I’m Floating - Flying Upward … to the Light

By Dr. Edith Fiore

Sometimes during a fifty minutes session a client dies three or even four times – all as different individuals. The individuals were the patients as he or she existed in previous lifetimes.

In most cases, the death experience is the event that is responsible for the person’s symptoms and problems. Previous deaths have affected us in many ways – some obvious, some subtle. A fall from a cliff results in a phobia of heights. A drowning, fear of water. Crashing a plane during a war engenders a fear of flying. Death from “consumption” during fire results in chronic lung problems. Being bayoneted during sleep, insomnia.

A few of my clients have shown a great fright at the prospect of going through their deaths under hypnosis. As one person asked, with genuine concern, “Do you think I might really die again?” We have to deal with the person’s fears about death – as with fears about any traumatic event – before we can proceed. The trust and confidence my clients feel in me are the most essential and valuable aspect of our work together. It’s an articles of faith with me never to push them into something they cannot handle emotionally. I use various techniques to minimize the discomfort of relived physical and emotional pain. Besides these techniques, I must sometimes introduce people to their first death little by little. It has never been necessary to do this more than once. At times I have them watch their death on the movie screen of their mind, as though watching someone else experience it. Then, gradually, they allow themselves more participation as we go through it again. Finally, they experience it fully and completely.

All that I shall show you corroborates the findings of Raymond A. Moody M.D. His book Life After Life is based on interviews with over a hundred people who “died” during operations, illness or accidents. Their descriptions of their experiences before resuscitation are virtually identical to those of my clients under hypnosis – except that many of my clients recall events in the interim between lifetimes whereas Moody’s do not. And for obvious reasons. His patients never made the transition complete. His patients chose not to die or were forced to return. Interestingly, the ancient “Tibetan Book of the Death” also portray many of the same events my clients have described.

One of the outstanding features in account of the death experience is that consciousness continues without a break. Also every client has described a release from physical and/or emotional pain at the moment of death – sometimes just before. If a person is dying of starvation, for example, there is no hunger. If the problem is lung congestion, often the first utterance is “I can breathe!”

This article describes the experience of dying and also includes numerous brief excerpts from transcripts that illustrate both the individuality and similarity of various death experiences.

A man in his thirties regressed to a life in which he murdered his adulterous wife. He was killed in the gas chamber for his crime.
Client A: “I can’t let them see that I care.” (His face breaks out in beads of sweat.)
Doctor: “Tell me how you feel. I won’t tell them.”
Client A: “They’re trappin’ me in.” (His body and voice trembling.)
Doctor: “Go on to the moment of your death at the count of three. One … two ... three.”
Client A: “It’s all over with … peaceful.”
The same client in another lifetime found himself in a foxhole during World War II.
Client A: “… I died again … shot in the neck.” (His body literally jerks. He grabs his neck.)
Doctor: “How did it feel to die?”
Client A: “I just jerked.”
Doctor: “Did you feel anything?”
Client A: “No pain.”
Doctor: “Are you in the spirit body?”
Client A: “Hm-hmm.”
Doctor: “How does that feel?”
Client A: “Oh, better.”


In a past life, a young woman found her wagon train attacked by Indians who eventually scalped and raped her, leaving her to die. After a long silence she said:
Client B: “I can see myself lying there.”
Doctor: “How do you feel?”
Client B: “It’s over.” (Her voice and face experience relief.)
Doctor: “Do you still feel the pain?”
Client B: “No.”
Doctor: “How do you feel?”
Client B: “Fine … and that’s it.” (Smiling.)


A woman describes the moment of her death. She has just been run over by a team of horses and a carriage.
Doctor: “Now I’m going to ask you to go right to the moment of your death at the count of three. One … two … three. Tell me what you’re experiencing.”
Client C: “Just letting go.”
Doctor: “Tell me how that feels.”
Client C: “Ahh … it feels good.”
Doctor: “Tell me more.”
Client C: “I feel lighter … I don’t feel heavy anymore.”
Doctor: “What else are you aware of?”
Client C: “I feel free.”
Doctor: “Where is your body?”
Client C: “On the ground.”
Doctor: “Where are you?”
Client C: “Just looking at it.”
Doctor: “From what viewpoint?”
Client C: “Just above it.”
Doctor: “How does your body look to you?”
Client C: “looks rumpled.”
Doctor: “What emotions are you aware of?”
Client C: “Feel relief.”


