A man who was dead for up to 45 minutes before being resuscitated has detailed what he saw in the ‘afterlife’.
More than two decades ago, former bodybuilder Vincent Tolman claims to have witnessed heaven when he fell into a coma after taking supplements that he and a friend had purchased online.
He fell unconscious on January 18, 2003, and subsequently went into a weird state where he could see himself lying on the ground.
Recounting the traumatic, but powerful, near-death experience, Tolman said: “So they think I was dead for at least 30 to 45 minutes before they found me, but I was cold, like cold to the touch.
“Back in the day, I was an amateur bodybuilder, I was taking a fairly new supplement. Turns out, the supplement was toxic, and I ended up aspirating in a public bathroom.
Vincent Tolman ‘died’ for up to 45 minutes before being resuscitated (Insider)
“So I had passed out and started to vomit, and I aspirate on that vomit and and I ended up dying right there on the bathroom floor.”
Suddenly, Tolman explained how he was transported to a ‘very comfortable movie chair’ and that he was watching his death unfold from the comfort of what he believed was a theater.
He continued: “The movie was the scene of this body on the ground, and I was looking at everything from above. But what’s weird is it didn’t feel like it was me at all – even though I was sitting there looking at my own dead body, I couldn’t recognize it.
“It would almost be like going to a movie, like a real movie, and seeing someone dressed like you and looking like you on the movie, but you’re like, that’s not me, because he’s over here watching the movie – that’s what it felt like.
Tolman’s death was caused by a ‘toxic’ supplement he bought online (Submitted)
“So I had no idea that what I was watching was my own death.”
The detachment was so strong that he questioned the ‘director’s’ decisions in what was included in the ‘movie’ – explaining how he had a background in film and TV, critiquing why the production included the thoughts of everyone in the restaurant, including the cook.
This telepathic awareness struck him as overdone, strange, and lacking artistic intent, reinforcing the surreal, movie-like quality of the experience.
Tolman then claims to have witnessed the medics bag his body, and he could hear one of the paramedics thinking to himself in the back of the ambulance.
The former bodybuilder was placed on life support having fallen into a coma (Submitted)
“And as he was doing that, I actually saw light, a real light, start glowing from inside this rookie medic,” he shared.
“And it felt as if like someone put a light bulb inside his shirt, like light was actually coming out from his heart space
and out of nowhere, this really strong voice says, this one’s not dead.”
Motivated by this overwhelming sense, the medic broke protocol, unzipped the body bag, and began checking for signs of life. Though he found no pulse, he felt a spark near the Tolman’s inner thigh – just enough to justify attempting resuscitation.
As the body was transferred to the hospital, Tolman began to feel the straps being secured on his arms. Still in this strange observer state, he was confused by the sensation of being physically restrained.
Tolman explained that was the moment it dawned on him – that the ‘movie’ featured his body.
Someone whose friend flatlined for three minutes has explained how they ‘saw what hell is like’—and their description of the so-called fiery chasm may surprise you.
You wouldn’t believe how many conflicting ideas there are when discussing what happens when you die.
Those who practise Hinduism believe a person’s soul is transmigrated into another body so they may experience another bout of life.
A man who apparently experienced hell said it was the opposite of its stereotypical fiery description (Getty Stock Image)
Meanwhile, Christians believe you either enter through the pearly gates of heaven or are punished for eternity in the burning pits of hell.
But according to one Redditor, death for their friend was a bit more of a frosty experience.
Responding to the question, ‘People who legally died for a few minutes and came back, what was it like?’, the poster claimed their pal had a three-minute taste of the afterlife.
He explained they had initially suffered a stroke after overdosing on drugs and that he’d been wheeled into an ambulance by medical professionals.
However, his heart flatlined as he was making his way to the hospital, causing medical experts to declare him clinically dead.
It’s fair to say doctors were not expecting him to rise again just three minutes later and eventually make a miraculous full recovery.
“He remembers the stroke and being wheeled to the ambulance on a stretcher,” the Redditor revealed.
.jpg)
The man assumed the event it was a ‘warning for him to change his life’ (Getty Stock Image)
“Then he felt like he was floating under ice cold water, and it was dark, but he wasn’t really thinking or feeling anything emotionally, just existing and knowing it was very, very cold and he couldn’t see.
