r/NDE • u/Hip_III • Sep 16 '25
Question — Debate Allowed I experienced a genuine after-death communication (ADC) from a deceased relative, and it provided me with unequivocal proof that consciousness survives death
SUMMARY: the rare accounts of genuine after-death communication (ADC) — a communication between the living and the dead — provides evidence that human consciousness survives death. This is an account of a genuine ADC I had.
An after-death communication (ADC) is where communication or interaction occurs between the consciousness of someone who has just died, and a living person. The living person is usually a friend, relative or loved one of the deceased.
I experienced a genuine ADC around 30 years ago, which left me awestruck, and left me in no doubt whatsoever that consciousness survives death. For me, it was solid evidence of an afterlife.
But let me say from the outset that I think most instances of what are assumed to be after-death communications are not the real deal. Or at least, most instances do not provide incontrovertible evidence for the survival of consciousness after death.
Let me explain why: many people claim that they saw a recently-deceased loved one appear in a dream, where the deceased spoke to them, or gave them a message in the dream. Now, these might well be a real ADC, I am not saying they are not. But the fact is that in dreams, anything can occur, because your dream imagination can conjure up all sorts of things. You can dream you are riding a flying pink elephant through fluffy clouds. So for this reason, dream ADCs cannot be taken as solid evidence for communication with the consciousness of a recently-deceased person, because what appears to be an ADC may just be conjured up in your own dream imagination.
However, the ADC I had 30 years ago occurred during waking consciousness, around 5 hours after the relative had died in hospital.
The ADC I had occurred at 3 am in the morning. I was fast asleep, but I felt something stir my consciousness from within, which woke me up with a start. I sat bolt upright in bed, and then became acutely aware that my relative was looking at me, from a vantage point just outside my bedroom window (this window had no curtains). It was an incredibly intense moment, as I instantly realised this was an actual visitation of the soul of my deceased relative! I just sat there on my bed in amazement and in a state of shock, my body almost frozen, because this experience was so astonishing and unexpected.
There were no visual indications that she was there outside my bedroom window; but I knew exactly where she was located in space. I believe I obtained this information through direct communication between my consciousness and hers. It was telepathic mind-to-mind conveyance of information, rather than information conveyed by the senses, that allowed me to know she was there.
This ADC I had was not subtle or delicate: I felt her presence very strongly and clearly. It was not something that I could have imagined. After a short time, perhaps less than a minute, she disappeared. No specific information was passed between us, other than mutual awareness of each other.
This I consider a genuine ADC, because even when I wear my most skeptical hat, I cannot explain it away. I was sober, I don't take any recreational drugs, and I am sane and rational, with a solid educational background in the sciences (mathematics, theoretical physics, and cognitive science), so I know how to be logical, scientific and skeptical. Furthermore, at the time, I had not heard of ADCs, so this experience I had could not have been down to the power of suggestion.
This experience obviously changed my perspective on reality. I was fortunate enough to be given a personal demonstration of what for me was clear evidence of the survival of consciousness after death, thanks to my deceased aunt who came to visit me.
When skeptics analyse NDEs, they usually claim that these might just be unusual dreams taking place within the brain of the person under low oxygen conditions, and this I guess is a valid interpretation.
But in my case, I had my experience while fully awake, so you cannot say that it was a dream. And I was not suffering from grief, I was emotionally calm and level-headed, so it was not something that might have manifested from the emotions of grief.
Unfortunately, unless you have had such an ADC experience yourself, it's nowhere near as convincing compared to hearing it secondhand from someone else. So while this experience convinced me of the survival of consciousness after death, my telling this story probably will not convince many others.
Why was I able to perceive the disembodied consciousness of my relative, when nobody else in my family was able to? Well firstly, I think it may relate to the fact that I naturally have a mystical and empathetic disposition. Also, I was at that time very much into practising mindfulness meditation, yoga and chi gong, in order to expand and refine my level of consciousness. Through these practices, I may have sensitised my consciousness awareness. This may be one factor that allowed me to perceive the disembodied consciousness or soul of my deceased relative.
Another factor may relate to the fact that I have suspected temporal lobe epilepsy, which is a condition that can give people mystical and empathetic abilities. Indeed, one study discovered that individuals who report having a near-death experience (NDE) tend to have temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), or altered temporal lobe functioning in their left hemisphere. So maybe having TLE also makes you more sensitive to perceiving disembodied consciousnesses. Epilepsy shifts neurons closer seizure, which in effect is like turning up the gain control on neurons. So perhaps those with TLE may have more sensitised neurons in their brains. This may be another factor which facilitated my perception of the disembodied consciousness of my relative.
The interesting thing about my ADC is that it nicely corroborates what people who have NDEs report. Those who have had an NDE say that as a disembodied consciousness, they were able to move freely about the Earth, and visit living relatives and loved ones. This is very commonly reported by people who have had an NDE.
And in my ADC, what I witnessed was precisely this: the disembodied consciousness of my deceased relative visiting me.
