Episode 185: More Near-death Experiences with Family Reunions!

Each episode will discuss the reasons we now know that our loved ones have survived physical death and so will we. Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. Today, you'll hear three new accounts of near death experiences. They all share a common bond of either seeing or feeling their deceased loved ones when they make that transition. I'm always fascinated by near death experiences. If you remember, six months ago, back on episode one fifty seven, I spoke with the director

and the producer of the big movie After Death. It was in movie theaters. It was great on the big screen. It gave me chills how many experiences were featured in the movie, and not only that they were verifiable near death experiences. The film is now streaming. You can find After Death on Amazon, Prime, YouTube, Apple TV, and others. Before we go to our first story, I'm really happy about something that I want to share with you. You may have heard a couple episodes ago that I had

entered a story about my mom in a contest. While that story became a chapter of a book. And although the book is just a couple of weeks old, it's already hit number seven on Amazon out of thirty eight million books. It's being shared all over television. It's called Love Mom by doctor Nicole Sapphire. The book is empowering and one of the biggest things I want to do is when you believe in the reality of the afterlife,

you live a much more powerful life. One of my direction you don't take things as seriously all the time. There's forgiveness and so much more. And this book has beautiful stories that empower. And here's one little secret. The title of my book, We Don't Die, a skeptics discovery of life after death, is included in the chapter about my Mom. It's happened in the past that people have asked Siri on their phone for some news and an

episode of Shades of the Afterlife comes on. It's happened with people who have a smart TV that all of a sudden, one of my Sunday Gathering episodes are playing. I think our loved ones in spirit direct us to

things that can help with healing. So I have every finger and toe cross that out of the hundreds of thousands of people that will read the story about my Mom Marian in the Love Mom book, that those grieving will see that book title and not only read my book, but come join us in our Shades of the Afterlife family and ultimately get some much needed support through their loss, through their grieving and know that their loved ones are

still alive and that they'll see them again. So thank you for letting me share that the book is titled Love Mom by doctor Nicole Sapphire, and my mom's chapter is number ten, and I can tell you I have one happy mother, as she had no idea I was entering my story about her in this contest. If you're looking for a great birthday present, anniversary gift, Mother's Day gift, or holiday gift, or just a gift that's said I love you. Love Mom is sold wherever you buy books.

So really, thank you for letting me share that. It's a big deal to me. Okay, let's hear our first story. This is the story of mister John Carter in his words told by me. The year was twenty twenty, and it wasn't a very good year for a lot of people due to COVID, but it definitely wasn't a good year for me. In fact, I collapsed in my home from sepsis poisoning. And when I collapsed, I wasn't found right away. When they finally did, I was rushed to

the hospital and I died on the emergency table. I know this as I was watching the whole experience from the ceiling. I was looking down and I was thinking, no big deal, I must be dead. I wasn't upset. In fact, I was very much at peace. The doctors and the nurses were running around my body. One nurse was putting a needle into my arm. The other one put something over my face and was squeezing a bulb type thing, and the doctor said clear. Then he hit

me with those pads on my chest. I remember initially shooting back into my body, and I could feel my soul just being sucked right back into the body, and then all of a sudden, boom, I was back on the ceiling again. This time I started traveling through this long tube that maybe was twenty feet wide and twenty feet tall. I'm not quite sure, but it was spherical

in shape, and on the walls was my life. And as I'm slowly passing through this tube, it was like technicolor on the walls, like a movie of all the happy things that occurred in my life. I saw a year after year and experience after experience, being in childhood, been teenage, years, young, adulthood, and so forth until my present age of sixty one. All this time I'm traveling towards this bright light. Soon the tunnel ends and a

veil opens, and I realize I'm spiritually sick. I was thirsty for some meaning and something greater in my life. On Earth, I was lying on the ground and someone was holding me in their arms. I looked up and it was Jesus Christ. I actually freaked out because I never thought i'd see him. Then I looked at the sky and it was a completely different color blue than anything I've ever seen before. We don't have that color

blue here on Earth. It was absolutely gorgeous. Jesus had a wooden spoon and dipped it down into an old wooden bucket. He gave me water to drink and said, in the name of the Father. The water was refreshing, and it flowed down my throat, some over my head, down my face, down into my soul completely. All I could feel was love, And as I looked into his eyes, I could see so much love and compassion and kindness and generosity. It moved me to my core. My heart

grew with love. I felt like my heart grew fifty times its normal size. And Jesus helped me to my feet, and in front of me were gorgeous rolling hills with beautiful flowers and plants, again, all seeming so alive with colors I've never seen before. Jesus turned my head, and then I saw a huge crowd of people, probably, I don't know, ten thousand people in this field. In the front of the group were relatives of mine who had passed.

