NDE Stories: Recent Episodes
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Some of the most inspiring, informative, and deeply compelling near-death experiences (and related phenomena) ever recorded.
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David MilarchTwenty years ago, David Milarch, a northern Michigan nurseryman with a penchant for hard living, had a near-death experience. After this experience, angels let him know that the earth was in trouble. Its trees were dying, and without them, human life was in jeopardy. The solution, they told him, was to clone the champion trees of the world — the largest, the hardiest, the ones that had survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change — and create a kind of Noah’s ark of tree genetics. Without knowing if the message had any basis in science, or why he’d been chosen for this task, Milarch began his mission of cloning the world’s great trees. Many scientists and tree experts told him it couldn’t be done, but, twenty years later, his team has successfully cloned some of the world’s oldest trees — among them giant redwoods and sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah.
Websites & Background Information• Archangel Ancient Tree Archive Website
• Archangel Ancient Tree Archive Blog
• Archangel Ancient Tree Archive on Facebook
Related Link• How A Fictional Tree Planter Inspired Real Ones
BookThe Man Who Planted Trees: Lost Groves, Champion Trees, and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet
Amazon Book Description:
“Twenty years ago, David Milarch, a northern Michigan nurseryman with a penchant for hard living, had a vision: angels came to tell him that the earth was in trouble. Its trees were dying, and without them, human life was in jeopardy. The solution, they told him, was to clone the champion trees of the world — the largest, the hardiest, the ones that had survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change — and create a kind of Noah’s ark of tree genetics. Without knowing if the message had any basis in science, or why he’d been chosen for this task, Milarch began his mission of cloning the world’s great trees. Many scientists and tree experts told him it couldn’t be done, but, twenty years later, his team has successfully cloned some of the world’s oldest trees — among them giant redwoods and sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah.
“When New York Times journalist Jim Robbins came upon Milarch’s story, he was fascinated but had his doubts. Yet over several years, listening to Milarch and talking to scientists, he came to realize that there is so much we do not yet know about trees: how they die, how they communicate, the myriad crucial ways they filter water and air and otherwise support life on Earth. It became clear that as the planet changes, trees and forest are essential to assuring its survival.”
Recent News Stories• A Savior Of Tree Species: Life’s Mission Inspired By Angel (09/07/13)
• Plan To Clone ‘Super-Trees’ Could Resurrect UK’s Ancient Forests (06/30/13)
• Non-Profit Cuts Douglas Firs To Prepare The Ground For Redwood Clones (12/18/12)
• World’s First Planting of a Champion Redwood & Sequoia Forest (11/28/12)
• Ancient Redwoods, Giant Sequoias To Be ‘Archived’ On Oregon Coast (11/26/12)
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For more information about this video, go here.
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A SAVIOR OF TREE SPECIES: LIFE’S MISSION INSPIRED BY ANGEL
By Francis X. Donnelly
The Detroit News
September 7, 2013
Original Link
David Milarch believes he died and came back to life. And the reason was God had a mission for him.
The mission was simple if grandiose: Clone the biggest trees and cover the world with them.
The north Michigan nurseryman had little money, education or experience with cloning.
Few people had ever tried to reproduce such old trees, which scientists said was improbable.
Yet, in fits and starts, he has gradually cloned 140 species of trees across the United States, including ones that were 40 stories high and existed before Jesus was born.
Several thousand trees are growing at his research facility 25 miles southwest of Traverse City. He has planted 10,000 for free in northern Michigan and California.
His goal is to eventually plant enough trees to fight climate change. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
After nearly two decades of spreading the gospel, he gets calls from all over the world asking him to visit.
“Isn’t it about time we did something?” he asked. “Why is it so hard for people to understand that?”
Milarch, 64, has accomplished all this with charm, perseverance and a singular vision.
He is Johnny Appleseed in a trucker cap, a ruddy bear of a man trying to save the world.
Nothing can deter him from his quest, said his son, Jared.
“It’s an idea he cannot rest from,” the younger Milarch said. “It’s a testament to how focused he is on one issue. You can’t lose if you don’t quit.”
Milarch isn’t your typical environmentalist.
Unless, by “typical,” you mean a chain-smoking, profanity-spewing, hard-living farmer who once was an alcoholic and street brawler.
He says he gets messages from angels who guide his work.
The talkative Milarch tells you all this in a nonstop narrative about his life and work. He loves to tell stories that end with dramatic pronouncements.
“It’s all hands on deck,” he proclaimed. “The solutions are here. Mother Nature has the answers.”
One of the stories he tells is about the beginning of his crusade.
In 1991, he gave up drinking cold turkey but the sudden withdrawal caused kidney and liver failure.
Lying in bed, he felt his consciousness rise, leave the room and pass through brilliant white light. But an angel told him it wasn’t his time to die, that he still had work to do.
Several months later, still sober, he was awakened by bright lights in his bedroom. A female voice said she had an assignment for him.
The next morning he found a 10-page manifesto describing how to reforest the world. It was in his handwriting but he didn’t remember writing it.
His wife, Kerry, told him there was no way he had written it.
“There are no spelling mistakes,” she said, according to “The Man Who Planted Trees,” a 2012 book about his work.
At the time, Milarch wasn’t religious or a tree-hugger. He was just a third-generation tree nursery operator struggling to feed his family.
Spreading the growth
The gist of his plan is to clone champion trees, which are the tallest of their species, and spread them around the country.
He believes superior genes helped the trees grow so large and last so long. Through cross-pollination, the clones could spread their DNA to other trees.
Scientists said they don’t know whether genetics make some trees heartier than others. A bigger factor could be location, care or just luck.
But tree experts said they like Milarch’s idea of restocking the world’s forests.
Besides fighting climate change, trees help the environment by emitting oxygen, reducing runoff and absorbing toxic waste in the soil, they said.
Bill Libby, professor emeritus of forestry and genetics at the University of California, Berkeley, said Milarch is generating interest in trees and could develop breakthroughs in cloning.
“If you gather 100 such trees, it’s pretty likely that you have some trees that are better able to do that (become heartier because of superior genes).”
Financial difficulties
Milarch has been nothing if not resilient during his quixotic campaign.
Starting out in 1994, he borrowed a pickup, aluminum ladder and pruner from his dad. A bankruptcy had left him with no money.
In 2009, a black mold infected his tree warehouse, killing 16,000 cuttings in one month.
But his biggest challenge has been money. For 19 years, he has lurched from one source of funding to another. A grant here. A huge donation there.
In between are the hard times. In 2011, his nonprofit group, Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, and its 17-person staff closed up shop.
A donor allowed it to reopen last year with three workers but another crisis beckons in December when funding is due to run out.
“We’ve gone through financial hardships that would break most families,” Milarch said. “We’ve eaten a lot of potatoes.”
‘A walk of faith’
Despite the obstacles, he has painstakingly expanded his work from the state to the country to the world.
His constant proselytizing has drawn support from some scientists and well-heeled supporters, whose donations allow him to keep the enterprise afloat.
He turned an abandoned potato warehouse into a bustling facility where people clone, grow and ship trees.
He remains ever hopeful that somewhere, somehow, someone will step forward to allow Archangel to keep the lights on.
It’s the way of the group, he said.
“Every day of my life is a walk of faith,” he said. “I don’t know how this all is going to end up. But nobody will be able to say we didn’t give everything we could.”
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COMMANDED BY ANGELS TO PRESERVE THE EARTH’S CANOPY
By David Milarch
Guideposts
April, 2012
Original Link
Death was near, my body shutting down. I lay limp in my bed at home, barely aware of my wife, Kerry, and my mother at my side. All I felt was sadness. And regret. What a waste. I was an alcoholic, too often an embarrassment to Kerry and our two sons, Jared and Jake. I didn’t want my kids to see me like this.
Too late, that summer of ’92, I’d tried to get sober — cold turkey, here in my bed. But my liver and kidneys couldn’t take the sudden withdrawal. I could barely breathe, my lungs filling with fluid. A friend took me to the emergency room, where they gave me a blood transfusion, but the doctor’s face was grim.
“We need to put you on dialysis,” the doctor said. “That will give you time to say good-bye to your family.” I’d come home a day ago. I was still alive. Barely.
Forty-one years. What had I accomplished? I was proud of the boys. Jared was 12 and Jake was 10, my helpers on our family tree farm. I’d tried to encourage them, told them to never give up on their dreams. But Kerry was really the one who’d seen to their upbringing.
The farm, 150 acres in northern Michigan, was my other passion. We grew shade trees: maples, locusts, birch. Did my life even matter?
Suddenly I felt a hard pulse in my chest, like a thud. I floated from the bed toward the ceiling. I looked down. My body lay in the bed lifeless. I looked awful, bloated, my skin yellow and gray. Like I’d washed up on a beach. Is this it? I thought. My time on earth over?
I felt a touch, gentle, yet firm, on my right arm. I turned to see a beautiful female in a radiant white gown. There was a fragrance, sweeter than any flower. I breathed it deep into my lungs. “We know you’re scared,” she said. “But we’re here to help.”
“Who are you?” I said.
“We’re here to help you,” she repeated. To my left there was another female, nearly identical to the first, holding my other arm. Angels? I wondered to myself. What could they want from me?
We left the confines of the house and entered a tunnel of light. The walls were a brilliant white, except for the glow of a thin pink and blue helix running through it. Then we shot off, like we were on the tip of a missile. It scared the starch out of me. But it was only for a few seconds.
I stepped out onto a vista. Below me a white, sandy beach leading to a vast body of water. In the distance a gleaming metropolis, lit by a prism of light, like a sunrise. I felt a comfort I’d never dreamed possible.
Love. Unconditional love. It seemed to flow all around me, like waves caressing me. My sadness, my sense of failure left me. I wanted to stay here forever.
Dozens of light beings, radiant, glowing personages walked toward me on top of the water. They didn’t have wings. They wore white gowns but the light, shimmering around each of them, was golden.
In the midst of them was another angel, a towering presence. He looked to be at least ten feet tall. He was clearly leading the others. Under a dark blue cape he wore a translucent gown of lighter blue.
I heard a booming sound, like thunder. It was the lead angel. “You can’t stay. You must go back.”
“But…” I started.
“You have work to do,” he said. Work? What kind of work? I didn’t want to leave. But before I could get another word out I was back hurtling through the white tunnel with the first two angels to my bedroom. I lowered back into my body, and then they were gone.
But what was the work I was supposed to do? “Wait! Wait!” I shouted, suddenly sitting upright.
“David, what’s wrong?” Kerry said, taking my hand.
It took a moment for me to know where I was. “It’s nothing,” I said. “But I know I’m going to get better. There were angels…”
Kerry squeezed my hand. “Don’t talk,” she said. “You’re so weak.”
Day by day, week by week, my body healed. It wasn’t easy. But every morning and night, I saw a small white glow near the ceiling. I lived for those moments, an assurance that God was still with me. What is the work he wants from me? I wondered. It made me nervous, not knowing. What if I can’t do it?
But there was no further instruction. By fall I was strong enough to get out of bed. One day, with halting steps, I went out to the porch and sat in a lawn chair. Everything seemed more alive than I remembered it, the chickadees, jays and finches singing so joyfully from their perches in the trees.
I could almost sense what they were feeling — there was gladness and celebration, an energy about them, but also an unease — something not right in their world. It was amazing, like I was getting a glimpse behind a magical curtain.
Could this be what God meant for me? To be more in tune with nature? I could do that. It was kind of nice actually.
But that wasn’t the only change. I had no interest in alcohol. I got misty-eyed just sitting outside with the birds, working next to our sons on the farm, eating one of Kerry’s home-cooked meals. I had a tenderness and compassion I’d never felt before. I couldn’t understand it. Why was this happening to me?
Then one winter night I awoke just after 1:00 a.m., surprised to find the bedroom lit by the warm glow that had given me such comfort. The light grew brighter and brighter until it was blinding. I covered my eyes with my hands, but it barely made a difference.
Kerry was sound asleep by my side. “Okay, I’m listening,” I said. “Just tell me what I need to do.”
A soft, warm female voice said, “Get a pad and pen and go to the living room.”
I rose out of bed, found a legal pad and a pen and sat nervously on the edge of my leather chair. But the voice was gone. My eyes grew heavy. I awoke with a start and looked at the clock. 5:55 a.m. But what about…I looked down at the pad in my lap. Page after page, filled with a detailed, formal outline.
I stared in wonder at the words: Dying trees. Champion species. Cloning. Reforesting. It was my handwriting, but nothing I’d ever even thought about. I had no memory of taking any of it down.
My heart raced as I read through what I’d written. The earth’s trees and forests getting sicker, weakened by pollution, drought, disease and bugs able to survive the warmer winters.
I was to clone the biggest, strongest, hardiest trees — trees that had lived hundreds, even thousands of years — so the world could one day be restored to its natural order by the giants of the forest. I felt like Noah, a simple man told to become a shipbuilder and a zookeeper and…
There had to have been a mistake. I wasn’t a scientist. I didn’t know the first thing about cloning or the environment. Where to even begin?
I needed help, a second opinion. I went to Jared’s room and shook him awake. “I need you to read this and tell me what you think,” I said.
Jared’s eyes opened wide as he read. “Dad, this is amazing,” he said.
“Can I help? We need to do this.”
“You really think we can?” I said.
“Why not?” he said. “You’re always saying nothing’s impossible.”
That summer, nearly a year after the angels first visited me, Jared and I collected our first DNA from a sugar maple, after learning the technique from researchers in Oregon. Seventeen years later my original outline became a reality.
It’s grown from my family and me into a nonprofit with nearly a dozen employees and volunteers, the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive.
