Scientist who didn't believe in God before near-death experience describes what she saw in the 'afterlife'
A woman who actively believed there was no such thing as God or Heaven, reveals what made her change her mind after a surgery left her in what she describes as an 'afterlife'.
Near death experiences, or NDEs, are moments in a person's life where they momentarily pass away or are unstable.
Those who survive often come back and describe being pulled into a dimension that can only ever be imagined, with things occurring around them that is dream like or simply too amazing to be real.
In the past, atheists and non-believers have revealed the moment their NDE left them questioning their existence, or perhaps becoming devoutly religious.
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However, when it comes to Nancy Rynes, a scientist, geologist, archaeologist, and author of Awakenings from the Light: 12 Life Lessons from a Near Death Experience, her NDE left her with a resounding confirmation of God, and also dispelled some preconceived beliefs about Heaven.
The atheist-turned-religious woman, sat down for an interview with Dr Mayim Bialik, who played Amy in The Big Bang Theory, but is also a real-life neuroscientist, for a conversation about her near-death.
Having grown up Catholic, Nancy described herself as someone who deeply rejected many of the religion's teachings.
As someone who was terrified of death, she said she was ultimately born again after being hit by a car while biking and waking up with a new outlook once the surgery was over.
She revealed that when she was put under for the surgery to fix her spine, she 'came to' and 'thought that I had woken up out of anesthesia at first', which 'freaked' her out.
However, upon looking around, she was shocked to find that she was no longer in the operating room, but 'standing on a hillside with this beautiful view around me'.
Calling the scene before her 'ethereal', Nancy said there was 'energy' flowing all over the place.
"It wasn't like any place I had physically been to on in this reality in this on this planet," she told Dr Bialik, adding: "It looked a lot like the Highlands of Scotland now in hindsight. But I've never been there. Not in this lifetime."
With a 'misty fog' and 'metallic glint to everything', Nancy says the place she was taken to had no Sun, but was bright – which ticked her off that something 'wasn't quite right.'
Likening it to a photographer's umbrella, she said the sky almost had a diffused light that was 'very bright' and that 'it looked like tendrils of energy flowing everywhere.'
Because of the strange place she had woken up in, Nancy began to think she 'may have actually died on the operating table.'
However, being an atheist, she was unsure as to why she wasn't in Hell.
To this question, she said a voice answered her and left her 'bawling'.
"It was like this kind of voice - loud but not loud at the same time - that was around [sic] me and it came through me."
She claims it told her that she was its child, and this place was her home.
From that moment on, when she regained consciousness and felt the 'grief' of returning to her body, Nancy says she no longer fears death, as she believes she'll simply return 'home' when she passes away.
Britt Jones
