Man who died for 45 minutes before ‘coming back to life’ explains exactly what he saw

Vincent Tolman, a former bodybuilder, nearly lost his life after taking a supplement that he and a friend had bought online. The supplement turned out to be toxic, and after taking it, he collapsed in a public bathroom. He passed out, started vomiting, and then accidentally inhaled the vomit, which caused him to die on the spot.

This happened on January 18, 2003. When people found him, his body was cold—he had been dead for somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. But then something incredible happened: he came back to life.

While his body lay on the ground, Vincent said he had an experience that felt completely real. He described finding himself sitting in a very comfortable movie theater chair, watching everything unfold from above. He could see his own body on the floor, but strangely, he didn’t recognize it as his. It felt more like he was watching someone who just happened to look like him. It was like seeing a character in a film—someone you kind of relate to but don’t fully identify with.

What made the experience even more bizarre was that it didn’t feel like a dream. It felt real. He noticed little things that made him question what was happening, like how he could hear the private thoughts of people nearby, including people in the restaurant and even the cook. He thought it was odd, almost like a badly made movie where the director included too much information.

Vincent said that as he watched, he saw paramedics arrive and place his body into a bag. Inside the ambulance, he noticed a young medic and could hear the man’s thoughts, even though he wasn’t speaking out loud. Then something amazing happened: he saw a light shining from inside the medic’s chest, like it was coming from his heart. It wasn’t just a metaphor—it literally looked like light was glowing out from him.

At that moment, Vincent said he heard a strong, powerful voice say, “This one’s not dead.” It gave the young medic the push to act, even though it went against standard medical rules. The medic unzipped the body bag and checked Vincent again. Even though there was no pulse, he felt a tiny spark of life near Vincent’s leg, which was enough for him to try resuscitation.

As they took him to the hospital, Vincent started feeling the straps they used to hold him down on the stretcher. This confused him because he was still in that strange observer state. That’s when he realized—the movie he’d been watching wasn’t about someone else. It was his own death.