Jonathan S NDE

Experience Description

The last normal day that I can remember was May 9, 2023. I woke up, like any other day, fed my dog, drank my morning coffee, and went about starting my day. I wasn’t feeling great. I was a little worn out from working on a landscaping project in my yard the previous day. I did feel good enough to work on the project again that day. I put my pup in the truck and headed to Home Depot for supplies around 11am. On the way out of the parking lot, I saw a couple of friends and stopped to say, 'Hi.'

While conversing from the driver’s seat, I suddenly felt weakness and strong nausea. I didn’t know where it came from or why, so I ended the conversation and drove home. The symptoms subsided by the time we got home and I decided to put in a little work on my yard project. I thought that maybe the symptoms were caused by bad coffee.

At 1pm, I headed to the grocery store to pick up some lunch. When I was walking down the coffee aisle towards the registers to exit the store, I collapsed. By the time I hit the floor, I was cognizant. The collapse was brief, but now I felt ill and very weak. I started to think that I just had a heart attack, or maybe a stroke. My limbs were tingling, my head felt swollen, and I was feeling dizzy. A couple of people saw what had happened. I regained my composure, exited the store, and drove half a mile to the emergency room to check myself in.

I live in a small town, population of 8,700 people at the time of this event and our medical care is mediocre at best. There just isn’t a draw for high-value medical professionals to move to the middle of nowhere. The emergency room nurse was very nice. She tole me that whatever it was couldn't be that bad because I drove myself to the emergency room. The EKG test on my heart didn’t show a heart attack, and all the other tests were showing up mostly normal. The doctors diagnosis was that must have had an allergic reaction to something. I was perplexed. I’ve had allergic reactions. I’ve had anaphylaxis. I am very familiar with allergies and their effects on the body. This event felt similar but not similar enough. The nurses proceeded to give me fluids, some drugs, watch me for a couple of hours, and then sent me home.

After my collapse on May 9th, I spent the next week at home waiting for another medical emergency to happen. The emergency room doctor told me I would be a 'hard case to diagnose' because there wasn’t a known trigger for my collapse. Obviously, this made me paranoid because I didn’t know what was causing the 'allergic reaction'. Sure enough, I was back in the emergency room a week later. This time, I didn’t collapse, but I felt symptoms coming on. I was having trouble breathing, my body was tingling, and I felt nausea and vertigo. Again, I was given the same diagnosis of having a severe allergic reaction. And again, no trigger for the reaction. I was given fluids, drugs, watched for a couple hours and sent home.

For the next week, I proceeded to get increasingly sick. A couple of days after the second emergency room visit, I thought I came down with the flu, covid, or something on top of the medical mystery I was already dealing with. It turns out my second emergency room visit was the point of no return. I was now severely sick. I had a hard time eating with little appetite. I was achy, sore, dehydrated, nauseous, weak, cold, and just plain miserable. It was 75F degrees outside and I was on the couch in a sweatshirt, sweatpants, with the heat on, and still shivering. I thought I had picked up some illness from the emergency room. I used my normal route of treatment, which was soup and rest. At the time of this event, I was 46 years old, extremely fit, an athlete, on the keto diet, and fasting for a day a week. I only drank socially, and used caffeine as a tool. I didn’t have any major health issues other than a stinging insect allergy. By all accounts extremely healthy.

It’s now the end of the second week. I had lost a few pounds, could barely eat, and was sleeping 16 hours a day. My legs were so weak that couldn't walk much or leave the house. My only exercise was letting my dog out the back door. I was still freezing, in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and with the heat on in the house in May. I notice my vision was getting fuzzy and my skin was turning from pale to gray.