They were all there. I got a chance to see my mom and my dad, and my aunts and my uncles. But before I could say hello to them, immediately to my left, I saw a huge angel. His wings were just so white and pure. He had beautiful blonde hair. He had an armored chest plate and armor anklets over his ankles, and he had a sword on his left side. And he smiled to me, and I said, Jesus, my gosh, that's a beautiful angel. Who is that And he said, that's Michael. He's my archangel. He is the one who

brought you here. John. And I said, Jesus, I don't think I'm worthy to be here. I was a pretty bad sinner on earth. I did things that I know you wouldn't be proud of. Jesus smiled at me with that loving smile in those eyes of his and he said, John, the first shall be the last, and the last shall be first. I remember thinking what does that mean? Then he said, John, and my father house. There are many mansions. There's a place for you, your family, all of your

friends and their family as well. I felt very happy, and then I got a chance to meet Saint Francis of Assissi. I also got to meet Padre Pio, who gave me a big hug, but I didn't know who he was. I researched him when I got back, saw his picture and said, oh my gosh, that's the guy I met in heaven. Jesus finally led me to the crowd and I hugged them all. First, it was my mom and dad.

give a message to people on earth. And he told me it may take a while. Even my whole life. I want you to tell people to love one another and to take care of one another, and to be kind to one another, and always love another and look out for one another as I love you all. He spoke of that same love that a three year old child would bring their mother or father, and that they would have for the child, innocent love. No matter who people are, or what they believe or what they do,

they are worthy of love. And then I was taken aback by the fact that he said, now I'm going to send you back. After he told me all this, I thought, oh boy, how is this going to work. Even though I was confused and overwhelmed, I felt a little tired, and I fell asleep in the field. That's when I woke up in the intensive care unit. Through the glass, I could see my daughter and my son looking at me, crying, smiling, and I gave them a

thumbs up, letting them know that I'll be okay. After that experience, I lived my life humbly, and I know that it's okay not to be perfect, and that we all make mistakes. I wasn't religious before this experience, but I know and believe Jesus wants us all to know that we are loved very much. But the real message is he wants us all to learn to love each other. And that experience again is by John Carter. Let's go to our first break and then we'll be back with

another amazing and near death experience. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Pironormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain. Here is your next near death experience. This is told by Vincent Tolman, who had a near death experience at the age of twenty five. He was found dead in the bathroom of a small restaurant, and he had been dead for over a half an hour.

When the paramedics arrived. They put him in a body bag and took him away. Thankfully, a rookie paramedic had a feeling to risk his career, break all protocols and try to resuscitate Vincent. He started Vincent's heart and Vincent was in a coma for three days. Here's Vincent's story. I died on the bathroom floor of a Utah dairy queen on a cold night in January. My friend and I had taken a weight loss supplement that we had bought online, but the moment we consumed it, I knew

that there was something wrong. We rushed to the closest restaurant in the hope that some food would make us feel better. Instead, I started to feel extremely nauseous, so I locked myself in a bathroom cubicle. Suddenly, an ice cold chill came over my body, rushing over my thighs and into my chest, and then the world began to spin. I collapsed, and the next thing I knew, I was looking down at myself from above. This world felt like it had no ceiling, and as I watched, calmly, paramedics

rushed into the bathroom and worked on my body. I describe it as the body because I didn't recognize myself at first. The person I saw didn't look like me. His face was bright purple and had specks of yellow in it. It looked like a fake dead body. I watched his Emergency services tried to resuscitate the man, but shortly after they stopped and gave up. They zipped him up in a bright yellow body bag and carried him into the back of an ambulance. I kept following the

