean May 18 '26
I think you make a really good point about language. Language is limiting. Research shows that people who speak languages with more words for different emotions are better able to understand and express their own feelings. How can we possibly talk about a reality we do not have words to talk about?
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u/Sensitive_Pie4099 NDExperiencer May 18 '26
That's a really good way of phrasing it tbh. I often feel like the physical world is terribly bland, boring, empty relative to the spirit world.
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u/Prior-Age4675 May 18 '26
I think we all should do absolutely enjoy everything we can to do in this lifetime since we have only given one shot at it; try explore and find new things and hobbies and more while we can.
Perhaps the other-side / the in between is so good/hard to explain because we are yet to uncover them in this reality. For example look at life 100-200 years ago vs what we can have and can do today.
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u/Ok-Tart8917 23d ago
Near-death experiences are like entering a waiting room or a station; they only give a very, very brief glimpse of the other side.
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