Evidence for life after death: Taylor excerpt #1

Greg Taylor writes: On Christmas Day, 2011, Ben Breedlove passed away at his home in Austin, Texas, from complications of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), at the age of just 18. Diagnosed with HCM at 12 months of age – a condition in which the heart muscle is abnormally thick, making it more difficult for it to pump blood – Ben had already cheated death on a number of occasions throughout his life. Less than three weeks earlier, paramedics had rushed to his school and used a defibrillator to revive him after he had collapsed while walking between classes. But on Christmas Day, there would be no return from death.

Remarkably, though he lived his life in the shadow of the constant threat of sudden death, a week before his passing Ben made clear to his family that he was no longer afraid of it. At a family gathering the day after yet another cardiac event, Ben – a committed Christian – said a prayer for those closest to him: “I pray that my family wouldn’t be sad or scared for me anymore, because I’m not sad or scared. I pray they would have the same peace that I have.”

Ben’s lack of fear was the result of a strange experience he had while the paramedics were working on him after he had collapsed at school. After he passed out, Ben realized he could still see and hear what was going on, and just as the paramedics were preparing to use the defibrillator on him, he suddenly ‘awoke’ in a white room with no walls, “a brighter white than he could ever describe that seemed to engulf his surroundings in every direction.” In this never-ending whiteness, Ben “listened to the most quiet he had ever heard in his life.” He found himself in front of a full-length mirror, and as he stared into it, realized he wasn’t just looking at his reflection, but was...

...looking at his entire life. In a sense of time that Ben could never explain, he stood in front of that mirror and watched his entire life, every moment he had ever experienced, play out in front of him in real time. Yet somehow it went by in an instant. In that incomprehensible moment, Ben felt proud of himself, of his entire life, of everything he had done.

Ben was asked, “Are you ready?”, to which Ben – assuming he was going to heaven – replied “Yeah.” After hearing the words “Go now!”, Ben woke to find himself back at his school, being resuscitated by the paramedics.

Ben had undergone what is known as a ‘near-death experience’ (NDE). This strange phenomenon, recorded countless times throughout history and in different cultures around the world, occurs when a person has a brush with death and undergoes an experience that appears to give them a glimpse of an afterlife realm.

Ben’s sister Ally recounts that after this NDE, “it was clear that Ben had a new resolve... in some ways, he had crossed over already; he had seen the other side and formed his opinions about it; he accepted it...he was content with that possibility, almost happy about it.”

When Ben’s father asked him to talk about the peace he felt during his NDE, Ben described it in terms of Philippians 4:8: “It’s just like the verse says (‘And the peace that surpasses all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus’). You can’t describe it. You just have to be there.”

Ally recalls that, following the NDE, in a quiet moment together Ben told her, “I think that God let me have that vision so I wouldn’t be afraid of dying.” He passed away a week later.

What if we could all experience that surety, the peace of knowing that something lies beyond the door of death? How would society be different, if we knew that death wasn’t the end for our loved ones when tragedy took them from us? Our entire approach to death would be forever changed: how we treat the dying (medically and socially), our grief at losing loved ones, and our anxiety over our own mortality.

As it turns out, there is enough evidence for us all to accept this as reality: indeed, as we will see, the survival of consciousness beyond physical death seems the most likely conclusion when we carefully examine the masses of evidence and testimony collected over time from four areas of research:

• Experiences had during brushes with death: near-death experiences

• Experiences had at the time of death: end-of-life experiences

• Experiences involving those beyond death: communication through mediums

• Experiences of returning from death: memories of past lives reported by children.

In fact, the evidence from these areas is so strong that the only thing truly stopping us from accepting it is modern science’s blind insistence that it is an impossibility. However, once we grasp that human understanding of the cosmos and our existence has constantly been updated through the ages as our knowledge and experience has expanded with new evidence, it is less difficult to take the next step to accepting survival of consciousness as the most logical explanation for the data that we will present. 

Greg Taylor, “What is the Best Available Evidence for the Survival of Human Consciousness after Permanent Bodily Death?” An essay written for the Bigelow contest addressing this question. I am presenting excerpts without references, but this essay may be downloaded with all its references at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.

Easter Life

News editor for the New Scientist, Anil Ananthaswamy, ends a remarkably clear explanation of a mysterious reality by acknowledging: “The case remains to be solved.”1 He was writing about the famous two-slit experiment in which a single photon of light may appear when measured to be a particle or a wave, depending on how the observer measures it.

 

I am writing about a very different case, the resurrection celebrated by Christians on Easter, which I affirm also “remains to be solved.” Ananthaswamy explains how “a sunbeam split in two” has shed “light on the underlying nature of reality.” I suggest the resurrection has shed light on the underlying nature of life.

