11 People Describe ‘Seeing The Light’ During A Near-Death Experience

1. A Machine Of Light: Dynamic, Complex, And Calming Beyond Our Wildest Dreams

When I was 13 (28 now) I had a severe asthma attack that took my life for 3 minutes….Yes, I saw a light (I dunno if it was bright, tho…) Anyways, the best way I can describe this happening I experienced is: ‘a machine of light.’ Dynamic, complex, and calming beyond our wildest dreams….I then woke up (or came back technically). I had been in a coma for a day and in intensive care for a week. When I first woke up I didn’t remember the experience right away. I just remember being hungry as hell and very very confused….Today I live a good life. I consider myself a very spiritual person and absolutely love this crazy experience we call life….TLDR; Died, saw light and came back changed forever.

u/r0kud

2. Magic Mushrooms + Ambien = God

One night last summer, I was having a really bad mushroom trip…Everything went white, it was like everything was light, even the entity that ‘enlightened’ me….The sudden calm was the most striking part, though. When I came back to reality after what felt like somewhere between 5 seconds and 5 years I was absolutely calm and happy. I went from freaking out thinking I ate bad mushrooms rocking myself to sleep, to convinced everything in the world was OK and smiling at the visuals I was still seeing on the tent ceiling. Not claiming I saw God….TLDR: magic mushrooms + Ambien = God

cubeslave

3. Suddenly There Was This Huge Rush And A Crazy Blinding Light

Chronic sleep apnea here, or rather I used to have it. I once had a dream that I was swimming through my house, the air felt thick like water, and my chest was getting heavier and heavier. I started swimming up to try to get air, but my arms and legs wouldn’t move very much so I started thrashing them, and it worked, sort of. Then I decided breathing was too hard, and I didn’t need to do it anymore, so I stopped and just kinda floated. I felt really good and relaxed, but I had this nagging anxious feeling in the back of my head, and my jaw was starting to hurt….I remember the shimmering surface getting closer and closer and suddenly there was this huge rush and a crazy blinding light, and I woke up to my flatmate pounding on my chest and screaming at me, and his gf dialing 111. Apparently, I had been snoring on the couch and just flat-out stopped, started going blue/grey etc. Woke up in massive cold sweats. Fuckin freaky.

dont_stop_me_smee

4. I Merged With An Infinite, Eternal Light

A tiny amount (DMT) is required. Like the last few millimeters of a line of coke….It is mind-bendingly, shit-in-your-pants scary. It took me months to gather the courage to go for breakthrough after my first ‘light experience’….The fear factor comes from how quickly you go from normal everyday reality to a world you cannot comprehend or explain. A ‘light’ experience involves the world turning into something of a cartoon, a 2D palette of saturated primary color, a feeling of euphoria, a sense of being in the presence of something powerful….If you do it, and hold it in, within something like 10 seconds you experience a total overload of the senses as you are sucked into this unimaginable mind-scape. Some people say they hear noise. I don’t. I feel like I’ve been shot out of a nuclear cannon. It’s overwhelming, it’s inescapable, it’s terrifying and…it is the most beautiful, incredible, profound experience you can’t even imagine. I have experienced things I cannot explain, I have seen colors that don’t exist, impossible landscapes, 360-degree vision, I’ve been at the molecular level and expanded to fill the entire universe. I’ve flown through crystalline cities made of light and sound….I felt myself ‘dying’, or more accurately dissolving. I had no recollection of having a name, or being a person, or having any past or future. I merged with an infinite, eternal light, I knew at once this was the source, or God, and I was it. It was the most incredible experience of my life, the most defining. When I came back to my body I instantly knew what they mystics of all ages meant by ‘everything is one’.

downtherabbitholeshe

5. I Noticed The Light Was Actually Millions Of Tiny Lights

Salvia divinorum. What really ended up giving me a spiritual belief beyond this point was the composition of the light. My first time seeing it, the most intense, I noticed the light was actually millions of tiny lights. I began focusing on the tiny lights, and I was dragged into them….It was like when you see a TV cathode ray tube fading out, until it is but a small picture. But millions of these little pictures….It’s been about seven years since the day I saw the light for the first time. I’ve never been able to reproduce that dimension, but sometimes while I dream or while I am meditating, I come across a small segment of memory from that day….My spirituality since then equates not to a religion, but philosophy, and belief in the human soul that connects all of us….

