Hospice nurse says there is one thing that ‘almost everybody’ sees just before they die

There is a lot of speculation surrounding what we see just before we shuffle off this mortal coil - there's our entire lives flashing before our eyes, a bright white light or a complete out-of-body experience to name a few.

We can all take a wild guess, but ultimately, none of us will know what the last thing we lay our eyes on will be until our time eventually comes - and unfortunately, we can't come back and tell anyone.

However, there are a few people with more insight than most, such as hospice nurse Julie McFadden.

She's held plenty of patients hands as they enter their final days, but still doesn't fear death and believes that we should 'educate' ourselves about what happens as much as possible ahead of time.

The Los Angeles-based nurse, who shares her insights into end-of-life care online (@hospicenursejulie), thinks that 'people should know about the dying process before they're actually going through it with a loved one or themselves'.

She shared a nugget of knowledge from her experience about the one thing which 'almost everybody' sees before they pass away, while appearing on the The Skeptic Metaphysicians podcast.

Former ICU nurse Julie told hosts Will and Karen that the overwhelming majority of patients she has cared for usually claim they have been visited by people who have already passed on 'about a month before they die'.

She explained: "One of the main things that happens to almost everybody, it's usually about a month before they die, they start seeing people who've already died.

"It's always people who bring them comfort...so I say family members - but it's only really family members if you had a good relationship with them.

"They'll see their parents, their grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, cousins, pets. People who have already died come to them, and it's usually physically. Sometimes in dreams, but it's usually physically."

The end-of-life nurse said that it is quite the phenomenon, as these people are not even on the brink of death at this point.

Julie continued: "And they will say, 'Hey I'm coming to get you soon, you don't have to worry about anything we'll be here around you'.

"Most people who experience this are completely lucid - they're alert and oriented, they're not actively dying and hallucinating. There's nothing like that going on.

"As a healthcare professional, we know what hallucinations look like, what delirium looks like, what hypoxia looks like - it's not that. It's like a very distinct thing that happens."

Believing that people are on the other side waiting for you to join them certainly proved to be a source of comfort to a lot of people, who said the nurse's words 'helped them understand the transition'.

One social media user commented: "My mom saw and heard her sister and aunt. They brought both of us comfort. She didn't feel alone or scared."

Another wrote: "Thanks for sharing your knowledge, it's very helpful."

A third added: "This is so comforting."

And a fourth said: "My pets. I can't wait to see them."