I Died in the Ocean… and a Dolphin Saved Me! Life Review & Afterlife Secrets with Carlos Vivas

Some stories feel as if they were whispered into existence by the ocean itself, carrying with them a truth that reaches far beyond the surface of life. On today’s episode, we welcome Carlos Vivas, a man whose near-death experience in the open sea became the turning point that reshaped his life’s purpose. His journey is one of surrender, divine intervention, and the mysterious grace that sometimes appears in the most unexpected forms—like the sleek, shining back of a dolphin.

Carlos’s day began like any other, until the ripples of tragedy on the news stirred questions in his heart about God, innocence, and the nature of suffering. Soon after, a trip to Panama City led him to a remote island, where a series of small warnings—ignored at the time—built toward an encounter that would strip him of every illusion of control. Drawn into the open ocean by a riptide, he found himself battling exhaustion, cramps, and the creeping certainty that his life was about to end. In that moment, when fear gave way to surrender, he heard a voice: “Ask for help.”

This voice, soft yet unyielding, urged him until he obeyed, waving desperately toward the distant shore. Rescue seemed near, but a sudden thunderstorm sent the would-be saviors back to safety, leaving Carlos adrift and ready to let go. It was then that the ocean itself seemed to respond—a dark shape approached beneath the waves. Preparing for the worst, he shielded himself, only to feel the gentle yet powerful push of a dolphin lifting him toward the surface. “I started crying,” he recalls, “because I couldn’t believe this beautiful creature was saving my life.”

The dolphin stayed by his side until a struggling fishing boat arrived. Even after Carlos climbed aboard, the animal followed, leaping in the boat’s wake all the way back to shore. The symbolism deepened when he later learned of the dolphin’s ancient Christian meaning—as a bearer of souls, a guide toward eternal life. This, paired with the staggering fact that thousands of dolphins are killed each year yet still rescue humans, left him in awe.

That night, Carlos dreamed he was on a massive cruise ship facing a looming tsunami. Just as the wave threatened to consume him, a radiant figure he recognized in his heart as Jesus appeared, assuring him, “You will never die with me.” Embraced and led into a heavenly realm filled with countless souls in white robes, he was told that love—not religion—reigns supreme in eternity. “Love,” Jesus said, “is the most powerful force in the universe.”

Carlos experienced a life review, feeling the impact of every action he had ever taken on others—both the joy he had sparked and the pain he had caused. Before sending him back, Jesus reminded him of the promise he had made in the water: to give his life over in service. Carlos awoke knowing he was no longer the same man who had stepped into the ocean that day.

Back on land, he reflected on the deeper lessons of his experience. Prayers, he realized, are not measured in words but in the depth of emotion and intention we pour into them. Life on Earth, he believes, is a great school where each of us is here to learn and to give love. His miraculous rescue was not just a personal salvation but an invitation to live fully awake, with gratitude as his compass.

SPIRITUAL TAKEAWAYS

  1. Surrender opens the door to grace – Letting go can invite help in ways we cannot predict.

  2. Love is the only true law – Beyond all forms and beliefs, love unites all souls.

  3. Prayer is energy, not just words – The intention and emotion behind a prayer give it life.

From the pull of the riptide to the presence of the divine, Carlos’s story is a reminder that the line between life and death can be thin—and yet, within that space, miracles happen.

Please enjoy my conversation with Carlos Vivas.

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Follow Along with the Transcript – Episode DE078

Alex Ferrari 0:00
Tell me what your life was like before you died.