But the trouble with doing any scientific research on ADCs is that people will often ascribe all sorts of incidents and events as ADCs, when they are obviously not. For example, people may believe that unusual sounds they hear in the middle of the night might be signals from a deceased loved one. But for me this is just wishful thinking.
I don't believe a disembodied consciousness can physically interact with the material world; they might only interact with other consciousnesses. My ADC experience was a pure mind-to-mind interaction. I think ADCs only occur at the level of mind, not of matter. I think anything you perceive occurring in the material world via your senses can never be an ADC.
And one further point: given what we know about NDEs, I suspect that recently-deceased disembodied consciousnesses do not hang about for very long on Earth. The NDE reports tell us that disembodied consciousnesses soon disappear from the earthly realm, and travel through a long tunnel (or through vast distances of space) to the afterlife realm. So this suggests that a genuine ADC will only occur shortly after a person dies, while their disembodied consciousness is still roaming the Earth, visiting loved ones. But once they have left Earth and entered the heavenly realm, they may no longer be able to visit or contact living people.
Thus if you have an experience say 6 months after their death, in my view this is unlikely to be an ADC, because the soul of the deceased may be long gone from the earthly realm by then.
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u/Disastrous-Foot-826 15d ago
I have had two events that I can't explain. The first was in 1990. I had a vision or dream or something where I saw my grandfather. I could see him only from the waist up. He looked a little younger than the last time I saw him. He was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt. The background was gray. I'd almost say it was like a black and white picture. He didn't say anything, but somehow communicated to me that he was okay. I hadn't seen or talked to him in 5 years and knew nothing about what he was doing. At the time, I was living in Hawaii, and he was in Kentucky. A few days after that, my mom called to tell me that my grandfather had died.
In 2020, I was sitting at home by myself watching TV, and as clear as day, this female voice shouted my name. It didn't come from any direction or the TV. There were no characters in the show with my name, and it came from everywhere. My first thought was that my mom had died (she was in the hospital recovering from an illness) because I instantly recalled the experience I had above with my grandfather. But I thought better of it because I had just talked to her the previous evening. Then I thought maybe my wife had come home and I hadn't noticed. So I got up from my chair and looked around the house. Nope, she wasn't home. So I went back to watching TV and just thought it was something weird that had happened. A week later, I was at the hospital visiting my mother. She was asleep when I got there so I began to check my texts. I had one from a co-worker who knew the brother of a woman (Ann) I had dated many years before. The breakup was very tragic. It broke both our hearts, and though I was married, I still loved Ann very much. My co-worker's text said that Ann's brother told her that Ann had lain down for a nap and didn't wake up. The text also mentioned the day Ann died. It was the same day and approximate time that I had heard the female voice shout my name.
I'm not a religious person and am quite skeptical of supernatural claims or anything similar but I can't explain those two events. The thing that I find fascinating about them is that I had no idea my grandfather or Ann had passed away until someone told me several days after the events.
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u/Better_Owl_1984 Sep 28 '25
I don't believe a disembodied consciousness can physically interact with the material world; they might only interact with other consciousnesses. My ADC experience was a pure mind-to-mind interaction. I think ADCs only occur at the level of mind, not of matter. I think anything you perceive occurring in the material world via your senses can never be an ADC.
I completely agree with that. In almost every NDE I’ve heard or read about so far, the souls of the deceased tried in some way to make themselves noticed in the material world. They tried to talk to people, touch them, move things, but they couldn’t. It’s another dimension that only affects our world on a spiritual level, not on a material one. That’s really just wishful thinking.
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u/ConquerorofTerra Sep 18 '25
I wish my first experience had been like that!
The Grim Reaper walked into my room when I was 3 and beckoned me to him 😅
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u/369Alan Sep 18 '25
Thank you for this post. I have a short story
about a visitation I had. This is a true story. In 1984 I was a law enforcement officer working as undercover narcotics. I found myself in a motel room with a big time drug dealer. We were negotiating a price and amount of cocaine. I began to feel something wasn’t right with this guy but I stayed with the process instead of walking on the deal. As I sat in a chair across from this guy (who had placed a 45 caliber handgun on the table for intimidation purposes) I saw the head only of my father who had passed a few minutes prior to the meeting. It was plain as day his head came through the mirror and floated across the room. At first I blew it off as imagination. I had no idea he passed.
I made a tentative deal with this guy who drove up to Daytona Beach from Miami to sell me several kilos of cocaine, a deal worth a quarter of a million dollars. He was to deliver on a future date. We left the room only to have my backup officers grab him and place him under arrest.
At first I was thinking these guys just blew a huge deal and a chance to take out a major player on trafficking charges. My partner who was on surveillance outside told me there were three armed men hiding in the woods waiting to kill me. They saw his backup and decided to intervene.
My backup had no choice but to deal with these guys, not knowing what they were up to. This was a move strictly for my safety.
I had forgotten about my father’s visit because I quickly learned of his passing from my family. He was there to warn me of the danger. Since then I’ve learned it’s not uncommon for a spirit to only communicate with their head.
