Visions at Death

Let's explore the phenomenon of those who experience visions at death. The following three stories are not embellished in any way so they may seem mundane. If you share your story all I ask is that you do not embellish it in any way as well. I promise not to say, "That's it?" to anyone.

My grandmother, a Christian, passed away on January 11th. Several hours before her death she started seeing "clouds" and "four figures in the clouds." A few hours later she began mumbling, looked up, smiled, then was gone.

Sam Kennison, the famous comedian from the 80's had a similar experience: "Kinison got out of his car and fell to the ground, and LaBove picked him up and held him until help came. As they sat on the road, LaBove reports that Kinison was looking down the road and laughed and was talking to somebody and said, 'No, not now.' Then he laughed and said, 'No, not yet,' and laughed again. He said, 'Ok, ok,' then died in the arms of his best friend." (See:HERE).

Such reports are numerous. As a child, I watched a friend of my grandparent's die. Immediately before passing he sat straight up in bed and said, "Oh! It's beautiful!" Then passed away. I didn't know the man personally and it differs from my grandmother who experienced her vision hours before her death. I am forced to rule out the "chemical process of death" interfering with the brain in her case or like with NDE's.

What do you think is going on here and do you have any similar stories? Are these people actually seeing Jesus, angels, or loved ones returning to take them home? Note: This thread is not about NDE's where someone experiences something in an unconscious state but about those who are alert and awake and see things on their death bed.

[edit on 1/24/2008 by AshleyD]

I was not there when this happened but my father told me about it. My grandfather had been ill for quite some time and was always in and out of hospital. One night my Dad had a phone call from one of the nurses saying he better come down because my grandfather was basically going to die that night. So my dad went down and was standing next to my grandfather watching him die. Anyway from what my dad has told me as my grandfather was dying he had a massive smile on his face and was waving his hand. My dad couldn't tell if he was waving at someone or saying goodbye? I like to think he was waving at my other relatives or maybe an angel?

reply to post by Nerf


Anything is possible. About 40 years ago my mother-in-law said she had an angel come to her while she was on her death bed but her experience was closer to a near death experience as she was unconscious and actually argued with the Angel to let her stay for the sake of her children. Thank you for telling me about your grandfather. I wasn't there when my grandmother saw the clouds and figures but only when she was mumbling and looking up right as she passed. Does your father think your grandfather was waving at him or someone else? Or is it still unknown?

[edit on 1/24/2008 by AshleyD]

Awesome post, this topic is one of my original reasons for joining ATS and I would like to comment on my Grandmothers account of her near death experience.

20 years ago she had an operation to remove a veirocose vein and basically the Anaethitist gave her too much and her heart stopped. Her account starts with the usual floating above the operating table listening and seeing everything the doctors were doing to try and resuscitate her.

Then she was pulled into a room where she was met by an old long deceased Aunt who calmed her and said to her..."its not your time Eve". This room she was in she described vividly as being made from colours not seen by the visible eye and the serenity was immense.

The surgeon was left stunned and dumbfounded when my Nan told him everything he said and did while she was clinically dead on the operating table.

My grandmother had a near death experience on an operating table. She basically died for a little bit but they brought her back for a few more months or so. She said she was walking through a tunnel towards a light and she saw a bunch of people who were already dead but I don't think she could communicate with them before she got brought back. I was just a kid but I got the feeling she was frustrated that she didn't get to talk to my already deceased grandfather when she was there.

I have been learning about the Tibetean book of the Dead and they tlak about it being important to be conscious at the moment of death because that is also the moment of rebirth.

when you pop out of your body you're conscious even if you weren't well you were in.

as soon as you're out God guides you and it's pretty intense...in a awesome way.

the colors are amazing then you get to a circle that swirls with colors in it, you go through that in like the mid way point to God. then you talk to God in a place, but you don't talk with words, only feelings.




[edit on 24-1-2008 by Shawn B.]

reply to post by AshleyD


Yeah it is a really strange thing, definatley something that I would like to look into further. My father thinks that he was waving at someone else because he had his eyes closed the whole time and was not waving in the direction of my father but, more or less waving straight up at nothing. Things like this make me wonder what I will see when I die.

I have watched two people die in my lifetime (49 Years)

The first was my grandmother (September 2000)
During the last day of her life, there were things she did which made us aware that she was seeing things unknown to us. Once she lifted both her arms up into the air, as if reaching out to someone far off. At one point, as I sat beside her bed, she was looking at me, then looked behind me and asked, “Who is that?” Of course I turned and no one was there. When she drew closer to death, as she lay in bed, she did a lot of thrashing around, moaning and hollering. When death arrived, as I was sitting next to her, she lifted off of her pillow, made the most horrible, grimacing face of pain I had ever witnessed, grit her teeth and passed. What I observed was not pleasant at all. It actually looked as if someone ripped her out of her body against her own will.

The second person was my father (October 07, 2007)
Dad’s death was not as active as my grandmother’s. The only thing dad did the last hours of his death was that he moaned and hollered loudly for about 8-12 hours before passing. I have to add that the moaning and hollering were very disturbing. Before dad passed, the moaning and hollering had ceased and he passed quietly.

As a footnote, both had cancer and both had been injected with morphine. The last hours of my dad’s death I was having to inject him every hour with a syringe of morphine. Hospice “assumed” the hollering was from pain. I know someone will want to know, since I am a Christian, "Did they believe in Jesus?" Yes, both did indeed believe in Jesus. I have tried to understand the process of both deaths in comparison to the likes of other's, such as presented here so far, "happy, smiling, etc." But do my best not to make any judgements, since I have no idea what was going on withinn them. (heart)

I don't think this is exactly similar but I think I've met Jesus twice. Of course, they were in dreams, so surely there's the chance they were simply figments of my imagination. However, the feeling that I had from meeting with him both times was unlike any other feeling I've known.

