Man Says He Saw Three Strange Ellipses During Seven-Minute Cardiac Arrest

A Reddit user who described himself as an astronomer says he saw three strange ellipses while doctors were trying to revive him after his heart stopped during a medical emergency.

The man shared the experience in an AskReddit thread asking people who had 'died' and been resuscitated what they remembered. His account is not new — versions of the story circulated online in 2024 before resurfacing again in September 2026.

According to the Reddit post, the man went to hospital after experiencing shortness of breath and was found to have what he described as a 'bad lung haemorrhage'. He said the bleeding caused severe blood loss before he went into cardiac arrest and a 'code blue' was called.

He claimed doctors took about seven minutes to restore his heartbeat. He also said he was later told that he had suffered a stroke during the medical emergency.

'I woke up intubated and only semi-conscious for two days, then fully regained consciousness and asked, "What happened?"' he wrote.

IBTimes UK has not independently verified the man's medical history, occupation or account of the incident. His Reddit post does not identify the hospital, treating doctors or provide medical records confirming the circumstances he described.

Three Ellipses Appeared in the Darkness

The Reddit user said that his clearest memory from the episode involved three elliptical shapes appearing one after another against a dark background.

He described the first as an upright, ring-like ellipse covered on its inner and outer surfaces with mountains, streams, forests and clouds.

At first, he said, the landscape appeared beautiful. Its colours then began taking on a yellow tint before the image disappeared.

A second ellipse appeared in its place. He described it as resembling an intensely hot ring of iron, with pieces apparently breaking away as it cooled.

The man also recalled what he interpreted as the smell of iron. He said a nurse later told him that the smell could have been associated with blood.

He retrospectively connected the second image with the period when his heart had stopped, although there is no independent medical evidence establishing when the individual visions occurred.

The third ellipse appeared as the darkness brightened, he said. This shape was covered with pale pink and blue clouds resembling a sunrise or sunset.

'That, I believe, is when my heart started beating again,' he wrote.

Again, that sequence represents his interpretation of the experience rather than a medically documented timeline.

Why He Connected the Shapes to Johannes Kepler

The man believes the repeated elliptical imagery may have had a straightforward explanation.

He said he had been studying German astronomer Johannes Kepler's Astronomia Nova before the medical emergency and had spent weeks thinking about Kepler's work on planetary motion.

Published in 1609, Astronomia Nova set out the first two principles now known as Kepler's laws of planetary motion. One established that planets travel in elliptical orbits rather than perfect circles, with the Sun at one focus.

The Reddit user suggested that this work had been so prominent in his thoughts that his brain incorporated the shape into the experience.

He also interpreted the landscapes and colourful skies of the first and third ellipses as representations of things he valued, particularly nature and the sky. The second image, meanwhile, was something he associated with blood and the circumstances surrounding his medical emergency.

Those explanations are his own retrospective interpretation and cannot be independently tested from the information available.

The man said the three images nevertheless remained vivid in his memory after he regained consciousness.

Experience Changed His View of Death

Unlike some widely reported descriptions of near-death experiences, the Reddit user said he did not see a tunnel of light or deceased relatives.

Instead, he described himself as a 'dispassionate observer' who felt neither fear nor pain during the experience.

He also claimed that the only lasting problem he noticed was a slightly diminished short-term memory, although there are no medical records available to independently confirm that assessment.

The experience changed his personal attitude towards death, he said. While he remained afraid of the pain or illness that could precede death, he said he was no longer frightened by dying itself.

'Inside, all was calm,' he wrote, describing an absence of pain, discomfort and worry during the episode.

He later concluded that 'dying is easy' based on what he remembered.

That statement reflects one man's subjective experience of a medical emergency rather than a medical conclusion about what dying feels like generally. Cardiac arrest is a life-threatening emergency in which the heart stops pumping blood effectively, depriving organs including the brain of oxygen, and can rapidly cause brain damage or death without treatment.