What happens when you die: Man claims he saw mother next to his own dying body

A man has documented his near death experience for the Near Death Experience Research Foundation

A man who was clinically dead for several minutes claims he received a sign from his mother that he needed to 'remain in this world,' after he suffered a stroke.

The man, who identifies as David said his heart stopped beating as he moved over what he believed to be 'the afterlife.'

“Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning,” David said.

“Time seemed to have stopped or didn’t matter. Things were moving forward but it wasn’t ‘time’.”

Writing for the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, he said: “I was above and looking down at myself on the stretcher.

"I did not see what was happening to me or what the paramedic was doing.

"Instead, I saw my mom, who had passed away only a few months prior.

“She was sitting down. She was not upset or panicked. Rather she had a sense of being very calm and she had a quietness.

“Somehow we spoke to each other or rather she spoke to me. She told me that there wasn’t anything she could do to change the outcome of what was going on and that what happened was out of her control.

“She told me that whatever was going to be, that I wouldn’t go through it alone because she was going to be there with me.”

David claimed he felt time 'stop,' Image: http://njitvector.com

David claims that while he was unconscious he asked the nurse for a notebook.

He explains: “The nurse took a notebook from the drawer in the bedside table and showed me a picture. She said when I first got into the room, I asked her for something to write on.

“She didn't realise what the picture was until I started to tell her. I had drawn a picture of what I saw about what had happened in the back of the ambulance.

“It was a picture of me lying on the stretcher and my mom was there with me.”

Sleep irregularities

Strangely, researchers have found those who have suffered an NDE (near death experiences) often have irregularities in their deep sleep state, when compared to those who haven't, in a study.

The research found the people with NDEs are more likely to have a condition called REM-intrusion which sees individuals struggle to differentiate between just waking up and a dream – or when a state of sleep intrudes into wakeful consciousness.