We’ve taken DNA from more than 60 of the most magnificent trees on the planet, coast redwoods, giant sequoias, bristlecone pine thousands of years old, willow and yew—enough to create thousands of trees. We’ve been helped by angels—both heavenly and earthly— every step of the way.
We’re all called to help the earth. You don’t have to be a scientist. You only have to listen to the angel beside you.
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The Man Who Planted Trees: Lost Groves, Champion Trees, and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet
By Jim Robbins
Original Link
Twenty years ago, David Milarch, a northern Michigan nurseryman with a penchant for hard living, had a vision: angels came to tell him that the earth was in trouble. Its trees were dying, and without them, human life was in jeopardy. The solution, they told him, was to clone the champion trees of the world — the largest, the hardiest, the ones that had survived millennia and were most resilient to climate change — and create a kind of Noah’s ark of tree genetics. Without knowing if the message had any basis in science, or why he’d been chosen for this task, Milarch began his mission of cloning the world’s great trees. Many scientists and tree experts told him it couldn’t be done, but, twenty years later, his team has successfully cloned some of the world’s oldest trees — among them giant redwoods and sequoias. They have also grown seedlings from the oldest tree in the world, the bristlecone pine Methuselah.
When New York Times journalist Jim Robbins came upon Milarch’s story, he was fascinated but had his doubts. Yet over several years, listening to Milarch and talking to scientists, he came to realize that there is so much we do not yet know about trees: how they die, how they communicate, the myriad crucial ways they filter water and air and otherwise support life on Earth. It became clear that as the planet changes, trees and forest are essential to assuring its survival. The Man Who Planted Trees is both a fascinating investigation into the world of trees and the inspiring story of one man’s quest to help save the planet. This book’s hopeful message of what one man can accomplish against all odds is also a lesson about how each of us has the ability to make a difference.
Click here to order this book via Amazon
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An Interview with the Author
Original Link
Q: How did you meet David Milarch, who is featured in this book?
In 2001 I wrote a story for the New York Times on Milarch’s plan to make copies, or clones, of some of the biggest trees in the country — the champions. By clones I mean he would take cuttings and root them, the way trees have been copied for centuries. That way, he reasoned, if one of the champions should die, its genetics would live on, since there would be hundreds of genetically identical copies planted in what he called living archival libraries. Not much is known about tree genetics, and so this was a way of preserving champion tree DNA until it could be studied. It was an intriguing idea.
Then, after the story came out, I met Milarch in person and he told me the idea to clone these big trees came to him after he had a Near-Death Experience — that is, he had died and returned to his body. I was shocked — I had never heard of such a thing. He told me that he was deeply inspired to clone the trees by spirit beings he met during and after his experience.
I didn’t know what to think of his story, but all of the scientists I spoke with about his plan to clone trees thought it was spot on, a smart idea.
Q: Why did you feel his was an important story to tell?
Scientists can’t say that trees are in trouble — there isn’t enough data. But privately they think that many trees and forests are in trouble and things will get worse as the climate warms, perhaps much worse. But Milarch can say trees are in trouble from his unique perspective. So his tale became an important and intriguing way to tell this story. And it’s all backed up with interviews with scientists.
Q: What happened to your own forest?
A few years after I met Milarch the entire 15 acre forest of trees around my house in Montana started dying, and some of the trees were 300 and 400 years old. And they kept dying until they nearly all disappeared, not only on my property, but across swaths of Montana, and across much of the Rocky Mountain West. And it’s far worse in Canada. The beetles that kill trees are thriving because it’s getting much warmer.
The ancient bristlecone pines, the oldest trees on the planet, are also dying. If the oldest, toughest trees on the planet, living on mountain tops in the West, are dying, I thought, no tree is safe. What happens in 10 or 20 or 30 years if it gets a few degrees warmer? Yikes!
It may happen even sooner. Look what’s happening to the weather this year — temperatures are warmer all over the US, and meteorologists say they haven’t seen anything like it.
Telling Milarch’s tale and the story of dying trees became even more urgent after I saw the forest die-off in the West, and in my own backyard.
Q: What is Milarch’s plan for these giants he is cloning?
He hopes someday that people will plant one clone of these champions in the midst of hundreds of other regular trees as a way of beefing up the genetics of forests.
Q: Why are trees important?
Milarch has often said that trees are more important than we know. And as I talked to scientists and read papers they confirmed that notion: we have underestimated the trees, vastly. They are a kind of eco-technology that sustains our lives here on the planet and that humans can’t duplicate. There is a whole range of ecosystem services provided by trees and forests that many people don’t know about. They filter our water and can clean up the nastiest kinds of toxic wastes. They soak up greenhouse gasses to mitigate climate change, protect us from harsh UV rays, and are a heat shield and natural air-conditioner for cities and suburbs. David Milarch talks about them as the filters of the planet. As we all know, when you take the filter out of your aquarium, the fish die.
Q: What can we do?
As Milarch says, trace back almost every environmental problem far enough and the solution is to plant trees. Trees are hope. But you can’t plant them just anywhere. It’s about strategically planting trees — the right tree in the right place for the right reasons. The big question we need to figure out is what is the right tree to plant and where.
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WHY TREES MATTER
By Jim Robbins
New York Times
April 11, 2012
Original Link
Trees are on the front lines of our changing climate. And when the oldest trees in the world suddenly start dying, it’s time to pay attention.
North America’s ancient alpine bristlecone forests are falling victim to a voracious beetle and an Asian fungus. In Texas, a prolonged drought killed more than five million urban shade trees last year and an additional half-billion trees in parks and forests. In the Amazon, two severe droughts have killed billions more.
The common factor has been hotter, drier weather.
We have underestimated the importance of trees. They are not merely pleasant sources of shade but a potentially major answer to some of our most pressing environmental problems. We take them for granted, but they are a near miracle. In a bit of natural alchemy called photosynthesis, for example, trees turn one of the seemingly most insubstantial things of all — sunlight — into food for insects, wildlife and people, and use it to create shade, beauty and wood for fuel, furniture and homes.
For all of that, the unbroken forest that once covered much of the continent is now shot through with holes.
Humans have cut down the biggest and best trees and left the runts behind. What does that mean for the genetic fitness of our forests? No one knows for sure, for trees and forests are poorly understood on almost all levels. “It’s embarrassing how little we know,” one eminent redwood researcher told me.
What we do know, however, suggests that what trees do is essential though often not obvious. Decades ago, Katsuhiko Matsunaga, a marine chemist at Hokkaido University in Japan, discovered that when tree leaves decompose, they leach acids into the ocean that help fertilize plankton. When plankton thrive, so does the rest of the food chain. In a campaign called Forests Are Lovers of the Sea, fishermen have replanted forests along coasts and rivers to bring back fish and oyster stocks. And they have returned.
Trees are nature’s water filters, capable of cleaning up the most toxic wastes, including explosives, solvents and organic wastes, largely through a dense community of microbes around the tree’s roots that clean water in exchange for nutrients, a process known as phytoremediation. Tree leaves also filter air pollution. A 2008 study by researchers at Columbia University found that more trees in urban neighborhoods correlate with a lower incidence of asthma.
In Japan, researchers have long studied what they call “forest bathing.” A walk in the woods, they say, reduces the level of stress chemicals in the body and increases natural killer cells in the immune system, which fight tumors and viruses. Studies in inner cities show that anxiety, depression and even crime are lower in a landscaped environment.
Trees also release vast clouds of beneficial chemicals. On a large scale, some of these aerosols appear to help regulate the climate; others are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral. We need to learn much more about the role these chemicals play in nature. One of these substances, taxane, from the Pacific yew tree, has become a powerful treatment for breast and other cancers. Aspirin’s active ingredient comes from willows.
Trees are greatly underutilized as an eco-technology. “Working trees” could absorb some of the excess phosphorus and nitrogen that run off farm fields and help heal the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. In Africa, millions of acres of parched land have been reclaimed through strategic tree growth.
Trees are also the planet’s heat shield. They keep the concrete and asphalt of cities and suburbs 10 or more degrees cooler and protect our skin from the sun’s harsh UV rays. The Texas Department of Forestry has estimated that the die-off of shade trees will cost Texans hundreds of millions of dollars more for air-conditioning. Trees, of course, sequester carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that makes the planet warmer. A study by the Carnegie Institution for Science also found that water vapor from forests lowers ambient temperatures.
A big question is, which trees should we be planting? Ten years ago, I met a shade tree farmer named David Milarch, a co-founder of the Champion Tree Project who has been cloning some of the world’s oldest and largest trees to protect their genetics, from California redwoods to the oaks of Ireland. “These are the supertrees, and they have stood the test of time,” he says.
Science doesn’t know if these genes will be important on a warmer planet, but an old proverb seems apt. “When is the best time to plant a tree?” The answer: “Twenty years ago. The second-best time? Today.”
Jim Robbins is the author of the forthcoming book “The Man Who Planted Trees.”
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ANCIENT TREES HOLD HOPE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
By Kim Eggleston
Second Wave
November 8, 2011
Original Link
It’s not hard to see why David Milarch does what he does. Look around next time you drive through some of Michigan’s beautiful northern forests, and recall our state’s history.
The trees we see now are mostly the leftovers from centuries of cutting down the biggest and strongest to build homes, businesses and industries. Or, as Milarch calls them, “the junk of the junk” — what’s left after the best trees were taken, time after time.
For instance, the Upper Peninsula holds the only known stand of ancient white pines left in the world. The rest all have been harvested.
“What people don’t know is that we have geographic amnesia. We take a look around, see our forests, and think this is normal. It’s not,” he says.
Milarch, of Copemish, makes it his life’s work to study and clone genetic material from the largest, oldest trees still alive on the planet, like the giant sequoias of California, the ancient oaks of Ireland, or even the few remaining virgin white pine in Michigan.
Then, he and his colleagues at the Traverse-City based Archangel Ancient Tree Archive replant seedlings grown from the cloned material, along with other seedlings of the same species but from newer genetic stock, to get the best of both worlds as the old and new genes propagate together.
“We’re finding the very largest living trees and archiving their genetics,” he says. “Not the genetics of the very junk of the junk.”
And his ideas have drawn quite a bit of attention as climate change becomes an urgent problem for the world, because of a simple fact: Giant trees like the redwoods are much better at filtering and storing carbon than most modern trees are. A sequoia is about 40 percent carbon, captured from the atmosphere, says Milarch, and 40 percent of a giant sequoia is a pretty large amount.
So, replanting lost forests with ancient trees like those in the archive is a more effective method for slowing or moderating climate change than simply replanting any tree available.
To that end, Milarch is working with NASA scientists to determine what kind of role his giant sequoia seedlings could play in strategic carbon sequestering. They are particularly suited for the job as opposed to other ancient trees, because they are hardy and adaptable enough to grow in climates from sub-Arctic to sub-tropical. Other trees are more suited to other purposes, like black willow, which is good at remediating watersheds, he says.
Archangel has collected genetic material from the biggest and oldest trees still alive in many regions of the U.S., and recently added samples from the 20 oldest oaks in Ireland to its collection. The archive now holds about 70 species of trees.
All the seedlings are grown in Copemish, in an old, converted warehouse that now serves Archangel as a propagation facility to nurse the cloned seedlings to plantable age.
Milarch works there with his two sons, who are raising their own children on the family’s land there — the sixth generation in Copemish.
The location reveals the roots of the idea for all this; Milarch began as a tree farmer, working in his family’s seed tree company.
“The trees that used to work (producing seedlings), and had worked forever, stopped working. They would die, right down the row,” he says. “Well, when what you make your living on doesn’t work anymore, you better find out why.”
The answers he found were grim: acid rain, water pollution, invasive species, resistant diseases. Modern tree genetics had failed to cope with the pressures. Maybe ancient tree genetics would fare better.
As Milarch researched more possibilities, a startling picture began to form.
“Our forests are the basis for our ecosystem, and they are dying, all over the world,” he says.
Reforestation isn’t happening as fast or in as many places as needed to counteract how much forest is lost each year, to construction, agriculture, competition from invasive species, or simple failure to reproduce and spread.
He compares the forests, on a global level, to the current problems facing the Great Lakes; invasive creatures like the lamprey or zebra mussel threaten wildlife systems, while air and water pollution or development threaten related wetlands.
“We’ve started down the road, but we have a long way to go,” Milarch says.
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Beverly BrodskyBeverly was raised in a conservative Jewish family in a mostly Jewish neighborhood in Philadelphia. She went through her teens as an atheist. Since learning of the Holocaust at age eight, she had turned angrily against any early belief in God. How could God exist and permit such a thing to occur? In July 1970, her questions were answered when a motorcycle accident led to her near-death experience. Beverly’s testimony was included in the book “Lessons from the Light” written by Kenneth Ring and Evelyn Elsaeser Valarino. Ring described Beverly Brodsky’s NDE as “possibly the most moving in my entire collection.”
For two years, she was on the founding Board of Directors of a new non-profit, ACISTE (the American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences) and also an IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies) group leader for over 20 years. She is a minister in the LA Community Church of Religious Science. She has also worked as a systems and business analyst for the federal government for 28 years.
Websites & Background Information• Near-Death.com on Beverly Brodsky
• Beverly Brodsky on Facebook
• Near-Death Experience Researcher Kenneth Ring Remembers Beverly
• Beverly Brodsky on Twitter
• San Diego IANDS Website (Coordinator, San Diego IANDS)
• San Diego IANDS on Google Groups
• Member of NHNE’s NDE network. Beverly’s profile page is located here.
