Do our souls know when we're going to pass away?

[SwiftieGrainger]

Please, please do not read on if you find themes of loss or bereavement triggering. This is hopefully intended to be light hearted as a thread. I'm just wondering if anyone believes we subconsciously know when we or people close to us are going to pass away?

I am not hugely superstitious and I have no real view or opinion on the afterlife that makes me more susceptible to taking on such beliefs but I think I do. I was at work and for absolutely no reason at all as I heated up my pasta, I felt the need to call my dad's uncle. We rarely speak- he's an absolutely wonderful old man, but I have never called him in my life. I just did it without any real thought and I could not tell you why. It was lovely, just a light hearted chat that I found time for in my day but hugely unlike me. He peacefully passed away in his sleep the next day and I'm so glad I called. I'm also really glad that somehow the phone call happened when I'm usually so busy at work I don't even respond to texts. It's made me really happy tbh to know he knew I was thinking of him before he went, has anyone else had similar experiences?

Yabu - death is random and we can't know it on a cellular level
Yanbu - this is a common phenomenon

When I was a teenager a family member had cancer and was unwell. I hadn't seen her for many weeks and no one had told me (or even knew?) she was getting towards the end of her life.

I was late home from a friend's house and knew my mum would be cross. This was in the 90s before mobile phones.

However, as my bus was going past the area where my relative lived, I just felt compelled to get off. I went to her house and my uncle let me in. She was in bed asleep and died while I was there having a cup of tea.

It was the strangest thing, and I don't know why I felt I had to go

My Mum knew. I was getting married in 4 months and she told my Dad "to have a good wedding" the week before she died, she was poorly but we expected her to see the wedding, she was out driving herself around in the car the day she died.

My dog also used to refuse to sit on her knee. They absolutely idolised each other but it was comical how he wouldn't do it (he wasn't a cuddly dog) and it really annoyed her because it was all she wanted. Again, about a week before she died she asked me to take him round and he sat on her knee and they watched TV together. I knew then she wouldn't see me get married and that her death was imminent. DDog has gone now too and I comfort myself with the feeling that they're together and she's feeding him all the crap she used to shovel down his throat, which, of course, he accepted quite willingly!

As a nurse who worked in palliative care for part of my career I can tell tell you people do some strange things when they are nearing death ie giving things away asking to people at strange hours. They deffinatly know . As a nurse you sence even smell when death is close.
In my personal life I knew when my nana and when my mum were dying and managed to be with them both just in time it was an overwhelming sence of I just had to get to them.

The op said she does not usually call great uncle. Never called him prior to that occasion.

There is a woman who sometimes pops up on TikTok and my Facebook reels, Nurse Hadley, who is a hospice nurse in the US who talks about this sort of stuff and has written a book on it. I really like listening to her, she is trying to change the way we think about grief and dying and I’ve found some of the things she says really helpful.

Bear in mind all the times we've thought about someone and they haven't died......

Here is another odd one.

I didn't tell anyone that I was in labour. Called my mum at 8am to say I'd had my baby and all was good. She replied I should have called earlier she'd been awake since 4.30 am something woke her but she didn't know what and she couldn't get back to sleep. That's when I gave birth!

Could be coincidence but always strikes me as a weird thing like she just knew.

I’ve seen the TikTok videos and heard a few stories like the op but I’m still not sure if it’s all just coincidence with conformation bias when it happens.

A few years ago I saw a friends dad out and about and something just came over me, ‘he’s going to die soon’. He wasn’t old or ill. This happened about 3 times in a space of a month. He dropped dead very soon after the last time I saw him. But, whilst not knowingly ill he was certainly not in the healthiest shape and I think my overactive brain just put two and two together and happened to see an unhealthy person was likely to have a massive heart attack. If it hadn’t happened I’d have just put it down to intrusive thoughts.

@Mothership4two I had a very similar experience—a hangover-like episode, shivering and feeling very sick, but without any physical cause—I hadn’t been drinking and didn’t have food poisoning. I was lying on the bathroom floor at five am in my dressing gown when my mum rang to tell me my dad had died from a heart attack. It had happened around the time I’d woken up feeling very unwell. I’d had a long chat with my dad on the phone the night before, and I’ve always felt it was another form of communication that we don’t understand.

I knew my mum was going. I actually phoned the family that afternoon to let them know I was staying with her because she was going to go that night. I had only been there an hour that night when she went. I can't explain it but yes, sometimes you do know.

I think people can often sense before it happens. I'm not a spiritual person and think there is probably a biological reason that we don't fully understand yet.

I'm a nurse and sometimes patients have a smell about them when they are terminally ill. I used to work with an older nurse who often to get a strong feeling when someone was going to die soon though she could never explain why, she said she just "knew".

Patients often seemed to know themselves and apparently you can get a sense of "impending doom" when your body is going in to shock before you necessarily show the symptoms.

Older people often seem to just accept their time to go and are at peace with it, which I have always found comforting.

