Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Coast to Coast AM. Connie Willis here
Speaker 2: with you. Love for you to join me outside of
Speaker 2: here at Blue Rock Talk Connie after Dark Connie Willis
Speaker 2: the podcast and when any lottery book. Yeah, and then
Speaker 2: let me know when you hit the jackbot. Okay, just
Speaker 2: learn more at Connie Willis dot com even if you
Speaker 2: sign up for my newsletter as well. And in the
Speaker 2: future I'll have mister doctor Jeffrey Long visiting me on
Speaker 2: my show too, as that's always fun. So he is
Speaker 2: the largest near death experience study in history, is what
Speaker 2: he held, involving three thousand people, diverse backgrounds, religious traditions,
Speaker 2: including non believers. And he's going to be telling us
Speaker 2: a little bit deeper about some of these things in
Speaker 2: a few minutes. But I have some more questions for
Speaker 2: you that I personally want to know because I know
Speaker 2: you were talking about at one point free will, where
Speaker 2: we have free will all the time, So talk about
Speaker 2: what you've learned about that, but also the second part
Speaker 2: of that is free will when it comes to coming
Speaker 2: back or not.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's fascinating to me, Connie that over and over
Speaker 3: we have quotes in near death experiences where people have
Speaker 3: gotten very direct information during their near death experience about
Speaker 3: free will. And it's not just the near death experiences
Speaker 3: free will, it's free will for everybody worldwide. Near death
Speaker 3: experiences have shared and this is straight quotes from their experiences.
Speaker 3: I felt like it's all about free will, or the
Speaker 3: one law that will never change is the law of
Speaker 3: free will, the one law that lasts. And then finally,
Speaker 3: another near death experienceer said, we are products of our
Speaker 3: own choices, are free will. So over and over literally
Speaker 3: by the scores we have people in getting this important information,
Speaker 3: very relevant for each and every one of us in
Speaker 3: our earthly life, and exciting too to have that kind
Speaker 3: of validation that the decisions we make, what we choose
Speaker 3: to do, really is re livately our own free will choice.
Speaker 3: So that's exciting.
Speaker 2: Did when you're on the other side, have some people
Speaker 2: wanted to totally stay and they're like, no, you got
Speaker 2: more to do, and they're like fighting it. So to
Speaker 2: me that would be like, oh wait a minute, my
Speaker 2: free wills. I want to say, you.
Speaker 3: Know, that's a great question. We had somebody heroically review
Speaker 3: the literally thousands of near death experiences on the website,
Speaker 3: and their goal was to explore what we see over
Speaker 3: and over again, and that being again while on the
Speaker 3: other side, near death experiencers at the end of their
Speaker 3: near death experience being told language like it's not your time.
Speaker 3: You have more to do, you have more work to do.
Speaker 3: And interestingly, this study, the huge study that was recently completed,
Speaker 3: by the way, is you're the first in the world,
Speaker 3: you and all your listeners to hear the results of
Speaker 3: this study. Amazingly, worldwide, about ten to twelve percent of
Speaker 3: near death experiencers have at the end of their experience
Speaker 3: that kind of information. I mean, it's just amazing to me.
Speaker 3: Here they're being told that while they could stay in
Speaker 3: that beautiful, unearthly, blissful, loving, realm earthly life seems to
Speaker 3: be so important that they're being sent back because they
Speaker 3: have more to do, because they have more life to live.
Speaker 3: And the interesting thing about this study, Connie, is that
Speaker 3: this was from all around the world, even in non
Speaker 3: Western countries. That same concept was universal wherever on the
Speaker 3: planet you are. And so as a result of that,
Speaker 3: you know, we're back to that free will. We seem
Speaker 3: to not only have the free will to choose our
Speaker 3: what we do in our life, but there seems to
Speaker 3: be a direction from the other side. Now, I want
Speaker 3: to emphasize that when they're told to come back, you
Speaker 3: have more work to do. There's things left in your life.
Speaker 3: Language like that. Almost never are the near death experiencers
Speaker 3: told specifically what to do. They're not told to go
Speaker 3: build an arc. They're not told what.
Speaker 2: Man, come on, what good or that I know tell us.
Speaker 3: Really, in my study of near death experiences that that
Speaker 3: made me nuts. I'm going, well, come on, what are
Speaker 3: what's important? What are we supposed to do?
Speaker 1: After?