Contact InformationEmail: bevbrodsky@gmail.com
Phone: (619) 244-8495
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Beverly Brodsky’s NDE Testimony
Original Link
Somehow an unexpected peace descended upon me. I found myself floating on the ceiling over the bed looking down at my unconscious body. I barely had time to realize the glorious strangeness of the situation – that I was me but not in my body – when I was joined by a radiant being bathed in a shimmering white glow. Like myself, this being flew but had no wings. I felt a reverent awe when I turned to him; this was no ordinary angel or spirit, but he had been sent to deliver me. Such love and gentleness emanated from his being that I felt that I was in the presence of the Messiah.
Whoever he was, his presence deepened my serenity and awakened a feeling of joy as I recognized my companion. Gently he took my hand and we flew right through the window. I felt no surprise at my ability to do this. In this wondrous presence, everything was as it should be.
Beneath us lay the beautiful Pacific Ocean … But my attention was now directed upward, where there was a large opening leading to a circular path. Although it seemed to be deep and far to the end, a white light shone through and poured out into the gloom to the other side where the opening beckoned. It was the most brilliant light I had ever seen, although I didn’t realize how much of its glory was veiled from the outside. The path was angled upward, obliquely, to the right. Now still hand in hand with the angel, I was led into the opening of the small, dark passageway.
I then remember traveling a long distance upward toward the light. I believe that I was moving very fast, but this entire realm seemed to be outside of time. Finally, I reached my destination. It was only when I emerged from the other end that I realized that I was no longer accompanied by the being who had brought me there. But I wasn’t alone. There, before me, was the living presence of the light. Within it I sensed an all-pervading intelligence, wisdom, compassion, love, and truth. There was neither form nor sex to this perfect being. It, which I shall in the future call he, in keeping without our commonly accepted syntax, contained everything, as white light contains all the colors of a rainbow when penetrating a prism. And deep within me came an instant and wondrous recognition: I, even I, was facing God.
I immediately lashed out at him with all the questions I had ever wondered about; all the injustices I had seen in the physical world. I don’t know if I did this deliberately, but I discovered that God knows all your thoughts immediately and responds telepathically. My mind was naked; in fact, I became pure mind. The ethereal body which I had traveled in through the tunnel seemed to be no more; it was just my personal intelligence confronting that Universal Mind, which clothed itself in a glorious, living light that was more felt that seen, since no eye could absorb its splendor.
I don’t recall the exact content of our discussion; in the process of return, the insights that came so clearly and fully in Heaven were not brought back with me to Earth. I’m sure that I asked the question that had been plaguing me since childhood about the sufferings of my people. I do remember this: There was a reason for everything that happened, no matter how awful it appeared in the physical realm. And within myself, as I was given the answer, my own awakening mind now responded in the same manner:
“Of course,” I would think, “I already know that. How could I ever have forgotten!”
Indeed, it appears that all that happens is for a purpose, and that purpose is already known to our eternal self.
In time the questions ceased, because I suddenly was filled with all the Being’s wisdom. I was given more than just the answers to my questions; all knowledge unfolded to me, like the instant blossoming of an infinite number of flowers all at once. I was filled with God’s knowledge, and in that precious aspect of his Beingness, I was one with him. But my journey of discovery was just beginning.
Now I was treated to an extraordinary voyage through the universe. Instantly we traveled to the center of stars being born, supernovas exploding, and many other glorious celestial events for which I have no name. The impression I have now of this trip is that it felt like the universe is all one grand object woven from the same fabric. Space and time are illusions that hold us to our physical realm; out there all is present simultaneously. I was a passenger on a divine spaceship in which the Creator showed me the fullness and beauty of all of his Creation.
The last thing that I saw before all external vision ended was a glorious fire – the core and center of a marvelous star. Perhaps this was a symbol for the blessing that was now to come to me. Everything faded except for a richly full void in which That and I encompassed All that is. Here, I experienced, in ineffable magnificence, communion with the light being. Now I was filled with not just all knowledge, but also with all love. It was as if the light were poured in and through me. I was God’s object of adoration; and from his/our love I drew life and joy beyond imagining. My being was transformed; my delusions, sins, and guilt were forgiven and purged without asking; and now I was love, primal being, and bliss. And, in some sense, I remain there, for Eternity. Such a union cannot be broken. It always was, is, and shall be.
Suddenly, not knowing how or why, I returned to my broken body. But miraculously, I brought back the love and the joy. I was filled with an ecstasy beyond my wildest dreams. Here, in my body, the pain had all been removed. I was still enthralled by a boundless delight. For the next two months, I remained in this state, oblivious to any pain.
I felt now as if I had been made anew. I saw wondrous meanings everywhere; everything was alive and full of energy and intelligence.
Although it’s been 20 years since my heavenly voyage, I have never forgotten it. Nor have I, in the face of ridicule and disbelief, ever doubted its reality. Nothing that intense and life-changing could possibly have been a dream or hallucination. To the contrary, I consider the rest of my life to be a passing fantasy, a brief dream, that will end when I again awaken in the permanent presence of that giver of life and bliss.
In 2014, as the result of a botched surgical operation, which was compounded by the hospital confusing her blood tests with the blood tests of another woman, Hila Baruch died and had a near-death experience. Her near-death experience left her with the knowledge that she is not who she thought she was and that she could no longer continue her work as before. Prior to her NDE, Hila worked in Israel as a courtroom attorney. After her NDE, Hila returned to Earth with three mandates:
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Repent for past mistakes and make amends (Teshuvah).
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Use the talents God gave her for holy purposes.
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Share her near-death experience with others.Read more ›
Vicki Noratuk was born blind. Vicki describes what it was like to experience sight for the first time. Then she goes on to describe encounters with Jesus, moving through hellish and heavenly realms, and being told she couldn't stay on the other side because she was to become a mother and teach unconditional love and forgiveness. Jesus, according to Vicki, also told her to tell others about him and her experience: "let them know of this day and tell them that I AM"...Read more ›
In 2008, a life crisis lead to Yvonne Sneeden having a near-death experience. During her experience, Yvonne entered a heavenly realm and encountered Jesus and various angelic beings. Yvonne is the creator of ThinkHeavenNow (THENOW), a member of both IANDS (International Association for Near Death Studies) and ACISTE (American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences). She is currently working in collaboration with Sabine Van Den Bulke, psychotherapist and movement therapist with expertise in NDE Experiencers, in bringing spiritual and emotional support to help near-death experiencers cope with NDE after-effects.Read more ›
Lousia Peck had her near-death experience in November of 1982. A rabid atheist, she was on a path of self-destruction that traced back to her alcoholic family. Drinking and infatuation were the two "twin highs" that dominated her broken life -- until a near-death experience, and Alcoholics Anonymous, helped turn everything around. Read more ›
Born in 1950, Dannion Brinkley is the author of three international best selling books -- Saved by the Light, At Peace in the Light, and Secrets of the Light. He is also a internationally known speaker who has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows. In 1994 his New York Times bestseller, Saved by the Light, was the highest rated made-for-television movie of all time by the Fox Network. Drawing on his three near-death experiences, Dannion speaks to diverse audiences worldwide on topics including Near-Death Experiences, Palliative and Hospice Care, and Complementary and Alternative Healing Practices. In 1997, Dannion co-founded The Twilight Brigade in Los Angeles with a small but dedicated team of experience hospice volunteers and trainers. Since then, more than 5,300 have taken the volunteer training. Dannion has also received dozens of awards for his achievements and volunteer service, including the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service, the VFW Women’s Auxiliary Cherished Heroes Award, the Courage and Valor Award from the National Foundation for Women Legislators and numerous VA Awards including the VA Special Secretary’s Award and the Heart of Hospice Award, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Association’s highest honor.Read more ›
Dr. Eben Alexander III has been an academic neurosurgeon for the last 25 years, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Over those years he personally dealt with hundreds of patients suffering from severe alterations in their level of consciousness. Many of those patients were rendered comatose by trauma, brain tumors, ruptured aneurysms, infections, or stroke. Based on his training as a neurosurgeon, Dr. Alexander "knew" that what people of faith call the “soul” is really a product of brain chemistry. NDEs, he would have been the first to explain, might feel real to the people having them, but in truth they are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.
In the predawn hours of November 10, 2008, Dr. Alexander himself became a comatose patient. For reasons that remain obscure, he was overcome by a fulminant bacterial meningitis and was comatose on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit within hours. His physicians were stunned to find that the culprit was a bacteria that almost never causes spontaneous meningitis in adults. After six days on triple antibiotics, showing no response and with little neurological function remaining, his physicians had few words of encouragement for his family.
For seven days Alexander lay in a hospital bed in a deep coma. Then, as his doctors weighed the possibility of stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. Alexander’s recovery is by all accounts a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself.
Before Alexander underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. That difficulty with belief created an empty space that no professional triumph could erase. Today he is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.Read more ›
Colton Burpo was the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slipped from consciousness and claims to have entered heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear. Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us. Colton's message is that heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.Read more ›
Before his near-death experience, Alon Anava, a Jewish man who grew up in Ra'anana, Israel, describes himself as rough, rude, mean, and not a nice person. After his near-death experience, Alon says he was transformed into someone who was nice, calm, courteous, and soft spoken. Whereas before he was a highly trained martial artist, now he attends Yeshiva studying every day, exploring the depths of Torah, refining and elevating himself on a daily basis. Alon also claims to have returned with the ability to connect to God in a way that allows him to connect with others and help them overcome their questions and concerns. During his free time, he shares his near-death experience and what he learned from it. Alon is also a photographer and web designer.Read more ›
Angie Fenimore, a 27-year-old wife and mother haunted by abuse in childhood and overwhelmed by despair, was in a desperate state of mind. On the 8th January 1991, Angie attempted to end her suffering by committing suicide. What ensued was a near-death experience that took her to "the brink of hell," where an encounter with God and Jesus saved her and gave her a new understanding of the purpose of life.Read more ›
P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D. is one of the original researchers in the field of near-death studies, having begun her work in 1978. She has written nine books on her findings, and is now working on her tenth -- the final wrapup of her theory about brain shift/spirit shift, straight talk about transformations of consciousness and the future of the human race. Some of her findings have been verified in clinical studies, among them the prospective study done in Holland and published in “Lancet” medical journal (12-15-01). Her The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences brings the entire field up-to-date, and was featured in an online version of Newsweek Magazine. In 2005, she was awarded the Outstanding Service Award from the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Transpersonal Hypnotherapists (NATH). She is also an experiencer, having died three times in three months in 1977, and each time experiencing the phenomenon...Read more ›
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Mary Jo Rapini During a workout at the gym, Mary Jo Rapini suffered a fatal brain aneurysm. After dying, she had a near-death experience which included arguing with God and insisting that she didn’t want to return to Earth. After giving her “the illusion of a sweet protective chuckle,” God told Mary Jo that “she could do better” and sent her back. Once back, Mary Jo made a miraculous recovery.Mary Jo is now a psychotherapist specializing in intimacy, sex and relationships. Additionally, she is a lecturer, author and television personality.
Websites & Background Information • Mary Jo Rapini Website
• Mary Jo Rapini on Facebook
• Mary Jo Rapini on Twitter
• Mary Jo Rapini on Instagram
• Mary Jo Rapini on YouTube
Contact Information Email: maryjo@maryjorapini.com
Book
Is God Pink?: Dying to Heal
Amazon Description:
“A typical workout at the gym turns tragic when psychotherapist Mary Jo Rapini suffers a brain aneurysm. After surviving a near-death experience, she recounts her triumphant path to a miraculous complete recovery. Prior to her illness, Mary Jo counseled hospitalized cancer patients. She shares their fascinating stories about how dying brought them healing. She credits the understanding she gained from her own illness and near-death experience, along with insights acquired from working with top-notch cancer doctors, as allowing her to fully appreciate the power of spiritual healing.”
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**What If God Has Us Totally Outsmarted?
An Elaboration On Mary Jo Rapini’s Near-Death Experience**
By Robert Perry
Circle Course Community Blog / Mustard Seed Venture Network
October 10, 2011
Original Link 1
Original Link 2
I recently wrote a piece that tries to draw out the meaning of the near-death experience of a woman named Mary Jo Rapini. She’s been featured on the Today Show and Nightline. Recently, I found myself thinking about her experience. It kept coming back to me day after day, chiefly because of the masterful way in which God interacted with her. So I wrote a blog post about it, trying to draw out the meaning of her brief interaction with God. I titled it “What if God has us totally outsmarted?”
After writing the post, I decided to see if I could send it to Mary Jo herself. I wanted her to know that her experience was touching others (though I’m sure she already does know that). Also, I had tried hard to honor her experience in teasing out its details and I hoped I got it right.
I found her contact info, and got a lovely response back from her, in which she immediately said “that is it in a nutshell.” Then she asked if she could post it on her site. If you’re interested, the post is .
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Robert Perry Blog Post: What if God Has Us Totally Outsmarted?
By Mary Jo Rapini
Mary Jo Rapini Website
October 10, 2011
Original Link
As many of you know, several years ago I had a near death experience (NDE), and my story has been featured several times lately in the national media. I received an email this morning from a gentlemen, named Robert Perry, who was familiar with my experience and blogged about it today. As I read his blog post, I was instantly struck by his understanding of God’s love for us and how God made me feel during my own personal encounter with Him. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share Mr. Perry’s blog post with my readers…
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What If God Has Us Totally Outsmarted?
By Robert Perry
Circle Course Community Blog
October 6, 2011
Original Link
Last year, I wrote about a woman’s near-death experience (“We can do better“), and in the past few days it keeps coming to mind, as a window onto a certain way of thinking about God. So I thought I better write about it.
