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Former NASA scientist Ingrid Honkala claims to have had three near-death experiences (at ages 2, 25, and 52) and says she had the same out-of-body consciousness perception in all of them, a report given to Jam Press and echoed by the New York Post and The Mirror.
Former NASA scientist Ingrid Honkala claims to have had three near-death experiences throughout her life. In all of them, according to her, she had exactly the same perception: a feeling of consciousness separate from the body.
The first experience happened when Honkala was just two years old, after falling into a tank of icy water at home. The others came at age 25, after a motorcycle accident, and at 52, during a surgery where her blood pressure plummeted.
The account was given to the British agency Jam Press and echoed by outlets such as the New York Post and The Mirror. In an interview, Honkala described the sensation as “entering a deeper layer of reality, beyond our physical senses.”
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Despite the different circumstances, she says the experience was the same all three times. The initial panic quickly gave way to a feeling of absolute peace, as if consciousness had separated from the body.
What the former NASA scientist describes about near-death experiences
Honkala states that, during these episodes, she lost all sense of time, thoughts, or fear. Instead, she perceived what she describes as an “expanded perception of existence.”
“I no longer felt like a body, but as pure consciousness,” she reported to Jam Press. “There was a clear understanding that everything was interconnected, as if I was immersed in a greater intelligence, full of clarity and tranquility.”
The first episode, at age two, had a specific detail that the former scientist considers relevant. She says she saw her own lifeless body in the water and, at the same time, perceived her mother a few blocks away.
“I recognized her and thought: ‘that’s my mother’,” Honkala stated. According to her, there seemed to be a form of communication between the two, not through words, but through consciousness, and her mother returned home at that moment and was able to rescue her.
Years later, according to the account, mother and daughter realized their memories coincided.
How near-death experiences changed the former scientist’s view on death
Honkala states that the three episodes completely altered how she views death. “I stopped seeing it as an end,” she declared to Jam Press.
For the former scientist, what happened in the three situations seems more like a transition. “To me, it feels more like a transition within a continuum of consciousness,” Honkala said in an interview.
These experiences also led her to question the relationship between mind and brain. She began to consider that consciousness may not just be a product of brain activity, but something more fundamental.
This reflection carries special weight coming from someone with a scientific background. Honkala decided to pursue a career in science precisely to try and understand the nature of reality, and for years avoided speaking publicly about the experiences.
“For years, I focused only on science and avoided talking about these experiences,” she recounted. “But today I see that science and spirituality don’t have to be in conflict. They can be different ways of exploring the same mystery.”
What science says about near-death experiences like those reported by the former scientist
Scientific literature offers alternative explanations for the type of experience described by Honkala. Experts point out that these episodes may be linked to neurological reactions in extreme situations, including hallucinations and feelings of dissociation.
In cases of cardiac arrest, sudden drops in blood pressure, or anoxia (lack of oxygen in the brain), the central nervous system can produce intense perceptions that patients interpret as an out-of-body experience. Neuroscience research has recorded similar phenomena in controlled environments.
Despite these explanations, Honkala maintains her version. “These experiences transformed my way of seeing life,” she told Jam Press.
The former scientist represents a profile that has gained traction in the debate about consciousness: individuals with rigorous scientific training who, after personal experiences, begin to argue that the study of the mind needs to consider dimensions that traditional neuroscience cannot measure.
The discussion about the nature of consciousness has divided experts for decades. For some researchers, it is a direct result of brain activity. For others, there is still a fundamental unsolved problem, known in the philosophy of mind as “the hard problem of consciousness.”
Why the case of the former NASA scientist draws international press attention
The repercussion of Honkala’s account in outlets like the New York Post and The Mirror has a specific reason. It is not the case of someone without technical credentials reporting a supernatural experience, but of a person who worked at NASA describing a phenomenon that she herself classifies as inexplicable by conventional science.
This profile gives the story journalistic weight that similar accounts from ordinary people usually don’t have. The combination of scientific background, three distinct episodes over decades, and the coincidence of perception in all of them brings together elements that go viral on social media.
The topic also connects with a broader cultural debate about consciousness, death, and spirituality. Books, series, and podcasts dedicated to near-death experiences have gained increasing audiences in recent years, and accounts like Honkala’s fuel this discussion.
For the reader, the case raises a question that each person answers differently: are near-death experiences an explicable neurological phenomenon or an indication of something that science cannot yet measure?
And you, do you believe in near-death experiences? Do you think consciousness can exist beyond the body? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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