“Then he woke up, and the EMTs were kind of freaked out because his heart had stopped long enough that they figured he was done.”
According to the post, the man was convinced he’d experienced ‘hell minus the knowledge of suffering’ during his three-minute death.
“Like a toned-down preview, and thought it was a warning for him to change his life,” the user mused. “Sadly he didn’t stay clean for long.”
Interestingly, the OP’s friend isn’t the only person who claims to have experienced ‘hell’, with one social media user writing: “Wow this reminded me of a dream of my mom she told me about while I was a kid.
“She said she woke up, engulfed in a room of flames and people screaming. Then she blinked and it was gone. She was convinced that was a sign she was going to hell. She’s cleaned up since then and is a really good person.”
Another claimed the freezing temperatures the man allegedly experienced is ‘actually supposed to be what hell is like’.
“You’re alone in the dark, aware of being alone in the dark, for eternity. No fire, no demons torturing you. Just – eternal darkness and the awareness that you’re alone.”
Another took a more scientific approach to the conversation, remarking that the poster’s friend was probably ‘experiencing the most basic of sensations’.
“His brain processing the last few moments of life with the remaining energy available the best it could. The miracle is that he woke up, not what he experienced while DOA.”
A former US Marine who was declared dead for 28 minutes after being struck by lightening has revealed what he saw when he ‘left his body’ behind on Earth.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million.
But in 1975, Dannion Brinkley, a successful businessman, athlete and veteran, was that one.
Brinkley had been holding a phone to his ear when the bolt of lightening struck a lightening pole, causing it to travel down the phone line and slam into Brinkley’s body.
Recalling the incident, he said (via 8 News Now): “It went into the side of my head above my ear, it went down my spine. It welded the nails of the heels of my shoes to the floor. It threw me up in the air, I see the ceiling, it slams me back down, a ball of fire comes through the room and blinds me. I am burning. I am on fire. I am paralyzed.“
Brinkley was declared dead after being struck by lightening ((Photo by Wild Horizons/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Brinkley recalled leaving his body, and it wasn’t until 28 minutes later that he returned to it – after it had already been taken to the morgue.
Things didn’t just stop for Brinkley during that time though, and he’s since spoken out about his experience to offer insight on ‘what happens when you die’.
According to Brinkley, he experienced the feeling of floating along with the ambulance that was taking his body to hospital, and he watched from above as doctors declared him dead.
He believes his consciousness traveled through what he described as a tunnel, where he encountered a spiritual being of light in a ‘Crystal City’.
Then, Brinkley witnessed a replay of his entire life in a ‘360 degree panorama’.
Brinkley described visiting a ‘Crystal City’ (T&H – Afterlife)
“You watch it from a second person point of view,” Brinkley claimed in an YouTube interview on T&H – Afterlife.
Brinkley then said the being asked him: “In the life you just reviewed, what difference did you and God make?”
While many people might be skeptical of Brinkley’s account, he had the chance to reaffirm his experience with death when he suffered not one, but two other near-death experiences.
Brinkley’s second experience came in 1989 while he was undergoing open heart surgery. During that incident, Brinkley recalled being ‘reunited with his angelic instructors’, and said he learned how to ‘use his new psychic and spiritual gifts to aid the dying and the desperate’.
His third – and hopefully final – near death experience came when he was undergoing brain surgery.
In a bid to share his story Brinkley has written a book titled Saved by the Light, and he’s stood firm against critics who don’t believe the details.
“When you learn you don’t die, when you learn you’re a spiritual being, you’re not going to go to hell, that’s enough to inspire you to change,” he said, per 8 News Now.
Brinkley has taken action by becoming a hospice volunteer and offering counselling to terminal patients, specifically fellow veterans.
A priest who claims to have visited hell has shared what it’s like down there, admitting he ‘wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy’.
In 2016, priest Gerald Johnson suffered a heart attack and briefly died as a result.
During this time, Johnson claims to have visited hell and some unexpected music was apparently playing there.
While it’s known that heavy metal music is sometimes used as a means of ‘torture’, it wasn’t Metallica that was playing down in hell.
