A real-life story · Mauritius, 1982

Ian McCormack’s near-death experience

Ian McCormack was a 26-year-old surfer from New Zealand who was traveling the world. One night in 1982, while diving off the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, he was stung on the arm by five jellyfish. He reached a hospital half paralyzed and lost consciousness there. He later said that he went through a terrible darkness, that a light brought him out of it, and that he met Jesus.

No. 24 in the ranking

Ian has been telling his story in churches around the world for decades, and in 2014 a film was made about it. One detail sets it apart. Ian says that on that same night his mother, on the other side of the world, dreamed that he was nearly dead. She woke up and began to pray for him. We tell it step by step and then look at what can be checked. If you only want the evidence, skip straight to what can be checked. Did his mother, from so far away, know that her son was dying?

Step 1

1980 to 1982 · From New Zealand to Mauritius · Ian’s account

A surfer from New Zealand sets off to travel the world

Ian McCormack grew up on a farm in New Zealand. He loved the sea, surfing, and diving. In early 1980 he set off traveling with his best friend. They planned to be away for a year or two. They traveled through Australia, Indonesia, and other countries in Asia.

Ian had grown up in a Christian family, but he didn’t believe in God. He says that when he was a boy, his mother told him something he never forgot: “Wherever you go… if you are in trouble, and in need, cry out to God from your heart and He will hear you.”

From Sri Lanka he sailed to Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean. There he lived with the local divers, who taught him to dive on the reef at night. Then he worked for a few months in South Africa. In early 1982 he went back to Mauritius to spend a few days there before flying home.

A week before he was due to leave, his friends invited him on a night dive.

Step 2

One night in March or April 1982 · West coast of Mauritius · Ian’s account

Diving at night, he is stung on the arm by five jellyfish

They set out in a wooden boat at around eleven at night. There were four of them: Ian, his friend Simon, another diver, and a boy who stayed in the boat. Simon was a very experienced Creole diver. They dived on the outer side of the reef, looking for lobsters. Ian was wearing a wetsuit, but his forearms were bare.

Something brushed his arm and he felt a very strong shock. He went down again and saw some transparent jellyfish coming toward him. He was stung again. When he pointed his flashlight down, he says, the water was full of them. He reached the boat with four stings. As they pulled him aboard, a fifth one stung him.

His arm was swollen and covered in blisters, like burns. Simon asked him how many had stung him. Ian told him four. Simon replied that one is enough to kill you.

The hospital was more than 12 miles away, and it was midnight.

Step 3

Around midnight · A coastal road · Ian’s account

Half paralyzed, he can’t find anyone to take him to the hospital

The boy in the boat took him to shore and left him on the road. Ian’s right leg had gone numb and he was struggling to breathe. He lay down on the asphalt, exhausted. He says he then heard a voice telling him that if he closed his eyes, he would never wake up again.

He got up as best he could and limped over to some cars parked by a restaurant. He begged the drivers to take him to the hospital. They asked how much he would pay them, and he had no money. One of them took pity on him and put him in his car, but halfway there he changed his mind and left him at the door of a hotel.

There a hotel security guard named Daniel, a friend of his, found him. He carried him in his arms to the bar. The hotel owners thought he was on drugs and refused to drive him. Daniel called the hospital himself.

After a while, an ambulance arrived.

Step 4

In the ambulance · Ian’s account

In the ambulance, Ian says he sees his mother and prays for the first time in years

Lying on the stretcher, Ian was shaking with cold and fighting to keep his eyes open. He says he saw scenes from his whole life go by. And that then he saw his mother, very clearly. She was repeating what she had told him as a child. If he cried out to God from his heart, God would hear him and forgive him.

Ian tried to pray and nothing came. In the end he remembered the Lord’s Prayer. His mother had taught it to him when he was little, and he prayed the whole thing. When he got to the part about forgiveness, he says, he forgave the driver who had put him out of the car and the hotel owners.

He says he then felt a great peace. He was still dying, but he was no longer afraid.

The ambulance finally reached the hospital.

Step 5

At the hospital, in the early hours · Ian’s account

They try to give him antidotes, but he gets worse and loses consciousness

Ian describes it as an old hospital from World War II, with outdated equipment. Two Indian doctors treated him. A nurse put him on a saline drip. The nurses stuck him again and again, but they couldn’t get the needle properly into a vein. The older doctor said it was antitoxins against the venom.

