Surviving Death Again by Scott Degenhardt FOREWORD Imagine that you’re having an accidental, spontaneous out-of-body experience. You’ve never heard of an OBE. But now, you’re communicating telepathically (mind-to-mind) and empathetically (feeling-to-feeling) with a just-deceased loved-one. That very special person has come to you in spirit form to say a last goodbye before departing to the Beyond – like that famous scene in Ghost where Patrick Swazye’s character bids a final farewell to his bereaved widow (Demi Moore). You realize that your senses and your capacity for thinking are far more powerful than they ever were in the body. Your heart is alive with wonder and love. The initial panic at seeing your shimmering, glowing spirit body is long gone. You now realize beyond doubt that: • Life has a purpose—and spiritual and intellectual growth are its mission. • Spirit and thought are the fundamental reality, and matter is its byproduct, not the other way around. • Love is the ultimate goal above all other strivings—a love best expressed through those who are near and dear. So it happened to Scott Degenhardt two decades ago. I congratulate you on having turned up this one-of-a-kind book—unique because the author is both a dramatic experiencer as well as a skilled and thorough researcher and writer. This is not merely another NDE book describing an experience. It is a popularly written guide that helps experiencers and their friends and families make sense of their world-changing NDEs, make good use of them, and—ultimately—transform themselves—as Scott was transformed. As you enjoy this page-turner, you’ll get a sample of the depth, honesty and articulateness that has booked Scott on some of the largest TV and radio shows in North America, including The Phil Donahue Show and Coast to Coast A.M. And you’ll benefit from the practical experience of an individual who has worked with many NDE experiencers through his Survivors of Death Network. So if you’ve ever wondered what lies beyond, or if any questions remain about your own NDE, your friend’s or loved one’s—and how to best use this NDE in your life— begin your adventure here. John Ronner, author of Do You Have a Guardian Angel? PREFACE (1st Edition) This manual is dedicated to the millions (yes, millions) of people in the United States alone—and the vast numbers more worldwide—who have died and returned, only to have more questions about the meaning of life and death. It is also dedicated to an even larger group, those who have had any kind of spiritually transformative experience (STE). The ideas presented here are not only mine, but are the collective experiences of many people who quest for understanding. The nearly 100 survivors of physical death who have shared with me the personal experiences of their own deaths, and countless others who have had spiritually transformative experiences, have painted the pictures in this manual. No words could describe what they saw, in many cases. Afterwards, they began the search for the words to explain what happened, and why. Surviving Death is an “owner’s manual” for the spiritually transformed who seek validation and acceptance of their spiritual journeys. You’ll find answers to your questions here, as well. This manual was not written to convince you that encounters of the “other side” are real. Rather, it is an encyclopedia of spiritual experiences—to help those who have had an experience and those who want to learn more about them. In February of 1982 my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died in May of the same year. After he died, he visited me, and I was blessed with the experience of witnessing his passing from this Earthly plane, including his departing through an opening or tunnel, as he was called by “heavenly beings” and told that it was his time to go. This co-experiencing of my own father’s death changed my viewpoint of death—and of life—dramatically. But the disbelief of family and friends led me to keep silent about it. I didn’t utter a word about it for nine years. Then I met John Ronner, who had published several books on the subject of angelic and other-worldly encounters. Reading a review of his book, Do You Have a Guardian Angel?, I learned about other people who had met deceased relatives. I was shocked to find that other people had been through the same thing, because at that time I had never heard another soul mention anything like my experience. I met with John, and he tried to convince me that such encounters were commonplace—but people were just too scared to talk about them. I finally took him at his word. But that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted proof. Was my experience just a fluke of the universe, or was it really common? I decided that if other people heard someone talking about it, maybe they would not be so reluctant to share. So, everywhere I went, I began bringing up the subject of death and the afterlife. Once I did this at a baby