Saturday, June 26, 2021

Agnostic scientist, Nancy Rynes, visits Heaven

In January of 2014, I experienced some things that promised to change my life forever. These experiences went from horribly terrifying and painful, to profoundly beautiful and soul-stirring; all within the space of a few days. On the morning of January 3, 2014, while riding my bicycle here in town, I was struck broadside by a truck. My injuries were so severe that I am still in recovery from some of them. By all accounts of the doctors who treated me, I shouldn't have lived. 'Most people die from injuries like yours,' my surgeon and primary care physician insist. They were right. I shouldn't have lived. In fact, I came very close to death twice during those first few days. During those brushes with death, I had two Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) that promised to change the way I look at life, the way I experience life, and the way I feel about the concepts of God and Spirit.

My first near-death experience happened when the truck initially struck me. In human time, this NDE lasted just a few minutes. As I was struck, I realized that my consciousness was in two places simultaneously. One part, very scared and animal-like, was firmly inside of my broken body that was stuck on the vehicle's axle and being dragged under the truck. The other part, a very calm, dispassionate observer, hovered out in front of the truck and off to the south, watching the whole scene unfold from a distance. This dual consciousness seemed quite normal to the observer part of me. The observer was calm about the whole thing, and I remember the feeling that this was all happening for a reason, that there was nothing to fear. The observer: me, watched as witnesses stopped, called for help, and as the paramedics arrived. When the paramedics started working on me, my two selves came back together. Once I was stabilized enough to move, they transported me to the nearest trauma hospital. It turned out that my head and spinal injuries were so severe that I'd need surgery. My lower spine would need reconstruction, but only after the bleeding in my brain stabilized. In the meantime, the trauma team admitted me to the intensive care unit (ICU). I pondered that initial split-consciousness experience for a few days in ICU while I awaited surgery. I had no explanation for being in two places at the same time, or for experiencing the accident from two different vantage points at once. In my scientific mind, I didn't know how consciousness could split apart with one part of me traveling outside of the body. Finally, I dismissed it as just an oddity of the crash and almost dying. It wasn't important, and it most certainly wasn't 'real.' Or so I thought.

Perhaps because the first experience wasn't enough to get me thinking about spiritual matters, three days later during surgery, I was pulled right into the thick of things. I had another NDE but this one was different. Instead of simply experiencing events unfold from outside of my body, my consciousness was ultimately brought to a place unlike anything I have ever experienced. The beauty and utter peace of the Place defies human words. I felt totally calm, loved, and whole. I also felt a deep, profound sense of LOVE permeating everything there. It was big love, as if the structure of this place was somehow made of love. Love was everywhere because there was nowhere that wasn't love. I can't explain it any further than that. I, already, never wanted to leave this Place. One woman greeted me. Although she said it was a form that 'she' took at that time to make it easy for me to relate to her. She was a stranger to me, although I was somehow not a stranger to her. She moved with me throughout the landscape, telling me things that I and the rest of the world needed to remember; things we'd forgotten or perhaps never learned. These things were reminders that would help us live a beautiful life on Earth. She said she was a spokesperson for everyone in Heaven.

Somehow, she was a conduit for the information I was being given because if I met and communicated with everyone who wanted to speak with me, I would be overwhelmed. It felt as though we were together for days, even weeks. The amount of information she passed on to me was staggering. I am still processing it. But eventually she insisted it was time for me to go back to my life. The thought of that made me weep like a child. I didn't want to go back: Not now, not ever. This Place was too beautiful and loving for me to want to leave. But she insisted that I had a life to live. It wasn't time for me to be here for good. I argued up and down and even yelled a few times. Can you imagine, arguing with a Being such as this? But I did. I argued and cried. I insisted I didn't want to go back to a broken body and all of the repercussions from this experience that awaited me. She watched me with what I felt was sadness, but she insisted that it was my time to go back. As I opened my mouth to argue again, I was back in the surgical recovery room. I was confused, weeping, and already missing that Place and the Being who I'd met there. No: I am no longer an atheist or agnostic, (although, at this point I don't want to put a label on what I am). I did have the good fortune to be shown Spirit in a way that made me realize that I can no longer deny It for myself. These experiences have opened my heart to all peoples, all faiths, and all beliefs in a way that I would not have thought possible. I will share a small bit of the first thing she taught me. We are primarily here to Love: to practice Love, to show Love, to experience Love. Hate is not the language of Spirit, nor is fear. Love is. It is a Love that has no conditions or strings attached. It is simply Love in all of its forms.