They laid him on a bed. The doctor wiped the sweat from his forehead and then stepped away for a few minutes. Ian could no longer move his lips or his head. He says he fought with all his strength to stay in his body.

Suddenly, he says, he let out a sigh and knew he was gone.

Step 6

While unconscious · Ian’s account

Ian says he is in total darkness and senses he is not alone

Ian says he found himself standing in complete darkness. He felt around for a light switch and touched nothing. He raised his hand to his face and couldn’t find his face. He knew he was still there, but without a body.

He felt enormous cold and fear. He sensed others around him, telling him to shut up and that he deserved to be there. He says he thought it was hell.

Ian wondered why he was there if he had asked for forgiveness before he died.

Then, he says, a very bright light shone on him.

Step 7

While unconscious · Ian’s account

Ian says a light takes him out of there and he meets Jesus

Ian says the light lifted him out of the darkness and carried him along a narrow passage to the place the light was coming from. Waves of warmth, peace, and joy washed over him. Inside the light was a man dressed in white, barefoot, and all that light was coming from him. Ian felt that it was Jesus and that he loved him unconditionally.

Behind him, Ian saw a new world, with green meadows, a river, and mountains. A voice asked him whether he wanted to go in or go back. Ian thought no one would miss him. Then he saw his mother.

He says he thought that if he didn’t go back, she would believe he had gone to hell. He decided to go back to tell her what he had experienced.

The voice told him to tilt his head and open one eye.

Step 8

On coming to · Ian’s account

Ian comes to and sees a doctor pricking the sole of his foot

Ian opened one eye. The first thing he saw was a doctor pricking the sole of his foot with something sharp. The doctor got a terrible fright. Nurses and orderlies gathered at the door to stare at him.

Ian says he was still paralyzed and that over the course of that night he got his movement back, first in his upper body and then in his legs. Around eight in the morning he fell asleep. In the afternoon, his friends took him out of the hospital.

He has told this part in different ways. The 1988 video is the oldest account we have found. In it he says it “looked like” he had been dead for “nearly 15 minutes.” When he comes to, a doctor is touching his foot, and Ian says the doctor was treating him “like a piece of dead meat.” He doesn’t mention the morgue. In his book, years later, he says it was between 15 and 20 minutes and that they were getting him ready for the morgue. By a 2011 interview, he says he woke up in the morgue.

A few weeks later he went back to New Zealand.

Step 9

1982 · At home in New Zealand · Ian’s account

His mother tells him she dreamed that night that he was dying

His parents picked him up at the airport. They remember that he arrived very thin, with the sting marks on his forearm, which faded over the years.

At home, Ian told them what he had experienced. Then his mother told him her side. In the 1988 video, Ian says his mother had woken up in the early hours with a dream. He was in an ambulance, nearly dead. She started praying for him.

In his book, Ian adds that God showed his mother her son’s eyes, and told her to pray for him right then. Years later, he says his mother heard God’s voice out loud and that his father was with her.

Everything we know about that dream comes from Ian.

Step 10

From 1982 on · From his books and interviews

Ian becomes a preacher and goes back to Mauritius to look for his medical records

Ian became a Christian and, over the years, a preacher. Since then he has told his story in many countries. In 2007 his book “A Glimpse of Eternity” came out, written with the author Jenny Sharkey. In 2014 a film about his life, “The Perfect Wave,” was released.

In February 1994, Ian went back to Mauritius with his wife, Jane, to look for his medical records. He says they actually held the file in their hands, but the hospital director wouldn’t let them take it or copy it. He kept them waiting for hours. In the end he gave them a paper saying that Ian had been admitted that night, without saying that he had died. That paper has not been published.

One question remains: did his mother, on the other side of the world, know that her son was dying?

What does the evidence say?

What can be checked

We ask every story the same five questions. They help us find out whether someone saw or knew something they had no way of knowing, and whether that can be shown.

