One of life's greatest mysteries is death. Is that ironic? Humans spend so much time wondering about what happens after we draw our last breath, rather than focusing on using the breath we have left. It maybe morbid but the curiosity is normal. And it seems that there are several people out there who say they can explain what it feels like to be dead or near dead and then return. Now whether or not that is the mind playing tricks or truth, we'll never know. But it's still fascinating to decipher.
Redditror u/Aidanmartin3 wanted to hear from the people who have returned from the light by asking.... Redditors who were pronounced dead and resuscitated, what did you go through mentally while being pronounced dead?I'm Awake
David Dore Hello GIF by Sick Animation
Giphy
I don't remember anything from the whole day. It happened one afternoon. Only thing I remember is waking in the hospital two days later to a surprised nurse. Turns out they thought I was going to be in a coma.
Massive trauma...
I was in a motorbike accident in 2013. It eventually resulted in internal bleeding from damage to my spleen and liver (plus more - I was pretty messed up. Just the spleen was really bleeding though). I ended up with 13 units added to me over multiple transfusions.
I had a few small incision surgeries to try to stop the bleeding before they really opened me up. The morning I was supposed to have a big surgery I was waiting in the ICU.
I am told that I "coded" one morning. Effectively I was on the edge of death and my heart stopped. It was definitely not so far as to be pronounced dead but I guess it was closer than most people prefer.
Between physical trauma, massive blood loss, and massive-er pain killers my memory of the time in the ICU is spotty at best. I have absolutely no memory of coding. It isn't very exciting from my prospective, but my brother says it was pretty intense for everyone else in the room.
Luckily I have a totally normal life now. If I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt all my scars are hidden and no one knows any different. In the pool, there are a lot of scars to see. Kids stare. It doesn't bother me.
Thanks to all the medical staff out there that do so much to keep people like me alive!!!
A Long Nap
I wasn't actually pronounced dead, I was in a coma on life support. I was drugged at a bar and overdosed on the drug. I don't really remember much but I know I walked home from the har and my sister said when I got there I immediately fell down and wasn't waking up. She rushed me to the hospital and said I wasn't breathing and my lips were blue when I got there. I was immediately put on machines and miraculously woke up about 24 hours later.
The thing is, I have zero memory and it didn't feel like that long. It was like waking up from a nap when I did wake up and I didn't understand what the deal was when my friend ran out of the room like "she's awake! Get in here!". To this day, my near death is a huge disappointment. I didn't have any dreams, I didn't get to see any dead relatives, I didn't meet God or any Angels, nor my spirit guide. It was just a $12,000 nap.
Going Black
Giphy
I got hit by a car. I could still see with my eye that didn't have blood in it. I could hear all the commotion.
I felt getting forced into my back and then CPR. I felt my first heartbeat and then blood flowing through my body and at that point I felt all the pain took a deep breath and then everything went black.
3 Days Later
My buddy had heart surgery last year that got complicated, to the point where it took about triple the time it was supposed to. (He has spoken at length with me about the experience because it was so traumatic.) He did require resuscitation from a full arrest mid-surgery, which sadly (fortunately?) he does not remember.
What he does slightly remember, is the THREE DAYS of post-surgical psychosis as the specific cocktail of sedation played poorly with his personal brain chemistry.
For him it was a relentless stream of horrible hallucinations, demons, fighting monsters, quicksand, carnivorous hospital beds, being swallowed by the orderlies who morphed into tentacle monsters, pulling out his own Foley catheter while it was still inflated, all sorts of terrible, horrible memories he wish he could erase.
So if he even remembered specifically the being dead portion of the program, it is unlikely that would even compare to the subsequent 3 days of his life.
"widowmaker"
I had a "widowmaker" heart attack. If my GF hadn't been there and acted quickly, I'd be dead. But she administered CPR and the ambulance got there fast and revived me with the defibrillator paddles. Got to the hospital and was given an emergency stent and stabilized. But I was technically dead for 4 1/2 minutes. The doctors told my family and GF that I'd most likely remain in a coma due to how long I was gone.
Then shortly after I woke up. Super out of it. I was looking around trying to figure out what happened and I guess some change in my vitals prompted a nurse to come check on me. She saw me awake and looking at her and said something to the effect of, "Oh crap wow, okay" and went and got a doctor.
They explained everything as they were extubating me. (Which sucks, 1/10 do not recommend).
I was really fuzzy and confused for a few days, so this is as accurate as I can remember it. Zero memory from feeling fine the morning of the heart attack, to coming to in the hospital.
Cheese or Cool Ranch?