 

The resurrection of Jesus after his death on a Roman cross has given Christians hope that conscious life can survive physical death. The dominant paradigm in science, which holds that all conscious life depends on a physical brain, assumes that physical death is the end of every form of conscious life. Yet, quantum physics has discovered that matter comes from energy, like the photon arising from the wave function of light. Material reality itself arises from energy that, like conscious thoughts and feelings, is not in itself material.

 

Near-death experiences, too, when a person’s brain is non-functional, are immaterial events that have significant consequences. My father remembered such an experience when during surgery his heart stopped, and his conscious awareness “awakened” despite anesthesia and observed the life-saving efforts of the medical team. Furthermore, my father’s conscious awareness left the hospital and “traveled” toward a brilliant but not blinding light, which he experienced as unconditional love. He also saw my mother in front of the light and wanted to remain there with her. But she communicated telepathically that it was not his time to die.

 

        James K Traer            

My father, a scientist, knew that materialist scientific explanations could not explain his near-death experience. Nonetheless, he told me, the experience was absolutely “real” and ended his fear of death. In addition, I knew that he had become a more compassionate person after his near-death experience. Moreover, research has confirmed that this character change is common among those who have shared their near-death experience with researchers. 2

 

Four hundred scientists have affirmed a “Manifesto for a Post-Materialist Science” that asserts: “Conscious mental activity can be experienced in clinical death during a cardiac arrest.”3 And other scientists have affirmed in “Beyond a Materialist Vision” that “the belief that consciousness is nothing but a consequence . . . of brain activity . . . is neither proven, nor warranted.”4

 

I am not suggesting near-death experiences explain the resurrection. I am suggesting the materialist assumptions of scientists have not resolved our experience of consciousness—even when we are physically healthy, much less in cases such as near-death experiences.

 

The resurrection was a conscious experience for those who were its initial witnesses, and Easter has been and continues to be a real source of hope for many. The case for conscious life after physical death has not been resolved but remains both a scientific and spiritual possibility.

 

Humbly, I wish you all an inspiring Easter . . . Robert Traer

 

---

1 Anil Ananthaswamy, “Through two doors: How a sunbeam split in two became physics’ most elegant experiment, shedding light on the underlying nature of reality,” Aeon, Oct. 2, 2018, https://aeon.co/essays/the-elegant-physics-experiment-to-decode-the-nature-of-reality

 

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

 

3 See https://opensciences.org/about/manifesto-for-a-post-materialist-science.

 

4 See https://galileocommission.org.

Apparitions during NDEs: Rawlette excerpt #11

Sharon Hewitt Rawlette writes in her essay, Beyond Death: The Best Evidence for the Survival of Human Consciousness - "Further evidence for the reality of expanded perception during NDEs comes from cases in which NDErs had the experience of perceiving events at a location other than that of their body and someone at that location also perceived an apparition of the NDEr. Rivas, Dirven, and Smit catalog four such cases.

In one of these, reported by critical care physician Dr. Laurin Bellg, a young man was so estranged from his dying mother that she refused to allow him into her hospital room. He was hanging out in a nearby bar when he was amazed to see her walk in. He started to go to her, but other people passed between them, and afterward she was gone. Around the same time, the woman (whose body was actually still lying in her hospital bed) woke up and told her daughter, 'I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that I was in a bar and I saw my son sitting at a table crying, and he got up to start coming to me. And I got scared and I woke up.'

"In another case cataloged by Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, this one investigated by Dr. Melvin Morse and Paul Perry, Olga Gearhardt of San Diego, California, was receiving a heart transplant. Her whole family had gathered at the hospital during her surgery, except for her son-in-law, who had a phobia of hospitals. At 2:15am, the new heart would not beat properly and then stopped completely. The resuscitation process took hours, but finally her new heart was persuaded to function properly. Meanwhile, the son-in-law, at home, woke up at 2:15am to see Olga standing at the foot of his bed. She was so lifelike that he thought it was actually her, that her plans must have changed and, instead of getting surgery, she had come to his house. He asked her how she was doing, and she told him, 'I am fine, I’m going to be all right. There is nothing for any of you to worry about.' When she disappeared, he got up and wrote down the time and what she had said. The next morning, when Olga came out of surgery, she mentioned 'the strange dream' she’d had, which appears to have been a near-death experience. She not only had the experience of being out of her body watching the doctors operate, but she went to her family in the waiting room and tried to communicate with them. Unable to get through, she then decided to go to her son-in-law at his home, where 'she was sure she had stood at the foot of her son-in-law’s bed and told him that everything was going to be all right.'

"These cases of reciprocal apparitions don’t just provide evidence for the reality of the near-death experience but also give us further evidence with regard to apparitions of the dead. The fact that apparitions of those near death are experienced in much the same way as apparitions of the deceased and that NDErs have been able to report back on their subjective experience of being at the location in question makes it even more plausible that apparitions of the deceased (some of which occur long after death) also reflect their conscious presence."

