Dannion Brinkley Shares What He Experienced After Being Clinically Dead for 28 Minutes
Few people on Earth can claim to understand what happens after death quite like Dannion Brinkley.
The former US Marine was pronounced dead for 28 minutes following a lightning strike in 1975, but he miraculously returned to life and went on to make a full recovery.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the odds of being struck by lightning in any given year are less than one in a million, meaning an individual would have to be incredibly unfortunate to experience it.
Nevertheless, it is not an impossibility. Technically, every thunderstorm carries a slight risk for someone caught in the wrong place at the wrong time—a reality Brinkley knows all too well.
On September 17, 1975, the businessman, athlete, and veteran was talking on a landline phone when lightning struck. The bolt traveled down the phone line, through the receiver he was holding, and directly into his body.
“It entered the side of my head above my ear, and it traveled down my spine,” he recalled, as reported by 8 News Now.
He described the terrifying physical impact: “It fused the nails of my shoe heels to the ground. It propelled me into the air, I see the ceiling, it crashes me back down, a fireball rushes through the room and blinds me. I am aflame. I am engulfed in flames. I am immobilized.”
But what happened next is where his story becomes truly extraordinary.
Brinkley vividly remembers his consciousness leaving his physical body after the devastating strike. He did not return to his body until it had been transported to the morgue, approximately 28 minutes later.
So, what transpired during his time away? It wasn’t simply a fade to black. In fact, Brinkley has frequently discussed his traumatic ordeal to offer insight into exactly “what occurs when you die.”
Brinkley recounted feeling as though he was floating alongside the ambulance as it rushed his body to the hospital. He then watched from above as medical professionals officially declared him deceased.
He explained that his consciousness traveled through a tunnel before encountering a spiritual entity made of pure light in what he described as a ‘Crystal City’.
In an interview with T&H – Afterlife on YouTube, Brinkley shared that he experienced a complete review of his life in a ‘360-degree panorama’.
“You view it from a second-person perspective,” he clarified, noting the profound reflection it prompts: “In the life you just reviewed, what impact did you and God create?”
While Brinkley certainly faces skepticism, he has steadfastly maintained his account of these events. Furthermore, he has survived two additional near-death experiences that have only reinforced his deeply held beliefs.
In 1989, while undergoing open-heart surgery, Brinkley recalled being “reunited with his angelic instructors.” He stated that during this encounter, he learned how to “utilize his new psychic and spiritual abilities to assist the dying and the desperate.”
He later experienced yet another near-death episode during brain surgery.
“When you discover that you don’t die, when you realize you’re a spiritual being, and that you won’t go to hell, that’s enough to motivate you to change,” he explained to 8 News Now.
What are your thoughts on the afterlife and Brinkley’s astonishing journey? We’d love to hear your perspective in the comments section below.