Mahat

6. I Never Felt Better In My Life Than At This Point

About 9 years ago when I was 12, people in my school just found out about a new trick where you have to do a few things to pass out. Here’s a video showing the technique….So a classmate (let’s call him John) put me with my back against a wall and told me what to do. Breathing very fast, going down and going up very fast and stopping to breath. Then John applied huge pressure to my aorta. Then I passed out….I just saw the last picture, John in front of me and all classmates staring at me. This picture was like it was burned on my eyes. Then it dissolved, like you would increase the space between pixels. Those little pixels slowly flew away. It became blurry and the picture was reducing red, green, and blue blurry spots. I never felt better in my life than at this point. The spots merged to one big light, and it became white. This light…felt absolutely phenomenal. It was warm, it became brighter and brighter. It was wonderful. I felt like I was flying, always to the top. Then I saw (I did not only see it, I felt it and I was pretty sure that this was happening in real life) my life passing in front of me.

shitbread

7. My Entire Sense Of Self Was In This Blue Orb Of Light

I had an experience I couldn’t explain when I was overmedicated in college. Due to a poor batch of doctors, in dealing with depression they put me on a cocktail of about 14 different medications. Zoloft for depression, Adderall XR 300mg for attention, Ambien for sleep, Klonopin for anxiety, Xanax for panic, Wellbutrin, Paxil, Ritalin, among others….I remember taking a very long deep breath and letting it out gently. As I exhaled, a pale blue orb of light emitted from my body, below my belly button. This is where I can’t fully explain the sensations in words. But I’ll try. I was the light, it wasn’t like I was ‘hovering over’ my body, but I definitely wasn’t in it anymore. My entire sense of self was in this blue orb of light. It suddenly felt like I was traveling very fast, over very great distances, and I had no concept of time. I suddenly became aware that I was in a room, with many other orbs like the one I felt I was. All of these orbs were either being processed by, or were driving a large machine. A machine of lights. I remember moving into a chamber to myself, this chamber was moving, almost as if on a conveyor. I was moving up a large chasm with other orbs to a much larger facility of light above. This is where it happened, suddenly, my orb began to dim. Countless other lights flew towards me. I suddenly became so bright I felt I had to shield my eyes, I felt the strong feeling of falling. I then hit ‘the ground’ or something solid. I opened my eyes, I was in my room, it was the following morning, I felt terribly weak…. Was it a vivid dream? Did I die, and leave my body, and somehow inexplicably return? Was it sleep paralysis? I’ve never really talked about it. But it definitely changed my life, and my views on religion, spirituality, life, death, and medicine.

zoobtube

8. After Seeing The Light, I Knew EVERYTHING

I also had an NDE. I experienced the same wash of light and the feeling of bliss….ALL of my questions were answered. After seeing the light, I knew EVERYTHING. The feeling I had was of crystal clearness and I had no other questions that I would ever need to ask. It’s very difficult to explain, but I knew why the leaf on the tree was that shape, I knew why the raindrop on the window was specifically made that way. Everything had a purpose but most importantly, everything was interconnected. There was a string, connection, between the most obscure objects.

nopenope1133

9. I Just Saw Light, And Everything Felt Really Peaceful

At the age of 12 I had a severe asthma attack that almost took my life….Next part of the story is not some spiritual being helping me get up and walk the last of it, but my will to live….Then I saw just light, and everything felt really peaceful, I was calm about losing my life, as the pain finally stopped. Next thing I know I wake up to people all around me yelling things and ruining the calm that was all over me, and I pass out again, to wake up the next day and be told that I survived by mere seconds.

davidline

10. The Common Factor I’ve Noticed Is The Sensation Of Unbelievable Calm

I was once in a pretty serious car accident (head-on @ circa 50mph). Woke up being put into an ambulance… that single moment of life/death, knowing I escaped death by mere inches did 2 things: 1. Made me more of an atheist, but one that is ‘spiritual’ and takes the possibilian route instead of the nothingness route, and 2. More appreciative of the fact that the only thing we have is now, right here, right now….The common factor I’ve noticed is the sensation of unbelievable calm…

10thflrinsanity

11. It Was Just This Tunnel In The Ground I Seemed To Be Flying Down And Then This Giant Kind Of Light Thing

When I was about 17 months old I was diagnosed with some form of kidney cancer (really don’t know and don’t care) but I was told during one of my surgeries I was clinically dead for a few minutes. It’s weird although I was a baby and there’s no way I could remember anything I have always had this lingering memory that I believe is from that. It was just this tunnel in the ground I seemed to be flying down and then this giant kind of light thing.

anonymous