Tessa Romero, 50, has explained what she saw and felt as she found herself ‘floating above’ her own body
A woman says she now knows death is not the end and she knows what is on the other side after she collapsed and died for 24 minutes while on the school run. Tessa Romero says her time on the other side ‘felt like an eternity’ while in this world paramedics were battling to bring her back.
The journalist and sociologist had an out-of-body experience after dropping her daughters at school. She said her heart stopped – and for 24 minutes, she was gone – until medics revived her.
“The first thing I felt was immense peace,” Tessa said. “For the first time in a long time, there was no more physical or emotional pain – the suffering was over. I felt profoundly relieved, as if a huge weight had been lifted from me.
“I remember floating above the ceiling, looking down on the scene. I saw a body lying there. It was confusing because I wasn’t aware of being dead.
“I knew I felt alive, awake and conscious. But I didn’t understand why no one was seeing or hearing me. I didn’t believe in these kinds of phenomena [before] – but when I woke up, I knew with absolute certainty that what I had experienced hadn’t been a dream.
“It was real. Everything around me felt different. I had a very strange feeling, as if the world had been put through an antique filter.
“It was as if time no longer worked the same way. Everything seemed slower, denser, more charged with meaning.”
Tessa had been suffering from an unexplained illness for several months prior to her near-death experience, with doctors unable to pinpoint the cause despite extensive testing. Tessa said: “Doctors couldn’t determine exactly what was wrong with me. They ran all kinds of tests, but none of them gave clear answers.
“My body was failing, and they couldn’t find a concrete cause. It was a very distressing time because I felt worse and worse – and no one could explain why. I have been contacted by surgeons, neurologists, and scientists who study these types of phenomena.
“Many of them agree on something very revealing – that my illness was probably a physical manifestation of my emotions. At that time, I was going through the most difficult stage of my life. Sometimes, what we fail to let out inside ends up being shouted out by the body outside.”
Having had a life-altering experience, Tessa’s view on life and death has been completely transformed. She said: “Before, I felt a deep fear of death. I saw it as something dark, uncertain, and painful. After what I experienced, I understood that death is not an end, but a transition.
“It’s like crossing a door into a place where everything makes sense, where love and peace envelope everything. I’m no longer afraid of it. On the contrary, I feel a profound peace knowing that life continues beyond what we see, that we are not alone, and that we are infinitely loved.
“As for life, I value it in a completely different way. Every moment has become precious. I have understood that the only thing that truly matters is how we love, how we accompany and how we leave a mark on the souls of others.”