Believers say that remote viewers can do things like spy on a conversation between two people in a different country or see a clandestine site halfway around the globe.
@the.ascension.arc/TikTok, Sean Musil/UnsplashTikToker @the.ascension.arc claims that he died and came back to life “different” in 2019.
In 2019, a man who goes by @the.ascension.arc on TikTok says that he was hit by a car and choked on his own blood. He says that he “died,” in the clinical sense, implying that he was then resuscitated. But in the years that followed, he says, almost nothing about his life stayed the same. He lost his friends and family, and he says he began experiencing visions that he couldn’t explain.
Then, @the.ascension.arc shared that he’d started practicing “remote viewing”: the alleged ability to perceive people, places, events, or information that’s either very far away or hidden in some way or even part of the future. Because of this, he claims that he’s since been labeled as crazy.
But in a TikTok with more than 2.4 million views, he says that he’s found nearly a thousand people in an online community who have described similar experiences following their own brushes with death.
Science Shows That Near-Death Experiences Can Leave People Profoundly Changed
The social isolation that @the.ascension.arc describes is one of the most consistently documented aftereffects of near-death experiences (NDEs), and researchers have been studying it for decades, Psychology Today reports.
People who survive NDEs often undergo dramatic shifts in personality, priorities, and worldview that those around them struggle to understand. For instance, divorce is common in couples where one partner has had an NDE. The person who came back, friends and family members often say, isn’t quite the same person who left.
Framestock/Adobe StockA near-death experience is when a person comes close to death or is resuscitated after a brief period of clinical death.
Research has found that NDE survivors commonly report heightened intuition, a decreased fear of death, increased spiritual sensitivity, and a perceived increase in psychic experiences, including what they describe as telepathy and precognition.
In a study of 167 near-death experiencers, the University of Virginia reported that more than half sought counseling or support afterward, but many hesitated to do so out of fear of being labeled crazy. Those who received acceptance and validation rather than dismissal from those around them found it easier to receive support.
In all of these aspects, the intensity of the NDE matters as well. The more profound the experience, the more likely the person was to seek help, and the more likely their life was to be significantly altered.
Stargate Project: When The CIA Spent $20 Million On Remote Viewing
Though there is copious documentation regarding NDEs, no scientific evidence supports the existence of remote viewing. Nevertheless, beginning in the 1970s, the CIA and the U.S. Army launched classified research programs to explore whether it could be weaponized as a Cold War intelligence tool.
The program, known as Stargate Project, operated for two decades. At its peak, it employed 22 people and cost the U.S. government $20 million.
Project operatives claimed to have used remote viewing to help locate American hostages, predict the crash site of the Skylab space station, and pinpoint Scud missiles during the Gulf War. One operative, Joseph McMoneagle, told The Washington Post that he completed more than 450 missions with an estimated 15 percent success rate, which he said was a higher one than what was achieved with conventional intelligence-gathering methods.
The CIA was not convinced, however, and a 1995 review of Stargate Project concluded that remote viewing had not been shown to have any value in intelligence operations, so the program was shut down.
The Community That Formed Around One Man’s Remote Viewing Story
What makes @the.ascension.arc’s viral moment notable isn’t just his personal account; it’s the scale of the response. His video drew thousands of comments, and nearly 2,500 people have joined a Discord community that he founded.
Stock ImageAfter his near-death experience, @the.ascension.arc founded a Discord community, where he’s been joined by nearly a thousand others who claim to have had similar experiences.
Whether the visions and remote viewing abilities @the.ascension.arc describes are genuine, psychological in origin, or something else, the story isn’t quite clear.
What is clear is that the experience of dying and coming back can change a person in ways that are very difficult to explain and, oftentimes, even harder to live with.
All That’s Interesting reached out to @the.ascension.arc for comment via TikTok direct message and comment. We’ll be sure to update this if he responds.
After reading about remote viewing, learn more about top-secret initiatives like MK-Ultra and the Montauk Project.