Carlos Vivas 0:08
One morning, I wake up, I go to my living room, I sit down on my sofa, and I turn the TV on, and on the TV was the news that was a massacre of kids in school. So I feel super bad. And I turn the TV off, and I say, Okay, God, this is it for me, how these beautiful kids that their innocent souls have to die? This is not possible. If there is a God, you need to explain me. You need to give me an explanation why this is happening. In that moment that I asking God from the bottom of my heart, like, what's going on? My phone rings. I grabbed the phone. He was one of my best friends. Carlos, what are you doing this weekend? Said nothing. Why my family want to go to the beach and we're going to Panama City. Do you want to go? So yeah, let's go. So we planned the trip. We traveled to Panama City. A lot of stuff happened on the way there for us to stop the trip and go back to Atlanta. Like 15 red flags. I wasn't superstitious, so I didn't believe any of these signs that were happening at that time. So we drove to Panama City. We go to different places to stay the day, but it was packed because it was Memorial Day. And I told my friends, you know what, let's go to an island. It's called chill Island, and we need to go to this park. It's called San Andres State Park. And when we get there, we get a charter boat and take us to the island. So we did that to the shuttle boat. The boat took us to the island. It was beautiful day, blue skies, blue water. When we arrived to the island, it was around 9am in the morning. It was packed with people the bay side. So I told my friend, well, I didn't know these people was coming here. So what about let's go to the other side of the island, this open ocean. So my friend said, yeah, yeah, let's go. So we went there. We walked to the other side. On my way, walking to the other side of the island, there was a guy with five kids. And the guy says, Excuse me, sir, excuse me. I was walking first. My friends were behind me. I said, Yes, sir. What's going on? I said, like, what do you think you're going so I'm going to the other side, sir, because this side is packed with people. I said, Yes, but here is the most, most secure area of the island. The other side is open ocean is dangerous. I said, Look, I've been coming here for more than 10 years. Nothing ever happened. Don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. So okay, we'll just be careful. So we continue walking. We arrive to the other side of the island. Like I said, this is a piece of land in the middle of the ocean. They don't have any pump, nothing, just sand. Right when we arrived to the other side, there was nobody there. So I told my friends, let's put a big tent, because the sun was really spicy, was really hot, so I have a big tent. So we start putting the tent together, and the wind, that was another red flag. The wind started blowing really, really hard, and the tent opens, and the tent was like a flag, like a parachute. So when the parachute opened, that was the tent, the wind was blowing, and we couldn't put it together for 45 minutes. We're fighting with this thing because the wind was so hard. And after 45 minutes, one of my friends grabbed some rocks and put it on every corner of the tent. And we stayed there all day. We put chairs, we bring food with drinks, and we stayed there from 9am to 4pm one of my friends said, Carlos, me and my family were gonna walk around the island. Do you want to come with us? I said, No, I taking care of everything. You guys go. I know this island, but you have between 45 minutes to an hour to come back here, because the last boat leave at 5:35, it's 30 to 6pm Okay, so they leave me alone. I was by myself. It was a little bit hot, and I said, You know what? I just gonna jump and swim a little bit. And I'm not afraid to swim, because when I was a child, I was on a swimming team, and my mom, she always put us on Ferrari, taekwondo, swimming classes, music classes, piano classes, I mean, you name it. And I said, Okay, I just gonna swim. So I jump into the water, I start swimming. And out of the sun, this rip tie came under the water. It was like a whirlpool, like a twister under the water, and pushed me far, far away into the ocean. I didn't know what a riptide was, so I was fighting and fighting and fighting. The first thing that you do with a rip tie is never fight with a rip tie. And I was just fighting because I didn't know what it was, right? And after 30 minutes, fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting when I put my head out of water and farther and farther and farther away from the island, and this current is still taking me into the ocean. After 30 minutes, I have cramps on my arms, on my legs, and I say, You know what? There is no way that I'm going to come back alive from here. This is it for me. This is it for my life. So in that moment, I look at heaven, I say, Okay, God, you know what? I never thought this is going to be my last day, but if you want to take me, I'm ready. So before I go, I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for my mom, thank you for my dad, thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for everything you gave me. And I'm sorry if I did something wrong. And as soon as I said that, behind me, I heard this voice that said, ask for help. So I looked back, it was a very soft voice. And I was like, what? I don't see anything. I just hear the water and the wind. And then minutes later, I heard again, ask for help. And I was like, Are you kidding me? Are you here? Like, is anybody here? Help me? Please. Nothing. Few minutes passes, and then I heard again, I told you to ask for help. Oh, my God. Okay. Okay. So I started waving my hands. Hell, you. Him that barely could see the island. This voice is still insisting behind me. I said, Help. Help. Help. At the end of the island, something happened. One of my one of my best friends, he came out of the group because he felt something was wrong. So when he was looking for me, and he went back to the beach, and he didn't saw me there, he started running back and forth. He went to a top of a hill. When he went to the top of the hill. He saw me, and he started jumping Carlos. Carlos, I call 911. Hold on, hold on. And he told me the Carlos, I couldn't believe this was happening again to me, but this time, I'm gonna do everything on my soul so