A woman in her twenties, with a weight problem, died of starvation in a previous life at the age of fifty-seven after being sick and very poor.
Doctor: “How long have you had this problem of not eating because of no money?”
Client D: “Oh … a few years. I don’t know how long …. I don’t feel well.” (Tears flowing down her face.)
Doctor: “Now I’d like you to move ahead a day. I’m going to count to five. One … two … three … four … five. Tell me what you are experiencing.”
Client D: “I’m dying.” (Whispering.)
Doctor: “Go to the moment of your death. One … two … three … four … five.”
Client D: (Silence.)
Doctor: “Margaret, what’s happening to you now?”
Client D: “I’m dead … and I’m not hungry anymore.” (Her voice stronger.)
Doctor: “How do you feel now that you’re dead?”
Client D: “I feel good.”


One of the most moving death experiences I have ever witnessed evolved from a distressing series of events. A woman in her early thirties was exploring under hypnosis the origin of her panic on numerous occasions when she smelled a certain odor, especially if she was in a small room or enclosure at the time. She began our session by describing such an intense degree of panic that she was nearly fainting, very nauseous and was sick for several days afterward. She had innocently stepped into an elevator that had just been cleaned. The smell of disinfectant was still heavy in the air.

Her search for the cause of the reaction led us to Nazi Germany in the early nineteen forties. After describing a life filled with terrifying events, she found herself herded into a cattle car where she was almost crushed in the darkness by many other terrified Jews. The odor of excrement was stifling. There were no windows for air or light. After what seemed an eternity, but actually was three days, the train stopped. She stepped out into the blinding daylight and was led by guards to a place where she and the others were told to strip in preparation for bathing. There were rumors! There was fear! She was extremely frightened as she undressed, putting her shoes in one big pile of shoes of all kinds, her wedding ring in another pile, her dress in still another. Trembling, she followed the others into a large room.

Doctor: “What is happening now?”
Client E: “They close the door.”
Doctor: “You ‘re all in one room?”
Client E: “Yes.” (Whispering.)
Doctor: “Who close the door?”
Client E: “The guards. I think.”
Doctor: “You say you’re too tight to take baths. What do you mean?”
Client E: “Close together.”
Doctor: “Are you touching anyone? Are you that close, or could you spread your arms out”
Client E: “I can move about. But it’s crowded!”
Doctor: “Tell me what you see in this room.”
Client E: “No windows … the floor is cement. I feel it on my feet … it’s cold ….”
Doctor: “Is there any light?”
Client E: “No it’s very dark.”
Doctor: “So you’re in total darkness?”
Client E: “Yes.”
Doctor: “And now what are you thinking and feeling? Remaining really relax, deeper and deeper with each breathe ….”
Client E: (Breathing hard. The pulse in her neck racing.)
Doctor: “What are people doing?”
Client E: “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem very clear anymore.”
Doctor: “Now I’m going to ask you to just relax, breathe in golden light for the next minute or so, concentrate on breathing in golden light. I’m going to count again to ten. As I do, your inner mind will double the relaxation. Just concentrate on breathing in golden light, beautiful, relaxing golden light and by the time we reach ten you will be profoundly relaxed. You will be able to remember, experiencing freely. Meanwhile just relaxing deeper and deeper … one … two … three … four … five … six … seven … eight … nine … ten. And now, Leah, tell me more about this room that you’re in. What are the people doing?”
Client E: “I smell something again.”
Doctor: “what is it like?”
Client E: “Disinfectant. There’s vents and it’s coming from that”
Doctor: “What did you say?”
Client E: “Vents (Her body trembles.). People are starting to move away from them … crowding and … and getting away.”
Doctor: “How far are you from the vents?”
Client E: “Quite away, but they’re shoving back against me.”
Doctor: “What are they doing besides moving ? Are they saying anything?”
Client E: “People are yelling and shouting and screaming.”
Doctor: “What are they saying as they yell and shout and scream?”
Client E: “I don’t know.”
Doctor: “Listen and hear. I’m going to count to three, and hear what they say. One … two … three.”
Client E: (Silence.)
Doctor: “What comes to mind?”
Client E: “Oh, no! People say. And … and. My God!” Some people say.”
Doctor: “What do you do? What are you doing?”
Client E: “I don’t – I don’t know. I don’t have any sense of it.”
Doctor: “Now what are you aware of? What’s happening now with people?”
Client E: “I slipped and fell.”
Doctor: “How did that happen?”
Client E: “I just feel strange.”
Doctor: “Tell me about that. Tell me how you feel just before you slip and fall. What are you feeling and what are you thinking?”
Client E: “I’m engulfed in terror.”
Doctor: “Now what’s happening?”
Client E: “Tangled mass of bodies … and excrement.”
Doctor: “Where are you?”
Client E: “I don’t know.”
Doctor: “Just become aware of what you feel, what you’re experiencing. Where do you feel you are in this tangles mass of bodies?”
Client E: “I feel I’m looking down on it. Now I just feel confused.”
Doctor: “Can you see?”
Client E: “Yes.”


