Life After A Near-Death Experience

QUESTION

"My name is Anna. I am having trouble experiencing life in the usual subjective way that non-NDE'ers live it. I want to learn this because I live life objectively, and not very connected to my emotions or body. I have childhood trauma I need to heal and I am having difficulty grieving. Would you have any advice, or resources that you could share with me?" 

. . . Anna

ANSWER

First, Anna, I suggest that you contact ACISTE - American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences: their website www.aciste.org. It's an organization devoted to helping people just like you adapting back to "life as always," or in some manner helping you to create ways that will make a positive difference for you.

Second, I'm going to recommend my book, The New Children and Near-Death Experiences. Although the book starts out comparing near-death kids to the new kids (those born since around 1982), keep reading. It covers in-depth both the experience and the aftereffects of childhood experiencers, plus it has a large resource section in the back of the book. For adult experiencers, I recommend Coming Back to Life or Beyond the Light, as both of these books have extensive Resource Sections in the back.

Some of the things that I found made a definitive difference in my life after three near-death experiences:

• relearning how to think (which I did by taking the SOM-1 class of the Church of Religious Science (now called Centers for Spiritual Living). This class teaches the basic methods for how to do affirmative prayers; in essence, you learn how to think. 
• learn many different styles of meditation/contemplation/visualization. Extremely valuable training - I use these yet today.
• revamp my diet totally - no sugar, no soy, no pork/ham/wild meats; switched to more veggies and more organic chicken/fish/beef, no desserts, careful with breads, nothing to drink but water, milk (organic), some juices . 
• spend more time outdoors, especially in nature. Relearned how to do everything I could, which meant I was in all kinds of classes and workshops. 
• began to discover other near-death experiencers and those like me and did group work with them or was around them a lot.

I did all of this until I could get my bearings and make more definitive decisions that would work for me. I was rather radical about that, for I challenged everything in my environment, retesting soaps, sheets, dishes, cooking utensils, furniture, shoes, clothes - you name it, I challenged how it was made, what it consisted of, and whether or not it was truly right for me. Which means. . . I tossed a lot of stuff. I also went to two professionals, one a psychiatrist and the other a therapist. The psychiatrist invited me to attend a Saturday group session where others would be there. I went. This was one of the wisest decisions I ever made. . . because it helped me to see myself in others. With the therapist, I went four times, to help me gain further perspective. However, I received far more help and direction going the spiritual route, plus cleaning up what I put into my body and how I thought.

Not certain if the route I took will work for you. Still, there are some good hints in what I've shared that may prove helpful. Many blessings, PMH