A man who was declared dead for 45 minutes and zipped up in a body bag has claimed he was brought back from the brink by a 'spiritual guide' who gave him a heart-wrenching message.
Paramedics thought that Vincent Tolman had kicked the bucket after they burst into a bathroom stall inside the US fast food chain Dairy Queen and saw him unresponsive on the floor, while their attempts to resuscitate him failed.
The then-25-year-old, from Arlington, Texas, explained that he and a pal had been taking a powerful supplement to give them a boost while training for bodybuilding, but he was forced to outsource his supply after stock dried up in the States.
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The pair decided to try to find an alternative online and later ordered a bottle of the product from a company in Thailand.
Near-fatal error
Vincent and his mate were both 'excited' to test the new formula and planned to take it before a gym session, but quickly realised that 'something was different about this'.
Unbeknownst to the amateur bodybuilders, the supplement was much more potent than what they were used to and they had inadvertently both taken a huge overdose, which left them vomiting and feeling delirious.
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During an appearance on the Coming Home podcast, Vincent recalled how they decided to get some food in the hopes that it might perk them up a bit, so they headed to the nearest Dairy Queen branch.
"My buddy was starting to pass out as he was driving," he said. "I was shaking him awake."
Vincent made a beeline straight for the bathroom and was also beginning to experience the supplement's 'sedative effect'.
He explained: "It was putting my body to sleep. I was passing in and out of consciousness and my heart was starting to slow down.
"The last thing I remember was seeing the whole room start to spin on me and I passed out onto the ground on my back.
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"My body started to vomit to try to eject what was causing all this and as it did I breathed it into my lungs so I suffocated."
Divine intervention
Paramedics rushed to the scene and immediately began to try and revive him, but their life-saving efforts did not work.
Vincent was then placed inside a body bag and in the back of an ambulance as he was driven to hospital - and although he was supposedly already dead by this point, he claims to somehow remember it all.
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The author described how he watched all of this unfold in front of him as if it were a film, finding himself questioning the 'director's' choices while also 'hearing the thoughts' of the paramedics around him.
One EMT in particular piqued his interest as the lad had only recently started in the field and he wasn't too keen on the idea of losing a patient in his first week - resulting in him suddenly reopening Vincent's body bag.
The paramedic began trying to resuscitate him once more and realised that the 25-year-old was responding, prompting his colleagues to also join in on the life-saving efforts to restart his heart despite Vincent being officially dead for 45 minutes.
Vincent spent the next three days in a coma - but if you ask him, he was being led to the other side by a spirit guide who showed him how his entire life had laid out so far.
What Vincent experienced
Vincent explained that as the guru was leading him through the afterlife, he began to see 'all the bad things' he had ever done in his life, all the way back up to his childhood, but from an an alternate perspective.
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He continued: "I didn't just see it from my eyes, I saw it from the eyes of anyone impacted by my actions or my words. It was weird because I could feel like that lasted a long time but at the same time it felt like a few seconds.
"As that was happening I started to get enveloped in this dark energy, this fear energy...then all of a sudden, I started to feel this warmth as if somebody was shining a really bright light or the sun came out from behind a cloud and started to warm my back.
"As it did that warmth started to come over my whole being, and I turned around to see where this warmth was coming from. As I was turning, I was seeing all the good things I ever did in my life."
Recalling the strange experience which took place over two decades ago, Vincent said he began to realise the good in his life far outweighed the bad and he had a new outlook after he got to see himself 'making a difference for people'.
"I felt this just tremendous unconditional love and peace and warmth," he added.
He claims his spirit guide telepathically communicated to him how the Universe works, adding: "Earth is just a school, it’s always been just a classroom and it's never been a courtroom."
After coming to terms with his supposed fate and the sense of peace he felt, Vincent claims he was then offered a choice.
He was told he could chose what he wanted to do - but the spirit guide warned that his loved ones, specifically his mother, would be devastated by his death, so he made the tough decision to return.
He said: "Dying was awesome. Dying was easy. As soon as I relaxed into it and I embraced it it was beautiful. It’s so crazy that we put so much fear around death because that was the best part. The hard part was coming back."
Vincent penned a book about his experience, titled The Light After Death: My Journey To Heaven and Back.
Olivia Burke