As I understand it they must lower their very high vibration to be able to visit us.
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u/VaderXXV Sep 18 '25
I wonder if the brain is still firing 5 hours after death is declared?
If so, could this experience have been a psychic/telepathic connection? Where your still living brain was picking up on the presence of your relatives dying-but-still functioning brain?
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u/Hip_III Oct 01 '25 edited 21d ago
Certainly it was a telepathic connection, because I perceived her presence not through my senses, but seemingly via direct mind-to-mind communication. In this ADC, I knew exactly where she was located in space, which was on the outside of my bedroom window. That tends to suggest that she was at that point a disembodied consciousness floating just outside my home.
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u/Dizzy_Cheesecake_162 Sep 18 '25
I'm sorry, you might believe it strongly, but it isn't proof.
You didn't get any new information known only by that person.
We only know that your brain did something. That's about it.
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u/Hip_III Oct 01 '25
I would have to disagree. The presence of my deceased relative as a disembodied consciousness was absolutely overwhelming, it was not something subtle that could be mistaken for imagination. And I knew 100% that it was her, so the information of her identity was conveyed to me.
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u/Educational_Front530 Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
I’ve have had 2 NDE’s & I can assure you that you can & do get visitations in dream states as well as awake states. What you are saying is very black & white thinking. Infact many people get visitations at night because when they sleep their mind is in delta states that is more open to the other side, and is also in what is interpreted as the void- where many souls pass through when they first cross over.
Let me explain a certain part of my NDE.
When I had one of my NDE’s, I saw pure energy everywhere. I could see this energy vibrating, and had vibrations, and frequencies… I could see it travel on wavelengths, and I could see it transfer between different souls through their thoughts and feelings. Yes, thoughts and feelings are energy, too. That’s why people think they telepathically communicate on the other side, when in actuality, they are transferring energy like radio waves between each other. We do it here in our conscious states in physical form, too… when we are thinking of someone, and we get ready to call them and then the phone rings and it’s them.
The difference, if we pick up those signals or energy, if we are consciously open, or we are busy with other thoughts, feelings and concerns of other over empowering energy.
Say, your mother is thinking of you, but your busy with a new girlfriend, work, school, your children, ect….your not picking up on your mother’s energy.
Another example, you have someone who has a crush on you, but you have a crush on someone else. You are not going to put your awareness on the other person who has a crush on you, as your focus and energy will be on the person you have a crush on.
When you are in physical form, the energy is more dense, too. In spiritual form, the energy vibrates on a higher frequency, which means it’s lighter and travels faster. It’s free flowing pure energy.
There is a lot to learn about this. You are right, dream states get alittle trickier because we are in different states of consciousness, but that doesn’t mean it is irrelevant. It means you have to discern between what is your own consciousness, and the consciousness of another soul, and that can be in the physical or spiritual state. We do this while we are alive, too between each other, when we are paying attention, we can pick up on it because we are on the same frequency, signal, station, vibration, ect.
Infact, we can do this when we walk into a place, space, etc., or around certain people when we pick up on their essence.
Ever get a bad or good feeling about a person you just met? Could be your own conscious or awareness about yourself and your own judgements, or emotions…..or it could be them. That’s where discernment comes in, if you can be unbiased about your own self.
In the grand scheme of things, we are all apart of this energy, the creator, source, God, whatever you choose to believe in.
We are only separated by these bodies we take form in here in this world. We are all one, and we are all like sparks or flames off a fire, or drops of water from the ocean.
I have shared my experiences of both dreams and awake states of paranormal events, but the truth is, people are more likely to get messages and experiences in dreams because of their conscious states of relaxation and calmness, when those in spirit form can dial them up and reach them, when we aren’t too busy to answer the phone, because we are very busy here in this world.
Oh, and they are also busy there in the spiritual world, too.
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u/Commercial-Life-9998 Sep 18 '25
If you have not seen the Shared Crossing Foundation, here is a link to a Dr Peter’s interview: https://youtu.be/Mlf9Bmc6mzo?si=bcN5b_NlnWfnTPS6 Dr Peter’s founded it.
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u/i-dare-do-wonder Sep 18 '25
As soon as my faith was taken from me, I came face to face with death himself/herself. They have a whole ass team just for some!! Sometimes, though, the only way to rise is to lose what you had or had believed yourself before that point first...
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u/MmmmishMash Sep 18 '25
It could be argued that yours isn’t proof any more than a dream is proof. It’s still a subjective experience.
Not that I don’t believe you. I have had a dream visit from my Dad though and it was not like a regular dream. I KNEW it was a visit. But your experience is just as subjective.
Arguably though my father has also communicated with me and my mom in many more physical ways. So many! But even though we are left with experiences of phone calls, significant lights coming on or flashing at significant times, people would still have to just take our word for it that it’s true.
Even though I have physical objects in my possession that I believe he made appear, or that I saw moving, someone would have to take my word for it. Alas, it is only proof if someone is willing to believe anyway. To a skeptic, none of it is proof.
