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The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences – Dr Penny Sartori

The following is an example sent to me by email from a 43-year-old lady called Jules Lyons:

I have started to talk more openly about my NDE, which I kept pretty much to myself for the past 22 years. It only lasted a few minutes (earthly time, according to medics that's how long I was 'gone'), yet it felt like SO much longer. It was simply the most amazing, beautiful thing I have ever, ever experienced …... just talking about it still makes my whole body tingle and sort of glow inside. It’s as clear and vivid as if it happened only an hour ago.

I was in a very bad way, in the Accident & Emergency unit, it was summer 1987. I was slipping in and out of consciousness. Anyway, I remember the doctor's voice, saying, 'there’s nothing else we can do' to someone, at the same moment I realized I had somehow floated upwards, out of my own body, and was floating upwards towards the ceiling of the hospital room. I could actually feel my back physically pressing against the ceiling of the hospital room. I was watching the doctor and two nurses moving around my own body, lying on the bed below. They were talking, I could clearly hear what they were saying ……. it wasn't very positive! I felt that I was floating there, against the ceiling, for about a minute. I felt strangely calm, deeply calm and incredibly peaceful, just observing, quietly.

I was 'pulled up' through the ceiling and seemed to whizz off somewhere else, at incredible speed. Next thing I knew, I was floating/flying down a very long tunnel, miles and miles long, very dark and empty, and I could feel the speed I was flying at was fast, as it was like wind blowing over me and through my hair etc. l felt incredibly calm and peaceful still, no fear at all. I felt a sense of release, if anything:  of immense freedom and lightness of being. I could see miles into the distance and at the end of this long dark tunnel was a massively bright white light. Intensely bright white; almost blinding. The tunnel felt cold, dark and windy, yet I felt an OVERWHELMING, all-pervasive sense of deep, deep peace, joy and calm. Like being enveloped in a warm bubble bath or a blanket of sheer calm, bliss and peace. It was like nothing I can ever adequately describe, nor anything I have ever experienced on earth (prior or since the NDE).

When I got to the end of the tunnel, and to the brilliant white light, I found myself now floating along on what seemed to be thin air, just clear, light, empty space; bright and clear, like crystal-clear air. I suddenly felt a rush of immense joy welling up inside me, felt SO uplifted and SO peaceful and incredibly happy. And, I very clearly remember, for the first time ever, I experienced what it felt like to feel truly FREE, as if every atom of my being was free and glowing with joy.

As I was floating along (more like 'being floated along' by some external force), there appeared a quite high stone wall, running for miles and miles on my right hand side, and even though it was high (maybe ten feet high?), I could actually float myself upwards a little bit and see over the top of it.

What I saw, over this stone wall, was simply the MOST BEAUTIFUL, MOST PEACEFUL and most AMAZING place I could ever imagine. Wide, panoramic gardens/landscape with rivers, ponds, fountains, flowers, trees, hills, meadows, valleys, etc. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Yet the most incredible thing about this place was the colour. The colours of everything were so incredibly bright and vivid, almost iridescent and glowing, as if they were alive in some strange way. It was like no landscape at all on earth …..more like a super-technicolour, really vivid and amazingly beautiful colours, almost like crystal-clear vibrant, radiating colours.

There were a few distinct features which stood out immediately to me: a few pathways which looked like iridescent glass or something, astonishingly beautiful colours; these paths led off into an invisible distance, as there seemed to be no end to the landscape. I could see fountains, rivers, the most beautiful trees and flowers.

There was also one very interesting and unusual building, the only building I could see in the whole place. It was quite small, quite simple, and I can only accurately describe it as like a cross between a garden gazebo/summer house and a domed temple, almost like a mosque dome, of what appeared to be gold and light. The most intense golden light was shining out through this building, almost in rays, out onto the surrounding landscape. I somehow knew that one by one everyone had to go inside this building at some point.

There were comfortable seats and benches dotted around, all over the gardens and into the distance, with quite a lot of people.

Yes, what seemed to be perfectly ordinary people, all sat around, peacefully chatting, all in a quiet, gentle way, like a sense of soft whispering, some were in small groups under trees, some sat on the grass, some walking down the pathways. I couldn't hear any actual words or distinguish any voices, it was as if they were communicating with each other without speech, and I had an awareness that they were having conversations. They seemed to be wearing some kind of robes, or garments, not earthly clothes, but they were very definitely human! There was a DEEP sense of peace and calm amongst everyone. I felt very clearly like they were 'waiting'. As if this was some kind of 'waiting' or 'reception' area. Everyone in this landscape was waiting.

