Rodney Reider: Ladder to Heaven
What Researchers Found
The Story
Rodney Reader was a merchant mariner longshoreman. On July 19, 2017, he fell 25 feet from a barge while holding a ladder during loading work. The fall caused severe injuries, and he was unconscious for about 35 minutes. During the NDE, Rodney left his body after a pop. He entered total darkness and felt calm. A lightning bolt split opened into a portal of light. He emerged on a gravel path in a tree grove on a mountain ledge. He glided as a consciousness orb over a vivid, earth-like three-tiered meadow. He saw hundreds of beings on the lower tier. A golden rectangular portal stood on the second tier with beings nearby. Jeweled marbled halls like the Parthenon appeared on the third tier. He glided to a lush green grass field, lay down, and felt deep love, peace, and connection while recharging. Silver mist brought five to seven bluish-white light beings who surrounded him. They communicated knowings and sent him back through a rainbow vortex. He felt pain and fused into his body. After the NDE, Rodney endured surgeries for facial fractures and other injuries but felt little pain from the lingering love. He gained a sense of purpose, started a YouTube channel called NDE Sanctuary to share his story and others' experiences, and connected with people who had similar NDEs.
“everything that i saw i felt was the times a million i have two daughters and”
This NDE features severe physical trauma and prolonged unconsciousness but contains no veridical perception claims of real-world events during the period of compromised consciousness. All experiences occur in a subjective otherworldly realm with no specific, verifiable details about the physical environment, resuscitation efforts, or hidden information, resulting in minimal evidential strength.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.
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These accounts were gathered because death may not be the end. Thousands of people have experienced something beyond — and come back to tell us about it.
What Researchers Found
This NDE features severe physical trauma and prolonged unconsciousness but contains no veridical perception claims of real-world events during the period of compromised consciousness. All experiences occur in a subjective otherworldly realm with no specific, verifiable details about the physical environment, resuscitation efforts, or hidden information, resulting in minimal evidential strength.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.