Speaker 1: Welcome to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast DAM paranormal
Speaker 1: podcast network. Now get ready for another episode of Shades
Speaker 1: of the Afterlife with Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 2: Welcome to our podcast. Please be aware the thoughts and
Speaker 2: opinions expressed by the host are their thoughts and opinions
Speaker 2: only and do not reflect those of iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, Coast
Speaker 2: to Coast AM, employees of Premiere Networks, or their sponsors
Speaker 2: and associates. We would like to encourage you to do
Speaker 2: your own research and discover the subject matter for yourself. Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Sandra Champlain. For over twenty five years, I've been
Speaker 2: on a journey to prove the existence of life after death.
Speaker 2: On each episode, we'll discuss the reasons we now know
Speaker 2: that our loved ones have survived physical debt, and so
Speaker 2: will we. Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. Row Row,
Speaker 2: row your boat gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.
Speaker 2: Life is but a dream. Do you remember singing that
Speaker 2: song when you were a child. I sure do. Today
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about lucidity, those extra clear moments
Speaker 2: that happen in different ways around dying near death experiences.
Speaker 2: Life reviews and more. I've told you this story before,
Speaker 2: but a friend of mine, retired race car driver, had
Speaker 2: a crash that led him into being in a coma.
Speaker 2: He remembers a world clearer than this one, with his
Speaker 2: deceased grandmother and grandfather being right there to greet him
Speaker 2: and giving him the opportunity to either go with them
Speaker 2: or return to Earth. He hovered above the hospital room
Speaker 2: and saw his mom and dad and his brother praying
Speaker 2: by the bedside, and knew he wanted to return. Of course,
Speaker 2: he came back in a body filled with pain, but
Speaker 2: he had no fear of dying. After that, he said, Sandra,
Speaker 2: my experience with my grandparents made this life feel like
Speaker 2: it was the dream. It was so clear, without the
Speaker 2: fear of dying. This man went on to winning great
Speaker 2: championships and automobile racing, and I think, ultimately sharing these
Speaker 2: stories on shades of the Afterlife, I want to help
Speaker 2: all of us live great lives, delve into our fears,
Speaker 2: make things happen, and get our money's worth out of life.
Speaker 2: It is said that there are moments of crystal clarity
Speaker 2: in near death experiences in deathbed visions, but there is
Speaker 2: also this phenomenon called terminal lucidity. Hospice workers can call
Speaker 2: it rallying that may occur just before someone dies. Last night,
Speaker 2: I finished reading a brand new book called Threshold, Terminal
Speaker 2: Lucidity and the Border of Life and Death, written by
Speaker 2: Alexander Battiani. Here's the description of the book. Terminal lucidity
Speaker 2: is a relatively common but poorly understood phenomena near the
Speaker 2: end of life. Many people, including those who have suffered
Speaker 2: brain injuries or strokes, have been silenced by mental illness
Speaker 2: or deep dementia, and then they experience what seems to
Speaker 2: be a miraculous return. They regain their clarity and energy,
Speaker 2: are able to speak with families and caregivers recalling their lives,
Speaker 2: and often appear to be aware of their nearing death.
Speaker 2: In this remarkable book, cognitive scientist and director of the
Speaker 2: Victor Frankel Institute, doctor Alexander Battiani offers the first major
Speaker 2: account of terminal lucidity, including hundreds of cases and his
Speaker 2: research in the related field of near death studies to
Speaker 2: explore the mind, the body, the nature of consciousness, and
Speaker 2: what the living can learn from those who are crossing
Speaker 2: the border from life to death. Astonishing, authoritative, and deeply moving.
Speaker 2: Threshold opens a doorway into one of life's and death's
Speaker 2: most provocative mysteries. So I have to say I completely
Speaker 2: agree with that description. The author doesn't tell us what
Speaker 2: to believe, but I am left with awe of the
Speaker 2: power and magic of my soul and what is possible.
Speaker 2: I listened to an interview doctor Battiani gave I. I'd
Speaker 2: like to paraphrase some of his words here. He says,
Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine, a few articles appeared in
Speaker 2: scientific journals on the phenomena of terminal lucidity, and these
Speaker 2: were all historical cases written by Victorian doctors in Victorian times.
Speaker 2: Those stories frankly seemed too good to be true, and
Speaker 2: I thought, we need to know if this happens today.
Speaker 2: In autumn, at the end of the term, my students
Speaker 2: are usually overburdened with what they have to learn for
Speaker 2: their exams, so I usually use the last two or
Speaker 2: three sessions in my lecture to talk about findings where
Speaker 2: they don't have to do too much work. In I've
Speaker 2: presented my interest in terminal lucidity and asked for volunteers
Speaker 2: to collect modern day cases. My students were excited and
Speaker 2: the first large scale European study on contemporary cases of
Speaker 2: terminal lucidity began. We sent questionnaires to about six hundred hospices,
Speaker 2: hospitals and nursing homes and thought we'd have to wait
Speaker 2: a while, but in fact, the very next day we
Speaker 2: received the first reports on terminal lucidity and ever since
Speaker 2: my database has been growing. My book presents the basic
Speaker 2: findings of around three hundred cases. These cases are extraordinary.
Speaker 2: The scientific community is at a loss on how to
Speaker 2: explain this phenomena because a brain struck by dementia is
Speaker 2: not able to recover. The neurons don't grow back in
Speaker 2: such a short time to have this spontaneous and lucid
Speaker 2: communication happen. It's like a hard boiled egg. We cannot
Speaker 2: uncook it and bring it back to the unboiled state.