Occasionally client weep after their death as they look down and see relatives grieving. The sadness is always for others, not for the person they were – no matter how traumatic their deaths are. Rarely, they may be momentarily upset when they look down and see their body; however, within seconds they express relief. It’s as though the release from the agony, and the newly experienced joy and ecstasy overcome the past suffering. For many, death is a rather slipping into a different – better – state.

Almost all people experiencing dying under hypnosis use the word “floating” to describe the immediate bodily sensations after death. They feel themselves rising into the air and viewing the scene below. They report hearing loud noises – ringing, buzzing, celestial music. A few have experienced going through a tunnel with a light at the other end.

Almost universally, clients report being alone in the spirit state immediately after death. After the sensation of floating, often within a few seconds, the presence of spiritual guides or a “guardian angel” is felt. Many experience them as a bright light – but a light with a benign, loving essence – there to help. Sometimes, the transition is aided by more definitive entities. The person is often greeted by deceased relatives or friends and, in one case, by a faithful dog the person had owned years before. Many times this evokes an emotional reaction of weeping with joy.


Roger, died during the jousting match.
Client F: “Well, it’s like a … a warmth went through my circulatory system … through my whole body … and I saw a white light and floated away.”
Doctor: “Tell me more about that. Where are you?”
Client F: “I was lying face down and then I floated down … floated up and … at first, for about three feet … and then I floated upright … just floated away.”
Doctor: “What does that mean to you?”
Client F: “Well, it means I died.” (Short laugh.)
Doctor: “What’s happening now?”
Client F: “Just relief. A feeling of warmth through my whole body and release in my body.”
Doctor: “What do you see?”
Client F: “Well, I see the whole area. I can see everything.” (Smiling.)

Roger described another death in another lifetime, this one from a stabbing during an argument at the gambling table.
Client F: “I’m really dead. I just … focused into a beam of light … and immediately was far happier, strangely enough … expansion and release … flying upward … to the light.”
Doctor: “Tell me more about it. Were you aware of your body as you were doing that?”
Client F: “I floated out of my body almost instantly.”
Doctor: “Did you feel any pain as you were being stabbed?”
Client F: “I felt sharp pain in the back … ripping.”
Doctor: “And what came next?”
Client F: “The light.”
Doctor: “Tell me about the light. What was it like?”
Client F: “It was a burst of light that – that just hits on my – like I couldn’t – couldn’t see anything anymore, just the light, and it was small and then it expanded very quickly. I just floated up and expanded into the light.”
Doctor: “Did you have any feeling about the light another than it being a light?”
Client F: “Warm.”
Doctor: “It’s warm in what sense?”
Client F: “It’s warm. It’s just physically warm.”
Doctor: “Do you have any other feeling about it?”
Client F: “It is friendly … and good.”
Doctor: “Is there anyone or anything there with you?”
Client F: “Friends of the family … waiting for me.”