shower, other times at fast food restaurants—and boy, did I get an earful! On average, if I was talking to four people, two of them had either directly experienced a spiritual encounter with the other side or had an immediate family member or very close friend who had. Statistically speaking, that’s 50%. John was right. This is common. I began devouring every book I could find on the phenomenon for which Dr. Raymond Moody coined the term “near-death experience” (hereafter referred to as NDE). I must have read a dozen books by Dr. Moody, Dr. Melvin Morse (a pediatrician who researched NDE’s in children), Dr. Kenneth Ring, and others. Their descriptions documented amazing similarities in people’s encounters with death—regardless of race, gender, or time period. A book by an actual NDE’er further influenced me, from the moment I finished reading it. Coming Back to Life, written by PMH Atwater, described the extremely difficult journey she had through life after her death. You might think a trip to the Other Side and the enlightenment it brings would be the best thing that could happen to a person. Atwater’s experience was just the opposite! She was shunned by people who had been close to her, and she was so radically changed by her experience that she subsequently suffered a divorce, loss of jobs, estrangement from friends, and an almost complete mental breakdown. I wasn’t sure which to believe—the books that described how beautiful the NDE is, or the story of the rejection of a soul because of its spiritual enlightenment. So I began a quest to find local experiencers and get them together. I thought if I could get a few of these earthly transcenders together, they might be able to help one another. I knew from my own experience that it can be healing just to find someone who doesn’t screw up their face in disbelief as you try to share your experience. Coincidentally, while I was trying to find these people, a local NBC news affiliate, Demetria Kalodimos, was producing a documentary, Glimpse of Glory, in which stories of NDE’ers were featured. I contacted Kalodimos and told her I was sponsoring a group meeting for NDE’ers. From that contact was born the Survivors of Death Network, and she featured our very first meeting on that documentary. That was in the summer of 1992. The group met for three years. Nearly 100 survivors from all walks of life blessed each other and me with their stories and their search for answers. During these meetings, I noticed that the questions arising from different experiences were nearly all the same. So you will find a chapter in this manual that contains the common questions these travelers had—and some of the answers we came up with. The morning after Glimpse of Glory aired, I was walking to lunch when a lady approached me. She had recognized me from the show, and began thanking me. She had experienced an NDE, but had never heard anyone describe what she had been through. Seeing others who had gone through the same thing made her realize she wasn’t crazy. She told me she had been set free and could now get on with her life. This book is dedicated to people like her. If you are on a quest for understanding, I dedicate this manual to you. I have a few short statements for you, and I mean them sincerely: Weary traveler, you are not alone. You are not crazy. It is the world that misunderstands you, and not the other way around. Just because someone doesn’t believe you doesn’t mean your experience is invalid. Have peace and well-being, as life is meant to be. The truth speaks for itself and needs no defending. The truth shall set YOU free… PREFACE UPDATED (2nd Edition) The revised title “Surviving Death Again” was chosen for its double meaning. The chapter that benefited the most from this 2^nd Edition update is the chapter about reincarnation. Also, since this is a 2^nd Edition, the manuscript is Surviving Death again. As I have witnessed personally (and you will read in detail in Chapter 10), and as the following chapters illustrate in detail, we do survive death. Our essence, a part of us, or, more accurately, the part that makes us “us” continues to exist upon the termination of our physical body. So if we survive death, an opportunity exists for us to be born yet again, re-incarnate. Following the next incarnation, when we die, we survive death… again! Following the publication of the 1^st Edition of Surviving Death, I continued interviewing people willing to share their spiritual experiences of all kinds. Of particular interest to me was more information to round out my knowledge of what has been reported by those who have studied past lives and those who remember living them. To my surprise, I found a large database of carefully studied and scrutinized research on this subject. I also found many more folks than I expected who remembered life before being born. To present the clearest picture on reincarnation, I will outline what I describe as the complete circle of incarnation. I