Strange Happenings During Near Death Experiences

Most of us with an interest in unusual phenomena are familiar with reports of what are known as near-death experiences, or NDEs. The majority of these reports involve unfortunate people who suddenly find themselves at death's doorstep but recover or are revived, returning with memories from beyond that frequently involve peaceful encounters with light beings or the souls of departed friends or relatives who assure them that death is simply a gateway to something uplifting. But not all of them have such a pleasant experience, something that I became more aware of recently when I was approached by an unusual witness. I say "unusual" because this is a relative of mine. We'll call her "Vicky" for the purposes of this report, as she only agreed to let me document it if I offered her anonymity. 

She pulled me aside outside of our home and said she needed to ask me about something. She is aware of my research and my interest in unusual subjects, though she had previously never expressed much interest herself. Acting rather nervous, she said, "Look. I think I may have had a near-death experience, but I'm not sure." That struck me as odd since most people who have literally died seem to be pretty certain about it, but I didn't want to seem as if I was belittling her account, so I simply invited her to tell me about it, which she proceeded to do.

The first thing to know about Vicky is that she is a lifelong sufferer of a severe case of multiple chemical sensitivity. In her case, she is particularly susceptible to floral scents. She cannot have live flowers in her home or office and strong, floral perfumes impact her badly. She quickly develops respiratory problems and can even stop breathing in the most severe instances. A few weeks back she was at her office not far from where we live when she was hit with such a wave of floral scents. She couldn't identify the source, but it was significant, likely a visitor wearing too much perfume. She quickly got up and went to the hallway, heading for the exit. She went outside to the sidewalk in search of fresh air, but it was too late. She described having tunnel vision as her breathing nearly ceased and then "the world went dark."

Unbeknownst to Vicky, she collapsed to the sidewalk unconscious. A coworker fortunately saw this from a window and summoned an ambulance which arrived quickly with medics loading her up to take her to a nearby hospital. I had been made aware by relatives that she had been to the hospital recently, but she was discharged relatively quickly and I'd assumed it was something minor. It turns out that it wasn't. She was brought to the emergency room and taken to a patient room on an upper floor for treatment.

This is where the story became rather bizarre. According to Vicky, her next memory was waking up in a hospital room. She was on a hospital bed with her arm hooked up with wires attached to a heart monitor. But all the lights were off and the monitor was dark and silent. No one else was in the room and the only light came from the window. She attempted to use the nurse's call button but got no response. She called out for a nurse, but no one responded. Vicky eventually sat up, pulled the monitor wires from her arm, and went out into the hallway, which was also dark. She padded down the hall toward the nurse's station, but there was no one there either. The computer monitors were dark and the chairs were empty. She picked up the phone on the desk, but there was no ringtone. At that point she was growing tired again and gave up, returning to her room and lying back down on the bed feeling confused.

Vicky said her next memory was that of waking up in the same hospital room, but the lights were on, the heart monitor was lit up and beeping steadily, and a nurse was reviewing patient charts nearby. Confused, she asked what had happened. She was told that the paramedics had brought her in and she had been unconscious for a few hours but otherwise seemed to be recovering nicely. They would keep her overnight to monitor her condition out of an abundance of caution but she would be discharged the following morning. When she asked the nurse about the power outage and why nobody was around, the woman seemed confused and said that there had been no power outage and someone had been with her almost constantly, along with the patient in the other bed in the room. (She recalled the bed being empty.)

I agreed that her account raised a number of questions. Her attending nurse suggested that she most likely just experienced an unpleasant dream after a distressing medical event. That would be a fine explanation at first glance except for several troubling details. First of all, did Vicky really even "die" in a technical sense? It doesn't seem as if she did. There would have been a record of that. But even if not, where was she during her experience in the darkened room and hallway? Also, she vividly remembers the details of the hospital from that experience, including the location of the furniture and medical equipment in the room. When they wheeled her out the next day she passed by the same nurse's station and those details matched as well. But she had never been to that hospital before. How could she have known all of that?

I spent some time going through other NDE accounts looking for something similar. There have been people who reported distressing NDE experiences, though they are more rare than pleasant ones. Others are simply bizarre. Nancy Evans Bush, the author of Dancing Past the Dark, reported an NDE where she was cast into a black void similar to outer space where she encountered no recognizable individuals. Matthew Botsford had an NDE in 1992 following a traumatic brain injury where he claimed to have found himself in a dark place surrounded by demonic creatures who tormented him. Dr. Tony Cicoria was struck by lightning and died, reporting memories of walking around the scene of his death before turning into a ball of light that floated through the walls of the cabin he and his family were staying at before being revived. But even then, there were other family members and friends there that he could see and hear, though he couldn't interact with them.

None of these reports match Vicky's experience. She awoke in an empty world without power. She was totally alone and confused. There were no messengers waiting to greet her, either satanic or angelic. It was just a replica of our world, but devoid of humanity or technology. I can draw no conclusions from this, but it's certainly alarming. And the witness remains alarmed to this day, being fully convinced that this was something that truly happened. Take from that what you will. It's just one more tale to add to the library of NDE reports and I fear that none of us will fully grasp what it might mean until we make that journey ourselves.