
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)
The image is not particularly relevant to this entry, except that . . . well, it’s a photo of a hospital.
A strange but remarkable story that’s included in John Burke, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015):
Eleven-year-old Jennifer was in a severe car accident and left her body. She saw her “limp and lifeless body” below. The voice of a spiritual being told her she needed to help the unconscious driver. “His nose is cut off his face; you will need to go back and help him; he is bleeding to death.”
Jennifer said, “No, let somebody else do it. He will be fine without my help. I do not want to go back down there. No!”
The voice said, “I will tell you what to do. You take off his shirt after you pick his nose up off the floorboard of the car. It will be next to your feet and his right foot. Place his nose on his face, pressing down to stop the bleeding. It’s just blood, so do not be afraid. . . . So then, Jennifer, you will begin to walk him up the right side of the road, and a car will come. Tell the man to take you to the nearest hospital.”
When Jennifer returned to her body everything happened as the voice said. A car stopped. Jennifer was able to calm both the anxious driver and the man who lost his nose as they drove to the hospital. And there was a happy ending: a skin graft was used to reattach the nose with barely a scratch left to notice. The astonished emergency room doctor said, “I cannot explain what kind of miracle I just witnessed in this emergency room today.” (cited at 206-207)
***
Don Piper, it appears, spent 90 minutes clinically dead:
I saw colors I would never have believed existed. I’ve never, ever felt more alive than I did then. (cited at 80)
I could feel, taste, and touch everything as if I had not five but fifty senses. It was amazing. (Jeff Olsen, cited at 99)
Don Piper, again:
I was home; I was where I belonged. I wanted to be there more than I had ever wanted to be anywhere on earth. (cited at 80)
Samaa, in an account from the Middle East:
Then I was standing before Him. As He smiled at me, relief poured over my soul. “Welcome home, Samaa,” He said . . . (cited at 80)
***
A related item that you might find of interest:
“Life After Death: 6 Insights into the Spirit World”