will identify some huge benefits to our lives because of reincarnation. I will also highlight some drawbacks that can result from past life influences on the current incarnation. These will be discussed in detail in newly revised Chapter 7. The new cover photo continues the metaphoric theme with the parts of the dandelion streaming out from a common illuminated center, indicating the Life energy of our Creator streaming outward. All of creation is connected to this common center, the Creator. The stem of the dandelion can represent the pathway we traverse to return back to that center, our true Home. The circular pattern of the head of the dandelion represents the “Circle of Incarnation” that I will detail in Chapter 7. We shall all meet again at The Light... Table of Contents Contents SURVIVING DEATH AGAIN.. 1 PUBLISHED BY.. 1 DEDICATION FOREWORD.. 2 PREFACE (1st Edition) 2 PREFACE UPDATED (2nd Edition) 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 4 CHAPTER 1. 4 THE MORNING AFTER.. 4 Back so soon?. 4 Go tell it on the mountain! 4 Go hide it in the closet 4 Their explanations. 5 Better explanations. 5 We need more death awareness. 6 Starting your quest 6 CHAPTER 2. 6 YOUR EXPERIENCE.. 6 Angelic messages or intervention. 6 Encounter with deceased spirits. 7 What’s that smell?. 8 Premonitions and pre-death visions. 8 Deathbed visions and take-away apparitions. 9 The cognitive sense. 9 Separation, the OBE.. 9 The Life Review, what a view! 10 Seeing them again! 10 Go back?. 10 Positive death experiences. 11 Negative death experiences. 11 Healing in the Light 12 Other kinds of experiences. 12 They are not all the same. 12 Causes vary. 13 Experiences reach beyond description. 13 Summary of common dying events. 13 CHAPTER 3. 13 COMMON AFTEREFFECTS AND TRAITS. 13 No more fear of death! 13 Becoming more childlike. 14 Priority list has changed. 14 Belief structure changes. 14 Everything’s not O.K.! 14 “Psychic” abilities?. 15 What are dreams made of?. 16 Electrical malfunction junction. 17 CHAPTER 4. 17 COMMON QUESTIONS AND SOME ANSWERS. 17 I thought I was the only one! 17 Why am I so different, and am I crazy?. 18 Why did this happen to me? What purpose do these death experiences serve?. 18 Why was I sent back?. 18 What am I supposed to do with the experience?. 18 Are experiences of other religions and cultures the same?. 19 How do I know it was real?. 19 Why don’t people believe me?. 19 Why didn’t he or she visit me when they died?. 19 What is the meaning of Life?. 19 Statistics. 20 If it’s all so beautiful, why don’t I kill myself to get there?. 20 CHAPTER 5. 20 YOUR SPIRITUAL BODY.. 20 Outside the physical 20 Spiritual body attributes. 21 Telepathy, without a doubt 21 Learning. 22 Travel 22 Spiritual name tag. 22 CHAPTER 6. 22 THE SPIRITUAL REALM... 22 Not the God I was taught…... 23 Angels. 23 Departed loved ones. 24 Gray people. 24 Interactive, influenced by you. 24 Heaven. 24 The barrier 25 Gray area. 25 Hell 26 Does anyone have the time?. 27 Accelerated learning centers. 27 Other places. 27 Staging area for the dead. 27 Unseen beings. 27 CHAPTER 7. 28 REINCARNATION.. 28 We existed before we came here. 28 We continue to exist after we die. 28 Face the music again. 29 Scientifically verified cases of reincarnation. 29 Visiting past lives through hypnotic regression. 29 Reincarnation case studies. 29 The case of Prakash. 29 The case of Suzanne Ghanem of Lebanon. 29 The case of Jasibir (an “exchange incarnation”) 29 Reincarnation statistics and conclusions. 30 Benefits of reincarnation. 30 Adversities of reincarnation. 30 The Circle of Incarnation. 30 Western culture and reincarnation. 31 Past life signs to look for in children. 32 CHAPTER 8. 32 Suicide. 32 Suicide, spiritual vs. physical 32 Doctor-assisted suicide. 33 CHAPTER 9. 33 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?. 33 The three L’s. 33 Give! 33 It’s not how much money you make, but how much of yourself you give that counts. 33 Give thanks. 34 I Love hard times and hard people. 34 Anger has no value. 35 Love yourself. 35 Learn. Better yourself. 35 The marble lessons. 35 Creativity breeds learning. 35 Harmony, not struggle. That’s one of the secrets to a peaceful Life. 36 “Go with the flow!”. 36 The circles of growth. 37 Think outside of the dots! 37 De-stress recipe. 37 Fundamental law of Growth. 38 You are a free agent 38 We are all, every one of us, living and dead, and yet to be born, inseparable and One! 39 Earth 101 Graduation Day. 39 CHAPTER 10. 40 SEEING DAD’S ODYSSEY BEGIN.. 40 Why the caps?. 42 BIBLIOGRAPHY.. 42 Books and Articles. 42 Media Resources. 43 Other Resources. 43 Web Resources. 43 Movies of interest 44 ABOUT THE AUTHOR.. 44 CHAPTER 1 The Morning After     The first thing you notice after you were supposedly dead is that you continue to exist. You may have seen, heard, and felt things that no words in any language can come close to describing. Just the same, while the sequence of events was somewhat unfamiliar, your awareness of your own existence was more natural and clearer than you have ever experienced in your physical body on earth.     