Speaker 3: You know, having this like you know, hundreds and hundreds
Speaker 3: of times with near death experience out of the four
Speaker 3: thousands that are on the website.
Speaker 2: Alwake them? Did you?
Speaker 3: I think they know what they're doing on the other side.
Speaker 1: Okay, I get it.
Speaker 3: So if we have free will, that that might potentially
Speaker 3: interfere for given direction or told what to do. So again,
Speaker 3: you know, sort of that exciting concept and you know,
Speaker 3: yet another significant line of reality of near death experiences,
Speaker 3: that critical spiritual concept that our lives are that meaningful,
Speaker 3: that we come back, that there's more to do on
Speaker 3: this earth. That it's important that our work isn't complete
Speaker 3: during a near death experience is fascinating.
Speaker 2: You know, you may laugh at this or you may not.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I hope you laugh at this. But
Speaker 2: it's pretty serious too. But I was going, I was
Speaker 2: having a surgery and the anesthesiologist was talking to me
Speaker 2: ahead of time, and she introduced herself to me. And
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's normal or not. I yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess so. I guess so. But it was right
Speaker 2: before it happened. I know they usually meet you the
Speaker 2: day before or something like that. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 2: maybe it's always different. But I met her. She was
Speaker 2: talking away. We were having a good time talking and
Speaker 2: I said little ome going, hey, do you think you
Speaker 2: can take me to the you know, right there at
Speaker 2: the light. I just want to go right to the light.
Speaker 2: I just want to step over and enough to get
Speaker 2: some psychic abilities and then come back. Just make sure
Speaker 2: I come back, but please, can you get me to
Speaker 2: the like? She did not like that at all. She
Speaker 2: thought it was crazy. But she didn't like that at all.
Speaker 2: But I was serious.
Speaker 3: Oh that's fascinating. Thanks for Sherry. Hey, I did laugh
Speaker 3: that's good. When they talked to anesthesiologists, just don't call
Speaker 3: them gas passers. Oh but yeah, that would be interesting.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, and I'm sure she didn't like
Speaker 3: that at all, but he.
Speaker 2: Didn't talk to me anymore. Yeah, she get me a
Speaker 2: dirty looking walked.
Speaker 3: On right away there calling.
Speaker 2: Me, But I was totally serious. In fact, that's my question.
Speaker 2: The next question to use. How many people come back
Speaker 2: and you've noticed that they do have some sort of
Speaker 2: psychic abilities.
Speaker 3: Oh, we see that quite commonly. In fact, it's a
Speaker 3: survey question that we've asked our literally thousands of near
Speaker 3: death experiences, that being, did you have any psychic prepair,
Speaker 3: noormal gifts after your near death experience? And well over
Speaker 3: half of the people surveyed say yes, yes we did.
Speaker 3: And it's all over the board. They can be increasingly intuitive,
Speaker 3: they can be increasingly you know, a whole array of
Speaker 3: psychic phenomena. I have been described as part of that
Speaker 3: what we.
Speaker 2: Call a dinner over there while we're talking, are you
Speaker 2: cooking dinner? Over There's that? What's going on?
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 3: My two dogs came running aware that are here. We
Speaker 3: got a German shepherd and a Dutch shepherd and they
Speaker 3: decided to come visit me. So, hey, we were talking
Speaker 3: earlier about pets in the afterlife, so just to reinforce that,
Speaker 3: here's two dogs, but they're still very alive and acting that.
Speaker 2: I love that. I'm sorry, it's radio. When you hear
Speaker 2: those little things, you got to know, what is that?
Speaker 2: What's going on over there? What's happening?
Speaker 3: Well, the dog came down saw me and actually was
Speaker 3: kind enough to bring a ball.
Speaker 2: Oh well, there, you got to throw it, Go ahead
Speaker 2: and throw it. I am sure. So it's interesting the
Speaker 2: people you said, what's the percentage that you all found.
Speaker 3: Out that, Yeah, it's well over half. People have these
Speaker 3: psychic this variety of psychic phenomena, and again fascinating, can
Speaker 3: certainly be a significant change in their life afterwards.
Speaker 2: And that's the people that recognize it and admit to it.
Speaker 2: So there could be more and maybe they didn't recognize
Speaker 2: it yet even.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, and that's a really good point.