I think a (perhaps the) common conception of God is as the president of the company. As the president, he works in the big office many floors above our little cubicle. We rarely, maybe never, have any direct interaction with him. His main influence on us is that he wants us to obey his larger agenda. We accept that — that’s his job — but we also have a very ambivalent relationship with that larger agenda. The fact is that the president is not down in our cubicle. He doesn’t know what it’s like down there. He is not in touch with our needs. He has no real clue what’s actually best for us. He’s just got his big agenda that he’s plastered over all the little cubicles in the company, ours included. Quite obviously, his interest and awareness do not extend all the way down to the details of our particular job.
And so we are having to always do this complicated dance, where we follow his agenda to some degree, but we also look out for our own needs. We see our needs better than anyone else, certainly better than the president of the company. And if we don’t look out for our needs, for our happiness, no one else will.
Can you relate to that picture of God in relation to you? I don’t mean on an intellectual level; rather, on a practical level. Don’t we follow God to some degree, but also make sure we look out for and protect our own needs, because we are in touch with them like no one else is?
The near-death experience I’ve been thinking about provides a different view of God, one worth pondering. It was had by a woman named Mary Jo Rapini, who has talked about it in a Today Show interview and in an episode of Nightline. Here is how she recounted her experience on the Today Show:
“I went into this tunnel, and I came into this room that was just beautiful. God held me, he called me by name, and he told me, ‘Mary Jo, you can’t stay.’ And I wanted to stay. I protested. I said, ‘I can’t stay? Why not?’ And I started talking about all the reasons [why she should be allowed to stay]; I was a good wife, I was a good mother, I did 24-hour care with cancer patients.
“‘And he said, ‘Let me ask you one thing — have you ever loved another the way you’ve been loved here?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s impossible. I’m a human.’ And then he just held me and said, ‘You can do better.’”
It’s a gripping story, one that seems to display the president of the company in classic form. This is not exactly a namby-pamby God. No matter how much Mary Jo protests, He is still sending her back. He’s got His Will and that’s that. It’s almost like a job review: “Well, sir, I’ve produced 1000 widgets a day for the last two years. I deserve some vacation time.” “Sorry, Mrs. Rapini. You can do better.”
But there’s actually more to the story. I’ve seen and read her tell this story a few other times, and in two of those she has drawn out the part right before God says “You can do better.” Here is one of those other versions:
“God held me…I don’t remember if my whole body was in his arms or what…no recognition of that. I knew it was God because he was an omnipotent being. Not like a person…much less limited in form. I did not see God but felt him through my skin. He spoke through all of my senses. He called me by name and told me I could not stay. I protested. I told him all of my services on earth (working 24/7, not much money for my work, a good wife, a good mother) I did not want to leave this place. Then God asked me…He said ‘let me ask you one question.’ ‘Have you ever loved another person the way you have been loved here.’ The love I had received in that time was so overpowering…I had never felt anything like it so I answered God honestly. I said, ‘No…it is impossible…I am just a human, you are God.’ He gave me the illusion of a sweet protective chuckle. He then said, ‘Mary, you can do better.’”
I like the extra information we get in this telling: “I don’t remember if my whole body was in his arms.” “Felt him through my skin.” “The love I had received in that time was so overpowering.” But the main thing I want to direct your attention to is that comment near the end: “He gave me the illusion of a sweet protective chuckle.” Look at that sentence — it is full of paradoxes. God gave her an illusion? An illusion of a chuckle? A chuckle that was sweet (rather than belittling)? A chuckle that was protective? Clearly, she’s trying to describe a very complex thing. Here is another version, where she expands on the chuckle:
“And it [God] kind of chuckled. It wasn’t human, but it was able to relate to me in a very human way that made me feel loved. And it wasn’t laughing at me, but it was a chuckle, like it had a playful edge. And it said, ‘You can do better.’”
I find this expansion on the chuckle so intriguing. It helps us know what she meant by “He gave me an illusion of a…chuckle.” The illusion is that God is not human, so it is not His nature to chuckle. Any chuckling on His part would be an illusion. But He gave this illusion to her to “relate to me in a very human way that made me feel loved.” He got down on her level, in order to make her feel loved. I think that’s why she described the chuckle as “sweet.”
Notice that the chuckle “wasn’t laughing at me.” Rather, it was like God “had a playful edge.” The chuckle, in other words, is lightening the heaviness of the fact that He’s sending her back. It’s spreading a note of playfulness over what could seem like a stern edict. My guess is that this is why she described it as “protective.” It was there to protect her from what could easily look heavy, stern, even judgmental.
What is the actual message of the chuckle? I can only guess. But notice it is sandwiched in between “Of course I can’t love like You do” and “You can do better.” Once you put the chuckle in between those two things, I think you see its message instantly. He’s chuckling at her sense of limitation. His laugh is saying, “Ah, so you really think you can’t love like Me? You really think your love is limited by human limitations?” In light of this playful chuckle, His punch line follows naturally. You can almost hear the smile in His voice as He says, “You can do better.”
And while He’s doing all that, He’s also holding her: “And then he just held me and said…’”
Now we are in a position to see both sides of the equation. Yes, there is the president of the company side. Despite all her pleading, God sends her back. “No vacation time for you.” “But, sir, I’ve made those thousand widgets a day.” “Let me ask you: Have you ever had one day in which you made 10,000 widgets, like our factory robots do.” “No, sir, that’s impossible. I’m only human.” “You can do better. Get back to the factory.”
But then there is a whole other side, which goes far beyond the president of the company paradigm. He calls her by name. (“The president of the company knows my name!”) Imagine God calling you by name. He holds her. She is in His Arms. She feels Him through her skin. He speaks to her through all her senses at once. He loves her with a love that is so overpowering, so utterly beyond the human, that she begs to leave everything behind, including her husband and children, and just be with Him forever.
In response to her pleading, He doesn’t just lay down the law. He asks her a question, a question that allows her to see for herself why she needs to go back. His question — ”Have you ever loved another person the way you have been loved here?” — implies that she is on earth to learn to love, to love like God loves. And then when she says, “I can’t do that; I’m only human (so You might as well let me stay, right?),” He gives her “the illusion of a sweet, protective chuckle.” Not a chuckler by nature, He is getting down on her level. He, the non-human, is relating to her in a human way to make her feel loved. He laughs gently at the thought that her love is penned in by human limitations. Through this same laugh, He protects her from a sense that she is being judged. He is letting her know that it’s a playful matter, not a heavy sentence. It’s a light matter of stretching beyond her quaint belief in limited capacity to love. “And then he just held me and said, ‘You can do better.’” In one brief sentence, he has not only explained why she has to go back, not only conveyed her assignment, He has done it with an undeniable point. How can she really deny that she can do better? We can always do better.
What grabs me about this is that not only is there so much love in it, but that this love is so incredibly intelligent. The combination of the question, the human-style relating, the chuckle, the playfulness, the sweetness, the protection, the holding, the undeniable punch line — it’s an extremely intelligent and sophisticated package. It gives you a sense of a God Who is anything but unaware of what’s going on in our cubicle, anything but distantly aloof in His top-floor office. Rather, He gets it — all of it, and He breaks His news to us in a way that runs circles around us. We are like a two-year-old playing against Bobby Fisher. But God is not trying to defeat us; He is trying to checkmate us with His Love.
Wouldn’t it be weird to think that God has us totally outsmarted? Wouldn’t it be strange to think that He actually sees our needs, and understands them far better than we do? What if, after all this time of protecting our happiness against His agenda, we realized that, all along, our happiness was His agenda?
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George Ritchie Dr. George G. Ritchie, M.D. (born September 25, 1923; died October 29, 2007) held positions as president of the Richmond Academy of General Practice; chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps, Inc. for almost 20 years. In 1967, he entered private psychiatry practice in Richmond and in 1983, moved to Anniston, Alabama, to serve as head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center. He returned to Richmond in 1986 to continue in private practice until retirement in 1992. At the age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an army hospital and was pronounced dead twice by the doctor on duty. Nine minutes later he returned to life. Dr. Ritchie wrote of his near-death experience (NDE) in Return from Tomorrow, co-written with Elizabeth Sherrill, in 1978. In Return from Tomorrow, he tells of his out-of-body experience, his meeting with Jesus Christ, and his travel with Christ through different dimensions of time and space. Return from Tomorrow has been translated into nine languages. Ritchie’s story was the first contact Dr. Raymond Moody, PhD had with NDEs, during his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Virginia. This led Moody to investigate over 150 cases of NDEs in his book Life After Life and two other books that followed. Moody’s first book, Life After Life, was dedicated to Ritchie: “To George Ritchie, M.D. and, through him, to the One whom he suggested.” In 2019, Raymond Moody also described Ritchie as “the finest human being I have ever known.”
Websites & Background Information • Wikipedia on George Ritchie
• Near-Death.com on George Ritchie
• Excerpts from Return From Tomorrow and My Life After Dying
• George Ritchie Videos (includes ability to download)
Books
Return From Tomorrow (1995, 2007)
Amazon Description:
“At the age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an Army hospital. Nine minutes later, he returned to life. What happened to him during those minutes was so compelling that it changed his life forever. In Return from Tomorrow, Ritchie tells of his transforming encounter with the Son of God, who led him to encounters with other nonphysical beings at the very doorway of eternity. Ritchie’s extraordinary experience not only altered his view of eternity, but it has also altered the lives of hundreds of thousands of readers. One of the most startling and hopeful descriptions of the realm beyond, this classic will inspire readers from all walks of life. It includes a brand-new preface from Elizabeth Sherrill.”
Other Books
My Life After Dying: How 9 Minutes in Heaven Taught Me How to Live on Earth (1991, 2015)
“In December 1943, 20-year-old Army private George Ritchie died of pneumonia. Nine minutes later, he came back profoundly changed. What happened to him while his dead body lay under a sheet would change his life, and that of his family, friends, and patients. His bestselling book about his experiences, Return from Tomorrow, has sold more than 250,000 copies.
“In this book George Ritchie briefly retells the story of that strange experience and then tells what happened later, including the real miracles that he has seen in his years of practice as a physician and psychiatrist. Included here are powerful stories of physical and emotional healing that were informed by those nine minutes on ‘the other side.’ “
Ordered to Return (1998)
“In December, 1943, 20-year-old Army private George Ritchie died of pneumonia. Nine minutes later, he came back profoundly changed. What had happened to him while his dead body lay under a sheet would change his life, and that of his family, friends, and patients.
“His first book, Return From Tomorrow, has sold over 200,000 copies and has been translated into nine languages. Now, in Ordered to Return, George Ritchie briefly re-tells the story of that strange experience and then tells what happened later, including the real miracles that he has seen in his years of practice as a physician and psychiatrist.
“What’s more, using plain, every-day examples from life, he offers penetrating insights into what is wrong with American life today and how it can be set right.”
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George Ritchie’s Near-Death Experience
In December, 1943, 20-year-old Army private George Ritchie died of pneumonia. Nine minutes later, he came back profoundly changed. What had happened to him while his dead body lay under a sheet would change his life, and that of his family, friends, and patients. His first book, Return From Tomorrow, has sold over 200,000 copies and has been translated into nine languages. Now, in Ordered to Return, George Ritchie briefly re-tells the story of that strange experience and then tells what happened later, including the real miracles that he has seen in his years of practice as a physician and psychiatrist.
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Excerpt:
[Jesus taught me] three things that changed my life and I think were the major reasons He told me I had to come back:
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Can you imagine being in the room with somebody who knows every single minute detail of your life and totally accepts you and totally loves you? We have a God of love Who always [wants the best for us].
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There are many different realms in life after death, not just two [heaven or hell]. The type of life we live here determines where we are going when we leave here. God doesn’t send us to heaven or hell or purgatory or anything else. But you don’t leave kindergarten here and go to the university. You’ve got to go through grade school, intermediate school, high school, and the type of grades you make determine which university you are going to . . . You go to whatever realm you are best suited to go to.
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Life really is forever. We don’t die. Death is nothing more than a gateway through which we go.
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Dr. George Ritchie’s Near-Death Experience
Near-Death.com
Original Link
In December, 1943, George Ritchie died of pneumonia. Nine minutes later, miraculously and unaccountably, he returned to life to tell of his amazing near-death experience in the afterlife. His near-death experience was the one that profoundly moved Raymond Moody to begin seriously investigating the near-death experience. Since Dr. Moody is considered to be the “father of the near-death experience,” Dr. Ritchie’s near-death experience is in a class of its own. You will find his experience to be one of the most profound near-death experiences ever documented.
The following is a brief summary of Dr. George Ritchie’s near-death experience. You can read his NDE testimony in its entirety in his ground-breaking books Return From Tomorrow and his follow-up book Ordered to Return: My Life After Dying.
George leaves his body and sees it lying in his bed. He is not aware the dead body in his bed is his. Wanting eagerly to travel to Richmond, Virginia to start college, he finds himself flying in the air toward a city. He is not sure how he acquired these strange powers of flight and transparency. He arrives at a city and discovers he has lost his solidness. He flies back to the hospital and sees his lifeless body in the morgue and realizes he has died.
Suddenly, Jesus appears emitting a tremendous light and love. George’s entire life appears before him. Jesus asks, “What have you done with your life?” He realizes Jesus is not judging him, but he is judging himself.
Jesus gives him a tour of four different dimensions in the afterlife. They both fly toward a large city on Earth where they notice a group of assembly-line workers at work. He witnesses the spirit of a woman trying desperately to obtain a cigarette from the workers who are oblivious to her presence. This woman died severely addicted to cigarettes.
In a house, Jesus shows him the spirit of a boy following a living teenage girl and begging for forgiveness while the girl is completely unaware of the boy’s presence. Jesus tells George that the boy committed suicide and is “chained to every consequence of his act.”