According to Johnson is was Rihanna‘s music that was being blasted out – her track ‘Umbrella’ in particular.
Taking to TikTok, Johnson explained that after seeing hell itself he ‘wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy’, and described exactly what he witnessed down there.
He said: “My spirit left my physical body and I thought that I was going upwards, because I thought I had done so much good in this lifetime and helped so many people and basically made decisions that were godly decisions.
“As opposed to going up I went down. There was a section in hell where music was playing and it was the same music that you hear on the Earth, but as opposed to entertainers singing it, demons were singing it.”
Pastor Gerald Johnson had a heart attack in 2016. (geraldajohnson/Instagram)
He went on: “It was some of the same lyrics that we hear here, I knew that on Earth a lot of the lyrics and the music and the songs are inspired by demons.
“Every lyric to every song is there to torment you as to the fact you didn’t worship god through music while you were on the Earth.”
Among the songs he says he heard demons singing as a means of tormenting people was ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna, while the denizens of hell also had ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin in their repertoire.
Fans are eagerly waiting for Rihanna to drop new music. (Kayla Oaddams/WireImage)
While Rihanna’s music might be hellish for some, many of her devoted fans are crying out for the songstress to release her next album as she hasn’t released one since 2016.
She’s long been teasing what’s been dubbed as ‘R9’ and got fans hopes up when the ‘We Found Love’ singer said she wanted to drop the album by the end of 2023.
Fast forward to summer 2024 though and we’re still waiting.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight earlier this month, Rihanna said: “Now, I’m prepared to go back in the studio. […] I’m gonna start.”
The mom-of-two added that she’s ‘starting over’ with the album, but won’t be completely abandoning the songs that she’s made has already.
Hell needs some new songs, RiRi!
A scientist who suffered a medical emergency and died for a total of six minutes has detailed what she saw in the ‘waiting room’.
While many stories about death have been told to date, a lot of intrigue remains surrounding what happens in the afterlife and when ‘you die’.
Back in 2016, Anna Stone ‘died’ for a total of six minutes after sustaining a serious medical episode, which led to her experiencing an out-of-body episode.
Stone said she watched on as healthcare professionals gave up on her in the emergency room, while she also visited her daughters before re-entering her body.
“That’s what my life has been, all about serving, service to others, and service to myself and being a better mother,” Stone said on the Next Level Soul podcast.
The scientist died for six minutes (Getty Stock Photo)
Prior to her ‘death’ in 2016, Stone was in a difficult spot in her life, drinking heavily and even taking drugs to deal with life’s pressures.
“I was married to somebody that I barely knew, and it was a nightmare, and I just wasn’t doing well,” she said in a video posted to YouTube. “I couldn’t keep a career on track. It was all just falling apart and I was really bitter and angry and very selfish, self centered, all about me and my problems.”
Before her near-death experience, Stone had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had problems with her periods.
“I kind of made a joke and I said, ‘I think I’m bleeding to death’, and that’s the last thing I remember saying before I woke up in an ambulance,” the scientist recalled.
“The next thing I’m in a hospital bed. I had this feeling come over me that I can only describe, is that I knew I was dying. It felt like I was going to explode. It’s too much. I couldn’t handle it. Then suddenly I popped out of my body.”
She then recalled being in what she could only describe as a ‘waiting room’, saying: “I was standing to the right of me, in the room… and then I noticed if I looked over to the left, I wasn’t in the hospital anymore… I knew it was somewhere I was supposed to be waiting for something to happen.”
Anna Stone recalls ‘popping out of her body’ (Next Level Soul Podcast)
In this ‘waiting room’, there was no tunnel, no ghosts, and no spirits of dead relatives – it was simply just a ‘blank space’.
After realizing she ‘didn’t have a body’, Stone said she watched on as doctors tried to save her via CPR, with one doctor ultimately being able to save her.
The scientist says she re-entered her body via the belly button, which she described as hurting ‘like absolute hell’.
The terrible ordeal has led to Stone speaking about her experiences and offering advice to those who are going through hardships in life.
She added: “I’ve been helping other people with trauma backgrounds, I can help other people. I had previously been an alcoholic, I would get home and drink 12 beers: now I can’t touch alcohol at all.”