I don't know how to explain when people sense it when they are not with the person, for example reaching out after a period of estrangement though. I expect it's just fortunate timing but who knows really.

Oh gosh this sounds so familiar. My grandad was from Darlington. However he lived in the South and had a relatively standard English accent.

One day I went to see him with my new baby boy. And when I went to say goodbye he cuddled me tight and said in a soft Yorkshire accent "cheerio, love" and he waved me off.

It was so weird. And I knew something wasn't right. I left and called my Dad.

My Grandad had a nasty heart attack the day after. Left his funeral plan on the table ready for us all.

My mil had a strong urge to call her brother last week. He had been unwell and was in hospital. At 4pm last Saturday she said she needed to ring him urgently ( sil had borrowed her phone). She got it back and phoned him, only to be told by the relative that answered that he was on his way to meet his maker. The Dr had just told them and they were about to start phoning his family. He died an hour later. She said she had a sinking feeling in her belly and knew she had to call him.

Years ago my mum was going to visit my grandad which she did weekly. I had exams and so she didn't ask me if I wanted to come. I had a bad dream that night as if he was calling for me and I couldn't get to him. I went to go see him and kissed him as we left ( that side of family aren't big on hugs and kisses) it took him by surprise but oh the smile I received. He told me to come the following week and I promised I would. He died the following week.

I'm convinced my wonderful dad in law knew he was on his way.

My Gran recently passed away. She was in hospital after a fall, the doctors & nurses thought she would recover. We didn’t, my Gran still with her sense of humour knew, she wanted reassurance that her children had been to see her & on her last day she kept asking my sister who the person was by the head of her bed (there wasn’t anyone)

She died in her sleep after a week in the hospital, the staff all shocked but somehow us as a family knew she wasn’t going to leave that hospital - we all spent a lovely week with her and each other laughing and crying at times! It’s something special to us that we got to do it.

I somehow knew when my grandad passed - I woke up at 5am with the knowledge that he had gone, and a few minutes later my granny called.

I’m not a woo person so still find it strange and inexplicable. Didn’t happen with my other grandparents.

Our bodies absolutely know when life is ending. The process starts several weeks before death and there are clearly observable changes so yes on a fundamental level whether you want to call that the soul or the subconscious or biology or whatever, our body knows.

Whether we know when others are dying - who knows? maybe we know they are ill or have seen signs but not consciously recognised them, maybe they are on our minds because of that.

He was an elderly man. Have you never thought 'oh I'd better call them now they won't be around forever' about a very elderly relative? I may be a bit morbid but when someone is very old I have a 'this may be the last time,' feeling about almost any interaction.
As for some of the foreboding feelings mentioned by others, I have these all the time (see the 'bit morbid' bit). I'm occasionally right -but usually wrong! I'm sure it's possible to unconsciously pick up subtle vibes that indicate something is wrong, but our brains come up with predictions all the time. We only really notice when they happen to be correct, especially in dramatic circumstances.

I'm a Christian and yes OP, I believe our souls can know even if our conscious mind doesn't.

My mum died suddenly several years ago. She was due to have minor surgery and the night before she told me she'd taken off her wedding ring and put it in a drawer 'in case something happens to me'. I laughed and said 'nothing's going to happen'. She told me she'd had a dream that she'd died. We chatted it through and laughed and decided it was just her brain playing tricks. She was otherwise healthy and just needed a minor op.

She had the op and unexpectedly went into cardiac arrest and died. She was a Christian too and I think her soul/spirit knew.

I hope as well that wherever our souls go, that if a loved one still on earth is thinking about / sad about someone they’ve lost that a similar thing happens, I’d love to think that my dad and others I’ve lost know when I’m thinking about them

Indeed. People can turn anything into proof if they want to enough. People that want to believe look for anything that they think proves that and ignores anything that doesn't.

Who knows OP. There is no actual repeatable evidence so basically people are guessing or giving their opinions.

There's no such thing as a soul, so no.

There's no right or wrong thing to believe, personally I think anything you can take comfort in is useful during the grieving process.

My Autie passed away after a very quick decline from early onset Alzheimers. She passed a few hours after the last person close to her had visited, it felt like she hung on.

On the day my grandma passed away I said to my husband that that day would be the last time I saw her. She passed whilst I was with her. She was quite ill and I had been seeing her a lot but that day just felt different. That day was 20 years to the day after my Grandad passed and she was due to be moved from her home to a hospice/care home the next day due to her needs and family being unable to continue doing what we were doing. My grandma had always said the only way she was leaving that house was in a box!

Every time she flies, my mum reminds me where her will is. Ditto when she goes into surgery, which is often. If either of those things resulted in her death, I can see it would be tempting to say she knew. For sure it's a comforting thought. I still don't believe it's any kind of sign though.

There’s no proof either way ? Maybe there is maybe there isn’t ? Our consciousness must transfer somewhere though even if it’s not into a further consciousness/awareness it’s not as if that never existed. Whether it ceases at death or carries on as a ‘soul’ nobody can say with any certainty