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HarperTrueFate
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First published by HarperTrueFate 2014
FIRST EDITION
Text © Jacky Newcomb 2014
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Cover layout © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014
Jacky Newcomb asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
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Ebook Edition © October 2014 ISBN: 9780007583928
Version: 2014-10-08
Contents
Chapter 2: Journey to Heaven and the New Life of the Spirit
Chapter 3: Visits from the Afterlife
Chapter 1
Many years ago, when I was a child, I was lying in the dentist’s chair when I had an extraordinary experience. I’d been given gas – nitrous oxide (laughing gas, as it’s sometimes called due to the giggles people can get with smaller quantities) – and had been unconscious. I remember being in a tunnel, which was spinning, and various people were travelling through it towards a bright light at the end. I remember most clearly a couple were ballroom dancing towards the light, but others were sitting or standing around the edges of the tunnel. I felt euphoric.
Being in this tube of light was amazing. I wanted to keep travelling towards the light but all of a sudden I could hear my name being called. ‘Come on, Jacky, it’s all over now. You can wake up …’ followed by, ‘She doesn’t seem to want to wake up. Give her more oxygen.’ Then I was back. Mum had been called in from the waiting room to help rouse me and I always wondered: did something go wrong or was this a natural side effect of the gas?
Years later I studied near-death experiences and realised that what I had been through that day was very similar to what people who’ve been brought back from the very brink of death have described. The tunnel I found myself in seemed just like those I’d read about in others’ true-life stories, and I mentioned it briefly in another book I wrote on the subject, Heaven. During my research I’ve discovered that I’m not alone!
During near-death experiences, or NDEs as they are also known, there are many types of phenomenon that people go through. When the physical body ‘dies’, even momentarily, you’d assume that nothing would be happening to that person – they are dead, after all! Yet nothing could be further from the truth. When all activity stops in the body (no heartbeat, no blood pressure, etc.), the soul continues to exist and begins its own journey. What happens next is astounding, and this is what I’d like to look at with you in this book.
It’s true that some people experience nothing during the time of physical death (of those whose heart is started again and come back to tell us, I mean). Yet others experience an out-of-body sensation; they feel their spirit is floating up and away from their physical body, free and detached as a separate entity. Of these, some explain how they immediately become very aware of their surroundings and can hear what is happening around them. It’s common, for example, for the recently deceased person to hear their doctor saying, ‘We’ve lost her …’ or, ‘Pass me the [insert name of life-saving drug or piece of medical equipment]!’ Yet the deceased has no special interest in what is going on, often wondering why people are making such a fuss when they themselves feel very much alive.
The soul might consider various questions, like, ‘Am I actually dead now, then?’ By far the vast majority are not concerned by that. They feel completely at peace and relaxed. Their only worry might be how relatives and friends will react to the notion that they have died, and this can draw them (or their spirit) to their loved ones’ side here on earth.
They could, for example, find themselves floating towards a gathering of terrified relatives who are waiting for news at the hospital. They might hear what they are saying or feel their strong fear that someone they care about deeply might die. In some instances, the new spirit finds itself drawn to those who may be unaware of the drama unfolding with their loved one; the spirit is transported spontaneously to people they care about, be it locally or the other side of the world. In this out-of-body state they see relatives at home, work or school, going about their normal routines. Strangely, it’s been known for the living to pick up on the spirit and to either see or sense that something