Sharon Stone had near-death experience

Sharon Stone had a near-death experience 15 years ago during which she was engulfed by a "giant vortex of light".

The 58-year-old actress "took off into a white light" and was reunited with some of her late friends for a split second when she suffered a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage in 2001.

Speaking to America’s Closer magazine, she explained: "I feel that I did die. This kind of giant vortex of light was upon me and – poof! I sort of took off into this glorious, white light. I started to see and be met by some of my friends … people who were very, very dear to me [who had died]. I had a real journey with this that took me to places both here and beyond. But it was very fast – whoosh! Suddenly, I was back. I was back in my body."

It took the ‘Basic Instinct’ star two years to recover from the hemorrhage – an uncommon type of stroke caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain – as she had to learn to walk and talk again but after the vivid experience she no longer fears death.

She said: "I get not to be afraid of dying and I get to tell other people that it’s a fabulous thing and death is a gift. When death becomes you, as it will, it’s a glorious beautiful thing. I had an incredible sense of well-being and a sense that it’s just so near. Death – it’s very near and very safe."

Sharon was living in San Francisco with her then-husband Phil Bronstein, whom she split from in 2003, when she began to notice the effects of the bleed on the brain, but it took her three days to seek medical help at the hospital.

She said recently: "It almost feels like my entire DNA changed. My brain isn’t sitting where it used to, my body type changed, and even my food allergies are different."