A bright, beckoning light. A welcoming circle of family and friends. Peace, tranquility, and joy. These are common elements many people report when their souls travel to the brink of the other side and then return.

We call this experience “near death” because you return from it. What makes it “near” instead of permanent? What happens to send you back when it’s not quite your time to leave your physical life? Why would you be allowed to go, or be summoned to, the very brink and then be sent back?

Each near-death experience (also called an NDE) is unique, yet most near-death experiences share common characteristics. These typically include the following:

By definition, a near-death experience takes place when you reach the point of clinical death. Your heart stops, your breathing stops, your brain stops. All signs of physical life cease … and then return. Although the medical view is that brain cells begin to die after three minutes without oxygen, people have existed in a state of clinical death for as long as 90 minutes.

How is this possible? From the earth plane perspective, doctors have lots of ideas, but no conclusive explanations. From the higher side perspective, when it’s not your time, it’s not your time.

Most of the time, a physical trauma precipitates a near-death experience. This might be a life-threatening injury, a crisis during surgery, a heart attack, a severe allergic reaction—any number of circumstances that strike suddenly and without warning. Such trauma shocks or jolts your being, separating it into its components. The physical and the emotional, as inherent elements of your tangible body, remain as your body. Your spirit, perhaps doing what it’s “programmed” to do, leaves.

But the higher side is not prepared for your arrival because, despite the events unfolding on the earth plane, it’s not your time to leave your physical existence. Of course your spirit always exists with one foot (so to speak!) in the spirit world and the other on the earth plane. This is the essence of physical life as we’ve discussed it throughout this book. Your physical body encases your spirit for its travels on the earth plane, but your spirit is still part of, and connected to, the bigger energy of the universe.

Although your spirit might freely travel during your dream state (many spirits do; see Chapter 17), it does so with intent. Not that you know your spirit is about to take off to go visiting, but your spirit (your higher being) knows. It disengages carefully from your physical and emotional dimensions—and returns in similar fashion.

During a near-death experience, your spirit is lifted from your physical body. There is no intent; it just happens. Little wonder you find the experience bewildering at first! Many people report that one of the first sensations they become aware of is that the pain they were feeling in their bodies, usually intense because of the trauma, is suddenly gone.

There you are, just looking around, and suddenly what you see is … you! No mirrors, no tricks. It’s really you in the flesh, as seen from the spirit. This is a consistent part of near-death experiences. Some people feel themselves lifting from their bodies and floating toward the ceiling, then looking down to see themselves as the focal points of desperate efforts to cut the journey short. For many people, this is quite a jolt. One moment everything is as it should be, and the next moment nothing is as it was. And there you are, looking at yourself from a view you’ve never had before!

Some people report that they are able to look down on their physical bodies during near-death experiences, watching the flurry of activity taking place in the efforts to revive them. A person who has had a near-death experience often can describe, in considerable detail, events that, if still within the physical body, he or she would not be able to see or hear. These events might include watching the doctors and nurses prepare and give injections, shock the heart, and place breathing tubes. The disembodied spirit can often hear conversations taking place in hallways and other places distant from the body’s location. When they return to physical life, people report these conversations.

The events of near-death experiences that take place in the physical world are easy to verify, because other people participate in them and can recall them. Some of the most intriguing insights we have into existence beyond the earth plane come from people who experience physical death and then come back. This is yet further evidence of the continuity of life.

A body that has experienced severe trauma—injury, heart attack, shock from illness, and the like—is nearly always in great pain. These are assaults on the integrity of the body, and they leave damage in their wake. When their spirits withdraw from these damaged bodies, people who have near-death experiences report, the pain goes away. They can look at their bodies and wonder if they really want to return, especially when so much goodness and love beckons from the higher side.

This is the “good” that we request when we ask that spirit contact and spirit healing come through for the greatest good and the highest intent. It is a welcoming, benevolent sense of absolute love—which makes sense as it is a representation of the divine.

This goodness is pure; it is the energy of pure love. It exists only for learning and healing. It is this goodness that manifests when spirits come through with messages. And it is the goodness that welcomes spirits that are passing over.

Many people describe a distinctive tunnel or corridor, usually darkened, that they find themselves in when their spirits leave their bodies. At the end of this tunnel they can see a bright, white light, and they know that this is the portal to the higher side.

Some people report feeling fearful or frightened while in this tunnel, while others experience it as nothing more than a passageway that links the earth plane with the spirit world. No one really knows what this tunnel is or represents, but it is common to many near-death experiences.

In near-death experiences, people often report seeing a bright light with friends and family who have passed to the higher side already gathered around its edges. This is the light of divine energy. This is the light that reassures you that God is near and all is well. There is love, warmth, peace, and joy, and a strong feeling of desire to move into the light to complete the passage. Most people report feeling an overwhelming sense of pure love.