Speaker 3: I think the change is maybe gradual sometimes will fact,
Speaker 3: often it takes years after their near death experience to
Speaker 3: fully integrate those major changes that occur, and so they
Speaker 3: could have a slow progression of being increasingly psychic over
Speaker 3: years even and just not recognize it because gee, they
Speaker 3: their psychic ability today seems about like the way it
Speaker 3: was yesterday or.
Speaker 1: A week ago.
Speaker 3: And yet other people with them will say, hey, you're
Speaker 3: more intuitive. It's almost like Jesus looks like we share
Speaker 3: a brain. You know what I'm going to say. You
Speaker 3: know when the phone's going to ring. You have that
Speaker 3: sort of intuitive psychic sixth sense that you didn't have before,
Speaker 3: and you can hear that sometimes, if not from the
Speaker 3: near death experience, there's the people close to them in
Speaker 3: their lives.
Speaker 2: I think it's amazing when people can like play Beethoven
Speaker 2: or something on the piano all of a sudden, like
Speaker 2: where'd this come from?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm sixty eight, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 3: Absolutely very famous near death experience they're coming back with.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's just seemingly no end. Those changes can
Speaker 3: be after the near death experience, but so often very profound.
Speaker 3: Right we had a very prominent near death experience, or
Speaker 3: came back and was an accomplished piano player and had
Speaker 3: no interest in that before. Youve just one more example
Speaker 3: of those kind of amazing psychic If you will changes
Speaker 3: that occurred after an experience.
Speaker 2: Well, when they're told to go back you got more
Speaker 2: to do? Does that look more like like, you know,
Speaker 2: you say free will? But then is it fate? Is
Speaker 2: it destiny? You know, because if you've got more to do,
Speaker 2: was that your free will to still do that or not?
Speaker 2: But you're being taken back to do that? So free will, fate? Destiny?
Speaker 2: What would the other thoughts be? Or is it also Hey,
Speaker 2: I was here before, and before I decided to come
Speaker 2: back to earth again, I decided I was going to
Speaker 2: do five things and I haven't done those five things yet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, bingo, it's what you just said at the end there.
Speaker 3: I think it's what's going on. Near death experiences don't point,
Speaker 3: at least in general, to a fixed fate. In other words,
Speaker 3: there seems to be the ability, through free will, through
Speaker 3: the meaning and purpose of our earthly lives, that we
Speaker 3: can choose, that we can decide what we want to do,
Speaker 3: and then you live either for good or for ail
Speaker 3: those choices we make in our life. But over and over,
Speaker 3: there's a huge amount of evidence from near death experiences
Speaker 3: that we actually existed as very conscious entities in that
Speaker 3: unearthly heavenly round prior to coming here on earth earthly life.
Speaker 3: At that point in time, as near death experiences over
Speaker 3: and over described, consciousness is greatly accelerated. Were if you will,
Speaker 3: much smarter, much more conscious, much more aware in that
Speaker 3: if you will spiritual consciousness prior to coming to earth,
Speaker 3: and in that consciousness we are able to decide, well
Speaker 3: number one, to come to our earthly life and live
Speaker 3: an earthly life here. But number two often perhaps some
Speaker 3: ideas about in general what that earthly life might be.
Speaker 3: And so that seems to be if you will, agreements
Speaker 3: or made before we would come to our earthly life,
Speaker 3: or you know, it might be something that is important
Speaker 3: for our individual spiritual growth. On the other side, we
Speaker 3: have certain things to experience, and while while we're not
Speaker 3: directed as to what to do in our earthly life,
Speaker 3: we certainly have some guiding principles, the reality of an afterlife,
Speaker 3: the reality we hear over and over the importance of love,
Speaker 3: and certainly, as we've been discussing the concept the free will.
Speaker 2: Jeff, it's so nice to talk to someone that's got
Speaker 2: a PhD that works as as you do the education,
Speaker 2: and you'll talk about past lives regression, near death, what's
Speaker 2: on the other side, psychic abilities? I could talk to
Speaker 2: Like I have a neighbor. I believe he's an antithesiologist's assistant.
Speaker 2: I am absolutely sure if I said something to him
Speaker 2: about this, he would just turn a walk away. That's
Speaker 2: you know, it is it is. I know, I know
Speaker 2: professors that will they will hide it if they even
Speaker 2: think something, but they walk away. And I met a
Speaker 2: doctor at lunch. At one point, I'm just eating lunch.