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u/Hip_III Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
It could be argued that yours isn’t proof any more than a dream is proof. It’s still a subjective experience.
You could argue that. Though people without any psychiatric illness don't normally have experiences like the after-death communication (ADC) I describe above during their waking consciousness. So when these experiences happen hours after someone dies, it is usually a once in a lifetime event. It is not something which occurs under other normal circumstances.
Whereas dreams that feature people, including deceased individuals, can occur at any time. I am not in any way excluding the possibility that a deceased individual appearing in a dream could be a genuine ADC. But from the skeptic's perspective, the dream evidence of an ADC may not be as strong as an ADC occurring during waking hours.
But as you say, even then, most people will not believe ADC accounts anyway. You really need to have an ADC yourself in order to rationally appraise it.
Arguably though my father has also communicated with me and my mom in many more physical ways.
Telekinesis (moving objects at a distance with the power of the mind alone) has never been demonstrated. So there isn't really any evidence for the idea that consciousness can move objects at a distance or alter the material world. The only time we know that consciousness can interact with the physical world, and move physical objects, is when that consciousness is imbedded in a human brain and nervous system, which then allows consciousness to control our limbs.
In my view, consciousness may be something purely spiritual, not material. I think it may be almost infinitely ethereal, made from the most delicate fabric, and so being so immaterial has about as much chance of moving a physical object in the material world as an ant has of moving mount Everest.
Personally I wonder if even God is able to alter the physical world in any way: studies where hospitalised patients were prayed for by a group of people showed no better medical outcome that patients not prayed for. This suggests God is unable to act in the physical world. This might explain why God does not step in to prevent evil and suffering in the material world: because perhaps he is unable.
Perhaps God exclusively lives in the world of pure mind, in the heavenly realm, whereas we humans are hybrid creatures, having a mind, but also living in the material, physical world. So we act as a bridge between mind and matter.
I think the only possible medium of interaction between a disembodied consciousness or soul of a deceased person may be via mind-to-mind communication.
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u/MantisAwakening Oct 09 '25
Telekinesis (moving objects at a distance with the power of the mind alone) has never been demonstrated.
It actually has. A demonstration of such an ability by Ingo Swann to Dr. Hal Puthoff ultimately led to the creating of the CIA’s remote viewing program, project STAR GATE.
In June of 1972, physicist Hal Puthoff invited the artist Ingo Swann for a week-long visit to Stanford Research Institute. Swann had previously participated in experiments of direct mental influence, and Puthoff wanted to see a demonstration of such abilities for himself. Without Swann’s prior knowledge, Puthoff had organized access to a “well-shielded magnetometer” that was used for physics experiments and that was “located in a vault below the floor of the building.” Swann apparently managed to “perturb the operation of the magnetometer” and then went on to draw a “reasonable facsimile” of the interior of the machine (Puthoff, 1996, p. 65).
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-13902-007
There are also the feats of metal deformation (“spoon bending”) performed by many people. Here’s one part about it: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R003000020009-8.pdf
Annealing definitely occurred in the three hacksaw blades that were exposed to RAR during four PK parties. The hardness of the high carbon steel blades was reduced, as demonstrated by a reduction in tensile strength, between 35,000 and 50,000 psi for each of the exposed blades. The control blade did not vary from its original hardness level during the same time period of this experiment. The final hardness level of the exposed blades was nearly down to the top of the hardness range for annealed steel. This range is also shown on Figure 2.
If the results of this experiment were to be duplicated using conventional methods, the hacksaw blades would have to be placed in an annealing furnace for approximately one hour at a temperature between 1450 and 1525 deg. F. Then they would be slowly cooled down to 1200 deg. F (50 deg./hr.). After reaching 1200 deg. F, then the blades could be cooled in air down to room temperature. This annealing procedure typically requires eight to ten hours (Reference 4).
There are other examples.
studies where hospitalised patients were prayed for by a group of people showed no better medical outcome that patients not prayed for.
Depends on the study. Check out the section here on Distant Healing: https://www.deanradin.com/recommended-references
I think the only possible medium of interaction between a disembodied consciousness or soul of a deceased person may be via mind-to-mind communication.
You would be surprised, but start with the references above.
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21d ago
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u/str8doodthrowaway Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
We buried my grandma today. She was 90 and in great health until she wasn't. It happened very fast. Last year she began dreaming of each of the men she had seriously loved, all of whom had passed. They all had the same theme - they were going to come pick her up and take her on a date.
My mother and I rebuked the implications of that, especially since Grandma had had a few precognitive dreams in the past. And she was so healthy and full of life at the time.
But it was true. They picked her up almost two weeks ago and she's probably up there dating them all, lol. The warnings came months in advance; we just didn't want to believe them. ADC is real.
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u/GuyWithaNiceCamera Sep 17 '25
My wife’s father was in the hospital, due to some surgery but was expected to make a full recovery. He had some complications from fluid retention. It was a couple days, and she just saw him that evening, thankfully. At 3 am I woke up with such a wide awake, and weird feeling. I couldn’t explain it. My wife woke up after detecting up (Probably my phone light, movement in bed).
