Experiencing life after death

Louisville, Kentucky, USA, rings a bell. That is where the greatest prize-fighter of all time, Moham­mad Ali, hails from. And that is also where Leonard Bruce, a noted cancer patient suffered almost intermina­bly. At 24, he was taken into hospital for another cancer operation, the seventh in a series of pain under the knife.

Nigel Blundell wrote about Leon­ard’s life-after-death experience in his true account titled “CHILL­ING TRUE TALES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE.”

In Leonard’s own words, “I wanted to die. I felt relief that this was going to be my last operation. After eight hours, the anaesthetic was wearing off and the nurses were waiting for me to come round. But I didn’t want to.

“I closed my eyes and waited for death. Suddenly I was floating in mid­air, looking down at my body lying on the wheeled hospital cart. All around me doctors and nurses were working frantically. I actually said goodbye to my body as I turned away towards a bright light. I felt relaxed, out of pain and really happy for the first time in years.

COMMAND

“I felt, rather than saw people around me. Somehow I knew they were my friends. They seemed to be drawing me along with them into the clouds. Then I felt something stop me dead in my tracks. A male voice, authoritative but mellow, command­ed, “Do not go further, my son have things for you to do?” “I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was a nurse, her hand to her mouth in amazement, saying, “He’s back! He’s awake!”

Leonard adds: “My friends now­adays ask me why I am so calm and why I don’t worry. I tell them with a smile that it is because I do not fear death. I have been to heaven once and it is a wonderful place.”

The account of Owen Thomas is equally mind-titillating. At the age of 20 he was stabbed through the heart and sent to hospital where he had no blood pressure, no pulse, no heartbeat in him. Owen says: “I knew I was dead. But I was approached, as if in a dream, by my brother Christo­pher who had died 20 years ago. He put his hand on me, pushed me away and said, ‘we don’t want you!’ Then I returned.”

“Similarly, Barney Hayden died and found himself in a beautiful garden full of trees and flowers. His father who had died 15 years earlier was there. He asked him to go back and Bamey saw himself on the hospi­tal bed.

Martin Ford died in 1971 after a heart attack, felt weightless and began to see iridescent lights beck­oning him. Helen Nelson died of a heart attack and saw brilliant flashes of light. Durdana Khan died for 20 minutes, saw her grandfather, mother and grandmother and a bright shining light.

Louise Walter of North Carolina died during surgery and saw a bridge with sun-light pouring over it. “On the other side was my father who had died long ago. He was smiling and very happy.”

Why did all these people see bright lights?

Harry Woods, 61, died and remem­bers being dragged to hell. “No one will ever know the terror I experi­enced. I don’t know how long I was in that hellish place. But for me it was an eternity. It has completely.”

Helen Womack, 60, died in the fourth in a series of operations, Helen found herself in a group of people and realised soon that it was her turn to give an account of her life. “As I did, I became aware of the Devil standing on my left and Jesus stand­ing on my right. I felt like a child between them…”

BELIEF

Will she follow the Devil to hell or Jesus to heaven? “When I woke up in the recovery room I just cried and cried.”

When yours truly, Kwame Alomele, interviewed the Central Region wom­an who died and woke up after four days when preparations were com­pleted for her final rites, Ghanaians did not believe the story.

Her description of the joyous feeling and of peace were the high-points of her experience. She was unburdened of all the worries of life and witnessed the punishment given to sinners in what could be described as hell.

When she was coming back to life, she saw a little schoolboy going into eternity. She was puzzled, but un­der-stood it all when she finally came back to life. The schoolboy had died that day she had returned to life. This suggests that there is a journey in and a journey out.

Many after-life experiences have been documented in developed coun­tries and people actually research into such experiences. In Ghana, and elsewhere, such documentations do not exist.

This article was first published

on Saturday August 27, 2005