Near Death Experiences And Supernatural Events · The NDE LAB

Storytime: Near death experience at 11 years old

March 28, 2026·12 min·1 clip

Trisha recalls seeing her body at the bottom of the pool before entering a tunnel of light.

This episode features a personal narrative from a woman recalling her near-death experience from a drowning accident at age 11. The storyteller recounts the event without formal hosting, sharing her memories and reflections directly. She emphasizes her complete lack of religious or spiritual education prior to the incident. The accident occurred in 2000 at a YMCA in Grand Island, Nebraska during a free swim night. She went to the pool against her father's initial reluctance with her sister and a friend named Tessa, who later got kicked out. While messing around in three-foot water, her best friend Nathan Rasey offered to teach her to swim in the 12-foot section. He gave her a piggyback ride into deep water where she panicked, dragged him under, and began inhaling water while screaming. Her last memory was of struggling for air before her perspective shifted outside her body. She describes seeing her own body in a blue bathing suit lying at the bottom of the pool. She then perceived a beautiful, bright light and felt herself moving through a tunnel toward it, experiencing profound calm and peace. Paramedics later informed her she was underwater for five to seven minutes and that Nathan likely kicked her in the face, knocking her unconscious. She woke up surrounded by paramedics, screaming and vomiting blood and water. She was taken to St. Francis Hospital and then life-flighted to Omaha Children's Hospital in critical condition with water and chlorine in her lungs. She remained in a coma for three days with an estimated 80% chance of not surviving. A striking pattern she notes involves the number 11: she was 11 years old, born at 4:11 PM, and the accident occurred at 8:11 PM on April 11, 2000. She expresses a belief in an afterlife but also a lingering frustration that she did not see God or Jesus during her experience. She recounts a later conversation with her grandmother, who clarified that her childhood bird had died, not simply been sleeping, which was her first real understanding of death. The tone is deeply personal, raw, and conversational, as the speaker works through fragmented memories and emotional reactions. The style is a solo, narrative monologue that feels like an intimate confession or story shared directly with the listener. Listeners fascinated by firsthand accounts of childhood trauma and supernatural near-death narratives would find this episode compelling. Those seeking a structured, analytical, or scientific discussion of near-death phenomena might find the anecdotal and emotionally charged delivery less engaging.

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