Barbara Bartolome's NDE, "I Must be Dead"
What Researchers Found
The Story
In 1987, a 31-year-old married woman in Santa Barbara, California, with an 8-year-old son and newborn daughter experienced a near-death event. She had ruptured a disc in her back after lifting something heavy and was undergoing a myelogram before back surgery. During the procedure, she lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. She floated out of her body to the ceiling and watched the medical team call code blue and perform CPR on her body. She felt a loving, eternal presence beside her that she knew deeply. She pleaded to return for her children and to complete her life purpose. The presence showed her flashes of abuse in her five-year marriage. She decided to leave her husband if allowed to return. After a second precordial thump, she revived and verified details of the events to the stunned team. After the NDE, she gained the strength to address the abuse and leave her marriage, fulfilling her promise and embracing her purpose.
This NDE features strong veridical perceptions from an out-of-body vantage during clinical death (flatline, CPR, precordial thumps), with highly specific details like staff actions, conversations, and equipment usage quoted accurately and reported immediately to the stunned medical team, corroborated by their reactions.
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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What Researchers Found
This NDE features strong veridical perceptions from an out-of-body vantage during clinical death (flatline, CPR, precordial thumps), with highly specific details like staff actions, conversations, and equipment usage quoted accurately and reported immediately to the stunned medical team, corroborated by their reactions.
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.