Visioning: Hospice nurse explains this common phenomenon which happens weeks before dying

The topic of death has been fascinating humans for as long as we can remember. Whether we are worried about what comes next, or whether there really is an 'afterlife', others worry about what happens before we pass away. A hospice nurse called Julie McFadden took it upon herself to educate families about what happens before and after death on her YouTube channel. Today, we are looking into a common phenomenon known as visioning.

What is visioning?

According to LADbible:

Visioning is when dying people believe they are talking to their deceased loved ones. They can also think that they have come to get them, or that they are in the room with them.

On her YouTube channel, nurse Julie starts her explanation by describing visioning as 'wild'. Visioning is very different from having hallucinations due to any type of mental or physical illness. Contrary to hallucinations or psychosis, visioning is always comforting for patients, and it happens to people who are still 'alert and oriented'. This phenomenon usually happens a few weeks before death. She explains:

They can be up and having a normal conversation, sitting in a chair and talking to their family, and saying they're seeing their dead father standing in a corner, who is smiling and telling them he'll be coming to get them soon.

According to nurse Julie, the best thing to do if your loved-one is experiencing this phenomenon is to just 'go with it', especially as it is comforting to them. Visioning can give an approximate timeline of the coming death, as patients usually die within a month of their experience.

Hospice nurse Julie explains her own experience

Nurse Julie McFadden started her career as an ICU nurse before moving on to hospice care. This is where she learned about several 'deathbed phenomena', and was told to 'educate families about them', as they were mostly not widely known. She explains in her YouTube video that she didn't believe in some of these phenomena before she started actually witnessing them in her hospice patients before they passed away.

According to her, visioning happens to 'almost everyone', although there is no scientific estimation on the subject yet. She explains on her YouTube channel:

It happens so often that we actually put it in our educational books to educate patients and their families to expect this.

Read more:

⋙ Terminal lucidity: Hospice nurse explains this common phenomenon that happens right before you die

⋙ The ‘death stare’: Nurse explains phenomenon that happens when a person is about to die

⋙ Death rattle: This is what happens to your body 24 hours before you die

Sources used:

YouTube: What happens on the Death Bed

YouTube: End of Life Visioning is a Sign and Symptom of Death and Dying

LADbible: End of life nurse shares what people see when they die