nobody's gonna die, you know. So he went back to the tent and he grabbed some tubings. He went to the top of the hill, and he started dropping the tubings. But like I say I was like, half a mile away. And of course, the tube was flying back to him because the winds was against him, right? And then when he saw that that didn't work, he said, Okay, hold on, hold on. Let me get people from the other side. So he went back to get the people that was boarding the boats going back to Panama City. A lot of people came, and six guys jumped from the rocks. When this these guys jumped from the rocks. Everybody's coming my way. And I was like, Oh my God, thank you. God, thank you. They're going they're gonna save me. They're gonna save me. 10 minutes later, after this happened, we hear a thunder behind me, and then a lightning, and when I look behind me, I see that it's a big thunderstorm coming. And I said, Oh my God, there's a thunderstorm. So when I look in front of me, the guys that's supposed to be Rescue me, turn around, start turning around. And in that moment I said, Well, I don't blame them, because they don't know me, and maybe they have families that they don't want to die for somebody that they don't know. And in that moment when they turn around, I said, You know what, God, just take me. There is no way I'm going to get out of here. So in this moment, I'm just going to surrender. I don't want to continue fighting for this. If you want to take me, just take me. So in that moment, I surrender. And then I saw a huge wave that came and crushed me all the way under the ocean. So when I was under the ocean, I opened my eyes, and from far, far away, I see this black shadow that's coming my way. So I covered my face, thinking that it's a chart. I was like, oh my god, it's gonna kill and it's gonna kill me. So this Black Shadow, come, come, come, come, grab me by my stomach and push me all the way up. I didn't know at this point what it was. And when I think, come out of the water and I look at it, I was like, what? So I grabbed the tail. It was a dolphin. It was a big dolphin. So I started crying. I look in the face of the dolphins, like, how in the world I can do like, I cannot believe this. Like, wow. So I was crying of gratitude. You know, it's like, wow. Look at this. Like, this beautiful mammals. Like, wow. So just there, hanging with there. He didn't move. He just was floating there. And 10 minutes later, a future boat show up in front of me, and the guy started screaming at me, Hey, son, I can save you, but I cannot get close to you because the waves are so big. I'm gonna hit you with my boat. I'm gonna throw you a rope. So he throw me a rope. I go to the boat, but as soon as I get to the boat, I just grab air. So I grab the things, and when I do this, the guy's like, what are you doing? What are you doing? I said, Sir, I'm super tired. I have cramps all over my arms, on my legs. I feel super exhausted. I just need to grab some air. I said, No, no, no, you need to hurry up right now. Come on. It's like, why? I said, my body's sinking. I said, How do you both is sinking? I said, like, yeah, I have a pump, and the pump is stopped, and all the waves are getting inside of the pump, and all the boat is floating inside. I said, like, what? Come on. Hurry up. Go to the back. So I go to the back. I see the steps I jump in. The dolphin is still behind me. As soon as I jump in, the boat was like, this full of water. And I was like, Oh, my God, sorry, we need to take this water out. Do you have a bucket? Say, No, I don't have any bucket. Come on. We don't have time for this. Sit down. And I was like, Okay, I sit down. And then he started driving away from the that part of the island. And then he asked me, like, Okay, are you okay? Are you fine? Yes, sir, I'm fine. Let me ask you a question. What is your family and your friends? Everybody's in this part of the island? What happened? Well, I just went to swim a little bit, and this ride brought me all the way here. And then he said, like, Okay, let me ask you this question, where are you from? I said, I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. What about you, sir? I said, I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, too. I said, Really? What part? I said, I'm from Duluth. And the guy said, I'm from Norcross, Duluth and Norcross is next to each other. So I was like, what we're neighbors to? And he's like, Yeah, we're never this amazing. And then in that moment, he's like, Oh my God, look behind you. Look behind you. So when we look behind us, he grabbed his phone and he started filming. When I looked behind me, the dolphin was jumping behind the boat. Follow us all the way around the island. So when we get to the other side of the island, the Bayside, the guy said, Look, brother, I have to fix my boat. But if you want to see me again every Memorial Day, I'm going to be here. So you can come into Memorial Day and find my boat and my family, and we can meet us again. Okay, sir. Thank you so much. God bless you for saving my life. I jump off the boat. This was the Bayside, so the water was low, and I started walking to the church. Nobody was in that side of the church, because everybody was in the other side of the church, moving from me. So when I started walking to the church, something behind me hit my leg, and when I looked back, the dolphin was behind me. I was like, what this dolphin? What do you want from me once this dolphin is following? So I still cry like, Oh, my God, this is incredible. This is incredible. So when I get to the chore, I go on my knees, and I said, You know what? God, if you save me with this dolphin right here, it's because you have a purpose for my life. I just want to tell you something from today, Carlos died into the ocean. The person who's coming out of the water is not going to be you. It's not going to be Carlos. It's going to be you. From this moment, I give you my life. I give you my soul. And whatever you have to do, do it through Carlos. This is not my life. This don't belong to me. Just do it like this. And in that moment, Dolphin leave, and in that moment, start thundering lightning and start raining. So I took that as a yes. After that happened, the everybody started running from the other side of the island. The police arrived. I have to sign the police report and tell what happened. They