7 Revelations about Life, Death, Love and Greed from My NDE

Note: If you adhere to strict religious doctrines (including atheism), this account may feel heretical to you. I did not write this to challenge your path, so please accept it as just one man’s story.

When I was 25, I sustained an injury that put me in the hospital for two weeks. From the moment of impact to the moment I arrived in the operating room, more than six hours passed. I lost a lot of blood.

During this time I had a Near Death Experience (NDE).

The things that were revealed to me caused me to feel a great weight being lifted from my shoulders. I share some of these things with you in hopes you may find some comfort too.

But first, let’s get a few things out of the way.

1. The details of the incident are irrelevant to this discussion. Millions of people experience traumatic events every year. Suffice it to say that my type of event happens a lot.
2. If you are curious about how, when and why people leave their bodies — and whether it’s “real” or just a natural hallucination of a dying brain — I am not an expert. But there is a wealth of information out there from those who are. Regardless of what causes NDEs, these revelations have stood the test of time, at least for me.
3. I see no value in discussing what I “saw” (tunnels, bright lights, angels, etc.). Our spirits are pure energy and aren’t equipped with eyeballs. So what we “see” during an NDE is highly subjective. Again, there’s a wealth of information available on this topic. All I know is I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been said.

Here some things I discovered during my NDE.

1. Belief does not require effort.
   I used to expend great emotional effort to believe my parents’ religion. It did not work. I always had a nagging “what if” in the back of my noggin. Now I expend zero effort on my faith. I just know what I know. It’s as if it was implanted like a SIM card gets put in a phone. I discovered that if you have to try at it, it’s not a belief. It’s someone else’s propaganda.
2. God interacts with us in the plural.
   One way to think of it is the use of the Royal We. But this metaphor breaks down quickly because it implies that God might be a dictator, which is incorrect. It’s more of a sense of receiving unity. The feeling of separation, and the anxieties that accompany it, falls away.
3. Physical life results from a single metaphysical desire that feels like an ongoing choice when placed in time.
   Prior to my NDE, this concept would have melted my brain.
   Some say that if God were to stop thinking about the universe it would cease to exist. This is true only from our time-based perspective where God needs time to think. This is incorrect. God is. That is all. Physical life occurs when our larger beings (some call it higher selves) desire to manifest. There is no time element. Either the desire exists or it doesn’t. It just is. It only feels like an ongoing choice to us because we endure the time aspect of it while we have a physical body. This realization makes it so much easier to bide time.
4. The time of our physical death is sometimes optional.
   I was presented with the opportunity to tap out. I could have allowed myself to die with no repercussions. Knowing my injuries, but not being sure of the extent of the damage, I bargained (or so I thought) for a specific level of ambulation for the rest of my life, before I’d commit to staying on Earth. My request was granted, so I chose to stay. Facing life’s challenges is far easier now that I know I chose to do so.
5. God’s is Love and Love has an infinite sense of humor.
   During my bargaining, I expected to lose the use of a limb. I mean, it seemed quite obvious to me, which is why I bargained for the kind of recovery I wanted. Well, the joke was on me. I did not imagine there would be a Chicago-seasoned trauma surgeon available to me at the exact time I needed him in the middle of nowhere. Call it providence or God’s will. Either way, my silly bargaining is hilarious and God Loved it and me with all the humor of the universe. I still feel it.
6. Greed is neutral.
   It is not good or bad. It is necessary for the universe to expand. Put another way, the universe is “greedy” for more size and space. But Earth is not expanding and we are subject to its boundaries and limits. Prior to my NDE, not understanding this, I always wanted more. During my NDE I saw how unchecked greed would utterly defeat my goals here on Earth.
7. We signed up for Life. Literally.
   My larger self accepted the challenge of what I was born into. I wanted to see what I could make of it. This became crystal clear during my NDE. It isn’t a test. It’s an experience I want. This was a very difficult discovery for me. Perhaps that’s why I chose to stay. Sometimes, I still find myself railing against it. And this tells me I still have work to do.