Of course, because it is not yet your time, you cannot complete the passage no matter how enticing the light and the love. And this is clear to your spirit, however much it might want to make the crossing. Spirits on the other side know, too. And as much as they want to communicate joy and goodness, they are there just to let you know that they are there … and that they’ll be waiting for you when it is your time to pass.

For many people who have near-death experiences, the light fosters a resurgence of faith in their God of understanding and a renewed commitment to following a spiritual path for the rest of their earth plane journey. It is an amazing and powerful thing to connect with such goodness and love!

Typically in a near-death experience, the spirits gathered on the other side of this light are smiling and happy to see their loved one, but they aren’t beckoning for you to join them. They know it’s not quite your time. But they want you to know that all is well with them. This is like a spirit communication of the most wondrous and direct sort!

Seeing the loved ones that have already passed is joyous, but this is often where the sadness comes in: You want to stay. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen many of them, perhaps, and you want to visit at least.

During a near-death experience, you’re not really in this world or the next. You’re sort of in between, existing a little in each but in neither completely. You aren’t aware of this to any great extent. It’s your spirit that appears to have the recall of events that happen during the near-death experience, which is how you return with a memory of events you couldn’t possibly have witnessed or experienced.

Often, a person can relate, in verbatim detail, conversations taking place among others in hallways and physical locations outside the room where his or her body lies. The people engaged in these conversations might be different groups discussing the situation—doctors and nurses in one group in one location, family and friends in another.

The spirit has a simultaneous experience of all events related to the “death.” It witnesses the frantic activity to bring the body back to life, and sees events and overhears discussions that aren’t possible to experience from the body’s location. At the same time, the spirit is moving through the tunnel toward the bright light and the spirit entities that are at the other end. There is no time, there is no space. There is just energy and existence.

With continuing advances in medical technology, near-death experiences are becoming increasingly common. People who just 10 years ago would have been declared dead from their conditions are now “brought back” to life. Many then go on to full recovery from their physical injuries and enjoy long, full lives.

Are they truly “brought back” or is it the divine order of the universe that their spirits are communing with the higher side? Of course, this is difficult to answer with certainty. But it seems that if it was your time to go, you would go—no matter what technology was being used to prevent such an outcome. And conversely, if it’s not your time to go, you won’t—not because technology saves your life, even if that’s how it looks, but simply because it’s not your time to go.

When it becomes clear that rather than completing the passage their spirits are instead returning to their physical bodies, people often report a sense of sadness and even resistance. They have “seen the light” and want to become one with it, to move into the warmth, peace, and joy that they feel.

Other people feel a sense of relief. Their lives on the earth plane are unfinished, and they know this. They are eager to return to complete those lives, and comforted in knowing what lies ahead for them when their time to make the crossing does come.

If there is a divine order, how can “accidents” such as near-death experiences happen? This is a valid question, and one that many people ask in trying to understand or explain the phenomenon of near-death experience. Remember, however, the critically important role of free will. Your actions determine your movement along your path. Your destiny is a journey, not an end point.

We could engage in debate about whether anything happens by accident. Perhaps your near-death experience is as much a part of the divine order of the universe as was your birth. Perhaps there are lessons for you that you can only learn by coming so close to making the crossing.

So what, exactly, happens when your body dies but the higher side says you’re not ready to make the crossing? There are biological phenomena, of course. Once your heart stops beating, blood stops circulating through your body. Vital organs feel the oxygen shortage immediately, and your body’s shock response leaps into action. This response sends epinephrine coursing to your heart, with the intent of jolting it into action, and simultaneously shuts down all body functions not necessary to support life.

It seems odd to think that so much of this intricate design that is your body could have so many dispensable functions. But the core functions necessary to just keep your body alive are few: heart, lungs, circulation, brain. Everything else can wait—because if these core functions go, nothing else matters.

This is what we think of as the edge of death—one more shutdown function, and it’s all over. In a near-death experience, that “one more” happens. The physical body dies, at least briefly. It’s at this point, it seems, that the spirit makes its exit.

For many years, the medical explanation for the experiences people have during the time they’re “dead” has focused on the various chemical and electrical changes taking place in the brain as it attempts to cope with catastrophic oxygen loss. Nonessential parts of the brain begin to shut down almost immediately when oxygen levels reach a certain point. Among them are the parts of the brain responsible for cognition—thought and memory.

The rapid chemical and electrical changes that occur during this process cause brain cells to flare and die, activating memory and thought fragments. These flares account for the images of loved ones that people believe they see during near-death experiences, according to this explanation model.

