While a near-death experience (NDE) can never be scientifically proven, the commonalities that emerge from survivors indicate that NDEs are far more than a trick of the mind. One common feature reported? Receiving a message while in heaven.
In fact, according to research from Dr. Jeffrey Long, author of God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience, 68.5% of near-death experiencers received a message regarding the existence of life after death and 57.9% received a message about love.
That message is often communicated via God or a spiritual being, and without words. “Communication in near-death experiences—including the conveying of important messages—is almost always non-physical,” Dr. Long says. “The closest phrase in the English language is ‘telepathic communication,’ but it generally goes beyond that.”
What are some of those communications? Here are five messages that NDE survivors brought back from their time in the hereafter.
1. “You have to go back.”
In 1999, Dr. Mary C. Neal, an orthopedic spine surgeon from Jackson Hole, Wyo., was vacationing in the Chilean Andes when she drowned in a kayaking accident and glimpsed heaven. Dr. Neal felt the embrace of Jesus, was taken through a life review and greeted by a group of spiritual beings in “robes of love,” who then led her towards a domed structure. Dr. Neal wanted to go further, but the person in charge said, “You have more to do. You have to go back.” Dr. Neal was also told that her oldest son, Willie, then 9, would die young. “I was really given expectations of how I was going to respond to his death,” Dr. Neal told Guideposts.org. “And how I was going to not only continue to reflect God’s love during that time but use that as a way to help bring people to an understanding of the beauty that comes, not only out of life, but out of death. I was also given this mandate to share my experiences with other people.” Watch Dr. Neal recount her inspiring NDE here.
2. “You are special because you are my child.”
On a quiet Sunday evening in November 2009, landscaper Jim “Bubba” Bay went for a walk along a rural road near his home in Pine Plains, N.Y. After stepping away from an oncoming car, he slipped off the edge of a culvert and fell unconscious. His chance of survival was slim. Until Jim experienced something incredible. He saw a robed man with a weathered face and long beard walking toward him, accompanied by two children—Jim’s deceased sons. Jim was ready to leave this world and go with them. But the man’s voice spoke inside of Jim. “There are things left for you to do for me,” the man said, quieting Jim’s protests that he was no one special. “You are special because you are my child.” You can read more about Jim’s amazing near-death experience and survival here.
3. “Now is your time to heal…”
Dr. Rajiv Parti was a successful doctor, the chief of anesthesiology at Bakersfield Heart Hospital in California and living what he called a life “very focused on the material.” Then, in 2008, everything came crashing down when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This led to a pain medication addiction and depression. After emergency surgery on Christmas Eve in 2010, Dr. Parti had a near-death experience where he encountered his deceased father, angels and a Light Being, according to his website. He was also given a message: “Now it is your time to heal the diseases of the soul—addiction, depression, chronic pain and cancer.” Those words filled Dr. Parti with a renewed sense of purpose and led him to write the book, Dying to Wake Up.
4. “You can come with us, or you can stay.”
Before she was a Paralympic medalist in snowboarding, and a Dancing with the Stars runner-up, Amy Purdy was a 19-year-old massage therapist living in Las Vegas. In 1999, she contracted bacterial meningitis with a less than two percent chance of surviving. During emergency surgery, Purdy had a NDE. She felt her last heartbeat, then saw a hazy, green light and the outline of three figures in front of her, Purdy recounted on Super Soul Sunday. The beings told her, “You can come with us, or you can stay.” It was then that Purdy recalled the many things she loved about life—from the smell of rain to the sound of ocean waves—and made the choice to stay. “I didn’t think about money or cars or any of that,” Purdy said. “I thought about these sensory things I loved about life.”
5. “My love will always be with you.”
In 1952, at the age of seven, Nadia McCaffrey lost consciousness after a snake bit her in Auvergne, France. She saw a woman in a white, gauzy gown, who told her, “I am your Little Mother of the Sky.” The woman gave Nadia a prophetic message full of metaphors and symbols, including the following: “In the middle of a garden, you will see a rose, more colorful and beautiful than all others. When the time comes, you will open yourself to others and share this message of love. To speak to me is prayer, and to pray is to love.” The Little Mother then told Nadia that it was not her time yet and left her with these final words: “My love will always be with you. I will always be with you.” Oddly enough, that wouldn’t be the last time Nadia glimpsed the afterlife. Read more about her incredible story here.
