Near Death Experiences of the Rich and Famous

suchandra · April 28, 2007

Although these personalities (read below) experienced something like giving up this body, they dont know what is the meaning of giving up material attachment.

This only can be attained when becoming trained as a Vaishnava.

Near-Death Experiences of the Rich and Famous

Near-Death.com

(Posted: Saturday, March 31, 2007)

<HR align=left color=#336699>The near-death experiences of rich and famous people are particularly interesting. They are rolling in the money. They are known all over the world. They are often beautiful, articulate and very talented in what they do. With this in mind, why would such a person reveal to everyone that they were dead and came back to life? Money? They already got that. Fame? They are already famous. In fact, by telling everyone they came back from the dead, they may be risking their own reputation. People who reveal such things to others often become the butt of jokes or thought to be crazy. Why would anyone rich and famous subject themselves to this when it might result in lost fame and fortune? The only rational reason that such people who have nothing to gain is that it really happened to them and they want to share it with the world. The following are rich and famous people who risked it all to tell the world about their near-death experience. Some of these accounts are documented in Jean Ritchie's excellent book, Death's Door.

<HR color=#336699 noShade SIZE=0>Jane Seymour is an actress most noted for the cult classic movie, Somewhere in Time, with actor Christopher Reeves, and the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. When Jane Seymour was 36 years of age, she had a severe case of the flu and was given an injection of penicillin. She suffered an allergic reaction which led to a near-death experience.

"I literally left my body. I had this feeling that I could see myself on the bed, with people grouped around me. I remember them all trying to resuscitate me. I was above them, in the corner of the room looking down. I saw people putting needles in me, trying to hold me down, doing things. I remember my whole life flashing before my eyes, but I wasn't thinking about winning Emmys or anything like that. The only thing I cared about was that I wanted to live because I did not want anyone else looking after my children. I was floating up there thinking, "No, I don't want to die. I'm not ready to leave my kids." And that was when I said to God, "If you're there, God, if you really exist and I survive, I will never take your name in vain again." Although I believe that I "died" for about thirty seconds, I can remember pleading with the doctor to bring me back. I was determined I wasn't going to die." Then Jane suddenly found herself back in her body.

<HR color=#336699 noShade SIZE=0><SMALL></SMALL>Peter Sellers was the comic genius of a generation of actors. He brought brilliant characterizations to numerous films, including The Mouse That Roared (1959), Dr. Strangelove (1964), The Pink Panther (1964), and Being There (1979). He was known for his enthusiastic way of totally absorbing himself in his characters, even carrying roles offstage. He also suffered from sad moods between films. While he knew his characters thoroughly, he said that he really did not know who he was. Then Peter Sellers, the brilliant, confused actor, had a near-death experience. Seated in a Hollywood mockup of a limousine's back seat while shooting his last great film, Being There, he told Shirley MacLaine about it. He was astonished that she did not consider him bonkers. Shirley documents their conversation in her book, Out on a Limb (172).

In 1964, during the first of a rapid series of eight heart attacks, when his heart stopped and he was clinically dead, he had an out-of-body experience and saw the bright, loving light. Sellers stated, "Well, I felt myself leave my body. I just floated out of my physical form and I saw them cart my body away to the hospital. I went with it ... I wasn't frightened or anything like that because I was fine; and it was my body that was in trouble." Meanwhile, the doctor saw that Sellers was dead and began to massage his heart vigorously. Sellers stated, "I looked around myself and I saw an incredibly beautiful bright loving white light above me. I wanted to go to that white light more than anything. I've never wanted anything more. I know there was love, real love, on the other side of the light which was attracting me so much. It was kind and loving and I remember thinking That's God." Sellers' out-of-body soul tried to elevate itself toward the light, but fell short. Sellers stated, "Then I saw a hand reach through the light. I tried to touch it, to grab onto it, to clasp it so it could sweep me up and pull me through it." But just then his heart began beating again, and at that instant the hand's voice said, "It's not time. Go back and finish. It's not time." As the hand receded Sellers felt himself floating back down to his body, waking up bitterly disappointed.

