One of the most daunting experiences a human can endure is being close to dying. While some escape the claws of death without experiencing any changes in them, others come back just not the same. There are many theories trying to explain what happens to us when we are dying. However, there is no definite answer. Yet, many people candidly share what they felt during their near-death experiences and what effect they had on them.

When somebody created a thread on Reddit asking “Have you ever felt a deep personal connection to a person you met in a dream only to wake up feeling terrible because you realize they never existed?” one user found a perfect place to share his chilling experience. He said that his near-death experience was so strange that it took him three years to recover. Scroll below to read his story and find out why. (Facebook cover image: Guian Bolisay)

More info: reddit.com

“Throw away account cause this is really personal.

My last semester at a certain college I was assaulted by a football player for walking where he was trying to drive (note he was 325lbs I was 120lbs), while unconscious on the ground I lived a dream life.

I met a wonderful young lady, she made my heart skip and my face red, I pursued her for months and dispatched a few jerk boyfriends before I finally won her over, after two years we got married, and almost immediately she bore me a daughter.

I had a great job, and my wife didn’t have to work outside of the house when my daughter was two; she [my wife] bore me a son. My son was the joy of my life, and I would walk into his room every morning before I left for work and doted on him and my daughter. I was living the best life possible.

One day while sitting on the couch I noticed that the perspective of the lamp was odd, like inverted. It was still in 3D but… just… wrong. (It was a square lamp base, red with gold trim on four legs and a white square shade). I was transfixed. I couldn’t look away from it. I stayed up all night staring at it, the next morning I didn’t go to work, something was just not right about that lamp.

I stopped eating, I left the couch only to use the bathroom at first, soon I stopped that too as I wasn’t eating or drinking. I stared at the lamp for three days before my wife got really worried, she had someone come and try to talk to me, by this time my cognizance was breaking up and my wife was freaking out. She took the kids to her mother’s house just before I had my epiphany…. the lamp is not real…. the house is not real, my wife, my kids… none of that is real… the last ten years of living the life are not real!

The lamp started to grow wider and deeper, it was still inverted dimensions, it took up my entire perspective and all I could see was red, I heard voices, screams, all kinds of weird noises and I became aware of pain…. a s**t ton of pain… the first words I said were “I’m missing teeth” and opened my eyes. I was laying on my back on the sidewalk surrounded by people that I didn’t know, and lots were freaking out, I was completely confused.

at some point a cop scooped me up, dragged/walked me across the sidewalk and grass and threw me face down in the back of a cop car, I was still confused.

I was taken to the hospital by the cop (seems he didn’t want to wait for the ambulance to arrive) and give CT scans and s**t.

I went through about three years of horrid depression, I was grieving the loss of my wife and children and dealing with the knowledge that this life experience never existed, I was scared that I was going insane as I would cry myself to sleep hoping I would see her in vivid dreams. I never have, but sometimes I see my son, usually just a glimpse out of my peripheral vision, he is perpetually five years old, and I can never hear what he says.

EDIT (24 hours after post): never thought anyone would read this life story, I changed a line so that it no longer seems that my 2-year-old daughter bore a child.

I have never seen Inception or the Star Trek episode so many have mentioned (but I will eventually)

I will not do an AMA

I’ve had many PM’s describing similar experiences while being in a coma and three posters stating such experiences are impossible, I’d say more research needs to be done on brain functions. Pre-med students don’t assume you know everything.

A few have asked if they can write a book/screenplay/stage play/rage comic etcetera, please consider this tale open source and have fun with it.”

Image credits: Eric Perez (not an actual photo)

While some people were completely blown away by the story, others tried to find an explanation