Speaker 2: Yet nevertheless the person comes back briefly but in full memory. Again,
Speaker 2: I highly recommend you picking up a copy of the
Speaker 2: book Threshold, Terminal Lucidity and the Border of Life and
Speaker 2: Death by Alexander Battiani. But on our episode today, I
Speaker 2: want to tell you some different stories of terminal lucidity
Speaker 2: from inside his book. Here's the first story. My grandmother
Speaker 2: had suffered from Alzheimer's dementia for several years. Putting her
Speaker 2: under the care of a nursing home was a difficult
Speaker 2: decision for all of us, especially for the man of
Speaker 2: her life, whom she'd been married to for more than
Speaker 2: sixty years. But at some point looking after her at
Speaker 2: home simply exceeded the strength of this old man who
Speaker 2: was devoted to his wife. In the final stages of
Speaker 2: her illness, nothing much seemed to remain of the grandmother
Speaker 2: I knew and loved. At first, she could no longer
Speaker 2: recognize us. She stopped speaking all together, and had to
Speaker 2: be fed because she was no longer capable of eating unaided.
Speaker 2: My grandfather nonetheless called on her every day, one visit
Speaker 2: in the morning and one in the afternoon. Our family
Speaker 2: went to see my grandmother every Sunday. Truth be told,
Speaker 2: we didn't so much visit my grandmother as support my
Speaker 2: grandfather those Sundays. On the day the miracle happened, we
Speaker 2: reached the door, knocked, entered the room, and saw how
Speaker 2: my grandfather lovingly held my grandmother's hand and yes, spoke
Speaker 2: to her. At first, we didn't trust our eyes and
Speaker 2: ears But then my grandmother looked at us, one by one,
Speaker 2: all five of us. Her large, beautiful eyes were perfectly
Speaker 2: clear the haze of oblivion, the dead gaze, had given
Speaker 2: way to an expression of vitality, like bright water. I
Speaker 2: cannot think of a better image. She who hadn't recognized
Speaker 2: us for a year, who hadn't even reacted when we
Speaker 2: visited her, addressed every one of us by name. She
Speaker 2: who'd removed her hand when we wanted to take it,
Speaker 2: presumably on reflex. However, on that day my grandmother said
Speaker 2: in plain, clear German that she was glad to be
Speaker 2: back and to see us. Then she looked lovingly at
Speaker 2: her husband, my grandfather, and asked us to take good
Speaker 2: care of him. She said it was no good him
Speaker 2: being alone in the big house. My grandfather then lived
Speaker 2: in a large house that was my mother's childhood home,
Speaker 2: and that he needed domestic help. When we said that
Speaker 2: he had recently hired a housekeeper, she simply said, yes,
Speaker 2: But you could have told me we hadn't done so,
Speaker 2: because talking to let alone with her a day prior
Speaker 2: would have been unthinkable. However, now she clearly understood and
Speaker 2: was reassured. She took his hand, I saw my grandfather's face.
Speaker 2: Thick tears were running down his cheeks. Between sobs. He
Speaker 2: barely managed to say I love you, and she answered
Speaker 2: I love you, and her gaze I myself weep as
Speaker 2: I write this down, because I can see the clarity, urgency,
Speaker 2: and love her eyes expressed that day as clearly as
Speaker 2: if I could see them now. This conversation lasted some
Speaker 2: twenty or thirty minutes. Then my grandmother lay back and
Speaker 2: soon fell asleep. We stayed at her bedside for another
Speaker 2: half hour or so until the end of visiting time.
Speaker 2: None of us talked. When we left. My grandfather linked
Speaker 2: arms with me as we walked out, but he tore
Speaker 2: away from me after a few meters and turned back
Speaker 2: in the corridor of the nursing home because he wanted
Speaker 2: to kiss his wife once more. It was to be
Speaker 2: for the last time. When the phone rang the next morning,
Speaker 2: I knew before picking up what the wared nurse was
Speaker 2: going to tell us. My grandmother had died peacefully in
Speaker 2: her sleep at the age of eighty six. It was
Speaker 2: one of the most beautiful and wondrous and moving things
Speaker 2: that I have ever witnessed to this day. Here's another story.
Speaker 2: My mother had advanced Alzheimer's. She no longer recognized us,
Speaker 2: and she didn't even seem to care who these strangers
Speaker 2: were visiting her once or twice a week. On the
Speaker 2: day before her passing, however, everything was different. Not only
Speaker 2: did she recognize us, she wanted to know what had
Speaker 2: happened in the course of the past year for every
Speaker 2: one of us delighting in the news. She even shed
Speaker 2: the odd tear over bad news. When she heard that
Speaker 2: my younger daughter had recently broken off her engagement and
Speaker 2: descended into a deep depression, she asked her to stay
Speaker 2: with her for a while. Afterward. My daughter never told
Speaker 2: me what she discussed with my mother, but it was
Speaker 2: a turning point for her. When we took our leave,
Speaker 2: we didn't know what to expect next. Was she miraculously
Speaker 2: healed of her dementia With hindsight, However, I believe that
Speaker 2: my siblings and me understood that she knew exactly that
Speaker 2: she didn't have long to live. She said goodbye to
Speaker 2: every one of us, held our hands, stroking them with
Speaker 2: her thumb, just as she had done when we were children.
