Penny Sartory and Kelly Walsh interviewed many people who had experienced an NDE about the changes it had brought to their lives. The short answer is: it changes everything! On the general conception of life, the meaning given to it, as well as on their most concrete daily lives. NDErs return transformed. After integrating their experience – which can take years – almost all of them say that these changes have been very positive.
Here are a few short extracts from this fascinating book. Some witnesses have published their testimony in a book, on a website or give lectures. Others preferred to remain anonymous.
As the introduction points out, NDE does not end when you regain consciousness. Many of the changes associated with NDE continue, in many cases, until the end of life. It’s literally as if the pre-NDE person has died and been replaced by someone with identical looks, but very different values.
NDEs are a surprisingly powerful force for change
One of the most important questions is: what makes IMEs and ESTs powerful enough to change so radically the way people perceive and live their lives afterwards?
NDEs mark the beginning of a profound process of self-discovery, and in many cases the work continues long afterwards.
The underlying message of every NDE is one of love: love for ourselves, for others and for life.
NDEs have a wonderful message to pass on, a message of peace, love and respect. This is ultimately the golden rule described by all wisdom traditions around the world, namely, “Treat others as you would wish to be treated.”
This message can benefit us without the need for a near-death experience. All we have to do is pay attention to what these people are trying to communicate to us.
Kelly Walsh
We’re simply here to love and learn, and each of us is at a different stage of spiritual growth and development.
My body had been healed by divine love, but I still had a long way to go emotionally. Today I’m learning to surrender myself totally and let God, the universe and the angels guide me.
Imagine
Imagine what the world would be like if we all supported each other. If we detach ourselves from the guilt and shame of our past in the same way that God loves all Creation.
When we live in love and forgiveness, positive repercussions are powerfully felt throughout the world. In this way, the process of deep healing begins when our heart and soul redeem themselves by putting themselves at the service of love for self, others and the world.
Krista Gorman
After my NDE, I was content to “just be”. I managed to be present at every moment without worry or anxiety. I immediately did what needed to be done with a deep sense of love and gratitude for everything, and it seemed perfectly normal to be that way.
Every diaper I changed, every dish I washed, every cuddle with my daughter was filled with a sense of love and wonder. I felt a childlike amazement that seemed both extraordinary and totally natural.
My entrenched beliefs had been replaced by a deep sense of understanding and altruistic acceptance of all beliefs. Everything, absolutely everything, was as it should be, and for a purpose far greater than most of us could grasp here, in this physical form. This understanding brought me infinite peace, the very essence of which was love.
Passing on Love
My vocation is to pass on the love I embodied, that divine, eternal, incredibly wonderful and transcendent love.
The secret to developing and maintaining loving relationships is to develop and maintain a loving relationship with yourself. When we are able to treat ourselves as the wonderful, brilliant divine beings that we are, we then become able to treat others in the same way.
Love is the key to everything. I had to love myself first, without reservation. It required healing very deep wounds.
Choosing to love more is the way to heal and create a more loving world.
Ainsley Threadgold
I’d like this love to touch you. I’d like you to know that you’re loved, as much as I know I’m loved.
David Bennett
We’re always thinking about leaving a mark and trying to make our lives count. But the achievements that seem important to us, such as building something that will outlast us or a professional promotion, are not necessarily the things that matter most in a life review.
I’ve learned that it’s more important to enjoy every day of our lives and do the best we can. To cherish our experiences, good and bad, big and small. To try to be as compassionate and loving as possible. In a life review, we realize that it’s living life with love that has the most powerful impact. This creates the biggest wave of positive side effects ever.
To be free
No longer fearing death offers incredible freedom, the freedom to live life to the full, to lead an unbridled life, filled with joy and gratitude at every encounter and experience. No longer fearing death also brings a sense of calm, allowing us to relax and rid ourselves of everyday stress.
What if we all made our life choices based on what we had to visualize in our life balance sheet rather than worrying about what might impress others? What if each of us set out to live our lives for ourselves, to do the things that make us happy, rather than making choices based on what other people think?
