The man, who only gave his name as Schon, claims to have died after months of battling leukaemia when just eight-years-old. Schon was in the hospital at the time of his so-called near-death experience (NDE), when he was considered clinically dead. When Schon passed on from his physical form, he recalls reaching an empty space that filled him with peace.
He told the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF): “At first very briefly, like a still image, I saw myself below me.
“I don’t remember specific details of seeing my body or the room, but what came next, I vividly remember.
“I transitioned to see a white, glowing space, similar to those commercials where the entire area is near-blinding white.
“However, there is no definition to the space, so it seemed like an endless void.”
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According to the NHS, NDEs are not considered real instances of a person dying and coming back to life.
The NHS said in 2014: “A more accepted definition of death is when brain stem death occurs, which is when all neural activity in the deepest brain ceases.
“While it is possible to keep the heart functioning using life support systems, a person with brain stem death has permanently lost the potential for consciousness.
“The existence of an ‘afterlife’ remains a matter of belief, not scientific proof.”
According to Dr Sam Parnia, director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City, many NDE accounts share similar threads.
Common elements include out-of-body experiences, visions of flying through a tunnel or seeing deceased relatives.
He said during an OZ Talk: “They often say that they didn’t want to come back in many cases, it is so comfortable and it is like a magnet that draws them that they don’t want to come back.
“A lot of people describe a sensation of separating from themselves and watching doctors and nurses working on them.”