The Power of Love is all that really matters

I had gone in for a common routine surgery. I am not sure what happened during the surgery as I was knocked out, all I know is suddenly I was running in a grassy field toward a giant sun. I remembered looking down at my legs and they were short to the ground, I was a child again. There was another child holding my hand and running beside me. It was a little blonde hair boy with blue eyes.

The most amazing part was a pure feeling of the most intense love I can barely describe. It was just wave after wave of pure love. It was within me, it was around me, it was EVERYTHING. It felt like heartbeats of love, one wave of love after another. Yet there was love in the interim as well, then the wave would come with even more and more. It was endless, eternal and complete. I had no fear whatsoever, I had no feeling other than LOVE. I had no thought other than reaching the LIGHT. I felt pure happiness and joy. It was the most beautiful feeling that words could never even come close to describing. The closest thing I can think of to relate it to on this earth would be the moment I brought my child into this world. That moment of pure unconditional love that I'm sure most mothers and some fathers have felt. Still that is only but a very small fraction of what I am trying to explain. Words seem so small and insignificant in comparison to the experience.

So I am running towards this massive sun experiencing total acceptance and love. I knew that nothing earthly mattered anymore and I had this complete sense of peace about everything that I had ever done. I just wanted to keep running toward the light. Then suddenly I heard my name being called from behind me.

I stopped and paused for a moment and I knew I had a choice. To keep going forward or to go back. I never remembered making that choice however. The next thing I remembered were doctors standing over me frantically repeating, “NICHOLE, Stay with us Nichole” and then the pain came. The pain in my body was so intense I could barely stand it. I now believe that they must have cut off my 'sthetics completely at that point and were frantically trying to sew me back up quickly. I have never experienced physical pain like that again thank God. I felt like my body was in a vice and they were squeezing it tighter and tighter.

I do remember laying there saying aloud over and over, "NO, LET ME GO BACK! WANT TO GO BACK!" with tears streaming down my face. I was so upset and I felt for the longest time that I never got to make the choice, that the doctors did it for me and I was so MAD at them.

I think I spent many years depressed and angry because I believed that they robbed me of my graduation date from this planet. I truly believed for so long that I was meant to leave on that day. I couldn’t understand why I would be given a glimpse of something so beautiful only to have to return to such pain. Pain in that moment and pain in the disillusionment of the world in general. I was only 25 at the time but I believed I was done here and that I belonged where the LOVE is. I have always been a tender heart and the violence and greed on this planet seem so foreign to me and ridiculously unnecessary. After this experience it was damn near unbearable for me to witness it for a long time.

It’s taken me 20 years to realize that I did indeed make the choice to stay. I know if I had chose to leave no doctor could have prevented that. I believe I was given a glimpse so that I could carry on KNOWING what we are truly made of. To reinforce my conviction in The Power of LOVE and knowing that it's all there really is and all that really matters. I think I was given this blessing so I could share it with others. I have read other stories so similar to my own, with slight variations in the visual experience, I'm sure due to our own life paths but the feeling of LOVE seems to be the common theme. A Return to Love is no cliché, it is truly LOVE we are made of. It is where we came from and where we will return when we are done with this body. I know we come here to anchor this love in this place, to increase this LOVE, to remember what we are is LOVE, but why I can not presume to say.

Today, I work so hard to raise the awareness of how powerful collective LOVE is. It’s what the entire universe is made of. We can call it anything we want, like God, Allah, Jesus, or Mohammad. But, the name is all the same under the word LOVE. Now I try to help others to Just BE LOVE. My daily mantra is "I LOVE therefore I AM." I am looking forward to my final return to love but in the meantime I hope to share the love I touched for a moment there with the people I love here.

NDERF.ORG #7417

 

During her NDE, she says, she was "home"

I went into this abortion clinic in Austin, under the strong impression that the baby growing inside of me was not meant to be born. How on Earth I knew that being the peaceful, ultra-sensitive, loving girl I was is a mystery. Never in a million years would anyone have guessed me as someone who would abort unless it was dire. In my unique case, the baby had detached from my uterine wall and was barely hanging on. Apparently, all the stress caused spikes in my blood pressure and tonsillitis in the first month, making my body inhospitable. My decision to have the baby removed was a certain decision, and later I would find out why.

I went with my mother who has been a pharmacist for over twenty years, for support. She waited while they lead me back to the room. I laid down on the table, and they put the IVs in and put the gas mask on my face. I took slow deep breaths and closed my eyes. It felt like they were administering too much, so I tilted my head to allow the mask to fall off prematurely. The next thing, while still inhabiting my body, I went into a timeless dimension, which didn't scare me because I had experimented with X-tacy and Acid in high school. I relaxed and welcomed the Deja vu-like feelings. I heard the door creak open, and I knew it was going to happen before it did. I knew what the nurses were going to say before they spoke. I was aware of so much more. Everything was telling me 'This experience is meant to be.' So I relaxed deeper and went with it.