At 4:30am on May 22, 2023, I woke up in bed. I wasn’t sure why I got up so early, but something was off. My body felt strange, but my mind was placidly calm. I tried to get up and head to the bathroom. I stumbled, but set myself against the walls and used my arms to get down the hallway. When I walked into the bathroom, the room started to wobble. I reached for the sink and propped myself up. My legs felt like toothpicks and I noticed I was dragging my right leg. I looked into the mirror and saw what resembled a corpse. My skin had turned gray and it seemed to sag a bit on my face. I was barely breathing, extremely dizzy, and incredibly weak. I looked away from the mirror and down at my hands to see if the gray skin-color from the mirror was just a hallucination. It wasn’t. It was then that I consciously came to the realization that I was dying.

Now I understood why my mind was so placidly calm. I didn’t feel any regrets, fear, or any emotion that was clinging to life. I wasn’t sad, or mad, or feeling anything really. I didn’t think of my dog, or my family or friends. All of that was somehow behind me. It was just me and whatever process I was going to go through. I felt pure acceptance of death. I took one last look in the mirror and the next thing I know, I’m gone. I was immersed in pure darkness.

There wasn’t a tunnel of light, bright lights and shapes, or angels and demons. There was nothing but darkness. Yet, there was something. I was standing somewhere else and it didn’t feel like I had died. I still felt like myself. I didn’t have a recollection of anything other than where I was at that moment.

I noticed that I could see 360 degrees. It’s very difficult to explain, but it’s more felt or equally a feeling as sight. I felt like I was standing.I didn’t see or notice any arms or legs or bodily features, but I felt like I had them. I was outdoors. It was dusk and I was in a foggy environment. I was standing on short, wild grass that was in between two green hills. I could see the smooth, gray rocks sticking out from the grass, that looked like half-buried footballs I could step on or over. It looked like where sheep would graze. I didn’t feel any temperature or wind. I didn’t hear anything. The fog formed what seemed like a 10 to 20 yard bubble around me. I couldn’t make anything out beyond the bubble. I started moving a few yards. I wasn’t walking, as much as I felt like I was floating. Hard to explain because it felt weightless and not weightless at the same time. A small hill took shape to my right.

I noticed a man sitting on a rock about 8 feet up. He was sitting while leaned over and with his legs dangling from the edge of the rock. His elbows were resting on his thighs and his hands were clenched together in between his legs as if he had been waiting for me. I now realized that I was dead. Up until this point, I had no idea that I had passed on to the other side. As I made eye contact with the man on the rock, it was as if he had dropped a ball of information and a ball of answers into my head. I knew everything that I needed to know about my previous life in a second of telepathic communication. He didn’t speak vocally; but it was if he was speaking everything instantly. I also understood that I was in some kind of holding area. The place didn’t feel uncomfortable, or bad, but it felt empty; as if there was an absence of something.

The man moved from the rock and down to me. I realized that I knew this man, which I then began to understand was not a man at all. He was a being of spirit, not a human. I didn’t know how I knew him, but I did. It was like seeing a long lost friend who you don’t recognize. It’s more feeling than seeing. I certainly didn’t recognize him from the life I had just left. He communicated telepathically; his welcome was as if I knew him. We reviewed my life. We watched a series of life decisions unfold in front of me and I was being made aware of what I could have done differently. There were happy times and not so happy times. I saw it all and felt it all. I felt every scenario, even from the other individual’s involvement in a particular situation. I was also shown a number of times where I thought that I was alone and 'he/they' were there with me. It was an incredible feeling of unconditional love.

My life review did not focus on how many f-bombs I dropped, how many women I slept with, how much I drank, my abandonment of religion, porn, money, nonsense, or how I might have acted like a child. It didn’t focus on really much of what we refer to as 'bad behavior' here on earth. What it focused on, in my case, was interactions with people. We looked at whether I used my gifts and talents to help people and how I made them feel during those interactions. I was shown how we are all connected - everywhere, everyone, everything, and how we are meant to be helping each other progress through our human existences. I was shown that our human lives are a collective movement, not an individual achievement.

