I am a survivor of a serious form of brain cancer. While I was in hospital I experienced a profound NDE (near death experience).
I left my body, feeling like I floated out of my earthly container that was my body, floated above and during this journey was shown the realms of the other side of life. I was given the choice to come back into my body. I chose to return and came back in to my body with a flash of brilliant white light.
After this experience, I had a follow up MRI brain scan. The results showed that the brain tumour had gone completely and there was no trace of scars where it had been. The doctors at Cambridge University were baffled about how this could have happened so fast and without trace. They expected to see severe scaring tissue at the site of the tumour.
I am currently writing my real-life story of my wild journey through brain cancer and back to health, and full remission. My recovery was against medical odds. I returned with an expanded consciousness and back to a full healthy life. Here we are a few years later and I feel stronger and more focussed than ever before.
I see the world completely differently now with a deeper perspective of life.
In this podcast with Jeff Mara, I share some details about my NDE. I describe what happened when I left my body and returned from brain cancer healed.
Talking with Jeff Marr on this podcast series about my near death experience leading to brain **** recovery.
Here is the video of my Self Care Summit talk being interviewed by wonderful Alfreda Lanoix. Here I give some personal insights to my backstory.
The Problem
In April 2018, I was told I had four weeks to live. A massive brain tumour was growing in the middle of my brain, and my future looked shaky. I had created as big a storyline as I could imagine. Something deep inside of me told me it was going to be ok and that I would get out alive.
The head oncologist at Cambridge University Hospital told me, ´You have a lymphoma and yours is what I would call a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Only about 15-20% are cured with that diagnosis.
I was a single mum with a young son living at home who needed me. I knew I had a full life ahead of me and I intended to survive and live life to the fullest. With hindsight, I can bless this incredible adventure. I have learnt lessons that I came into this life to learn, and it has made my life-story a rich and inspiring tale. This was a roller coaster journey requiring a great deal of strength, courage, bravery and trust. It was a wake-up call for me to find out what life is truly about, and to experience what happens when we die.
My NDE journey
I have learnt major lessons from this journey about how to live, how to identify true priorities and how to remain feeling happy and positive — regardless of what is playing out in everyday life. I found it is possible to juggle the areas of life competing for my attention by simplifying things and saying yes only when I mean yes. I am no longer afraid of death. I have no fear inside me since my NDE.
As in all good stories, adversity opened the gates to learning the deep lessons and gave me the wisdom I came here to learn. We often need to be pushed, poked and challenged to learn the deep lessons that we need to know. It is in the struggle and challenges where the golden nuggets of life’s experience lay buried. I had read about this idea but never fully understood it, until this life-threatening experience happened to me.
In my new book I am telling the story of how I recovered from a giant brain tumour after having an NDE (near death experience). I used alternative and conventional methods of treatment, and ancient healing technologies including prayer, high nutrition, creative visualisation, reiki, psilocybin and CBD oil.
Books about NDEs
Since this experience, have read many books on the subject of NDEs. Some of the best are shown below.
Films
There are many films on the subject of NDE available on line on channels including Netflix and Gaia.com. My book on my NDE will go from book to film.
Resources
There are many scientific and peer reviewed resources to go to for more detailed information on the science behind the area of NDEs. Links are given below for further reading and science papers for this area. References kindly provided by Dr Eben Alexander (www.ebenalexander.com). Watch and listen to my podcast with Eben where we talk about many of these references.
NDE: Further reading and science references
- Hagan, John C. III. The Science of Near-Death Experiences. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2017.
- Holden, Janice Miner, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James. The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Publishers, 2009.
- Rivas, Titus, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf H. Smit. The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences. Durham, North Carolina: IANDS Publications, 2016.
- van Lommel, Pim. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of Near-Death Experience. New York: HarperCollins, 2010.
- Alexander, E III. Extraordinary Cases of Miraculous Healing. EXPLORE July/August 2017, Vol. 13, No. 4 pp 257-258 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2017.04.006)
- Khanna S, Lauren E. Moore, Bruce Greyson. Full Neurological Recovery from Escherichia coli Meningitis Associated with Near-Death Experience. J Nerv Ment Dis 2018;206: 744–747 [This is the case report of Dr Eben Alexander’s NDE]
- Assante, Julia. The Last Frontier: Exploring the Afterlife and Transforming our Fear of Death. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2012.