man as the ambulance drove off. About forty five minutes into the journey to the hospital, a medic who was on his first week of the job, decided to try to feel for a pulse one more time. After several minutes of checking and rechecking, the medics said he felt a faint pulse on my leg. He jumped into action and started feeding oxygen into my lungs and hooked up

a defibrillator. There were no results after the first shock wave, but after the second round he got one heartbeat, and after that another until he finally got a steady heartbeat. It was faint, but it was steady, and it was enough that it was sustaining life. When they wheeled the body into the hospital, it started seizing and vomiting. In an effort to restrain the arms and legs, they strapped them all on a bed. Suddenly, I felt someone strapping my left arm and it hit me the body was,

in fact my own. It felt so gut wrenching. How could I have been watching my own death this whole time. I was in a coma for three days, officially declared brain dead by the doctors. They told my family that I had little chance of survival. But in those three days, I believe I traveled to the other side. I first felt warmth starting to come from behind me, warming my back, and then all of a sudden, I could feel how important I was, and I could feel how loved I was.

There was nothing I could do to make myself more important or less important. I started seeing all of the good things I ever did. There was a lot of really good things I had done that I had forgotten about. There were times where I didn't know I was doing good, but I was doing good. So I got to see there was far more good than there was bad, and I started to feel that I was worth salvaging. And that's when I realized that this love was coming from

the direction behind me. So I turned around and I saw this man there, this amazing man, just dressed in white. And the first thought I had was this is God. And he laughed and said, no, I'm not God. I'm just your guide. I'm here to help you go wherever you want to go. And that's when we began our journey. So he went ahead and helped me understand I could go back to my body or I could go anywhere in the universe. I felt this profound love coming from him, and as I felt that love, I knew that was

something I really needed. It was something I didn't have in my life. So I asked him where's this energy coming from? And he explained that that was the energy of home. So I proceeded to say, Hey, let's go home. I want to go home. This life on earth was a life of abuse and trauma, and this love felt healing to me. My guide said I was already home and there was no place to go. Then he introduced

himself as Drake. Drake helped me understand that the most important thing in this life is being authentic, and I needed to find out who I authentically was. He helped me see that in my life there were different versions of me. One version of who I'd be with my mom and dad, another version of who I'd be with my friends, and another version of who I would be

going to work. He helped me understand that I could stitch together a core of who I was between all of these situations, and that was my true authentic self. Drake said, we can all grow the authentic aspects of who we are and that gets us ready to go home to heaven, because that's where we're all going. There's divine purpose in our life. The earth is like a classroom, not a courtroom. No matter what religion teaches you, it's

always been a classroom. But it's one of the hardest schools there is because there's so much resistance and so much hardship. You live a lot harder life here on earth, but you gain so much more than you do in other schools. I also learned that love was so important in life. Drake helped me understand that we can't feel love or even share love until we can be authentic and understand who we are and why we're here. Once I put those two things together, I could actually love

someone else and love myself. He helped me understand that our creator loves us all so much that our Creator has left us all with an inner voice. It could be called the spirit, It could be called intuition, and it could be called gut instinct. And if we want to, we can turn it on and we can strengthen it. Also. He also spoke about technology. Technology can either lift us up or tear us down. And if you're not sure what it's doing to you, it's probably tearing you down.

Technology is a form of energy, something that could be used for greater good or greater bad. The difference is up to us. I personally subscribe to something called the hour of Power, where I will make sure whatever I'm doing first thing in the morning for thirty minutes and the last thing I do for thirty minutes of the day is sacred time for me to remember who I am. We all are spiritual beings living a physical experience, so it's important for us to really set an intention and

set into motion love in that sacred space. And as we do that, we put really good stuff in there. We start transforming into a better person, into a great being, into the life we want to have, and it puts us in the driver's seat and not like. Drake helped me understand that this midway point of going to heaven, there's a fence in the middle, and the fence that slows everyone down is called prejudice. He helped me understand

that I needed to release all prejudice. And I said, Drake, you're talking to the one guy who has no prejudice in his life. I really believed that at the time I have two Korean sisters. I felt that I was the least racist person I knew and the least prejudiced person in the whole world. And he lovingly put his arm on my shoulder and said, Vinnie, I'm so grateful that you feel you don't have any prejudice, But how