During my life review, I was shown two major life paths with many minor branches. One path was the life I had just finished. The other path was where I used my gifts and talents to help others. This was something I had never focused on before. The being was alluding to the fact that I had the free will to decide what type of life I lived. He offered me a choice to come back to my body on earth or stay in that place. I made the choice to come back and share my experience and what I was shown. It was communicated to me that my return would be very difficult. Life would not be the same for me. My physical recovery would be long and painful. Many things would change.

Then the being showed me many teachings about reality, perception, and how we are all connected. Some of the teachings had visuals. They were all telepathic and could be felt. The only way I can describe the teachings is 'full circle.' Every teaching revealed a complete circle of knowledge. I was told that many of the teachings would unfold and make themselves visible to me as my time on earth progressed. The teachings took place in a room or something that appeared to have a floor that was opaque white and cloud-like. There were no spaces between the cloudy substance, but it appeared hard, like epoxy or glass, and it was flat, like a typical floor. Half way up the walls they transitioned from the hard, opaque white substance to a clear, open view of space and the stars. The ceiling was also a view of space as if there were no ceiling at all.

When I was with the being, originally he appeared to be in his mid-30s. During the teachings, he appeared almost as a religious figure, with gray, long hair and beard. He was wearing some kind of tunic and much older. I could tell it was the same being, just older. I am unsure if he aged at all, or if he was trying to show me the serious nature of the teachings by appearing older. I remember seeing and feeling a light appear in the room when the being was finished. The light was like a sun. It was big and growing larger. The sun was all encompassing and super bright, but you could look directly at it and also feel it.

The next thing I know, I’m waking up in my bathroom. I was in a lot of pain. Everything felt incredibly heavy, even the air. I was amazed about how much physical stuff we feel here that we don't feel on the other side. I felt bitterly cold as I reached for the thermometer on the counter. My temperature was 94F degrees. I felt out of it. Everything here felt fake and like make-believe compared to everything on the other side that felt incredibly real. I eventually gathered myself and left the bathroom. The time was 7:30am. It was like I had one leg in this life and one leg in the other side. It was also almost as if I was watching myself in third person. Everything felt different. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to call for an ambulance. In fact, I don’t know where the 3 hours of lost time went either. I just came back to my body and started moving.

The next 3 months after the event were horrible. I ended up losing 30 pounds, my hair fell out, my teeth were loose, my eyesight almost disappeared. I couldn’t digest anything but liquids. I was too weak to drive and could barely walk. I had a hard time breathing and would sleep for 18 hours at a time.

I remembered where I had gone after the event, and what I had seen and felt. The only problem was that I didn’t want to believe what had happened and didn't want to talk about it. I thought to myself that I had been hallucinating. It wasn’t until I saw a number of doctors, that I started to understand that I survived something that was not survivable and it couldn't have been a hallucination. The shock on one particular doctor’s face started to resonate with me as he said, 'You went septic, stage 3. You shouldn’t be alive.' I apparently died from stage 3 sepsis, created by a gallstone that got stuck in a duct. The bile backed up, then went septic. The sepsis attacked all of my internal organs causing organ failure. I didn’t feel the gallstone because doctors later found out that I have a DNA mutation in which I don’t feel pain like a normal human.

Sepsis can lead to organ failure and death in as little as 12 hours from the earliest signs of infection. The risk of dying from sepsis increases by as much as 8% for every hour of delayed treatment. EVEN with treatment, which requires heavy doses of antibiotics, 30% to 40% of people with septic shock still die. I went 2 weeks, didn't receive any treatment for sepsis, and died in my bathroom.

I am still recovering 14 months later. It took me the first 3 months of being back in my body to come to terms with the fact that I had a Near Death Experience. It was seared into my mind. I started taking note of the many changes within me and my life that had no explanation whatsoever. Some of the changes I have noticed: Increased clairvoyance and clairsentience; heightened energy sensitivity; feeling the energy of people from a distance; lucid dreaming nightly in all 5 senses; being in multiple places at the same time; repulsed by negativity, an increase in the appreciation of beauty and nature; an increase in gratitude; an increase in compassion. I also notice synchronicities in the forms of numbers, animals, and patterns that are recognizable in ways I could not understand before. I can feel some colors. I can see incredibly complex, fractal images when I shut my eyes.

