Pam Reynolds was a songwriter and orchestrator. She lived in Atlanta and at the age of 35, she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. This aneurysm was a particularly challenging one to address as it was located in her brain stem near the base of her skull. There was one procedure that she was told gave her very little chance of survival, but that it was her only hope at continuing her life. To address the aneurysm, part of the skull is removed, including the base of the eye. This creates a space that allows access to the base of the skull. The body temperature was lowered to 60.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Her blood was then drained to allow the aneurysm to flatten out. Upon clipping the aneurysm, blood was then pumped back into her body as she was warmed back up. While the surgery was a success, Pam was conscious during the experience. The following description is from Pam Reynolds herself and describes her actual death experience.
Beginning Recollections
Doctor Robert F. Spetzler performed the operation, but there were more people in that room than I would have ever guessed to be in an operating room. They cooled my body down and my heart stopped. My brain waves stopped functioning. They tilted the end of the gurney up and drained my blood, like oil from a car, into a heart lung machine. I’m told that’s what happened but, understand, I was not there when this was happening.
I had been put to sleep. Dr. Spetzler has since assured me that I was nearly comatose. There was no way that I could have heard or seen anything. My eyes were taped shut and my ears had speakers inserted in them making a loud clicking sound. These speakers were used to monitor the response of my brain. Nonetheless, I began to hear a tone. It was guttural, it was unpleasant, I did not like it. It drew my consciousness like water from a well. And having done that, I sort of popped out of my head to see what this horrific noise was.
At first my vantage point was rather like sitting on the shoulder of the surgeon. In his hand, I saw the instrument that was making the offensive noise. I have heard the word “saw” all my life – my father used a saw, my grandfather used a saw, brain surgeons use saws. I had assumed they were going to open the skull with a saw. But this was no saw. This think was held more like a pencil. It looked like a drill and actually reminded me of an electric toothbrush.
This was the thing that was causing the noise that disturbed my very, very, very, deep slumber.
An Out of Body Experience like None Other
The feeling of exiting the body was incredible. I’ve never weighted five hundred pounds, but if was as if I had and just lost all the weight. I could move around at will. My thought process took me where I wanted to go. I felt no pain, no more suffering, no more fear. I was free to wander around, at will, unobstructed.
I heard a female voice describing that my arteries and veins were too small. I thought they may be working in the wrong areas since they were doing brain surgery. Out of concern I tried to communicate with the female but she could not hear me.
It was indescribable but beautiful to know that I was no longer part of that thing lying on the operating table. “I” was outside of my body.
I began to sense a presence. The feeling was rather like having someone looking over your shoulder and yet there being no-one in the room. I turned around to look at it and instead of seeing a person, I saw a very tiny pinpoint of light. As I started focusing on the light, it started to pull me and the pulling had physical sensation with it. It was like from my tummy, going over a hill real fast. The closer I got to the light, the better I could see and discern figures.
The first figure I knew was my grandmother. I heard her voice calling me. But it wasn’t a voice made of vocal cords, it was something different. There were so many people there, many I knew, many I did not know, but somehow I knew I was connected to them. I didn’t know how I knew this, but I knew.
The people were wearing light, they seemed to be made of light. The ones I recognized, it’s as if there had never been a separation between us. There was love, warmth, and protection and I felt all of it.
I then saw my uncle, who had passed away at the age of thirty nine. He didn’t use his mouth to communicate. He did it in another way that I remembered from my early childhood. He had the look. He would look at me and I would understand. It didn’t take long to understand that this was how everyone here communicated.
I asked my grandmother regarding the nature of the light. My communication to her was, “Is the light God?” and there was great laughter and she said, “No, sweetheart, the light is not God. The light is what happens when God breaths.” That was the communication.
The landscape was nonexistent. It was as if the bodies were floating tin midair. There was light and shadow, but it didn’t seem to fall on anything. That’s what convinced me that I probably was not in “heaven.” It had colors like you wouldn’t believe. I was probably in an “in-between” place. Perhaps I was on some sort of bridge on the way, because, let us not forget, they would not let me into that light.