do you feel about people who do have prejudices? And that's when I said, I'll tell you about prejudiced people. They are so closed minded, they're ridiculous. I can't believe they choose race or religion or lifestyle and ostracize and cut other people out. I told him I hated prejudiced people, so they should just let me get into heaven. He lovingly showed me that I was joining the prejudice team by hating prejudiced people. Then Drake showed me one of

the most prejudiced people I knew in my life. He showed me that other person's path and said, if I could walk a mile in their shoes, I would understand their feelings and why they are the way they are. But I still didn't agree with them in any shape or form, but I understood. He taught me that we can show love and poor love on the most prejudiced people in the world, and we can pull them out.

There's power in us, there's power in creation. There's power in our thoughts that we literally create with our thoughts. If we can control our thoughts, we can control our creation no matter what life is throwing at us. If we can control our thoughts, we can control the outcome. The next step towards my progress was to understand that if my thoughts could create, how important would it be

for me to avoid negative influences? Because if I put negative influences on my thoughts, I'll start thinking about negative things, and so I need to really seek out positive influences and experiences and avoid negative ones in all their forms. Negative influences can be entertainment, can be the news, they

can be some friends. There are different apps on our phone that increase trauma or increase reactivity to another and that was really important for me to understand that as we avoid negative influences, we also find that negativity has a purpose. Without a bad choice, there is no good choice. It's very important that we have the option of the negative so that we get to choose, because if we remove all bad choices, if we remove the negative, there's

nothing to be learned. We are here to learn. This is a classroom. The last thing I learned with Drake before I got into heaven was that we are all one. We're not one being, but we're one in unity, in purpose, in light, and in love. And for us to hurt or harm another, it only hurts ourselves. There's not a way to win. Everyone loses in the war. This is

a good time to take our break. Before he starts his next topic, Vincent continues his story of his near death experience, his insights from it, finding heaven on Earth, and who Drake ended up being. Let's go to the break and we'll be right back. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast, a m paranormal podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of

the Afterlife, Sandra Champlain. I'm telling the story of Vincent Tolman, who had a near death experience after taking a weight loss supplement at the age of twenty five. Paramedics had put him in a body bag thinking he was dead, and thankfully one paramedic knew better and was able to bring him back. Incredible story. Last he was talking about some insights while he was on the other side, including that our life is a classroom here on Earth, not

a courtroom, so let's continue. By the time I finished that last principle or understanding with Drake, I actually touched down in this tremendous place that's heaven, and yes, it's a very real place. I saw the most beautiful hills and mountains, and I could feel the love of our creator from just the grass. The grass itself loved every cell of who I was. I could feel the individual perception and understanding of each blade of grass. It was life changing because as I touched down into space, I

felt connection. I actually felt like I was a phone on low battery. There was a missing charger, and when I plugged in there, I felt like I was home, like that was my charger, and I could feel the energy exchange that was happening and all the healing that was happening to me. I got to see the trees and the flowers. I got to see the water. The water was my favorite of all of it. As I approached this edge of the little stream, the water asked me if it wanted it on me. Of course I

wanted it. I wanted the whole experience, whatever version I could get. I said, yes, yes, I want this, And so the water darted at my toes and started going all over my body. But it wasn't making me feel wet whatsoever. It made me feel warm but also cool. And everywhere that water touched I became whole and felt loved. I became perfected, and I became free of defect from

this life, this human life. And you know, I was raised in a very rough upbringing, so I had a lot of cracks and holes and abuse that needed healing. And I was allowed to receive this healing. And as I was experiencing all of that, my guide Drake came up to me, put his arm around me and looked me straight in the eyes and said, Bennie, this is going to be hard, but it is going to be worth it. And as he said that, I could feel him like reaching into my soul and brought me into

this giant hug. What we do on Earth when we connect, or we have sex or hug or have any it's just a tiny mimic of what a hug feels like in Heaven. It's way more beautiful than anything you can experience on this earthly plane, and right as we were ending that hug and starting to come apart, I heard this special blessing being given to my body. Now, meanwhile, I was in a coma for three days, and at the end of my third day, my brother was in my hospital room and he was giving my body a

special prayer. As he was saying that prayer, I was hearing it in my ear. I could see him standing by my body and saying a prayer over my body. I felt the tremendous love that my brother had for me. You know, my brother and me, we didn't always see eye to eye, but I felt so strongly how much he loved me. I felt the power of that love. And as I felt that power, I felt something pulling me and yanking me from my heaven space where I wanted to stay, and forcing me back into my body.