Toward the last part of the procedure, I was still under, but felt the surgeon apply pressure. I wasn't painful, just a jolt of pressure, and I consciously decided to respond with a bodily twinge. I did this to let him know I could feel a little bit. Well, he and the nurses took that as me being in pain, so naturally they turned up my anesthesia. I felt it go into me, and before I knew it, I had left.

All went dark and weightless, an infinite bluish purple perhaps, and amazing sparkling particles connected everything. I was home and I was so appreciative of how real human life seemed! I zoomed to the ceiling and 'faced' all directions simultaneously. I was aware of my body below and felt zero remorse, attachment, fear, or sadness for leaving. I became one with all in existence, yet, I had a firm knowing that I was me. All was okay, all was love, and the purpose of human life is solely for experience and expansion. I was one with the doctor, the nurses, my Mom down the hall, the equipment, the sound of the flat line, and all the space in between. I could have raised the doctor's arm up if I wanted to. But here's the important thing: I had zero desire to manipulate his free will. None. I knew I was capable of controlling the entire situation, it just wasn't in my best interest for me to do so. They were me and I was them. Murder, rape and cannibalism, they are all okay. Just experience to grow from. I knew everything that had ever and will ever exist in the universe. There was perfect infinite timelessness. Linear time is an illusion, just like our skin and bones and five senses. Our carbon-based senses were designed to perceive carbon-based reality, and it is really a spectacular illusion! My true nature is one with all, and I am God. And so is everyone and everything else.

The next thing I remember was hearing my name being screamed very loudly, twice. 'Robyn! ROBYN!' I took the biggest, deepest breath I have ever taken, like my very first breath! I was back. Heavy, but so empowered, so refreshed, I knew everything now. No one can ever lead me astray, and I would never again, for as long as I live, fear death. Because there is no death!!! We are meant to come here and play. That's it. Just be and play and experience this grand illusion of physical reality.

The sensitive details of what I experienced outside my physical body are challenging to describe in written or verbal language, but I did my best. Remember that my brain is merely trying to interpret such a high vibrational experience and decrease it enough to fit into human language according to my brains knowledge and journey. I had an expansive spiritual life before this experience so I can go into more detail sometimes. But people will always be limited to explaining their near death experiences through they're human understanding of God, which is not universal, but subjective. Keep that in mind. Sometimes the less knowledge a brain has of religion is best to keep the translation clear. That's my perspective anyway. 

NDERF.org, #6636

 

Jeff Olsen describes his near-death experience

I left my body at the scene of the accident and visited another realm of light, where I was told by my own deceased wife that I must return to my oldest son who also survived the accident. As I returned to my body, I had profound experiences with the living people I encountered. All judgment was lost as I saw others for who they really are through God's eyes. 

I re-entered my body but barely survived the following 5 months and 18 major surgeries with one foot in this realm and one in the next. During that time I was gaining profound insights, had visitations, and learned new truth.

I had other visits to the other side during that time and experienced profound dreams and visions during my nearly yearlong ordeal. I gained deep spiritual insights. I learned to love at a very deep level and experienced the unconditional love of God in a way that revealed, not only the divinity in myself, but in all of us as God's children.

 

Jeffrey Olsen, I Knew Their Hearts: The Amazing True Story of a Journey Beyond the Veil to Learn the Silent Language of the Heart (2012)

NDE reports do not clearly identify a "place"

Bruce Greyson writes: On the day after her thirty-fifth birthday, without any warning, Róisín Fitzpatrick suffered a brain hemorrhage that left her in a life-threatening situation in the intensive care unit. She described for me the near-death experience she had in the ICU: “I became pure energy and realized that ‘I’ still existed even though I was no longer an individual person in my physical body. Instead, I had merged to become one with a greater, light-filled consciousness. 

“There was no beginning or end, no start or finish, no life or death, no ‘out there’ or ‘in here.’ It made absolutely no difference if I was in my body; it was not even relevant because I had become at one with this incredibly potent, highly charged field of energy. 

“Surrounded by a hushed silence, I became enveloped by undulating waves of opalescent and crystalline light. Simultaneously, there was a feeling of love and bliss that extended on to infinity. From this place everything was possible because only love, joy, peace, and creative potential were real. My understanding of ‘reality’ was turned 180 degrees when I learned that at our deepest level of consciousness, we are energy beings of pure love and light who are temporarily residing in physical bodies.”

Greyson adds: Because half of the experiencers in my research could not describe a “place” they had gone in their NDEs, and there was little consistency in the descriptions of the other half who did describe a “place,” none of these images can be called “typical” of NDEs.

