'The experience has allowed me to see the beauty of life.'
A woman says she is no longer afraid of death – not since she saw herself slip out of her body and float to a place where ‘nothing mattered’.
Willow Caelan, 34, had just finished her first day at her new job when a car rear-ended her vehicle and she had a near-death experience.
After her body was ‘launched 40 yards’ from her car and into oncoming traffic, a semi-truck hurtling towards her could have been the last thing she ever saw.
Willow’s Nissan Sentra was destroyed and she had suffered torn muscles, a concussion, temporary vision loss and a compacted spine.
Yet Willow, from Michigan, US, says she felt anything but pain. ‘I felt like I was just pure consciousness and love, not a human with a body,’ she said.
‘It was almost like I was floating into a void to be connected with god or some form of the greater universe.
‘I couldn’t see or hear anything but I remember it being dark, comforting and warm. It was incredibly relaxing.
‘I was finally at peace – no longer worried or questioning anything – it was like heaven.’
As this was happening, passers-by weren’t exactly racing to help her. That is, until her eyes reopened.
‘Everyone was in complete disbelief, especially as no one came to check on me since it was almost certain that I wouldn’t have survived,’ she said.
‘My car was a complete mangled wreckage but I somehow came out eerily unscathed. An unexplainable force saved me.
‘I feel that I woke up in an alternate timeline or reality where I had somehow stayed alive.’
Up to one in 10 Americans have had a near-death experience. The figure is even higher in the UK, at 31%.
They don’t always involve visions of an afterlife or supernatural scenarios. But when they do, exactly what they are depends on who you ask.
To some, they’re windows to another world. Others see them as hallucinations at best.
While scientists tend to be in the latter group, they’ve found over the years there are reasons why people may feel like Willow did.
Eight out of 10 near-death experiences involve a sense of ‘peace and calm’, one survey found. Lights at the end of tunnels, out-of-body sensations and seeing loved ones long since passed were among the common examples.
These vivid hallucinations may be explained by a surge of brain activity caused by the brain losing its main fuel supplies – oxygen and glucose.
Near-death experiences can ‘provide meaning and comfort’ to people as death no longer seems as scary as it’s generally thought to be, researchers say.
People who have come close to death may also come out of it being able to better handle stress and process trauma.
In the days after the incident, Willow says everyone in her life, including friends and family, looked like ‘strangers’ to her – herself included.
Willow said: ‘I was different with my mannerisms and how I spoke to everyone. Quickly, I realised I had gained a unique awareness of life.
‘It was like everything was new again; colours were brighter, I became more purpose-driven and I wanted to experience everything.
‘It became clear to me that we never know how long we truly have here.’
Willow has since trained as a reiki master, a form of energy healing with origins in Japan.
She’s still shaken by her brief brush with death but is grateful for the ‘wake-up call’.
Willow added: ‘The experience has allowed me to see the beauty of life and our physical reality. We don’t need to sit in what we’ve been through as our definition of self, as we have opportunities each day to recreate who we choose to be.
‘I feel so much more connected to my soul. Dying isn’t something to be scared about, it’s just another state of being.
‘I don’t feel like we have physical sensations in the afterlife or very strong emotions.
‘We’re put on this Earth to experience what those feelings are like, even when it’s painful, as it teaches us how to make the most of this greatest gift; life.
‘I don’t know if it was divine intervention, a stroke of sheer luck or something more extraordinary.
‘But a mysterious phenomenon kept me from the brink of death.’
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