What is it like to be dead? Patient who ‘died’ says there is NOTHING after death

“Just black emptiness. No thoughts, no consciousness, nothing.” That is the view of the afterlife from a man who has ‘died’ in hospital TWICE.

The Reddit user got all philosophical, not to say nihilistic, telling the social media site what it is like to be dead.

A man who goes by the screen-name r00tdude has been clinically dead and revived… twice.

His first ‘death’ came as a result of a motorcycle accident where he died for two minutes because his “body shut down from the pain and physical damages on my body. No pulse, no breathing and no consciousness”, he wrote on Reddit.

His second, he said was because “I was in agonising pain after surgery so I received loads of pain killers. The pain, coupled with an immense amount of pain killers, caused my pulse to drop to around 10bpm and my respiratory system shut down.”

On the experience of being dead, he chillingly wrote: “It was just black emptiness. No thoughts, no consciousness, nothing.

"Both times I was just ‘not there’. It was just all black. I would describe it as when you take a nap. A short nap with no dream, you wake up and it feels like you've been sleeping a long time, when in reality it's only been about 15 minutes.

"The only reason I know is because the doctors were obligated to share the information with me.”

However, he was quizzed on whether it was “just black” or if he has experienced a memory lapse.

But he responded with certainty: "It was definitely not just a gap. Much like a dreamless nap, you don't just wake up and feel like time just jumped ahead.

“You know that you've been asleep for a while. At the same time, you can't really remember experiencing anything at all, unless you had a dream.

It was just black emptiness. No thoughts, no consciousness, nothing.
"So yes and no. I experienced something, and that something was nothing.”

He argues that people who talk of near-death experiences where they may encounter a higher power are still conscious in some way.

R00tdude wrote: “I think that in their cases, their minds were still active. What they experienced was just a sort of dream.

"I have always been an atheist, but I have always had a part of me that hoped there was a God or Heaven or something greater than us. I mean, who wouldn't want there to be a Heaven?

"I am still an atheist, and now I know that there is no such thing as God or Heaven. At least not for me.

“My reasoning behind that is no God would ever put a person and family through such a experience.

"Death is death. Once your dead, that's it, it's over."

The man's story comes at a time when belief in life after death has increased, despite increasing levels of atheism.

Researchers found that the number of atheists in the US is at a record high, almost doubling between 1984 and 2014 to 22 per cent. But in a similar period, between 1972 and 2014 belief in the afterlife rose from 73 to 80 per cent.

The study, conducted by San Diego State University, questioned almost 59,000 people and found that women were more likely to believe in Heaven than men and those with a higher level of education were less likely to be religious.

Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at the university, said: "It was interesting that fewer people participated in religion but more believed in an afterlife. It might be part of a growing entitlement mentality, thinking you can get something for nothing."

A separate study at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, found that atheists had more analytical intelligence than religious people but had less emotional intelligence and empathy.