Jesus shows George a bar filled with sailors who are heavily drinking. Spirits try desperately and in vain to get a drink or to control the sailors’ alcoholic behavior. These spirits are from humans who die severely alcoholic. He is horrified as he observes a drunken sailor pass out and an alcoholic spirit jump into the body of the sailor.
Jesus takes him to a new dimension away from Earth and shows him a kind of “receiving station” where spirits would arrive in a deep hypnotic sleep because of their beliefs. These are spirits who believe they must sleep after death until Jesus returns.
Jesus shows him a dimension where angry spirits are locked in hand-to-hand combat, trying in vain to hurt each other. He hears verbal abuse going on. He observes some trying in vain to get sexual gratification from each other. He also sees spirits arguing over some religious or political point and trying to kill the ones who did not agree with them. Here, he realizes he is seeing hell. These are spirits who are locked into some earthly desire that went beyond the physical and which cannot be satisfied in the spirit.
He is then taken to a different dimension appearing like an enormous university. Here he observes people dressed as monks engaged in some form of artistic behavior or research. He is taken into an enormous library where all the important books of the universe are assembled. He asks Jesus if this is heaven. He replies that these are the people who grew beyond selfish desires while on Earth. George realizes these people cannot see Jesus, just as the others could not see him in hell.
Jesus takes him into outer space toward a distant city made of brilliant light of a similar description to the city in the Book of Revelation. He speculates this is the place where people go who have become Christ-like while on Earth. Here, love was the dominant focus of life. He realizes he is seeing heaven, but he is not allowed to go in. Jesus then shows him the future of the Earth. He then returns to his physical body.
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A Description Of Jesus
I was standing in front of this majestic Being, of whom I had been told: “Stand up. You are in the presence of the Son of God.” I had never seen such a being. He was powerfully built even in His spiritual transfigured body, which radiated a brilliant white light. I thought, “No wonder He could walk through a mob and no one would attack Him, if His physical body was anything like His magnificent spiritual body.” In fact, He did not look like any of the paintings I had seen of Him in the stained glass windows of the churches where I had been. This was no sweet, gentle Jesus, meek, weak, or mild. Here stood a robust male who radiated strength.
Due to the brilliant light emitting from this Being it was difficult to make out the color of His hair or eyes but I sensed, more than saw, that He had blue eyes with chestnut-brown hair parted in the middle. He was slightly taller than I, which would place His height at over six feet, two inches. Though He was dressed in a magnificent white robe, his powerful muscular frame shone through. He was ageless and yet appeared about 35 years of age.
All of the above description is not sufficient to describe the most outstanding thing about Him. Here stood a Being that knew everything I had ever done in my life, for the panorama of my life surrounded us, and yet He totally accepted and loved me. I have never felt such love or compassion. Before He entered the room, I was desperately alone and frightened and could only think about how I could return to my body so I might be able to continue my life on Earth. After being in His presence and feeling His love, I never wanted to leave Him again for any reason. Nothing I had, no one I had ever known on Earth, could make me want to leave Someone who loved and accepted me like this One.
This description appears in George Ritchie’s book, My Life After Dying (pages 20-21).
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Ritchie Predictions
He [Jesus] opened a corridor through time which showed me increasing natural disasters coming upon the earth. There were more and more hurricanes and floods occurring over different areas of our planet. The earthquakes and volcanoes were increasing. We were becoming more and more selfish and self-righteous. Families were splitting, governments were breaking apart because people were thinking only of themselves. I saw armies marching on the United States from the south and explosions occurring over the entire world that were of a magnitude beyond my capacity to imagine. I realized if they continued, human life as we have known it could not continue to exist.
Suddenly this corridor was closed off and a second corridor started to open through time. At the beginning they appeared very similar but the farther the second one unfolded, the more different it became. The planet grew more peaceful. Man and nature both were better. Man was not as critical of himself or others. He was not as destructive of nature and he was beginning to understand what love is. Then we stood at a place in time where we were more like the beings in the fourth and fifth realm. The Lord sent the mental message to me: “It is left to man which direction he shall choose. I came to this planet to show you through the life I led how to love. Without our Father you can do nothing, neither could I. I showed you this. You have forty-five years.”
He then gave me orders to return to the human plane and mentally said, “You have forty-five years.”
This prediction appears in George Ritchie’s book, Ordered to Return: My Life After Dying (pages 45-46). Ritchie received this command over 76 years old, in 1943. He died in October of 2007.
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David Bennett David Bennett, once a brash young commercial diver whose personal philosophy was “cut your swath through life to survive,” was caught in a violent storm off the California coast one night where he drowned. While technically “dead,” he met beings of light, relived his life, and peeked into his future, resulting in a complete paradigm shift for him. Later, he discovered he had stage IV lung and bone cancer — so advanced that his spine collapsed. Miraculously, he survived once again, and this second close call taught him even more about living, loving, and how to find purpose in his life. David is the author of “Voyage of Purpose,” a public speaker, and teacher. David has lectured at the International Conference of IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies) and shared his inspirational message at groups across the country. He has also consulted for both radio and television including Oprah and Dr. Oz as a NDE resource, appearances including being filmed for NBC national news and PBS. David’s articles appear in numerous magazines, blogs and papers.
Websites & Background Information • Voyage of Purpose Website
• Dharma Talks Website
• David Bennett on Facebook
• David Bennett on Google+
• Dharma Talks on Twitter
• Dave’s Dharma Talk on YouTube
• Group Leader of Upstate NY IANDS
• Upstate NY IANDS Website
• Upstate NY IANDS on Facebook
• Member of NHNE’s NDE network. Dave’s profile page is located here.
Contact Information Email: dave@unyi.org
Book
Voyage of Purpose: Spiritual Wisdom from Near-Death back to Life (2011)
Amazon Description
“By relating one man’s amazing tale of triumph over death on multiple occasions, this book brings a fresh perspective to near death experience literature. David Bennett, once a brash young commercial diver whose personal philosophy was cut your way through life to survive,” was caught in a violent storm off the California coast one night where he drowned. While technically dead,” he met beings of light, relived his life, and peeked into his future, resulting in a complete paradigm shift for him. Later, he discovered he had stage IV lung and bone cancerso advanced that his spine collapsed. Miraculously, he survived once again, and this second close call taught him even more about living, loving, and how to find purpose in his life. Voyage of Purpose brings readers right into the heart of the near-death experience, including the sensations of dying, being surrounded by the light, and meeting the Soul Family. Part memoir and part guide for achieving spiritual growth, this book shows how to integrate the most traumatic of incidents into one’s spiritual path in order to live a more meaningful life.”
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A New Worldview after a Near-Death Experience
By David Bennett
OM Times Magazine
November 1, 2011
Original Link
All Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) are unique and personal to each experiencer. They are not like a dream. To many experiencers they are more real and powerful than this physical reality; some call it a hyper reality. By defining NDEs we limit them and I do not wish for that here. I will attempt to give you an idea of what they are and how they affect people.
Experiences can happen at any time, to anyone, under any circumstance. The way you know someone has experienced one of these moments is by the aftereffects. Experiences are seeds for permanent and dramatic life changes. Some of the early and most common changes are losing the fear of death and developing a richer more fulfilling spiritual life. That alone is transformative allowing a person to live life to the fullest.
I’ve had two NDEs and they turned my life upside down and inside out. I believe the most transformative element from my experiences was being exposed to the most incredible and profound Love and peace. The Love supports you and lifts you up all the while it permeates into your Being. You can’t be exposed to this universal Love without it changing how you live life day to day. Experiencers become excited about the potential and wonder of each person and event. Many of us desire to be a conduit of universal love and live a life filled with wonder that unfolds as we move through life. This can sometimes create a challenge because many in our communities and family do not fully understand the sudden shift we have gone through.
There are many other elements to NDEs that leave an experiencer speechless and unable to describe something that is not from our world of knowing. My first experience started in darkness and quickly moved toward an indescribable light that contained a consciousness of unity. That unity was so expansive it contained all the souls that ever were and all the souls that ever will be. How do you describe something so vast and interconnected to everything? Many experiencers feel there are no words to describe the Divine Light and often have difficulty finding someone they trust to tell about the event. When we do share sometimes we have to face negative reactions and disbelief, this can cause a sense of isolation that is the polar opposite of the love and support we felt in the light.
This paradox is very similar to Plato’s Republic, the “Allegory of the Cave,” where a prisoner who spends his entire life in a darkened cave is then released and experiences a world of light and color. He experiences a new reality beyond description and when he runs back and tries to tell his friends in the cave they cannot understand him. His words make no sense because they only know the cave. People who have not had an NDE or spiritually transformative experience are still in the cave and cannot understand or imagine such a thing as Divine Light, so they choose to think it is something beyond knowing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69F7GhASOdM#!
I met my soul family in that Divine Light and together we all relived my entire life and some of my future. Not only did we perceive it from my perspective but also from the perspectives of every being I ever interacted with. To say it was intense would be an understatement. With my supporting soul family, I faced the joy and love as well as the pain and sorrow of my earthly dealings. After returning to my physical existence, the life review haunted me and I wanted to change my way of living to being more understanding, less competitive and more charitable. Toward the end of my experience I was told I must return and that I had a Purpose. Being connected to the consciousness in the light, I understood the meaning to my purpose and accepted my return to life. Once in my body, I immediately started searching, trying to remember my purpose, but it was just past my mental grasping. This led me on a lifelong journey of searching to understand my purpose and this profound experience. I believe everyone is searching in some way for their purpose. Many experiencers become veracious students looking for understanding. As I began to listen to my new found spirit communication, purpose began to show its elusive self and when following my intuitive guidance, inspiration would lay open my future path. It took some time to recognize it as purpose. Many experiencers say that once they have their experience they are never the same. It creates a divide of life before the experience and life after. They begin to live with the NDE every day, using it as a gauge to determine the best course to follow. That’s usually steers them toward attempting to live in a more conscious manner, aware of their actions and interactions. They still fall down just like we all do, yet, being conscious of our actions makes us more responsible for those actions. The way we treat each other becomes more important. Imagine if we all could be more conscious in our lives. Maybe we wouldn’t lash out against others when we ourselves are frustrated. Taking more responsibility would mean spreading less blame and judgments. Instead, we’d look to create cures for the injustices around us.
Integrating new spiritual values and messages causes three quarters of experiencers to feel an overwhelming need to be of service. This leads many to change careers and relationships. The NDE show us how important it is to live in truth to who we really are! That means moving forward in a positive manner throughout life, whether professionally or personally. Experiencers tend to have a more heightened awareness of the present moment and the importance of being in each moment.
The first time you hear a firsthand account of someone’s transformative experience you find it compelling. They are irresistible and after listening you find yourself thinking about the experience for days or weeks. Even critics who argue what an experience is, have to respect the experience and how it transforms a person. These ideas are not easy to instill in our lives. Although witnessing the courage and faith of near-death experiencers imbues the world with inspiration to apply the principles experiencers live with every day. It is a type of benign virus that is highly infectious and could help remind the world to not be so distracted with desires and wants and instead focus on what is really important, Peace, Love and Compassion. If only the world were not stuck in the cave and could see beyond the walls and into the Light.
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Dave Bennett On YouTube
The following five video clips, from December of 2008, are available on YouTube via The Light Behind God.
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Dave Bennett’s Story: Part 1
My Near Death Experience
By Dave Bennett
Original Link
Every Near Death Experience has a beginning. This one had started many years ago. I am going to tell you this for my own loving therapy and well being and for anyone else going through something like this. The near death experience has changed my life turning it upside-down and inside-out. It continues to unfold and the writing of these pages, I hope will help me to remember more clearly my near death experience and all the changes within as they happened. By doing this, spirit has promised me a better understanding of why everything is happening as it is. The excerpts below are from the book we are writing.
On the night of my near death experience, I was working as the Chief Engineer on the research vessel. We had just returned from a job evaluating a new remote operated submersible with the manufacture’s representative. He was a strong minded ex-marine.
We couldn’t enter the small harbor of our home port because the sea was so rough that the ship would bottom out if a wave broke under the hull. The harbor entrance was shallow for our size ship. It was late at night when we stood a couple miles off shore and decided to enter the harbor after the storm broke the next day. That didn’t change the fact that the submersible representative was very anxious to get to shore so he could catch his flight from LA to home the next morning.
A couple of crew members wanted to go home as well and had decided they would meet the ship at the dock in the morning. Our research vessel cost millions of dollars per day to keep out to sea, so it was normal to send some crew home to keep cost down. Usually the deck crew takes clients and representatives into shore, but this was not a normal night. We knew the seas were rough. The captain thought that maybe the chief engineer should go along. So I was roped into this job. We figured we’d better break out the life vests just to be safe. We were trying to be cautious and could foresee someone possibly going over the side.
Being that all the members of the party going ashore were experienced divers and sub operators, used to being on the sea and in the water, we had to rummage around the boatswains locker to find the dusty old life vests stowed below. Most of us had not worn a vest in many years and these were the very old “Mae-West” style. These were the old fiber filled vests that were used in WW2.
We checked our position on the radar one last time, plotted a course to the harbor and loaded up everyone’s gear. Late at night with fast moving clouds, it was dark out there and one of the crew members had wisely brought a flash light so we could be seen. Lowering the Zodiac into the ocean, the deck hand took the steering console to drive the boat and I took the bow to navigate. Normally I drove the small boats but for some reason I chose to let the deck hand drive that night because I felt I knew the harbor better. The boat had a V-4 engine and could really fly. This style of craft sat very low in the water and combined with the large swells and troths of the sea that night we could not see the lights of the harbor most of the time. When you are in a trough you can’t see the shoreline. It is only when you are on the crest of a swell can you try to find the harbor lights. We were having a hard time making out the Harbor buoys because they were bouncing around in the sea as well. Captain had left the ship’s deck lights on but we had lost sight of her as well. What we were trying to do was ride the crest of a swell to get our bearings and then move forward through the trough. It wasn’t long before we lost our bearing on the harbor and had to keep adjusting our direction. We didn’t know we had been driven a mile south of the harbor by the wind and swells.
