Hallucinations, bright lights, out-of-body experiences and visits from dead relatives are just some of the puzzling phenomena reported by those who brush close with death. What can science tell us about near-death experiences, and how do they change our relationship to life? Watch Near Death Moments on .
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Near Death Moments
episode • Insight • Current Affairs • 52m
episode • Insight • Current Affairs • 52m
Whenever Meredith O'Shea goes to the beach with her children in Victoria, she can't bring herself to splash about with them in the water.
Instead, she floats with her head just above the surface to simulate her near-death experience.
"I have an overwhelming sense of peace and calm come over me. It gives me a feeling that I don't get from anything else," Meredith told Insight.
In 2005, when she was in her late 20s, Meredith almost drowned during a camping trip in Far North Queensland.
She and her husband Miguel Rios went for a swim in receding floodwaters.
"We were young and silly," Meredith said.
"He was like, 'I don't like this'. I didn't care. I was ready to take on anything."
Meredith is surprised she felt so calm and peaceful when she was so close to death. Source: Supplied
"One leg went in and one went on the other side, so I was trapped."
Miguel was swimming nearby and spotted her hair floating on the surface of the water. He immediately knew she was in trouble.
He pulled her out and saved her life, but Meredith suffered broken ribs and damaged skin.
Looking back at the experience, Meredith is still surprised by the deep feeling of peace and serenity she experienced in the moments she was held underwater and edged closer towards death.
"Normally, I would expect myself to go into survival mode and fight really hard, but I didn't. I didn't panic at all.
"To this day, I cannot answer why I felt calm and peaceful when I thought I was going to die."
'I thought it was real'
For Cerisse Erica Gomez, her puzzling near-death experience came when she experienced severe stomach pains while pregnant with her second child in 2018.
After being rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital, with no explanation for the excruciating pain and her baby’s heart rate dropping, the medical team decided to perform an emergency cesarean.
Baby Denisse was delivered safely at 28 weeks, but Cerisse lost significant amounts of blood during delivery, prompting doctors to investigate.
"They found the bleeding from my right lobe liver; it got ruptured," Cerisse told Insight.
Cerisse’s husband Don was told that if doctors had waited another five minutes, she would have died or been paralysed.
Cerisse was in an induced coma for four days. During this time, she remembers a visit from her father and grandfather — who had both died — something she's still unable to explain.
Cerisse says she experienced a visit from her deceased father and grandfather when she was in a coma that she's unable to explain. Source: Supplied
She believes in some way they saved her life.
"They told me, 'Your family still needs you; your girls still need you'.
"I really thought it was real that they were there."
How do we explain near-death experiences?
occurs during situations of intense emotional or physical pain, often .
It's impossible to know how many people they affect, but various research suggests between 10 to 23 per cent of those who nearly die experience one.
Commonly reported features include bright lights, out-of-body experiences, a feeling of deep peace and serenity, and visiting relatives who are deceased in visions.
But what do scientists truly understand about the human mind when the body's on the brink of death?
Dr Matt Davidson, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Technology Sydney, has researched how changes in brain structure and function relate to changes in our conscious experience.
He says that, while existing research provides some plausible hypotheses for near-death experiences, there are many things that remain difficult to explain.
"Some of the most comprehensive studies of near-death experiences have been performed on people who've had cardiac arrests in hospital," Davidson said.
"A common feature of cardiac arrest is a lack of oxygen to the brain. And one consequence of this may be brain damage to parts of the brain that control what you see.
"And so that might actually correspond to seeing things like tunnels and lights as a response to death in the part of the brain responsible for vision."
Another theory is that these experiences are a physiological response to stress or trauma.
A common feature of cardiac arrest is a lack of oxygen to the brain. And one consequence of this may be brain damage to parts of the brain that control what you see.Matt Davidson
"It's plausible that a massive increase in endorphins as part of a stress response could decrease feelings of pain, and could lead to a sense of calm and wellness," he said.
"But again, we don't have the data to corroborate these hypotheses."
Scientists have attempted to study this field with rats.
In 2013, researchers from the University of Michigan discovered a momentary increase in electrical activity in the brain showing a state of almost hyper-consciousness after the heart had stopped.
But others in the scientific community dismissed the findings, questioning how much rats' brains can tell us about human near-death experiences.
Life after a near-death experience
Phill Zdybel was clinically dead for 15 minutes.
He suffered a heart attack during a basketball game in 2022 and says that during the experience, he felt as though he was watching it all unfold as a bystander.
He says he could see his son on the phone to triple zero, and the paramedics and nurses working on him with a defibrillator.
"It could have been [an] out-of-body [experience] … while the brain has got some oxygen supply and people are pumping your chest, there was still a subconscious factor occurring.
"But the big thing about it all [is] in my own mind, I said 'I'm not going anywhere'."
Since the experience, Phill has adopted a no-nonsense approach to life.
"I'm more stronger on my point of views and believe they're valid," he told Insight.
"I think we all worry too much about the little things. And we get upset about them.
"We should just brush them off and live our lives. And be a bit thankful when we wake up every morning that we're awake and be thankful when we finish the day that we can go to bed at night."
Since his brief brush with death, Phill has become more appreciative of life. Source: Supplied
Cerisse said even though her close call with death has given her ongoing health complications, it taught her several life lessons and made her more devoted to her faith.
"That near-death experience gave me a lot of realisations: life is short, and you really don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow," she said.
"You have to love the people around you. Make them feel like you love them every day."
Cerisse says her near-death experience has taught her to live in the present. Source: Supplied
"I wonder if it's a subconscious thing in your brain that wants to take you back to learning to accept things in life," she said.
"What I do know is that if I’m able to conquer the very thing that almost killed me, anyone can."
And for more stories head to , hosted by Kumi Taguchi. From sex and relationships to health, wealth, and grief Insightful offers deeper dives into the lives and first person stories of former guests from the acclaimed TV show, Insight.
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