And by the time he said amen, I was back in my body. I woke up at one eleven in the morning. I yanked out all of the tubes that were going into me because I was extremely claustrophobic. I wanted out of that hospital, but it took about six and a half hours of them testing me to make sure I was okay and doing paperwork for me being released. That was three days I was in the coma and after that I was completely fine and healed. I was

even described as a miracle by my neurologist. That's where my experience takes a hard turn, because after that experience, I felt extremely depressed. I had been in heaven and now I'm on earth. I didn't want to be alive. I wanted to go back to my home. I didn't want to be here, and I kept hearing Drake in my mind saying, Vinnie, remember this is going to be very hard, but it's going to be worth it. So I stuck it out until I met my wife, Andrea,

and she was my saving grace. She was the one who helped me realize that there was heaven here on earth, and in her eyes I could see heaven. Then the strangest thing happened. I was at this little town in Wyoming where my grandmother lived, and I saw a history presentation. Then I saw my guide, Drake's picture come up on the screen. Now, it was just an old black and white photo, but it was him, no doubt about it.

But it didn't say his name was Drake. It said his name was Charles, but I recognized the last name and I knew it was my grandmother's maiden name. So I went to my grandmother and said, who is this Charles? And her exact response was, oh, you mean great Grandpa Drake. He's famous in our family. And my mind was blown. That did it. This was all a very real experience.

It wasn't a delusion, and it wasn't my imagination. And now I was fully able to take it and do something with it and make a difference for people with it. I am often asked if there is anything that happened during my experience that I don't normally talk about, and yes there is. I saw our future as a society and it looks way different than we are right now, and it's taken years and years for me to unpack how that transition happens from who we are now to

who we become. No matter what the news wants to tell you, no matter what Chicken Little is saying about the sky falling, I want you to know that our future is absolutely right and freaking amazing. Now, society and humanity choose the light. They choose not to exist in a cage of fear because if you allow fear to cage you, it will. And so somehow we get out of all of these cages of fear and we start building communities all over the world in love. These special locations,

build cities of light. That's our future, and I feel that it will start in my lifetime and we'll see those cities come together and start forming. I've now seen how that process happens. But the scary part is for most of the world is the process of getting ready for those cities of light. There's going to be a very big separation between fear and love. Most of the earth right now chooses the fear path. We jump into

those cages of fear for safety. But for me, I choose love because knowing that we don't die is one of the best gifts. I'm so excited when I get to finally go back home. I really wanted to stay in heaven. And when I have friends die or family members die, I know I will feel sad and feel sad for the survivors, absolutely, but I know they live on right now. I do have jealousy when someone dies, I know where they are. If you had my experience, you'd feel the same way. You'd want to be back

there with them celebrating. And that story is from a Vincent Tolman, and he has written a book and it's called The Light After Death, My Journey to Heaven and Back. Next, you'll hear Nurse Wanda Hawk tell her story. She does have a bird in the room, so if you hear some chirps in the background, you know what it is.

eight of us. There was Bob and his wife, and there two very small children who were still in diapers at the time, my mother and us three children. Oh, my brother was younger than me and he was in the boat also, So there was eight of us in the boat and we started out for a boat ride and somewhere along the way, the motor conked out and

the boat flipped over and nobody could swim. What I was told happened was my brother had a fake leather jacket that he's got really tight, and it got un air underneath it and acted as a life jacket for him, and apparently I was hanging on to him somehow underneath the water. They did what they had to to find everybody. When they found me, I was lifeless. I didn't see a light, I didn't see a stairway or anything like that. I ended up being in this room that was in

