Elizabeth Taylor described a near-death experience
during a life-threatening illness in 1961,
when complications from pneumonia
left her clinically critical and reportedly
without a detectable pulse for several minutes.
She later recounted the sensation
of separating from her body and observing the scene from above,
describing a calm detachment.
She reported encountering the spirit of her third husband,
producer Mike Todd, who had died years earlier in a plane crash.
According to Taylor, he communicated that it was not her time
and that she needed to return.
The experience profoundly altered her relationship to death.
She stated in later interviews
that she no longer feared dying,
describing death as a transition rather than an end.
Throughout her life, she spoke of the event
as deeply real and transformative,
insisting that it was not a hallucination
but an encounter that reshaped her understanding of existence.
Brandon M. Procak
Your Mind, After Death: The Case for Consciousness beyond the Body