60-year-old actor Shiv Grewall, who worked for the British theater company Royal Shakespeare Company, suffered a massive heart attack in 2013.
He was in a state of clinical death for a total of 7 minutes, during which doctors tried to resuscitate him.
With great difficulty, they managed to start the man's heart, but then the actor lay in an artificial coma for another month, as doctors feared great damage to his brain due to oxygen starvation
When he finally recovered more or less, he declared that he had experienced a rebirth and made a "space journey", being in a borderline state when he was reanimated. Since that year, Shiv began to paint colorful pictures, trying to reflect in them what he saw when he "crossed the threshold."
On that day, February 9, 2013, Shiv Grewall once again performed on the stage of the theater the play Much Ado About Nothing. Then he came to his home in Peckham, South-East London, had dinner with his wife Alison in a restaurant in the evening, after which he returned home with his wife, and already at home he felt weak and fell with a seizure.
“When my heart stopped beating, I was in complete emptiness, but I could feel emotions and sensations. I knew that I was dead, but I was also sure that I had a chance to return home.
I also knew that I could reincarnate into another body, but I didn't want to. I just wanted to return to life, to the material world and to my wife. I asked to be returned and my wish was fulfilled,”says the actor.
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In Shiva's paintings, you can see mainly abstract bright lines and incomprehensible figures. He says that during the "journey" he did not feel his body and felt that he was swimming like a fish in water, he was completely weightless and disconnected from the physical world.
"At some point I was traveling on the moon and could see meteorites and all of outer space."
After a heart attack and coma, the actor had to re-learn how to speak and walk, he developed epileptic seizures, and even 5 years later, the consequences of the attack still affect his health. It is still very difficult for him to speak and has to walk with a stick.
The worst thing was that he could no longer return to the stage, but then Shiv found himself in painting.
“When I was 'there' I was offered many different opportunities. I could choose and be reborn in a wide variety of life options. But I didn’t want anything and immediately made it clear to them that I want to live and return back to my world, in due time, to my body and to my wife.”
After the experience, Shiv believed in the afterlife, although earlier he considered himself more cynical about this.
“I became less afraid of death, but also began to appreciate much more what I have in my life now. I'm glad to just be here. I have also always believed that kindness is very important for people to develop and become better, but after this experience I now feel that it is very deep within me - as a fundamental truth."
In his works, Shiv wants to show people a world beyond the bounds. He says he tries to capture what a person experiences when he crosses the threshold of death and hopes that he will be able to show it to people.
