NASA scientist Ingrid Honkala said she had the same surreal vision of the afterlife from her three near-death experiences.

Honkala, 55, claimed to havecome so close to deathwhen she was aged two, 25, and 52, and every time she recalled having the same vivid impression of what's on the other side. She said that during these moments of euphoria, she felt herself dissolve from a small, separate body into a boundless, loving intelligence, according toThe Mirror.

She recounted almost drowning in a cold water tank as a child, and then seeing her own lifeless body floating on the water. 'At that moment, I no longer perceived myself as a child, but as pure consciousness, a field of awareness and light,' she said, describing the moment as pure bliss, and she was not fearful.

She asserted to have had an out-of-body experience during that transcendent state, with the ability to communicate 'not through spoken words, but through awareness.' 'I remember seeing my mother several blocks away from our home as she was walking to her first day at a new job,' she added. 'At that moment there seemed to be a form of communication between us.'

At 25, she faced another near‑death event following a motorcycle accident, and then again at 52, when her blood pressure suddenly dropped during surgery. Each time, she reported returning to the same tranquil, unified awareness from her first encounter, which to her confirmed that 'at the deepest level, life never truly ends, consciousness continues.'

Her near-death experiences also introduced her to what she described as 'Beings of Light,' whom she encountered more frequently as she grew older. 'I no longer feared death,' she said. 'It felt like entering a deeper layer of reality that exists beyond our physical senses. In that state, consciousness felt vast, intelligent, and interconnected.'

As a scientist, she now theorises that consciousness may not be generated solely by the brain but could be a more fundamental aspect of existence. 'These experiences reshaped my understanding of life itself,' she said, arguing that humans might be manifestations of consciousness experiencing life through a physical vessel, rather than ephemeral, isolated beings.

Honkala worked as an oceanographer andscientist affiliated with NASA and US Navy programs, later integrating that experience into her work on spiritual healing. Her scientific background spans three decades, which she said was partly spurred by her visions of the afterlife.

'For many years I focused almost entirely on my scientific career and rarely spoke publicly about my spiritual experiences,' she explained. 'Over time, however, I came to see that science and spirituality may not necessarily be in conflict - they may simply be exploring the same mystery from different perspectives.'

Sceptics argued that Honkala's recollections could have been her brain's response to extreme physiological stress, but she insists the quality and repetition of the visions feel qualitatively different from hallucination. She has made an advocacy out of her experiences, compelled by the awakening.

Source: International Business Times UK