 

Sharon Hewitt Rawlette has a PhD in philosophy from New York University and writes about consciousness, parapsychology, and spirituality for both academic and popular audiences. She lives in rural Virginia. She received an award from the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies for her essay “Beyond Death: The Best Evidence for the Survival of Human Consciousness,” available at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php. Footnotes in the essay are not included in these excerpts.

Jeffrey Long's recent argument for an afterlife

Long is the founder of the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF.org). His recent article entitled "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights" won a $50,00 prize in the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies 2021 afterlife evidence contest. These are the opening paragraphs of his argument. Future posts will contain additional excerpts.

"Virtually everyone has wondered if there is an afterlife. This is understandable, given the appropriate concerns about the mortality of ourselves, our loved ones, and all of humanity. The question of an afterlife has been discussed and debated for millennia. As a physician practicing the medical specialty of radiation oncology, which is the use of radiation therapy to treat cancer, I have been intrigued by issues of our mortality. The question of what happens after bodily death is regularly present in my daily medical practice as I work with patients that have a life-threatening diagnosis of cancer. Prior investigations of near-death experience (NDE) combined with the research that I am presenting in this article have convinced me, based on evidence, that our consciousness survives bodily death.

"Evidence for the reality of an afterlife is available from multiple lines of scholarly study. Perhaps the most substantial evidence for the reality of an afterlife comes from near-death experiences (NDEs). It makes sense both scientifically and logically to investigate the experiences of those who died or had a seriously close brush with death regarding their possible insights into the survival of consciousness after death. NDE, and its consistent message of an afterlife, is the focus of this article.

"Scholarly research regarding near-death experiences has been published for over 45 years. NDE first became widely known in 1975 with the publication of Dr. Raymond Moody’s book Life After Life. As early as 2005 it was estimated that 'At least 55 researchers or research teams in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia published at least 65 research studies involving nearly 3500 NDErs, addressing the experience, its aftereffects, or both.'

"Up to the current time, near-death experiences have been the subject of hundreds of publications in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Many of these studies were published in the world’s leading medical and scientific journals. This article will reference select previously published NDE research to help present the current state-of-the-art understanding of NDE as evidence of an afterlife. 

"In addition, I will present new and previously unpublished research to advance knowledge about NDE and its important implications for the survival of consciousness after bodily death. Much of the unpublished research presented in this article updates or expands my previously published investigations. This new and previously unpublished research helps assure that this article offers the most current and state-of-the-art insights into the NDE evidence of an afterlife."

Jeffrey Long, MD, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights." In the next several posts I will share excerpts from Long's 2021 article. Footnotes have been deleted. The complete text is available as a pdf at https://www.nderf.org.

Blind woman sees during near-death experience

Supernormal sensory awareness is consistently described in near-death experiences. This is further evidence that consciousness in NDEs occurs separately from the physical brain, as would be expected if consciousness survives bodily death.

An excellent example of supernormal sensory awareness in near-death experiences is visual NDEs in the blind. Blind NDErs have reported normal and even supernormal vision. In 1998 Kenneth Ring, PhD, and Sharon Cooper, MA, published an important article in the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Their investigation found that visually impaired or blind people often described normal or supernormal vision during their NDEs. Several especially significant case reports described individuals born completely blind who had typical NDEs that included detailed vision.

The best documented case of a near-death experience in a person born totally blind was the account of Vicki. To Vicki, vision was unknown and unknowable. Vicki had two NDEs. Her first NDE was at age 12 due to appendicitis. Her second and more detailed NDE was at age 22 due to a car accident with head injuries so severe that she was still recovering a year later. In Vicki’s own words, she describes vision during her NDE:

I knew it was me... I was pretty thin then. I was quite tall and thin at that point. And I recognized at first that it was a body, but I didn’t even know that it was mine initially. Then I perceived that I was up on the ceiling, and I thought, “Well, that’s kind of weird. What am I doing up here?” I thought, “Well, this must be me. Am I dead?”...I just briefly saw this body, and ...I knew that it was mine because I wasn’t in mine.

Here is a sample of her detailed visual observations that occurred throughout her near-death experience:

I think I was wearing the plain gold band on my right ring finger and my father’s wedding ring next to it. But my wedding ring I definitely saw.... That was the one I noticed the most because it’s unusual. It has orange blossoms on the corners of it.

Vicki emphasizes the uniqueness of the vision she had during her near-death experiences, noting:

This was, she said, the only time I could ever relate to seeing and to what light was, because I experienced it.

I personally interviewed Vicki. There is no possible medical explanation for someone born totally blind to have a near-death experience with such vivid and detailed vision. 