A young woman was in treatments for severe headaches. During the course of a past-life regression she went through the major events in life as an aristocrat during the French Revolution. At the age of sixteen, she was captured by soldiers as she was escaping with her nanny at night. Her parents had already been arrested the day before. She describes the scene at the guillotine:
Client G: “I’m kneeling down.”
Doctor: “Is anyone there with you?”
Client G: “The soldiers.”
Doctor: “Tell me what happening now?”
Client G: (Sounds of labored breathing.)
Doctor: “What are your last thoughts?”
Client G: “Thinking how happy I was … how I wish I could live … marry and have children.” (Suddenly she jerks her head violently.)
Doctor: “Where is your head now? And your body now?”
Client G: “… They are separated.” (Sounding surprised.)
Doctor: “What did it feel like when the blade struck your neck?”
Client G: “It’s horrible painful.”
Doctor: “And now what are you experiencing?”
Client G: (Long silence) “I’m not … sad anymore … feel happy.”
Doctor: “Are you still in your body?”
Client G: “No.”
Doctor: “Are you there by yourself in spirit form?”
Client G: “No, my guides have come.” (Her face softens.)
Doctor: “What do they say to you? What do they communicate to you?”
Client G: “They have come to take me home.”
Doctor: “How many are there?”
Client G: “Five.”
Doctor: “Do they look familiar to you?”
Client G: “Yes, of course.”
Doctor: “Why is that?”
Client G: “Because they’re my guides. They’re always there when I come.”
Doctor: “They are the same one who are always there?”
Client G: “Yes.”
Doctor: “Is anybody else there? Are other spirits whom you recognize other than your guides?”
Client G: “Yes, my parents.”
Doctor: “Do they communicate with you?”
Client G: “Yes, they help me know that they don’t have any more pain.”


Margaret, a woman in her mid-fifties, had suffered for years from a phobia of heights. Even as a child she had recurrent nightmares of falling, always awakening before she reached the bottom. Her husband had recently suggested a trip to Europe. Her reaction was panic and despair. How she would love to go. But flying was out of question! We were hoping to solve the problem in time for her husband’s vacation, a few months in the future.

This was a particularly intriguing problem because we had quiet inadvertently discovered while working on another symptom that in a former lifetime she had also a phobia of heights. (It is not uncommon to see a symptom carried through several prior existences.)

After quite a lot of resistance to regressing, she found herself in a dirigible in the early nineteen hundreds. She was young Dutchman, Hans, who was the navigator of an experimental military airship. A great deal of turbulence forced the dirigible off its course and out over the ocean. Lightening struck it. It burst into flames and broke in two. Horrified, Hans watched the captain and the other crew member tumble out as the craft started to fall. Clinging to a metal rigging, he said:
Client H: “I’m hanging on to flame ….”
Doctor: “How do you feel?”
Client H: “Terrified.” (Her face is contorted.)
Doctor: “Tell me what’s happening now?”
Client H: “Losing my grip … and I let go.”
Doctor: “How do you feel as you let go?”
Client H: “Falling ….”
Doctor: “How does that feel?”
Client H: “It seems as though I’m falling very, very rapidly … and the water is coming closer and closer and I’m screaming ….”
Doctor: “Do you have any thoughts as you scream?”
Client H: “I know I’m going to die … and I’m frightened. I don’t like … I don’t like it and the water is coming up very, very fast … and when I hit it my neck breaks.”
Doctor: “You feel that happening? How are you falling? What is your position?”
Client H: “Just short of tumbling.”
Doctor: “What hits first?”
Client H: “My head.”
Doctor: “what are you aware of?”
Client H: “I think I was … I think it’s over very fast.”
Doctor: “And now what are you aware of?”
Client H: (Deep sigh.)
Doctor: “What are you aware of now, Hans?”
Client H: “Oh, my body is sinking down into the water ….”
Doctor: “Where are you? What are you aware of and where are you?”
Client H: “I’m just watching.”
Doctor: “Where are you watching from?”
Client H: “From under the water, beneath the water.”
Doctor: “What are you watching?”
Client H: “I’m just watching it float down, down … like a – like a rag doll.”
Doctor: “And now what are you aware of?”
Client H: “That I don’t want to be there anymore.”
Doctor: “And what do you do?”
Client H: “I just leave … I just shoot up to the surface.”
Doctor: “And then?”
Client H: “And then I keep right on going.”
Doctor: “How does that feel?”
Client H: “Fine. I can see … (Clear throat.) … I can see pieces of the wreckage floating on the water.”
Doctor: “And how do you feel about that?”
Client H: “Well, I’m … annoyed. It’s a waste.”
Doctor: “Tell me more?”
Client H: “Oh, I don’t know ….”
Doctor: “Are you alone?”
Client H: “Yes, I … I … there are others but … umm … we’re not talking.”
Doctor: “Who are the others?”
Client H: “They are the – they’re the crew.”
Doctor: “And they were where you are?”
Client H: “They’re … not there physically, but they’re … I know they’re there.”
Doctor: “Can you see them?”
Client H: “No, but we can communicate.”
Doctor: “Is there anyone, anything else there?”
Client H: “No, we just … we’re going somewhere else now.”
Doctor: “Where is that?”
Client H: “I don’t know … but we’re … we’re all going.”