It felt like a gentle summer day, warm, comfortable, not too hot, and I was happily floating along this wall, looking over the top into this landscape, when quite suddenly a gate appeared just up ahead.

An ordinary-looking, old-fashioned tall wooden garden gate: the type they used to have in old stone walls or gardens. As I was floating nearer this gate, I could see a figure stood (floating on this crystal clear air just like me!) next to it.

It seemed to take me a while to get up close (the floating sensation/my movements were not being dictated by me, but by some other energy/power carrying me along at a gentle pace). Anyway, I finally reached this gate, and there in front of me, large as life and as real as I am sat here now, was my maternal grandmother bless her soul, who passed away when I was five years old (over 38 years ago). My family never really talked about her (nor about any of our grandparents!), so I didn't really have many memories of her when I was a child and growing up.

There she was, real as anything, no ghostly apparition, but real and solid, I could have reached out and touched her, she was calmly stood there, totally alive, well, real and looking lovely and radiant (she 'died' of lung cancer).

She smiled such a warm and loving smile, and I felt her hug me, even though she didn't touch me at all, I could physically feel her arms wrapping around me and such a huge wave of love. She gave me the most warm and loving cuddle ever. It was wonderful, and so real, even though it appeared she didn't actually move or touch me at all. I felt the most incredible love and peace and happiness and calm, both inside me and in this place, in all these people, like nothing I've ever felt here on earth. Such deep calm and peace and love.

I clearly remember all of this like it just happened this morning. I felt SO happy. My gran spoke to me, her voice clear and alive, even though her mouth didn't move from the smile she was wearing, I sensed she was talking directly to my brain/mind, like there were no spoken words, yet I could clearly understand what she was saying.

She gave me a very clear message (three very clear sentences which will live with me forever) including: 'We are not ready for you yet' and that 'You have to go back' and finally that 'There is something you have to do. Your purpose.' She then smiled at me so warmly, it seemed to infuse me with peace and love and joy.

Then, in what felt like a split second, I was being 'floated' backwards, at far greater speed this time, all the way back along the wall, as I watched my gran disappearing in the distance, I was 'floated' all the way back towards and through the tunnel, all the time backwards, still facing where I had just been, and then I felt myself actually going back into my body, which coincided with such a resounding 'THUD' that my whole body did a massive jolt/spasm (like those dreams where you're falling off a cliff and you jolt as you wake up, only 100x greater in strength). And this is when I apparently suddenly 'awoke', and regained 'vital signs', on the hospital trolley/bed.

Well, that was over 22 years ago; I made a full recovery and had good health for many years afterwards.  It was a miracle to me. And it was the start of a lot of things happening for me in my life, including my awakening/interest in spiritual matters (I was 21, had no prior knowledge or exposure to anything spiritual or related to near-death experiences or the afterlife).

After that, for a few years, I’d sometimes have a really strong sense that my gran was around me, like I could sense her in the room occasionally, and once or twice I could have sworn I actually heard her speak, but I convinced myself I must have been imagining it! I never spoke about these things to anybody for years and years, apart from one close friend. I never did anything to 'contact' my gran, or to develop any 'skills' in that area (to be honest, the idea of that sort of thing scared me a bit!), but I did start to read a lot of books about all sorts of spiritual subjects, including reading the Bible for the first time.

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There truly is no such thing as'death'. What many see as'the end' is really just a change, like a change of clothes, or a change of vehicle, or a change of residence. I do wish I could take away all fear of death from people, as, if anything, what we call'death' is actually a release and an immensely beautiful journey.
It's heartbreaking to hear people grieving for loved ones they feel have'gone forever'. I wish I could help people know that the loved ones we have'lost' are very much alive and, in fact, are much closer to us than we realize!

Having an NDE awakened and changed me in many ways. It also brought me full understanding that nobody is here on earth 'by accident', that we each have a purpose, something we came here to do in this life-time, before we return'home'.
When I look at the world, it seems that more and more, humans are living out their lives as if their sole purpose is to 'get', rather than concentrating on living their soul purpose . . . which is to give.

I often think that if every single person on earth had an NDE tonight, and ventured to the world beyond, then tomorrow morning, we would all wake up to the dawn of a very different world here on earth.