A new video by a hospice nurse offers a compelling reason for people to feel comfortable facing the unknown. Julie McFadden, a hospice nurse, shares that when her patients are nearing death, they often have comforting visions. McFadden posts videos helping to demystify the dying process and bring comfort to people with a loved one in hospice care, or who may be dying themselves. Her profile reads, "Helping understand death to live better and die better." McFadden is also the author of the bestselling book, “Nothing to Fear.”Hospice Nurse Julie has earned over half a million subscribers and has witnessed over a hundred deaths. In a recent video, she reveals that people are often comforted by friends and relatives who have passed away in their final days. She says that when people begin experiencing these visions, it’s a sign that they will be passing away within a few weeks. It's almost as if these loved ones are welcoming them to the other side."Here's one sign that someone is close to death that most people don't believe happens,” Julie begins the video.A sign that someone is close to death - YouTube youtu.be "Usually, a few weeks to a month before someone dies, if they're on hospice, they will start seeing dead loved ones, dead relatives, dead pets. This happens so often that we actually put it in our educational packets that we give to patients and their families when they come on hospice so they aren't surprised or scared when it happens,” she continues.The experience is called visioning; although no one knows how or why it happens, it’s common among all her patients. "We don't know why it happens, but we see it in definitely more than half of our patients," she continues.People often believe that the visions are caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. However, Julie says that isn’t true. “Because when it does happen, most people are alert and oriented and are at least a month from death, so they don't have low oxygen," she said.Visioning is always a comforting experience A terminally ill woman in her hospital bed. via Canva/Photos It often involves relatives who 'come from the other side' to let them know everything will be okay and encourage them to let go and pass away. People also experience being taken on journeys with loved ones or having sensory experiences from the past, such as smelling their grandmother's perfume or their father’s cigar.These visitors can also appear in groups. Patients might report the room feeling 'crowded', like they are being joined by many people at once. The interesting thing is that patients aren't afraid of the visions. In fact, they welcome them. They work towards making them feel comfortable as they transition out of life. Medical professionals are unsure why visioning occursChristopher Kerr, the CEO of Hospice & Palliative Care, an organization that provides palliative care in Buffalo, New York, says that the relatives who often appear in these visions are those who protected and comforted the dying parent while they were alive. So, they may see a parent who nurtured them, but not one they feared.Kerr has extensively studied the mysterious phenomena that occur when people die, but has no real explanation for why his patients experience visioning. “I have witnessed cases where what I was seeing was so profound, and the meaning for the patient was so clear and precise, that I almost felt like an intruder,” he told BBC Brazil. “And trying to decipher the etiology, the cause, seemed futile. I concluded that it was simply important to have reverence, that the fact that I could not explain the origin and process did not invalidate the experience for the patient.”In a more in-depth video, Hospice Nurse Julie shares actual footage of a dying woman experiencing visioning. It's extremely powerful: - YouTube www.youtube.com It's comforting to know that for many, the final days of life may not be filled with pain and fear but instead with a sense of peace and joy. While we may never fully understand the reasons behind these mysterious visions, if they bring calm during such a daunting time, we can simply be grateful for their presence. They’re kind of like life, in general. In the end, we may not really know what it was all about, but we can be happy that it happened.This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.