Another woman client died as an abbot in a contemplative monastery in Italy in the fifteen hundreds. At the moment of his death he said:
Client I: “It’s peace.”
Doctor: “And what are you aware of?”
Client I: “Floating.”
Doctor: “Do you see anything?”
Client I: “It’s like I am in … the universe.” (Her voice is full of awe.)
Doctor: “Can you see your body?”
Client I: “It’s just like it’s floating … and there’s no pain, just floating
Doctor: “Are you alone
Doctor: “It’s like I’m going to meet someone. I’m alone but I don’t feel … alone.”


A few minutes after being clubbed to death, Becky, experienced:
Client J: “It’s my family”
Doctor: “Tell me what you see?”
Client J: “(Crying.) They’re waiting for me.”
Doctor: “Why are you crying?”
Client J: “I’m happy.”
Doctor: “Tell me what you see – whom you see.”
Client J: “My sisters and my parents.” (Whispering.) “They must have been killed.”
Doctor: “How do they look?”
Client J: (No answer.)
Doctor: “Do they look as they did when they were alive?”
Client J: “Yeah.”
Doctor: “Do they look exactly like that?”
Client J: “More vaporous.”
Doctor: “What is their expression?”
Client J: “They are welcoming me.” (Smiling.)
Doctor: “Now is there anything or anyone else there, too? Look around and see.”
Client J: “There‘s a very bright light.”
Doctor: “Where is it?”
Client J: “Off in the distance.”
Doctor: “Tell me about it. Do you have any feeling about it?”
Client J: “It’s warm. It’s welcoming.” (With a blissful expression on her face.)
Doctor: “All right. Let’s see if you go to it.”
Client J: “I’m still with my family.”
Doctor: “What are they doing?”
Client J: “Hugging me.”
Doctor: “Is there anyone else around?”
Client J: “No.”
Doctor: “And now what? What are you experiencing now?”
Client J: “Happiness.”


A woman suffering from depression died of starvation in her last incarnation.
Doctor: “Are you alone?”
Client K: (Whispering.) “No, there seems to be some people coming.”
Doctor: “Who are they?”
Client K: “Friends … and my mom.”
Doctor: “How do you feel when you see them?”
Client K: “Happy.”
Doctor: “Tell me about them?”
Client K: “They are hugging me.”
Doctor: “How do they look?”
Client K: “Well, my mother looks very old. I haven’t seen her in a long time. But she doesn’t wear glasses”
Doctor: “Did she used to wear glasses?”
Client K: “Yes, and she … she says that she doesn’t look the way I’m seeing her, but I have to get used to her.”
Doctor: “Is there anybody there whom you don’t know?”
Client K: “There a few that are there that I don’t really know. But everything’s fine.”
Doctor: “How are they dressed?”
Client K: “They have robes on. My mother’s the only one with a dress on and an apron.”
Doctor: “What about your body? What is your body like?”
Client K: “It’s not shriveled up like it was.”
Doctor: “Is it like a solid human body?”
Client K: “No, it’s like I can see lights on my body. I don’t really see anything other than a form – but I feel good.”

