Content note: This conversation talks openly about drug addiction, recovery, overdoses, and near-death experiences. The subjects are heavy, but the call itself is warm, curious, and funny in places. If today isn't the right day for it, that's okay. The first time it happened, the power went out in the bathroom where the caller had collapsed, and their phone dropped into SOS mode. Nothing else in the house lost power. They've been asking what that meant ever since, and the question of energy and consciousness sent them down a rabbit hole that runs through the rest of the conversation. The caller came close to dying several times during a stretch of addiction, and two of those experiences changed how they think about death. In the one they describe most closely, they were out for thirty or forty minutes by their best guess. They felt themselves pulled slowly toward a tunnel of light at about the speed of a monorail. They heard their own voice tell them to wake up, then say they didn't want to, then say it wasn't their time. The closest they can get to describing the feeling is the moment they first saw their child. From there the conversation covers a lot of ground. The caller grew up with a parent who told them to question everything, so by ten or eleven they were reading the Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist texts. They describe dreams where their childhood dog visits, young and healthy and waving a paw, and how they tell those apart from ordinary dreams by how they feel on waking. They talk about tarot, a Ouija board they never closed, and a hike where the whole forest suddenly went silent. They also explain why most people in their life hear all of this as woo-woo, and why they keep saying there's some truth to a little bit of everything. They close with the one thing they still want to do: build a house off the grid in Alaska, and someday be buried at the top of a mountain. In this conversation: Near-death experiences, and the tunnel of light the caller describesWhy the caller compares dying to going home, and to the moment they first saw their childA power outage in a bathroom and the caller's questions about energy and consciousnessDreams as visits from loved ones and pets, and how to tell a visit from an ordinary dreamWhat the caller believes comes after death, including staying earthbound, reincarnation, and other planes of existenceGrowing up with a parent who said to question everything, and reading the Bhagavad Gita as a kidMysticism, tarot, and why the caller thinks intention is everythingWhy talking about death and spirits gets written off as woo-woo, and the caller's take that "pseudoscience is still science"Book recommendation: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. See the full list of Anonymous Book Recommendations here. Video Episode: If you'd like to watch this conversation instead of just listening, you can find the video version on YouTube. About When We Die Talks: When We Die Talks is a podcast built around anonymous conversations about death, loss, and how contemplating mortality shapes the way we live. If you’re new here, start with the Episode Guide. It’s designed to help you find conversations that match where you’re at—curiosity, grief, hesitation, or openness. Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? Leave a voicemail at 971-328-0864 and share what you believe happens when we die. Messages may be featured in a future episode. If you’d like to have a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com.
