I'm a hospice nurse and I know people see heaven and their dead loved ones before they die

A hospice nurse has revealed why she is convinced people see heaven and their passed loved ones before they die.

Julie McFadden, 42, a registered nurse based in Los Angeles who specializes in hospice care, has built a social media following of millions through sharing her insights in a bid to help destigmatize the process of death and dying.

After almost two decades of working with dying patients, Ms McFadden says she has witnessed dozens of paranormal and spiritual experiences where terminal patients seemingly are able to communicate with the afterlife before their own passing.

One phenomenon she touches on is called 'visioning,' also known as deathbed visions, which is when a person who is dying begins to see people or things that aren't physically present in the room.

If a dying person experiences visioning, Ms McFadden says it usually begins somewhere around three or four weeks before their death. She says she sees visioning as much as 80 percent of the time in the dying process.

These visions commonly include deceased family members, such as parents, spouses, siblings or even grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends, too.

Religious figures such as angels, Jesus, Muhammad or God can appear, Ms McFadden reveals - as can beloved pets who have died. Beyond people and animals, visions of beautiful landscapes or images have also been reported.

Closely related to visioning is another phenomenon, which Ms McFadden refers to as the 'death stare' or the 'death reach'.

About one or two weeks before death, Ms McFadden reveals that a dying person will sometimes begin to look past everyone, staring at the wall, the ceiling, the corner of the room, or somewhere far off.

They often won't look away from that point for a long time. This staring is often accompanied by the person lifting their arms, reaching out to something or someone.

In one video she spotted online and uploaded by @rugersmomma1, Ms McFadden says one elderly lady in hospice care can be seen having a deathbed vision as she tries to reach out in the darkness.

Explaining what is happening in the footage, which was shot during the night, the nurse says: 'So what is going on in that video?

'First off, [it's a] classic example of the death reach. Okay, the death reach and the death stare.

'Probably her staring off and visioning, because this woman is talking to someone that we can't see.

'She's clearly seeing someone, something we can't see. And she says "okay" in the video.'

In the video, the voice of someone who is not seen in the room was also captured, whispering the word 'mamma'.

The woman who captured the video believes this voice came from her younger sister who died in 2017 and she called out from beyond the grave to greet her dying mother.

In another video, shared by one of Ms McFadden's followers, a similar thing can be seen happening.

An elderly woman, who was filmed by her daughter, can be seen having a vision two weeks before passing away.

Ms McFadden explains that the daughter said she could hear her mom in the bedroom 'talking to a bunch of people [but] couldn't hear the other people.'

From the footage, the nurse says the woman is 'clearly really excited that she is finally seeing these people again' as her voice becomes more animated and she raises her hands to communicate with people not seen in the room.

Ms McFadden says that deathbed visions are 'important, because they show over and over again that death can be peaceful'.

She adds: 'They show that our loved ones aren't suffering as they die.

'On the contrary, many of them are having beautiful visions, meeting with long-dead loved ones, or having spiritual experiences in line with their deeply-held beliefs.

'These are not rare occurrences either. Whether we're talking about visions, pre-knowledge of death, seeing bright lights or angels or other phenomena, a significant number of people seem to experience them.'

While medical professionals still can't adequately explain why most of these phenomena happen, they occur so often that Ms McFadden reveals that they are actually included in hospice textbooks.

In medical and scientific texts, they are referred to as either death-related sensory experiences (DRSE) or simply deathbed phenomena (DBP).

Ms McFadden concludes: 'What I also find interesting is that, most of the time, my hospice patients who have these experiences know that the person they're seeing is dead.

'They're not in an altered state where they think the person is alive and in the room, and they're often just as curious as I am.

'They're alert when it's happening, fully understanding that no one else can see or hear what they're seeing and hearing.'