Death is scary. It is an inevitable part of the life cycle and an event that cannot be experienced twice. Many fear death precisely because nothing is known about it.
A near-death experience (NDE), on the other hand, is much more common. A select few claimed to have experienced it, with most recalling having seen a pure white tunnel. Some even added that there was something or someone valuable to them pulling them back to life. Some
celebrities have also reported such experiences. Having mass media at their disposal, celebs who had NDE could tell the world what they saw and how they felt. With these stories, perhaps one day humans will no longer be afraid of the moment they kick the bucket.
This list looks at 40 celebrities who have been through at least one NDE. Harrison Ford, for example, had two such experiences, both involving aerial transportation. Another point of interest is that a fair number of celebs in this list overdosed their way to one session of NDE. Let us see how they earned the experience.
#1 50 Cent
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In May 2000,
50 Cent took nine rounds of 9mm to various body parts. That he survived the traumatic ordeal was a miracle.
#2 Amy Purdy
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Purdy contracted meningitis at the age of 19, which led to a cardiac arrest, and both of her legs were amputated below the knees. This did not stop her from competing in skating.
#3 Amy Schumer
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Schumer went surfing in the winter, so when she took the fin in the leg, there was almost nobody around to help her. Luckily, she made it to the shore where she got medical assistance from an anonymous man.
#4 Bob Denver
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When filming for a show, Denver was spotted by a lion. Without the trainer's intervention, Denver might have been mauled.
#5 Burt Reynolds
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The late actor was addicted to Halcion sleeping pills around the 1980s. When trying to quit his habit, he fell into a coma, and his family prepared for the worst. Thankfully, he survived the ordeal and continued his career until his death in 2018.
#6 Carl G. Jung
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The renowned psychiatrist suffered a heart attack in 1944. In one of his books, Jung recalled the things he saw and experienced in the hospital.
#7 Chevy Chase
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An electrical accident in 1981 sent the comedian and several others to the hospital. He was wearing a suit fitted with lights when the suit short-circuited.
#8 Christie Brinkley
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Three decades ago, Brinkley made headlines everywhere for being caught up in a helicopter accident. Although she only suffered minor injuries, the trauma remained.
#9 Donald Sutherland
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Sutherland contracted pneumonia in Italy. Unlike a white tunnel most near-dead people would see, he saw a blue one.
#10 Drew Barrymore
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In one scene from Santa Clarita Diet where Barrymore's character jumps on a man's back to kill him, one failed attempt sent her to the hospital with a severe concussion.
#11 Elizabeth Taylor
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In 1962, Taylor was in the middle of surgery when she briefly stopped breathing and saw her third husband at the end of a white tunnel.
#12 Emilia Clarke
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Clarke had two brain aneurysms in 2011 and 2013, resulting in surgeries in the respective years.
#13 Eminem
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In 2007,
Eminem overdosed on the equivalent of "four bags of heroin", which nearly killed him. He got help from the legendary Elton John, who overcame a cocaine addiction in the 1980s.
#14 Gary Busey
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Busey got in an accident and had amnesia for quite some time after the crash. He did not have a helmet on him when the crash happened.
#15 George Clooney
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Clooney was speeding in Italy at some 65mph when he hit a car, which sent him flying. While the actor was not severely injured, the accident was enough to keep him from driving for some time.
#16 George Foreman
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The former boxer was exhausted even before the 1977 bout against Jimmy Young ended. It turned out that he was suffering from heat exhaustion.
#17 Gerard Butler
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The star of
300 (2006) almost drowned when shooting a scene for Chasing Mavericks. He was pinned down by several waves before being rescued.
#18 Gloria Estefan
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On March 1990, Estefan's tour bus got hit. The crash broke the singer's back which took a year for her to recover.
#19 Harrison Ford
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The star of the
Indiana Jones franchise went through not one, but two NDEs, both of which took place in the sky. Perhaps Harrison Ford is not destined for adventures like his iconic character.
#20 Hugh Hefner
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Hefner nearly died from a pretty embarrasing reason: choking on sex toys. This might just be one of most awkward NDEs ever recorded.
#21 Isla Fisher
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Remember Henly's escape from a piranha tank in
Now You See Me? When shooting that scene, Isla Fisher nearly drowned for real, and everybody on set thought she was acting.
#22 Jane Seymour
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Seymour nearly died at the age of 36, when her required antibiotics were injected into her veins instead of a muscle. Her heart stopped beating for a few minutes.
#23 Joaquin Phoenix
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Back in 2006, Phoenix was driving in LA when he realized the car brakes failed. The car lost control and crashed, but the actor was not seriously injured.
#24 Johnny Cash
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The singer's pneumonia struck at some of the worst possible time, when he was having an emergency double coronary bypass.
#25 Johnny Depp
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Depp and fellow actor Bruce Robinson were on a plane shooting a scene for
The Rum Diary when one of the engines stopped. The experience gave the two a good scare.
#26 Kanye West
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West's career could have ended in 2002, as the rapper fell asleep on his car which resulted in a crash.
#27 Lamar Odom
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Odom suffered a coma from drug overdosing in 2015. His heart had stopped twice during hospitalization, but he eventually woke up.
#28 Leonardo DiCaprio
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DiCaprio was in the Galapagos Islands to shoot a movie scene. During a scuba diving session, his oxygen tank malfunctioned, but he received fellow actor Edward Norton's help.
#29 Liam Hemsworth
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The 32-year-old actor got in a surfing accident when he was a kid.
#30 Martin Lawrence
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The year is 1999. Lawrence fell into a three-day coma due to heatstroke. Apparently, he went jogging while wearing multiple layers of clothing on a very hot day.
#31 Nikki Sixx
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Cases of musicians overdosing on some substance were very common back in the second half of the 20th century. Nikki Sixx was one such case, overdosing on heroin and being clinically dead for two minutes.
#32 Ozzy Osbourne
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The former singer of Black Sabbath crashed an ATV in 2003, which resulted in a coma that lasted several days. This is not even the first NDE for Ozzy.
#33 Rachel Bilson
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Bilson got in a car accident two years before she debuted her acting career. The accident changed her outlook on life.
#34 Sandra Bullock
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December 2000. Bullock was on her private jet when a blizzard hit, causing the jet to skid in the snow. She walked out of the accident unharmed.
#35 Sharon Stone
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Stone had a brain hemorrhage in 2001. She survived but lost many things dear to her in the process.
#36 Stephen King
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A car accident in 1999 almost took King's right leg away from him. He later bought the car to make sure it would never drive again.
#37 Tony Bennett
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Bennett was a cocaine addict back in the 70s. He overdosed on it while dipping in a hot bath. As a result, he nearly drowned and had to be hospitalized.
#38 Tracy Morgan
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Morgan got involved in a 2014 car accident. While he was lucky to have survived, his friend James McNair was not.
#39 Travis Barker
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Only Barker and one of his close friends Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein survived the plane crash. However, Adam died a year later due to an overdose, leaving the drummer the sole survivor. He did not fly again until 2021, with Kourtney Kardashian.
#40 Zac Efron
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Zac Efron's best-known case of near-death experience was in 2019 when he contracted typhoid in Papua New Guinea. What not many people know is that he had an NDE when cycling in London and hitting a double-decker.