Jeffrey Long, Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights, https://www.nderf.org/.

 

Experiences God's love and healing by an angel

In the middle of the night, I awoke with a severe migraine. I'd experienced occasional migraines since I was a teenager, but this particular migraine was extremely painful and I should have sought treatment at the Emergency Room. However, since I had very young children at the time, I didn't want to wake them or my husband, so I attempted to treat myself. I took my prescription migraine medication, but it did not provide any relief from the pain. Instead of waiting an hour before taking the second dose as the instructions advised, I waited 20 minutes and took the second dose. I also took two over-the-counter pills for migraine. I have always been very sensitive to medications, but at the time I did not consider this. I was only focused on relieving the intense pain. 

After taking the medications, I became very sleepy and returned to bed. When I drifted off to sleep, I would awaken by gasping for breath. I quickly realized that when I drifted off to sleep, I stopped breathing. I was fearful I would fall asleep and die. I said a very simple prayer, 'Dear God, please don't let me die. I want to be a mother and a wife.' As I said the prayer, I doubted God would hear me. At that time in my life, I felt insignificant. I was not sure God existed, and if He did, I didn't think he would know me. But I was about to be proven wrong.

Immediately after praying, I felt a presence come over my bed. I was lying on my back with my eyes closed, but I could sense a shadow had been cast as something moved over my body and then stood next to my bed. As soon as I felt the presence, I was frightened and I heard a Bible verse in my mind, 'An angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.' I realized I had received the Bible verse telepathically and an angel had arrived to help me. 

Then it felt as if the angel slipped his hand directly into my stomach. I felt a sensation unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Static was moving in my stomach and throughout my torso. I also saw in my mind's eye a vison of black and white static, as like on a tv set without reception. At the same time, I felt my deceased father's presence and I could hear him speaking into my right ear. He repeatedly said, 'You're going to be ok, you're going to be ok, you're going to be ok.'

As the angel stood to my left and my father spoke to me from my right, a very large, powerful presence hovered over the length of my body. When I noticed the large presence, my inner vision was changed to that of a crystal blue waterfall. The water was sparkling clear and the most beautiful blue I have ever seen. As I marveled at the sight of the water, the static sensation in my torso dissipated and was replaced with a sensation of liquid love rushing into my heart. The love was so pure and overwhelming that I immediately began to weep. The liquid love flowed through my heart and filled up my chest cavity to the point that I could not expand my lungs to inhale. I was aware of having difficulty breathing, but it did not concern me. 

I was so blissed out from the love, that nothing else mattered. I had the realization of, 'This must be God.' It was so large, infinite, and powerful, that I just knew it could have no other name than God. Once I realized I was in the presence of God, my next thought was, 'Oh no, God is going to judge me for taking too much medication.' I waited for the judgement. It did not come. I moved into the flow of God, searching for His judgement. No judgement was there. Not a speck. Only pure, adoring love was in the infinite flow of God.

At this point I lost awareness of my body. I did not recall I was a mother, wife, daughter, friend. I had no recollection of life on earth. I merged into an infinite presence that utterly and completely adored me. God did not speak words to me. The love said it all. I felt as if I was an awareness, a being without a name or identity, and I was expanding to the size of the cosmos. I was home. I realized home was where I wanted to remain forever and in my blissed-out state, it took all the energy I could muster to telepathically communicate, 'Take me.' With these two words, I was attempting to communicate that I wanted to remain in the pure love forever. 

As my presence continued to expand in a state of bliss, it felt as if I was nearing a point where I would explode into a billion atoms and forever be with God. I mentally prepared myself for the explosion and gladly welcomed it. At the very last millisecond before the explosion of my being and my total emergence into infinity, God pulled me out of Heaven and I landed with a shocking jolt into my body.

I lay in my bed, dazed and confused. My hair and pillow were soaked from the tears I had cried as the love consumed my heart and spirit. I have no idea how long I was with God, but when I returned to my body, it was completely healed. The medication had been removed. I was breathing normally. I was not lethargic. And my head felt normal. Usually after having a migraine, my head would be very sore to the point that brushing my hair would be unbearable. Now I could push against my skull and feel no pain or soreness. 

I attempted to process what had just happened. I knew that I had experienced something beyond any earthly experience I'd ever had. I told myself that I would allow myself to believe I had experienced a miracle, if when I awoke in the morning, I remained pain-free. Eventually I fell asleep and when I awoke in the morning, my body had no after-effects of a migraine or medication. I felt wonderful.

NDERF.org #9268

Life review while drowning

I was in a backyard pool (with a deep end) at a swimming party for our Brownie group. Playing with a beach ball a friend accidentally hit me in the face and I went under water. I was told that my mother saw me and tried to get someone's attention, but then I looked like I was ok. I wasn't. I had struggled up to the surface three times, and then had a very warm, comfortable feeling that everything was going to be fine. I saw what I thought was the sun sparkling on the surface of the water, then suddenly the water was gone and I was moving toward a figure. 

