Man who died for 7 minutes reveals what he saw in the afterlife and how he escaped death

When we are little, we often ask ourselves questions about life. Why is the sky blue? Why is water wet? How are babies made? As adults, these questions often get a bit darker. What would I be like if no one was watching? Is there really such a thing as a ‘good deed’? And finally, what happens when we die? There’s even a reference to it in Barbie, but we won’t ruin the film for you.

Well, this man was dead for 7 minutes and claims to have the answer.

In 2013, Shiv Grewel was an actor. He had just finished working on an RSC production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, in which he was playing Don Pedro.

His death came out of nowhere

On the day he died, Grewel went out for lunch with his wife Alison, who he had met through a colleague in 2004. They ate at a local French place near their home in southeast London. Grewel was generally healthy and felt 'pretty good' during the meal. However, he started feeling tired and finding it hard to talk on the drive home.

He decided to lie down as his body started cooling. Alison grew concerned and rang NHS Direct for advice but when she saw her husband’s eyes roll back into his head she screamed down the phone for an ambulance. He was suffering a cardiac arrest.

By the time the paramedics got there and managed to resuscitate Grewel using CPR, he had already been officially dead for 7 minutes.

Grewel claims he knew he was dead:

I knew, somehow, that I was dead. I was aware my brain was dying and crying out for help. But, at the same time, I felt things completely separate from my body. It was like I was in a void but could feel emotions and sensations.

Taking to the Mirror, Grewel claimed he went on a ‘cosmic journey’ when he died. Now, he paints to try to ‘translate’ this experience down onto paper. He is holding an exhibition of these works called ‘Reboot’ at the Karma Sanctum Hotel in London until 24 September.

The former actor explained that he knew there were several options open to him - to reincarnation and new lives - but that he was sure he wanted to fight: ‘I wanted to return to life, to the material world and to my wife. I demanded that I was coming back and I got my wish’.

Read more:This woman slept with her pet python every night until her vet uncovered something deadly

What the afterlife is like

Grewel says it is ‘like a waking dream’ when you die. He says he didn’t have a body anymore, but was aware of emotions.

I suppose it was a bit like swimming through water, you feel weightless and disconnected from the physical world…At one point I was travelling over the moon and I could see meteorites and all of space.

Grewel is both ready for death and fears it

Grewel was rushed to hospital where medical staff operated on him and placed a stent in his main artery.He was sent into an induced coma because his brain had been starved of oxygen. 5 years later and the actor-turned-artist manages to focus on the positive aspects of his experience.

Grewel has difficulty now with mobility and speech and he has developed epilepsy. He can no longer act, but he says his ‘drive for life has been boosted’.

Grewel describes himself as ‘scientifically-minded’ but explains that his brush with death has forced him to believe in the afterlife. The self-declared ‘natural cynic’ says he is ‘less fearful of death because of it, but at the same time I’m also more fearful, because I’ve realised how precious everything I have in life is’.

He wants to show the living what the world of the dead looks like, and to share the importance of being kind:

I’ve always thought that kindness is essential for humans to evolve and become better, but after this experience, I now feel this very deep inside me - like a fundamental truth.

Read more:

⋙ This woman died in a 'freak accident' after making her nephew a bacon sandwich

⋙ Does a dying person know that they are about to die? Let's find out

Sources used:

Mirror: Man who died for 7 minutes paints pictures of what he saw in 'afterlife'

India Times:Dead For 7 Minutes & Miraculously Revived, Shiv Grewal Is Now Describing His Experience Through Art