The idea that anyone has any kind of experience after dying, and then remembers, takes most people by surprise. I don’t understand why, though. The vast majority of people in the world profess to be Christian, Muslim, Hindu or at least to have some sort of religious belief that includes belief in an afterlife. Yet, when faced with hearing your experience, most people seem uneasy. They act as if they were listening to the ramblings of a mad person! Back so soon?     You’re back now. You’ve traveled beyond your body, somehow, to some other place. But now you’re back in your body. Back in pain. Back to a place where you struggle to survive, instead of blissfully exist. Back to the place where things are often confusing. Back in debt. Back to the place where you will sometimes be hungry, tired, lonely, and miserable. “Here” is a stark contrast compared to “There.” You were in a place where peace and a sense of wholeness were the rule, not the exception. A place where sensory perception and communication were effortless and complete. Telepathy, for lack of a better word, was the way to talk. It was more than just passing words back and forth. It was words with the complete thoughts, feelings, and meanings of the other being, all together—and unmistakable—in one package. Travel was done at the speed of thought, and by thought.     The memories of that place you now call “Home” are still very fresh. In fact, if you close your eyes you can still see it. For many days you may even see both Here and There at the same time. And you will spend the rest of the days of this walk in life with a foot in both worlds, longing for Home. Go tell it on the mountain!     The first thing you simply have to do is tell someone!  You know that you have experienced a most profound series of events. Everyone is in search of the knowledge that you just glimpsed. You want to share it. And so you do. You tell your nurse what just happened. He or she will likely tell the doctor, who in response will up your dose of sedatives so you can be “relieved” of the stress of this delusion.     Next come the confidential conversations with your family and close friends—and the looks, the stares of disbelief, or the patronizing comment “Oh how interesting….”     There must be someone who understands you. In one last attempt to find validation and acceptance, you visit a priest or pastor. This exchange might border on frightening, as they explain, from their perspective, the possible evil of what you are describing.     Along with the strange looks from others, you get a long string of logical explanations for the events you are trying to describe. Lack of oxygen to the brain, they suggest. Hallucinations. It’s the medicine, they reassure you.     Shortly thereafter, they suggest that you need to stop talking about it. Sometimes it even goes as far as threats to be psychologically committed. Go hide it in the closet     Granted, this scenario may not even come close to what you went through after your return. You may very well have been surrounded by people who listened, even if they didn’t understand your accounts. And you may have had the confidence, despite the pressure of disbelievers, to share your experience with anyone and everyone. On the other hand, maybe you never told anyone because it all seemed too bizarre to explain, and you were just plain afraid of what others might think. Whatever the reactions, chances are that you reached a point were it was far more convenient to just shut up about it. For a small percentage of people, not only the details of their encounter but they themselves end up in the closet, completely withdrawn from society. A few people actually have been committed to mental institutions.     Whatever you saw, no matter how brief or extensive the time you were There, you find that your whole understanding of life is so changed that you really cannot create a believable picture of it. You haven’t even figured out for yourself how to integrate the concepts that are now a part of you into your “normal” life, much less make anyone else understand. You have a new “normal,” and it doesn’t fit very well into the society of “Get all you can, and can all you get.” What you had to tell someone has become the biggest burden in your life. Now you don’t want to talk about it anymore. You need time to think…. Their Explanations     Let’s take a look at the medical or biological underpinnings—the physics, you might say—of some of the “logical” explanations that are used to explain what has happened when a person is near death or has died.  Hypoxia – Lack of oxygen to the brain. It’s a well-known fact that as oxygen decreases to the brain, one’s vision becomes narrowed to what’s called “tunnel vision.”  Medication – A hallucination brought about by the medication or anesthesia you were given.  