You don’t actually see anyone; you just experience the activation of memory of that person. This is the same process that causes you to “see” your entire life flash before your eyes when facing what you believe is imminent death.

It’s an intriguing concept, and until research in the late 1990s and early part of the twenty-first century, it was widely accepted by medical personnel as the physiological explanation for near-death experiences. But this recent research shows that the brain’s shutdown is more rapid and more complete than previously thought. Once oxygen levels fall below critical levels, brain function virtually ceases. It doesn’t appear that even these chemical and electrical actions take place; there’s no fuel source (oxygen) to make them happen.

Another clinical theory puts forth the idea that it’s the brain’s return to function following a near-death experience that causes the activations that trigger memories and thoughts. As brain cells fire back up, they initially over-respond, like the flare of throwing straw on a fire, before they settle back into normal function.

Coming back to physical life is often quite a shock. Suddenly you’re reunited with the pain your physical body is experiencing, and that’s not pleasant. It’s a clear indication that you are still alive.

Many people report a sense of joy and exhilaration at being reunited with their physical bodies despite the pain, because it means they will continue in their physical lives. At this point, people often think of loved ones on the earth plane, such as children, and feel grateful that they can remain with them.

There is sometimes sadness at leaving, once again, the loved ones who have passed to the higher side. Seeing them again is joyous, and even though it tells you that they’ll still be waiting for you when it is your turn to make the crossing, it’s not easy to leave them.

Often, spirit loved ones maintain their contact from the higher side, appearing in visitations. It’s not that they weren’t willing to do this before the near-death experience, it’s rather that the NDE makes people more receptive to spirit contact.

Just as a near-death experience gives a person who has one a new lease on life, it also provides a glimpse across what we’ve always perceived to be an impenetrable barrier. A near-death experience is profoundly moving, and often life-changing, for someone who has one. Many people who experience them find that they return to existence on the earth plane with awakened psychic and spiritual sensitivities. They see firsthand that death is a gateway, not an end.

Some people return to physical existence a bit reluctantly, in fact, not especially willing to leave the joy and peace that they’ve experienced as they’ve stood in the portal that links the earth plane and the higher side. Others return with a renewed sense of mission and destiny, confident in the continuity of life and certain of their places in the divine order of existence.

Spirit communication of any sort often heightens spiritual sensitivity. Evidence of the continuity of life is awe-inspiring. Not only does it affirm that life continues beyond physical death, but also that there is a divine energy that is the source of all existence. This represents the God of your understanding. As it becomes irrefutable that existence continues, so, too, does it become undeniable that God exists (again, this is the God of your understanding; there is one divine being but there are many presentations and perspectives of its existence).

Your psychic senses are how you link to, experience, and understand communication that takes place on an energy level. The intensified energy of a near-death experience often makes permanent changes in the abilities of your psychic senses.

It’s as though there’s been an electrical current surge through your energy field, rearranging its alignment and strengthening its charge. Your psychic senses, as part of this energy field, pick this up.

Even your physical senses can demonstrate how this might work. Think back to the last time you had an intestinal virus. Not a pleasant recollection, for sure! Do you still remember the last food you ate before you became ill? Can you taste it, see it, smell it? When something becomes associated with a strong experience, we remember it long after the experience ends!

Why do we have near-death experiences? No doubt one answer is to prove the continuity of life. Nothing is more compelling than going beyond the boundaries of physical life yourself and returning to remember and talk about it!

Every near-death experience has a unique lesson for the person who experiences it. It is a personal and intimate communication between you and the spirit world. The lessons of near-death experience are many and varied; the only lesson that matters to you, however, is the one of your near-death experience.

Although most people who survive to tell of their experiences seem to recover completely, nearly everyone is changed. It’s an extraordinarily profound experience. Some people do find themselves confronting physical changes as a result of the events that caused the near-death experience. There might be partial paralysis from a stroke or the injuries suffered in a car accident. There could be loss of limb or function.

But even in these situations, people tend to feel very positive about the experience. The physical reminders are also about learning and healing. No one wishes for such changes, of course. But when they happen, they tend to strengthen the conviction that life continues beyond physical death, and that life—everyone’s life—has value and purpose.

It seems virtually impossible to go through a near-death experience and not grow from it. As difficult as the circumstances might be, this is a gift to you from the universe, from the higher side, from the God of your understanding. You could turn away from the opportunities it offers you. But why would you? You’ve already had the experience … let it fulfill its intent!

Millions of people walking the earth plane today have had near-death experiences. The collective lessons of their experiences have the potential to change the world, to make the world a better place. These are the lessons of love, compassion and support for one another. Imagine the possibilities!

The Least You Need to Know