A woman has shared a remarkable account of what she believes happened after she “died for four days” — including an emotional reunion with a companion she never expected to see again.
Pamela Nance was 22, juggling the pressure of studying archaeology for her final exams while also trying to keep up with long hours at work.
On April 20 1990, she was pulling double shifts at a restaurant in North Carolina when she felt pain where she’d previously had a stomach ulcer — followed by a sudden “pop”.
At first, she didn’t think the sensation was serious. But the next evening, after going out to dinner with her husband, she returned home and began vomiting something red, assuming it was related to the cherry sauce and red wine she’d had.
After sleeping, she woke feeling unwell and extremely thirsty. As her husband was about to head out, she went to find him and asked if he could bring back something fizzy to drink.
She said:
“I asked him to bring me back a soda as he came back to town because that’s something we typically don’t keep in the house. And I turned to go into a little half bathroom — and that’s the last thing I remembered. It was lights out for me.”
Her husband heard her fall and called emergency services when he realised she wasn’t responding.
But while help was on the way, Nance later claimed her awareness was no longer with her body — and instead she found herself in what she described as a dreamlike landscape of snow-capped, otherworldly mountains.
Looking back on what she believes was the Other Side, she told NDE Journey:
“And people talk about the colors on the other side as being indescribable and this is absolutely true. What I experienced goes beyond human description. The colors were so vibrant, so beautiful, so encompassing.”
She said she felt completely immersed in her surroundings, no longer connected to her physical body, and described noticing a massive tree that seemed to communicate with her.
Then, she recalled, animals appeared around her — and she was overwhelmed by the sense that she was safe, loved, and exactly where she belonged.
She said:
“I could feel the love coming from all of these animals, it was the most beautiful feeling and belonging. I had no thoughts of my physical form or my physical life. I was there and I knew that was where I was supposed to be and belonged with these beautiful creatures that loved me.
“And as these feelings built within me, the animals parted and out of the midst came my Rottweiler, Holly, who had passed away… on that same day when I had the stomach pop or the stomach pain.”
Nance added that the dog she saw didn’t look old or unwell, but instead seemed restored — as if returned to her prime.
She explained:
“But the Holly I was seeing under this majestic tree appeared to be in her youth, maybe about two or three years old. She looked like she did shortly after I first got her. She was shiny, she was vibrant. She was so happy to see me, her little body was wiggling and her tail was wagging back and forth.”
She recalled crying as she hugged her dog, before gradually becoming aware of a distant voice calling her name — a sound she recognised as her husband’s.
According to Nance, she could sense fear in his voice, and felt herself being pulled back toward her body.
She said that while she was in intensive care she slipped away again, and this time she experienced the presence of a Buddhist monk, whom she described as a guide.
By Tuesday, she said she was fully back in her body ahead of a planned endoscopy. After five days in hospital, her internal bleeding stopped and she recovered.
In the comments beneath her YouTube account, many viewers said her story resonated with them — particularly the idea of being surrounded by animals and nature.
One person wrote:
“I am crying now, this is my favorite version of heaven, surrounded by animals and nature.”
Another said:
“I hope when I pass I see all the animals I had in my life time. Nice to see love ones too but I really want to see the animals.”
Someone else added:
“We are born in pain and spend our lives either feeling it or avoiding it both physical and emotional. That is the dominant aspect of our lives here. It is the motivation for hunger and the search for love.”
Reflecting on what she believes she learned, Nance said the experience changed how she views existence and what matters most, telling the channel:
“I do revere all life. That experience really opened me to the knowledge that where we are right now, this is real for this 3D environment that we find ourselves in, but our true life, our true self, is on the other side.”
She also spoke about a deeper connection between living beings and what she described as the source of unconditional love.
As for the message she hopes people take from her story, she said:
“We are all connected by that love. The only thing that keeps us apart, that keeps us separate, is fear.”
She added:
“And there’s no place for that because we are all connected. We’re all the same at a soul, at a spirit, at a conscious level. And it becomes very clear once you have this type of experience, the interconnectedness that we all have with each other.
“And that’s my message — that’s it’s all about love.”