DOCTOR ON A JOURNEY

In an earlier Open to Hope essay, I wrote about the riveting After-Death experience of a friend I call Chief. The anesthesiologist had a heart attack 60 feet under water while scuba diving in 2007 and, by all measures, was clinically dead. (That’s why he insists on calling it an After-Death experience.)

Chief wanted to write a book about his After-Death encounter but crossed over for good in 2021 before he could finish. He did get as far as a first draft, a manuscript he shared with me because I also wrote a book about the Afterlife (My Dead True Love).

“I died, I lived again, and my life was forever altered,” Chief wrote for his book. He wanted to give hope to those who have lost loved ones, as well as those who wonder if this is all there is.

This is Part 2 of his After-Death experience, describing what the other side is like, starting with the separation from his body while it lay on the dock as a team of medical professionals worked madly to revive him.

LEAVING THE BODY

“Like Elvis,” Chief wrote, “I left the building. In fact, the world. Although surrounded by total darkness, I now had a sensation of rapidly rising upwards. I seemed suspended within this vortex of living energy. I had a sensation of sudden movement, and then a tremendous acceleration of speed. This was simply ‘a knowing.’ As the speed seemed to accelerate, my senses suddenly intensified. Everything was brilliant, and stunning. I was in a state of hyper-awareness.

“In an instant shift within the inky void, glimmering lights appeared all around me. The points of light seemed to rapidly coalesce into a larger light above and ahead of me. As I approached that distant glow, it expanded into an infinite horizon of a shimmering golden curtain. The color was more than light. It was tangible, alive and pulsing with energy and an unbearably intense feeling of complete, unconditional love.

“I literally willed myself forward,” Chief wrote, “and passed my right hand through the curtain. I immediately felt a strong hand grasp mine.”

MEETING A GUIDE

He continued: “The curtain of light offered no resistance, only a transient sensation of warmth. A vast panorama opened before me. Everything was composed. Ordered. Perfect. The most magnificent open vista I had ever imagined now surrounded me. The world was a vast green plain dotted with flowers, trees and shrubs extending to the distant mountains, tipped with snow-covered peaks.

“The being who had grasped my hand was a man. My first, instant impression was a point of brilliant luminosity, his radiance too brilliant to tolerate. But my eyes immediately adjusted. Love seemed to radiate not only from this man’s center, but from everything in sight.

“I caught a hint of mirth in an unspoken answer to my unspoken question: ‘Are you Jesus?’ The answers were formed in my mind even before the questions came. ‘No, just a man, a being, an angel. Your guide.’”

TOUCHING THE ETERNAL

While the Afterlife totally upended many of Chief’s foundational Mormon beliefs, those same beliefs provided context for his experience.

“Yes, this was death – but a brief taste of the world after ours. No fear existed here. Never a sense of doom, dread, looming punishment or impending judgement. A group of men and women had surrounded me. These were members of my personal family council, my infinite personal family. I recognized grandparents and passed aunts and uncles. They embraced me with love.”

And then came his moment with Christ. “Ultimately,” he wrote, “I know my unique and individual eternal life will always, somehow, be inextricably linked to Christ. But other religious masters and teachers were also in attendance in this place and were a source of salvation to others.

“With my unspoken desire to see Him, transfer to his presence was instantaneous. His light expanded into a wondrous white brilliance that should have been unendurable. It expanded to fill all the space around me. As I approached Him, I also became luminous, glowing—almost transparent.”

RELEASE AND HEALING

The Chief went on: “How long I enjoyed this embrace I don’t know. Time here has no meaning. I felt a release, was healed, and instantly transported back to my guide.

“He was standing in the same verdant, park-like setting where I had left him. He had the same bemused, wry expression that seemed to be part of the joyful experience of living. And he embraced me again—I suspect to ease the transformation back to the ‘ordinary’ mortality of this particular realm of the Afterlife.

“When my guide released me, I looked around. This park-like realm was a state of complete peace, perfect calm and tranquility. We strolled together, arm in arm, towards the vista in front of us. Behind us, the golden wall of light had faded into the hues of the most brilliant and breathtaking sunset.

“It was not yet time to return to my body, although I sensed that this was imminent. My experience was simply a clue to my life’s mission,” Chief wrote. “My purpose was to return.”

Learn more about the author at her website, https://mydeadtruelove.com

Read more from Kim Pierce: Exploring Contact Through a Medium – Open to Hope