What effect did his NDE have on Sellers? His biographer stated that "The repeated act of dying became for Peter Sellers the most important experience of his life." (Walker, 158) Sellers himself said of death, "I'll never fear it again." Family and friends found him more spiritual and reflective than before. His biographer stated, "The experience of resurrection intensified Sellers' spiritual concern and friends discerned the start of a new introspectiveness, a sense of his not "being there" in spirit, though present in body." According to his biographer, Sellers' wife, Britt Ekland, found it unnerving that her previously restless husband had now become so quiet. He was now "sitting still over lengthy periods, saying nothing, but staring at her with his thoughts turned inward." Sellers returned to England for an extended convalescence, but soon reverted to old habits and bought his 84th car, an expensive Ferrari.

A couple of years before his NDE, Peter had played an earnest priest in Heavens Above, and developed a serious interest in Christianity (although he was born Jewish). During this time, and following his father's death in 1962, Sellers was drawn to long, serious discussions about life's meaning with a neighboring vicar in London, the Rev. John Hester, "to try to reconcile the world of plenty he inhabited with the emptiness of soul that oppressed him." (Walker, 143) After his NDE he deepened his quest for spiritual truth, continuing his discussions with Rev. Hester, and coming close to joining the church. In later years he practiced yoga, saying once that "Yoga has given me a tranquility I wouldn't have thought possible." (Walker, 217) Sellers' NDE strengthened his conviction that he was a reincarnated soul whose power of mimicry sprang from memories of past lives. But during his incarnation as Peter Sellers, at least, he felt lost. He did not know who he was and why he was on this earth. He explained to this to Shirley MacLaine this way, "I know I have lived many times before ... that experience confirmed it to me, because in this lifetime I felt what it was for my soul to actually be out of my body. But ever since I came back, I don't know why I don't know what it is I'm supposed to do, or what I came back for." (MacLaine, 174) Spirituality gave Sellers some peace, but did not still his restless drift. In 1977, he complained that his yoga practice did not stop his heart disease. According to his biographer, "After all, what did it do for me? I obeyed all the instructions. I said my prayers regularly. I did all the exercises for peace, tranquility, and happiness. And all that happened was that I got steadily worse." Sellers' NDE awakened him to a deepened spirituality, but it did not usher in a major, lasting change in his mental habits and his outlook on life. This brilliant actor still felt lost. But Peter Sellers had a final heart attack. And it was then, that it was his time to go.

<HR color=#336699 noShade SIZE=0>British actress Elizabeth Taylor spoke about her experience of having died on the operating table while undergoing surgery, and of passing through a tunnel towards a brilliant white light. Interviewed by Larry King on CNN's Larry King Live, the legendary Hollywood star related how she had died for five minutes on the operating table. Ms. Taylor said that while she was clinically dead, she had encountered the spirit of Michael one of her former husbands, whom she referred to as her great love. She had wanted to stay with she said, but he had told her that she had work and life ahead of her, and he "pushed me back to my life." Following her resuscitation, the eleven-person medical team - including doctors, nurses, etc. - witnessed Taylor's testimonial of this event.

"I was pronounced dead once and actually saw the light. I find it very hard to talk about, actually, because it sounds so corny. It happened in the late '50s, and I saw Mike ( Taylor's third husband, who was killed in a plane crash in 1958). When I came to, there were about 11 people in the room. I'd been gone for about five minutes - they had given me up for dead and put my death notice on the wall. I shared this with the people that were in the room next to me. Then after that I told another group of friends, and I thought, "Wow, this sounds really screwy. I think I'd better keep quiet about this."

"For a long time I didn't talk about it, and it's still hard for me to talk about. But I have shared it with people with AIDS because if the moment occurs and you're really sharing, it's real. I am not afraid of death, because I have been there."

In an interview with America's AIDS magazine, Liz described her NDE again: "I went to that tunnel, saw the white light, and Mike [Todd]. I said, Oh Mike, you're where I want to be. And he said, ‘No, Baby. You have to turn around and go back because there is something very important for you to do. You cannot give up now.' It was Mike's strength and love that brought me back."

<HR color=#336699 noShade SIZE=0>The late Robert Pastorelli was most noted for his starring role in the television series, Murphy Brown. At the age of 19, he had a car accident which caused a near-death experience that literally changed how he was living, in a very dramatic way.

