Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.
The Most Ridiculous Things Someone Said With A Totally Straight Face
Reddit user ButterflyOverkill asked: 'What's the most ridiculous thing you've heard someone say that they were 100% serious about?'
We've all heard someone say something totally inaccurate and thought to ourselves, "What?"
But the really troubling incidences are when the person speaking clearly believes what they're saying and they make the misinformed comment with a totally straight face.
Redditor ButterflyOverkill asked:
Swimming with Tsunamis
"My brother, against all laws of known physics, is absolutely certain that if he was ever in a tsunami he could just 'swim under it.'"
"We've both been in the ocean plenty of times, surfed a bit, and have definitely had our share of waves wreck our sh*t, but he's still certain he could do it if he got the timing right."
- Magic_Man_Boobs
Accent-Based Geography
"The Caribbean coast is off the coast of England because they have British accents in 'Pirates of The Caribbean.'"
"This man was in the military and had no knowledge of geography."
- Aware_Statement_205
"Man, the Death Star must have been built in England, too."
- Faust_8
The Earth is Flat
"My co-worker. We were all having a conversation. I don't remember what we were talking about, but I said something to the extent of, 'Crazy, it's like someone thinking the earth is flat.'"
"His response was, 'Well, it is.'"
"My other co-worker and I looked at each other, confused."
"Our Flat-Earth co-worker continued explaining why the earth is flat. He was saying it like he was stating facts."
"We're engineers for crying out loud. You paid too much money for your glasses and degree to see things this way!"
- Boyblack
"One of my good friends I had once respected went down this route. He effectively said because he hadn't seen the earth from space, he doesn't believe it's round. He believes nothing he hasn't seen himself."
"I proceeded to show him the red bull guy literally land on Earth from space, and it was round, but he still didn't believe it because it wasn't him."
"He also couldn't explain why nobody had ever fallen off the edge of our flat earth since if it is flat; it clearly has to end somewhere. He just said, 'I don't know. I just know it isn't round.'"
"I thought I would lose my f**king mind."
- QuaintHeadspace
"Has he seen his BRAIN?"
- dpet_77
That's not how this works
"My cousin was not the sharpest tool in the shed. He was convinced he could have unprotected sex with any woman because his current girlfriend was pregnant, so there was no risk he could get another girl pregnant…"
- joeyboii23
Drive to Hawaii
"A nurse I used to work with asked why we can't drive to Hawaii. She was absolutely serious and I wasn't surprised when she didn't last beyond her training period."
- Veritaserum25
Hawaii's Neighbor, Alaska
"I was asked, 'Why is Alaska so cold but Hawaii is warm when they're right next to each other?' because on US maps, they're always both in a little cutaway box down by Mexico."
- Msktb
Misunderstood Roundabouts
"Putting in a roundabout was stupid because now they had to stop four times instead of the one time if they had just left it as a four-way-stop."
- SaraSmashley
"We recently got a few in my town. People treat them like stop signs and come to a (somewhat) complete stop before entering."
"If it’s clear, I just breeze through without stopping like you’re supposed to. I’ve had passengers tell me I ran the stop sign. It’s a yield sign."
- caseyjosephine
The Caribbean Moon
"That when we were in the Caribbean we were seeing a different moon. Their moon."
- robkat22
"I’m living in the Caribbean and went out to look at the moon after reading this. It’s such a clever duplicate, I never would have known."
- inconsistencyItself
No Accountability
"My ex-husband was a horrible driver. Wrecked everything he ever owned and then some, but he somehow thought he was an excellent driver."
"We were riding through a town with a four-lane main road. He started to change lanes oblivious to the car that was located exactly where he was headed. I told him to stay in his lane, and fortunately, he did."
"He said, 100 percent seriously, that if he'd changed lanes and crashed into the car that was already there, it would have been their fault because they didn't honk their horn to warn him."
- sirdigbykittencaesar
"This reminds me of an old joke:"
"A man is driving to work when his phone starts ringing. It's his wife."
"She says, 'Be careful darling, the news has just said there's a maniac driving the wrong way down the road.'"
"The man replies, 'Not just one maniac, f**king hundreds of them!'"
- Mackem101
The Sun and the Moon
"'Why do they call one side of the Sun the Moon?'"
"This 30-year-old legitimately thought the moon was just the other side of the sun."
- JoisChaoticWhatever
Seatbelt Safety
"'I never wear a seatbelt.'"
"And why the h**l not?"
"'Because if I am in a wreck, there’s no way I’d be thrown to safety.'"
- BreatheMy
"I had a friend with a similar theory. She didn’t wear them because she had heard stories of people wearing seatbelts ending up with serious head injuries in car accidents."
"She honestly couldn’t grasp what the results would be without them."
- ghjkl098
Scary Orb in the Sky
"Former 911 dispatcher here. I had a guy call once freaking out about the white orb thing in the sky."
"The moon. He was very worried."
"I made him promise not to drive or leave his house. I told him to call back if he felt sick, but we never heard from him again."
"I wonder if there’s a dude out there who remembers that time he got [baked] and called 911 because of the moon."
- Here4TheShinyThings
Bluetooth Shower Head
"She was very serious that she wanted a useable hand-held shower head without a hose because the hose was 'ugly.'"
"I asked if she meant an overhead or a wall-mounted shower head because those didn’t require a hose."
"Nope. She wanted the water to flow from the wall into a handheld shower head without a hose."
"I tried to tell her that wasn’t possible and ended up sending her to a different home improvement store."
- Lone_Ronin_
"She wanted the wireless version."
- thatvixenivy
Those Darn 5G Headaches
"My wife’s grandmother was complaining once how her phone’s 5G was giving her headaches and asked my wife to turn off the 5G."
"My wife works with phones and was easily able to tell her grandmother that her phone wasn’t even capable of 5G."
"Her grandmother didn’t like that answer and later took her phone into her carrier to only be told the same thing."
- croyalbird13
Trapped in "The Oregon Trail"
"I'm 43 now but used to do a fair bit of traveling in my younger days, up until I was about 30. I always came back home for Thanksgiving and Christmas."
"Anyway, I had hitch-hiked back into town and was walking to my Grandma's house where I'd be staying, carrying my Alice pack."
"A girl got to talking with me on my way, and it came up that I'd just got back from Oregon."
"Dead-faced confused, she was like, 'They have towns out there, like cities and stuff?'"
"She genuinely believed it was still like the Oregon Trail days... except this was in 2005, lol (laughing out loud)."
- lightsaber_lobotomy
"People on travel forums sometimes ask if the roads in Arizona are paved, especially the road to the Grand Canyon."
"I always want to reply, 'No. You need to rent a covered wagon.'"
- mesembryanthemum
We've all been misinformed about something at some point, but these accounts were very surprising.
It's tough decide if these instances would be worth talking about, to help the person know better next time, or if it's just better to smile and nod.