Before I got to the person, I had a flash of things that had happened in my life. As short as it was at the time, and can recall three or four things that happened when I was an infant (ivy wallpaper, getting my hair washed, having my tonsils out, my first dog dying, etc.), but there was only a happy feeling, nothing sad. I could then see that the man had a funny hat and the most beautiful face. He smiled at me and seemed to say that it wasn't time yet, but I kept close to him because it felt so comforting to me.

During this unspoken communication, I was suddenly jolted back by a hard pressure on my chest, and then I was floating above a scene by the side of the pool. My mother was crying and kneeling over me while my friend's brother was pushing on my back. It seemed like it lasted for a long time, but I saw several people doing things that I remembered to be strange, as I was 'treetop level' in the yard, (there was only an avocado tree in the yard, not a tall one). At that moment, I came whooshing back into my body, feeling like I couldn't breathe. Back to reality. 

NDERF.org #4277

Afterlife is a "special kind of tomorrow"

Near-death experiences tell us that the stage of “crossing over”—the temporary realm preceding the full experience of the afterlife—still feels personal. People report seeing their deceased friends and relations, for example. The dying person continues to see the room in which his body lies, and memories and associations keep tying him back to physical existence. The possibility of taking a creative leap has yet to be realized. As long as you continue to feel like the person you were, you can’t experience the unknown.

 

When you are in a physical body your perspective makes physicality real. When you are dreaming at night, the dream state is real. When you are “crossing over,” both waking and dreaming are unreal, and the field of consciousness is real. What causes this change of reality? Vedanta holds that consciousness is convinced by its own creations. Therefore, nothing we can see, hear, and touch, whether in waking, dreaming, or beyond both, is ultimately real. They represent shifting perspectives.

 

To be completely free means waking up from all dreamlike states and reclaiming who you are: the maker of reality. One cannot say that all dying people will achieve this kind of absolute freedom. They may glimpse it only for a fleeting second; they may sense the possibility of breaking away from one dream and yet be seduced into the next one that comes to mind.

 

Consciousness is tied by thousands of threads to old memories, habits, preferences, and relationships. Whenever someone really presses the issue of what happens after we die, my response comes in the form of a question: “Who are you?” You have to know where you are right now, in order to know where you will be tomorrow, and the afterlife is just a special kind of tomorrow.

 Chopra, Deepak. Life After Death (p. 84, 87, 98). Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

"Love is everything, does everything" . . .

After the pain, everything changed. I left my body and didn’t look back at my physical body because I didn’t want to. I looked only at the tunnel and at the light. I was drawn into that tunnel.

The walls of this tunnel were mainly covered with photos. I was physically in all the pictures, but I didn’t recognize myself in all of them. I remember stopping to take a closer look at one of these pictures. In the picture, I was with several people, sitting in the back of a red convertible, and driving in a sunny spot. There were five of us in the car, and we were all happy. We were laughing together. I didn’t recognize myself and the others, I just know it was me. With reflection, I have come to think that these photos could be images of my previous lives memories that are stored on the energetic fence of my soul. Analogous to if the tunnel represented the walls of my Soul and when I arrived there I was in a state of pure spirit.

Sitting on the red convertible, my physical body was totally different from the one I have today. That’s why the photo affected me that much and surely because it contained an important memory.

In the tunnel everything went so fast. But somehow, I had the time to see all the photos if I wanted to. There was no time. It was like time no longer existed and that it never existed. I feel that only in the non-physical state can a person understand this notion of “without time” or the non-existence of time because it seems impossible to describe it on Earth.

At the end of the tunnel, I found myself in a totally white place made of light. Nothing there was material, only the immense, white light. There was no end or beginning. It was like being inside an infinite sea of light, with gentle pink waves.

The light was not blinding and it was so beautiful. And above all, it was so warm. This white place was full of love, sweetness, warmth and peace. But I felt Love at its highest when three immense columns of light came in front of me. These columns of light were esoteric beings. I have never felt a love such as this one. The love that they have for me and that I have for them, is indescribable.

No one on Earth knows me more than they do and I know no one more than I know them. I am part of them as they are a part of myself. Even my sister, with who I am very close, and even my mother, seemed and still seem to me like strangers compared to the three of these Beings. I know there are many more of these Beings where I come from. They are my family. I cannot describe this love because, it can only be felt as it exceeds our understanding of love on earth. Nothing can be used to compare it. The love we have on Earth is not really love, it is rather an educational love to teach us what Love is. We destroy love, we condition it, we suppress it, and we change it, thinking we know what love is. But Love is everything, love does everything, and love must be understood. Love is totally misunderstood and Earth is a great school and opportunity to teach us about Love.