Several clients have reported their spirits’ mocking of the assailants or murderers. The following brief excerpts shows an instance of this kind of behavior. A woman client traced her allergy that affected her lungs and sinuses back to a death in a jungle.
Client L: “I’m in a jungle and it’s very hot.”
Doctor: “What are you doing in the jungle?”
Client L: “I’m pursued by some cannibals … they want to eat me.”
Doctor: “Tell me about yourself?”
Client L: “I’m a tall, strong warrior, very black.”
Doctor: “Did you say you were a warrior?”
Client L: “A warrior.”
Doctor: “And you’re very black?”
Client L: “Very black and I’m very strong.” (With pride in her voice.)
Doctor: “What is your name?”
Client L: “Wanna.”
Doctor: “Wanna, you said you were being pursued? Tell me about that.”
Client L: “There’s other warriors chasing me through … through the jungle and it’s very hot, humid … water’s running down my body. (Breathing fast.).”
Doctor: “Do you know who the people are who are pursuing you? Have you seen them?”
Client L: “They’re other black … warriors … from another tribe. I want to say Utse tribe.”
Doctor: “Utse?”
Client L: “I … (Gasping.) … I’m just running and I can’t catch my breath.”
Doctor: “Why is that?”
Client L: “The air seems too oppressive like there’s gas or … very dank … and I trip and fall into some quicksand and … and I’m being swallowed up.” (Panicky.)
Doctor: “Now where are the others who were pursuing you?”
Client L: “I can hear them yelling, shouting, and I’m struggling in this quicksand … and I can’t get out and I keep struggling and struggling.”
Doctor: “What are you aware of now?”
Client L: “It’s in my throat.” (Voice straining.) “It’s just coming up to my nose, I just can’t … I’m just going.” (Sweat breaking on her face.)
Doctor: “What are your thoughts?”
Client L: “What a way – what to go. No … honor.” (gasping for breath.)
Doctor: “And now where is the quicksand?”
Client L: “It’s going into my nose. It’s horrid … smell and putrid … I keep struggling and the weight is so heavy on me … (Struggling.) I can’t move (Grimacing.).”
Doctor: “Can you breath at this point?”
Client L: “No, I’m … I finally give up … and just sink.”
Doctor: “What are you experiencing as you sink?”
Client L: “Peace (Her whole body relaxes.). I can hear my heart pound in my ears and I just feel that my nostrils and mouth … and it’s just got this gritty, gritty sand … it kind of burns and … it’s fading away and I’m overcome with peace and I finally just give up.” (Her voice is peaceful.)
Doctor: “And then what happens?”
Client L: “And then I die.”
Doctor: “And now what are you aware of?”
Client L: “Relaxation. It seems like I’m momentarily watching myself sink and then I see warriors come and I … it looks like my spirit is laughing, like I finally beat them out.” (Smiling broadly.)
Doctor: “Are you aware of your spirit?”
Client L: “No, and my spirit doesn’t stay long. It just stays there for a moment and watches the warriors and feel amused that they didn’t catch him, catch me … and then I float away.”

Margaret, whom you met earlier, found that several lifetimes were contributing to her phobias of flying and of heights. Under hypnosis, she regressed into a lifetime as young male Oriental, Wong Tu. She described an extremely primitive existence. Wong Tu lived in a thatched hut with an aged, wizened and deeply beloved grandmother. One day there was simply nothing left to eat. Others in the village could not share their dwindling reserves. Wong Tu crossed a footbridge strung between two mountains and crept down the mountainside into another village. He quickly grabbed a prize - a chicken – and dashed up the mountain again, with outraged villagers in hot pursuit. He began running across the swaying footbridge, a chicken in one hand, the other gliding along the rope. The small pieces of bamboo that comprised the flooring were dangerously slippery because of a heavy fog. Much to Wong’s horror the men stopped their pursuit and started shaking the bridge with all their might. Formerly he had no fear when he crossed the bridge on numerous occasions. I asked him how he feels now.

