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What Four Famous People Saw Moments Before Death

What Four Famous People Saw Moments Before Death

Last updated on: October 10, 2026 at 11:09 am by Tom Rapsas

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What Four Famous People Saw Moments Before Death 2026-10-10T11:09:33-06:00 Tom Rapsas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Roger Ebert, Thomas Edison, Betty White, and Steve Jobs, compare notes in the afterlife. Image created by Gemini.

I recently told the story of Christopher Kerr, the Chief Medical Officer at Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo. His clinical studies show that up to 88% of dying individuals experience deathbed visions or dreams. Patients describe:

Seeing deceased loved ones coming to guide them
Experiencing a sense of multidimensional travel
Feeling an overwhelming sense of peace and “pure love” that eases their transition

It got me thinking about another person who had an unusual experience prior to death: the film critic Roger Ebert. On the TV show Siskel & Ebert, he was one of the featured critics, and his review could make or break a film. Though he was raised in the Catholic Church, Ebert was an avowed “non-believer.” In his 2011 autobiography, he wrote that, while not an atheist, he had more questions than answers.

Then something strange happened a week before Ebert’s death.

The story was recounted by his wife and constant companion Chaz Ebert, in a short story titled “The Death of Roger Ebert” that appeared in Esquire magazine. Chaz wrote about her husband’s final moments and how he left the world in total peace: “He was sitting almost like Buddha, and then he just put his head down.”

But the most compelling part of her tale happened in the days before Roger died. Chaz tells us that Ebert “didn’t know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened.” In her words:

That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note:

She had no idea what he meant. An elaborate hoax? So she asked Roger, “What’s a hoax?” looking for some clarification. He made it crystal clear to her that “he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was confused. But he was not confused.”

What does “the world is an illusion” actually mean?

The idea that our physical world is an illusion is a concept that’s central to many ancient spiritual traditions. In Hinduism, the material world is called maya. It’s a veil that conceals something deeper, unseen and eternal. Similarly, Buddhism teaches that our everyday existence is a kind of collective dream state.

For Roger Ebert, realizing the world was an “illusion” may have meant he recognized that our ego, our physical bodies, and human suffering are all temporary. The “hoax” lies in looking outward for answers and meaning. By seeing through the hoax, Ebert realized that searching externally is a trap. True reality, the pure consciousness behind our awareness, is internal—a divinity that connects us all.

If life is an illusion, what is reality?

To get past the illusion that is this life, do we need to venture to what Ebert called “this other place”? And what was this other place that he was glimpsing? His wife Chaz believes it was heaven, but “not the way we think of heaven.” No puffy clouds or St. Peter waiting at the pearly gates. In her words:

He described it as a vastness you can’t even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once.

This description veers into quantum theory, where the belief is that all time exists but that we are only aware of the present moment. As Albert Einstein once said, “the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Perhaps, Ebert was able to get a sneak peek at what was next, a place where the illusion could finally be shed, revealing life in its purest state.

Three other famous people had similar experiences.

Roger Ebert isn’t the only household name who has had a pre-death experience. Here are a few others.

Thomas Edison (1931): Much like Ebert, Edison was often labeled an atheist because he openly rejected organized religion. However, toward the end of his life, Edison clarified that he was not an atheist, but rather a believer in a “Supreme Intelligence” governing the laws of nature. Moments before he died, the famed inventor awoke briefly from a coma. He looked out toward the window and whispered to his wife Mina: “It is very beautiful over there.”
Steve Jobs (2011): As recounted by his sister Mona Simpson in her New York Times eulogy, in his final hours, Jobs looked at his sister Patty, then at his children, and finally at his wife, Laurene. He then looked past them over their shoulders into the distance, as if captivated by something beyond the room. His last words, spoken with a sense of wonderment, were repeated three times: “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”
Betty White (2021): White was married once, to the colorful game show host Allen Ludden. He passed away 40 years prior to her in 1981. Close friends noted that throughout the remainder of her life, White kept a framed photograph of Ludden on her nightstand and would blow him a kiss every morning. She never remarried. Shortly before her passing at age 99, White opened her eyes and stared off into the distance. She softly called out “Allen,” referring to her beloved husband, and then peacefully passed away.

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