Jeremy Renner has told of the 'electric serenity' he felt in the moments he was left clinically dead following his horrific 2023 snowplow accident.

The experience left him not only unafraid of death, but filled with a profound sense of peace.

Renner, who has starred in The Avengers franchise, shared the extraordinary revelations for the first time in his newly published memoir, My Next Breath, in which he relives the accident and its aftermath in stark and moving detail.

'What came to me on that ice was an exhilarating peace, the most profound adrenaline rush, yet an entirely tranquil one at the same time: electric serenity,' he wrote, recalling the moment he was lying dead in the cold.

'I could see my lifetime. I could see everything all at once. It could have been ten seconds; could have been for five minutes. Could have been forever. Who knows how long? In that death there was no time, no time at all, yet it was also all time and forever.'

More than two years ago, Renner was crushed by a 14,300-lb snowcat outside his Lake Tahoe home on New Year's Day. He was on life support for three days following the accident, and his family was unsure if he'd pull through.

The experience left him not just unafraid of death, but filled with a profound sense of peace in life

The accident left him with life-threatening injuries including 38 broken bones in his ribs, knee, ankles, pelvis, face and hands

He later admitted he forgot to engage the emergency brake on the monster vehicle after plowing his property. To his horror, it began careening towards his nephew, Alexander Fries, who was out helping him that day. Acting purely on instinct Renner attempted to jump back into the driver's seat and get the snowcat under control.

Instead, he was pulled under its tank-like tracks, leaving him with life-threatening injuries including 38 broken bones in his ribs, knee, ankles, pelvis, face and hands.

The awful soundtrack of his bones crunching haunts him to this day. He also suffered a collapsed lung, pierced liver and major laceration in his head.

Renner writes that, as he laid on the ice for 45 minutes waiting for emergency vehicles to reach him, his pulse bottomed out at 18 beats per minute, by which stage, 'you're basically dead.'

'I know I died - in fact, I'm sure of it,' he continues in the book.

'What I felt was energy, a constantly connected, beautiful and fantastic energy. 

'There was no time, place, or space, and nothing to see, except a kind of electric...energy.'

He doesn't call the place heaven or the afterlife, but he describes it as entirely beautiful; a place that pulses and floats.

'All life was grand; all life just got better in death,' he writes. 

'Everything and everyone I love or ever loved in my life was with me.'

But the actor - who is set to star in the new Knives Out movie this fall, his first film since the accident - also admits his deep sense of guilt over causing so much stress and pain to his loved ones.

He writes about the guilt he feels over his family who 'saw me in the hospital, on life support for three days, a man who could die at any time'

'My daughter had had to retreat to videos of us, deep in a kind of childlike sorrow for which she had no words,' he writes (pictured with Ava)

'I had put all that fear and terror onto Alex (left), who had to hold my arm for 45 minutes and look at his uncle bleed out on the ice'

'Yes, it was an "accident",' he writes, 'but whatever I call it, I'm still aware I caused it. 

'It wasn't on purpose, and I don't think it was reckless, but I have to live with not applying the hand brake on the Snowcat.

'I know what I did to Alex,' he adds. 'I'm deeply conscious of what I did to my family... I caused this heartache; it was entirely my responsibility.

'I had put all that fear and terror onto Alex, who had to hold my arm for 45 minutes and look at his uncle bleed out on the ice. That poor kid will never be the same because of me; he can't unsee that.

'Neither could any of my family who saw me in the hospital, on life support for three days, a man who could die at any time. 

'My daughter had to retreat to videos of us, deep in a kind of childlike sorrow for which she had no words.'

Renner made it his mission to get better for the sake of his family, and his recovery has been remarkable. He even did some of his own stunts for his role in Mayor of Kingstown when he returned to set in January 2024, just one year after the accident.

And while it would be understandable if Renner had never wanted to see a snowcat again, he was determined not to let the accident hold him back and got back into the driving seat that same year.

He's made a remarkable recovery - even doing some of his own stunts again

Renner on the cover of Men's Health

The Avengers star also wrote about the one agonizing injury that will never heal

'Climbing back up into the cab was fine; firing it up was fine; simply moving it from one point to another was fine because I knew how to work it,' he recalls.

'What was a bit unsettling, though, was jumping down off the Snowcat and finding small pieces of my clothing still stuck in the tracks. There was part of my hat; there were strips of my clothes.'

For some, that might have been a nauseating sight. But Renner was simply struck by the astonishing resilience of flesh and bone. 

'My body could actually survive after being dragged under and crushed by this machine,' he writes. 'Standing once again on the tracks - the STOP button firmly pressed, the hand brake firmly applied - I thought, "Human body's an impressive piece of biology, man."'

There is one agonizing injury, however, that will never heal.

'My mouth is a disaster,' he writes, 'It's an absolute nightmare in there, my own private hell. 

'Every time I'm talking, or eating, or sleeping, I want to scream inside because of the chaos in my mouth. My teeth will never line up properly again; one side got pushed so far offline by the Snowcat and it's unfixable.'

But even that pain is bearable, he says - he's just grateful to be alive.

'To me death is a confirmation of life, something always connected and eternal,' he writes 

Renner made it his mission to get better for the sake of his family - especially daughter Ava

'I refuse to give these private agonies too much energy because they really don't have that much value. There are so many other things to focus on.'

'I got burnt yesterday out in the LA sun,' he adds. 'It was the best day. I'm grateful for sunburn now. Imagine that.'

And, having experienced what it means to die, he no longer fears it - in fact, he's looking forward to it. 

'I knew then, as I know now to this day and will always know: Death is not something to be afraid of... death is something to look forward to, a return to that electric serenity outside of time.'

'It is not dark, not the end, not a disaster,' he continued, 'it is magnificent, and exhilarating; it is your soul, and your love, concentrated in their purest forms. 

'Dying, you become connected to the collective energy everywhere all at once, which is itself a kind of divinity.'

He describes death as a 'fierce teacher' that taught him what a waste of time it is to feel negative emotions like hatred or fear.

'Love slowly, quietly, and patiently waits for hate to simply burn out,' he writes. 'It requires so much more energy to hate than to love, and love has all the time in the world.'

My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner is published by Flatiron Books