A former US Marine who was declared dead for 28 minutes after being struck by lightening has revealed what he saw when he 'left his body' behind on Earth.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million.
But in 1975, Dannion Brinkley, a successful businessman, athlete and veteran, was that one.
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Brinkley had been holding a phone to his ear when the bolt of lightening struck a lightening pole, causing it to travel down the phone line and slam into Brinkley's body.
Recalling the incident, he said (via 8 News Now): “It went into the side of my head above my ear, it went down my spine. It welded the nails of the heels of my shoes to the floor. It threw me up in the air, I see the ceiling, it slams me back down, a ball of fire comes through the room and blinds me. I am burning. I am on fire. I am paralyzed.“
Brinkley recalled leaving his body, and it wasn't until 28 minutes later that he returned to it - after it had already been taken to the morgue.
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Things didn't just stop for Brinkley during that time though, and he's since spoken out about his experience to offer insight on 'what happens when you die'.
According to Brinkley, he experienced the feeling of floating along with the ambulance that was taking his body to hospital, and he watched from above as doctors declared him dead.
He believes his consciousness traveled through what he described as a tunnel, where he encountered a spiritual being of light in a 'Crystal City'.
Then, Brinkley witnessed a replay of his entire life in a '360 degree panorama'.
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"You watch it from a second person point of view," Brinkley claimed in an YouTube interview on T&H - Afterlife.
Brinkley then said the being asked him: "In the life you just reviewed, what difference did you and God make?"
While many people might be skeptical of Brinkley's account, he had the chance to reaffirm his experience with death when he suffered not one, but two other near-death experiences.
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Brinkley's second experience came in 1989 while he was undergoing open heart surgery. During that incident, Brinkley recalled being 'reunited with his angelic instructors', and said he learned how to 'use his new psychic and spiritual gifts to aid the dying and the desperate'.
His third - and hopefully final - near death experience came when he was undergoing brain surgery.
In a bid to share his story Brinkley has written a book titled Saved by the Light, and he's stood firm against critics who don't believe the details.
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"When you learn you don’t die, when you learn you’re a spiritual being, you’re not going to go to hell, that’s enough to inspire you to change," he said, per 8 News Now.
Brinkley has taken action by becoming a hospice volunteer and offering counselling to terminal patients, specifically fellow veterans.
Emily Brown