Introduction 

It will take more than a few blogs to explain and share the far-ranging and long-term effects of a Near-Death Experience (NDE), especially if I include stories from my life that illustrate some of them. These are commonly known in the NDE community simply as Aftereffects.

What Are NDE Aftereffects?

NDE Aftereffects are the physical, mental, and emotional shifts that occur in an individual as a direct result of the experience. Not every experiencer has them, but most NDErs do, and what’s more, it has become evident that the differences continue to expand over the entire lifetime of the individual. 

I’m going to get personal and pick up from my last blog.

The aftereffects of my childhood NDE compelled a close friend and member of VBIANDS (the Virginia Beach Chapter of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, where Larry and I volunteered) to call me one day and change my life.

NDEs fascinated Keely and me, and we became fast friends around our mutual interests. I was fifty-eight years old when her call came. Keely launched right into it. She said she wouldn’t be staying but was on her way over to drop off a book by a triple NDE experiencer and renowned author on the subject. P.M.H. Atwater. Atwater’s new book, The New Children and Near Death Experiences, was out, and Keely wanted me to read it right away.

Keely, who had an NDE from a motorcycle accident when she was a teenager, said she had just finished the book herself. While reading it, she became 100% convinced that I was an early childhood NDE survivor.

She asked if I remembered that “dream of heaven” I had shared with her, the one that happened when I was five years old. Of course, I remembered every detail. That dream was a guiding light my whole life!

Keely was convinced it wasn’t a dream, but an NDE, because I had nearly all the Aftereffects listed in P.M.H.’s book. What!? At that point, her car pulled up in front of my house. She got out of the car and brought the book up to the porch, handed it to me, said a few more words about it, and then left as quickly as she had arrived.

I had to read the book right away!

I dropped everything that afternoon to read the book, and as I turned the pages, the shocking Truth from my childhood opened up before me. It wasn’t a dream! I had had a full-blown NDE and was as confident of it as I am sitting here. I read about my life through the lens of an early childhood NDEr and saw that the Aftereffects discussed in P.M.H.’s book mirrored my life at almost every turn. With the eye-popping Truth written out page after page before me, the confusion and struggles regarding my strange life began to dissolve, only to be replaced with clarity and understanding I never dreamed possible.

I wish I could say that it is “cool” to have died and come back to human life, but even though I am grateful to have been “imprinted” with that level of unconditional Love, I find that having had an NDE is a very mixed blessing. The experience comes with its own set of complexities and pitfalls that are certainly not all happiness and light.

Earlier in my life, it wasn’t so simple. I was naïve. Yes, I could see the Divine Love within everyone who came my way. After all, I was imprinted with this ultimate wisdom that this Love  Consciousness is Who We All Really Are. There are no exceptions.

However, I mistakenly thought everyone was like me. It took me a long time to see that not everyone sees what is. This one mistaken notion led me down many dark alleys that had me oblivious to the fact that I was living in a world of projected Dualism rather than the One Life, One Love, I knew to be True.

P.M.H. said that it takes eleven to fourteen years to integrate the experience once one realizes what happened. I sighed at how old I might be when I finally merged with what was important and let go of the rest.

Unbelievable as my revelations were, it was still necessary for me to integrate the experience not only to help bring balance to my life, but to assist others who have had an NDE, too. To assist in the integration further, VBIANDS invited me to share my story with its attendees. The acceptance was overwhelmingly supportive, and I have never looked back.

Further food for thought

The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and its Chapter speakers are asked to share their particular stories in three parts.

1. 1. Life Before the NDE.
   2. The NDE Experience.
   3. Life After the NDE.

The three parts together illustrate dramatic changes in the NDE’r. There is no death, and the sudden realization of this riveting Truth at the level of absolute inner assuredness changes your life in many ways, suddenly at first and then continuing on one day at a time, forever.

Time flies. I am now, at a young seventy-one, about thirteen years out from the revelation delivered to my doorstep at fifty-eight years of age. At this point, I hope to share more of my specific aftereffect discoveries in future blogs if there is an interest. Let me know if you want more along these lines.

Dr. Atwater writes further about the distinctions of early childhood NDEs in the quote below from this linked blog.

“The very youngest experiencers of near-death states are not like older children, teens, or adults, because they don’t have a “before” – at least not in this world.  They emerge as outliers, called upon to create and invent unique ways of living and loving.  These children have more to show us than anyone ever imagined.”

Conclusion

We are all made out of Love.

The absolute conviction that we are made out of Love is the greatest of the long-term effects of an NDE. Additionally, there is a sense that children who have had an NDE may be the hope for humanity’s future. We have seen what lies beyond this life, and we know that there is more to existence than what we can see and touch. We want to help those around us remember our connection to the infinite and live our lives with compassion, empathy, and Love. Love is the solution to all our problems. We’ll tune in to the “how” in each instance together.

Have you had an NDE or other spiritually transformative experience? Let us know in the comments.

Love consciousness to you and yours,
Kaye

Introduction

It’s become apparent that it is time to share my Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) with you. So, grab a cup of coffee, tea, or water, and settle in for a few minutes. Enjoy the story, for what happened irrevocably changed the trajectory of my life as it does so with almost everyone who experiences it.