Speaker 2: She was and I can't think of another way to
Speaker 2: say this simply her old self again. Sadly, it wasn't
Speaker 2: meant to last. She died the very same night. It
Speaker 2: is time for our first break and we'll be back
Speaker 2: with more stories from the book Threshold. You're listening to
Speaker 2: Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Speaker 2: Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network.
Speaker 3: Keep it here on the iHeart Radio and Coast to
Speaker 3: Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Sanders Champlain will be right back.
Speaker 1: The Internet is an extraordinary resource that links our children
Speaker 1: to a world of information, experiences, and ideas. It also
Speaker 1: can expose them to risk. Teach your children the basic
Speaker 1: safety rules of the virtual world.
Speaker 4: Our children are everything. Do everything for them.
Speaker 5: Hi, It's doctr Sky. Keep it right here on the
Speaker 5: iHeart Radio and Coast to Coast AM Pronormal Podcast Network.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain
Speaker 2: and this is our Shades book Club, reading from the
Speaker 2: book Threshold, Terminal Lucidity and the Border of Life and
Speaker 2: Death by doctor and professor Alexander Battiani. Over the course
Speaker 2: of history, I am sure that there's been many people
Speaker 2: who have witnessed such terminal lucidity at the bedside, and
Speaker 2: Batiani says in his book, more than a few of
Speaker 2: the relatives and friends who witnessed terminal lucidity tell us
Speaker 2: they feel lonely and isolated with the memory of this experience,
Speaker 2: or worse that they feel misunderstood by most people when
Speaker 2: they try to relate to others what they we have witnessed.
Speaker 2: After all, until just a few years ago, there wasn't
Speaker 2: even a term terminal lucidity. Nurses can call this rallying
Speaker 2: or in this case, the last glow. Here's a quick story.
Speaker 2: My father's brother had, before our very eyes, experienced a
Speaker 2: full reawakening from his advanced dementia. Hours before his death.
Speaker 2: We were all speechless. He looked at us with a
Speaker 2: clear gaze, called each of us by names, and bade
Speaker 2: us farewell, and died the same night. Us nurses we
Speaker 2: know this. We always say the last glow has begun.
Speaker 2: Another nurse says, my colleagues, and I want to thank
Speaker 2: you for doing this research. We call terminal lucidity the
Speaker 2: last hooray or the second wind. I have myself observed
Speaker 2: this many many times. Patients come back and then they die.
Speaker 2: I first witnessed this at nursing school. How confused I
Speaker 2: was until an older nurse told me that there were
Speaker 2: things that really characterized the daily experience of nursing, but
Speaker 2: that we wouldn't learn about in our normal training. How
Speaker 2: right she was. In five years of working as a nurse,
Speaker 2: I witnessed terminal lucidity several times. A colleague of mine
Speaker 2: was the only person I could openly talk with about
Speaker 2: these experiences. I am glad and grateful that science has
Speaker 2: finally taken notice of this. And here's a story by
Speaker 2: a nun. As a nun, I have been nursing and
Speaker 2: attending to our older sisters from the convent for years.
Speaker 2: We pray and we keep watch. We are there for
Speaker 2: our sisters. The first time I witnessed this was when
Speaker 2: our Venerable Mother Superior died. She had been suffering from
Speaker 2: advanced dementia for several years, but for the last two
Speaker 2: days before her death, she came back fully to us.
Speaker 2: Her old self was restored with all of her spiritual
Speaker 2: and intellectual brilliance. She positively radiated. That was my first
Speaker 2: encounter with what you are investigating. Our priest, however, had
Speaker 2: little use for any of this, and the physician in
Speaker 2: charge of our convent didn't hide the fact that he
Speaker 2: considered our report of the revived Mother Superior to be
Speaker 2: nothing more than a pious tale. Such a thing was impossible,
Speaker 2: he said. Even if dementia patients did occasionally engage in
Speaker 2: behavior that resembled meaningful action, spontaneous healing was out of
Speaker 2: the question. And yet our Mother Superior had recognized all
Speaker 2: eight of us sisters, recalled our names, as well as
Speaker 2: numerous details from the spiritual education she had given us.
Speaker 2: Then only a few years later, something very similar happened
Speaker 2: to our oldest sister at the convent. We didn't even
Speaker 2: try to talk to the doctor. He wasn't going to
Speaker 2: believe us anyway. I hope that this will change as
Speaker 2: a result of you and your colleague's work. Again, this
Speaker 2: is from the book Threshold by Alexander Battiani. To me,
Speaker 2: all of these stories show us that we are so
Speaker 2: much more than our physical bodies, and our minds are
Speaker 2: not in our brains. Here's another story. My mother was
Speaker 2: the center of our family. She was my warm and
Speaker 2: loving mother. But as her dementia progressed, she became increasingly
Speaker 2: aloof cold, absent. It was very painful to watch her transformation.
Speaker 2: I will never forget the day when she no longer
Speaker 2: recognized me and I had to introduced myself to her.
Speaker 2: It was so incredibly painful. Here was my mother, and
Speaker 2: yet she was no more. On her last day, however,
Speaker 2: everything was different. When I entered the room, she looked
Speaker 2: at me and called out my name. She recognized me.
