There’s no shortage of theories about what happens after we die. Scientists have a little more to say about what happens right before.
Researchers in Italy asked 239 hospice volunteers and palliative care professionals about the strange things patients had described seeing near the end of their lives. For a 2026 study in Death Studies, they collected accounts of dreams that sometimes felt incredibly real, along with visions patients reported having while fully awake.
A white horse galloping along a beach is a strange thing to see near the end of your life, but that’s what one patient reportedly described. Others remembered staircases and open doorways. For many, though, the visions involved people they knew, including family members who had died years earlier. One woman dreamed that her late husband told her, “I’m waiting for you.”
What Happens Right Before We Die, According to Science
Most of these encounters were comforting. Imagine being near the end of your life and suddenly seeing someone you’ve missed for 30 years. For some patients, though, the dreams brought up painful memories or relationships that had never been resolved.
The Italian researchers collected these accounts from caregivers, so they were relying on what people remembered hearing rather than interviewing the patients themselves. But similar experiences have been documented directly.
In a 2014 study published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, Christopher Kerr and his colleagues interviewed hospice patients in Buffalo, New York, about their dreams and visions. Fifty-nine of the 66 patients enrolled were included in the final analysis, and most recalled at least one such experience. Nearly all said it felt real.
Visits from deceased loved ones were among the most comforting experiences patients described. They also became more common as death approached. Kerr has spoken about how frequently love and forgiveness come up in these accounts, something that can be difficult to explain when you’re looking at the subject strictly through a medical lens.
Even the caregivers weren’t always sure what to make of these experiences. Medication and serious illness can affect how someone sees the world, and delirium is another possibility near the end of life. The Italian researchers encouraged caregivers to listen to patients rather than dismissing everything they describe as confusion.
There’s something beautifully human about all of this. Near the end of their lives, people are remembering the faces they loved, the people they lost, and sometimes a dog they haven’t seen in decades. Science can’t tell us exactly why. But it’s hard not to be moved by the thought of someone seeing their mother again.
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