I had no intention of ever speaking about my experience. I had planned to go to the grave with it. It's hard to talk about. But I found a group of supportive people online founded by Ryan Bledsoe. He is the son of the author Chris Bledsoe. They are the only reason I am here sharing this.

Background Information:

Gender: Male

Date NDE Occurred: 5/22/23

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes Illness Clinical death (cessation of breathing or heart function) I received two separate emergency room misdiagnoses. The doctors initially thought I was having severe allergic reactions or anaphylaxis. The illness turned out to be sepsis, which progressed over time to Stage 3 sepsis and death at home.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Neither pleasant NOR distressing

Did you feel separated from your body? No I clearly left my body and existed outside it

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? More consciousness and alertness than normal. Hard to explain but I could feel everything. I could feel communication, images, the life review, etc. Love was an all-encompassing unconditional feeling. The teachings were felt as much as seen. I could feel light.

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? When I was with the being.

Were your thoughts speeded up? Incredibly fast

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning. Time lost all meaning. Some of the telepathic communication was like receiving a life's worth of understanding in a grain of sand passed to you all at once.

Were your senses More vivid than usual? Incredibly more vivid

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. My vision was failing prior to the experience. But during it was a different type of vision or hyper-vision, could see that through and into things like the grass, could see light within the grass. I could see 360 degrees around me. Vision was also felt. Hard to explain but I could feel sight.

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I don't remember audible things. Everything was telepathic and felt; like I could feel the communication inside of me, not heard externally.

Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere? Yes, but the facts have not been checked out

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? Uncertain Not upon going into the experience but possibly on my return. There was a large, glowing light that appeared and was growing. As It encompassed the room, I ended up in the middle of it while coming back into my body.

Did you see any beings in your experience? I actually saw them

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? Yes When I first encountered the being, he had taken a form of someone who once lived on earth. I believe he was a brother or guide.

Did you see, or feel surrounded by, a brilliant light? A light clearly of mystical or other-worldly origin

Did you see an unearthly light? Yes I could see light within objects, within the grass, the otherworldly being, my life review, in some of the teachings. I felt light when I felt love, etc.

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm. It originally looked earthly but I was taken to someplace, a room, or structure that had a floating translucent type of cloud floor and walls that morphed into a view of space. There was no ceiling. It also appeared to be a view of space; but it was a very intense view, not what we see from earth.

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Joy, sorrow, love. I could feel upset at some of the life review but it was all loving. I could feel what other people in my life review were feeling.

Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness? Incredible peace or pleasantness

Did you have a feeling of joy? Incredible joy

Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe? I felt united or one with the world

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? Everything about myself or others. Yes, I could understand my entire life, understand the feelings of others, understand unconditional love, understand connection with everything, all. I had a connection with the being, my purpose, etc.

Did scenes from your past come back to you? I remembered many past events. Yes, my life review showed past events in my life.

Did scenes from the future come to you? Scenes from my personal future. Yes, I was able to see things in my life review about a future path. If I stayed on one path, I could see what life looked like.

Did you come to a border or point of no return? I came to a definite conscious decision to return to life I had to choose to return. I saw things in my life review that gave me a reason to return. I saw a new path.

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What was your religion prior to your experience? Unaffiliated- Agnostic Raised catholic. Left the belief in high school. I was a non-believer because it never resonated with me.

Have your religious practices changed since your experience? Yes I don't adhere to a specific religion, but I certainly meditate and read books that focus on living a spiritual life. Something I would have NEVER done prior.

What is your religion now? Other or several faiths Spiritual. My belief is in all possibilities. I see the golden thread that runs through all religions.