Speaker 2: She radiated the very motherly love I had missed for
Speaker 2: so many months after that fateful day when she no
Speaker 2: longer recognized me, but now she did. And when I
Speaker 2: started to cry, she said, no, no, that is not
Speaker 2: the way. Come here. I sat down next to her
Speaker 2: and she took my hand and we had the most
Speaker 2: wonderful last conversation. We talked about my childhood, my daughters,
Speaker 2: my plans for our new house, and about her illness.
Speaker 2: I had my mother back, and I relished every moment,
Speaker 2: drinking in her motherly energy and kindness. It was simply wonderful.
Speaker 2: After an hour, she told me that she was tired.
Speaker 2: She looked at me, literally pouring out love. Everything was good,
Speaker 2: everything was right, Everything that needed to be said had
Speaker 2: been said. Now there was only motherly love and my
Speaker 2: love for her. I knew somehow intuitively that this would
Speaker 2: not last. But with this farewell, even if it was painful,
Speaker 2: I was okay. I had my mother back, and I
Speaker 2: was ready for whatever was to come now. She then
Speaker 2: slowly shook her head and nodded softly. I nodded too,
Speaker 2: and then she closed her eyes. I left the room,
Speaker 2: and as soon as I closed the door, I broke
Speaker 2: out in tears, both of joy and of sadness. I
Speaker 2: somehow knew that this would be our last time together.
Speaker 2: She died the very same evening. Here's another I am
Speaker 2: a retired PA palliative care physician and have witnessed or
Speaker 2: was told about many examples of terminal lucidity during my
Speaker 2: twenty five years of practice. The most striking was a
Speaker 2: sixty year old woman dying as a result of metastatic
Speaker 2: brain cancer. She was cared for at her family home
Speaker 2: and was supported by the general practitioner and community nurses.
Speaker 2: She ultimately became unresponsive and unconscious. An indwelling urinary catheter
Speaker 2: was inserted and a subcutaneous infusion of morphine and midazolamb
Speaker 2: was instituted. Because she was comfortable, I arranged for her
Speaker 2: general practitioner to supervise this lady's ongoing care and promise
Speaker 2: the family I would ring each morning. On the first
Speaker 2: two mornings, I was told that she was peaceful and
Speaker 2: had not stirred. She hadn't opened her eyes or given
Speaker 2: any sign that she was conscious. On the third morning,
Speaker 2: I was told she was sitting up in the kitchen
Speaker 2: drinking champagne. My stunned silence was noted by the daughter,
Speaker 2: who said, oh, doctor, you aren't aware, but today is
Speaker 2: my mother's birthday and she is sitting up with all
Speaker 2: the family and partying. This lady went to bed later
Speaker 2: that morning and lapsed back into her unconscious state and
Speaker 2: died twenty four hours later. That reminds me of a story.
Speaker 2: While I was cooking for the race car teams, the
Speaker 2: racing chaplain Steve Kearney, who is now in the spirit world,
Speaker 2: he told me about his dad. He had been lying
Speaker 2: in coma for months, and one day, with his adult
Speaker 2: children around, he opened his eyes. He lifted himself out
Speaker 2: of bed, swung his legs around. The kids all trying
Speaker 2: to stop him because he was connect to all kinds
Speaker 2: of tubes and breathing apparatus. And he looked out and
Speaker 2: he said, it is so beautiful there, and they asked
Speaker 2: him to describe what he saw, and he described the
Speaker 2: most beautiful scenery and spoke about deceased loved ones that
Speaker 2: were talking to him, and he even mentioned a friend
Speaker 2: of his. Now, the thing is, they never told this
Speaker 2: man that his friend had died, because you see, he
Speaker 2: was in the coma, but he saw him there. Steve's
Speaker 2: dad then said that he could hear Jesus's voice and
Speaker 2: said he had a very short time left to live
Speaker 2: and that he was to do what he wanted. So
Speaker 2: Steve's dad asked the family for some cherry pie an
Speaker 2: ice cream Sunday, to be dressed in his best Sunday suit,
Speaker 2: and he wanted the family together to watch a football
Speaker 2: game on TV. They did all of those things with
Speaker 2: the dad, and on Christmas Eve, Steve's dad went to
Speaker 2: sleep and he never woke up. As in Steve Kearney's
Speaker 2: story of his dad who heard Jesus's voice, often people
Speaker 2: see their deceased loved ones in these moments of lucidity.
Speaker 2: I've spoken about this many times and highly recommend doctor
Speaker 2: Christopher Kerr's book Death Is But a Dream. But here's
Speaker 2: another story. My dad was in a nursing home for
Speaker 2: half a year. He had severe dementia and could no
Speaker 2: longer formulate a sentence. He didn't recognize any of us.
Speaker 2: On the day he died, however, he knew exactly who
Speaker 2: I was. He looked at me and he started speaking.
Speaker 2: He said that he knew that he would not be
Speaker 2: here much longer. I was not sure what he meant
Speaker 2: or whether he was healed, and wanted to move back
Speaker 2: to his flat again, but he shook his head. Last
Speaker 2: night David came and said he would take me home.
Speaker 2: David was his older brother. He had died four weeks before.
Speaker 2: When Dad talked about his beloved David, I bit my
Speaker 2: lip so that I didn't cry right there and then.
Speaker 2: But Dad looked so happy, so joyous. He really looked
Speaker 2: forward to leaving the nursing home with David. Dad died
Speaker 2: that very night. Here's a quick one, someone wrote. As
Speaker 2: my father breathed his last he suddenly opened his eyes
Speaker 2: and asked, did you see that this is breath takingly
Speaker 2: beautiful wow? Without sounding too woo woo. I am certain
Speaker 2: that what we saw was his soul departing that worn
Speaker 2: out meat suit, finally free. This is not from the book.
