I died and saw the afterlife – my deceased relatives turned me away at the pearly gates for an unexpected reason

Researchers claim to have discovered a ‘new dimension of reality’ after studying people who have risen from the dead.

A first-of-its-kind study published last week found that a significant number of people remain lucid for up to an hour after their heart has stopped.

The patients told researchers they saw deceased loved ones, hovered over their bodies and even engaged in high-speed police chases as they were brought back to life.

Some of them saw bright lights and ethereal figures, while others had more harrowing experiences, such as demons surrounding them.

Dr. Sam Parnia, senior study author and critical care physician at NYU Langone in New York City, said: ‘Although doctors have long thought that the brain suffers permanent damage about 10 minutes after the heart stops supplying oxygen, our research has found that the brain may show signs of electrical recovery long during ongoing resuscitation.’

These are the survivors’ first-hand accounts:

Delusions and dreams

Patient 1: “I heard my name over and over again. There were things like demons and monsters all around me.

“It felt like they were trying to rip off my body parts,” one patient recalled. In the upper right corner of wherever I was, I could see someone.

‘There was no face, but it was a male figure. He screamed my name and grabbed my hand before it was too late.” I reached out and felt someone pulling me towards them. I heard, ‘Is she breathing? Is she breathing?’

Patient 2: ‘I remember standing in a vast field with gray tents everywhere. There were anonymous figures. I remember walking away through a canyon. On either side of the gorge stood men in white robes with hoods that hid their faces. The last thing I remember is them all pointing at me. Then the world was swallowed up by gray.”

Patient 3: ‘A man came into my view and walked about two feet in front of me at a 30 degree angle, from a starting point maybe 10 feet away. He looked like a gangster from the 1940s. His nose was long and pointed. He had a white hairdo and a face, as they say; only his mother could love… He was scared, angry and hostile.”

Patient 4: “I (went to a house I shouldn’t have been in). (The police) caught me… (I thought about how to explain what I was doing in the house). Then I walked into a puddle… When I came out of the puddle, I wasn’t wet and melted into the sidewalk… There was a fisherman who sang a sailor’s song about me, and it rained.’ patient said.

Patient 5: “(I) felt like someone was holding my hand. It was very black, I couldn’t see anything.’

To see the light

Patient 6: ‘I remember a being of light… standing next to me. It loomed over me like a great tower of power, but radiated only warmth and love… I caught a glimpse of my life and felt pride, love, joy and sadness, all flowing within me. Every image was mine, but from the point of view of a being standing or watching… I was shown the consequences of my life, thousands of people I had interacted with and felt what they felt about me, saw their life and how I had influenced them. Then I saw the consequences of my life and the influence of my actions.”

Patient 7: ‘I went straight to a place of light. It was calm and immediate… The place where I was, I saw in a way analogous to the outside of an entranceway… There was one great being of love and many other beings of love… There was nothing but love , goodness, truth and everything that has to do with love. There was no room for fear or evil or anything other than this love. It was greater than all my best hopes or experiences (in this place). It was more than perfect and loving, as we know it in our human condition. There are no words to describe it. I was so happy to be there.’

Patient 8: “I remember going into a… tunnel. The feelings I experienced… were much more intense than (usual). The first feeling was one of intense peace. It was so calm and serene with an incredible amount of tranquility. All my worries, thoughts, fears and opinions were gone. The intensity of the peace was so incredible and overwhelming that there was no fear in what I experienced. I wasn’t afraid of where I was going and what to expect when I got there. Then I felt warmth… Then there was the longing to be home.’

Separating from oneself

Patient 9: ‘I could see what was going on (…) I was standing next to the bed, it was very strange.’

Patient 10: ‘I was no longer in my body. I floated without weight or physicality. I was above my body and directly below the ceiling of the intensive therapy room. I observed the scene unfolding beneath me… I, who was no longer the body that had just belonged to me, found myself in a position that was… more exalted. It was a place that had nothing to do with any kind of…material experience.”

Patient 11: “I was asked if I wanted to come home (i.e. there) or come back here. I told them that my two sons needed me and that I had to go back. I was suddenly back in my body and felt my aching joints flare up with pain. I really don’t remember what was happening around me at that moment, only that I was in pain.’

Medical treatment

Other patients recalled doctors working to restart their hearts

Patient 12: ‘As they tried to revive me and get my heart going again, I felt them using the paddles to get my heart going. I felt my body moving up and down.’

Patient 13: ‘I felt like someone was pushing hard on my chest. I tried to push them away, but my hands felt tied.”

Patient 14: “I heard my partner say (patient’s name) and my son say ‘mom’.”

Patient 15: “I remember looking at the nurse asking for help breathing, and then waking up in the intensive care unit.”

Patient 16: “I remember coming back and them putting those two electrodes on my chest, and I remember the shock.”

Patient 17: ‘I felt someone doing something on my chest. I couldn’t feel the actual compressions, but I could feel someone rubbing quite a bit.”

Reunion with loved ones

Patient 18: “I remember seeing my father.”

Patient 19: “I thought I heard my grandmother (who passed away) say, ‘You have to go back.’