I became concerned as to whether or not I was really there. I looked at my own hands and held them up to my face. I saw something, I knew I was there, I could feel “me.” The odd thing was, I didn’t feel so very different than I feel here. And yet, there was no density in the flesh, but still, I held them up to my face to secure the knowledge that I was there.
There came a time that I knew I had to return to the body. My uncle was going to take me and that was fine. I was okay with that, until I saw the thing and I was not at all pleased. He told me, “Think about your favorite food…Won’t you miss your children?” And then he told me, “It’s like jumping in a swimming pool, baby. Just jump.” I looked down and saw the body jump with the first defibrillation. I definitely did not want to get in the thing then, because, to be honest with you, it looked like what it was — dead. I knew it would hurt. My response to him was – no. So then he pushed me.
I hit the body at the second defibrillation of the heart, and there I was alive and somewhat uncomfortable. Getting back into the body was kind of like jumping into a pool of ice water. It was shocking. I could feel the shock and it was very unpleasant.
I woke up in the operating room and was told I wasn’t supposed to wake up until I was in the recovery room.
Validating the Out of Body Experience
Afterward, Dr. Spetzler listened very closely to everything I said to him. On the following day, he very firmly explained to me that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was not a hallucination. He told me that what I described actually occurred. For example, they had to defibrillate me twice.
The voice I had heard was indeed female, and later my doctors introduced me to her. She was the head of the cardiovascular team and she was doing a “cutdown.” this is the methodology by which they drew the blood from my body.
I was able to eventually see the Midas Rex bone saw and indeed it did look like an electric toothbrush.
I was a believer when I left the hospital and I wasn’t the only one. There were several staff members there who said I wasn’t the only case they had seen that was unusual in this regard.
I know that consciousness survives the death of the physical body because I’ve had that experience personally. Beyond that, I cannot, in truth, know anything. In my opinion, what happened to me is evidence of an afterlife.
Having had this near death experience, I no longer fear death. I fear separation. I thought at first that I wouldn’t even fear separation, but there is no experience that makes the separation okay when you lose someone. But when my time comes, I will embrace death.
I find it extremely interesting that others from all over the planet, regardless of culture, religious bias, or political lean defy coincidence by reporting the same basic elements with their near death experiences.
Do Your Own Research – Form Your Own Conclusion
There are thousands and thousands of documented cases surrounding that of out of body, near death experiences, and actual death experience.
This blog post was generated from an amazing read that I am involved in titled, “Surviving Death – A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife.” This book by Leslie Kean is full of incredible stories and is masterfully written.
She gives both sides to the arguments of consciousness and what happens before and after death. Actual death experiences are examined as well as cases of real life examples of reincarnation.
The soul and spirt that embodies us within the physical reality we call life deserves to be studied. Science likes to have concrete and absolute proof of existence so within these cases it is often difficult to lay claims to truth.
But there is documented proof out there if we want to find it. The evidence is mounting more and more. We can choose to deny these facts and turn a blind eye, or lean into the possibilities and form our own conclusions.
It may not take an actual death experience for us to discover more evidence. There are ways for us to work to discover the power of out of body experiences through focus, mental work, meditation, and other practices. I know this borders on the lines of speculation, but there are people out there who absolutely know that we continue life after death due to their experiences.
I am one of those people. Perhaps at a later point in time I will tell my story here in my blog posts. For me, it wasn’t an actual death experience, but rather the practice of daily focus and effort to experience an out of body experience. Upon that successful completion, my life was also forever changed.
My reason for being became clear – and I had to begin sharing my life experiences in hopes that others may benefit.
For more insight and information on Pam Reynolds, feel free to watch:
What are your thoughts, questions, or even experiences around all this? I would love to have you engage in the conversation.
To me, these are some of the most fascinating questions that we should be exploring in life.
My search for truth will never cease, and I welcome you all along for the ride with me.