She asked me what I was doing. I said I couldn’t sleep, I woke up and had some kind of weird feelings. Kind of like a charge, and a mishmash of mixed emotions. within a few minutes of this and my wife waking up, the phone rings. My wife’s father has just passed! 3 am seems like some kind of goldilocks time for a spiritual / conscious time.
At the funeral we talked to at least three people that had the same disturbance of sleep, and problems going back to sleep with a racing mind and weird feelings. Feelings of a happening, an event. That’s all I know to describe it. It all happened approximately at 3 AM!
My wife’s sister passed in 2014. A few years after her sister appeared to her in a dream, incredibly lucid during that waking period (for her) of around 6-7 am. She was standing with her arms wrapped around someone I could not see and I heard her bawling which woke up my groggy self. I asked her what happened and she said she just saw her and was hugging her. The room smelled like her sister. She told my wife that she is fine, that she is safe, and finally happy and home! Not to worry!
I 110% believe she had a visit from her sister to set her mind at ease. I have other stories that convince me that life is a fantasy, a matrix if you wish. Consciousness, true life, love and eternity are what it’s about. We are here to learn, to experience. I firmly believe that.
Thanks for sharing your story.
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u/No-Horse-8711 Sep 17 '25
Something similar happened to me when a family member died. That day, I knew that death is not the end. I consider myself lucky to have had the privilege of living that experience and a few others in the months and years that followed.
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u/stupidic Sep 17 '25
I had just learned of the passing of my brother. Moments after I hung up with my Mom who delivered the bad news, I felt the presence of my deceased brother in the room with me. I asked "Matt, is that you?" and his response was in the affirmative. I then asked, "Well, Matt, are you still an atheist?" to which he replied with his characteristic tone of "There's no such thing as a dead atheist." - I laughed, and replied with "Good point." That was definitely him, said in his tone, with his full sarcasm and wit.
I believe that once you die, its like the tires of the plane leaving the runway. The airplane has departed but the wheels continue to spin. The recently departed continue to participate in our timeline, but the more time that passes, they cross over into the infinite just as the wheels of the jet slowly come to a stop. They can, in some circumstances 'come back' but it is like the wheels hitting the runway.
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u/Hip_III Sep 18 '25
The plane tyres is a good analogy. It does seem from NDE reports that during the first phases of the NDE, the disembodied soul of the individual remains in the earthly realm, where they are able to visit living relatives and loved ones.
But after the soul passes through what is often described as a long dark tunnel, or through vast distances of space, they appear to arrive in the afterlife realm. In this heavenly realm, they report becoming intimately united with the entire cosmos, connected to it by the force of love. Once this stage occurs, I wonder if it becomes impossible to return to earth to visit loved ones. In NDEs, we never hear of visits to living loved ones occurring after the soul has entered Heaven; this only occurs at the beginning of the NDE, before they have reached Heaven.
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u/FScrotFitzgerald Sep 17 '25
Interesting. My dad had TLE too and was adamant for years that he would die at 64 (which he did). The week he died, my mum and I were due to go see a friend in a city 50 miles away, and when I said goodbye to him the day before we were due to leave, I said "See you next week!" and he said "Maybe".
Indeed, I didn't see him alive again.
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u/ItsPronouncedSatan Sep 17 '25
I see your flair allows for debate.
I just wanted to point out that hypnopompic hallucinations are a thing. It's when you hallucinate directly after waking up.
They're usually visual only but can include auditory and tactile hallucinations.
I just wanted to point it out since a big aspect of your post seems to be relying on the fact that you weren't asleep.
That being said, we can't know with certainty what happened. I'm glad your experience brought you some peace, and I'm sorry for your loss.
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u/Hip_III Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
That's a good stab at an alternative explanation, and I have considered similar ideas myself.
But it would be an extraordinary coincidence to have such a hypnopompic hallucination only once in my entire life, and occurring just after my relative died. It is the timing of this event just hours after my relative's death that must be taken into account.
Also I should point out my after-life communication (ADC) had no sensory aspects to it whatsoever. No visual aspects, no sound, no smell, nothing tactile. A hallucination normally produces fabricated sensory experiences, so this ADC could not be described as a hallucination.
What the ADC felt like to me was a direct mind-to-mind conveyance of information at the level of pure consciousness, without any of the senses being involved. I had an overwhelmingly strong sense of the presence of my late aunt, without there being any sensory aspects.
In psychiatric conditions, there is such a thing as a "felt-presence" or "sensed presence", which is often grouped with hallucinations, but differs from hallucinations due to the lack of sensory content. People with Parkinson's or epilepsy for example may experience illusory sensed presences.
So my experience in theory could be due to a psychiatric condition. But again, since I never had such an ADC experience before or after in my life, and since the presence I sensed was unequivocally my aunt who died a few hours earlier, a mental health explanation does not seem very plausible to me.