Did your experience include features consistent with your earthly beliefs? Content that was both consistent and not consistent with the beliefs you had at the time of your experience. The belief I had prior was that we probably go to heaven or hell or some version of that idea. What was new to me was multiple lives, being fully connected with everyone and everything, a spiritual entity showing me a life review and other things while I was there.

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes I'm very spiritual now. I carry a compassion for others that I did not have prior. I no longer value much of a material life.

Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice? I encountered a definite being, or a voice clearly of mystical or unearthly origin. I encountered a being that appeared human at first. Someone I knew but I didn't recognize me. The being was with me the entire time. He was a soul, an entity of some sort. Maybe an angel. I believe that I knew him from maybe another life or maybe the place I was currently in.

Did you see deceased or religious spirits? I actually saw them

Did you encounter or become aware of any beings who previously lived on earth who are described by name in religions (for example: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.)? No

During your experience, did you gain information about premortal existence? Yes I was shown pieces of past lives. They were not full reviews but I believe they were shown as an example that we continue on.

During your experience, did you gain information about universal connection or oneness? Yes It was shown and felt that we are all connected to each other as well as the all, God. We are all pieces of the source.

During your experience, did you gain information about the existence of God? Yes The all, everything. We are all connected to it; we are pieces of it, learning, living. The all, or God, exists in everything, everywhere.

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? Uncertain Not sure I follow the question. The being showed me certain lessons that I am able to share with others on earth. Lessons about learning, purpose, reality.

During your experience, did you gain information about the meaning of life? Yes The being showed me how we are here to learn, to grow and progress. We have specific items we are here to learn.

During your experience, did you gain information about an afterlife? Yes I was shown some past life information. I was taught how we are all connected and here to learn.

Did you gain information about how to live our lives? Yes The being passed on knowledge regarding how perception gives us access to different versions of reality.

During your experience, did you gain information about life's difficulties, challenges and hardships? Yes The being showed me that they are 'for' us. That our experiences and hardships are part of the learning we go through in our lives here.

During your experience, did you gain information about love? Yes That love is the ultimate feeling and power. Love is within everything, everywhere. But the love here pales in comparison to love felt on the other side. It's all encompassing, somewhat indescribable.

What life changes occurred in your life after your experience? Large changes in my life. Every part of my life has changed. Perception, how much weight I give certain circumstances, friends and family relationships, food, interests, opinions, career, really everything. No part of my life has been left untouched.

Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? I hold more compassion for people. I look at everybody as another being on a journey of learning.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? Yes Yes. It could be described as woo-woo, which for me is difficult to wrap my head around. It's hard to put on paper because it is also felt in so many ways. You can feel everything. You can feel connection, love, etc. How do you explain that to someone who has never had an experience like that?

How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience? I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience. It's unmistakable. It happened 14 months ago and I can remember it as if it's still happening. The days around the experience, run into each other.

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes Clairsentience - knowing things that I didn't know before about our existence. Highly energy sensitive around people. I have some clairvoyance.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? All of it. Communication and learning from the being was very meaningful.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Uncertain. I shared anonymously in an online community of people that have going through similar experiences. Some reactions were amazement, some were skepticism. It was a year afterwards and I probably wouldn't have shared my experience ever, if the community hadn't shown me a random youtube video.

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience? No

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was probably real. I really didn't want to believe it was real. I tried to use every excuse possible for surviving a fatal infection and organ failure. But it was too real to ignore. It feels more real than it feels here.

What do you believe about the reality of your experience now? Experience was definitely real It's real. It happened. There is no reason for it to be ingrained into my being otherwise. The feeling is also something that never leaves me. So much of it is just feeling.

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? No

Is there anything else that you would like to add about your experience? I have tried meditations using hemi-sync frequencies and binaural beats. I've had some interesting experiences but none of them scratch the surface of what I experienced on the other side.

Are there any other questions that we could ask to help you communicate your experience? None that I can think of. Thank you.

llygjsi_nde