Your brain’s reaction to stress. At death, maybe the brain starts secreting large amounts of endorphins to create peace and pleasure. The mind makes up the beautiful fantasies you had to cope with dying.  There has been so much published about the NDE that society has been “preconditioned” to believe that at death you will see a Light, a tunnel, and dead loved ones. So at death that’s what you saw.  It was nothing more than a vivid dream.  Demonic encounter – Evil spirits. If your encounter didn’t fit the religious expectations of the listener, this may be his or her conclusion.  An “exercise in psychology”— A nice way of saying you are crazy!     Trying to explain a spiritual phenomenon with physical means is like trying to fit an object with six dimensions into a three-dimensional box. Better Explanations     The above list of explanations are put forth by people who forget that we are, first and foremost, spiritual beings using physical bodies as a mode of transportation. Fear grips them when they hear you speak of what have experienced while outside of your physical body. Death is, as an unwritten rule, a sociably forbidden topic. Fear is a natural emotion for any of us when we encounter a situation with which we are not familiar, especially if we have no idea what it really means. We fear what we don’t understand. The fear comes from the lack of knowledge. But that doesn’t mean that the experience was bad or wrong.     If the tunnel, and the afterlife experiences, are merely secretions of the brain to comfort the dying, then how do we account for experiences that continue when brain function has ceased? It can’t be a brain function if the brain isn’t functioning. Hallucinations from medications and brain malfunctions due to lack of oxygen both produce random and scattered delusions. Dr. Melvin Morse makes the point in his book Closer to the Light that the occurrence of any perception or awareness while the brain has shut down during coma or death defies conventional neurology:     According to the textbooks in the field, a child with Katie’s symptoms [Katie was under water for 19 minutes, and in a coma for three days] should have the absence of any brain function and therefore should comprehend nothing. As one of the top textbooks in the field says, coma should “wipe clean the slate of human consciousness. (p. 23)     Dr. Morse went on a quest himself to prove or disprove the theory that reactions to drugs caused the NDE visions. For a detailed breakdown of the drugs he investigated, and their psychological impact on human consciousness, refer to his book Closer to the Light. Here is a brief description from those pages:  LSD causes distortion of body images, visual hallucinations of colors and patterns, and a variety of bizarre emotions and images.  Morphine and heroin produce hallucinations that are nothing like the NDE. Among other side effects, they produce drowsiness, an inability to concentrate, and even decreased vision.  Recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, PCP, amphetamines, and barbiturates have common side effects of paranoia, not peace and well-being. Both hashish and marijuana can produce disorientation, loss of control of thoughts, poor memory, depression, and outright fear.  Anesthetic Agents most commonly used do not produce hallucinations, only confusion.  Endorphins are morphine-like chemicals produced by the brain to alleviate pain. They are responsible for the popular feeling called “runner’s high” that some feel after strenuous exercise. Animal studies have shown that the brain actually becomes depleted of endorphins rather quickly at death. No evidence exists to prove that the dying brain makes large quantities of these chemicals. (pp. 214-226)     Thus, the side effects and hallucinations that are created by drugs are a far cry from the clarity of the STE (Spiritually Transformative Experience), the OBE (Out of Body Event) or NDE (Near-Death Experience) that you experienced. Perception was never clearer than during your experience. It’s hard to describe the things witnessed by those outside of their physical body as random and scattered when they are sometimes very confirmable. Madelaine Lawrence reported in her book In a World of Their Own: Experiencing Unconsciousness the example of one of the most famous NDEs with an OBE by Maria, which was positively confirmed:     Perhaps the most famous case of this kind is Maria, originally reported by her critical care social worker, Kimberly Clark (1984). Maria, a migrant worker, had a severe heart attack. After a few days in the hospital, she developed more cardiac problems and had a cardiac arrest associated with an unusual OBE. At one point during this experience, she believed herself to be outside the hospital, where she says she spotted a tennis shoe on the ledge of the building. Maria not only indicated the whereabouts of this oddly situated object, but also described the little toe as worn and one shoelace tucked