Speaker 2: But this is a great quote. The late missus Thomas A.
Speaker 2: Edison told me that when her husband was dying, he
Speaker 2: whispered to his physician, it is very beautiful over there.
Speaker 2: Edison was a scientist with a factual cast of mind.
Speaker 2: He never reported anything as fact until he saw it work.
Speaker 2: He would have never reported it is very beautiful over there,
Speaker 2: unless having seen he knew it to be true. We'll
Speaker 2: be back. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM, Aaronormal podcast network.
Speaker 3: Hey folks, we need your music. Hey, it's producer Tom
Speaker 3: at Coast to Coast AM and every first Sunday of
Speaker 3: the month, we play music from emerging artists just like you.
Speaker 3: If you're a musician or a singer and have recorded
Speaker 3: music you'd like to submit, it's very easy. Just go
Speaker 3: to Coast tocoastam dot com, click the emerging artist banner
Speaker 3: in the carousel, follow the instructions, and we just might
Speaker 3: play your music on the air. Go now to Coast
Speaker 3: tocoastam dot com to send us your recording. That's Coast
Speaker 3: to coastam dot com.
Speaker 1: The art Belvault never disappoints classic audio at your fingertips.
Speaker 1: Go now to Coast tocoastam dot com for full details.
Speaker 2: This is Afterlife expert Daniel Braakley, and you're listening to
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Aaronormal podcast Network.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 2: We're discussing terminal lucidity and that people say is being
Speaker 2: more clear than even our lives here on Earth. The
Speaker 2: next part with author Alexander Battiani from his book Threshold.
Speaker 2: He talks about the last conversation. He says, further analysis
Speaker 2: of these reports shows a result I hadn't initially anticipated.
Speaker 2: Many indicated that the patient was aware that he or
Speaker 2: she had been in a cognitively impaired state before the
Speaker 2: lucid episode, and that a significant number of patients seemed
Speaker 2: to know that their lucid time window was not going
Speaker 2: to last. Some even spoke about their impending death and
Speaker 2: used the remaining time to bid farewell to their family, friends,
Speaker 2: and caregivers. Altogether, there were five recurring conversation topics reported
Speaker 2: reminiscing with family members, awareness of impending death, preparations, and
Speaker 2: last wishes or unfinished business, and occasionally bodily concerns such
Speaker 2: as hunger or thirst. In the majority of cases, more
Speaker 2: than one of these topics was discussed during the Lucid episode.
Speaker 2: Here's the story. Had a wonderful conversation, talked about her
Speaker 2: last wishes, about family members, told us that we should
Speaker 2: not argue with one another and respect her wishes. Talked
Speaker 2: about each of her children and their future. It was
Speaker 2: all very clear and urgent. My mother said that she
Speaker 2: felt so much better. In fact, she had severe dementia
Speaker 2: for months and did not speak for the last month.
Speaker 2: She wanted to sit by the open window. It was
Speaker 2: a beautiful summer, and she even asked for chocolate. I
Speaker 2: went to the vending machine in the entrance hall and
Speaker 2: bought her favorite chocolate. She devoured it with intense joy.
Speaker 2: I think I never saw someone celebrating chocolate as much
Speaker 2: as she did. Another story, his grandfather had advanced dementia.
Speaker 2: When the nursing staff told us his health declined and
Speaker 2: that there was little more they could do, I began
Speaker 2: visiting him more frequently. I often sat next to his
Speaker 2: bed and told him I was there, not sure whether
Speaker 2: he understood me. At all one day. However, it turned
Speaker 2: out to be his last day. I was totally shocked
Speaker 2: when he greeted me and inquired about the family, especially
Speaker 2: about his sister, who also had advanced dementia. When I
Speaker 2: told him that we were supporting her in so many
Speaker 2: ways and that she was forgetful, but peaceful and happy,
Speaker 2: he was very relieved. He looked very peaceful and relaxed himself.
Speaker 2: He thanked me and said, tell her I love her
Speaker 2: and that I will be waiting for her. Shortly thereafter,
Speaker 2: he fell asleep and he died a few hours later.
Speaker 2: I find this interesting. Author bet Tiani says, in our
Speaker 2: case collection, about a third of the patients died within
Speaker 2: less than two hours after the lucid episode, another third
Speaker 2: died within two hours and a day, and a fifth
Speaker 2: died within two or three days, Whereas in less than
Speaker 2: ten percent of the cases the patient died within four
Speaker 2: to seven days, and in about five percent the patient
Speaker 2: died after more than eight days or not at all
Speaker 2: near the lucid episode. Hence, in our samples, lucid episodes
Speaker 2: were indeed strongly death related. Over ninety percent died within
Speaker 2: days or hours. Author Bettiani says a sizeable number of
Speaker 2: our respondents felt overwhelmingly grateful for being granted an unexpected
Speaker 2: last opportunity to say goodbye to their beloved relative or friend.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put a little bell like this between stories.
Speaker 2: My mother's lucidity before dying was a wonderful gift which
Speaker 2: made her passing so much easier to accept. I also
Speaker 2: saw her old, loving self in the conversation we had.
Speaker 2: After so much emotional hardship with the dementia, it was
Speaker 2: really good to know she was leaving our reality as herself.
