INTRODUCTION

Dr Penny Sartori and Kelly Walsh

NDEs have fascinated me for over 20 years. I worked as a nurse for 21 years and it was while looking after a dying man at the intensive care unit, that I began to question death and what happens when we die. My nursing career exposed me to many situations that I would otherwise have been totally unaware of. Coupled with my growing fascination with NDEs, I was able to pay particular attention to dying patients, and observe their actions and the whole process as they approached death. In 1997 I began my hospital research into NDEs at the intensive therapy unit where I worked. I interviewed patients and gathered data for five years. It took a further three years to analyse and write up the findings I had amassed. In 2005 I was awarded a PhD for my research.

My research left me in no doubt that NDEs occur, and has led me to conclude that our current understanding of consciousness is incomplete and that we have to consider consciousness from a perspective other than it being regarded as a mere by-product of the brain.

Since then I have continued to gather cases of NDEs, out-ofbody experiences (OBEs), deathbed visions, empathic/shared death experiences, spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) and any other kind of anomalous experience that cannot be fully explained. I have seen a massive shift in attitude toward NDEs, and it has gone from one extreme to the other. When I began my research in 1995, it was very difficult to find people who were willing to share their NDEs with me; I was always met with hesitation. Often friends would tell me of people they knew who had memories of an NDE, yet when I asked if they would speak to me about it, very few would.

There are many reasons for this. Often people don’t realize that other people have had such experiences too. There are some examples in the following chapters of people who, after watching a movie or reading a newspaper article about NDEs, were pleasantly surprised to discover that others had experienced the same as them. After an NDE, some people may question their sanity and be terrified of sharing it in case they are considered to have mental health issues. Sometimes the experience can be so profound that it is deeply sacred to the person, and they simply don’t want to share it. Many know that something profound has happened to them, but they have no frame of reference for it, and if they try to discuss it with someone who has no knowledge of NDEs this can cause further confusion when trying to understand it. There are also many misconceptions about NDEs, and people who are ill-informed often dismiss them as hallucinations or a “trick of the mind”, having been influenced by popular television programmes that are frequently one-sided and don’t present a full picture of an NDE.

Thankfully there has been a renewed comprehension of NDEs and they are now being taken much more seriously. Consequently, people are feeling more comfortable about sharing their experiences publicly. There are huge benefits to this. NDErs no longer have to suffer in silence, meaning it is easier to get information about their profound experiences. The number of emails I have received in recent years has increased phenomenally. Responding to them over the past four years has been a full-time job and I currently have over 14,000 messages awaiting my reply. This highlights that people are more comfortable with sharing their experiences now and emphasizes the importance of finding a greater understanding of these experiences and learning from such people.

Contrary to the beliefs of those who dismiss the NDE as an aberration of a dysfunctional brain, the experience does not end after regaining consciousness. There are many changes associated with NDEs that continue, in numerous cases, for the rest of a person’s life. It is literally as if the person they were before the NDE has died and been replaced by someone who looks the same but has very different values. I want to emphasize that these changes are not always pleasant or welcomed by the experiencer, and the renewed perspective on life can be disruptive to their relationships, work life and personal life. Many people have reported devastating consequences of this change in their viewpoint and feel that they no longer “fit in”; they can no longer relate to family and friends, and feel alienated from society.

On the other hand, many experiencers find that the changes are positively transformative, but it may take some time for them to fully integrate and understand the experience and adjust to this new perspective on life. It is the transformative aspect of the NDE that is the focus of this book and that is of great interest to me, because it has the potential to benefit so many people.

In May 2014, I received an email from a lady called Kelly Walsh. I was going through a particularly busy stage in my life, as my book The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences had been published in February 2014 and since then it seemed that everyone wanted to talk to me about my NDE research. In the months leading up to when I connected with Kelly I had given many talks all around the UK and Northern Ireland, made television appearances, given hundreds of radio interviews and received thousands of emails from all over the world. To top it off, I was pregnant with my son, and by May I was beginning to get exhausted so had decided to take time off from responding to emails in preparation for his imminent birth.

However, when Kelly’s email arrived, though it was only short and didn’t give much information, for some reason I felt compelled to read it a second time and respond immediately. This is what it said:

Hi Penny

I had an NDE in 2009 and my life’s work and the vision I am working towards is connected to my experience. I am based in Manchester in the UK and I am keen to speak to you about my NDE.