We found ourselves two miles off shore over a sand bar in a breaker zone. As a wave broke beneath us, suddenly we were falling. Everyone hung on and we were all able to stay in the boat as we fell 25 feet. We were lucky to be in one piece. I shouted over the roaring night for the deck hand to turn the boat around and head back out to sea where it was safer. The mate quickly responded, but the sky went black where the stars should have been. All I could see was a ridge of white foam that was now twenty five feet above our heads. I remember when I saw that foam I shouted to everyone “OH SHIT, THIS IS IT” and then the wave crashed down on us. It was an incredible amount of force in a split second. The wave folded the boat in half like a peanut butter sandwich. Some of the men were trapped inside. Three of the four inflatable pontoons were ruptured when the aluminum and fiberglass floor disintegrated. The motor snapped right off the transom.
I was catapulted from the bow into the ocean and the wave spun and tumbled me around as it crashed down on me. It was the most raging violent force I had ever felt attacking my body and I was separated from everyone instantly. I had lost all sense of direction as the ocean kept tossing me around like a doll. When I opened my eyes and blew some bubbles to get an idea which way was up, the sand and salt burned. It was so black I couldn’t see the bubbles anyway.
I did not know which way was up. I had lost all sense of direction. My years of experience as a diver had taught me not to panic. So I knew not to swim for the surface because I could be swimming the wrong way. I could tell by the pressure in my ears that I was very deep in the water. So I waited and waited for my old May West life vest to take me to the surface. Boy was I glad we put these vests on. Now, I have to remind you, they’re no street lights two miles out to sea so it is very dark. The sea kept tossing me around and my lungs burned, longing to take a breath of air. The surface never came within my reach and as time passed the burning in my lungs lessoned but I was getting very cold.
I could tell my brain was starving for oxygen as a sort of euphoria came over me. I was trained to know what that euphoria was. In dive school, I had been forced to experience oxygen deprivation. Also, as a diver, I could hold my breath for quite a while. So I’m holding my breath and holding my breath. While I am doing that I begin to realize I might die. I started to have some regrets and some of my life’s concerns flashed before me. I remember thinking “Is my life insurance paid up?” and “Will my wife be taken care of when I am gone?” All those earthly concerns came to my mind. It’s kind of odd that you are thinking of everyday life stuff when there is a chance that death is so close to hand.
All my training came back to me as I am being tossed about. It seemed like a very long time that I was holding my breath but finally the euphoria overcame me and I tried to breathe the saltwater. I clearly remember the burning, choking and pain in my lungs. I breathed in water and went through the agony of dying. The agony melted away into darkness.
I was quite surprised by the darkness. What surprised me was the lack of noise. Remember the sea was roaring very violently and throwing me around like a rag doll; now there was an absence of that. It was like I was in a void but I couldn’t sense my body. It wasn’t an out of body experience, where I was observing my body. It was just this absolute black dark. I could see where it might be frightening for some people, but because my last experience in life was so violent, this actually felt rather calm, quiet and peaceful. On the west coast, with the currents from the North, the water is very cold. Yet, I was actually starting to feel warmth, like I was wrapped in a thick blanket. It gave me a sensation of total peace. It didn’t feel like I was there for a long time, but I was very curious, thinking “Where am I?” I hadn’t come to the realization that I had died. I questioned if this was yet another stage in the euphoria. The darkness was emptiness, not good or bad. It was lacking emotion. But I was comfortable. I was no longer in pain. I was totally alone.
I started to notice light and could see a brighter light off in the distance. It was slowly growing brighter. At the same time the light around me was brightening. It was as if I was surrounded by it, enveloped by it. It wasn’t clear to me if I was moving toward the brighter light in the distance or it toward me. It wasn’t a tunnel, the light was over there and it was getting brighter and brighter. Again my curiosity was peaked. Like I said before, two miles off shore there are no lights. Beacons generally flash yet this was a steady light. As I got closer I started feeling it. I felt welcoming and love. I don’t know a better way to explain it other than as it kept getting brighter; the feelings kept getting more intense. I was being lifted up emotionally as well as moving toward it and as the Light got brighter it felt as if it was enveloping me. Taking me into it, I was becoming a part of it.
The Light was brighter than anything I had every experienced, yet I could still view it comfortably. I could see more clearly in this light than I could in life. In life, I’ve had to wear glasses since childhood but in this light, no correction was necessary. I could see more distance and detail than was possible with my physical eyes.
Now in the light, I found myself moving as if continuing to being drawn toward the brighter area in the light. I could not help myself. It seemed the natural thing to do and yet it felt familiar. A feeling of welcoming, welcome home, as well as that incredible sense of love came over me. I felt so happy and filled with joy. I was so comfortable and loved. The light continued to grow in intensity and I slowly started to realize that I didn’t have a body. I was a fragment of this light.
My physical body was gone; I was becoming light without a form. I didn’t judge this. I just accepted my change. This all seemed as if it was natural. I was just a fragment of light that was like the light around me and as the intensity of the light around me increased, the intensity of my fragment of light increased.
I was in awe of this and yet it felt so natural. It was a pretty smooth ride. As the light kept intensifying, this feeling of welcome and love kept intensifying. The love was incredibly empowering and was a part of everything.
I have been asked to describe what the light looks like. It was mostly a white light, but it had tinges of blues and gold’s. The light felt like it was constantly in motion even thought I was stationary.
Not only was I in awe of the love I was feeling, I suddenly had a greater understanding and knowledge of how everything worked. The universe made sense to me. If I pointed my thoughts in a certain direction, I would be faced with the answers. Unfortunately, I didn’t retain all that knowledge, but while I was in that light, it was all available for the asking. What was even more amazing was that I could see and think about more than one thing at a time. It was all so fast. It wasn’t like how our brain normally moves from one thought to the next. The information came from all directions instantly. I had no trouble comprehending all of that simultaneously.
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Dave Bennett’s Story: Part 2
Meeting My Soul Group & The Life Review
The Soul Group
By Dave Bennett
Original Link
It was at this point, I started looking around more. I didn’t see beautiful landscapes, there was just the light. But the light in itself was the most beautiful vision you can imagine. I wasn’t wanting for anything else to look at.
Yet, in the light, I noticed three other light fragments that became brighter. They had silhouette shapes. Not clearly defined but I recognized them as other beings. It seemed like they were separating themselves from the light and coming to me. As they did, I could sense them projecting “welcome home” as if we were family and that there was joy in our reunion. I never had those strong feelings in life. This felt stronger and more binding than anything I had experienced in my life. I was now home, together with these beings. Since then, I have come to call them my Soul Group or Soul Family.
They were so excited to be there and to see me. I can not express enough how they felt like family to me. I just knew I was home, and it felt so wonderful. They were supporting me and helping me by projecting waves of love and compassion. I was overcome with joy and the feeling of finally belonging somewhere and not isolated anymore. Beyond the original three, there were more light beings coming and joining us. They didn’t really communicate, at least not in a way that you and I are accustomed to. There were maybe a dozen in all. Some of them were behind others so I couldn’t see them as clearly as the ones closest to me, but they were all around me. These others were like family, but not as close as the first three. The first three were the prominent ones, like best friends or immediate family.
The Life Review
I got the feeling from all of them, simultaneously, that as a group we needed to move over to this other area. They didn’t communicate this with words, I just had an understanding. It was as if we entered a sphere. Once this sphere was completely around us, I started to experience my life. I got to experience it in a way that is very difficult to explain. It was as if I was looking at it from inside out, from other people’s perspectives. This view was wondrous and wonderful. The depth of the life review was incredible and ineffable. I’ll try to put words to it so that you may envision it. I like to say it was all-encompassing but that falls short as an explanation.
The review moved along fairly sequentially. But, I could see multiple effects and ripples, from my original actions and reactions, all at the same time moving beyond the area of the sphere. Not only were they images, but I also experienced feelings. I could sense the feelings of others and how my actions in this life had touched them. I could feel the joy, happiness, heartaches, disappointments, and love. I felt all of their emotions in regard to my actions. I have difficulty explaining the intensity, speed and the flow because everything was flowing continuously in my life review. It was distracting because I could also feel that my Soul Family was excited to be here and to get to experience this along with me.
There were parts of my life review that I wished that they didn’t have to see. I didn’t want to have to admit things that I had done. They didn’t judge it, not even the parts that were sorrowful, suffering or things I was not too proud of. They were merely observing it.
Beyond the group’s support, I was also aware of the consciousness of the Light. When I think of God, I think of this consciousness of the Light. It almost seemed like there were billions and billions of Souls attached to that consciousness. I had a complete understanding of it when I was there, but now it is beyond my definition. I can tell you this. It was observing, supporting and an incredibly loving constant during my experience.
Along with not having a physical body, I was there without my life’s drama wrapped around me. All the fiction I had created in my life of who I thought I should be was stripped away because the consciousness of the Light knew me better than I knew myself. I experienced my true self.
I felt as though I was reviewing my life so that I might grow and evolve from this life’s experience. I was surprised that some of the things I had done had taken on so much importance because when they actually happened it didn’t feel that critical. But they took on a bigger significance in the life review once I saw the after affects, especially how my actions affected others.
In life we are always thinking about leaving a mark and trying to make our life matter. The accomplishments we think are important, like building something that will live beyond us or getting a promotion aren’t necessarily the things that are going to be the most important in our life review.
Excited is such a limited word to describe the reaction from my group of beings as we viewed this experience. They didn’t have any judgment pro or con. They seemed to relish the experience. I learned that what is more important than focusing on these grand plans of leaving a mark is to try to live your life, day by day, the best you can. Cherish your experiences, good and bad, big and small. Try to be as helpful, compassionate and loving as you physically can.
Suddenly the images and feelings changed, I was being shown images that were not from the life I had just left. I had no reference to them and that really confused and disoriented me. My Soul Group continued supporting me during this, not with words, but with thoughts of immeasurable love and compassion.
That is when I heard a clear, distinct voice that didn’t feel like it came from my group. It felt like it came from the light itself. I just focused on this voice. I stopped paying attention to what was going on in the sphere and the group. I became focused on this incredible loving voice that told me “This is not your time, you have to return.”
When I heard that message, my first response was “No, no, I want to stay here!” “I like it here. I do not want to have to go back and continue living that life.” I was resisting, pleading, arguing. I did not want to agree with the request. Then I heard the voice again. This time it said “No, you have to return, you have a purpose.”
When I heard/felt, the second phrase, it was so loving, yet forceful that I couldn’t argue with it. I understood the truth within it. When you are in the light, it is very humbling. Suddenly I understood that I had to return to my body and continue living my life. It was one of those circumstances when you have a knowing or understanding that this is what is supposed to be. You may not want to do it, which was clearly my case, yet, you can not argue with what is supposed to be. I was quite content being in the light and happy to stay there. Yet, the voice was like that of a mother or parent that is so full of love, I just couldn’t say no.
Although we were still there in the sphere, the experiences of the life review totally faded away. Until I came to that acceptance and knowing that I had to return to my body, all of my Soul Group stayed with me. After my acceptance, all but the original three melded back into the light.
Back To My Body
We were instantaneously transported back into the ocean. I became aware of my body. Lifeless and suspended in the water, it was still being tumbled and blasted by sand and sea. I was watching it without emotion, already longing to return to the light. I did not want to return to my body. Separating from the light and rejoining my body was the hardest thing I had ever been asked to do. It was more painful than the act of drowning.
My body was still in a very bad breaker zone, being buffeted and wrapped by the waves as it rolled around under the sea. The storm was so incredibly rough that it caused a nice sloping sandy beach to erode into a 13 foot cliff. The sea state was estimated somewhere between 25 and 30 feet.
Now, a sailor knows how to care for his lines. Ropes for you land lovers. One of the things he will do to protect his line from fraying is to weave the ends back into itself. This creates a knot called an end splice. If a line has one end attached to a boat with the other end free, the free end is called the “bitter end”.
Our Zodiac was an inflatable boat with four pontoons filled with air. All but one of the pontoons had burst. The lines were loose and flailing around the boat. Somehow my arm, in all that violence, had become tangled up in the one pontoon that still had air. The bitter end was hitting my body in the chest. When the next set of waves hit, the rope dislocated my shoulder and thumb as it pulled my body to the surface.
The four of us watched as another wave hit my lifeless body against the pontoon. Finally the waves hit my body against the pontoon with so much force that it pushed some of the water out of the lungs. Simultaneously, my Soul Group gave me a shove. I experienced a rushing vibration and was back in my body. I breathed my first breath of air in a very long time.
My Soul group was gone, my lungs were on fire and my head was pounding. My body felt so dense it was like frozen lead. I would have immediately slipped beneath the surface again if I were not tangled up in the pontoon. I coughed, threw up and tried to breathe again. The cold waves kept pounding me. I still kept being pulled down. The longing I had felt when first leaving the light was now intensified. When you return to life, you continue to have a longing to return back to that light and love. Most people that have had a near death experience will understand what I am trying to say. That longing starts the moment that you return to your body. I have learned from other experiencer’s that we all share this longing. So my first conscious thought after returning back to life was “why do I have to live this life?”
At the same time, there was a nagging understanding that I needed to survive resonating within. I kept questioning “Purpose? What Purpose? I have a Purpose?” I just knew I needed to survive because there was some purpose.
