Bodybuilder who 'died' remembers afterlife felt like a movie watching experience. Here's what he saw

Over 20 years ago, Vincent Tolman, a former amateur bodybuilder, suffered a fatal reaction to a supplement he had recently tried. The incident occurred on January 18, 2003, when he collapsed in a restaurant bathroom after taking a product he had purchased online. The supplement, he later learned, contained toxic ingredients. After losing consciousness, he began to vomit and ultimately aspirated, leading to his death on the bathroom floor.

By the time he was discovered, Tolman’s body was cold to the touch. Medical personnel at the scene believed he had been deceased for between 30 and 45 minutes. He was placed in a body bag, presumed beyond saving.

A Surreal Out-of-Body Experience

Despite his physical state, Tolman described being conscious during this period — but in an entirely different form. He said he felt as though he was seated in a comfortable chair in a movie theater, observing a film of someone lying on the bathroom floor. Even though the figure was clearly him, he did not recognize it as himself.

“It would almost be like going to a movie, like a real movie, and seeing someone dressed like you and looking like you on the movie, but you're like, that's not me, because he's over here watching the movie — that's what it felt like,” he explained.

He recalled watching the scene from an elevated vantage point, detached emotionally and mentally from the body he saw below. He was perplexed by the vividness of the experience, particularly how it included the thoughts of everyone present, from the restaurant staff to the patrons. His background in film and television made him critique the experience, comparing it to a strangely directed film where even the internal thoughts of a cook were oddly emphasized.

A Glimmer of Life in the Ambulance

Tolman then described observing the paramedics place his body into a bag and move it to an ambulance. He could still see and hear everything, including the thoughts of one of the medics. As he rode in the back of the vehicle, he noticed a soft glow beginning to emerge from the chest area of a rookie paramedic.

According to Tolman, a voice — strong and unmistakable — declared, “This one’s not dead.” Despite having found no pulse, the medic decided to open the body bag and check again. He located a faint sign of life near Tolman’s inner thigh and took the risk of initiating resuscitation.

Realization and Return

As medical staff worked to revive him, Tolman began to sense the straps being fastened on his arms. That physical sensation was what finally led him to understand the truth — the film he had been watching all along was not just a vision, but the story of his own death.

His account, which has been widely shared on social media platforms like TikTok through his handle @after.life.echoes, has drawn comparisons to other near-death experiences. Among them is Brianna Lafferty, who also reported a profound sense of consciousness after being declared lifeless. She described death as an illusion, emphasizing that “our soul never dies” and that consciousness continues in another form.

Tolman's story continues to attract attention not just for its vivid imagery but also for the emotional clarity with which he describes the experience. His account offers a compelling narrative of what he believes to be the afterlife — a place where perception, thought, and reality merge in unexpected ways.