These three pure Beings spoke to me in a different language. They used my thoughts but it was different than thoughts. They reminded me that I had chosen to be incarnate on Earth and that I had to go back. I already knew that by being by their side, everything was coming back to me. They gave me so much love. I was at home and I badly wanted to stay. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to go back. That’s how it had to be. I remember laughing a lot with them. They understood me. They knew the difficulty of an incarnation, as well as I knew it before I incarnated on Earth.

I was so small compare to them. I didn’t see them entirely; they were too tall. It was like being at the foot of Hyperion, the highest tree of the world. Or it was like looking at a cloud that grew from the soil of Earth to rise up to the heavens. I didn’t see their faces, hands, or their legs. I don’t even know if they have any. They are light; love is light - I know that. A beautiful, pure column of light, that’s the only way I can describe them.

I know now, that the place where I met them was just a wonderful transition place. It was like a cross between several worlds and surely a cross between several universes. But I can tell you that even in this place of transition, no cravings exist, no fears, and no lacking for anything. I had everything. I was everything and I didn’t need anything. I knew it and I understood. Everything was simple, in its place. Everything was pure and unconditional love. There were no rules, and all decisions belonged to me. Nobody decided for me. These three beautiful Beings helped me get back to Earth.

I don’t know how long I was there for; it could have been a month was like a second, or a year like a day. It’s impossible to say.

So, I went back. I had to. I went down that tunnel and looked at the pictures. I can’t tell if they were the same pictures, but they were there. After the tunnel, I came into the living room and was on the ceiling. My physical body was lying on the couch and all my friends were around me. They were stressed while moving and touching my body.

When I returned to my body it was very difficult and I was in pain. It was a physical pain but also, a pain in my soul. I was choking, feeling uncomfortable and cold. The contrast was like being in a huge lake of pure, clear, and warm water, with this pure water becoming me, covering me with love, extending my being to the sky. Then suddenly, finding myself inside a small box open to a dark rainy sky, in a deserted cold street in town, where every drop of rain that fell on me, brought ice into every inch of my blood.  

NDERF.org #8935

Guardian angel Michael held her hand during NDE

I woke up the morning of October 31, 1990 from a strange dream that I was pregnant again. It felt like a baby was in the womb and my belly was round with a baby. I noticed that my period had arrived and I was bleeding heavily. I was surprised because I had been breast feeding. I called the Doctor's office and they said that it was probably normal but to keep a watch on it. I packed up my newborn baby girl and book bag. Then I took a city bus to the University to attended classes that morning with my baby. I felt fine. It was only on the bus ride back home, at about 10:30 AM, that I felt something roll out of my body and down my pant leg when I stood up to get off the bus. Much to my horror, I realized it was a blood clot the size of a softball. I picked my clot up as people gasped and stared at me. I made the decision that I wasn't going to be able to make the few blocks walking to make it back home. I crossed the street to the Hospital. I only made it as far as the grass out front of the emergency room. I was gushing blood and started to get dizzy and light headed. I tried to get the attention of two emergency room paramedics who were smoking out front. But, I couldn't make a sound louder than a whisper. I tried to fall with my arms outstretched so that I didn't fall on my baby newborn girl. I passed out while falling to the ground with my baby in my arms.

Next thing I remember was waking up in the emergency room. I was receiving emergency blood transfusions and told that I had probably retained placenta from birth. They told me that they would need to do an emergency D&C to help scrape my uterus. I then was taken to surgery. I was in surgery three more times that day, yet they couldn't stop the bleeding. I was given an experimental drug that was suppose to 'seize' my uterus and make it 'clamp' down to get the blood loss to stop. It caused me to stop breathing instead. They were able to revive me and thought that they had 'fixed' me. They took me to the maternity ward to recover and be reunited with my newborn daughter who needed to be breastfed. The nurse who helped me to deliver her on October 1st was just getting starting her shift. She brought me a plate of food to try to get me to eat. When I tried to sit up to, the hemorrhaging started again and it was even worse than before. I was pretty weak. They called a crash cart and asked me for my parents phone number. I was shaking, cold, and going into shock. They weren't able to get a reading on my blood pressure and my resting heart rate started to elevate. It was going 130 beats per minute and then it was going over 150 bpm. I was in pain because the blood was leaving my head and arms and legs. They stuck a big needle in my neck and started pumping blood directly into my neck. I knew that was dying and not going to make it. My heart went up to 180 and then over 200. The amount of pain was unbearable. I was scared and didn't want to die but couldn't take pain anymore. Every cell in my body was screaming due to the lack of oxygen. I was given over 56 units of blood. I was scared and so were the doctors and the nurse. I remember a Doctor told me that they were going to operate and take my uterus out. He said that I might not survive the operation because I was so weak. I was asked to sign a medical waiver. A catholic priest came into the room to give me last prayers. I could not longer move or talk or blink. The pain was too much. When my heart rate hit 220, I heard them say I was in defibrillation. They were trying to shock my heart. I couldn't even use my eyes anymore. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't breath. I learned what it means to lose total control.