underneath. These observations were not possible from inside the room. Clark went to a location that Maria had described and found the shoe precisely where Maria had described it. Interestingly, Clark, from her point of view at the window, could not see all the details Maria described. For example the worn small toe faced away from the window. Clark’s conclusion was that Maria could only have had such a perspective if she had been floating right outside and at a very close range to the tennis shoe. (Clark, 1984) (p. 126)     Instead of randomness, we see consistent and, in many cases, verifiable experiences. We’re talking about people who can accurately describe their own resuscitations and even describe things that went on while they were dead. In his book Closer to the Light, Dr. Morse gives details of how Dr. Michael Sabom, a cardiologist from Atlanta, interviewed 32 patients about medical resuscitation while “dead.” Not one of them made mistakes describing the resuscitation. As a control group for the study, he asked 25 medically savvy patients about resuscitation, and 23 of the 25 made major mistakes in guessing how it was done. (p. 120) The “logical explanations” may seem like sound medical and physiological responses to what happens to the body during an NDE. But they are really excuses people use to avoid having to look objectively at the real source of the experience, the spiritual aspect. When Abraham asked Jesus to allow him to come back from the dead to warn his brothers of a place of torment, Jesus told him in Luke 16:31,     If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. (NRSV)     Nothing you can say to scoffers will make them believers. Moreover, it is not important that they believe! The truth is the truth, and needs no defending.     Madelaine Lawrence noted:     Our progress in understanding these experiences seems to be impeded by our compartmentalization of the study of man through different disciplines, and by the restraints imposed by religion and society to study experiences that are labeled as extrasensory or soul-like phenomena. (World, p. 7)     This is Lawrence’s nice way of saying that if it weren’t for the boxes we create, and live in, rejecting anything that hangs outside their lids, we might be able to get a clue. As rational “adults,” we readily condemn experiences that don’t fit within the strict boundaries of our belief system. Anything outside of these bounds just can’t be. I, personally, know two people who have been committed to mental facilities because of their insistence of their journeys to the beyond!     Ultimately, I hope you’ll reach the conclusion that everybody else has the problem with your experience, not you. That’s the big revelation! You must come to that realization before you can move on emotionally. We need more death awareness     It’s unfortunate that medical training doesn’t include more study on the subject of how the nurse or doctor should handle the dying or those who have returned from dying. I have worked with professionals from several major medical communities, and I make it a point to ask them what type of training they receive on the subject of death and dying. Nearly always, I get the response, “We had a single afternoon class on dealing with the ‘dying client.’”     Most nurses with whom I have talked tell me that doctors take the death of a patient as a personal failure instead of realizing that it may have been “graduation day” for that soul.     If a terminally ill patient tells the doctor that he or she is being visited by deceased relatives, or tells of having been taken to a realm of light and then brought back to the hospital bed, the doctor will often give the patient more or stronger sedatives to help “relieve them” of these “troubling hallucinations.”     By drowning it out with medication, this robs the patient physical manifestation of the spiritual stimulation that comes with the dying experience. It also shortchanges the patient’s family, who might have heard the dying patient’s story of the visitation and taken comfort from it after their loved one was gone. The doctor thinks he’s helping the patient have a “peaceful passing” when he is really depriving the patient of the full experience of the transition of passing. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for heavy sedatives if the dying person is in extreme pain, but otherwise I think the person should be left to feel the experience to its fullest. It seems to me that an unhealthy fear of death permeates our society, and that this fear is robbing everyone of the spiritual enlightenment that comes from the dying experience.     