NDE transforms life of Mafia enforcer

Mickey, who collected money for the Mafia, communicated with a divine being and a beloved deceased brother during his near-death experience due to a heart attack. After his extraordinary experience, Greyson says, Mickey: “felt that cooperation and love were the most important things, and that competition and material goods were irrelevant. That change in attitude didn’t sit well with Mickey’s Mafia friends, but they let him leave the family circle. It was his girlfriend who complained when he changed careers and started helping delinquent children and victims of spousal abuse. One day after he was out of the hospital and they were eating lunch, she burst out crying and told him, ‘You’re not the same person anymore!’ When he asked her what she meant, she replied ‘You’re not concerned with things of substance anymore,’ meaning money and jewelry and fast cars. The relationship soon collapsed.”

In Mickey’s words: Before the experience, my attitude was that people have to help themselves. You know, if they don’t help themselves, to hell with them. I had a pretty cynical attitude toward people. I couldn’t imagine myself as any sort of helping professional before the near-death experience. But afterwards, I’d find myself counseling people. I’d find myself listening to people. They said, ‘You really listed to me. You really understand how I feel inside.’

Before, I thought, ‘I have to make my way the best I can Survive.’ Whenever I started to feel sorry for somebody, I’d say to myself, ‘Goddamn it, I’m not my brother’s keeper!’ I was hard-bitten. But after the near-death experience, my whole outlook changed. I can feel when people are in pain. Before, sometimes I had to cause people pain. I couldn’t do that anymore after my heart attack.

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 187-189.