"I've 'Died' Three Times: Here's What I Experienced on the Other Side—And It’s Always the Same!"

RECALLING her childhood, Ingrid Honkola has one memory which she can still remember vividly more than 50 years on.

She was just two years old when she plunged into a tank of icy water at home, almost losing her life.

Ingrid is living her life to the full after gaining a deeper understanding of the world around her Credit: Jam Press/Ingrid Honkala Ingrid was two years old when she fell into a tank of icy water and narrowly escaped death Credit: Jam Press/Ingrid Honkala

But instead of feeling sheer panic, Ingrid, now 55, remembers slipping out of the “physical world”, before being rescued and revived by her mum.

Remarkably, the experience is one of three she’s lived through.

At 25, she almost lost her life in a motorbike accident.

And years later, she almost died again during surgery at 52 when her blood pressure suddenly dropped.

But because of her close shaves with death, Ingrid no longer fears it.

“I remember the shock of the icy water hitting my body and the panic of struggling to breathe,” she tells the Sun.

“I remember seeing my small body floating lifeless in the water, but then something extraordinary happened.

“Instead of fear, a deep calm came over me. The panic disappeared and was replaced by an overwhelming sense of peace and stillness.

“It felt as if my awareness separated from my body.

“At that moment, I no longer felt like a child in a body but like pure consciousness, a field of awareness and light.

“There was no sense of time, no fear, and no thoughts.

“Instead, there was a deep knowing that everything was interconnected.

“I felt completely unified with life itself, as if the boundaries that normally define who we are had dissolved.”

“I remember seeing my mother several blocks away from our home as she was walking to her first day at a new job,” Ingrid adds.

“I remember recognising her and thinking ‘that’s my mom’.

Ingrid says three close shaves with death have given her a different perspective on life Credit: Jam Press/Ingrid Honkala Inspired by her life experiences, Ingrid went on to a career as a scientist Credit: Jam Press/Ingrid Honkala

“At that moment, there seemed to be a form of communication between us, not through spoken words, but through awareness.”

When Ingrid described her recollection with her mum, she said the details of that day matched exactly.

Ingrid claims her mum suddenly turned around and rushed home, where she found Ingrid unconscious in the water.

She says: “When she arrived, she found my body in the water tank where I had drowned.

“The maid who was supposed to be watching us was in another room listening to the radio and had no idea what had happened.”

Ingrid says the experience changed her life forever, leaving her with no fear of .

She says she no longer saw the “afterlife” as a distant place.

“The experience showed me that what we call the afterlife did not feel like a distant place at all.

She adds: “Instead, it felt like entering a deeper layer of reality that exists beyond our physical senses.

“In that state, consciousness felt vast, intelligent, and interconnected.

“To me, the experience suggested that consciousness may not be produced solely by the brain – it may be something more fundamental.

“From the outside, life simply continued. But internally, something had changed.

“Even as a young child, I carried a quiet knowing that who we truly are is not limited to the physical body.”

‘We truly are is not limited to the physical body’

As Ingrid grew older, she began to experience unusual spiritual experiences, including encounters she describes as Beings of Light, and ‘luminous presences that communicated through awareness rather than spoken language’.

“Growing up with these experiences was not always easy,” Ingrid, from Bogotá, Colombia, says.

“I often felt different from other children because I carried a deep awareness of interconnectedness that most people around me did not seem to understand.

“Another unusual aspect of my childhood after the experience was a sudden expansion in my mental abilities.

“Learning often did not feel like acquiring new knowledge – it felt more like remembering something I already knew.

“This sometimes made it difficult to relate to other children and deepened my sense of feeling different.”

Each time, she says, she returned to the same peaceful state.

While sceptics argue such experiences are hallucinations caused by the brain under extreme stress, Ingrid believes something far deeper is at play.

She explains: “These experiences transformed my understanding of life itself.

“Instead of seeing ourselves as isolated individuals struggling to survive, I began to understand that we may be expressions of consciousness experiencing life through a physical form.

“From that perspective, death does not feel like the end of existence; it feels more like a transition in the continuum of consciousness.

“Through these experiences I also came to feel that, at the deepest level, life never truly ends, consciousness continues.”

Ingrid went on to build a high-level scientific career.

She earned a PhD in Marine and worked in environmental research, including collaborations with NASA and the .

She says: “In many ways, my experiences also led me toward science.

“I wanted to understand the nature of reality through observation and research.

“That curiosity led me to study marine biology and oceanography, eventually earning a PhD in Marine Science and working with institutions including NASA and the US Navy.

“For many years I focused almost entirely on my scientific career and rarely spoke publicly about my spiritual experiences.

“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.”

Dying to See the Light: A Scientist’s Guide to Reawakening, is available at Amazon.