The near-death experience of Tricia Barker
What Researchers Found
The Story
Trisha was a 22-year-old college student from a poor background in East Texas. She had attempted suicide earlier but recovered. The NDE occurred during surgery after a severe car accident on her way to a race in Austin, where her car collided head-on with another vehicle at 65 miles per hour, causing internal injuries and bleeding that led to her death on the operating table. During the NDE, Trisha's spirit left her body and watched surgeons work from above. She saw light beings, or angels, send healing energy through the doctors. When her monitor flatlined, she left the room and observed her stepdad getting a candy bar. She flew into the night sky and entered the stars, feeling connected to everyone. A divine light gave messages that love matters most and to go to nature. She had a life review showing her judgments and missed friendships. She met her glowing grandfather in a beautiful landscape, approached the light of God, and felt healed of childhood pains. She experienced complete love but was sent back with a mission to teach. After the NDE, Trisha lost her fear of death and became more intuitive and connected to others. She finished college, became an English professor, and shares her experience to inspire students. She developed abilities like lucid dreaming, psychic insights, and medium readings to help people heal from grief.
“and that's how i felt i felt as if i was tunnel that they go down but i was in”
The account features a single veridical perception of a stepdad retrieving a candy bar from a vending machine during clinical death in surgery, verified post-event by the mother matching the exact timing of family distress, from a physically separated location. This is bolstered by severe medical crisis (flatline, exsanguination), but limited by only one verified detail without multiple confirmations or documented pre-verification reporting.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.
Are you here because someone you love has died?
These accounts were gathered because death may not be the end. Thousands of people have experienced something beyond — and come back to tell us about it.
What Researchers Found
The account features a single veridical perception of a stepdad retrieving a candy bar from a vending machine during clinical death in surgery, verified post-event by the mother matching the exact timing of family distress, from a physically separated location. This is bolstered by severe medical crisis (flatline, exsanguination), but limited by only one verified detail without multiple confirmations or documented pre-verification reporting.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.