Yea they told me i was dead for 3 minutes, i remember those clips of people saying they experienced some kind of near-afterlife, but for me it was like sleeping, i woke up, they told me how i almost died, i said oh yeah? they explained a bunch of stuff and then offered me a grilled cheese... I had Doritos too. 10/10 would die again, it's just nothingness, not scary at all.
Edit : guys please I don't need rewards save your money, there's a lot of comments here, and people seem to have fear of being nothing, and that's ok i would have too but it's not really like that, you don't have to DO anything, it's just an absence of all things, no thoughts, no fears, just absolute zero. much deeper than a dreamless sleep, more like anaesthesia.
You're around and doin' things, and then you wake up, somewhere else, confused as all like no time at all has passed, kind of like that long stretch of time before you were born, remember that? yeah neither do I, you had nothing to fear then did you? it will be ok, just enjoy your time while you're here and give people you love BIG hugs even if your dad doesn't want one and is pretending to be a tough guy with no emotion (give him an even bigger hug).
A Hard Kick
worlds funniest fails GIF by Fox TV
Giphy
Died from an overdose for a few minutes.
There really wasn't anything. Just blackness and a vague lapse of time. It was almost like waking up from a crappy night's rest and feeling like a horse had kicked me in the chest.
Floaters
Anaphylactic reaction to an already deadly Irukandji jellyfish sting. I coded. Saw this white light and could see my myself "floating upwards" saw my family and the drs and nurses who were working on me. Came back and was in intense pain.
Stay Still
I was pronounced dead but never resuscitated I think it might be why my family freaks out whenever I move something in the house.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
"What is a subtle sign that someone is really intelligent?"
The minds of really smart individuals never stop working.
Resourcefulness
"They draw wisdom from multiple sources. Wait but that might be more wise than intelligent... But I guess those two tend to be seen together a lot."
– Puzzlehead-Engineer
Inquisitive Minds
"They are curious about everything."
"To be intelligent you need to be knowledgeable and you cant be knowledgeable if you are never curious."
– soup54461
The way highly intelligent people interact with others is slightly different.
Social Adaptability
"They can switch up the way they talk to match the person they're talking to without sounding condescending. They listen to how others learn and explain it in that person's language of understanding."
– Wynonna99
Talking On Level Ground
"Talking to people as if they're intelligent at their level and without being condescending or even letting on that it's lower than their level."
"I used to work with a doctor - Tom Howard - and the day I realized he was a genius was the time he guessed every single condition a patient of mine had based on minute piece of information about him."
– Yoodei_Mon
The Humble Professor
"No joke. The smartest professor I had in engineering school was also the most humble. She was an astounding human being. By week 2, she knew everyone's names by heart in the intro engineering course. In College. With like 180 students. Later, in upper division classes, people would occasionally ask some really stupid questions."
"Like, it happens... you get so deep into some fluid mechanics derivation or something you forget something really basic. People would ask a question like this and everyone would be thinking like; 'Wow, how did you even make it this far?' but then... it's like she would spot the flaw in their understanding so perfectly, and then respond with such clarity and wisdom that the person asking the question would look less stupid and the whole class would be enlightened."
"And here's the thing... I pride myself on being really good at that exact skill. I tutored a lot of people. I was easily one of the brightest amongst my peers. But that woman was on another level. It was mind-blowing."
"And it wasn't just her intelligence, but her organizational skills, discipline, consistency.... And yet... she was so humble. She was quiet and physically quite small. But she just exuded competence and immediately commanded every room she walked into. I've never seen anything quite like it."
– EngineeringNeverEnds
A Positive Effect
"When they explain something they make you feel intelligent."
– gwoshmi
When In Doubt
"They know when their knowledge ends and say something to the extent of 'I don't know and anything else i say on this topic is ignorant speculation.'"
–blutoboy
Some with impressive IQs may deal with questions in the following ways.
Reaction To Delayed Responses
"'You really think about everything don't you?' - a doctor, to me, after he asked me a question and I took longer than 2 seconds to answer it."
"No, I just pull something out of my @ss every time and those extra seconds you waited for me to answer were purely to irritate you for my own enjoyment."
– Imakegoatnoises
The Really Good Questions
"They can ask really good questions."
"Edit: to anyone not understanding what mean, I’m talking about people who ask 'really good questions,' not just any questions, really good ones. I don’t know how one would achieve this skill(I know I haven’t)."
– milkmanbran
Taking Pause
"They spend time thinking before asking a question."
– ParkMan73
"Some of the smartest people don’t comment at all."
– metric-poet
I agree with many of the comments saying a really intelligent person knows how to cater the conversation towards another person's level of understanding.