Penny Wilson
I’ve experienced significant changes since my NDEs and I see life in a totally new light. The most important thing I’ve learned from my experience, the message I want to pass on to the world, is that we’re all connected to each other.
We build barriers and walls, literally and figuratively, to keep others at a distance. When we become adults, these separations become battlefields, distancing us even further… even from the Source that created us. This independence is disturbing and contrary to what our minds need and desire.
Recognizing that we are all linked
It engages us in a lifelong battle against our very essence and becomes the source of all conflict. If we ever want to bring about real change, we’ll first have to admit that we’re all interconnected. I am bound in spirit to the criminal, the beggar, the cripple. It’s in admitting this truth that I realize that I too could have followed the path of the thief, the destitute and the afflicted.
I came back from my NDE with a real understanding of the strength and power that each of us possesses to help desperate and tired people. We shouldn’t sit around twiddling our thumbs, looking up at the sky, waiting for God to fix the problems here on Earth.
He is here, with us, and endows us with His love so that we can do the work! Having this knowledge gives me a sense of peace. Worrying no longer makes sense, because I know that everything works out for the best when we choose to love God.
Michael Moon
The glimpse I got on the other side was a wonderful gift. I know there’s a life beyond the one we live on Earth, and I try to remember that nothing down here is as important as we think.
Jeff
Since I was perfect in God’s arms, I knew we all were. Each of us is unique, but loved to perfection by God. I realized that God is in each of us and that we are all God, like the cells of humanity’s giant body. Each of us has his or her own unique function in the overall process, but is perfectly at home within the whole.
Let Love radiate within and around us
By loving, forgiving and trusting myself, I have created love and trust in the world around me. True transformation and love could only be achieved by loving myself. I had to love myself unreservedly to find the things I was still looking for, and to sincerely love others and the world around me.
Transformation takes place when we are willing to see miracles in the simple things of everyday life. The universe speaks to those who listen.
The importance of little things
Small things, in reality, are huge. A sunset, a hug, a laugh, tears… Even in my quietest, loneliest moments, these are the things that bring me the greatest joy.
Life is perfect in its simplicity. That’s where paradise lies: in the little things, the ordinary things in life. Look for them. Take note of what calls out to you, and you’ll see miracles and blessings everywhere. That’s what I do.
Nothing has really changed in my life, except me. This is exactly what true transformation involves. Change your point of view and you’ll truly transform the world.
Diane Goble
There are millions of people who have experienced an NDE, and we are all working together to inform others that we human beings are spiritual beings in a physical body. We’re all here to learn to love, not to kill each other in every possible way.
The message I received from the light and which I want to pass on to others is: Death does not exist! We’re not dying! Yes, our bodies die, but we are not our bodies. A physical body is a mold in which we enclose ourselves in order to experience life as physical beings in a physical dimension. What we really are is the spiritual being who will never die.
I’ve learned to identify less with my ego, my body and the physical world, and to follow the path of my soul, not my insatiable human desires.
Loving every day
It is by experiencing the many aspects of love through our relationships with others that we learn to express unreserved love at every moment.
I know perfectly well that only love exists and that we are all, each at our own pace, well on the way to embodying it. Over the years, I’ve come to see my NDE as a kind of mid-course correction. I had strayed from the path of my soul.
We’re not dying!
I needed to be reminded of who I really was and what I was doing there, so I could pass on a simple message: we don’t die! There’s more to life than death.
What a difference it would make to people’s lives, to the way we treat each other and our planet, if each of us realized it! We’re all one. We’re all connected. The other doesn’t exist.
“We” is all that matters
One of the biggest shifts in perspective that happened to me was that I understood very clearly that it’s not ME that counts, but WE. I feel a connection with all humans, animals and the Earth now – a mysterious and awe-inspiring connection. And I have a strong desire to serve the great matrix of life.
I’d been hiding my lack of love for myself from others for a long time. It’s all I’d done all my life. And yet, I feel every day how much I am loved. It’s as if my soul were wearing a life jacket. Sometimes I still have critical thoughts about myself, but they never go as far or last as long as they used to.
