continued....

GEORGE: And welcome back. Betty Eadie my guest. Okay, Betty, pick it up from how you end up back in your body.

BETTY: Well, coming back into the body was... was the most horrible experience I have ever had in my life, but I was told I had to return to fulfill that purpose, and I wouldn't come back until they would tell me what that purpose was. They promised me that they would show me, and they did, but that it would be removed from my memory, because it had to be in order for it to be fulfilled in the way that was necessary. That if I knew what the mission was, I would try to do it out of its timing, and obviously not perform that mission very well. That each one of us has a perfect time for everything that we do, even the selection of the time we will leave this earth, through death --. any type of death. Even thought that sounds absolutely incredible that people would select to die a horrible death, or through accident or through disease. This is all known to us before we come to earth. So, I was able to view what my experience, or the continuation of my mission was to be, but I really can't tell you what that was.

GEORGE: Well when they sent you back to your body, did you, or do you remember the way that spirit came back in, that astral body came back into the body, or did you just wake up in the physical body?

BETTY: No, the body returned very quickly, reversing the travel through the tunnel, and into the hospital room. I hovered over my body for just a little bit, and I didn't want to re-enter it.

GEORGE: Were there others in the room by that time, trying to revive you, trying to do something, or were you still alone in there?

BETTY: At the time I entered the hospital room itself, I was alone...

GEORGE: Still.

BETTY: ...the body was alone.

GEORGE: So I would assume no medical technicians at that moment knew you were dead yet.

BETTY: They had already been in there and, I believe, came back shortly after I came back into the body. It's what I'm guessing. I wasn't there to know...

GEORGE: Were you covered up? Do you remember?

BETTY: No, no. I don't even recall what they...

GEORGE: They would have covered you, I think, if they had realized you had died. I don't think they would have left you there for four hours. You know what I mean.

BETTY: Right. No, I don't think they did. I think at the time... if I had to give a good guess, because at this point I would be guessing, when I re-entered the body, I really don't recall there being people there, or whether the body was covered again; I just know that I didn't want to re-enter the body. But when I did enter the body, I felt a tremendous amount of energy -- jolt. Now whether this was through the resucitation, I don't know, or whether it was just the spirit re-entering the body and the body coming back to life, I really couldn't say. I know that the doctors were there, the nurses were there, I know they were doing things to me after that point. But, what they were doing exactly, I don't know. My spirit continued to leave the body, and I was actually taken out of the body from time to time, and I would continue to experience things. They wanted me to see the conditions of the world, and what was likely to happen to it, and so they would take me out of the body so I could experience that...

GEORGE: Would these be astral projections as opposed to dying again?

BETTY: Yes. Yes. They would be what they call... I think people call them OBE's, or something like that...

GEORGE: Yeah. Out-of-body experiences. Sure.

BETTY: Right. And, yes, I would say that's what I continued to do for many hours. Doctors were there; they talked with me. But they were very hesitant to share anything with me, and I was very hesitant to share anything with them.

GEORGE: I mean, were they aware that you had died, or did they think maybe you were unconscious?

BETTY: Yes. They were aware that I had died, but they didn't tell me.

GEORGE: Alright, how... when you said you died for four hours, how do you know it wasn't three minutes?

BETTY: Well, you know, I don't know. It could have been three minutes. I was aware of the time at 9:30, and then a quarter to 10:00 when I was in my home, and then when I returned back to the body and looked at the clock, it was 2:30. What happened in between, I wouldn't know, at all. I just don't have a clue to it at all. Five years later, I went to the doctor and talked with him about my experience in the hospital, and he told me then that they knew that I had died.

GEORGE: Okay, now. At this point, were the recollections of the after-death experience... were they there, or did they come later on?

BETTY: They were there from the moment I returned to the body, well not just returned to the body, they were there always, because of the experience. I knew of them, and with perfect clarity. As I mentioned earlier, when I begin to talk about the experience, and really dig into it, put my soul into it, I re-experience it. It's amazing. It's been thirty years, and yet this is more real to me than any other experience I have experienced on this planet.

GEORGE: Seems like yesterday, doesn't it?

BETTY: Yes. Absolutely.

GEORGE: When you started to get involved in near-death studies... tell me a little bit about that, with the local university.

BETTY: Yes. I saw an ad in the paper, and of course this is a couple of years after the experience. Raymond Moody had come out with his book, "Life After Life" -- that was in '95 -- and so it was some time about that time, and one of the universities was studying near-death, and wanted to know if there was anyone that might have thought they experienced such a thing. I contacted them, and of course interviewed with them, and began this study. It was Raymond's book, actually, where I'd learned about near-death experiences, because I always referred to it as my "death experience", but it was wonderful. It was so enlightening to know that other people had experienced what I experienced. There was also a near-death studies chapter, it's a group of people who had begun to meet here in Seattle. I went to their group and listened to experiences. Many people like myself were sharing for the first time, and I don't know if you've ever been to a revival meeting...

GEORGE: No, I've never been to one of those!

BETTY: (laughing) Well I'll tell you what, I have, and as a child I went to one and watched the people there, and the experience, the "high" that they get from sharing...

GEORGE: Well it's an energy!

BETTY: It's an energy, yes. And I felt that when I shared my experience in front of these few people there -- there weren't very many there, but to be able to tell someone that knew or understood at some level what I experienced, without criticism, without doubt, without anything but just an open ear, was the most incredible experience to me, because, who else could you tell this experience to?

GEORGE: Well how versed were you, or how versed were they? I mean, did you teach them too?