Would it be possible to arrange a Skype call?

Love, Care, Share

Kelly x

I sensed that Kelly’s experience had greatly impacted upon her and that, although it wasn’t immediately apparent, there was an urgency to her request. We arranged a Skype chat and Kelly described her experience in depth, as well as its effect on her life. Technically, Kelly’s experience is a spiritually transformative experience (STE), because it occurred when she was recovering in hospital, after an attempted suicide, in the absence (as far as I am aware) of acute life-threatening circumstances, although her biochemistry had been severely affected. NDEs are the most studied form of STEs and occur in acute life-threatening circumstances. Very similar experiences that have almost identical after-effects can also occur, the main difference being that they do so when there are no immediate acute life-threatening circumstances. This is the type of STE that Kelly reported.

During our conversation, what struck me most about Kelly was how her perception of herself and life had changed so drastically from being suicidal, anxious and depressed to being incredibly positive and loving. As a direct result of her experience she appeared to love and accept herself for who she was for the first time in her life. This love also extended to others and she had made it her “mission” to share what she had learned and put it to good use to benefit others.

Kelly explained that she was developing an online community, the Positivity Power Movement, which would fuel the activity of the Love, Care, Share charitable foundation she was setting up to make a difference to the lives of families affected by poverty and suffering. She also told me that she was developing a children’s character brand that had been inspired by her experience. One day, she hoped, Positivity Princess from Planet Positavia would become a global brand, empowering many children and helping to share the important message of love and respect for each other. She described to me a whole list of ideas around the character brand, including a children’s book, an animated TV series and a feature film. I was impressed by her focus and how she had already taken steps to put her vision for the Positivity Power Movement and charitable foundation into action. She was not procrastinating about what she was going to do; she was already doing it! This was all undertaken in her own time and at her own cost. She had branded a name for her organization, had designed costumes, logos and websites, and was networking with people from all over the world. Obviously Kelly’s message is resonating widely, because she currently has thousands of followers on Twitter and her Facebook Positivity Power Movement group is growing daily.

One of the most important questions we can ask is what is it about NDEs and STEs that makes them so powerful that they change the way people perceive and live their lives afterwards? How can such an experience literally transform suicidal thoughts into the complete opposite? How was Kelly able to change her mindset so drastically? I can’t think of any kind of therapy or pharmaceutical drug that could have such radical and prolonged effects.

It is very difficult to grasp how experiencing an altered state of consciousness, as occurs in STEs and NDEs, can facilitate such a massive change. It seems so outlandish that it is easier for some people to overlook this key point and attribute the experience as a whole to an abnormality of a dying brain. I feel very strongly that to discount alternative points of view, simply because they do not fit in with the current materialist view of consciousness, is detrimental to developing therapeutic intervention that could benefit millions of people in the long term, which is one of the reasons for writing this book.

When Kelly first approached me about the concept for this book I was unsure if I could commit to the project, due to my ongoing work commitments and all that was going on in my life. However, Kelly’s ultimate vision, combined with her pleasant persistence, persuaded me to be involved.

Kelly says:

The vision for this book was inspired by my experience and I am now acting on what I feel is my soul’s purpose. However, it hasn’t always been that way. Like a lot of people who have had an NDE, I didn’t initially feel mentally strong enough to talk openly about what had happened to me for fear of rejection or potential ridicule. I tried desperately to forget what had happened and to focus on rebuilding my life.

A number of years later I realized that trying to suppress what had happened to me was no longer an option. It had happened, it was part of my journey and I had to deal with the emotional rollercoaster connected to my experience in the best way I could. My life was never going to be the same again. My primary focus was to try to integrate the experience into my daily life, while exploring ways of delivering the message I had been given.

During my experience it was demonstrated to me that we are all one, all connected, all one big global family. Regardless of colour, creed, gender, sexuality, religious beliefs or any other perceived differences, we are all loved equally and unconditionally.

Whether you refer to God, the universe, the Source or any other word is irrelevant; the fact is that the light loves us all beyond any love you could possibly put into words, and its simple desire is that one day we will all see each other as our true soul reflection, which is pure Divine Love. On this day we will be released from all manmade fear, rejoice in the reality that Heaven is already here, and will ultimately create Peace on Earth.