Reconnecting With Ship Mates
As I was pondering my purpose, in the distance, I could hear my name being shouted. My shipmates were looking for me. Somehow, they had all made it to the surface safely. In all this chaos, someone had actually hung on to the flashlight and they had all gathered around it. Now, they were looking for me. I tried to yell to them, but it just came out like a squawk. They finally spotted me and swam over. Still a mile off the coast, we all hung on to what was left of the boat and began to kick and swim to shore. The waves were hitting us so violently that it was an incredible fight.
Once I became untangled, I was still having trouble staying above the surface. I kicked off my boots knowing that they had steel toes. I remember thinking, “Damn, there goes 90 bucks and a new set of redwings!” It didn’t help.
It was then that I realized my life vest wasn’t any good. The funny thing was that very experienced divers and seaman, under normal circumstances, would never wear life vests. It was only because of the extremely rough weather that we went down to the Boatswain’s locker and dusted off these old vests. My Mae West was so old that the lining was rotted and shredded. The fiber filling had become saturated with sea water. The US Coast Guard has since banned this floatation devise, just because of this reason. It had gotten so full of water that it was acting as an anchor, dragging me down. What was supposed to save me actually killed me; only to be saved by the bitter end.
I threw off the vest and it sunk beneath the water, never to be seen again! Once I could stay above the surface, it was easier for me to keep a hand on the zodiac. I could then kick, swim and do my part to cover the mile between us and the shore.
This was more than I could handle so I told every one that Neptune had spit me back to make light of the situation. Eventually that connection with the light faded as I tried to live my life. But I was changed and I knew I could not tell anyone what I had experienced, (Especially the guys). They would think I was nuts. So over time I repressed some of the near death experience.
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Gifts Revealed
By Dave Bennett
Original Link
Immediately after my Near-Death Experience (NDE) and as soon as I returned to my body I was given these three gifts. Prior to my death experience I understood the words, but I did not incorporate their meanings into my life.
Now remember I was the guy who had to cut my swath through life in order to survive. That was my philosophy. But suddenly, I was given what I call my three gifts: “Acceptance”, “Tolerance”, and “Truth”. Now they’re very simple words but they can take lifetimes to really understand.
Acceptance
The first gift I dealt with was Acceptance. Before my near-death (or as I have come to call it my new life experience) I had no idea of acceptance. I had spent my teenage years living in Arizona, going to school and hanging out with mostly Native American children. My family life was very dysfunctional. So, I used to spend most of my time trying to escape my family. My friend’s grandmothers would tell me the stories of Spirit so I felt I knew all about this Spirit. All I really knew were the stories I had heard of how we were supposed to live our lives. I was walking through life dreaming of how I was supposed to be, not accepting who I was. After my new life experience I had a new understanding of acceptance. In my life review I had to face how my human side and my spirit nature worked together or many times didn’t work together. In that life review I also had to watch all the repercussions of how my actions affected others. Now I understood how my life could touch others without my knowing it. I now knew that I am in the perfect place at all times. From experiencing my life review with love and non judgment, I knew who I was and could accept that I had faults and strengths. By recognizing this I could start to work on myself to make myself a better human. I no longer needed to beat myself up over a failure. Instead I could learn from it, accept it and move on.
Now, I had never even thought of any of this before. I mean, I didn’t even know who I was. Acceptance was like a seed that was planted in me during my NDE. I didn’t come to a full realization right away, but now I had an understanding of it. I think my belief in spirituality took a great leap after this. After my Near-Death, I remembered the Grandmother’s teachings of living the natural way. It’s a way of living in tune with the earth and walking in respectful manner. I wanted to re-examine and investigate that natural way of living. I wanted to walk my talk with this new acceptance of who I am. I knew I then could move forward in my life.
Tolerance
Another thing that started becoming apparent during these three days was the concept of tolerance. Tolerance is a way that you allow others to live their life because you have seen that they have their own goals and their own paths. This tolerance of others was an allowing of that to take place and so I learned not to take on other peoples burdens or at least that other peoples burdens are not necessarily a part of my path.
There are times in our life when we do pick up other peoples burdens. An example could be dedicating time in your life to be in the peace corp., to work for our environment or to help a close friend through a rough time. I am not saying that you totally divorce yourself from another’s suffering, but you understand that you don’t need to own it. You can still be compassionate and tolerant of others issues.
Wow, as I’ve said before I had learned to cut my swath through life and to survive, this had nothing to do with being tolerant of others. Many people think it is normal to try to change others. Like a spouse trying to change their partner into something they want or need. That is a lack of tolerance even if you feel it is for a good purpose, aim or a goal. I still could choose if their actions were something that I wanted to be around, but that involved changing me, not them.
Suddenly I had a way of recognizing and respecting the beliefs and practices of others. From watching my own life review, I recognized that everyone is in their perfect place and experiencing what their life’s path needs for growth.
Prior to understanding this, if someone was argumentative toward me, and I didn’t agree with their argument, I would discount them totally. I definitely wouldn’t try to understand them. After this I begin to see that there was another side. Thank goodness I was given this gift along with the understanding that I didn’t have to take in their side in order to not discount it. If I took in everyone’s opinions, I wouldn’t be able to move anywhere because I would have all these opposing views inside. Tolerance was such a foreign thing to me because I had never given anyone else’s opinion any further considering.
It was an amazing realization that I could be accepting and tolerant of someone’s path without feeling I was condoning it. Even conflicting views didn’t threaten me anymore and I found my self able to distance myself when necessary. This led me to the gift of Truth.
Truth
Even as a small child, and as I was growing up, I had a sense of when I was going against my true nature. I would have an experience and I would behave in a way that I thought would be most acceptable to the people around me. I knew then that was not who I truly was. This fiction slowly became me, even though it was false. Over time I became lost in the self I had constructed. The love from the light and the consciousness of the light showed me my true self without the fiction. The light knew me better than I knew myself to be or gave myself credit for. It is difficult to shed that false persona overnight. I kept trying to wear the old me, but it didn’t fit any more. It took me about a year after the NDE to accept my true self as I had experienced it in the light. Now, when I am working with my true self, I call it my truth. There are so many ways to express truth but before my experience the only truth I knew was factual truth. Personal truth is more abstract than just factual truth that comes out of a book. Personal truth is often felt through experiences, and can sometimes be an understanding beyond ourselves. It can be a root to our philosophy of life. When you do something because it just makes you feel happy or you get that feeling of “aha, this makes sense to me. I understand this,” it usually has to do with your life’s philosophy and your personal truth. Your personal truth can be 180 degrees out from another person’s. Once we have learned tolerance, we can allow that and it can be okay. People can observe the same event and because everyone views that occurrence from different angles and points of view, they all come away from that experience with a different understanding. In life that is how our personal truth works.
We tend to not open our personal truth to other people. Because it feels good when we experience our truth, we don’t want to change it. We want to hang on to it and not let it go. The funny thing is that the harder we hang on, the more it slips away from us. After my near death experience, I had quite a few go rounds in trying to understand my truth and my philosophy because it kept changing as I was growing.
As I would grow and change parts of my self to be a more accepting and tolerant individual, I would try to hang on to what I knew to be my truth. I would then realize that that my truth had changed because I had changed my philosophy just a little bit. Your truth fluctuates with your growth and direction of your life path. I don’t believe that your life path is a straight road, it takes lots of twists. A winding road is a fun road to travel.
Since my NDE, I now understand a fluid truth that is mine. It comes from my heart. When I weigh my experiences against the truth in my heart, instead of my mind, I can move forward in my life much quicker. Suddenly, I’m living a life that is more true to me. There is a joy in that, an indescribable joy, because you start following all those little things that make your heart sing. For example, using your creative side can be a great jump starter for this. You find that creativeness within yourself and use that to start to learn where your truth lies. When your heart sings, you know you’ve touched a truth.
After the initial three days of feeling here and in the light, I had my new tools: Acceptance, Tolerance and Truth. I knew I had to try to live a more loving and compassionate life. My battle cry became “Acceptance, Tolerance and Truth”. I took some time to look back upon some of what the grandmothers had taught me and I dove deeper into Native American culture by going to seminars, pow wows and reading books. I really looked much deeper into spirituality.
I only took away from the experience what I felt I could handle and was comfortable with. I had taken such a hard look at myself that I understood better who I was and knew some of my problems and issues that I had to work on. Knowing my issues didn’t mean I was going to change overnight. I still had the same temper and people still pushed my buttons the same way they did a week earlier. But now I was aware of my reactions and accepted that I could change them.
I believe that the near-death experience makes you look at who you are. You see all of the good and all of the bad. You understand that this is where you are right now; it doesn’t mean that it is where you have to stay.
There may be no judgment from the light, but my human tendency of judgment still peeked through. Lack of judgment requires a life time effort. It is human nature to judge.
I knew who I was for the first time in my life. I could accept that I have problems and issues. I have seen the Light (excuse the pun) and I can use that to be a better human being in this life. I still felt very human, and being in that light was still a little too much for my human side to handle. My near-death left me in a state of shock for at least three days. Not a physical shock, more like a spiritual shock. Let me explain. After returning from the Light, it stays with you. Being in that light made me feel like I was in God’s hands and I didn’t feel worthy of that blessing. “Who am I to have that love? I wasn’t very spiritual before!” When I was there, the love I felt was for everything. There is an experience of oneness within the light that once I came back, was difficult to live without. During those next three days, I felt like I was still in God’s presence. It was a little too overwhelming to me. You walk around half there and half here. I was living those few days with my heart wide open and if you have not experienced that, it can be very emotional and painful. Plus, there was an incredible longing to go back into the Light and stay there. I tried to forget it. I tried to not think about it anyway I could. I tried to think about what was the next job I had to go on and get my focus back to living my life and getting that experience behind me.
But the longing to return Home, to my true home, stays with me. It has become a part of who I am now. I realize that I need to experience all this life has to offer and bring it home with me when this life ends.
I could deal with the extrasensory awareness, but my subconscious took the enormity of experiencing the light and the love and packaged it up nice and tight. My experienced was wrapped up in a box and put on the highest shelf in the back of my subconscious mind with a big sign on it that said “Do Not Touch,” so I knew not to go there.
During the three day period after the NDE it was tough. I was attempting to get my life back and move forward after my experience.
It was never spoken about again at home and none of us spoke of it at work. Working in a rough and gruff, macho male environment where tempting death was a source of pride left no room for that! I think we all respected the fact that anyone of us could have died that night and I sure wasn’t going to tell them that I had! I now had to find a way to integrate back into this life. This is a very difficult time for experiencer’s.
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Before My Near Death Experience
By Dave Bennett
Original Link
My philosophy as a young adult was simple, enjoy life, learn how to survive and cut your swath in life to get were you want to be. This philosophy served me well and I became a chief engineer and a commercial deep sea diver on a research vessel. What a great life’s work, and travel around the world, meet new people and cultures. Now I know that was the perfect place for me to be because my spirit likes to watch & listen to other spirits. (Later in life I was given a spirit name in a sweat lodge because I continued to practice those traits). That job taught me what my physical limits were and I would always push the limits of my endurance. I logged thousands of hours diving underwater and had my share of close calls to the point that when my life was threatened a cool sense of calm would come over me. I was an adrenalin junky. I loved the thrill of putting my life on the line. I loved more the adventure of life.
Now My Interests Are
Recently I’ve come to understand the changes in how I love, since my near death experience. Before my experience I would have a love for someone just like a husband for a wife or girlfriend for a boyfriend. I would love my friends and there would be a role or expectation that was a part of the love. Love had a possessive quality to it like a child’s natural love for their mother and the mother’s love for the child. Children love their mothers who care and feed them and the mothers need to protect and care for the children and their happiness as part of their role and expectations. At the time I thought my love was unconditional but I now see how I had an expectation or a role that I needed returned from my lover. This worked well if my love or lover had the same ideas and expectations. When the ideas differ that’s when suffering will start, feeling that the love isn’t working. It’s not funny but I have to laugh about our worrying on how to “fix” the broken love. When and how could love ever be broken? Only this type of possessive love can be thought of as broken because the expectations of our humanness is not being fulfilled in our minds eye.
In my near death I learned that everything is part of the light, love and compassion yet we still can identify with others and our self within the light. When I returned from death I understood the interconnection we have to everyone and everything in our universe. There is a interdependence we have for each other so it is our human nature to need love and to give love. Once this interconnection is felt one cannot help but know compassion for everyone. A true caring for the outcome of every path whether it’s positive or negative, regardless of race or background. There is more patience, understanding and tolerance of every situation that is experienced. With this, love becomes more a state of being instead of being directed toward others or an other. It is a large part of oneself and you become a part of the love and flow with it. In relationships this is sometimes misunderstood because roles and expectations are not attached. The integration of this knowing after returning is easy for some and is incredibly hard for others. But once it is integrated you can begin to open your heart and keep it open all the time projecting love and compassion.
It’s not enough to pray or be meditating about oneself or wish for a better life or outcome. That is just being materialistic and self centered. A poor person who has very little and is just surviving but lives their life with an extraordinary feeling of compassion for all the troubled people in the world is someone that has opened their heart. We sometimes let our focus on material things get in the way of opening our hearts and living in a state of love and compassion. Remember not all spiritual men and women wear robes or live a monastic life. A balance of enough materialism to support your spiritual side is a way to a healthy and happy life. I still love the adventure of life only now I can watch with a new understanding.
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Dave Bennett’s Story: Part 3
**Reliving The Near-Death Experience
My Second NDE**
By Dave Bennett
Original Link
I have to say that I did change quite a bit in the ten years after my near death. The gifts of acceptance, tolerance and truth helped me along the way. My human ego had me believing that I was doing great. Well, that was going to change.
