On the R\u00edo Fuy, Regi\u00f3n de Los R\u00edos, Chile\u00a0 (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was not unexpected.\u00a0 In fact, over the past week or two we\u2019ve been, in the odd way that happens in cases of prolonged and painful terminal illness, many of us have been praying<\/em> for it.\u00a0 She is the daughter of a good friend from our days of living in Cairo who was claimed by the same terrible disease, and whose sister was likewise claimed by it, along with at least one other close relative.\u00a0 A genetic propensity runs in certain members of the family.\u00a0 We are deeply saddened, but we\u2019re also happy at her deliverance and that she has, as we firmly believe, been welcomed by loved ones who went before.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
With that as background, I think that I\u2019ll write here briefly about another of the books that I bought at the annual meeting of the International Association for Near-Death Studies back at the beginning of September.\u00a0 The literature relating to NDEs can be a real mixed bag, but Mary C. Neal\u2019s To Heaven and Back: A Doctor\u2019s Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again<\/em> struck me as a sincere and believable account when I read it several years ago.\u00a0 So I didn\u2019t hesitate to pick up the sequel, 7 Lessons from Heaven: How Dying Taught Me to Live a Joy-Filled Life<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a more devotional and more explicitly Christian book than its predecessor, but it retells the basic story told in the first book for those who are reading without being acquainted with that earlier book.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mary Neal, who is married to a physician, is herself a board-certified orthopedic surgeon.\u00a0 A graduate of the school of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles who completed her residency at the University of Southern California and, thereafter, pursued further specialized training in spinal surgery in Sweden and Switzerland.\u00a0 She then took up the role of director of spine surgery at USC before leaving for private practice. For years now, she and her husband \u2014 who are both very outdoorsy and athletic \u2014 have lived with their children and maintained a clinic in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.\u00a0 (Martin Tanner tells me that she has very recently stepped away from her medical practice to pursue a program of New Testament studies through Claremont Graduate University.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Neal\u2019s resum\u00e9 is certainly a respectable one, and, having heard her speak at IANDS less than three weeks ago, I can now say that she comes across as calm and quite credible.\u00a0 Here, in a nutshell, is her story:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Experienced kayakers, she and her husband went with friends and professional guides to the upper Rio Fuy, in a remote area of rural Chile, back in January 1999.\u00a0 One day, after plunging over a twenty-five foot waterfall, the nose of Dr. Neal\u2019s kayak became solidly wedged between two boulders at the base of the cataract.\u00a0 The pounding water kept her pinned face down onto the front deck of her kayak.\u00a0 She knew that, if she did not escape soon, she would drown \u2014 a form of death that had always particularly horrified her.\u00a0 But she could not get out.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Curiously, she felt calm and relaxed, even hopeful.\u00a0 As the water filled her lungs, she entered into an indescribably beautiful area, experienced a comprehensive review of her own life story to that point, learned about events in her future that later came to pass, and much, much more.\u00a0 Altogether and astoundingly, she was underwater for approximately thirty minutes.\u00a0 The fact that she was revived, and without brain damage,\u00a0 is a remarkable miracle in itself.\u00a0 From time to time, from a vantage point that was quite distinct from the location of her body, she watched as her friends searched for her.\u00a0 She felt her bones break and her ligaments tear \u2014 as an orthopedic surgeon, she knew exactly what was happening \u2014 but she felt no pain.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I never experienced being conscious one moment and unconscious the next.\u00a0 Instead, I felt conscious and then more<\/em> conscious.\u00a0 I had a heightened clarity and intensity of consciousness, and I felt more alive than I had ever felt.\u00a0 (13, emphasis in the original)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I hovered above the river, I was welcomed by a group of \u201csomethings.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps I should call them people, spirits, angels, or soul friends.\u00a0 But these words mean different things to different people, so I am never quite sure what to call the beings who welcomed me.\u00a0 All I can say is that I had absolute knowledge that these beings had known me and loved me as long as I had existed, and that I had known and loved them also.\u00a0 I believe if I had looked closely at those in my welcoming committee, I would have recognized each of them as someone who had been important in my life experience, regardless of whether I had known them on Earth or not.\u00a0 For example, one might have been a great-grandparent who died long before I was born.<\/span><\/p>\nBut here\u2019s the important thing.\u00a0 They were radiant, brilliant, and overflowing with God\u2019s love.\u00a0 (13)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I began to move with my guides up a path to the entrance of a great domed structure that I knew was the point of no return.\u00a0 As we gently traveled, my companion and I communicated without words and moved without walking.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t speak using our mouths to form words, but the communication was pure and clear.\u00a0 I heard the communication in English, my native language, but it was as if the words were being sent from one person to another in their most elemental form, just transference of energy and meaning.\u00a0 (15)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The colors of nature and the magnificent aromas of flowers and trees have always touched me deeply and, not surprisingly, this is what I began to encounter.\u00a0 As I looked more closely, the path we were on seemed to be stitched together with every color of the rainbow and even some colors I\u2019d never seen before.\u00a0 A seemingly infinite variety of flowers sprouted along the edges of the path, and my very being was infused with their sumptuous aroma.\u00a0 The array and vividness of the colors, the intricacies of the flowers, and the allure of the aromas were all far more intense than anything I have seen or experienced on Earth.\u00a0 I not only saw and smelled these things, but also heard, tasted, and felt them.\u00a0 My senses expanded, and I could both experience them and understand them.\u00a0 (16)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be continued.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was not unexpected.\u00a0 In fact, over the past week or two we\u2019ve been, in the odd way that happens in cases of prolonged and painful terminal illness, many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
A River Ran Over Her<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A River Ran Over Her\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-19T05:45:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2022\/09\/636px-Rio_Fuy_Region_de_Los_Rios_Chile.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html\",\"name\":\"A River Ran Over Her\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-19T05:45:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-19T05:45:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A River Ran Over Her\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A River Ran Over Her","description":" Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A River Ran Over Her","og_description":" Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2022-09-19T05:45:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2022\/09\/636px-Rio_Fuy_Region_de_Los_Rios_Chile.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html","name":"A River Ran Over Her","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-09-19T05:45:39+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-19T05:45:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.\u00a0 It was","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/09\/a-river-ran-over-her.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A River Ran Over Her"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"on](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2022\/09\/636px-Rio_Fuy_Region_de_Los_Rios_Chile.jpg\")
<\/a>