I was blown up in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq … when the explosion occurred, I immediately left my body. I didn’t experience the classic tunnel of light that others have reported. I simply blinked to another place, one that was familiar in essence.
So begins the preface of Natalie Sudman’s book Application of Impossible Things. It’s a fascinating tale of her near-death experience (NDE) while serving as a civilian employee of the Army during the Iraq War. The Humvee she was riding in was blown up by a roadside bomb. The blast killed one person and seriously injured herself and two others. And then something strange happened.
Sudman’s book was originally published in 2012, though I only recently stumbled across it while researching NDEs. In the intervening years, Sudman has kept a low profile, making the occasional podcast appearance. These days, she devotes her time to creating expressionist art that is definitely worth checking out.
Application of Impossible Things is a slim book, but it’s full of complex details. I’ve taken Sudman’s most compelling observations and placed them into two categories, one about her NDE, the other her musings about how life works. The words below are Sudman’s, lightly edited. I’ve added comments that appear in italics.
What her near-death experience was like.
When the bomb went off, Sudman instantly went somewhere else in the blink of an eye. She was no longer in the military vehicle she had been riding in. She was in what she calls “the Blink Environment,” a very different place that is strangely familiar to her. She says that her memory of this experience is as vivid as if it happened in waking life.
The Blink Environment is less a physical location than a frequency or parallel dimension. It exists within our reality, but beside and between the reality we perceive.
In the Blink Environment, the being that I am is perpetually healthy. I feel flexible and comfortable. My physical body is around thirty or thirty-five years old. This detail matches a recent account of “the other side” from my cousin.
I found myself standing on an oval dais … addressing thousands of white-robed beings or energies. I knew the gathering to be a meeting of many groups representing a wide variety of interests and personalities.
I transferred to them information from my life in the form of an inexplicably complex matrix. When the matrix had been absorbed by everyone, which took but seconds, discussions proceeded among the various groups within the gathering.
I communicated that I was tired and had no interest in returning to the physical plane. The entities gathered in front of me requested that I return to my physical body to accomplish some further work. I agreed, though the decision was entirely up to me.
Many with near-death experiences describe some entity or figure telling them they were required to return to the physical world. This didn’t happen to me. I had a choice.
I next moved to another vibrational location where there were nine personalities, all intimately familiar to me. Some might refer to them as guides or guardian angels; to me they are equals, friends and colleagues. These personalities were able to project trajectories my life would take when I returned to earth and assist me with connecting with the will of the Whole Self. Sudman’s “Whole Self” sounds much like the soul.
From the perspective of the Whole Self, I chose these experiences with a sense of joy and excitement. Then I simply took a deep breath and popped back into my body.
My physical problems were just scratches. What can seem long, painful, difficult and unpleasant in the physical world are little scratches to the Whole Self. Note: Sudman had a serious leg injury from the blast and nearly lost sight in one eye.
Existence beyond the physical is utterly lovely, infused with love and richly fulfilling. I’d honestly prefer to be there.
Her take on life and its meaning.
The NDE that Sudman experienced is a little less surprising when you hear how the supernatural has permeated her life from the time she was young. It makes you wonder if Sudman might be an advanced soul who has lived many lives.
Since I was a child, I’ve had precognitive dreams and waking visions. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been acutely aware of the energy of buildings and old battlefields and have often interacted with spirits. I’ve had out-of-body experiences … and journeyed through worlds and dimensions as shamans do.
I believe that the tools offered through books, training programs, individual teachers and gurus (including scientists and clergy), are valuable only up to the point that they’re left behind, and students become their own teachers.
The enjoyment of your experience is a central criterion for the value of your life. Joy is destroyed when you believe outside circumstances can affect it. Sometimes joy can be found even within and between difficult experiences.
I have crafted my physical experiences. I’m fully responsible for everything that I experience in my physical life. Things don’t happen to me without my consent. They happen because my conscious self and Whole Self created them and agreed to experience them.
The exploration of probable realities is a constantly occurring activity for all of us. Optional paths of experience are perpetually created, formed, and chosen or discarded. This creative exploration goes on all the time, but our tight focus on our current reality blinds us to the process.
It’s absolutely necessary to adopt a comprehension of the body and physical life as temporary and the soul or consciousness as enduring and real.
The Whole Self is not dependent on the physical body for sight—or hearing, feeling, taste, or scent. It is not dependent on the ability to think logically, fit into a cultural norm, or any other perceived necessity.
If you do nothing but enjoy a day, no matter how small and petty it may seem, you’ve accomplished something valuable. Everything you do, everything you imagine, has value and purpose. Every existence has meaning. Every experience contains the potential for joy.
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