Ten years after the near death my wife and I had decided to attend a spiritual retreat in Sedona, Arizona. What a great chance to go home to my old stomping grounds. I would spend time with the group, but my real plan was to spend time hiking up the old trails of my youth. I still loved to hike. I had found hiking a great way to get in touch with my spiritual side. I couldn’t wait to trek up to my favorite meditation and sacred spaces. Excited at the prospect of returning to the actual location, we packed our bags, flew to Arizona and met everyone at the motel.
I really enjoyed being with this group of folks. They were from all over the world and of every religion but we all had a common purpose to grow spiritually. So I decided I would join the group for morning meditation at Bell Rock, but the afternoon was set aside for a trek.
The next morning we all arrived at Bell Rock. We were told to find a quiet place so that we can meditate for a short period of time and then we would gather together. Great! I knew a nice secluded little place that felt just like a grotto. So I just skedaddled up to it and, feeling very comfortable, I settled in like a bird in his nest. It was shaded by some mesquite and I had my back towards the red rock. I thought I was just going to meditate. I used some of the techniques that those grandmothers had taught me so long ago to find my sacred space.
I usually find myself sitting on a plateau looking at the valley of my youth. This is the site I was looking forward to visiting again in Arizona, but this space is always within me. Once there I sit open eyed and just look across the valley. While doing this, my breathing becomes rhythmic like a drum. I synchronize it with my heart beat, with Mother Nature. That is usually when my guide would approach and stand behind or beside me. He would show me a scene that played out in the valley or offer me the wisdom I needed.
In my grotto on Bell Rock, I went into a deep meditation very quickly. As I was moving toward my sacred space within myself, there was this calm and loving voice that was very familiar. It told me to “Go into the light”. Spirit was talking. Not just a projected insight or guide, Spirit WAS TALKING.
I had been meditating on and off since I was 14, and I have never heard a voice talking to me like that. You hear your own mind chatter and you just allow that to dissolve away, but I had never heard anything like this. It was more than just hearing. It was feeling, knowing and hearing. It was a voice that reverberated through my being. The same voice that told me it was time to return during my Near-Death Experience.
Before this, I had never thought of trying to return to the light or even to touch the light in meditation. I assumed, “That is God’s light, the universal all and not a place for me a mortal man.”
Instead of going into my sacred space, I found myself back in the ocean, having already breathed in salt water and in the process of dying and entering the dark void. I then re-experienced the entire near-death scenario. All of the repressed issues from my death came screaming out of my subconscious. Only this time I’m reliving it, forced to see all I had suppressed. I had stumbled across that box and I had kicked it open, the “do not touch” box that I had stuffed way back in my mind. I am back in that light. I am back in that love. I am back in that compassion. I had actually become a little prideful in my three gifts, but I had forgotten the basis of it all. The whole near-death experience came flooding back again. I relived the pain of death and the greater pain of returning to my body.
One really hard part for me was returning back to the light and meeting my soul group again. I was the type of guy that was in control most of the time. But, when I went into the light or even so much as touched the light my emotions rocketed out of control. The incredible longing to be with my soul group, my family, racked me into uncontrollable sobbing. The overpowering feelings of unconditional love and comfort made me as weak as a rag doll. It would not stop. I had no way to control it.
In the first experience, I perceived my soul group sending me love, welcome and support en masse. I had kept my focus on the original three that greeted me. I believe it was due to them being closest. I didn’t have as clear a view of the other nine beings. I was in awe and a little numb. I was a little more accepting this second time. In this second experience, being less in awe, I was able to perceive a more personal greeting. I felt a more individual love and welcoming from each being. Each had its individual flavor and essence. Light beings are very beautiful, stunning and powerful. I believe I was captivated by that in the first experience.
This time around, I could also see myself a little clearer. I could see that I was like the light beings. I saw a strength within my light that I don’t carry within me in this life. I think that strength comes from the unbelievable amount of love that I experienced. When I touch the light now, it reconfirms that strength giving me a little boost to continue putting one step in front of the other.
The life reviews, in my experiences, are extremely important and a big thing to me. Both times, in the NDE itself and in the reliving of the near-death experience, it is what changed my life the most. It was “the big bonk on the head” that I had to keep getting in this lifetime to change my life’s direction to where I needed to go. The loving non judgmental support during the reviews gave me the tools to change my life. This second time I was able to see more detail because I wasn’t so awed by the experience. This allowed me to take in more. Ten years earlier, when I first experienced my life review, I had become confused when I was shown events in my life that had not taken place yet. Now I had lived an additional ten more years and had actually experienced those events. Since I had more clarity, I was actually able to see more of the ripples and effects of my actions.
Many of the life review moments focused on my interaction with others. Not only did I re-experience my side of the interaction, but I also experienced how my actions affected the other person. If I was hurtful to that person, I felt the hurt they experienced and saw how they carried it with them. I also saw how my loving intention played forward. I was even shown how my actions affected their future reactions.
This second life review included the past ten years. From this new vantage point, I was able to see the changes I had effected within myself by utilizing my three gifts of acceptance, tolerance and truth.
I saw how I had grown and changed after the first experience because I had ten more years of living. In those years, I had consciously attempted to work on myself and make myself a better person. I watched the results of living in a more consciously loving manner. Yet, I still had a lot of room for improvement. But, like in the first experience, I received no judgment and a total feeling of unconditional love and acceptance.
Once again, I experienced my interconnection with everything else in life. I relived my actions and how they touched others through that interconnection. At the same time I saw how my actions caused new actions that then expanded beyond my environment. We give off an energy which reflects our emotional and mental state. Because of our interconnectedness, this energy exchange is actually a form of unconscious communication that is perceived on a soul level. I saw this more in the second review as actual slivers of light that connects us with each other. The more erratic your mind and emotions are, the more erratic energetic message you are sending. Also, the level of passion directly correlates with the intensity of the signal or message. It didn’t matter whether the passion was love or hate. The slivers were brighter and stronger when the passion level rose. I saw that if we could learn to discipline our mind, these interconnected communications would be less inconsistent. How we interact with others is much more important than what we perceive as our great accomplishments in life.
Another lesson I received about interconnection is that this interconnection runs between us and the greater All or Divine Consciousness as well as between individuals. Like in the first experience, through the interconnectedness, I had a greater knowledge and understanding of anything I focused upon.
It felt as thought the purpose of reliving this was to remind me of all that I had tried to push away ten years ago. One of the revelations besides the new experiences in the life review was the acceptance of God’s Light. The first time, I couldn’t face it. In the first experience, accepting god’s light was simply too much for me. I didn’t feel as if I was worthy to experience that light of love. This acceptance of the light and love was one of the biggest elements that I had suppressed 10 years earlier. But, after 10 years of working with acceptance, tolerance and truth, I gained the tools needed to accept the experience of God’s love and light.
I also realized that within that light was the all knowing or universal consciousness. In some philosophies, they call it the Universal Mind. In the light, I connected to a loving consciousness that is all knowing and I had access to any information that I needed.
My Spirit was singing with gladness to be in the loving joy of the light, but at the same time my human side knew I was on the earth. I relived my near death in its entirety, but instead of coming back into my body in the water, I found myself sitting on Bell Rock. At least I didn’t have to make that swim again!
Coming out of the meditation, I was shaking, soaked in sweat and tears. You would think I was in the ocean. I tried to stand up and return to the group but instead I wandered a bit to try to compose myself. (got to be in control, ya know) The experience and the light were still with me and my heart was wide open as I slowly gathered my strength. I stumbled my way down Bell Rock, moving back to where the group was gathering. There I ran across Richard. He was smiling, yet when he saw me he looked concerned. I think he saw the stress that I was under. I felt like I had to try to say something, to communicate. I tried to explain what I had just experienced, but I was pretty nervous. Richard had known Tom Sawyer, another Near-Death Experiencer, (and yes, that is his real name), and had heard Tom’s accounts first hand. This gave Richard a vocabulary and he calmly put a name to my experience. He told me I had a Near Death Experience. “There is a name for this?” “There are others that have gone through this?”
His acceptance was such a relief. It gave my mind some peace knowing that my experience wasn’t such a strange thing. He really helped me to calm down. We were a short distance from the group but everyone left us alone. They could probably tell there was some kind of counseling going on.
My newly named experience would not leave me alone. For three days I kept reliving it. Some times it would just be the death. Another time it was the light or the soul group and next time maybe a part of the life review. I kept getting pushed back into that place where I was half here in my physical presence and half there in my light body. The experience was at the forefront of my thought process. Anytime my thought would linger on a part of my NDE, I would literally relive that part of my Near Death again. My emotions were so elevated and incredibly intense that I would experience the full range of emotions at any moment. I tried not think about the NDE and forced my mind to think about the beauty of the red rocks, the feel of the sun on my face or the warm breeze blowing across the mesquite trees. That would just bring up something else that would take me back into the Light again.
The most wonderful thing, and also the most disconcerting, was the fact that I now could hear Spirit, one-on-one. It was a warm, resonating voice within my being. “Oh boy, I don’t know about this”. Spirit was now talking to me as I kept reliving my near-death experience. To say I was having trouble getting used to this new form of communication was an understatement.
I didn’t get to go hiking. I had all these plans. It was terrible, no it wasn’t terrible, it was wonderful. But, it was also frightening, emotional and draining. There wasn’t much sleep during those three days because I couldn’t shut it off. I was worried that I finally went over the edge and that they were going to put me away in an institution. I thought, “This is really NOT GOOD, I cannot live this way.”
I spent a good deal of time alone. I needed to be away from the others. My first wife, although concerned, was unable to deal with or be around me while I was experiencing the NDEs. She didn’t know what to do, we were just too close. She had a difficult time handling it because I was changing before her eyes. She was able to discuss my situation with the leaders of our group. They understood my situation and advised her to give me time and space. This allowed me to be comfortable with not participating in every activity.
Not knowing me allowed Richard to listen without any baggage. He was able to help me by just allowing me to get it out and let it happen. He doesn’t even know how much of a help he was. Hey, he’ll get to see it in his life review. Then he’ll know all the ripples that he caused. Richard helped me to put words to the experience. Checking in with me a couple times, he was a great help. It was empowering to have such a receptive audience in Richard, since I didn’t receive that the first time. Having a vocabulary helped my mind start to look at the experience and evaluate it more. As I popped in and out of the light, over the next three days, I was more quizzical and accepting of it. I kept trying to gain a better understanding and feeling of the experience. The small, positive seed that Richard planted helped me through those next days and continued to grow over the years. It allows me to communicate more openly about the experience and not keep it all locked up inside.
By the end of the third day I started to get it. Sometimes Spirit has to hit me very hard. The initial thee gifts I had been working with kicked in and I began to accept the entire near death experience. I needed a ten-year buffer before I could accept that I had been in God’s hands. I could return to the light if I wanted. And if I just listened, Spirit would speak to me. I also learned you can live your life with an open heart and listen through your heart instead of your mind.
Not only is having your heart wide open a physical experience, where you can actually feel an ache in the heart area, it is also an emotional experience. When you have been in the light, your heart expands and you are so much more aware of that interconnected communication. It resonates on a soul level, stimulating our emotions. Information doesn’t enter through the mind to get filtered. It comes in big clumps and your emotions have to deal with the full impact of that information.
One of the things that comes through is the unconditional love that you receive and feel for everything around you. Your mind can conceptualize it into a limited idea, but when that reality comes through the heart and is experienced directly, it overwhelms the emotions. I believe this is why experiencer’s need to integrate their experience a little at a time. Otherwise all the emotion and interconnectedness becomes overwhelming. If we allow ourselves to touch the light a little at a time, we become more accustomed to it and it is a little less overpowering each time. I stress that allowing the intensity of all that comes with the Light to not overcome our ability to cope is a long process. I can’t say I was ready at that time to face the light again. I see now that my own fears had blocked me from learning all this the first time. Ten years before, I was not ready to accept all of it.
I was eventually able to rejoin the group and group activities. We were finally able to take some wonderful hikes. I wanted to revisit one of my sacred meditations spots. A small group of us made our way there to meditate. One of the hikers, Lou, and I separated for a little bit during our mediation and afterwards we shared. In our sharing we discovered that our meditations were interwoven with each others. It left us with the feeling that we had been brothers in some past life together. It was with the sharing that I could sense that exchange of energy and interconnectedness between us. That moment was a conscious reminder of the unconscious, energetic communication and interconnectedness I experienced in my NDE happens in life as well.
During another meditation that day, I saw one of the guides that always used to be with me as a youth. This was the first time I “saw” him face to face. I’ve always perceived him behind me. When I felt his powerful spirit, I assumed he was this big and powerful being. But when I saw him, he was this small old gray haired Indian. He still emanated that raw, steel like resolve and presence, feeling very solid and immovable. His essence is so much bigger than his physical being. He is Grandfather Mountain, small in size, but not in presence.
All the pieces of the puzzle came together. Not long before our Sedona trip, I had been to a Native American Seer who told me that I was going to meet my guide on a deeper, more personal level. Grandfather, standing face to face with me, was a confirmation. The seer also spoke to me of the fact that one of my most important life paths was communication. Now that I could hear Spirit, directly, Spirit confirmed this as well.
I suddenly understood that communication didn’t mean that I had to be talking to a large audience communicating a lesson of light. When in my spiritual truth and center, interconnection allows a deeper bond to form than with just talking. I could communicate just as well one on one and touch people more profoundly. I saw this happen with the small group I took to my sacred place. We turned a hike into an intensely bonding spiritual journey. I enjoyed sharing this sacred space from my teenage years. The seed for my quiet ministry was planted on that day. This incredible spiritual growth had left me with a compulsion to change my life. At the same time Spirit was indicating, “Time for change is coming”.