What dying REALLY feels like, say survivors of near-death experiences

What happens after death remains a mystery.

But survivors of near-death experiences have now provided a fascinating insight into what to expect when the time comes.

MailOnline spoke to people who were about to find out exactly what they saw, felt and heard.

Examples include being keen to look at their own dying bodies and recognizing surgeons when they were thought to be unconscious.

Dr. Sam Parnia, a British critical care expert at New York’s NYU Langone Health Medical Center, has been studying the exact moment a person dies for 25 years.

He told MailOnline that these are often referred to as “near-death experiences” but that “recorded death experiences” is a more accurate term as the person was actually “dead”.

“The reality is that you can die, be dead and then come back to life. So what happens is that these people experience a real death experience,” said dr. parnia

About what people think and feel while they are “in death”, Dr. Parnia: “You travel to a place you recognize as home, and we call it home, because it means it’s a place you thought you belonged. So go back.

“In this state, they relive their lives, they reevaluate everything.

“It’s often misrepresented as if your life is flashing before you, but it’s a deep, conscious, purposeful and meaningful reappraisal.

“When you hurt people, you relive their exact pain. When you’ve done something that helped someone, you feel that joy.”

Duncan Seth-Smith: “I remember floating on a hill”

Duncan Seth-Smith, 67, from Lincolnshire, has a vivid memory of drifting over a hill on Boxing Day 2005 when he went into cardiac arrest.

Mr Seth-Smith, then 50, recalled doctors preparing the defibrillator as he lay unconscious in hospital, one of them saying “again” while “zapping”.

He was in intensive care for four days and just before going home, he felt dizzy and collapsed, requiring resuscitation after another cardiac arrest.

Recalling his second ordeal, Mr Seth-Smith said: “I have a vivid memory of flying over a nearby hill and looking down at people sledding.

“It was a local hill in the country, but not known for sleigh rides and nowhere I spent any time except driving past it. There was no snow at the time of the cardiac arrest.

“I woke up in bed with a cut on my face after passing out after hitting a car/bed. The nurses said it would take three defibrillator shocks to get my heart going and back on track.

“That’s all I can remember except asking my wife if it was snowing, to which she said no.”

Mr. Seth-Smith received three defibrillator shocks and later an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).

Duncan Seth-Smith (pictured), 67, has a vivid memory of floating over a nearby hill in Lincolnshire on Boxing Day 2005 after suffering a heart attack when he went into cardiac arrest.

Martin Holloway: ‘I had visions during the operation’

Martin Holloway, from Colchester, finally had 70cm of his bowel removed in 2019 after being admitted to hospital with a serious illness.

The 64-year-old’s wife was ordered to take his loved ones to hospital in preparation for saying her last words.

While undergoing an operation “on the brink of death”, Mr. Holloway recalled what he described as “visions or memories” of what happened in the operating room.

When he woke up from the operation, the surgeon told him, “You won’t recognize me,” but he told her he did.

The camp manager said he knew her name, remembered her standing next to him, watching him and others in the room and talking to other doctors.

Mr Holloway said it gave her “a terrible fright” because she feared he was awake during the operation.

He added: “She asked, ‘How do you know that?’ and I said I kind of remembered her being there, but then she didn’t elaborate.

“I knew where I was and I recognized her, but I had never seen her before.”

Mr Holloway added: “I thought the visions were my imagination over the painkillers but after I woke up and realized it I wasn’t so sure.”

Martin Holloway (pictured), 64, from Colchester, was admitted to hospital in 2019 with blood clots, heart failure and bowel problems

Kevin Curtis: “I zoomed in from a dark place”

After being stung several times in the face and neck by bees 21 years ago, 50-year-old Kevin Curtis was hospitalized.

Mr Curtis, now 71, suffered from anaphylaxis and was unconscious but “aware of my surroundings”.

His blood pressure dropped drastically, and he heard a medic say that if they didn’t get an epi-pen soon, he would “most likely die.”

Mr. Curtis, of Lincolnville, Maine, remembers seeing an inviting bright light on one side as he drove the ambulance to the hospital before realizing the vehicle had stopped.

The grandfather-of-two said he heard paramedics talking about his “imminent death” and “felt the pain up and around my face” when he was removed from the ambulance.

Mr. Curtis, a retired financial information architect, described the sensation as “zooming from a dark, cool area” back to reality.

“Calm, non-threatening, out of body, calm, love is the best I can describe the whole moment. That’s why I’m not afraid of death,” he added.

“I’m worried about getting there, but death itself doesn’t seem as scary as the end.

“I don’t know what was on the other side of the light or what thoughts I might have and for how long, but it was not a place to be afraid of.”

Mr Curtis, now 71, suffered an anaphylactic reaction and was unconscious but “aware of my surroundings”.

Caroline Ghyselen: “I was in the sky and I looked down on myself”

Caroline Ghyselen was 19 when she almost died after driving through a windshield.

As emergency doctors treated her, Ms Ghyselen said she had a “strange feeling that she was looking down on me”.

She said: “It was like I was in the air and literally looking down. I was like, wow, that’s weird.

“What was decisive was the wonderful calm and serenity and the feeling of pure joy.

Ms Ghyselen, who also sometimes talks about her experience on TikTok, realized she “had to go back”.

She “wasn’t happy” about having to return to her body, knowing she would be in pain and face a long healing process.

She added: “I started arguing the point and kept saying, ‘I don’t want to go back, I don’t want the pain.’

“The next thing I knew, the nurse was rubbing my arm and telling me, ‘Don’t worry honey, we’ll give you something for the pain.

Caroline Ghyselen (pictured) was 19 when she almost died after driving through a windshield

Dave Brown: “The world around me got smaller”

Critical Care Doctor reveals five things patients on the brink of death experience… including HEARING medics treating them unconscious

Doctors interviewed more than two dozen patients in the US and the UK whose hearts suddenly stopped in hospital but then recovered.

Her experiences include “evaluating life”, such as seeing the replay of memories and judging how others have treated her throughout her life.

Some patients recalled how the effects of CPR felt on their bodies while it was taking place (file image)

South Florida’s Dave Brown had three near-death experiences in one day in his late 40s.

Mr. Brown, now 61, was painting the ceiling of his living room when he felt dizzy.

He managed to call 911, paramedics were with him within minutes only to find his “heart was out of control.”

Then his heart stopped and the medics started CPR to get his heart back to a normal rhythm, but minutes later it stopped.

The electrical engineer said: “A wonderful calm came over me, no pain, no panic. I remember thinking, “That’s it, that’s all there is,” but suddenly they shook me back, and I remember a scene of excitement as they readied me for transport.

His heart stopped for a third time as he stood in the driveway as paramedics prepared to take him to hospital.

About that moment he said: “I remember an immense peace, almost hard to describe, but as if the world was getting smaller and smaller around me, very quiet.

“I remember my father who had been dead for about 5 years at the time. He didn’t say anything, but I remember his presence.

“I remember the specific thought: ‘It’s okay’, no sadness or regret, no pain, just feeling light.

“It is perhaps the most difficult feeling to explain because there is really nothing else in life that can explain it. To this day I still feel short of breath when I think about it.’

Mr Brown said he was “a practical man by nature, not religious then and now”, but the experience gave him a “personal faith”.

South Florida’s Dave Brown had three near-death experiences in one day in his late 40s