A Near-Death Experience from Someone in the Pews

Mystical experiences are more common than you think, and the aftereffects profound

In my post “What is a Spiritually Transformative Experience?” I outline some of the various types of Spiritual experiences, including a “Near-Death Experience” (NDE). As a reminder, an NDE is when someone dies, briefly, and then returns to life. However, during that time of death they have a transcendent experience. Because time does not exist in the transcendent realm, even a brief death can be experienced, beyond the veil, as extensive and complex. The experience can include an out-of-body experience, meeting deceased loved ones, pets, spirit guides, angels, or God. It can involve going through a tunnel, or meeting in a garden, or landing in any of a number of places. It can involve a life review, or teachings, or healing, or more. Some experiences are very brief, moments, some are extended. There are tens of thousands of documented experiences and numerous academics globally who have been studying the phenomena for decades. You can also learn more in my post “St. Paul has a Near-Death Experience.”

But what I have not done yet is share with you a contemporary Near-Death Experience. The experience today is shared, with permission, from a former parishioner who has been carrying this story in silence for 35 years because he didn’t think he could ever tell a priest or fellow Christian about it. When quotations marks are used, it is because I am quoting Jim verbatim. While the experience changed his life and really cemented his faith, it was sadly not something he ever felt he could bring to church, and for 35 years carried it quietly in his heart.

In 1984, Jim was in a car accident. He was in his late 40s. A very large truck hit him head on. His pelvic structure was destroyed. Several “coincidental miracles” occurred which allowed him to survive. This included: a State Policeman was on the scene to immediately apply a tourniquet; Jim was transferred to a local hospital which was unexpectedly equipped to handle severe accident cases; he was within the 50 limit for helicopter transfer to Alleghany General Hospital in Pittsburgh when the local hospital ran out of blood; a doctor at Allegheny General had just returned from a training course in Colorado where he had learned to use an apparatus to attach hip plates (the only remaining pieces of Jim’s pelvic structure) directly to the spine. Jim believes his NDE happened near the time of arrival at the hospital in Pittsburgh.

Jim says that during his NDE he found himself in a pleasant seating arrangement, sitting across from an angel. It was a comfortable outdoor setting; they both were in chairs in a meadow. They were watching a bright white/yellow stream flowing by them. It was understood to be a flowing path to complete death. Once you went beyond a certain point, you could not return. Jim and the angel sat on the shore of the stream and had a long conversation. The angel looked like “a ghost.” “Not a specific form, but image personified”. “Light.” “Definitely with form.” The angel explained to Jim where they were, and who the angel was. In other words, the beginning of the conversation was an “orientation.” Answering questions like “This is what it’s about. These are the circumstances” you are currently facing.

The angel then asked Jim whether or not he wanted to complete the death process. The angel illustrated to Jim the two choices, including the end result of completing the dying process, or being returned to his body and continuing to live on Earth. Jim caught a “glimpse of life beyond the veil which was much more wonderful than the life I am in now.” This would’ve been his future had he chosen to die. However, the angel pointed out that there were many people praying for Jim, wanting him to live. Jim then actually felt the power of that prayer. Once Jim made the decision to live, the angel said he should recognize it wouldn’t be easy for him and he could reconsider his choice to live or die only at this time. Asked the difficult question of “why” he made the decision to live this life, Jim realized there was more of this life to live, serve, and enjoy, and people who wanted to live it with him.

At the time of the accident, Jim had been in a physical therapy training course. He had a mentor there who was an atheist. The mentor had lost any belief in God because he had watched his town destroyed by the Nazis. Jim, and another student of this mentor, who was a minister, would talk to the mentor about God, and God’s love for him, how great it is to be connected with the Divine. But the mentor completely rejected the idea.

Fast forward to Jim’s NDE. While sitting with the angel, Jim was surprised to see his mentor, the atheist, come into the picture. Incredibly, the mentor was floating past him in the stream heading towards complete death, and his mentor was extremely happy! He called out to Jim, “I had no idea it would be like this! I see what you guys were trying to tell me!” The mentor was radiating joy. Jim said it was as if the mentor could finally see the truth.

After his conversation with the Angel, and decision to return to his old life, Jim woke back up in the hospital. Later, after he had healed, Jim learned that his mentor had died at the exact time that Jim had been in the hospital having his NDE! In other words, Jim knew about the death of his mentor during his NDE and had it confirmed after waking up. He saw mentor across the veil because they were both there at the same time.

Jim said his NDE was “so vivid in my mind. Totally real to me.” It was more real than real.

One of the signs of an authentic NDE is that you wake up a changed person. Not a different person, but that you see life and your place in it in a completely different way. For Jim the aftereffect of his NDE was love. Jim said, “I physically and emotionally felt it.” “When I woke up, I felt like a person on fire, totally energized, spiritual energy. I felt like I could see myself glow.”

“I was totally changed when I came back, yet also came back as who I was.” “People around me said I lost a lot of anger and was easier to live with.” His wife said, “for first time in our relationship, you realize you are loved.” Jim noted that “Therapy worked much better after the accident.” His “NDE changed [his] thinking.”

His NDE left Jim in a state of being totally filled with the love of God; so much so that there was a big adjustment needed. He wanted to love everyone more expansively and completely than was entirely comfortable for others socially. When Jim woke up “life was a positive joy, just to be on the planet.” It completely affected his approach to life.

He also came back with a passionate desire to deepen his spiritual life. He believed that there was a church of love that existed where everyone had a strong focus of what God was all about. He wanted a place where everyone was as filled with the love of God and on fire as he was. Sadly, he soon realized that this didn’t exist. There is “no congregation of saints.” He realized that his “idealized life wasn’t going to fly.” This dream of big love and a perfect church doesn’t exist in this realm. Jim had to adapt his exuberance for love and life and God that he gained from his NDE, to fit a very imperfect world. But speaking as his pastor, I can say Jim is a light to the congregation, and he finds at least some of his spiritual nourishment while worshipping and living in community at the church.

The Bible is filled with stories of the aftereffects of spiritual encounters. Jim’s experience is not atypical. Consider Jacob wrestling with the Man/Angel; he is so altered by this spiritual encounter, that his name is changed.

“Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.’ … And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.’” – Genesis 32:28, 29b-30

Or Peter the fisherman, and James and John, after seeing the miracle of the fish which Jesus performs. Encountering the Enchanted Cosmos, having it revealed to them, causes them to walk away from the only life they have ever known.

“But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ …. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” – Luke 5:8, 10b-11

Or the woman at the well, shamed by society such that she goes to the well in the middle of the day to avoid the other women. But after a conversation with Jesus, all fear of society is abandoned, her jar is dropped, and she rushes to tell everyone. She no longer cares about social norms. Her life is changed. And it is so astonishing a turn-about, that the people listen!

“Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him… Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’” – John 4:28-30, 39

Or Saul/Paul is struck on the road to Damascus. One day he is hunting down and killing Christians, and the next he’s joining them and becomes one of their leaders. An encounter with the Divine causes us to see the world anew.

“’Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized.” – Acts 9:17b-18

If you like my writing, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post, or any of my posts, so more people can discover them on Substack and elsewhere.

All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

Many thanks to Jim Peters for sharing his NDE. This experience was related to me by phone from Jim on January 29, 2020, and transcript confirmed by email on February 4, 2020.

Image from https://wallpapers-fenix.eu/Nature/622/80994/#google_vignette

You can catch me and my sermons every week at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ayer, Massachusetts. All current worship can be viewed, and all past worship is posted, at https://www.facebook.com/standrewsayer