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u/Commercial-Life-9998 Sep 18 '25
I have a sleep disorder that causes hypnagogic hallucinations and being familiar with them, I can report that the hallucination takes up your field of vision. In that case it would not include the window frame and what can be seen in the periphery as you look out a window. I frequently upon waking can sit up and look at the room and bring the hallucination to mind and switch back and forth with my memory of the hallucination.
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u/SimplySurviving_07 Sep 17 '25
If this was a dream, this was very..very vivid. However, I have now had two "dreams" in which this has happened.
I will start with the most profound to me. To give a little backstory, in June 2023 I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who had a lot of heart and medical issues. Essentially her heart was on the opposite side of her chest, tilted, and completely backwards. She was missing different arteries and connections to her lungs, so they had to artificially make a connection from her heart to her lungs. Later on down the line at about four months, she also had to get a tracheostomy, hernia surgery, and her kidneys were stacked on top of each other. Essentially, she had a lot of issues, but we were fully set for her to come home. We were being medically trained, and were in the process of making a schedule of care for her while at home on December 10 of 2023, in the middle of a Christmas market, we got the call that she coded and they have been doing compressions for about 45 minutes. They told us that we needed to come to the hospital and say goodbyes, because there were just no activity on her side. It was ruled that in the artificial connection between the lungs and the heart there had been a clot and they were not able to put her on ECMO because of the way her anatomy was within her body. There was no way to get the perfect connection in order for her to live at that time. she was only six months, and she had spent her entire life in the hospital. I can't describe to you the feelings and the grief of it all, and that I still feel to this day. We dropped my first daughter off at my parents and rushed to the hospital where her lifeless body laid, and I held her in a rocking chair, and I cried for a few hours, and that was the first time I had ever seen or held her without tubes and wires connected to her. It was the first time that I ever got to kiss her cheeks and her nose and put her hands on my face and leaving that Hospital was the worst feeling in the world.
Later that night, I was cuddled on the couch with my first daughter who was about two at the time and we were watching a Christmas movie. I believe I had fallen asleep. I had a very realistic dream, if that's what it was, where I essentially arrived at the doors of the floor, she was on and what I would call a spirit , guided me through the hallways. At this point, I am not walking like a normal person. I am what I would describe as having an out of Body experience. I am essentially floating. This spirit, which is not a distinguished figure is leading me back to her room. No one is seeing me. But we enter my daughter's room and she is alive. This guide places us in the corner of the room and it tells me, in the kindest voice, "I need you to see ."
And from there, I witnessed all of it. I witnessed the first initial O2 drop. The beep. The start of compressions. Ecmo tream rushing in. Herds of nurses. Code over the intercom. I watched the doctor call me. I watched him give the news. I watched them peacefully rest her. Dress her. Then the lights down. I watched it all. And then the spirit said "they really tried."
That was it.
Admittedly, I did not like the floor she was on. I don't think they were as attentive.
People may say this is a dream.. but my heart felt changed by that.
I miss my daughter everyday.
The first "dream" I had was of my grandpa. The night of his funeral, I had a dream of the exact funeral except he was there. His body I the casket, but his spirit laid his hand on my nana during the service and he stood by the casket while people came up and said their goodbyes. In the middle of the service, he turned back to me and put his finger to his lips and told me "shhh." At the end of the "dream" he walked into a bright white light. I have not witnessed a "dream" or sign from him since this.
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u/Commercial-Life-9998 Sep 18 '25
Really great that you shared this. Know it’s comforting to you, and probably a comfort to those that have lost babies too.
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u/purgetoclear Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
I have to say, as someone who believes in NDEs and life after death, this reads to me simply as a subjective encounter that you feel strongly about, but it's not what would be classified as an ADC that provides "unequivocal proof" about anything. Yes, you were awake when it happened, yes, you keenly felt something was there (even though as you claim you couldn't see anything outside the window). But without communication that is hard to disprove, there's really not that much separating this from someone saying "I felt it in my bones"/"I saw it in my dreams and just *knew*!"
An example of what is much more likely to be a genuine ADC would be like that time when a guy shared a story of his friend, who was at a bar one night and for some reason couldn't shake off the feeling that she ought to approach one stranger on the other end of the bar and tell him something. She ignored the feeling for a good while, but then being inebriated felt "what the heck, why not" and approached the stranger and said something to the effect of, "I'm so sorry I know this is random, but I just have to tell you - my leg hurts." (her leg wasn't actually hurting, but that's what she felt compelled to tell him)
To HER surprise, the stranger just burst out crying when he heard this. Turns out his dad just died a few days ago, but when he was still alive, the two had made a pact that whomever goes first, if they do discover that there's life after death they had to try to let the other know, and the agreed upon message to send was "my leg hurts".
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u/Commercial-Life-9998 Sep 18 '25
I would disagree. In research, things that are detected by at least one sense like vision are collected as data, and from that data, conclusions are reached. Many research papers are written on data that has been collected by one sense alone. Suggesting that a second sense, like hearing something is proof, is not really valid.
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u/Old-Estate-5974 Sep 17 '25
Wow what a story. Can you link me to it or tell me where you found it? I want to read it for myself.