Speaker 2: It was wonderful to have those final moments and hours
Speaker 2: with them, to have all the pain and suffering they
Speaker 2: endured disappear, if only for that brief moment in time.
Speaker 2: It helped so much with the grieving process. At first surprise,
Speaker 2: with the enlightening feeling and opportunity to say and hear
Speaker 2: something important, very emotional and rewarding experience. The last bit
Speaker 2: of communication brought all of us a lot of peace
Speaker 2: and acceptance of our life conditions. I definitely cherish those
Speaker 2: moments when I remember that I was the last person
Speaker 2: to interact with her. My name was the last word
Speaker 2: she spoke, and the way I was able to be
Speaker 2: with her throughout her illness. No regrets. This was so
Speaker 2: wonderful moving. I was so happy and grateful. It was
Speaker 2: a gift and blessing to me, as I had things
Speaker 2: I needed to say to him. Some people, however, also
Speaker 2: mentioned being shocked or confused by the lucid episode. Even
Speaker 2: though he had been unresponsive all day, I spoke to
Speaker 2: him and told him I was there. To my surprise,
Speaker 2: he woke up and started asking about family members. For
Speaker 2: a moment, I had hoped that she would get better,
Speaker 2: but she quickly declined and passed away just six days later.
Speaker 2: Everyone was shocked. We thought it was the end. Then
Speaker 2: she just sat up and started talking to everyone like
Speaker 2: nothing was happening. She was smiling and engaging in conversation
Speaker 2: like she would normally. Everyone was so confused but happy
Speaker 2: to have that time with her. Unfortunately it did not
Speaker 2: last long. I am very bewildered. I have no idea
Speaker 2: what happened. I know that I should be happy, and
Speaker 2: I am, but I'm also very confused. Just so you know,
Speaker 2: I'm skipping around in different chapters within the book threshold.
Speaker 2: There really is so much in here I'm trying to
Speaker 2: pull together the pieces that really relate to stories of
Speaker 2: the afterlife. Next, he gets into near death experiences, and
Speaker 2: I'm just going to read to you a few things
Speaker 2: that he writes, and I found very very interesting. I know,
Speaker 2: we recently talked about verifiable evidence, that is people seeing
Speaker 2: themselves from outside of their bodies while their bodies maybe
Speaker 2: lying on an operating table. He says forty eight percent
Speaker 2: of near death experiencers reported seeing their physical bodies from
Speaker 2: a different visual perspective. Many of them also reported witnessing
Speaker 2: events going on in the vicinity of their body, such
Speaker 2: as the attempts of medical personnel to resuscitate them at
Speaker 2: the scene of an accident or in an emergency room.
Speaker 2: American researcher Janis Holden further examined ninety three similar reports
Speaker 2: of potentially verifiable perceptions during a near death experience. About
Speaker 2: forty three percent of these reports could be confirmed by
Speaker 2: an independent witness. Another forty three percent had an independent witness, who, however,
Speaker 2: could not be contacted for further corroboration. Only in the
Speaker 2: remaining fourteen percent of cases were there are no witnesses
Speaker 2: who would have been able to confirm the perceptions of
Speaker 2: the near death experiencer. A full eighty eight percent of
Speaker 2: the cases confirmed by an independent witness were completely accurate,
Speaker 2: ten percent contained some often minor error, and only two
Speaker 2: percent were completely erroneous. If you go back to episode
Speaker 2: one sixty nine, I have several verifiable near death experiences
Speaker 2: that you'll hear about. But here's some stories. I was
Speaker 2: in the midst of utter warm darkness, nothing only nothing.
Speaker 2: I was unafraid, but it was total darkness and warmth.
Speaker 2: After a while, I saw a tiny little ray of
Speaker 2: light piercing the darkness, then two, then dozens of them,
Speaker 2: and soon found myself bathing in multi colored light rays.
Speaker 2: It was the most extra ordinary thing I ever saw,
Speaker 2: not only seeing it, but living it. It is reported
Speaker 2: that people who have near death experiences say, just like
Speaker 2: my friend the beginning of the episode, the race car driver,
Speaker 2: that their experiences make this life seem like just the dream,
Speaker 2: that they are so clear. Here's another story. In the beginning,
Speaker 2: I saw nothing. It was very dark, but it was
Speaker 2: not frightening, the most beautiful black I ever saw. Then
Speaker 2: suddenly it was as if someone had switched on the lights.
Speaker 2: And what lights. They were warm, peaceful, heart rendering beautiful
Speaker 2: light that I saw with my heart, not with my eyes.
Speaker 2: I long for that light every day. He also reports
Speaker 2: that people's vision improves during these lucid near death experiences.
Speaker 2: This person says no need for glasses anymore. I saw
Speaker 2: perfectly well without them. I sat up, and I was
Speaker 2: in awe at how clear everything appeared. I had worn
Speaker 2: glasses or contacts my entire life, so I was amazed
Speaker 2: at the sharpness of the room around me and the
Speaker 2: vividness of the colors. I could perceive an energy surrounding everything.
Speaker 2: The books, desk, furniture of the room all seemed to
Speaker 2: have a slight glow that radiated from them. No sooner
Speaker 2: I noticed this than I realized I could see three
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty degrees around me. I didn't need to
Speaker 2: turn my head. I just looked, and I saw there
Speaker 2: behind me lay my body. And at that moment I
Speaker 2: realized I had died. I could clearly see my environment there,
Speaker 2: which is normally totally impossible for me to do without glasses.