At my darkest and lowest and saddest moment, I realized that I wasn't alone. I realized that I had a guardian angel just to the right of me. I knew his name was Michael. He was holding my hand. I realized that there was a second angel who was next to Michael. I rose above my body. I could see the doctors were very scared. I could see that my body was blue in color and in very grave condition. I was drawn into the hallway because I could hear my daughter crying for me. I tried to comfort the doctors and nurses. I wanted to tell them that it was okay. I could hear and see that nurses were fighting about me in the hallway and upset that I been taken up to the maternity ward. I should have been in intensive care unit (ICU) or the emergency room. At some point, a veil lifted. I was drawn into a long, dark tunnel that had a very bright, white light that was shining love. I could hear harps and saw my great uncle Harry Ed and Aunt Vickie. I was in total bliss and happiness. I was home. I didn't want to go back. I had a life review where I saw ever single event from my life. I saw every act of goodness and kindness. I saw every act of spite or ill-will. I also got to see it from the other person's point of view. Although time did not exist, this life review took forever but in reality it was only a blink of a second. I didn't want to go back because I was surrounded by love and the light was god. I realized that we are all brothers and sisters. We all love each other very much but we live in fear on earth and that prevents us from realizing and remembering that were all connected. I felt such incredible love.

I saw courtyards with beautiful vibrant roses that were more colorful than on earth. I saw colors that do not exist. I understood infinity and all the knowledge of the universe. I saw white buildings that were open and in the sky. They reminded me of buildings from Greece and Athens. I saw the future for my children and I, where I came to understand that their father was not to play a role in our lives. I was told this so that I could be strong and still love him, even if he was away. I was liberated. I no longer had to love or try to please this person. I knew I had to go back, but I really wanted to stay. I knew that it would hurt to go back to my body. I truly knew that this was home. The bright light filled everything and was totally god's love - unconditional and filled with such joy and peace!

I woke up in the ICU. After resuming my life, I found that nothing in life was as hard as coming back. I found that school was easy and all of life's challenges are a breeze. I am not afraid of death! I can read people's minds and see into the future. I see articles on TV or in the paper and I'm reading them 31 days into the future. I have dreams that come true and I get to visit Michael the angel or my loved ones or pets that have crossed over. I come sometimes heal people or start engines or charge batteries or open doors with my mind. I've been the person to arrive to car accidents or suicides or drug overdoes on dozens of occasions. I have performed CPR and brought people back to earth or helped them to pass over. I was not surprised when the father of my child died a few years later. I had already been given that knowledge. Michael told me telepathically. We did not have to use words. I know when I'm going to die or may come close to it once again. I learned that everything we do matters. Even the person you smile to on your way to the bakery or work. Even the creatures big and small that you bend over to pet. Nothing goes unnoticed. It all matters. My purpose is to stand up for the meek, to be compassionate, but most of all is to love. 

NDERF.org #9029

"The liquid love flowed through my heart."

In the middle of the night, I awoke with a severe migraine. I'd experienced occasional migraines since I was a teenager, but this particular migraine was extremely painful and I should have sought treatment at the Emergency Room. However, since I had very young children at the time, I didn't want to wake them or my husband, so I attempted to treat myself. I took my prescription migraine medication, but it did not provide any relief from the pain. Instead of waiting an hour before taking the second dose as the instructions advised, I waited 20 minutes and took the second dose. I also took two over-the-counter pills for migraine. I have always been very sensitive to medications, but at the time I did not consider this. I was only focused on relieving the intense pain. After taking the medications, I became very sleepy and returned to bed. When I drifted off to sleep, I would awaken by gasping for breath. I quickly realized that when I drifted off to sleep, I stopped breathing. I was fearful I would fall asleep and die. I said a very simple prayer, 'Dear God, please don't let me die. I want to be a mother and a wife.' As I said the prayer, I doubted God would hear me. At that time in my life, I felt insignificant. I was not sure God existed, and if He did, I didn't think he would know me. But I was about to be proven wrong.

Immediately after praying, I felt a presence come over my bed. I was lying on my back with my eyes closed, but I could sense a shadow had been cast as something moved over my body and then stood next to my bed. As soon as I felt the presence, I was frightened and I heard a Bible verse in my mind, 'An angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.' I realized I had received the Bible verse telepathically and an angel had arrived to help me. Then it felt as if the angel slipped his hand directly into my stomach. I felt a sensation unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Static was moving in my stomach and throughout my torso. I also saw in my mind's eye a vision of black and white static, as like on a tv set without reception. At the same time, I felt my deceased father's presence and I could hear him speaking into my right ear. He repeatedly said, 'You're going to be ok, you're going to be ok, you're going to be ok.' 

