#51 — Why Does Talking About Death Sound So Woo-Woo?

Content note: This conversation talks openly about drug addiction, recovery, overdoses, and near-death experiences. The subjects are heavy, but the call itself is warm, curious, and funny in places. If today isn't the right day for it, that's okay.

By the caller's own estimate, they were gone for thirty or forty minutes before EMTs brought them back. In that time, they felt themselves pulled toward a tunnel of light at about the speed of a monorail. They heard their own voice tell them to wake up, then say they didn't want to, then say it wasn't their time. The feeling, they say, was more love than words can hold, and the closest they can get is the moment they first saw their child.

The caller came close to dying several times during years of addiction, and two of those experiences changed how they see death. They describe losing the fear they used to carry, and feeling more free. They also describe a stranger detail from the first time: the power went out in the room where they had collapsed, and their phone dropped into SOS mode. They've been asking what that means ever since, and it started a long run of reading about energy and consciousness.

That curiosity has roots. A parent who grew up in a strict church raised them to question everything, including what they see with their own eyes, so by ten or eleven they were reading the Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist texts. Today they believe people stay earthbound until they've learned what they couldn't in life, and that we visit other planes when we dream. They say a dream visit from someone we've lost feels different on waking, and they describe their childhood dog appearing young and healthy, waving a paw.

Most people around the caller hear all of this as woo-woo, and some tell them to see a doctor. The caller has a theory about why: these topics push people to look at what they've set aside for years. Along the way they talk about tarot, a Ouija board they never closed, a hike where the whole forest went silent, and their line that pseudoscience is still science.

Topics covered

• 09:26 What the caller thinks happens when we die, and why they call it going home

• 14:37 The near-death experiences, and the tunnel of light

• 23:36 Dreams as visits from loved ones and pets

• 27:00 Where people go after death: earthbound, other planes, reincarnation

• 33:38 A parent who told them to question everything

• 39:51 Why talk about death and spirits gets written off as woo-woo

Related episodes

• Anonymous #37 — Can Faith Change What It's Like to Be With Someone Who Is Dying?

• Anonymous #41 — If Life Comes from Death, What if Nothing Ever Really Ends?

• Anonymous #45 — How Would You Know If a Message From the Dead Was Real?

Book recommendations: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix — see the full list of Anonymous Book Recommendations here.

If you'd like to watch this conversation instead of just listening, you can find the video version on YouTube.

If you're not sure where to start, the Episode Guide can help you find a place to start based on where you are.

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