Speaker 2: The colors were so much more intense and clear than
Speaker 2: on Earth. My seeing had become very different. It was
Speaker 2: not normal seeing. It was more like sensing. I could
Speaker 2: perceive and understand every detail of the emergency room and
Speaker 2: all at once. This was four dimensional seeing, one added
Speaker 2: dimension of color, clarity, substance, and vibration. It's time for
Speaker 2: the break. We'll be back with more stories and lucid
Speaker 2: seeing during a life review. You're listening to Shades of
Speaker 2: the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast a
Speaker 2: m Hairinormal Podcast Network.
Speaker 3: Stay there, Sandra will be right back.
Speaker 6: Hey, it's the Wizard of Weird Joshua P.
Speaker 5: Warren.
Speaker 6: Don't forget to check out my show Strange Things each
Speaker 6: week as I bring you the world of the truly
Speaker 6: amazing and bizarre right here on the iHeartRadio and Coast
Speaker 6: to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Hi, this is your
Speaker 6: fologist Kevin Randall, and you're listening to the iHeartRadio and
Speaker 6: Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to our Shades of the Afterlife book club.
Speaker 2: I'm Sandra Champlain and we're discussing the book Threshold, Terminal, Loose,
Speaker 2: and the Border of Life and Death by professor and
Speaker 2: doctor Alexander Battiani. Earlier, I said that people in near
Speaker 2: death experiences feel much more lucid much more clear in
Speaker 2: the afterlife than in life, so I want to read
Speaker 2: some of those stories. I felt extremely aware, totally present,
Speaker 2: sharp and focused. In hindsight, it's like being half asleep
Speaker 2: when I was alive and totally awake. After I was
Speaker 2: pronounced dead, my mind felt cleared and my thoughts seemed
Speaker 2: quick and decisive. I felt a great sense of freedom
Speaker 2: and was quite content to be rid of my body.
Speaker 2: I felt a connection with everything around me in a
Speaker 2: way that I cannot describe. I felt as if I
Speaker 2: was thinking faster, or that time had slowed down considerably.
Speaker 2: During this I remembered everything in my life with all
Speaker 2: the details, and very accurately, everything since my birth till
Speaker 2: the time of the accident. I remembered all of the
Speaker 2: people I knew, even the ones whom I met only
Speaker 2: once or twice. I remembered all of the events, the
Speaker 2: important and non important ones. When my age was less
Speaker 2: than a year old, I remembered it with all of
Speaker 2: its details. It passed in front of me, and I
Speaker 2: saw it as a cinema show in just fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: it felt. When I got out of the car, I
Speaker 2: was in full consciousness. I felt that I wasn't in
Speaker 2: the car, or in other words, I was existing and
Speaker 2: not existing, a feeling that is very difficult to describe.
Speaker 2: While I was unconscious at the accident scene, I was
Speaker 2: hovering over the entire scene below, and looking down, I
Speaker 2: saw the car against the tree and the ambulance, as
Speaker 2: well as the onlookers from the neighborhood and stopped cars.
Speaker 2: I was in no danger and no pain. I was
Speaker 2: perfectly aware of what was going on below me, in
Speaker 2: a state of complete tranquility. There was no discomfort, no judgment,
Speaker 2: and no concerns. My soul left my body, and I
Speaker 2: was in a heightened sense of consciousness. Ironically, even though
Speaker 2: I was unconscious, my soul was even more alert and
Speaker 2: more aware than it could have been merged with my
Speaker 2: body and mind. They put me in the ambulance and
Speaker 2: we were off. My husband followed the ambulance. He later
Speaker 2: told me he was crying so hard while driving he
Speaker 2: didn't know how he did it. I was losing consciousness
Speaker 2: in the ambulance, but I thought hold on with all
Speaker 2: of my strength. I felt I was slipping away fast.
Speaker 2: The next thing I noticed, I was without pain, more alert.
Speaker 2: My mind had never been clearer or more alive than
Speaker 2: At that moment. I was expanded, both in my feeling
Speaker 2: and in my thinking. It was not head versus heart,
Speaker 2: both being high functional, higher than I ever experienced during
Speaker 2: my normal life. And I remembered everything every day of
Speaker 2: my life, every conversation and every word, yes, every word
Speaker 2: of books I had read, and I had read a lot,
Speaker 2: though I had not read anything that would have prepared
Speaker 2: me for my near death experience. I remembered poems that
Speaker 2: I had not thought about for twenty or thirty years.
Speaker 2: When I later checked whether I had remembered them correctly,
Speaker 2: it turned out I had. There must be a second
Speaker 2: memory store somewhere in the universe, and I was accessing
Speaker 2: it without the slightest effort. I was totally clear, totally aware,
Speaker 2: and totally calm. Knowledge was given. I guessed that it
Speaker 2: is why I felt more alert. It was like a
Speaker 2: flash drive and my entire life and family were plugged
Speaker 2: into me and downloaded. The knowledge I gained held answers
Speaker 2: to everything. So in that sense I was enlightened. I
Speaker 2: was very alert, sharp, focused, and clear. My thought was
Speaker 2: much faster than usual and more logical. Thinking was a
Speaker 2: bit like observing an immensely fine tuned and complex machine
Speaker 2: processing an immense amount of data and providing me with
Speaker 2: the answer. It was as if my brain had changed
Speaker 2: into a super computer. I know it sounds crazy, but
Speaker 2: I was a genius when I was dead, and I
Speaker 2: never was as awake as on the day I died.
