10 Celebrities Who Have Been Open About Their Near-Death Experiences

What happens on the other side? There have been countless stories from people over centuries that detail their brushes with death. While many recount similar experiences, seeing a white light in a tunnel or encountering a deceased loved one, it seems that no two near-death experiences are exactly the same.

Dr. Raymond Moody, who is a professor of psychology and the author of the best-selling book on near-death experiences called "Life After Life," has found many interesting similarities between people who have had near-death experiences (NDEers). Perhaps the most reassuring is that NDEers no longer fear dying. "When NDEers say they have lost their fear of death, they most often mean that they no longer fear the obliteration of consciousness or self," Moody wrote in "Life After Life" (via lifeafterlife.com). "That isn't to say that they want to die anytime soon. What they say is that the experience makes life richer and fuller than ever before. The ones I know want more than ever to continue living. In fact, many feel they are living for the first time."

These ten celebrities have peeked at the great beyond. One MCU star called death "exhilarating." An Oscar winner found his brush with death "oddly peaceful." One Hollywood legend said that there was simply "nothing there." What they saw ranges from completely morbid to eternally hopeful.

In the '90s, Sharon Stone was one of the most popular actors in the world. Then, in September 2001, when she was in her early 40s, her entire life changed. The "Casino" star suffered a stroke and brain hemorrhage that nearly took her life and left her in a confused state. The lasting impact of the stroke and hemorrhage dramatically derailed her acting career. "I had lost my memory," she revealed on "Today" in 2026. "I couldn't talk. I couldn't walk. I couldn't see straight."

Stone's health struggles came up again in 2026 during an interview on Mayim Bialik's podcast "Breakdown." She recalled the surreal experience she had while trying her best to get any sleep after returning home from the hospital. "When I was laying on the couch, sleeping and awake, these orbs sort of presented themselves to me," she said. "These five orbs presented themselves to me and they sort of talked to me, but in a digital language." 

The "Basic Instinct" actor continued to see the alien orbs. "I just kept saying to them, 'I don't know if I'm supposed to stay here or if I'm supposed to die,'" she shared, adding that the orbs spoke back. "And they said, 'You're supposed to stay.' And I said, 'I can only stay if two of you will stay with my son. Because I don't want him to be alone, and I think he's gonna get taken from me.'"

On September 19, 2008, Travis Barker, who wasn't a fan of small planes, boarded a private jet along with his friend Adam Goldstein, his assistant, bodyguard, and two co-pilots. The jet was supposed to take them from Columbia, South Carolina, to Van Nuys, California. However, the aircraft crashed during takeoff and burst into flames. The Blink-182 drummer and Goldstein were the only survivors. "I looked Death right in the face," Barker told Rolling Stone in 2011. 

Surviving the accident placed Barker in a fight for his life. He revealed in the documentary "Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear" that 65 percent of his body was covered in burns. He also had to undergo 27 surgeries. Barker credits his kids with giving him the motivation to get through the physical pain and mental anguish. 

"If I didn't have kids, I think I would have went the other direction," added the father and stepfather of seven. "I mean, when I got out of the hospital I was on 21 forms of medication. The doctor said that I would be on half of them for the rest of my life," he said. "I then slowly went off my meds. I had my kids looking up to me and wanting me to bounce back ... Just to be given a second chance, knowing my partners didn't get that. I had to make the most of my time."

What we know about Jamie Foxx's medical scare (and his recovery) is that in April of 2023, news spread that Foxx suffered a medical emergency that landed him in the hospital. Multiple reports indicated that it was serious, but details of Foxx's health did not emerge until the following year when the entertainer detailed his health journey in his 2024 Netflix special "What Had Happened Was..." Foxx revealed that he suffered a brain bleed, which resulted in a stroke, while filming the movie "Back in Action" in Atlanta. The Oscar winner underwent emergency brain surgery.

"Your life doesn't flash before your face," he said in his Netflix special (via KBTX). "It was kind of oddly peaceful. I saw the tunnel. I didn't see the light. I was in that tunnel, though. It was hot in that tunnel. 'S***, am I going to the wrong place in this mother******?' Because I looked at the end of the tunnel, and I thought I saw the devil like, 'Come on.'"

