'Dead for 8 minutes': Woman explains what she saw on the other side

Time of India

2 days ago

Source: X
'Death is an illusion, and our time on Earth isn't the end,' said Brianna Lafferty.
Not a metaphor.
Not a mantra.
A message — delivered from the brink of death itself.
In 2017, at just 25 years old, Brianna lay lifeless in a Texas hospital bed.
Her heart had stopped. For eight minutes, she was gone. But when she came back — breathing again, eyes open — she brought with her a staggering story of what lies beyond.
'It changed the course of my life – what I feared no longer had power over me and what I used to chase didn't seem important anymore,' she told The Daily Mail. 'I came back with a sense of mission and deep reverence for both life and death.'
Years of suffering that led to this epiphany
Brianna's brush with death came after years of suffering from a rare genetic brain disorder called myoclonus dystonia, which caused painful muscle spasms, nerve pain, and insomnia so severe she sometimes went four days without sleep.
In 2017, after catching the flu, her health rapidly deteriorated. 'My body had basically just given out,' she said. 'I was incompatible with life.'
With her mother at her side, Brianna stopped breathing. Her heart gave out. For eight minutes, she was clinically dead. And then, somehow — her heart started beating again.
But what happened in between, she said, changed everything.
As she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard a voice ask, 'Are you ready?' When she said yes, she entered what she described as 'complete darkness.'
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'I was completely still, yet I felt fully alive, aware and more myself than ever before. There was no pain, just a deep sense of peace and clarity.' However she said that she couldn't remember her physical identity and felt a sense of weightlessness.
'Everything happens at once there, as if time doesn't exist, yet there was perfect order.'
Brianna said she traveled through a bright blue tunnel filled with ones and zeros, which she believes symbolized the mathematical structure of the universe.
That tunnel led to a white room without windows or doors, filled with numbers, before she entered a series of vivid, dream-like landscapes.
In one scene, strange beings slid down snow-covered trees. When she thought about how much she disliked snow, the scene instantly changed into a lush spring setting.
She learned to fly. Crashed into a pole. Lost an arm — and watched, fascinated, as it grew back, without pain.
Eventually, she arrived at a barbed wire fence.
On the other side stood a mountain, a farm, and a house. Other beings passed through, but Brianna could not.
Her final stop was a room where seven powerful beings presented her with a scroll. Just as she was about to open it, her ego — her sense of self — returned.
So did her consciousness.
Back in her body, she felt like she had been away for months. In reality, just eight minutes had passed. 'The years leading up to my near-death experience had been filled with chronic illness, confusion, and pain,' she said.
Source: X
Brianna had first shown symptoms at age 10 — muscle spasms, nerve pain, anxiety, depression, and crushing insomnia. For years, doctors had no answers.
Eventually, she was diagnosed with myoclonus dystonia, a rare neurological movement disorder caused by a genetic mutation. Fewer than 5,000 people in the U.S. are believed to be affected.
Though not usually fatal, the disorder had devastated her physically and mentally, leaving her vulnerable to the very complications that nearly ended her life.
A return that gave her a new sense of self
Recovery after her near-death experience wasn't immediate. But she fought back. Today, she lives in Colorado and works as a death and spiritual guide, helping others navigate the emotional, physical, and existential realities of chronic illness, dying, and transformation.
In 2022, she underwent deep brain stimulation — an experimental surgery in which a battery-powered stimulator (like a brain pacemaker) was implanted in her chest.
It sends electrical signals to the brain to control her symptoms.
She called the procedure 'hugely successful,' adding that it has significantly reduced the severity of her condition. Looking back, she no longer resists anything — not pain, not suffering, not the unknown.
And while she admits she's a little scared of having another near-death experience — 'the recovery is tough' — she embraces whatever comes next.
'I live with a heart full of gratitude instead of anger now,' she said. 'Here's to the power of hope, resilience, and the quantum leap that transformed my life.'