NDE life review of firefighter Bill Hernlund

Dr. Bruce Greyson writes: "The flames were well over two hundred feet high by the time Bill Hernlund, a twenty-three-year-old crash-rescue firefighter in the US Air Force, pulled his truck up to the rear of the burning plane. The first explosion knocked him off-balance. He fell down but was uninjured, so he scrambled back to his feet to continue fighting the fire. But then the fire ignited a second, much more powerful explosion. The burst of flames, metal, and cables launched him backward, slamming him against the side of his truck. With the second explosion, he felt pain in his head and chest, he tasted blood, and he couldn’t breathe. He passed out before he hit the ground. Bill went on to have an elaborate near-death experience. This was in 1970, years before Raymond Moody’s book gave the experience a name, and when Bill had recovered and tried to share his account with his doctor, he was referred for psychiatric help. Bill then kept the NDE to himself until, almost two decades later, he discovered a local support group affiliated with the International Association for Near-Death Studies.

Greyson says this is how Bill described his experience. "I felt a lifting sensation and saw two of my buddies carrying one of the unconscious firefighters away. Somehow, I knew who the helpers were, even though they were wearing aluminized suits with hoods on, but I didn’t know who they were dragging. I yelled out, ‘Hey, Dan, Jim, help me!’ but they couldn’t hear me. Then I realized that because I was the only fireman in that position, and also because my pain, taste, and smell were gone, that must be my body they were dragging away. I could see everything much more clearly and felt warm, safe, and peaceful. “There was a roaring noise like an explosion, but duller and more prolonged. I saw Dan and Jim get knocked down on top of my body. I was in darkness, but fully conscious and vividly aware of my surroundings. I was in some kind of tunnel that looked like what a tornado funnel would be from the inside: there was a light in the distance and I saw the spiraling strings of blue-green light coming and going like the aurora borealis. 

“The light was drawing me to it. I moved exceptionally fast down the tunnel and it took no time at all to reach it. It seemed that time was different or nonexistent there, wherever ‘there’ was. The light was emanating from a being that was giving off a very brilliant light as part of his essence. He was beautiful to look at, and projected the feelings of unconditional love and peace. I also sensed other beings there, but I did not see any because I could not take my attention from the Light Being. He asked me several questions all at the same time, impressions projected at me instead of verbal word-by-word sentences. He asked: ‘How do you feel about your life?’ and ‘How did you treat other people?’ 

As he asked, every single event of my life from earliest childhood to the plane crash projected in front of me. There were details concerning people and things that I had forgotten about long ago. I was not proud of some of my dealings with other people, but the light was quick to forgive all of my errors. He told me to ‘be in peace’ and said that my work in this world was not done yet, and that I had to go back, and I was gone. “I was back in my body again. I do not remember traveling there. The pain was back and I smelled the odor of jet fuel and heard sirens and explosions. The doctors and medics were busy with Dan, Jim, and the B-52 crewmen, but not noticing me. Later, I found out that they looked at me long enough to see that I was dead, and turned their attention to those that they could help."

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2021), 27-28.