The "Ray" star said that when he woke up from surgery, he had no recollection of his medical episode. He initially could not walk, but after intense rehabilitation, Foxx was able to make a return to acting. As reported by Today, during a 2023 speech at the Critic's Choice Association's Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievement, Foxx said, "I have a new respect for life, I have a new respect for my art."

Jeremy Renner plays superhero Hawkeye in the MCU; however, the actor is also a hero in real life. On New Year's Day in 2023, Renner attempted to save his 27-year-old nephew Alex from being run over by a 14,300-lb Snowcat plow on his property in Reno, Nevada. The action star was successful in saving the life of his nephew, but in the process, was crushed under the massive weight of the plow. Renner suffered over 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung, a pierced liver, and a serious injury to his left eye. 

In his memoir, "My Next Breath," Renner details how he believes he died while waiting for help to arrive. "After about 30 minutes on the ice, breathing manually for so long, an effort akin to doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour ... that's when I died," wrote Renner (via The Hollywood Reporter). "I could see my lifetime. I could see everything all at once. In death, there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever."

Despite the harrowing situation, Renner spoke almost lovingly of his near-death experience. "It is the most exhilarating peace you could ever feel," the Oscar nominee said on "Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa." "You don't see anything but what's in your mind's eye ... it's the highest adrenaline rush ... And I didn't want to come back. I remember, and I was brought back and I was so p***ed off."

People have different reactions to having a near-death experience. For Jane Seymour, her brush with death turned her life around. While the actor was in Spain filming the TV biopic "Onassis: The Richest Man in the World," she started taking antibiotics for a case of bronchitis and went into anaphylactic shock. "The nurse that had administered it saved my life by injecting me with cortisone and adrenaline, but I did actually leave my body, see the white light, see the people resuscitating me, and all of that," she told Deseret News in 2008. 

While most people would look back on the horrifying incident with terror, the "Live and Let Die" actor called it a "wonderful moment" that gave her the freedom to not have to worry about death. "It's all about loving and being loved," added Seymour. "End of story — and the difference you may have made along the way. It simplified things for me."

Seymour believes that the experience gave her insight into what happens after life ends. She shared with HuffPost UK in 2016, "You have no pain and no stress, you see a white light and if you look down, you see a lot of people screaming and yelling, but you're completely calm, and you think 'I'm me, that's not me, it just looks like me.' Who you are leaves your body."

While Richard Burton is the only husband that Elizabeth Taylor married twice, the "Giant" actor was also married to film producer Mike Todd. Todd was the third of Elizabeth Taylor's eight marriages, and their union was only about a year old when tragedy struck. Nanette Burstein, who directed the HBO documentary "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes," believes that Taylor was happiest with Todd. "I think that was her true love," Burstein told Closer in 2024. "But then he died in a plane crash."

Three years after Todd's death, Taylor was filming the epic "Cleopatra" when she developed double pneumonia and fell into a coma. The Oscar winner revealed in a 1992 appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "I was pronounced dead four times. Once I didn't breathe and I had no vitals for five minutes." Because of the experience, Taylor said that she wasn't afraid of dying. "I sort of floated into this tunnel, and there were other figures that I recognized. And this welcoming white sun, and warmth. Like being in liquid mercury — it was like being weightless," she added. 

The "Little Women" star also revealed that she saw her beloved third husband. "Mike Todd was there. And I wanted to be with him more than anything in the world," she recalled. "He said, 'No, baby, you can't. It's not your time. You can't come over. You have to fight to go back.'"

Over a million Americans died from COVID-19 during the first few years of the pandemic. What you might not know about Al Pacino is that he almost became one of the casualties. The Academy Award winner detailed his near-death experience with the virus in a 2024 interview with The New York Times. The actor was 80 years old when he contracted COVID in 2020, a period before the vaccine was widely available. "I felt not good — unusually not good," recalled Pacino. "Then I had a fever, and I was getting dehydrated and all that. So I got someone to get me a nurse to hydrate me."