"It smashed right into the driver's door. It hit me so hard it actually knocked the shoes off my feet. My car rolled over about four times on this big highway and the next thing I knew I was in intensive care with a collapsed lung. Every one of my ribs was shattered. I had lacerations to my head and face, and my kidneys, spleen and gall bladder were all ruptured. I was a mess.

"I was in excruciating pain. Then, in the next second, there was no pain. Suddenly I realized I was out of my body. I was floating above myself, looking down at my unconscious body lying in the hospital emergency room with my eyes closed. I could see tubes down my nose and throat. I knew I was dying and I thought, "Well, this must be death." I even saw a priest giving me the last rites. But it was the most peaceful feeling in the world. Then I saw my father starting to faint out of grief. Two nurses grabbed him and sat him down in a chair across the room.

"When I looked down and saw my father's pain it had an effect on me. I firmly believe that at that moment I made a decision to live, not die. The next thing I knew I was waking up back in my body. Later, in the recovery room, when I was fully conscious, I told my father what had happened, his fainting and all. He was astounded."

<HR color=#336699 noShade SIZE=0>Basic Instinct star, Sharon Stone, has told how she had a white light experience during her brain scare. Stone says she almost died after internal bleeding caused by a tear in an artery at the base of her skull. Sharon was interviewed by Katie Couric about her journey into the afterlife.

“When it hit me I felt like I'd been shot in the head. That's the only way I can really describe it. It hit me so hard it knocked me over on the sofa. And Phil was out of town and I called him and said, "I think I had a stroke." But in all fairness, I'm a person who's always saying, "I think I've had a stroke, I think I've had a heart attack, I think I've had a brain hemorrhage ... I had a real journey with this that took me to places both here and beyond that affected me so profoundly that my life will never be the same ... I get to be not afraid of dying and I get to tell other people that it's a fabulous thing and that death is a gift. And not that you should kill yourself, but that when death comes to you, as it will, that it's a glorious and beautiful thing. This kind of giant vortex of white light was upon me and I kind of - poof! Sort of took off into this glorious, bright, bright, bright white light and I started to see and be met by some of my friends. But it was very fast - whoosh! Suddenly, I was back. I was in my body and I was in the room.”

<HR color=#336699 noShade SIZE=0>Gary Busey, once Hollywood's bad boy, was nominated for an Oscar for the movie, The Buddy Holly Story. Busey, who fought addiction with drugs and alcohol for several years, was nicknamed Gary Abusey by his wife. Busey has had supernatural encounters in which he nearly died three or more times in his life ...a drug overdose, cancer, and an accident west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. But the most tragic experience, and one that changed his life, was a motorcycle accident in 1988. Gary was going about 40-50 miles per hour riding on 750 pounds of cold steel. He was not wearing a helmet when he crashed. He was flung over the top of his cycle, head first into the curb and he cracked his skull. Busey had a NDE while he was dying on the operating table after having brain surgery. During his NDE, he was surrounded by angels. Busey stated that they didn't appear in the form that people see on Christmas cards. The angels he saw were big balls of light that floated and carried nothing but love and warmth - and this love is unconditional.

As a result of his NDE, he recently dedicated his life to Jesus and has been a prominent speaker at many Christian Promise Keeper rallies. He is no longer the "bad boy" of Hollywood.

<HR color=#336699 noShade SIZE=0>Larry Hagman, of Dallas and I Dream of Jeanie fame, underwent a liver transplant in 1995. Years of heavy drinking resulted in cirrhosis and cancer of the liver. He was only weeks away from certain death at the time of his liver transplant and near-death experience. Larry describes what he experienced:

"I was able to look over the edge. I got a little glimpse of what was the next step. I didn't see a light some people see, but I had a wonderful feeling of bliss and warmth. The bottom line is love, that sounds corny, but it was just lovely, uplifting." Read Larry Hagman's entire experience here.

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.near-death.com/famous.html

Hermenutic · April 29, 2007

The University of Virginia has been studying this for years and has some very interesting and helpful comments to make on this topic. They have concluded that this phenomenon suggests an expanded aspect of what is real beyond the purley materialistic explanation traditionally held by science.