A light at the end of a dark tunnel, the voice of loved ones, a choir of angels. Even the screams of the damned.
They are just some of the famous accounts of those who claim to have seen a glimpse of the afterlife and miraculously returned.
Now MailOnline has compiled three fascinating stories of people who have come back from the abyss and wanted to share their own exciting experiences.
They offer a fascinating glimpse into the fate we all inevitably have to face.
Lynn Mildner (pictured), 69, has a vivid memory of a “beautiful white light” and conversations with her late family members
Lynn Mildner: “There was a beautiful white light that I knew I had to aim for”
Lynn Mildner, 69, from Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, has a vivid memory of seeing a “beautiful white light” in the distance and speaking to deceased family members.
Ms. Mildner, then 30 years old, received general anesthesia for the removal of her wisdom teeth.
But there was a complication while she was unconscious for the routine procedure.
Doctors were forced to restore her heart’s normal rhythm with a defibrillator – a device used to shock the heart of someone in cardiac arrest.
Ms Mildner was kept in intensive care before her discharge.
Reflecting on her experience, she said, “Everything was peaceful. There was a beautiful white light that I knew I had to aim for.
‘It was easy. I just floated and floated, tangibly happy. I reached some kind of entrance.
“It wasn’t detailed, I just knew it was one, and next to it was an entity that I knew was my great aunt Nellie. She explained to me that she was my guardian spirit.
“I couldn’t wait to cross that threshold and meet my grandmothers. But Aunt Nellie told me I couldn’t.
“I had to go back because I still had so much to do and to achieve. I asked her to come in and she said no. This threshold was final. Once you made it happen, there was no turning back. And I have to go back.
“The return trip was uphill, in a dark tunnel and very hard, like going against gravity. I did not want to go.
“And then my eyes flickered and I saw people in gowns holding my arms up and one of them was holding the pads of a defibrillator.”
Justin Cameron: ‘Instantly saw a supercut reel of my life’
Justin Cameron, 51, from Ottawa, Canada, was hospitalized with sepsis – a life-threatening reaction to infection.
Mr Cameron, who was 44 at the time, had diverticulitis – small bulges in the lining of the gut – which progressed to peritonitis, an infection of the inner lining of the abdomen.
He required emergency surgery to remove part of his intestines.
But while awaiting surgery, Mr Cameron claimed he had a near-death experience.
He recalls feeling no pain but a sense of regret along with a sense that he was “slipping away”.
Justin Cameron (pictured), 51, saw a supercut roll of a lifetime when he nearly died of sepsis in 2016
He said: “All the clichés about life that flash before you are somewhat accurate; I immediately saw a supercut reel of my life. I learned that death is painless. The sepsis was excruciating, but death was painless.
“I could best describe it as the driver (me) leaving the vehicle (my body) on the side of the road because it stopped working.
“I felt joy and love, but also regret that I didn’t take better care of my vehicle.”
Mr Cameron explained that up to this point he had been “jaded, cynical and unchallenged with the world and life”.
But now he says he feels like he’s “gained a new pair of eyes and ears to see and hear the magic of the world”.
Shirley Yanez: ‘I could see my body in the hospital bed’
Shirley Yanez (pictured), 58, claimed to have seen her body in the hospital bed when she went into cardiac arrest in 2005
Shirley Yanez, 66, nearly died of cardiac arrest after developing an 8-pound fibroid – a noncancerous growth – in her uterus in 2005.
She says she nearly “bled to death” and received three blood transfusions that her body refused.
This caused her heart to stop and she claimed she “died for a few minutes” during which time she could see her body in the hospital bed with blood all over the sheets.
Miss Yanez, who lives in London, said: “It was peaceful and I could see my body in the hospital bed and the blood on the sheets and all the machines were beeping.
“I saw the emergency nurse come into the room and at that point it felt like I had tingling sensations all over my body as the new blood was pumped and I reburied my body.
“That experience changed me forever and I’m a completely different person today.”
Ms Yanez explained that as a result she is now celibate, vegan, doesn’t drink and tries to live a “clean life”.
She added: “Once you know what it’s like to be given a second chance at life, you change everything and re-evaluate your choices.
“My near-death experience was the best thing that could have happened to me because today I’m not afraid of death and I embrace life.”
dr Bruce Greyson (pictured), Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioural Sciences at the University of Virginia, has studied near-death experiences for more than 45 years
dr Bruce Greyson, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioural Sciences at the University of Virginia, has studied near-death experiences for more than 45 years and is one of the world’s leading experts in the field.
He told MailOnline that experts still cannot explain or substantiate this phenomenon.
He said: “When I first heard about people seeing and hearing things when they are supposedly dead, I thought they were imagining it because it seemed impossible in my materialistic worldview.
“But when I began to study these experiences, I investigated many cases where people were undeniably unconscious and near death, but were later able to describe in detail and in detail very startling events that they could not have guessed or anticipated to describe.
“I think this phenomenon occurs more often than we realize, but I have no materialistic explanation for it.”
But he suggested they could be caused by part of the mind being able to perceive and remember things independently of the body “in extreme circumstances.”
dr Greyson said, “Most people who describe near-death experiences to me say there are no words to describe what happened to them.
“And then we ask them to tell us about their experience, which requires them to distort the experience by relying on metaphors and approximate descriptions.”
As a result, he doesn’t take their accounts as “literal descriptions” but instead hears them as “metaphors for something that actually happened.”
He added: “On the other hand, when they tell us what they saw and heard in this world while unconscious and near death, we can sometimes test the accuracy of their statements by seeking confirmation from others who were there at the time.”
“And when we do that, we find that the vast majority of their reports are absolutely correct.”
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