Have You Ever Heard of a Shared Death Experience?
This little-known phenomenon could change how we understand consciousness
I was deep down a near-death experience rabbit hole when I stumbled across this comment:
And wow! My whole world expanded right there.
So I looked more closely into SDEs.
What a Shared Death Experience Usually Involves
A shared death experience (SDE) is a type of end-of-life phenomenon people report when they feel they were somehow present in or accompanied a dying person’s transition from life to death, even though they themselves weren’t dying.
Instead of being near-death like in a typical near-death experience (NDE), the experiencer is fully alive and attuned to someone else’s dying process.
People who report SDEs often describe things like:
sensing or intuitively knowing someone is about to die
seeing the dying person’s spirit or presence in a new way
vivid visions of light or a benevolent realm
feeling that they “journeyed with” the person as they died
deep peace, love, or spiritual connection during or around the moment of death
Some researchers describe four general types of SDE:
Sensing — a sudden, unmistakable knowing that something is happening
Witnessing unusual phenomena — visions, lights, etc.
Accompanying — feeling as though you’re moving with the dying person
Assisting — feeling like you help them transition
It overlaps a lot with what people talk about in near-death experiences: transcendent light, an altered sense of time, intense emotional connection, and a sense of meaning beyond physical life.
Are SDEs Evidence of Telepathy?
The existence of documented cases of SDE is just another phenomenon that raises questions against the materialist perspective on consciousness being limited to the brain.
Some scientists argue, just like with NDEs, that it could be hallucinations, in the case of SDEs, out of strong empathy.
To me, it sounds rather like a hint at what our human minds are capable of if they are attuned to each other.
And while I contemplated this, I suddenly remembered a jaw-dropping moment we witnessed in the podcast The Telepathy Tapes last year:
When a nonspeaking autistic young man died in a tragic accident while taking a bath. Multiple people in his friend group experienced his death either in visions or dreams.
Many of them felt tired and decided to nap around the time he transitioned. They saw him say goodbye and leave messages for his mom. Not only did his friends already know about his passing when they were informed the very next day, but they also knew how he died.
Chills!
We had met and heard from this friend group throughout season 1 when we learned about their ability to communicate telepathically and even meet altogether in a mental space they called "the Hill", which really sounded like a telepathic chat room.
Check out more about the story here:
My Personal Experience with Telepathy
I myself had an experience with my meditation teacher from Rishikesh, India. A man who had spent most of his 20’s meditating in a cave and refining his mental abilities.
One thing I noticed about him immediately and will never forget was his magnetic presence. He had one of those charisms that you couldn't ignore when he entered the room. His energy seemed to fill it out immediately.
Standing next to him, I noticed several times that he seemed to be aware of my thinking. Sometimes he would even tease me with it, repeating a thought I was just stuck on, just to watch my stunned face after. It would send chills down my spine.
Yet I didn't share this experience with many people, because I knew what it sounded like. Crazy.. right?
I never doubted that his ability was real. It's like it was so funny to him that I was blind as to how he was doing it. It felt as if I was missing something to obvious.
My Shared Out-of-Body Experience
Then, later in our training, I asked my teacher to meditate with me. He didn't respond to my request. Or so I thought. Until one day, when I sat in his presence while he was meditating and slipped into a wild out-of-body experience. It was my first time ever.
The scenery fell away piece by piece; it's like I couldn't hold onto it, and I found myself floating over a beautiful, untouched valley, a beautiful river, and when I snapped back into my body, my teacher just asked softly: "How was meditation?"
It's indescribable what I felt in this moment, but something in his voice sounded like the whole vision had been created by him. It felt like he shared his meditation with me.
For me, hearing The Telepathy Tapes confirmed something that I thought was a yogic secret until then. Something only devoted meditators could attain after lifetimes of practice. But now there appears another group of people who seem to achieve mastery at telepathic communication:
Nonspeaking autistic people.
From what I understand at this point, telepathy is not an intellectual way of exchanging information as our spoken language is; instead, it is a felt transmission, much like a shared experience.
It's like two consciousnesses melt into each other for a second, and we get to have the same experience of a thought, an idea, or a memory.
Could Telepathy be a Natural Part of Existence?
Telepathy appears as the most typical form of communication in NDE reports.
And once we open our minds to the possibility, it makes so much sense.
Maybe shared death experiences aren’t anomalies at all.Maybe they are brief glimpses into a world where separation doesn’t exist the way we think it does.
A world where consciousness isn’t trapped inside the brain…but moves, connects, and communicates freely — beyond language, beyond distance, beyond death itself.
And if that’s true, then the question is no longer whether telepathy is real.
But how we’ve forgotten how to listen.
Now I am curious about your thoughts: Have you or someone you know ever had such an experience? Involving telepathy or even a shared death experience. I would love to hear about it in the comments.
Thank you for being here!
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