An intense relationship with Life
My life today is an ongoing relationship with a Creator who is no longer an imaginary force located somewhere “up there”. I have an invisible but intense relationship with the vibrations of life, here at every moment of my existence.
I became more aware of my thoughts and the impact that even the most insignificant ones have on the universe. Every thought spreads; it is seen and felt. There really is no hiding place for anything. So it changes what I think. It also brings more awareness to the choices I make.
I may have little control over the circumstances of my life, but I’ve come to understand that I really do have control over my thoughts and the feelings that accompany them. All are then woven together by God to produce the tapestry of life.
My NDE made me realize how much I am loved
I’ve also realized that the more noble our choices, the more beautiful the tapestry. Thanks to my NDE, I’ve learned that people love me without the slightest reservation. Not because of anything I’ve done or not done, but simply because I exist. There are no conditions to this gift of love.
One of the lessons I’ve learned is that I really am a worthy woman and that my life really does have meaning. If I manage to love others as I have felt loved, my earthly life will unfold in the fullness of what I can be and give. I realized that this is how we should all live.
Our life and the way we live it become the gift we give back to God. The first half of my life was all about me: my career, my desire to start a family, to get married, and so on. After my experience, I felt the desire to serve, in one way or another.
What is my vocation?
What was my vocation? This question worried me for some time, until one day, during a meditation and prayer session, I received the answer I’d been waiting for. I knew in my heart that I could only keep the gifts I had been given by giving them back. I also realized that I wouldn’t have to go far to find my vocation. Wherever I was, I could help someone.
Whatever the gesture, big or small, I know that what really counts is only that it’s done with love.
I’m sharing all this with others today in every possible way, because I can’t contain so many strong feelings. I know that many people in the world lack self-esteem and convince themselves that they are not worthy of love, for whatever reason.
Loving yourself is vital
Although many people lead seemingly happy lives, they find it hard to like what they see in the mirror once they’re alone. I know, because I’ve been that person too.
The real journey to understanding the meaning of life, or life itself, doesn’t take place out there, in this world obsessed with attributes that give a false sense of self-esteem and importance. This journey takes place in each of our hearts.
Erica McKenzie
If we come into the world, it’s to find our way home. We are spiritual beings living a human experience. In fact, Earth is a school and we’re here to learn.
I heard God’s voice once again, telling me that until I learned to love myself, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my mission on earth.
We are here to learn to love ourselves and others
While I don’t have all the answers to our existential questions, I do know that we’re here to learn to love ourselves and others.
My NDE initiated a profound personal change. I realized that I no longer had to rely on others to tell me what I’m worth, or wonder what people think of me.
Through this show, I hope to bring light, love and knowledge to viewers, so that all can feel and know that instead of being alone, they are loved unreservedly as they are – beings with a unique identity.
Katherine Baldwin
Since my NDE, nothing has been the same. At the age of three, my soul was awakened and, from then on, I’ve always benefited from knowledge and wisdom that other children my age didn’t have. I was aware that we were all one, that we were all connected. I knew who I was. I knew that life on earth was short and that I was eternal.
At the age of thirty-one, I left my husband so that I could start all over again and rediscover the little girl I was at the age of three, after my first IME. The more I healed myself, the more I saw and felt the source of energy in everything I did.
As I learned to love myself and feel the light within me, I felt more fulfilled. I’m convinced that everyone has the right to feel this way, to experience the harmony and care of the loving source who looked after me during my first IME.
I wasn’t afraid of anything related to the spiritual world, and I wanted to offer my services to the Source, the divine unity of the universe.
Robert
I was finding that one element of my experience was growing every day. It was the love I felt for myself and everyone else.
It was the forgiveness and love I gave myself that were the catalysts for this change.
Our choices are not the only ones that enable us to live a healthy life. What counts is all the love we give and receive.
Further information
Penny Sartori and Kelly Walsh’s book What the afterlife taught them
Penny Sartori’s book A better understanding of Near Death Experiences
On the same subject, see also the article How do you live after an IME?
