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Dax Shepard got a second chance at life when he was a teenager after walking away from a scary ordeal.
The Idiocracy actor, 51, opened up about a terrifying near-death experience he had when he was in 12th grade in high school and how it resulted in one of the "most unique feelings" he's ever had during Monday's (February 9) episode of his Armchair Expert podcast, per People.
"I don't know what the definition is. But I have had the moment, which is among the most unique feelings I've ever had in my life, where I went, 'Oh, I'm about to die. I'm like seconds from dying,'" he said.
Shepard explained that he and a friend were driving from Toledo to Detroit late at night in a hatchback car when he decided to get some sleep in the back of the vehicle because he be up early for work the next morning.
"So I go, 'Hey, I'm gonna sleep in the back. Are you good to drive?' [He said] 'Yeah, I'm totally fine.' He had the cruise control on 85, and I'm like back there, I'm listening and the road was really rhythmic," he said. "Just at that moment, I was like, 'Oh, that rhythm's nice. I'm gonna fall asleep.' And then I just heard gravel hitting the side of the car. And I immediately looked up and he was completely slumped over."
The CHIPS actor said the speeding car went "off the road" as it careened toward trees lining the interstate.
"And I started to go... to grab the wheel and there was a moment I just knew it was too far gone," he said. "Like we had gone completely sideways. I laid back down and then ... we just launched in the air and we started rolling right down the highway."
Shepard admitted he thought the car would hit a tree and cut their lives short, and in that moment, a feeling of comfort washed over him.
"I definitely had this moment where I was like, 'Oh, wow, I'm gonna die in a second.' And then the feeling was shockingly comforting. Like, that I remember," he said. adding he "went from complete fear" to feeling "very calm," crediting chemicals in his brain for making him "kinda weirdly totally at peace with it."
Miraculously, the car did not hit a tree, despite rolling "like 10 times and [ending] up upside down," and the pair were able to crawl out of the windows and determine they were both okay. However, the accident continued to have an unexpected impact on his life in the following days.
"Because I already went, 'Oh, I'm dead' and I accepted it. For the next three days, I'd just be places that I felt very peculiar like, 'Am I dead? I know I died,'" he said. "That was the weirdest part of the whole thing."