‘I was gone for 90 minutes’: Man who ‘returned from the dead’ reveals his experience

A man who was dead for 90 minutes after suffering a cardiac arrest and until paramedics brought him back to life, shared his dramatic experience and all that he remembers from the “life-changing” event. Alistair Blake, 61, went to the “other side” and back in 2019. The man from Victoria, Australia, had the medical episode as he was sleeping next to his wife, Melinda. 

Almost a week later, Alistair woke up at Frankston Hospital and remarkably there were no signs of a brain injury. As a result, his medical team nicknamed his ‘Lazarus’ – the man who was raised from the dead.

Alistair told I’ve Got News For You that he doesn’t remember too much from the medical episode and his time in hospital: “I remember going to bed on the Saturday night – and the next thing I remember was waking up Thursday morning on a trolley going from ICU to coronary care,” he said. “The human brain has totally blocked out what happened in between.

“A lot of people ask me if I saw anything, and no, I did not see anything,” he said. “No bright lights, nothing like that whatsoever.”

Alistair is one of the many people who have opened up about their near-death experiences. And even though he didn’t see something on the other side, plenty of other people have.

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Patrick Steele, a Palliative Care Consultant from Palliative Care South East, explained to I’ve Got News For You the scientific and spiritual reasons behind a mysterious ‘white light’ other people have said to have witnessed.

He said: “From a spiritual perspective, some people believe that the bright light is a glimpse into the afterlife or a sign that consciousness is leaving the brain. From a psychologist’s perspective, some say it’s more of a defensive mechanism or some say it’s a flashback to earlier memories.

“From a medical perspective – and the one that I adhere to most – is that it’s more of a change in how our body is functioning, particularly the brain. The brain, as you know, needs a lot of oxygen and blood supply to do its job effectively. Whenever that oxygenation is cut off, the brain doesn’t act normally.”

Mr Steele compared the bright light to an experience that many people have when they faint: “The change of blood supply that occurs in the brain due to low blood pressure results in a sort of tunnelled vision, so the darkness comes in from the outside before you pass out. For me, this (white light) is a more exaggerated version of fainting.”