2.5 of 5

Yes
Unconfirmed
No data

Did Ian McCormack’s mother tell anyone about her dream before she knew what had happened to her son?Only Ian tells it, and years later. In 2017 he said his mother told him about the dream after he had already told her what he experienced. In 2022 he said his father was with her that night. The oldest account of the dream we have found is a 1988 video of Ian.
Is it known at what time Ian McCormack nearly died in Mauritius?Only from him, from memory. He says they went out diving around eleven at night and that by around midnight he was lying on the road. No hospital document has been published, and not even the day is certain. He says March in one place and April 19, 1982, in another.
Is it known at what time Ian McCormack’s mother dreamed that her son was dying?Only from what Ian says, and he gives two different times: the early hours for the dream, in 1988 and in his book, and midday for when he saw her praying, in 2009. We have found nothing written down at the time. The early hours in New Zealand were the previous afternoon in Mauritius, before the stings, so that doesn’t fit. Midday was three or four in the morning in Mauritius: that doesn’t fit with the ambulance, but it could fall within the hours he spent in the hospital.
Does anyone besides Ian McCormack confirm that his mother had that dream that night?Only the family, and through Ian. He says his father witnessed it. His mother did not tell it herself in anything published that we have been able to see, and she died in 2022. The diver who was with Ian does confirm that night’s stings.
Could Ian McCormack’s mother have known in an ordinary way that her son was in danger?It cannot be fully ruled out. According to Ian, his mother was in New Zealand and he was in Mauritius, and there is no record that anyone told her that night. But nothing written about the dream is known from before Ian came home, the dream changes from one version to another, and she told it after hearing her son. To find out, we would need something she wrote before Ian came back.

Why we ask each question

When did each thing happen?

This is what is known about when each thing happened and when it was told, from oldest to newest:

March or April 1982, at night. The stings and the hospital. Ian says March in his book and April 19 in a 2022 interview. According to Ian, they went out diving around eleven, and he was on the road around midnight.
That same night. His mother’s dream in New Zealand, according to Ian. Sometimes he says his mother dreamed it in the early hours, and once that he saw her praying at midday. At the time, Mauritius and New Zealand were nine hours apart until March 7 and eight hours apart after that. Midnight in Mauritius was nine or eight in the morning in New Zealand.
1982, weeks later. Ian returns home and talks about his experience. Then his mother tells him about her dream.
1988. A video in which Ian tells the whole story. It is the oldest account we have found.
1990 and 1992. A newspaper in Christchurch, New Zealand, announces his talks in churches. He was already telling his story in public.
1994. Ian goes back to the hospital in Mauritius and can’t get a copy of his medical records, according to him.
2007. The book “A Glimpse of Eternity.”

What is hard to explain

Simon, the diver who was with him, spoke in a video that Ian himself recorded. He said that on that night they were diving for lobsters and that there were many of the jellyfish people call “invisibles.” He also said they pulled Ian into the boat. He confirms the beginning of the story.
Ian has told the essentials the same way since 1988. The stings, the trip to the hospital, the darkness, the light, Jesus, and the return are always there. From 1988 to 2025, the core of the account has not changed.
According to Ian, his mother dreamed that night that he was in an ambulance, nearly dead. He said so in 1988, six years later.

What remains unresolved

There is no document from 1982. We have found no news reports in Mauritius or New Zealand, and the medical records have not been published. No doctor or nurse has spoken, and no version gives their names.
His mother told him about the dream after hearing what had happened to her son. Ian’s website used to link to a video in which his mother spoke, but it is gone and we have not been able to see it. She died in 2022.
We have found nothing in writing with the time of the dream. Ian gives two times: the early hours for the dream, and midday for when he saw her praying. The early hours in New Zealand were the previous afternoon in Mauritius, before he went out diving, so that doesn’t fit. Midday in New Zealand was three or four in the morning in Mauritius. That doesn’t fit with the ambulance, but it could fall within the hours he spent in the hospital. Ian gives all these times from memory. And what his mother dreamed changes from one version to another.
What happened when he came to also changes. In 1988, after “nearly 15 minutes,” the doctor is already treating him as if he were dead, but Ian doesn’t mention the morgue. In his book it is between 15 and 20, and they were getting him ready for the morgue, which fits with that. By a 2011 interview, he wakes up in the morgue, on a slab, and that doesn’t fit with 1988.
In 2001, Ian’s website said he had been stung by box jellyfish of the Australian species. Box jellyfish are a family of highly venomous jellyfish, and the Australian one is the worst. Months later, that sentence disappeared from the website, and in 2011 Ian wrote that he wasn’t sure which species it was. We have found no study that records that jellyfish in Mauritius.

