Jacky Newcomb - Touching Heaven: True stories of spiritual experiences

Many years ago, when I was a child, I was lying in the dentists chair when I had an extraordinary experience. Id been given gas nitrous oxide (laughing gas, as its sometimes called due to the giggles people can get with smaller quantities) and had been unconscious. I remember being in a tunnel, which was spinning, and various people were travelling through it towards a bright light at the end. I remember most clearly a couple were ballroom dancing towards the light, but others were sitting or standing around the edges of the tunnel. I felt euphoric.

Being in this tube of light was amazing. I wanted to keep travelling towards the light but all of a sudden I could hear my name being called. Come on, Jacky, its all over now. You can wake up followed by, She doesnt seem to want to wake up. Give her more oxygen. Then I was back. Mum had been called in from the waiting room to help rouse me and I always wondered: did something go wrong or was this a natural side effect of the gas?

Years later I studied near-death experiences and realised that what I had been through that day was very similar to what people whove been brought back from the very brink of death have described. The tunnel I found myself in seemed just like those Id read about in others true-life stories, and I mentioned it briefly in another book I wrote on the subject, Heaven. During my research Ive discovered that Im not alone!

During near-death experiences, or NDEs as they are also known, there are many types of phenomenon that people go through. When the physical body dies, even momentarily, youd assume that nothing would be happening to that person they are dead, after all! Yet nothing could be further from the truth. When all activity stops in the body (no heartbeat, no blood pressure, etc.), the soul continues to exist and begins its own journey. What happens next is astounding, and this is what Id like to look at with you in this book.

Its true that some people experience nothing during the time of physical death (of those whose heart is started again and come back to tell us, I mean). Yet others experience an out-of-body sensation; they feel their spirit is floating up and away from their physical body, free and detached as a separate entity. Of these, some explain how they immediately become very aware of their surroundings and can hear what is happening around them. Its common, for example, for the recently deceased person to hear their doctor saying, Weve lost her or, Pass me the [insert name of life-saving drug or piece of medical equipment]! Yet the deceased has no special interest in what is going on, often wondering why people are making such a fuss when they themselves feel very much alive.

The soul might consider various questions, like, Am I actually dead now, then? By far the vast majority are not concerned by that. They feel completely at peace and relaxed. Their only worry might be how relatives and friends will react to the notion that they have died, and this can draw them (or their spirit) to their loved ones side here on earth.

They could, for example, find themselves floating towards a gathering of terrified relatives who are waiting for news at the hospital. They might hear what they are saying or feel their strong fear that someone they care about deeply might die. In some instances, the new spirit finds itself drawn to those who may be unaware of the drama unfolding with their loved one; the spirit is transported spontaneously to people they care about, be it locally or the other side of the world. In this out-of-body state they see relatives at home, work or school, going about their normal routines. Strangely, its been known for the living to pick up on the spirit and to either see or sense that something is wrong.

If the doctors revive the dead body, the spirit can usually take these experiences back with them. They recall what happened upon waking and stun everyone with their psychic out-of-body adventures. Being able to describe what they saw afterwards in some way proves that these experiences are real. The spirit clearly has left the physical body and separated in some way. If you can tell your friend, At ten past three, when I died, I saw you reading the paper in your garden, and that was exactly what was happening, then you have to assume that the spirit has separated and become distinct from the physical body. In other words, this stuff is real!

This sets up more questions than answers, really, and I remember questioning this phenomenon after having my own out-of-body experiences when I was a young woman (and also as a child). I had a spooky realisation, which went something like this: if my spirit is leaving my body at this moment and the real me is the one that has the consciousness now in this spirit body then it means I am not my body. If I am a spirit, it means I have come from someone before I appeared or took over this physical body. It also means that when my physical body dies, I continue to live and go on, or perhaps go back to somewhere Heaven, maybe? (You can see why I have dedicated so many years of my life to studying this awesome subject!)

After her physical body died, one woman saw her mother in the waiting room at the hospital and noticed that she was wearing slippers on her feet instead of outdoor shoes. When the doctors managed to get the daughters heart beating again and she was a little better, she remembered seeing her mum wearing the slippers at the hospital and asked her about it. Her mum was stunned. Her daughter had died, revived and then been unconscious for hours afterwards, so there was no way she could have known this. What happened apparently was that she had rushed to the hospital to be at her seriously ill daughters bedside and hadnt even had time to put her shoes on. In the rush she had left the house wearing exactly what she had on!

I know other people have seen the tunnel and had various paranormal experiences during dental visits like I did, but whether it was because they were near to death or simply that the gas mimics the phenomenon is hard to tell. When, as a child, my next dental treatment was due I was excited to see the tunnel of light again, but the dentist seemed less keen to administer the gas. As I was so frightened of the treatment we persuaded him to give it another go, but this time my experience was not so good. I still found myself in the tunnel, and the light was still there at the end, and like many near to death I found I wanted to go towards it. Surely going to the light means death, but the light was very seductive and at first I felt the same great sense of peace and one-ness. This time, though, a large monster-like creature was barring the way. It was standing right in front of the light and I found myself desperately trying to pull away from it and get back into my body.