A young woman who stopped breathing for eight minutes returned to life with a message that "death is an illusion". Brianna Lafferty had an incredibly close brush with death in a when she was just 25 due to a . But instead of it being a horrible event she instead felt "fully alive" and more herself "than ever before".

Brianna, who lives in , told the how her traumatic experience has transformed her life thanks to seeing vivid otherworldly visions and a message that has stayed with her since. She has been battling myoclonus dystonia since childhood. This rare and complex neurological movement disorder typically affects the neck, torso and arms.

After suffering with extreme insomnia, Brianna's health took a serious nosedive in 2017 her sodium levels plummeted to a critically low 115 milliequivalents per litre. A healthy sodium level in the blood typically ranges between 135 and 145. Serious hyponatremia such as this can cause seizures, coma and even death.

Lying in hospital with her worried mother by her side Brianna's heart stopped beating for eight minutes and during this short period of time, she recalls hearing a voice asking if she was "ready" to accept death and when she said yes she slipped into what she calls "complete darkness".

She said: "I was completely still, yet I felt fully alive, aware and more myself than ever before.

"There was no pain, just a deep sense of peace and clarity."

She says the experience felt like it lasted months, during this time Brianna even learnt how to fly - only to hurl herself into a pole and lose an arm.

However, unlike on earth the American woman did not feel any pain and even fascinated watched her arm miraculously grow back.

At one point she found herself traveling through a bright blue tunnel "filled with ones and zeros," which she believed was symbolic of the universe's mathematical structure.

Brianna says she forgot who she was in the human world and felt "weightless".

Eight years later one poignant message has stuck with Brianna and that is that "Death is an illusion, and our time on Earth isn't the end".