Speaker 2: She's sitting next to me. We start talking and she
Speaker 2: she went to Yale and and she was just talking
Speaker 2: about what all she knew, And I said, at one point,
Speaker 2: and finally I said, do you want to know what
Speaker 2: I do? Because she talked the whole time about herself
Speaker 2: and I'm listening. I'm good. But as soon as I
Speaker 2: told her, she asked for the check, and she was
Speaker 2: ready to leave, and she kept telling me to do
Speaker 2: my homework. And before she left, before she hit the doors,
Speaker 2: I walked over to her and I said, hey, before
Speaker 2: you leave, do your homework on what I'm telling you.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, that really makes the difference, you know. It
Speaker 3: was so sad. I mean, gosh, Connie Litsen to what
Speaker 3: we're talking about here. I mean, this is absolutely amazing, strong,
Speaker 3: powerful evidence that we don't really die, that there's life
Speaker 3: after death, that there's a wonderful after life for all
Speaker 3: of us. I mean, amazing evidence, amazingly powerfully positive messages.
Speaker 3: You think people would at least want to check it out,
Speaker 3: and I think, yeah, your yeah, I mean, good gosh.
Speaker 3: But the good news is shows like you do what
Speaker 3: you know, Connie, your outreached in the world in a
Speaker 3: wide variety of ways through your podcast and everything. It's
Speaker 3: making a difference. Good And there's a major survey done
Speaker 3: by what's called Pew Form and in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: a survey they did about what people thought about the
Speaker 3: afterlife had the amazing statistic that seventy two percent of
Speaker 3: Americans actually believed that near death experiences were an actual
Speaker 3: soul departing from the physical body. We're getting the word out,
Speaker 3: people are listening, people are understanding, and are literally the
Speaker 3: significant majority of people in America now believe that near
Speaker 3: death experiences are real. So, you know, shows like this
Speaker 3: it's making a difference.
Speaker 2: So I got to ask you this, do what do
Speaker 2: you what do you know that's on the other side.
Speaker 2: Are you like angels, aliens? Are you open to all
Speaker 2: that kind of thing?
Speaker 3: Well, that's what again, Having studied four thousand near death experiences,
Speaker 3: I've seen all that people you know, angel have been described.
Speaker 3: They typically, at least the great majority, don't have wings.
Speaker 3: They're sort of not like a sort of classic appearance,
Speaker 3: and yet they are in a very real sense. What's
Speaker 3: important about angels, They're profoundly loving, They're there for the
Speaker 3: other person. There can be dialogues, interactions, so very dramatic
Speaker 3: and very beautiful descriptions of encountering beings on the other side,
Speaker 3: which many near death experiencers call angels. So that's certainly
Speaker 3: an important part of near death experiences.
Speaker 2: Do you I'm not sure of your background when it
Speaker 2: comes to spirit spirituality or religious or do you see
Speaker 2: any like in the Bible? Are you seeing like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, what we saw here fits this, what we
Speaker 2: saw here fits that, anything like.
Speaker 3: That, absolutely, over and over, first and foremost, I respect
Speaker 3: everybody's spiritual path, whatever it might be. And I've seen
Speaker 3: a lot of different people on different walks of life,
Speaker 3: but we're all i think going in the same direction. Actually,
Speaker 3: one near death experience or asked on the other side,
Speaker 3: meant what he described as God, and asked about religions,
Speaker 3: and was shown a mountain where people were climbing up
Speaker 3: the mountain, but they were climbing up different sides of
Speaker 3: the mountain. And the point that was trying to be
Speaker 3: made to this person during their near death experiences, we're
Speaker 3: all on the same spiritual path. We're all going toward
Speaker 3: that top of the mountain, even if we're not aware
Speaker 3: of other people. But at the end, we're all the same,
Speaker 3: We're up at the top. There's the same destination of
Speaker 3: our journey, that spiritual home. So I'm very interested, certainly
Speaker 3: in the Bible. And actually I was asked to write
Speaker 3: a foreword for a major sort of religious publication called Guideposts,
Speaker 3: and I actually wrote about love in near death experiences
Speaker 3: and throughout the Bible, many many beautiful quotes about love,
Speaker 3: many many beautiful quotes about love for people that had
Speaker 3: near death experiences. So again, it's always kind of a
Speaker 3: ah moment when you realize just how it all seems
Speaker 3: to fit together, whatever the journey we have or whatever
Speaker 3: our belief system is.
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