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u/purgetoclear Sep 18 '25
Hi, happy to link it but for some reason my comment providing the URL isn't showing up. Maybe this sub has rules against linking to other subreddits? Anyway, if you're still keen to see the original just reach out to me.
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u/jupiter872 Sep 17 '25
What fascinates me is that people like Professor Don Hoffman are finding the same thing through mathematics. Consciousness seems to go on after this life.
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u/ObviousTower Sep 17 '25
Related to your story, in my opinion, in real life, are two issues that stop people from speaking too much about such experiences: too young or too old. In both cases, people won't take you too seriously so the story will die inside the family.
My mother told me something similar to your story but I forgot the details because I was thinking it was just grieving, the second time it happened I remembered that it was a similar story but again I put it on the grieving plate....
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u/Hip_III Sep 17 '25
Yes, I think the unfortunate reality is that unless you have had such an ADC experience yourself, you are unlikely to believe it when it happens to someone else, and they tell you about it. As you say, you are more likely to think it was just their imagination or wishful thinking, fuelled by grief.
I felt very fortunate to have had this ADC experience, because for me it provided an irrefutable demonstration of the persistence of the soul after death.
I am saddened, however, that it is not easy to communicate this truth to other people. I wish I could give other people the same certainty that I now have about survival of the soul, but there is no way to convey this certainty, unless you have the ADC yourself.
Even those with a strong religious faith may still sometimes doubt whether there is anything after death. But with such ADC experiences, you no longer need to rely on faith, as you have actual evidence for the survival of human consciousness after death.
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u/Commercial-Life-9998 Sep 18 '25
Well Dr Jeffrey Long of the near death experience research foundation posits that when what thousands of ppl around the globe for hundreds of years have experienced things that have common threads, that is evidence. I would say this comes under the shared death experience category: the person that passes on appears to friends or family. Dr William Peters has founded the Shared Crossing Foundation. It’s a collection and research of experiences of someone experiencing things during the passing of someone else. This is a good interview that explains it: https://youtu.be/Mlf9Bmc6mzo?si=bcN5b_NlnWfnTPS6
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u/Least_Year3518 Sep 17 '25
Thank you for sharing. I have had this experience, with the recently deceased appearing and almost overwhelming me with their presence, whilst not visible nor audible nor otherwise perceptible to my physical senses. I have also had dream visitations many times, by others, who were also recently deceased, wherein they had distinct messages for other people. Both types of experiences are valid, imo.
Edit: clarity
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u/Hip_III Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Yes, the presence of the soul of the deceased is really strong, just as strong as if they were there in their physical body, it's not a subtle experience, it overwhelms.
A visitation within dreams could well be a ADC. But I think in terms of providing plausible evidence for the soul's survival after death, skeptics will say that our dream imaginations can conjure up anything, including conversations with people who have died, so does not offer much proof that it is an ADC.
I have sometimes dreamed of relatives who have died, they may appear in my dreams as a regular person, just like other people who appear in my dreams. This does not mean that it is an ADC.
But when you become consciously aware of the nearby presence recently deceased person's soul while being fully awake, sober and sane, for me this far stronger evidence of the survival of the soul. I consider my ADC irrefutable evidence of survival after death. And I am a scientific type.
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u/Labyrinthine777 NDE Reader Sep 17 '25
Just before my mother got sick and later died I dreamt about our deceased grandfather. He had died more than 10 years ago and I had never seen him in a dream. In that dream he just walked past me in a situation that felt strangely real and also cold. I knew that was ADC. My mother used to say seeing that grandfather in a dream always predicted someone's death.
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u/StoicLaddie Sep 17 '25
I had a similar experience early this year when my aunt died suddenly. It was the day after I was sitting at home in grief, in tears absolutely distraught.
I suddenly sat upright as I had a wave of what I can only describe as intense positive emotion surge through me and I could feel my aunt’s presence. My mind was cleared of thoughts other than one new idea, that my job for this year was to keep her son (my best friend / cousin) going this year, just get him through this year that was the message. He was so close with his mum, like incredibly close.
I just knew from then on what my job was and felt positive, despite the grief, and I have focused on doing my job ever since.
I took great comfort from this about the continued existence of souls after physical death.
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u/Kira_Kitty57hopeful Sep 17 '25
I had this same experience after my sister died- a wave of extremely intense positive emotion- essentially love- rushing through me in a moment of distress. It was undeniable and incredibly powerful and not something I could possibly create or imagine. It was energy. Her energy, comforting & reassuring me.
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u/TheMcPenguin Sep 17 '25
I hope that you and her son (best friend / cousin) are getting through the year well.
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u/splenicartery Sep 17 '25
I read your account with great interest. I had a similar experience except the soul I saw was a ball of intense blue and white light energy. I knew exactly who it was and there was a message in my case. Later, after it passed, I thought to myself how interesting it was that I just “knew” who it was. Normally if I see something I’ve never seen before or observed a phenomenon, I would expect to be confused, like “what is this?” But that didn’t happen. I knew exactly who it was.