Speaker 2: You might have figured out by now that I absolutely love, love,
Speaker 2: love these stories. There is so much more to us
Speaker 2: than meets the eye. And I love the person who
Speaker 2: said there must be a second memory store somewhere in
Speaker 2: the universe, and I was accessing it without the slightest effort. Next,
Speaker 2: let's talk about Lucid Life Reviews author Alexander Battiani says,
Speaker 2: we still don't know much yet about the mystery of
Speaker 2: our conscious self. All that we have found are traces
Speaker 2: of its transcending the biological or the materialist rationale. We
Speaker 2: encountered a sheltered individual and irreplaceable and unique self, a
Speaker 2: self that, precisely through the return of its unique memories,
Speaker 2: an individuality makes it known to those gathering around them
Speaker 2: that it again has access to its very own private
Speaker 2: memories and experiences that were previously thought to be lost,
Speaker 2: and with it personal identity. And individuality. Many of our
Speaker 2: near death experiencers corroborate this, and they also bear witness
Speaker 2: to the relevance of our life stories, each chapter, each moment.
Speaker 2: They tell us, for example, that no detail, no encounter,
Speaker 2: no experience in this selfs by a biography seems too
Speaker 2: insignificant not to be included in their life reviews. No
Speaker 2: decision is too trivial, no word too casual not to
Speaker 2: have had an influence on the lives of others in
Speaker 2: one way or another. Here's some stories. Then my whole life.
Speaker 2: Every single second flashed before my eyes at what seemed
Speaker 2: to be light speed, but I still was able to
Speaker 2: comprehend everything, not just every event, but every interaction I've
Speaker 2: ever had. I saw how my words and actions had
Speaker 2: affected the recipients and what they had thought of me,
Speaker 2: good or bad. The next thing I knew, I was
Speaker 2: in darkness, watching a detailed review of my life up
Speaker 2: to that point. It was like watching a huge cinema
Speaker 2: screen in three D, and it was incredibly detailed in
Speaker 2: that it literally covered every event in my life. I
Speaker 2: remembered events, people, and places that I had long forgotten.
Speaker 2: It was as if I was effectively reliving my entire life.
Speaker 2: Although it was done at very high speed. I could
Speaker 2: see every part of my life, every event and incident,
Speaker 2: all at once. Although it seemed instantaneous, I knew that
Speaker 2: every moment was there. These days, I might say that
Speaker 2: I downloaded my whole hard drive. At the time, I
Speaker 2: think I tried to compare it to a replay of
Speaker 2: a cassette tape and fast forward. At that point, I
Speaker 2: was totally unconcerned with whether I was alive or not.
Speaker 2: My focus was on what was being shown to me.
Speaker 2: A sort of film reel was directly in front of me,
Speaker 2: but up just a bit. It was like watching an immense,
Speaker 2: very clear TV. I was watching images of every event
Speaker 2: that had taken place in my life, my entire life,
Speaker 2: all in pictures. The most interesting part of it was
Speaker 2: that with each picture, with all the pictures there were
Speaker 2: many more than I could count, I re experienced the
Speaker 2: original feelings that had accompanied each one. And this was
Speaker 2: happening all at the same time. I could actually see
Speaker 2: my life in picture form and feel the emotion or
Speaker 2: lesson in each one, all together and in complete unison.
Speaker 2: It was the most phenomenal experience, not at all like
Speaker 2: we experience here here you see a picture, for example,
Speaker 2: a photograph, and you have a memory. Then you pick
Speaker 2: up another picture and have another memory. But in this
Speaker 2: experience I received complete knowledge of all of my life
Speaker 2: events in picture form, reliving each picture's memory at the
Speaker 2: very same moment. I have never forgotten what it was
Speaker 2: like to have the ability to relate to my life
Speaker 2: that way. Everything was so clear, so vivid. I had
Speaker 2: learned so much, how big an impact my seemingly small
Speaker 2: actions had on a large scale, how my choices and
Speaker 2: behavior rippled through the lives of countless others, how the
Speaker 2: love I showed spread like wildfire, how the way I
Speaker 2: mistreated others deeply hurt and affected them, And also how
Speaker 2: that pain, fear, and confusion would then impact the lives
Speaker 2: of others too. In the time I spent in this reliving,
Speaker 2: I developed a deep groth attitude for many things. The
Speaker 2: experience of life on earth, for one, the people and
Speaker 2: the hearts that had touched my soul in beautiful ways,
Speaker 2: and the fragility of being human. It is so clear
Speaker 2: to me that life on earth has a purpose, love, share,
Speaker 2: make a difference all those good things. But death is
Speaker 2: going to be extraordinary. I invite you to pick up
Speaker 2: a copy of Alexander Batanyani's book Threshold, Terminal Lucidity, and
Speaker 2: the Border of Life and Death. Also, please come visit
Speaker 2: me at We Don't Die dot com. Always lots of
Speaker 2: good things coming up, including our free Sunday gathering with
Speaker 2: medium demonstration until our next episode together. I'm Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 2: You've been listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast, a paranormal podcast network.
Speaker 1: And if you like this episode of Shades of the Afterlife,
Speaker 1: wait until you hear the next one. Thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am paranormal
Speaker 1: podcast Network.