What I have found most fascinating since connecting with other experiencers around the world is that, although each person’s experience is unique to them, the spiritual understanding, knowledge and wisdom gained from people’s time in other dimensions is relatively the same and reinforces the simple fact that we really are all part of the same whole, and are intrinsically linked.

I am delighted Penny agreed to co-author this book with me. Since my NDE, she has been such a blessing in my life, and was the first person to encourage me to stay on my spiritual path and become deaf to the criticisms of others who totally disbelieve in this important phenomenon and dismiss it as a trick of the mind.

Studies into NDEs and other related phenomena have consistently shown that we are part of an interconnected universe, and that consciousness continues beyond our earthly existence. This realization has the power to inspire a shift in our understanding about life’s meaning. It raises thought-provoking questions about whether we actually die, or not? My own experience, and those of my fellow contributors in this book, have left me wondering whether we are dealing with the reality of a No-Death Experience. What I mean by this is, our physical bodies certainly die at the end of our lives, but our journey continues as a more subtle form of consciousness, which appears to connect to an eternal soul. This realization could bring about a positive shift in peoples’ understanding of the purpose of their earthly lives. In short, the message of No-Death Experiences is that our spiritual lives matter, now and beyond.

Whether you are a believer or not, or somewhere in between, my hope, dream and desire is that the experiences shared in this book will open your heart, mind and soul to the powerfully transformative aspects of NDEs and to how the messages within them can bring about positive change in the world.

We have both connected with numerous people whose lives have been transformed in many different ways as a result of their NDE. This book will feature just a few of those we have connected with, and hopefully it will provide a snapshot of how transformative NDEs can be. I must reiterate that the transformations are not always necessarily on a grand scale.

Transformation can be subtle and personal, yet it gives the individual in question purpose and meaning. This book is a collection of cases where people have been transformed by their experience. Each chapter has been written by individual contributors in their own unique style. The only exceptions are three chapters written by myself, due to a language barrier and time constraints. I have been inspired by all of the contributors. Their stories speak for themselves and each contributor has had complete freedom of expression, so there has been minimal editing to their chapters, but I have added a short commentary to highlight salient points. After her NDE, Kelly undertook training with Sue Stone, so she suggested asking her to write the preface. When Kelly explained what the book was about, Sue synchronistically said, “Oh I had one of those experiences but I tend not to talk about it.”

Similarly, last year I read one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read and it left a lasting impression on me. I remember reading the book and feeling such deep emotion each time I picked it up, because not only was it written from the heart but it was also thoroughly supported from both an academic and experiential perspective. The author had likewise been transformed by a spiritual awakening that he had experienced many years ago. The book, by Dr Mick Collins, is called The Unselfish Spirit: Human Evolution in a Time of Global Crisis. When we had completed the manuscript for this book I knew that Mick would be the perfect person to write the foreword. Neither Kelly nor I had met Mick, but when I emailed him to ask if he would support us he replied instantly and said yes. He mentioned how the timing was perfect, as he had literally just submitted the manuscript of his second book to an editor and it would take approximately three weeks to edit, so he had the time to give our book the attention it deserved. He intuitively felt that we were being Divinely guided together for a reason and that our collective work was vitally important at this critical time in our history’s evolution. Kelly and I are delighted to have the support of such a heart-centred and loving man, and feel that this is just the beginning of very exciting things for the future.

Kelly also suggested contacting Neale Donald Walsch to see if he would consider supporting our work. His teachings from the Conversations with God series have had a profound effect on Kelly. When she first approached me about the book project, she synchronistically received an email from Neale’s organization, Humanity’s Team, which referenced how the knowledge and wisdom gained from NDEs will change the world. Kelly intuitively felt that Neale would be involved with our project in some capacity. I agreed with Kelly and I recall, shortly after beginning my research, being invited to a wonderful conference in the Catskills Mountains in Upstate New York, organized by the Lifebridge Foundation who funded my university fees while I was undertaking my PhD. During the conference David Lorimer from the Scientific and Medical Network read out excerpts from a book that really resonated with me. The book was Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch. On my return journey I stopped at the airport bookshop and bought all three books in the Conversations with God series and read them carefully. These books opened me up to another perspective on life and I have gone back and re-read them many times, especially during challenging times.