As the angel stood to my left and my father spoke to me from my right, a very large, powerful presence hovered over the length of my body. When I noticed the large presence, my inner vision was changed to that of a crystal blue waterfall. The water was sparkling clear and the most beautiful blue I have ever seen. As I marveled at the sight of the water, the static sensation in my torso dissipated and was replaced with a sensation of liquid love rushing into my heart. The love was so pure and overwhelming that I immediately began to weep. The liquid love flowed through my heart and filled up my chest cavity to the point that I could not expand my lungs to inhale. I was aware of having difficulty breathing, but it did not concern me. I was so blissed out from the love, that nothing else mattered. I had the realization of, 'This must be God.' It was so large, infinite, and powerful, that I just knew it could have no other name than God. Once I realized I was in the presence of God, my next thought was, 'Oh no, God is going to judge me for taking too much medication.' I waited for the judgement. It did not come. I moved into the flow of God, searching for His judgement. No judgement was there. Not a speck. Only pure, adoring love was in the infinite flow of God.

At this point I lost awareness of my body. I did not recall I was a mother, wife, daughter, friend. I had no recollection of life on earth. I merged into an infinite presence that utterly and completely adored me. God did not speak words to me. The love said it all. I felt as if I was an awareness, a being without a name or identity, and I was expanding to the size of the cosmos. I was home. I realized home was where I wanted to remain forever and in my blissed-out state, it took all the energy I could muster to telepathically communicate, 'Take me.' With these two words, I was attempting to communicate that I wanted to remain in the pure love forever. As my presence continued to expand in a state of bliss, it felt as if I was nearing a point where I would explode into a billion atoms and forever be with God. I mentally prepared myself for the explosion and gladly welcomed it. At the very last millisecond before the explosion of my being and my total emergence into infinity, Go

NDERF,org #9268

During NDE guided by his deceased grandmas

I was a latch-key kid and also the type that hated staying home. I had been sick in bed with pneumonia, for a week. On Friday, my parents were at work. I decided enough was enough and headed off to school. We lived in the country and my school was about a mile away. It was a gray overcast, rainy day. I walked to school in my windbreaker and baseball cap. By the time I got to school, I was soaked to the bone. I slid into class and, after about an hour, I felt really bad. By lunchtime, I decided to leave school to go home. By the time I walked in the door, I was delirious. I walked out of my clothes and fell into bed. I remember coughing and coughing, and feeling so, so sick. I was so cold.

Slowly everything went dark. I heard a roar of what sounded like an engine, and then there was nothing. I remember standing up and seeing my body lying in my bed. I felt very calm. I turned to see my grandmother standing there in her pink dress. I knew it wasn't her as she had passed away only months before. She smiled and held out her hand. I took her hand and the next thing I knew I was flying and moving incredibly fast! There were these beautiful beings all around me. I began to cry.

One of them stopped me abruptly. They all surrounded me; they were lovely and full of love. One reached out and touched my chest. The touch was so warm that it seemed to smile. They talked to me without moving their mouths; I actually can't remember if they had mouths. They took me by the hands and we flew to a golden city that was surreal in color. Another Being approached me who was different and older than the rest. We talked for what seemed like forever. Then the Being placed its hand on my shoulder and BAM!

I was on an escalator in some shopping mall, to which I had never been. I was on the up-escalator. At the top of the escalator, waiting for me, were both of my deceased grandmas dressed in their Sunday best dresses. I remember their words as if this happened yesterday. ’Well, little man, you have quite the journey ahead, but this is not your time’. They began to tell me things that would happen in my life, like the woman I would eventually meet, fall in love with, and marry. They showed me the death of my cousin, and told me I must return to my body. Before I left, they said I would live a long and prosperous life, and then BOOM!

I felt pain; I heard the sound of a thousand freight trains. I opened my eyes to see our next-door neighbor who was a nurse. She was on the floor bent over me, with eyes full of tears. She started crying. I was very confused and embarrassed that I was lying there in only my underwear. 'Are you okay?' I asked. She smiled and hugged me. Her husband came rushing into the room. He looked gray and older. About five minutes later, a fire truck and an ambulance arrived. My mom and dad came home a short time after that.

I found out later that the school had called my mom and asked why I went home. She told them that I wasn't at school and that I was home sick still. She then called home and after I didn't answer she called the neighbor to check on me. When the neighbor came over, she found me. I was not breathing and did not have a heartbeat. She screamed for her husband and then started CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation). She said she worked on me for 10 minutes and was about to stop when I awoke. 

NDERF.org #7511