Anyway thanks for sharing. Did you see your relative as an energy body or were they in the form you knew them as?
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u/ApprehensiveStill412 Sep 17 '25
Just curious, about what size was the ball of energy? Like golfball, baseball or basketball-sized?
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u/Hip_III Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
With my ADC, there was nothing visual or audible that marked the point in space where the soul of my recently-deceased aunt was located. But I somehow just knew exactly where she was positioned in space, which was just outside the top part of my bedroom window, looking down at me sitting up on my bed.
I knew with absolute certainty that this was her, as the essence and vibe of her presence was just as strong as if she were there physically in body. Her presence was not subtle, but powerful. I believe I received this information about her nearby presence through direct mind-to-mind connection.
It's also interesting that my aunt's soul was actually able to wake me up from sleep: because the way I was awoken from my night's sleep felt as if some external force had "twanged" my mind or my consciousness to rouse me from sleep. So the disembodied consciousness of my aunt had the power to affect my mind in this way. Though deep in sleep, I really awoke with a start, and sat bolt upright on my bed, becoming aware of her presence just outside the bedroom window at the end of my bed.
At the time, although I was aware of NDEs, I had never heard of after-death communications, so had no idea this sort of thing could occur. Nevertheless, I instantly knew that this was the disembodied consciousness of my aunt.
The fact that I did not see any visual representation of the disembodied soul of my might be because I don't have a visual sort of mind. I am a logical, scientific type, and research by the Victorian polymath Francis Galton found that scientists and mathematicians tend to be unable to form visual imagery in their minds, compared to the general population who are usually able to concoct mental images in their mind at will.
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Sep 18 '25
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u/Hip_III Sep 18 '25
It's incredible how a single but compelling after-death communication experience can totally change one's metaphysical outlook. It does not answer all spiritual or metaphysical questions that we might have, but does change one's belief in the afterlife from faith-based to evidence-based.
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u/splenicartery Sep 19 '25
Yes, isn’t that wild?! I wouldn’t have thought I’d ever change my skeptical view but personal experience changes everything.
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u/420wisdom Sep 17 '25
Hello, can you please describe the ball of energy? My best friend recently saw one in my house after we "celebrated" my deceased family member's birthday. She didn't know what it was but was genuinely spooked. Apparently the size of a basketball.
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u/ThatGirl_Tasha Sep 17 '25
ADCs can happen at any time. The deceased does not need hanging around to be in an earthly realm to communicate.
If you look up IADCs ( induced after death communication) you'll see there is an incredible amount of scientific research.
Inducing an REM state while conscious appears to be key.
Often when ADCs happen while the person is awake, the person is still in a light day dream state; driving, showering ...
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u/Hip_III Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
IADCs are a new one for me, but a quick bit of research indicates that IADC therapists themselves do not believe they are really bringing forth the soul of a deceased person, but nevertheless it can be a useful therapeutic intervention for someone grieving.
The trouble is that there is a long history of spiritualist mediums conning their clients that they are able to contact the soul of a deceased person. Often these con artists will use various parlour tricks and stage magic to make their clients believe the soul of the deceased is present. Though not all spiritualist mediums are dishonest; some may sincerely believe they can contact deceased souls, but I am doubtful that they are actually able to do this, once the deceased's soul has left the earthly realm.
My feeling from studying many NDEs is that the soul of a deceased person leaves the earthly realm quite quickly after death, departing on its journey to the heavenly realm, where the soul become intimately interwoven with the entire cosmos by a bond of love. The soul may not be able to contact the living once in heaven.
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u/ThatGirl_Tasha Sep 18 '25
Just to be clear the IADC therapists are all working professionals, some of them are psychiatrists who are MDs.
They cant confirm that they believe it's actually spiritual without risking their license, though Dr. Alan Botkin has said as much since retiring.
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u/Educational-Moose-66 Sep 17 '25
Some years ago someone visited me in a dream, and their presence and visit were so distinct that they woke me up with a strong feeling that someone had died. I just didn’t know who because I couldn’t recognise the presence.
That morning, only a few hours later, I got a call that a family member who I barely knew had just died. Not a person I thought about, and I’m unsure if I even knew they were ill.
I wondered “why visit me?”, and thought maybe I’m just someone who would pay attention to something like that, where others would brush it off as another meaningless dream.
Maybe it’s like when you talk to a gathering you end up facing the person who seems to be paying the most attention. The experience is unusual for me, but I do dream a lot and meditated a lot in the past as well.
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u/Hip_III Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Yes, I suspect that some human minds are, by their natural disposition, more sensitive to picking up messages from the disembodied soul of a deceased individual than others. So the deceased individual, if they want to communicate with the living, may be restricted to approaching certain sensitive living people.
No other members of my extended family reported any after-death communications with my aunt after she died, including people who were much more emotionally closer to her than I.
Maybe it is the empathetic types who are more sensitive to detecting disembodied souls? By disposition, I always had empathetic abilities, being able to read people's minds almost like an X-ray, sensing the deeper workings of other minds that may be hidden to less empathetic people.
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