I feel heartened by the story of Wyoming orthopedic surgeon Mary C. Neal, author of To Heaven and Back, who was without air for 14 minutes and almost drowned during a kayaking mishap and survived.
During the 14 minutes when she died, she had what is variously called a “Near Death Experience,” in which a person is clinically dead and is revived, or a “Life After Life” experience in which a person has a Near Death Experience and discovers there is life after death.
Neal says that after she “died” she was greated by a group of loving spiritual beings who led her to a glowing hall where she would have the opportunity to choose God or not.
During her experience, she felt sad, because she was told that she would have to go back to the living to fulfil her purpose in life.
I wonder if part of that purpose was to write her book to help people to face their own inevitable end.
In the following excerpt from an online The Economist “Good Report,” Neal discusses her revelation that God has a purpose for us all:
Continue reading“Based on my experience, I know that God has a plan for me and for everyone,” she said. “Our job is to listen and try to hear what God is saying to us as he tells us what he needs us to do. The real challenge for us is to give up control and be obedient to what God is asking of us.”
In a post on this blog dated May 8th, I talked about the difficult situations numerous of my friends were going through and wondered if: “their whole self, their spiritual self, has been trying to get them to enlarge their lives, pursue greater goals, and live healthier lifestyles, and after trying over and over again to get through to the person with gentle hints, longings, and desires to improve their lives, in the end, putting them in a difficult situation has motivated them … finally … to action.”
Interestingly, in an online Deseret News article about a Wyoming surgeon’s Near Death Experience, the surgeon says that her life has changed after being brought back to life. She now has a similar perspective and says that:
Continue reading“Physical challenges can be opportunities for growth — I think that’s a valuable perspective to maintain. I wouldn’t have been able to do that before.”