take me back to the island. I speak with the management and tell her, Look, what happened was that I didn't see in the island any red flags or any signs that he said a riptide, so I didn't know what a riptide was. So just be careful with that. After that, my friend asked me, like Carlos, what do you want to do now? So Well, I think this was a miracle, so I just want to go to a church. So let's go. Let's go to a church. So we Google a church, and the closest church to St Andrew State Park School, it was a Catholic church, and we drive there. When we arrived, the church was closed, but outside of the church was a garden with a big sanctuary. It was a virgin Fatima. It was like a cave, and inside of the cave was virgin Fatima. It was full of candles, all the candles on so everybody that came from the beach with me, we did a huge circle, and everybody hugged each other, and we started praying. We prayed for like, 2030, minutes after we finished, my friend said, Carlos, what do you want to do now? So just take me to the hotel. I just want to get something to eat and take a shower. So they took me back to the hotel. I get something to eat, took a shower, and as soon as I put my head on my pillow, I was exhausted. I have an Epiphan like a dream. And in this dream, I look in front of me, I'm grabbing the hand rails of a cruise, like a cruise, cruiser going to the Caribbean, right on the third floor of this cruise, it was the size of like the Titanic. So I grabbed the handrail. Look in front of me, and it's the blue ocean. Blue skies. Is a super sunny day, but at the end of the ocean, I see something that is rising that's coming my way. What's a tsunami? I was like, oh my god, tsunami. So I cover my face. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. 1015, 30 minutes passed, nothing happened. And after 30 minutes, somebody come behind me and push me like, Hey, open your eyes and look at me. Wake up. Come on. Look at me so I know we're about to die. I look as an army is coming. And he said, You never gonna die with me. Look at me. So I look back. It's like, Who is this? So as soon as I look back, so what I feel it was Jesus, because that's what I feel in my heart. It was, it was this big guy was like a six five with a lot of light coming from his face. He was with a white robe. And he said to me, Carlos, please close your eyes. So I closed my eyes. He hugged me from the back. And then 10 seconds passed, and then he said, Carlos, now open your eyes. So I opened my eyes. He's holding on his arms, and when I look in front of me, I'm in heaven. So imagine how children was like what I'm in heaven, that means I'm dead. And I look back to his like she says, No, you need to take me back. I cannot die right now. I have a lot to do. I said, Carlos, you didn't die yet, but you make a promise to me, and you need to fulfill that promise. Welcome to heaven. From today, you are part of me and part of all them. From today, just talking, just start work, walking with me and walking with all of them. When I see all of them, there are millions of people dressing white robes. And then Jesus asked me, Do you have any questions? I said, Yes. Number one, where all these people come from, and said they're coming from all over the world. Number two, what is the true religion here in heaven? I say in heaven that is not religious. When you come to heaven, the only thing that you're gonna find is love. Love is the most powerful force in the universe, and that's where I'm gonna unite the whole humanity in one again. And as soon as he said that, I said, Okay, let's do a live review. So he put his arm over me and said, Let's walk inside heaven, and let's start this live review. And the way that I explained the live review is all the good and bad that you did during your life. You can feel how you make feel other people in good times in bad times. So it's just a reflection of your life and what you did for others after this end, Jesus said, Carlos, I want you to go back and tell everybody what happened here. So it pushed me back. Next morning, I wake up, I told my friends we dropped to Atlanta on Monday, I go back to work like I said. I've been working in my company for almost 20 years, and I go my office and say, Hey guys, to other managers. Guess what happened this weekend, I went to Panama City Beach in Florida, and this huge dolphin came when I was drowning and saved me. I was like, yeah, right, Carlos, whatever. And then somebody behind me say, I believe you. And when I look back, was my boss. And so like, why do you believe me? They don't believe me. And my boss said, because all of them, they're atheists, I'm Christian. Number two, I want you to go on your computer and Google how many people has been saved by dolphins through history. I said, like, what? Google it. So I Google it, and a lot of people has been saved by dolphins. And then my boss said, Now Google, how many dolphins get killed in the other side of the world every year? So I Google, in the other side of the world, the other hemisphere, 100,000 dolphins get killed every year, and they're still saving people. I was like, wow, this is crazy. Now Google, how many people die by Rip ties current in Florida every year? So I Google that, yes, how many more than 100 people die every year by reptiles. Is the silent killer. Now, he said, and the last one Google, what is the meaning of dolphin for Christians? He said, The dolphin represent Jesus, is the hope of eternal life. In 1000s of years ago, Romans, they used to put the dolphin like angels. They used to go. To Heaven and deliver the soul from Earth. And that's when you go to Italy and you go to Rome, you see dolphins everywhere in the sculptures. You know, like, status of dolphins everywhere. Another thing that I believe is a good life breathe. People don't breathe these days. Another thing that I want to tell people like, when people pray, I've been praying for years and nothing happened. But it's not about the praying. It's about the emotion that you put on the prey. It's about the intention that you put on the prey. It's about the energy you put on the prey. That's what is going to activate the mail that you're going to send to heaven. You know, Earth is a big school, so we came here to learn and to give love to others. That's what I think is a Good Life.

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