An NDE is a mixed blessing of extremes to the body/mind because physical death occurs, only we find ourselves more alive than we’ve ever been, before or since! We do not die! It’s a lie! I wonder why?

If you need the science for proof of NDEs, the research is exploding. For example, Eben Alexander, M.D., renowned neurosurgeon, and Harvard Professor, was disrupted by an NDE when he contracted spinal meningitis. Years later, he wrote his first book about the subject, Proof of Heaven, which was on the New York Times Bestsellers list for two years.

Here’s what happened in my Near-Death Experiences —

My first NDE

I don’t remember much about my first one, except floating in some Void. The only reference my parents ever made to either of my NDEs was that “We almost lost her twice from pneumonia, once at three months and once at five years.”

A different kind of reference was that I was two and a half years old when my brothers, identical mirror twins, were born. My mom would say I went from being the only child and having all the attention to having virtually none overnight, so overwhelmed were she and Dad with the twins.

I never displayed any hostility or jealousy toward my brothers, only love. Mom said it was such a “strange thing” that other family members and even their friends remarked about it.

This referencing seems possibly related to the most common thread of an NDE, other than the physical death itself and a return to life — is the pure unconditional Love we experience and bring back with us.

My second NDE

This NDE happened at the age of five. It was pneumonia that did it. It was just before Christmas 1955, and I still remember it vividly. I was in the car with my parents. We had just come from the hospital.

My mother talked the doctor into my coming home for Christmas. Ok, he said, but warned I had to stay under an oxygen tent and promise not to get out of bed for any reason except to use the bathroom. I promised.

The first night home, I died.

I first became aware of floating. Everything was dark but fully alive. The next thing I realized was that I was not afraid as one might think a child might be in this situation, floating in space, all alone. However, I was completely comfortable, and the more I stayed in this place, the safer and more secure I became, and the more love and trust I felt.

The Unconditional Love that somehow permeated me pervaded everywhere around me to eternity, whatever eternity means. There was no separation between me and All That Is and All That Isn’t — all at once. It was very relaxing, as if I was truly Home. I continued to float, bask and enjoy the moment of my fantastic circumstance without thought, just being.

Suddenly, I did have a curious thought rise, “Is anyone else here?” In that moment, in the part of the Void where I looked off into the distance, there was a Light, and it moved slowly but steadily toward me, and as it got closer, I could see the Light was a being.

Light Beings

The Light Being was Love, too, and seemed to be mine or belong to me in some particular fashion, whatever this meant. Two other Light Beings quickly joined us. We four were in a circle communing with each other. They treated me as if I was one with them rather than a child, and the feeling was one of welcoming, inclusion, and total acceptance.

We soon parted ways with the other two Light Beings as “my” Light Being was to show me around. It is, again, impossible to describe in human language because the experience blows apart any knowledge we have here in the World of Form.

I saw many wondrous sights in our multidimensional dream universe. Some things about this part I remember. Some memories surfaced along the way, and other things are still yet to be revealed. Maybe we’ll take a look at these another time.

We moved toward an endless structure that seemed separated into different rooms, framed with Lights of different hues. I could see through its walls and floors and the activities and conversations unfolding in each room. If I focused on any particular room within the space and became still for just a second, that space would expose its contents.

I saw souls helped and assisted, souls learning, souls at play and work, souls crossing over, and all were connected to a Light Being in a state of Joy and Love. But this is not at all to insinuate a la-la-happiness-and-light-land. There was a great design, purpose, and deep respect in and for all I witnessed.

Being sent home for my purpose.

Finally, a scene zoomed in. I saw an altar, which I now think the top was a type of window into the World of Form. I saw my beloved maternal Grandfather Griff’s body materialize. He looked strange, still. And lifeless. We were looking in on his future, when his body died.

Don’t ask why because I do not know the answer, but I felt fear for the first time in this wondrous place that someone’s life could end like that. The Light Being instantly comforted me said I need not fear, that there isn’t any Real death, only pretend death.

She wanted me to see that I had to go back to my life on Earth because I had some things to do, but one day when I was a grown-up, my granddaddy would return Home like I just had seen.

Further, the Light Being explained about my life purpose and that around the time my Granddad’s body-time ended, I would begin my fulfilling my purpose in earnest. That was the only thing the Being said about my future before I was sent back.

The return to life on Earth

The next thing you know, I was back in bed, waking up at the foot of the bed, nowhere near the oxygen tent. It was morning. I jumped up, ran into my parents’ room, and exclaimed, “I went to heaven last night and saw Angels!” (The interpretation must have come from Sunday School.) I remember my mother looking alarmed. My Dad said, “Honey, you didn’t go to heaven. You had a dream.”

So that was it. Why wouldn’t I believe them? They meant well. I was five. The Truth turned into a belief that I was a GREAT dreamer.

It would be years before I would begin to come to terms with the one event that shaped my life more than any other. Whether I was aware of it or not, it seemed to make no difference to the evolution of after-effects of the experience that still blossom to this day decades later.

Conclusion 

You’ve now read about my near-death experiences, and I hope you enjoyed this shortened blog version of them — from my heart to yours. I would love to write about the after-effects and other aspects of NDEs in general if there’s interest.

Have you had an NDE or a Spiritually Transformative Experience (STE)? Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Thank you.

In the Love, Light, and Life We All Are,
Kaye