Greyson, Bruce. After (p. 148-49). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

NDE survivors say experience was "definitely real"

Bruce Greyson reports: "Jayne Smith, who had an NDE at age twenty-three during a bad reaction to anesthesia during childbirth, told me, 'Never, ever did I think it might have been a dream. I knew that it was true and real, more real than any other thing I’ve ever known.' LeaAnn Carroll developed a massive blood clot in her lung at age thirty-one that stopped her heart. She said about her NDE, 'My death experience is more real to me than life. Nancy Evans Bush, who had an NDE at age twenty-seven during a bad reaction to nitrous oxide, said, 'Yes, it was more real than real: absolute reality.' Susan Litton, who had an NDE at age twenty-nine, told me, 'There was no sense of doubt whatsoever. Everything had a sense of being more real than anything that would normally be experienced in the physical world as we know it.' Chris Matt, who had an NDE when he rolled his car over at age twenty-one, said, 'I have no doubt that it was real. It was vastly more real than anything we experience here.' Yolaine Stout, who attempted suicide at the age of thirty-one, said, 'This was more real than anything on earth. By comparison, my life in my body had been a dream.'

Greyson adds: "Their memories of the NDE had more detail, more clarity, more context, and more intense feelings than memories of real events. And that is exactly what people had been telling me for decades—that their NDEs were more real to them than everyday experiences. On the other hand, for people who had come close to death but didn’t have an NDE, their memories of the event were not recalled as more real than other real events. Two other research teams, in Belgium and in Italy, came up with the same results."

Greyson, Bruce. After (pp. 96-97). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Greyson explains the purposes of his "NDE Scale"

I wanted to bring some logical order to the study of near-death experiences. To tackle this problem, I developed the NDE Scale in the early 1980s as a way to standardize what we mean by the term “near-death experience.” I started with a list of the eighty features most often mentioned in the literature on NDEs and sent this list to a large sample of experiencers. Then, through a series of repeated assessments by experiencers and other researchers, with the help of statistical analyses, I whittled the scale down to a more manageable list of sixteen features.

So the NDE Scale is not a measure of how deeply an experiencer may be affected. It’s simply a tool that researchers can use to make sure they’re investigating the same experience. And in the thirty-eight years since it was first published, the NDE Scale has stood the test of time, having been translated into more than twenty languages and used in hundreds of studies around the world.

Twenty years after this scale was published, and long after it had become accepted as the standard tool of NDE researchers worldwide, I was challenged by two skeptical scholars I didn’t know: Rense Lange, a statistician from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, and Jim Houran, a psychologist then at the University of Adelaide in Australia. These scholars had no previous interest in NDEs but were applying a complicated statistical test to various scales that had been developed by other researchers—and in the process “debunking” some of them. They wanted me to give them the raw responses on the scale that I had collected from around three hundred people who had come close to death and let them carry out their sophisticated statistical test on the data to see whether the NDE Scale was valid. 

Apprehensive, I had reservations about working with them. I’d already put years of work into this scale, and it had become accepted by scholars around the world. I wasn’t familiar with the statistical test they wanted to carry out. I didn’t know whether it was a good test, and whether my scale would hold up under it. What if the scale failed the test? Would it cast doubt on all my work with NDEs? Would it ruin my credibility and my career as a scientist? 

On the other hand, if the NDE Scale was faulty, I certainly wanted to know that! How could I refuse to share my data and put my scale to the test? If I was truly a skeptic, how could I be skeptical of other people’s ideas but not my own? I’d met too many academics who called themselves “skeptics” but refused to look at any evidence that might challenge their own beliefs. Could I swallow my pride—and my fear of failing—and expose my data to an independent test? That’s what intellectual honesty required. That’s what a true skeptic would do.

That’s what my father, had he still been alive, would have wanted me to do. I handed over all my data on the NDE Scale, the responses of hundreds of people who’d had near-death experiences and waited for the results from Rense and Jim. As the months went by, I had many fitful nights second-guessing my decision to subject my work to that scrutiny. But each morning, in the light of day, I knew that it was the right thing to do. To my great relief, their analysis ended up confirming the validity of the NDE Scale. 

It showed that the scale measured one consistent experience that was the same for men and women and for people of all ages, across many cultures. NDE Scale scores were the same no matter how many years had passed since the experience. I heaved a huge sigh of relief. My NDE Scale—and by extension NDEs themselves—had been given the stamp of credibility by a team of skeptics who not only had no stake in near-death experiences but would have been happy to discredit them.

Greyson, Bruce. After (pp. 54-56). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

NDE researcher Bruce Greyson: life reviews

Among all the participants in my research, a quarter reported a life review. Some experiencers told me that their entire lives flashed before their eyes, from birth to the present or in reverse order. Others said that they were able to view different scenes from their lives at will. The vast majority described this life review as more vivid than ordinary memories. Some experiencers told me that they were shown images from their past, as on a movie screen or on pages in a book. But many, like Tom, reported that they re-experienced these past events as if they were still happening, with all the original sensations and feelings. 

Three-fourths of those who had a life review said that it changed their ideas of what things are important in life. Half of those who had a life review experienced a sense of judgment, most often judging themselves, about the rightness or wrongness of their actions. And more than half experienced these past events not only through their own eyes, but also—like Tom—from the viewpoints of others, feeling those other people’s emotions as well as their own.

Greyson, Bruce. After (pp. 39-42). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.