semi darkness. There were lots and lots of people in this room. I describe it now as a family reunion. It was like everybody knew me, and everybody was related to me, and some were friends and some were family, and there was just so much love. And it was like sitting by a fireplace with a warm quilt on. It was that much love. So I'm looking around and I'm a little confused, but I'm also very happy. And

suddenly I hear my grandmother's voice. Granny had died the year before, and she said to me, Wanda, it's not your time. You have to go back and I said to her, but Granny, I want to stay with you. And then I heard my father's voice, which was very confusing to me, and he said, no, one, it's time for you to go back, and I need you to promise me that you'll take care of your mother. I said, okay, Daddy, but I want to stay, and he said, no, it's

time to go back. I wanted to tell you what I was told happened while I was on the other side. The motor comped doubt, the boat started taking on water. My mother and Norah started to panic and they stood up when they realized the water was coming in the boat, and it was there standing up that flipped the boat and it was, as you know, capsized and the bottom was on the top. Nobody could swim, not Bob, not my mother, not Norah. None of us children had ever had swimming lessons at the time.

around to try to get closer to the area. They were able to find another boat eventually and get everybody as they could, but they didn't put mother back into the boat because they were afraid that that boat was also going to capsize. They were able to find Nora right away when the alarm was sounded, but it took over two days for them to find my father and

my sister. I just think it just shows the love that my father sacrificed to be able to get to my sister, because when they didn't find him, he was floating by this point, and when they went to pick him up, he literally had his arms around my sister and they were able to get them both together that way. It took maybe three days before I even saw my

mother again. One of my uncles came up and brought my brother and I back to the city, and we stayed with them until mother was able to come and tell us that Dad and Debbie were no longer with us. With the boat accident, Nora, she drowned, my sister drowned, and my father also, even though he was on the shore, ran around the lake and jumped past a swampy area and jumped into a boat that had no oars, so he started swimming towards where the boat had been overturned. Now,

my father was a very good swimmer. He used to swim the width of a river that she near our place, the Ottawa River, as a teenager, just for fun, so he was a very good swimmer. But by the time he had gotten to the boat, my sister had panicked and had already pulled down Bob's wife, Norah and as I said, she drowned. By the time my father got to Debbie, she also pulled him under and he also died.

So in that day we lost three people. But I had this really amazing life changing visions, near death experience, whatever people want to call it. People have told me all kinds of things over the years, but that was my first one as a child, and it really changed my life because as a nine ten year old girl, I would get myself up on Sundays and take myself

to Sunday school. Religion was a very strong part of my life for the whole of my life, and I really feel it's because of that interaction with minor death experience. I didn't see anybody that I would say was God or angels or anything like that. I think what I mostly felt was the overwhelming love, whether it come from my reunion family or from a higher source. Because I

was so young, I really couldn't tell you that. But as I said, because of that experience, it really did change my life life, believing in God and doing good things for people throughout my life. So this is my

second near death. I was very young. I was twenty twenty two, maybe working as a nurse full time and I needed to have my wisdom teeth out, but I was asthmatic at the time, and the dentist wasn't comfortable with doing it in the office, so he made arrangements for me to go to day surgery have all four of my wisdom teeth out, then they could monitor me

before they sent me home. So the day came and we ended up having to go to a small town about two hours from here in order to have it done because the waiting list was way too long for another to go to a hospital here in Ottawa. So I went and it was your usual prep and things went well in the surgery. I guess what happened was because of the anesthesia, I'd stopped breathing and my heart had stopped. In the recovery room, and remember I was

a nursed at the time. All the bells and whistles going off, and somebody bringing the crash cart over to the patient in the bed. I was standing in the corner and I was watching this and I'm thinking, oh, I better get over there and do my job. So I went over to the bed and I was getting very angry because I couldn't get in close to the bed to the patient. The people were all doing their things around me and get me this, and get me that, and keep doing this, and okay, take over CPR, you know,

the whole thing. But they wouldn't let me do my job, and it was really starting to piss me off. But the next thing you know, I'm up on the ceiling or from a higher plane and I'm looking down and it was like, oh, that's me. So I'm watching them working on me, and I'm listening to what they're saying, and I'm thinking wow, And I just watched from there. And so next thing you know, wop, I'm back in my body and I wake up and they say, take