- Atwater, P.M.H. Dying to Know You: Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience. Faber, VA: Rainbow Ridge Books, 2014.
- Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Life After Death. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1991.
- Moody, Raymond A. Jr. Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon – Survival of Bodily Death. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001 (originally published in 1975 by MBB, Inc., and later by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. in 1976).
- Moody, Raymond Jr and Paul Perry. Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One’s Passage from this Life to the Next. New York, NY: Guideposts, 2010.
- Moorjani, Anita. Dying to be me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc., 2012.
- Neal, Mary C. To Heaven and Back: A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of her Death, Heaven, Angels and Life Again. New York: WaterBrook Press, 2012.
- Olson, Jeff. I Knew Their Hearts: The Amazing True Story of a Journey Beyond the Veil to Learn the Silent Language of the Heart. Springville, UT: Plain Sight Publishing, 2012.
- A. Palmieri et al., “‘Reality’ of Near-Death-Experience Memories: Evidence from a Psychodynamic and Electrophysiological Integrated Study,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8 (2014), doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00429.
- Ritchie, George G. and Elizabeth Sherrill. Return from Tomorrow. Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 1978.
- Sudman, Natalie. The Application of Impossible Things: My Near Death Experience in Iraq. Huntsville, AK: Ozark Mountain Publishing, 2012.
- M. Thonnard, et al., “Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories,” PLOS ONE 8 (2013), 3, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057620.
The Afterlife: Further reading and science references
- Jackson, Laura Lynne. The Light Between Us: Stories from Heaven. Lessons for the Living. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015.
- Guggenheim, Bill and Judy Guggenheim. Hello from Heaven! A New Field of Research ~ After-death Communication ~ Confirms that Life and Love are Eternal. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1995.
- Carter, Chris. Science and the Afterlife Experience: Evidence for the Immortality of Consciousness. 2012.
- Beischel, Julie. Investigating Mediums: A Windbridge Institute Collection. Tucson: The Windbridge Institute, 2015.
- Forbes, Sukey. The Angel in My Pocket: A Story of Love, Loss, and Life After Death. New York, NY: Viking Penguin, 2014.
- Hummel, Virginia Michelle. Miracle Messenger: Signs from Above; Love from Beyond. Palm Desert, CA: StarChild10 Publications, 2011.
- Schwartz, Gary. The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
- Tompkins, Ptolemy. The Modern Book of the Dead: A Revolutionary Perspective on Death, the Soul, and What Really Happens in the Life to Come. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2012.
Resources from Eben Alexander NDE podcast interview
Case report on Eben Alexander´s case: https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2018/09/Greyson_-Alexander-JNMD-2018.pdf
Proof of Heaven – http://ebenalexander.com/books/proof-of-heaven/
Map of Heaven – http://ebenalexander.com/books/the-map-of-heaven/
Living in a Mindful Universe – http://ebenalexander.com/books/living-in-a-mindful-universe-a-neurosurgeons-journey-into-the-heart-of-consciousness/
Bigelow Institute Contest results: https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php
Plato’s story of Er: The Republic, by Plato
Shared Death Experiences: https://www.sharedcrossing.com
Reincarnation & NDE Science (University of Virginia DOPS): https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/
Ed Kelly’s books (links embedded):
Kelly, Edward F., Emily Williams Kelly, Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso, and Bruce Greyson. Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.
Kelly, Edward F, Adam Crabtree, and Paul Marshall (eds). Beyond Physicalism: Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, MD, 2015.
Kelly, Edward F. and Paul Marshall (eds). Consciousness Unbound: Liberating Mind from the Tyranny of Materialism. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, MD, 2021.
Book One Mind: Dossey, Larry. One Mind: How Our Individual Mind is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why it Matters. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc., 2013.
Sacred Acoustics Audio meditation tools: https://www.sacredacoustics.com
Free interview series: https://www.innersanctumcenter.com/united
Eben Alexander website: http://ebenalexander.com