However, a simple hydration drip would not be enough for the scary health issue Al Pacino almost didn't come back from. Soon after he requested the IV, he lost consciousness. "I didn't have a pulse," he said. "In a matter of minutes they were there — the ambulance in front of my house. I had about six paramedics in that living room, and there were two doctors, and they had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something." The medical team was able to revive him then and there.

During his brush with the other side, the "Scent of a Woman" star didn't have any of the usual visions we commonly associate with a near-death experience. "I didn't see the white light or anything," he said. "There's nothing there ... It was no more. You're gone. I'd never thought about it in my life. But you know actors: It sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there's no more?" 

Metalheads around the world may have trouble picturing the late great Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness, riding around on a quad. However, the Rock God owned a collection of quads and off-road motorcycles, including a Banshee quad that nearly took his life following a crash in 2003.  

The former Black Sabbath frontman talked at length about the near-fatal accident during a 2019 interview with GQ. "I had just come back to our house in England and it was a beautiful crisp winter's day I remember getting on the bike," he shared. "That's the last thing I remember." Osbourne later learned that he crashed the quad in a field. "It broke my neck, smashed my collarbone and splinters of bone severed my main artery. My lung filled up with blood," he said. "I severed my nerves and to this day I have no feeling there." He had metal rods inserted in his back to stabilize his spine, and in 2019 he sustained a fall at home that dislodged the rods. He would have to undergo multiple surgeries to try to correct the issue.  

Osbourne said that following the ATV accident, his heart stopped twice and that he was saved for a reason. "I did see a white light but I don't think it was the f***ing house of angels. I think it was me coming out of a coma and there was a light shining on my eyelid," he said. "With the drugs, the alcohol, the driving while drunk, the unsafe sex ... all the f***ing stupid things I've done. Something or someone must want me here for a reason." Osbourne put his quads and dirt bikes up for auction in 2007.

On June 7, 2014, Tracy Morgan was involved in a serious car accident we still think about. After he wrapped a standup comedy gig in Delaware, the comedian and six others hopped onboard a chauffeured limo bus and headed for New York City. While traveling, a Walmart tractor-trailer crashed into Morgan's bus. The "30 Rock" star's close friend James McNair died at the scene and three others, including Morgan, were left with serious injuries.  

Morgan remained in a coma for two weeks and suffered several broken bones. "I got hit by a truck, it was a great story ... I had a story to tell," Morgan later said to People about why he made his 2017 comedy special "Tracy Morgan: Staying Alive." "The "Saturday Night Live" alum was not going to let his accident stop him from doing comedy, telling the outlet, "As long as I could stand up and grab the mic, I was going to tell my story." Since the accident, Morgan said he has seen growth in his work. "It was a terrible, terrible tragedy and some of my greatest material came out of it to date. I don't know what's going to come next."

Morgan's recovery turned into the fight of his life. "To get up off that walker, I was working hard," he said. "I was working hard when I was in a coma ... I'm a fighter, and I fought." Morgan also went through a transformation of sorts. "My need to help others and my need to love others, that's what has changed," he added. "I know it has. Me as a person changed."

Gary Busey admitted that his ego prevented him from wearing a helmet while cruising around Los Angeles on his motorcycle in 1988. His desire to look cool nearly cost him his life when the then-44 year-old actor suffered a severe brain injury following an accident on his Harley-Davidson. The Oscar nominee told Larry King during a 2005 interview on CNN that his head hit the curb at 75 miles an hour. 

Following the accident, the "Point Break" actor was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency brain surgery. Busey said that he died during the operation and had an out-of-body experience. In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, he recounted with precision what he saw while lying on the operating table. "I was surrounded by angels," said Busey. "Balls of light floating all around me. And I felt trust, love, protection and happiness like you cannot feel on earth. It's the feeling the angels live in." Busey also said that three balls of light spoke with him about the direction of his life. 

"Then a light said: 'You may come to us now or return to your body and continue your destiny' ... The truth told me I wasn't finished over here on Earth," added Busey. "When you feel the truth, BOOM! You go for it. The truth is the strongest ordnance you have in your body, your mind, your soul and your being."