I was asked to share this with as many people as possible, so that is what I intend to do. That's what I promised, after all. I am not sure yet how I will get out the information. I think telling on a blog is a good start, but I expect that some larger form of publication will be in the works too. Yes, this is all real. No, I didn't make up or embellish any of it. I understand that some of you will think I'm crazy or hallucinating. Some of you may find any explanation to deny my experiences because they feel uncomfortable to you. Some people I have known for years may choose to distance themselves from me. This could cost me much. I was an agnostic scientist until just a couple of months ago, after all. But this is me and my life now. I trust that telling my story and all that follows will help more than it hurts; that it gives people hope, and that it brings people together. It may be that telling the story brings new people or opportunities into my life as well. All is as it should be. While my time on the Other Side (aka, 'Heaven') was brief in human terms, when I was there it felt as if weeks or months were passing. I observed an amazing amount in, at most, a couple of human hours.

The first wonderful thing that I experienced was the beauty of Heaven, both visually and in a feeling-sense. When I was there, a landscape of gently rolling hills surrounded me. Flower-filled grassy meadows spread out on the hills around me. There were huge, deciduous trees in full leaf. The trees were larger and grander than any here on Earth and surrounded the meadows. There was the barest sense of a light mist, as if it were a humid summer morning clung to the tops of the trees. The sky showed a very light blue, similar to what you might see at the ocean's shore, with wispy clouds and a very bright but somewhat diffuse golden light. That was the visual. But there is more to Heaven than what we can see with our eyes. Below the surface visuals was a well of feeling fueled by love, peace, and an abiding Presence that I will call Spirit or God. Through the landscape around me I sensed a profound feeling of peace, brightness, goodness, and love. The Beauty I felt really does deserve a capital B. It wasn't just pleasing to the eye: there was something deeper to it, more harmonious, more blessed, and more powerful.

Everything felt tied together by love and peace, and the beauty of the scenes around me was the product of this unconditional love. While the beauty of Heaven took my breath away, the sense of love completely ensnared me and made me want to stay there forever. I felt a deep sense of that love flowing through all things around me: the air, the ground below my feet, the trees, the clouds, and me. I felt the love flowing around me, flowing through me, and eventually capturing me by the heart. I felt supported by a loving Presence so powerful, yet so gentle, that I cried again. I had never experienced such unconditional love and acceptance in all of my years on the planet. It felt as though this place were built from love and peace on a very grand, cosmic scale. What I realized, and was later told by my Guide, was that love formed the structure or underpinnings of Heaven.

Each soul might see the 'landscape' differently, but all sensed and 'saw' the love that formed the basis for everything in the same way. That love and peace seemed to shimmer as glimmers of light beneath the surface, winking in and out of visual sight. It had colors and sparkle and texture. It seemed to take the form of what I saw, like trees, a meadow, but at the same time it was also separate from the forms themselves. The closest I can come to explaining what Heaven 'looked' like to my feeling-senses is to point you to the work of artist Ken Elliott. His paintings come closest to capturing what I felt underlying the landscape Over There. I'll share two pieces with you here with his permission, but please check out his website (www.KenElliott.com) for more examples. 'Soft Blue Progression,' comes closest to showing you what the visuals looked like for me as well. 'Yellow Wall,' as well as Ken's other paintings, gives a sense of the energy or vibration of LOVE and PEACE that build everything There.
NDERF.org, #7674 
Nancy Rynes, author of Awakenings from the Light: 12 Life Lessons from a Near Death Experience

 

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