Visits to Heaven. Josie Varga

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СКАЧАТЬ 237), reviewed the photos above and believes the rainbow resembles those shared by others who have had NDEs. As an example, he told of a young boy who spoke of going down a noodle (tunnel) with the colors of a rainbow.

      An NDE refers to a wide range of personal experiences associated with those who have had a brush with death. In addition to encountering the colors of a rainbow and a Being of Light as mentioned earlier, there are several other characteristics which are believed to be common in an NDE. According to Melvin Morse, there are nine common traits:

      1. Peace and no longer feeling pain

      2. The sense of moving through a tunnel

      3. Having a “life review”

      4. Numerous aftereffects including everything from the loss of fear of death, increase in psychic powers, and higher level of spirituality to changes in personality

      5. Having an OBE (out-of-body experience)

      6. Having a sense of being dead

      7. Encountering a “Being of Light” or Supreme Source

      8. Encountering relatives or other “people of light” and

      9. Being reluctant to return to life

      It is important to note that death is not the only trigger for the near-death experience. As you will read in some of the accounts included in this book, trauma, fear, and shock are often causes of an NDE. And at other times, there is no trauma but an altered state of consciousness that triggers the NDE and/or out-of-body experience.

      All the contributors in this book say they were transformed by their experience in many ways. In addition to the aftereffects mentioned above, experiencers often come back with a sense of knowing and purpose. They say that they don’t just believe there is a God, they know there is.

      Cayce could not agree more and explained that his belief in God and the afterlife came from not only the experiences of his father and renowned grandfather but also his own. “For me, it’s not about a belief in an afterlife or God; it’s a knowing beyond knowing,” he states. “When you trust your experience, you just know. It’s not a belief.”

      Regardless of your beliefs, my intent in this book is not to convince you that there is a God. Although I am a firm believer in God, Supreme Being, or whatever you choose to call it, I will not preach. What I will do is present credible near-death experiences and chapters written by respected experts in the field of NDE research so that you can arrive at your own conclusions. My hope is that after reading this book, you, too, will come to know that there is certainly a God and there is definitely no death.

      ¹Good News Bible (New York: American Bible Society, 1978), 1.

      ²Dannion Brinkley, Saved by the Light (New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 2008), 8.

      ³http://www.nderf.org/leonard_nde.htm.

      ⁴Dr. Steven E. Hodes, Metaphysician on Call for Better Health: Metaphysics and Medicine for Mind, Body and Spirit (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers), 58–59.

       A Tribute to Natalie

       Natalie Smith-Blakeslee†

      You can shed tears that she is gone,

      Or you can smile because she has lived.

      You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back,

      Or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.

      Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her,

      Or you can be full of the love you shared.

      You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,

      Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

      You can remember her only that she is gone,

      Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

      You can cry and close your mind,

      Be empty and turn your back.

       Or you can do what she’d want:

      Smile, open your eyes, love, and go on.

      As a special tribute to Natalie Smith-Blakeslee, I begin this book with this beautiful poem by David Harkins. She was a special friend who knew firsthand the meaning of loving and giving to others. When I was doing research for my book Visits from Heaven, I came in contact with Natalie, a gifted medium and bereaved mom.

      Natalie and I became fast friends. I quickly came to know what a beautiful person she was—an absolute blessing beyond words. She offered to help put me in contact with several bereaved parents who had evidential afterlife communication experiences (what I refer to as visits from heaven). She never wavered in her love and support. In addition to giving me many contacts, she contributed to a story about her daughter Carrie, whom she lost to leukemia. She wrote the preface for Visits from Heaven.

      Unbeknownst to me, Natalie was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in September 2008. She never let on that she was sick, and our phone conversations and e-mails went on as usual. Natalie also agreed to share her near-death experience (NDE) in this book and spoke about how excited she was for me. I never had a clue that anything was wrong until her e-mails slowed, and I no longer heard her voice.

      Natalie passed on October 28, 2009. I was completely stunned. When I spoke to her husband, he told me that she did not tell me and many others on purpose. She wanted us to remember her as she was, not stricken with a horrible cancer but alive and well.

      We shared many conversations about the afterlife, and I do know that her spirit is alive and well. I know that her love lives on. My only hope is that she knows how much she touched not only my life but the lives of so many others and how very grateful I am to her for everything that she did for me. Her memory and love will live on forever within my heart.

      Below is the story of Natalie’s NDE, which occurred when she was suffering from anorexia. The full details of her NDE can be found in her book Close to You . . . A Memoir by a Mother in Mourning, coauthored by Martha D. Humphreys. For more information, please visit her Web site www.loveandlight.com.

      HALFWAY HOME

      Let go . . . .release . . . .my body was barely there . . . there was so little СКАЧАТЬ