Client H: “I’m frightened … I … I let go of the chicken, so that I can hold on with both hands … but I … I’m … my foot slips from under me … and I’m hanging there from the … from the rope on one side, on the left side of the bridge and I ….”
Doctor: “What are your feelings as this is happening, Wong?”
Client H: “I’m beginning to scream for help and they just keeping shaking … the ropes on the bridge … and I can see way, way down. It’s all rocks, way down, so far down rocks and water ….”
Doctor: “What are you thinking now, Wong?”
Client H: (Shaking violently.) “I’m falling.”
Doctor: “How do you feel as you’re falling?”
Client H: “I’m just falling.” … (Deep sigh.) … seems like I’m falling forever.
Doctor: “What thought go thorough your mind as you’re falling?”
Client H: “I’m … I don’t know ….”
Doctor: “Now, what is happening, Wong?”
Client H: “I can see my body falling but I’m … I’m not afraid anymore. It’s as though I were floating.”
Doctor: “Just watch your body and tell me what you see happening to it.”
Client H: “It falls onto rocks ….”
Doctor: “How do you feel as you see that happening? What are you aware of?”
Client H: “I … my face is down on the rocks but I don’t – I don’t feel anything. I was very … I was very afraid, but not … I’m … I’m just surprised.”
Doctor: “Where do you feel like you are?”
Client H: “I don’t know where I am. (Puzzled.) I’m just floating around. The body was falling but I stopped falling. I feel like …(Long pause.).”
Doctor: “And now I’d like you to move forward in time to the next significant event. Staying in the spirit state … one … two … three … four … five. What are you aware of?”
Client H: “I’m looking at my grandmother and she’s there, waiting for me to come … and there’s no food … and .. she sort of sits in a squatting position and puts her hands around her knees. She’s very old and she’s hungry and now she won’t … won’t live much longer because she doesn’t have food. She doesn’t have me to help her … and that makes me feel sad … but I don’t think I’ll … I don’t think, she really minds … because she’ll be (Deep sigh.) … she’s ready to leave that world anyway.”
Doctor: “Are you with anyone in the spiritual state?”
Client H: “No.”
Doctor: “Any friends?”
Client H: “No.”
Doctor: “I’d like you to move forward to the next significant event, just staying in your spiritual state. One … two … three … four … five. Where are you now and what are you experiencing?”
Client H: “Nothing.”
Doctor: “Does anything come to mind?”
Client H: “No.”
Doctor: “Speak out your thoughts. What are you experiencing?”
Doctor: “I don’t know … regret?”
Doctor: “Tell me what you mean by that.”
Client H: “I don’t know.”
Doctor: “I’d like you to move forward to the time when you are with your grandmother again. One … two … three … four … five. What are you experiencing now.”
Client H: “Well, she’s … I’m waiting for her and she’s … she is dying of starvation but she is … I can communicate with her.”
Doctor: “What have you communicated so far with her?”
Client H: “I tell her not to be afraid and not to worry and that we’ll be together soon, and she says she will be happy to be with me … that’s all.”
Doctor: “Go to the moment of her death at the count of five. One … two … three … four … five. Tell me what you’re seeing now.”
Client H: “She … I see her standing beside her own body looking down at it … and I call to her and she turns away from it and she moves in my direction very rapidly as though she were on a … oh … some … just moves very rapidly right through, through space .”
Doctor: “How does she look?”
Client H: “She looks much better than … she looks the same as she did before … she looks the same as she did … before I stole the chicken … before she died of starvation. She’s still old, but she … she looks happy and she’s smiling and she has her hands out to me … and sort of … can’t really touch her but I can see her.”
Doctor: “Do you communicate with her?”
Client H: “Yes.”
Doctor: “Tell me about that. How do you communicate and what do you communicate?”
Client H: “Oh, we communicate our thoughts.”
Doctor: “What are you saying or what are you communicating to her?”
Client H: “Just that I’m glad that she’s with me. Then I told her about the chicken because she never did know what happened to me … why I didn’t come back.”
Doctor: “What is she communicating to you?”
Client H: “She says that we’ll be together now, always. She’s smiling.”
Doctor: “Are you alone, the two of you?”
Client H: “Yes.”
Doctor: “And now what’s happening?”
Client H: “We’re just sort of moving along together now.”
Doctor: “How are you moving?”
Client H: “Just moving.”
Doctor: “Slowly or rapidly?”
Client H: “Slowly now that she’s here.”

Many of my clients have told me that going through the death experience has a profound and awakening effect on them. It was a peak experience, a highlight in this life. For those who believe in life after death, it was reassuring, almost constituting proof, it was often awe-inspiring.

For those who didn’t believe, it often triggered a chain reaction, with a shaking of old convictions and ending with dramatic changes in basic philosophical beliefs. People were moved to read everything they could find to try to substantiate their own personal experience. For some it created conflicts with their religious convictions. These people resolved these conflicts by growing – thinking for themselves. They felt comfortable and relax, as they realized they wouldn’t be damned as sinners if they began to question.

For most, it dispelled the fear of death, a fear that seems really to be the fear of the pain of dying, the fear of leaving loved ones behind and, ultimately, the fear of the unknown. After experiencing their own deaths, their fears dissipated. In fact, many reported preferring the afterlife to their present lives.

The feature that emerged most consistently was the inner, personal feeling of survival after death. As one client put it, “It’s wonderful to know that when we die, it’s just another beginning.”