Dead for 6 minutes and came back: this is what the scientist saw in the afterlife

The neuroscientist Anna Stone claims she was “dead” for six minutes—and what she experienced during that extraordinary event changed her life completely.

In 2016, Dr. Anna Lee Stone, a mother of two, was working on several major scientific projects, including prestigious contracts with government institutions. She described her work in the laboratory as highly accomplished yet emotionally detached, and portrayed herself as a purely scientific thinker—black or white, existent or non-existent, only what could be measured and proven.

According to her, there was no room in her belief system for spirituality, the soul, or life after death. Her world was built solely on facts and numbers.

Despite her professional success, her personal life was far from stable. She was married to someone she barely truly knew, consumed large amounts of alcohol, used drugs, and felt she was losing control. She described herself as angry, bitter, and self-absorbed, and even saw herself as a failure. The childhood traumas she had endured became, in her mind, a kind of “badge of honor,” but in reality they had deeply damaged her.

Clinical Death

One day, following severe and continuous bleeding, her body reached a critical breaking point. She remembers joking that she felt like she was bleeding to death—and that was the last thing she recalls before losing consciousness.

According to her account, her condition deteriorated rapidly and she was declared clinically dead for six minutes. The experience, she says, was intensely powerful, as if all her senses shut down at once.

She described a feeling of complete disconnection from her body, as though she had been “sealed off,” and then suddenly felt herself leaving her body and observing the world from the outside.

“Former Addict”

After leaving her body, Stone said she instantly found herself in the classroom of her eldest daughter, who was hundreds of kilometers away, watching her take a test. She described her daughter’s clothing and the surrounding details with precision—details she claims were later verified.

She then saw her younger son playing in the hospital waiting area. After that, she returned to the room where doctors were attempting to resuscitate her and heard the medical staff discussing whether to stop the resuscitation efforts. One doctor said it was time to stop, while another remarked that she was too young to give up on.

According to Stone, one of the doctors referred to her as a “former addict,” a statement that left a deep and lasting mark on her.

Floating in Light

She then describes transitioning into a bright, white space filled with light. Her vision was complete and all-encompassing, as if she could see in every direction simultaneously. She felt an overwhelming sense of love and absolute wholeness—without a body, without pain, and without fear.

She felt as though she could embrace the entire world and was filled with a deep inner knowing. During the experience, a figure appeared before her that looked like another version of herself—more beautiful, lighter, and ageless.

Eventually, she felt that she had to return. The return to her body, she says, was sudden and extremely painful.

Returning to Life

Stone suddenly awoke in the operating room while the medical staff had already turned their backs on her. Her awakening stunned everyone. She struggled to breathe and felt as though her head were underwater, a result of prolonged oxygen deprivation.

When she was finally able to speak, she asked the doctor whether he had indeed called her a “former addict.” At first he remained silent, then admitted it and apologized.

A Skeptical Scientist Exposed to Spirituality

Before this experience, Stone dismissed spiritual ideas and believed only in what science could explain. But after her near-death experience, her worldview changed completely.

Today, she believes that consciousness is not confined to the body, that time is not linear, and that there is existence beyond what science can currently measure. Since that event, she completed advanced studies, overcame her addictions, left destructive relationships, and devoted her life to helping people with traumatic pasts.

According to her, the experience did not merely save her life—it gave it an entirely new meaning.