To help authors market their books and and to help create greater awareness, we occasionally feature winning stories submitted to our 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Awards Contest on this blog. The journey to success is often a long one. We hope the stories of successful authors will provide some encouragement and help others overcome the challenges they face. This story was submitted by Brian A. McLaughlin.
After dying in a hospital in Mexico, 21 years ago, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the skeptics all seem to use as a basis for calling the experience something that satisfies their own agenda, like a “dream” or “hallucination” or in extreme cases… nonsense.
In my world, science and religion coexist. There have been times when some event or outcome could not be explained scientifically or medically, and so it was accepted as just that; unexplainable. The neurosurgeon, who examined me in preparation for a surgery to “fix” me, was nearly aghast at the fact that he was staring at my cat scan, and then looking at me standing in front of him for assessment.
He was unable to offer a medical or scientific reason to why I was still alive. According to him, injuries and trauma of this magnitude had a very low survival rate. Some people would call it good luck, while others may call it a miracle. Both ways it essentially remains unexplained, and most people accept that… even some scientists and clinicians.
On the other hand, those same scientists and/or clinicians might argue even the possibility of my NDE and experience with Heaven. In my world, for me, I did have such an experience, and vision; I believe it was of Heaven. It’s not something that I could prove scientifically or by conventional means, but it was something that I saw and felt and has had a profound lasting impact on my life. I make no claims to know where this peaceful place was. Whether it existed somewhere in my mind or actually had its own zip code, doesn’t really matter to me. What I got out of it is the important part. For me, I don’t need the equation to work out perfectly or even completely in some mathematical sense. I accept that I died… went to Heaven… and was ultimately sent back. In my world and for many others, as I previously said; science and religion coexist.
There seem to be times when the two overlap and create a “grey” area where the vast majority of us find our satisfaction. On either end of this spectrum of possibilities might lay the fanatic realm of doubt and the need for convincing… skeptics.
I was duly warned by the neuropsychologist, who prompted me to write this account, that there would come some negativity from people who just don’t believe it, and to prepare myself. I said “yeah, ok”, not really understanding the impact that the non-believer would have on me. I remained very mindful to present my book in a raw, transparent way, and not in some effort to convert the reader’s beliefs to match my own or to be entertaining. I was convinced that the reader would see my honesty and simplicity, thus allowing room to accept the visions and feelings into their own life.
The most significant facet of my story lies right here in everyday living. The first thing I spoke about, when asked, about my experience was the extreme “peace” that seemed palatable. The feeling that everything was right with where I was and nothing was wrong at all. That included seeing my father in a much different state than I had seen him last and also included not feeling any pain from the injuries I had just sustained. I knew it was him, and he knew me. I didn’t question how he knew to be there at that exact moment; and I didn’t comment about how well he looked… Just total absolute peace.
I grew up going to church every Sunday, went to parochial school, and was even an “altar boy”, so I served at Masses even during the week, so suffice it to say that I heard the words of that sacrament thousands of times. Sometime after my accident, maybe as much as ten years later, after drifting away from the church, the clarity and understanding that I’ve spoken about and slowly began to accept, brought me to an affirming epiphany while standing in church with my wife at a funeral Mass. The pastor reached the time in the liturgy when he cites Christ saying “My Peace I give you” (in Latin: Pacem Meam do Vobis – which is now tattooed on my arm). My mouth fell open and I was overcome. I turned to my wife and she knew exactly what just happened. This was the peace that I felt in passing over… this is it… this is what that phrase means! She knew I was having a moment from hearing about this peace from me for so many years. Now it makes sense, after all those years of hearing those words and not really knowing what exactly they meant. This was validation for me… this answered quite a few questions that had arisen during the years since my accident about the clarity and understanding, as well as the heightened sense of intuition and awareness. This is the peace and reward that is available to us here and now. There is a certain peace that comes through clarity and understanding, and it is REAL. I suppose it compares to the recent trend of “paying it forward” and realizing a reward that may present itself to you from some obscure place that you hadn’t counted on at all. I wish I had recognized it sooner.
I now wonder if the skeptics of NDEs would assume that this nearly instant reward is a dream state that we experience when presenting goodness and kindness to others. For me, and hopefully for others, this will bring the controversial and hard to prove benefits of passing over, even if on a smaller scale, into our lives now and that may build some validation of the afterlife hopes of so many people who want to believe.
Opportunities to experience this type of euphoric bonus are all around us, now, waiting to satisfy our inherent sense of goodness. Although maybe just a glimpse into the afterlife benefits, it may help strengthen your expectations that previously depended on faith alone.
I have the advantage of having actually seen and experienced these feelings, and if given the chance to undo the downside of my accident, I would choose to keep the vision that I was given for the vision that I lost, without hesitation
Find out more about Brian’s book by visiting his website, http://www.brianmclaughlinbooks.com.