When I ask nurses if they have ever cared for a patient who has had one of these unique spiritual experiences of leaving their body and returning, most say yes, they have had a patient mention such an experience. Doctors tend to react to the same question in a different way. They may tell you how many years they have been practicing medicine and that they would certainly know if such a thing were happening, but it isn’t. Statistics seem to indicate that it is happening right under their noses; they just don’t seem to notice. After being more objective, some doctors are now admitting that. Starting your quest     The events you encountered keep replaying over and over in your mind. The longing for Home can sometimes be overwhelming for you after having been there briefly and then forced to leave.  It’s tough, even though you know that you will eventually be back Home in what, to eternity, is the blink of an eye.     Chris told me this about his personal quest to try to understand his travels to the other side:     Eight years now after the experience, I have come to a point where I am only now beginning to ask the right questions. I’m sure the answers are out there somewhere. I don’t have them all, after eight years. Maybe I have 10% of the answers. But I have developed a greater willingness to share the experience. In sharing it, I can get it defined. (Degenhardt)     You may now feel like an alien on a foreign planet after whatever it is you went through. The world is different with your “other” understanding. Your values and belief systems are completely changed. You might be at odds with your friends because of this change. You may even have a strained marriage because you aren’t the same person your spouse married. You are a deeper person spiritually, and not everyone wants to go that deep. Your whole career track may have derailed because your idea of what matters is now so different. One thing is for sure, the thirst to understand more seems unquenchable. And so the quest begins…. *** “God is at home, it’s we who have gone out for a walk.” - Meister Eckhart, 14th Century Dominican priest, preacher, and theologian. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Scott Degenhardt is a native of the Middle Tennessee area and is popularly known for disseminating information about current happenings in the sky. An avid amateur astronomer, he has serves as a research member with the International Occultation Timing Association. He helped pioneer the use of video for timing eclipses of stellar and solar system objects. Using this technique, he has discovered three new binary star systems. He currently holds the World Record in the number of measurements of an asteroid by a single person (14 simultaneous separate measurements through the asteroid 135 Hertha on December 11, 2008). His background in optics and his technical training and experience in electronics and computers have led Scott along several interesting career paths. He has done everything from controlling broadcasts by satellite for Country Music Television to working on spacecraft for NASA. He spent many years calibrating equipment used to test aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, and rockets at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee. He also spent some years on a laser research project at Vanderbilt University’s Free-Electron Laser (FEL) Center. The Free-Electron Laser is tunable to a wide range of infrared wavelengths where no lasers currently exist. At the FEL Center, Scott worked on the assembly and testing of the prototype of the world’s first monochromatic X-ray machine for MXISystems. He assisted in the development of it, finding ways to improve and streamline the operation and output of the monochromatic X-ray source, eventually designing the commercialized version. In 1992, Scott saw a newspaper review posted on his church’s bulletin board about John Ronner’s book, Do You Have a Guardian Angel? In this review, Ronner cited examples of people who had been visited by deceased family members, something Scott had experienced himself. From subsequent conversations with Ronner, he learned that such visitations were common—but he had already discovered for himself that talking about them wasn’t sociably acceptable. Scott then read PMH Atwater’s Coming Back to Life. Atwater had actually been through a near-death experience. He sympathized with Atwater and others who risked becoming social outcasts because they had been so changed by their experiences on the “other side.” He felt a calling to help these transcendental travelers find each other. He started the “Survivors of Death Network” in the Middle Tennessee area. His interactions with the members of that group, along with ten years of interviews and observations, led to the writing of Surviving Death. Scott continues to do media interviews to shed some light on the Light! Scott is certified as a private pilot. He also loves photography, the outdoors, martial arts, any form of physical fitness, and anything technical. A budding cello player, he enjoys creating musical duets with his wife Michelle, an accomplished pianist. For more information: http://thedegshop.com Scott Degenhardt: anything@thedegshop.com 1-888-OurLight (888-687-5444) click here to ORDER THIS Kindle BOOK NOW!