There are no words to express how I felt at the end of the editing process of this book, when Kelly called me to see if I’d opened an email from Jo Lal, at Watkins (our publisher). Kelly was overwhelmed and could barely get her words out. Through perfect synchronistic timing Neale Donald Walsch had received our manuscript, downloaded it immediately and read it in four sittings, and was as excited about it as we were. He agreed to write the afterword but further to this he also sent us the chapter that you have just read, which describes his own experience. We are both honoured and privileged that Neale has shared his own experience here and that he totally understands the whole ethos of this book. It is very interesting that Neale’s experience was a precursor to writing Conversations with God, as these books have positively impacted the lives of millions of people. It is as if everything has come full circle as the UK edition of Neale’s book Conversations with God, Book 4: Awaken the Species, originally published by Rainbow Ridge Books in the US, has been issued and distributed by the same publisher as this book, and at a time when the conclusion of my own research is that the message of these experiences is crucial for our evolution as a species. The sharing of such experiences is paramount in spreading this message to awaken the world. Synchronistically, one of the first people to endorse Neale’s Conversations with God was Dr Bernie Siegel, who also shares his experience in this book.

This book begins with Kelly describing her experience, followed by chapters from various contributors. Gigi Strehler will describe how her NDE motivated her to initiate a UK NDE support group, launched in 2014. During the birth of her daughter, Krista Gorman’s NDE led to her modifying the way she interacted with patients through her work as a physician assistant. Ainsley Threadgold’s recovered memories resulted in the full integration of his NDE, which he hadn’t consciously recalled. Tibor Putnoki’s cardiac arrest led to the creation of the Light of Love Foundation. David Bennett’s survival of a disaster at sea resulted in a new way of life and overcoming cancer. Penny Wilson’s anaphylactic shock led to her being compelled to share the message that we are all connected. Mike Moon describes how a visit to the dentist led to volunteer work in a hospice. Jeff Olsen was able to cope with the tragedy of a fatal car accident. Diane Goble’s fun day out in the rapids led to her following a whole new path in life and initiating one of the first stress management centres. Barbara Ireland’s NDE prompted her to change her thinking and write a book to help others also change their thinking. Deirdre DeWitt Maltby will describe how her NDE resulted in her living life in a more compassionate and loving way. Erica McKenzie’s battle with her weight led to her helping people all over the world and informing healthcare workers about NDEs. Katherine Baldwin’s fall into a swimming pool as a child led to her developing healing techniques that have benefited hundreds of people. William Peter’s NDE led him to develop the Shared Crossing Project, which is helping people all over the world. Robert Tremblay’s NDE has given him the strength to live with a debilitating disease for the past four years, while spreading the message of love and peace that was so deeply etched into his psyche during his NDE. Paul Ammon’s undiagnosed blood clot led to conservation work with bees, while Jessica Harper’s experiences led to complete acceptance of who she is and she feels passionately about becoming a voice for those who are suffering with transgender and other painful issues. Dr Bernie Siegel’s childhood NDE greatly influenced his medical career as a paediatric surgeon; his goal has been to humanize medical education and medical care. The final chapter by Dr Barbara Mango will describe how her experiences from childhood inspired her to undertake a PhD and write her doctoral thesis on the topic of the spiritual and scientific debate concerning the NDE.

As work on this book was drawing to a close, I had two emails on the same day from people who I immediately thought should feature in the book. One was from Barbara Ireland and the other from William Peters. Both of these chapters are shorter than the rest as there was limited time left before the manuscript was to be submitted, so we’ve slotted them in between the longer chapters.

The contributors are from all over the world and have connected with either Kelly or me over the previous few years, sometimes with notable synchronicities, which will be described in the individual chapters, highlighting the interconnectivity of us all. We thank all the contributors for agreeing to be part of this book and sharing their story with the world. Each of us has the same vision of making a positive difference in the world and we have agreed that all royalties will be donated to the Love, Care, Share charitable foundation, which supports small projects for children globally.

As I’ve said in previous books and in all of my lectures, NDEs have a wonderful message for the world. It is one of peace, love and respect, and is ultimately The Golden Rule described by all of the wisdom traditions of the world; namely, “Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself ”. We can all benefit from this message without nearly having to die first; all we have to do is take notice of what these people are trying to convey. We invite you, the reader, to engage with NDEs and be inspired by the message that they have for us all.