They do have the impressive skill to convey something in a way that can easily be understood. Some of the most venerated professors at my university were like this, and their classes were always the hardest to get in to.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
I'm on the fence about high school. I want to hate it, but nostalgia haunts me. I saw a lot of violence, there is that.
We were on CNN.
don lemon nodding GIF by Red Table TalkGiphy"They started charging us for ketchup in the cafeteria. Most of the school boycotted cafeteria lunch and brought all manner of condiments from home. We were on CNN. They eventually caved." ~ Ash3Monti
No one liked him.
"I was big into drama club and musical theatre when I was in high school. There was a girl in the drama club in her freshmen or sophomore year who was super nice and everyone loved her. Her older brother on the the other hand, was a complete and total douchebag. No one liked him."
"He always made inappropriate comments or jokes and no one liked to be around him. One night, he was driving him and his sister back from school when he took a steep curve going around 100 mph. He lost control and hit a telephone pole. His sister died instantly and he was in a coma for a few weeks but ultimately survived."
"Myself and my friends in the drama club were devastated. She was one of the sweetest girls you'll ever met and we all loved her. A year or two later, the brother messages my sister and tries to use his sister's death as leverage to get laid. F**k you, you piece of crap." ~ FearTheKeflex
Bribes
"Guidance counselor was taking bribes to change grades (Both money and sexual favors). Invited one male student over to his house. Had the student tie him up and hang him by chains in his basement "dungeon." Student was homophobic and while the counselor was tied up, bludgeoned him to death." ~ monthos
H2O Issues...
"This is not that extreme, but it's still disgusting. We have drinking water taps instead of fountains. One parent was suspicious of whether they were cleaning the tanks or not. So they made an announcement that the tank was being cleaned every single day."
"A lot of us didn't believe it, so a group of boys decided to see for themselves if it was true or not. So they put a dead frog in the tank when there was no one around. I don't even know where they found the frog but they swear they didn't kill it. Anyway the frog was there for a few weeks. And obviously the water started tasting weird."
"After the teachers got multiple complaints, they opened the tank and found the frog. The boys were punished, but they fired back with the fact that they lied about cleaning the tanks. They were still punished, because they proved it in a disgusting way. They could've put literally anything in the tank, but they chose a dead frog." ~ R00mTemperature
The Quad
Acds2 Look Away GIF by Anime Crimes DivisionGiphy"A worker doing stuff on the roof. He fell off. Landed in the 'quad' at lunch. A large piece of machinery fell and squished his head. Like a cartoon, only funny. Like 150 Kids saw this." ~ LordInventus
Threats
"The Latin kings gang threatened my cousin and his friends and they had 10 squad cars guarding the whole school and dismissed us the same day early." ~ Terrykrinkle
“it’s gonna blow”
"I had just moved in from Egypt to the states in my senior year of high school. A teacher thought it would be funny to fold a bunch of papers and wrap them in duck tape to make it look like a bomb and threw it my direction and went under his desk saying 'it’s gonna blow.' Everybody started laughing and I was so clueless then I just laughed along. It infuriates me to this day that I didn’t call him out on it or report him." ~ ezzabousaif
Go Fish
"Someone somehow made a bomb threat on a Swedish fish candy. Like one single piece. I don’t know how it happened but he got arrested." ~ ts_13_
Masternid
"A couple weeks before graduation, this kid hacked into the school system and put a Hitler quote and a Boston bomber reference in the senior quotes for the yearbook. One of the affected parties was a trans girl, and we're still not sure if it was a targeted act because of that."
"Administration didn't find out until the entire senior class had received their books. Some people turned theirs in to get their pages replaced, but some kept it because it was a 'limited edition item' or some stupid sh*t like that. Kid got arrested and charged with cybercrime, since he hacked everyone in our school system's school passwords."
"He was so close to graduating too, but got expelled like two weeks before he could. Looked like a rat too. It was all over the news, and everyone in the state of CT basically knows about this now. Got out on bail for $5000." ~ kocorpsie
Season 3 What GIF by On My Block"Apparently one student brought drugs to school and was selling it to her friends. A completely unrelated student caught on and stole the drugs while everyone else was in class. She was caught snorting the drugs in the bathroom by the group selling the drugs and got the crap beat out of her."
"We also had a recently graduated student murder his parents for insurance money . He hid the bodies in a chicken coop and told everybody they were on vacation. It wasn't until 7 months later the bodies were found by the landlord because the rent was late." ~ randomgenericcow
Enjoy high school, at least try too. Maybe if more kids do that, it wouldn't be so insane.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.