it easy. You had a little complication after, but you're fine. Now. We're going to keep you under observation for a little while and then we're going to send you home. And I said, did my heart stop? I said, I died? And the doctor looked at me and said, what are you talking about? And I said, my heart stopped. I said, I saw you do the CPR. And he said, what do you mean. I said, I saw the crash card. I saw you guys working on me. He said, no, no, no, no,

you didn't see any of that. He said, Wanda, your nurse. You know how it goes the steps to get somebody going. You weren't gone for that long, but we got you going again, and you're fine. And then I looked at him straight in the eye and I said, now, I don't remember what I told him, but I told him something that he'd said to a nurse in the room while this was all going, and it was something that wasn't normal, not something that you would normally say in a code. And he looked at me and his face

just went white. He said, oh, and he couldn't get out of there fast enough. So I thought that was very interesting. I told my mother on the way home, and she had the same reaction as the doctor, and so I really didn't think much of it. But that really changed my life also, because, as I said, I was nursing at the time, and whenever I got the chance and there was a patient that I knew was near dying a few days away, or they didn't have a lot of family or that type of thing, the

staff knew where to find me. All the time. I would always be in that room, and I always found they were more peaceful, and so was I when I was in the room with them, And I'm not saying it's because it was me that was in the room, but it was because there was somebody there that cared, even if I had just met them the night before, or they came in three days ago, or they'd been in with us for a month actively dying. I spent that time with them, gently talking to them, assuring them

that things are all right. Soon they would be out of pain, and I'm right here, and anything I could do that I could think would make them comfortable. But mostly I just sat there and talked quietly or read a book. Sometimes I would just bring a book with me if it was the middle of the night. Which brings me to a very interesting phenomenon that happened not once, but twice. And I honestly believe that I saw two souls leave their body at the moment of death, and

both times were different. The first time, again, like I said, it was at the moment of death. Nurses know and practisers know that there's noises that bodies makes, and you know, the settling, and I hate the word, but they call it the death rattle. The first patient I saw something, it was just very much like, think of somebody who's vaping, who's just taken a big puff of their ease cigarette

and they're letting you go. And that's what I saw, was this mist rose from the body near the heart and it just floated and then dissipated in the air. And I thought, wow, And I took my stethoscope and put it on their heart and checked the time of death, the usual nursing things. The second time, I was again with a patient, and this time it was a woman. She was very chatty and very friendly when she was with us before, and that type of thing, and you

get to know their families. The family had decided that they were going to go and have a meal or go and get some rest or whatever, and I said, don't worry, I'm here. I'll watch over her. And so I did have a few minutes and I snuck into her room and I was sitting beside her, and I said, hey, miss Is, I'm here. The family's just gone out, but i'll be with you while you're here. And as I was sitting there, out of the corner of my eye, I literally see her sit up, not her the body,

but her an essence of her. I don't want to use the term ghost, but that's the best way I could describe it. It was just an essence of her. She literally sat up in the bed and she looked around, and then she got up on a plane that I didn't see, a level that I wasn't seeing myself. She stood straight up, and she turned around and she looked at herself, and then she just walked off. And again I checked her pulse and I checked her heart rate, and she was gone. That was very profound to me.

Sitting with the patients and being with them near their time was very special to me, and I found comfort for myself and I found a lot of peace with it. I don't necessarily tell that story very often, but when I say that I found it very peaceful to be

sitting with dying patients, they think I'm crazy. But I've noticed a trend in the last i don't know, ten or fifteen years that now there's something called a death doula, and I really feel like that's something that I would love to do, and I would love to be able to be given that chance and be able to have the gift of being with people as they are near the end and crossing over to their side and to their family, and to whatever they say is heaven to them.

I guess the biggest message I could give to anybody is you shouldn't fear dying. This is just an outer casing. This is just the wrapping that you happen to have in this lifetime. I always try to remind people that they're human. Don't look down on homeless people because they're human too. And they had family in front. They were somebody's son, they were somebody's daughter, They somebody's mother or father. They need to be treated with respect and dignity also.

And it's the hardest job I've ever loved.

I'm Sandra Champlain. Thank you so much for listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Paranormal Podcast Network.