When Sharon Stone `died` and came back to life

Los Angeles: Actress Sharon Stone said there was a time when she was suffering from brain hemorrhage and claimed she had died before coming back to life.

The actress spoke about the incident, which happened in 2001, to Closer magazine, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"I feel that I did die," the "Basic Instinct" said.

"This kind of giant vortex of white light was upon me and - poof! I sort of took off into this glorious, bright-white light," she added.

She said that she got to meet some of her late friends and loved ones.

"I started to see and be met by some of my friends... people who were very, very dear to me (who had died)," she recalled.

"I had a real journey with this that took me to places both here and beyond."

However, she didn't stay there too long.

"But it was very fast - whoosh! Suddenly, I was back. I was back in my body," she continued, adding that the experience "affected (her) life so profoundly that it will never be the same."

Following the brain hemorrhage, Stone spent several years undergoing extensive rehabilitation to learn how to walk and talk again.

Thanks to the experience, she is now not afraid of death anymore.

"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," she concluded.

"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. It's not a far away or scary thing."