“I Was Dead for Six Minutes—And What I Saw Still Haunts Me”

A Reddit user has shared a deeply unsettling account of a near-death experience that has stayed with them for over two decades. The anonymous post, shared in the NoSleep forum, describes what the user believes they encountered after being clinically dead for six minutes—and it challenges common notions of what the afterlife might look like.

According to the poster, the incident happened in 2003, when they were only 15 years old. A sudden medical crisis caused their heart to stop, leaving them unconscious in the middle of the street. Emergency responders were able to revive them on the way to the hospital, but what the individual remembers is what allegedly occurred during those six lost minutes.

“It Wasn’t Light or Peace—It Was Psychological Torture”

Rather than describing a bright tunnel or comforting presence, the user says the experience felt like emotional torment. They recall being in the presence of something that appeared childlike at first—but turned out to be manipulative and cruel.

“It played with me the way a cat plays with a wounded mouse,” the person wrote. “Not physically, but emotionally. It felt like a kind of soul-deep agony. Like the grief of losing someone you love—over and over again.”

There were no revelations, no spiritual insights, only a cryptic message. The poster claims they were told their “reward” would be a slightly better status among what was described as a “slave population”—unless they tried to spread the word, which would bring even more suffering.

“I Came Back, But I Was Changed”

Now in stable condition after surgeries and a pacemaker, the individual says they no longer view life—or faith—the same way. They say they don’t interpret what happened as divine or uplifting. Instead, it left them shaken and disoriented.

“I don’t thank God for anything anymore,” they wrote. “What I saw wasn’t salvation. It was something else. Something I still don’t understand.”

Doctors reportedly explained the experience as a common side effect of trauma or oxygen deprivation—essentially, the brain’s way of coping with intense physical stress. But for the person who lived through it, those six minutes felt endless—and real.

A Story That Raises More Questions Than Answers

While there’s no way to verify what happened during those six minutes, the story contributes to a growing number of personal accounts that offer a different view of what might come after life ends.

Rather than providing comfort or closure, this story invites reflection: What if the afterlife isn’t what we expect? And can we ever truly be prepared for it?