BETTY: At that time, in sharing my experience, my experience was the most in-depth experience at that time. Raymond Moody had also said that, you know, he had not heard one quite so deep, until later on when people began coming out with their experiences. It became... you know, they were braver then... in numbers, you feel so comforted. But, yes, we all began to learn from each other and share our experience. So then began my study. I began looking for people who had near-death experiences. I went to... I'm in Seattle area; we have a hospital here... deals in death and dying, and did volunteer work there just so I could be around people preparing to leave this earth. I wanted to talk with them, as they made their transition, because I learned so much about the process of dying and what happens the moment you leave this earth, and who awaits you on the other side.

GEORGE: Did you try telling them that?

BETTY: Oh yes! I did.

GEORGE: You must have comforted a lot of people.

BETTY: Oh, I did. And that gave me a tremendous amount of joy, because I knew that, well, I knew what most people didn't know, and I felt that I had to share my experience with those who also brought me a little closer to the realm that I just left, because I was so incredibly homesick, and longed for that place. I became agoraphobic and had anxiety attacks, and went into deep depression for about six years after the initial experience. Sharing my experience with others helped me to overcome that.

GEORGE: What's it like to stare into the eyes of someone who's about ready to die?

BETTY: When they are frightened, it is very, very painful. But when they understand, or when they are experiencing something like I experienced -- and they can, if they are aware of it; fear will block experience -- and so this is why I wanted to share with them what I experienced, so at the moment of their death, they would be open to the visitors in the room with them, and their greeting party.

GEORGE: Can you share with us, Betty, if you remember, maybe the one individual, the one story of someone who died, and then passed over, and before they died, you know, maybe what your conversation with them might have been? I'm just curious to see how they adapted to this.

BETTY: The one that sticks out in my mind at this moment is actually a man that was on death row a couple of years ago. And a few years before that I received a letter from him, he told he was going to be put to death, and he asked me to be his spiritual advisor. I did because I had had a dream about this man a couple of years before I heard from him, and I knew that I would be helping a man go to the other side, while he was put to death. I went to Texas -- this is where this man was incarcerated -- and met with him on several occasions. A half hour before he was put to death, I was allowed in his cell, and to talk with him as his spiritual advisor. Over the course of a few months, of course, I had shared my experience with him, and we sat and we talked -- he had a couple of children, teenagers he was leaving behind -- and we talked about them. And this man wasn't a really violent man, but he was prepared to go down violently, as most people on death row are. In fact they make a pact that they will not be put to death without a least trying to take the warden with them, or doing some other act of violence.

GEORGE: You mean, so, they had to cuff them, or something like that?

BETTY: Yes, they make a pact. Well, I was able to bring this man to some peace, that he wouldn't want to perform another act of violence, that his greater comfort and experience on the other side would be for him to show love. But he needed to forgive the warden and the man who would be there to execute the, well, the...

GEORGE: Well why should he forgive them? He's the one who killed somebody.

BETTY: Because they were putting him to death, and the guilt that they would feel in doing that. So we talked about it. I really didn't know whether this man would have faith enough in God, faith enough in me, to carry this out at the moment of his death. A half hour later, I was taken to the room to view him being put to death, the most horrible experience in my life.

GEORGE: Lethal injection, or...?

BETTY: Yes, lethal injection. And he was laying there, looking into my eyes. And he said he would, and he would remember everything I told him about the moment of his death and who would greet him. The man was perfect in death. I was just astonished. He forgave everyone.

GEORGE: Well did he have any remorse for what HE did?

BETTY: Oh yes, and he had already taken care of that months previous to that. It was just incredible. The... I don't know, there are no words to describe it. It took me, actually, about a year and a half to overcome the trauma that I experienced. He experienced, of course, the trauma of death, of the physical death, I'm sure, but spiritually he did not. He was spiritually prepared and ready to meet God on the other side.

GEORGE: Now, now let me ask you this, because you don't believe in hell, and I am not a believer that a murderer like that will be floating around heaven with people who are spiritual and kind during their life. What do you think happened to this guy's soul?

BETTY: What I think happened to him... In the first place, you have to back up to what mutated. What happened, what was his change? When he was seven years old, he was sexually abused by his father until he was nine. His father was put into jail because of the abuse. His mother remarried. His stepfather began the abuse again, beating on the mother. When he was ten, he hit the stepfather with a bottle to keep him away from his mother, wounding him enough to where he was placed into a reformatory. From the reformatory, he was abused again sexually and spiritually, and in every way. He had a tremendous amount of anger. He was on drugs; he had a $400 drug habit per day when he committed murder to get more money for more drugs. I would say that God, taking this all in consideration, this man was a wounded being. He didn't do any of this in his right mind -- he didn't have a right mind.

GEORGE: He was put behind the eight ball since the get-go, wasn't he?

BETTY: He was doomed from the very beginning. I would like imagine that when he left his body that he was met and held in the arms of Christ. And that he would spend an eternity at least in a healing process.

GEORGE: I wonder... I wonder, Betty, if he was met by the soul of the person he killed?

BETTY: He actually had an experience with that man. One of these days I'm going to write about it and put it on my website; the story is incredible.

GEORGE: Alright, well we're going to come right back. Maybe we'll chat a little about that, and we'll definitely open up the phone lines, Betty, when we come back. If you want to chat with Betty Eadie, or also give us your near-death experience, we would love to hear that. I'm George Noory, and this is Coast to Coast Worldwide AM.

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GEORGE: Indeed, with my guest Betty Eadie. We'll be back with her now, and your phone calls, and if you have had any near-death experience stories, we'll let you relate them, too.

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