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