How many people have an NDE?

Ian McCormack is not a one-off. The most reliable figures come from people who survive a cardiac arrest. In Ian’s case, no published document says whether his heart actually stopped. For more than thirty years, several teams of doctors have asked these survivors what they remember. They do it in the hospital, a few days afterward.

Picture 100 of those people:

Each dot is a person. The 18 filled-in dots are the ones who described a near-death experience. That is what the largest study found. It was done in the Netherlands in 2001, with 344 people.

The other 82 didn’t describe one. Many remember nothing of their cardiac arrest.

The figure varies from study to study, because each one asks a different group of people
Where and when	People interviewed	Described an NDE
England, 2001	63	6%
Netherlands, 2001	344	18%
United States, 2002	30	23%
United States, 2003	116	10%
United Kingdom, United States, and Austria, 2014	101	9%
Vienna, Austria, 2023	126	4%
United States and United Kingdom, 2023	28	21%

What these figures don’t tell you

Only some people are asked. In the 2014 study, 330 people survived, but only 140 could be interviewed, and 101 reached the second interview. The rest died later, were too ill, or didn’t respond.
Most cardiac arrests are never counted. These studies run in a few hospitals for a limited time. Outside them, no one keeps track. Also, the 2003 study interviewed 1,595 cardiology patients, not just the 116 with cardiac arrest in the table, and 81 of them described an NDE from an earlier occasion. The study did not count them, because it only counted those from that hospital stay.
Some people keep quiet. In the accounts in our archive, at least 13 people say they kept their experience to themselves for a while. They kept quiet because they weren’t believed or because they were afraid of how others would react.
It depends on how you count. If you count any memory of the cardiac arrest, the numbers go up. If you use a strict scale, they go down. In England in 2001, 7 of 63 people remembered something. But on the scale, only the memories of 4 people qualified as an NDE.

That’s why no one knows the real figure. But every study shows that it isn’t rare. Between 4 and 23 of every 100 survivors who are asked describe an NDE. Ian McCormack’s case stands out for another reason. According to him, his mother dreamed that same night that he was dying.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Ian McCormack?

Ian McCormack is a Christian preacher from New Zealand. In 1982, at 26, he was stung by five jellyfish while diving at night off the island of Mauritius. He says that in the hospital he had a near-death experience in which he met Jesus. His story is told in the book “A Glimpse of Eternity,” from 2007, and in the film “The Perfect Wave,” from 2014.

How long was Ian McCormack dead?

No document says. In the 1988 video, Ian says it looked like he had been dead for nearly 15 minutes. Later he speaks of between 15 and 20 minutes. His 1982 medical records have not been published. Here we explain what can be checked.

What jellyfish stung Ian McCormack?

No one knows for sure. Ian calls it a box jellyfish, a family of highly venomous jellyfish. In 2011 he wrote that he wasn’t sure of the species. The divers in Mauritius called those transparent jellyfish “invisibles.”

Where this story comes from

His account

Ian McCormack, “A Glimpse of Eternity,” transcript of a 1988 videoView
Ian McCormack and Jenny Sharkey, A Glimpse of Eternity, 2007. Free on his websiteView
Ian McCormack and Jenny Sharkey, Un vistazo a la eternidad, Spanish translationView
Frequently asked questions on his website, including his 1994 trip to the hospitalView

Witnesses and interviews

Ian McCormack talks with his parents, 2017View
Simon, the diver who was with him, interviewed by Ian, uploaded in 2017, in English and CreoleView
“Sting of Death,” The 700 Club, CBN, 2011View
Randy Kay and Shaun Tabatt, Stories of Heaven and the Afterlife (Destiny Image, 2022), chapter 2. A long interview with Ian McCormack, in which he gives the date of April 19, 1982
Announcements of his talks in The Press, Christchurch, October 1990 and September 1992View

Learn more

What is a near-death experience?Read
What does science say about near-death experiences?Read
How we check each storyRead

Our archive

Our comparison of his versions from 1988 to 2025, across his books, eleven interviews, and his old website, and the scoring against our five criteria, as of November 7, 2026

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Does not apply

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