The first time he touched my knee, and I felt that feeling. The feeling was great, but there was something about the feeling that told me if I kept feeling it I would no longer be on this earth, so I woke up from that dream.

The second dream the dream was about how I am good enough live how jesus lived, And i felt that feeling again. I'm not sure they were exactly the same feeling, but they were certainly both feelings unlike any other feelings. Just a warmth that's hard to describe. Again I felt like if I had kept feeling this I would not be here today, so I woke up from that dream. What was interesting was the feeling stuck with me slightly past the dream, and whatever was causing the feeling felt like it had stopped itself, but I still felt the feeling, and then left, and that's when I stopped feeling that feeling.

Not exactly similar to these experiences you're talking about, but I did have a feeling that both experiences would have meant an end to my earthly existence so that's I posted this in here.

my grandmother, Little Mama, was dying of cancer. Just before she passed, she began to smile and spoke of seeing angels.

Posey: That sounds really scary. I can see how cancer and morphine would interfere with one's passing but if I saw what you had seen, I'd probably feel very disturbed.

Mussel: That's awesome. My grandmother never used the term angels, only "figures." That would make sense if you would not recognize your loved ones who died when you were only a baby as in my grandmother's case. That is a lovely account of your grandmother.

The topic is something I've been trying to research. So far, I have reached two things:

1. Experiences like these share too many similarities to be written off as figments of the imagination. But with that said,

2. The experiences hold too many discrepancies to be indicative of one thing happening to everyone after death.

My paternal grandfather died in 1992. I was very young, but I remember a vision that was associated with his death; this was witnessed by aunts and uncles by his bedside, who later recounted it to the rest of the family.

My grandfather was seen walking down a path with The Virgin Mary, holding a conversation. The scenery was apparently beautiful, with roses growing on either side of the path. The conversing figures stopped a little way down the road, and my Grandfather returned to his body. I believe he died not too long afterwards.

In my recent research, Mary isn't a dominant aspect of such experiences -- in fact, I haven't read any experiences that mention her. However, my extended family is devoutly Catholic, with several of my uncles and aunts being Priests and Rev. Sisters. In this light, the imagery isn't unusual; what is unusual is that the viewers weren't in any mortal danger.

The only similar accounts I found in recent times were:

A Muslim's account of his father's death. The Muslim walked in to find four Sufis by his dying father's bed. One of them gently told [the writer] to leave the room.

Two sisters share an identical dream involving their mother, on the night following her death. The dream is verified by both sisters the following morning.

To assume one perspective would be to ignore the profundity of many experiences. I don't know what happens when one dies. I have a pretty good reason to believe that it has plenty to do with one's state of mind at the time -- but even that doesn't explain what other [non-dying] people have seen.

i am down with the whole, vision of death thing, but many it happens when you are about to die. you should find out by, committing suicide and posting it later.

My great-great grandfather (Born-again Christian) was witnessed dying by my mom, and she said that he was saying "Well there's Bob..." and "There's whoever..." referring to long past friends and family who were also Christians. Finally, he said "And there's my Lord," and then he died.

I got real sick a few years ago, hypothermia among other things, without any real cause. Because my mom's awesome like that she took me to the pediatrics instead of the emergency room. (Then she took me to the emergency room later for a sprained foot, and made me pay for it, but that's another story)
Anyway, I'm pretty sure at one point I started hallucinating a bit, I know I was in the hospital room while they were doing all they could to get me stable enough to transfer to the ER of the local Sacred Heart, listening to the nurse tell me not to fall asleep, which was real easy for me. At the same time though I was also in a room, a cold, dark room that seemed to be filled with water. I was sitting at one end, and at the other end was a irregularly shaped doorway. All I knew was that I did not want to go into the doorway. There also seemed to be something like a plant off in one corner.
Bt again, there is a real possibility I was hallucinating. All I know for sure is that ever since I've had a very strong aversion to cold water. (To some degree, cold water and others while having fun is alright, like going free diving at the springs, but alone in the shower? No way.)

Joe: That is so awesome! I wonder why some can recognize those who can come for them while other cannot.

I need to bump this old thread of mine in light of a new incident. This topic completely fascinates me and here is an incident unlike the others mentioned above in this thread.

When it comes to most 'visions at death,' a predominant theme is that only the individual in the process of dying sees the people coming for them. Naturally, this opens up the door to skeptic dismissals that this is merely a chemical reaction in the brain making them hallucinate. In other words, it's merely the brain doing odd things during the death process.

But what if there is a witness who is alive and well? This is what just happened to my mother's friend Bessie.

The day before she died, the nurse at the hospice approached my mother, Bessie's husband, and the other visitors. The nurse apologized and told them to please not think of her as a 'fruitcake' (her exact words). She then asked if Bessie knew anyone with abnormally long and slender fingers. Bessie's husband told the nurse that Bessie's mother was well known for her extraordinarily long fingers to the point the family teased her about it when she was alive.

No visitors were supposed to have been in the room at the time so we suspect Bessie's mother came to prepare her daughter the day before she passed.

It just gave me goosebumps and I thought I'd share. I've HEARD of similar stories to this. Such as hospital staff seeing visitors in hospital rooms that resembled the dying's deceased loved ones. But this is the first first-hand account I've known, compared to accounts I've seen on television or read about in books.