Joan Johnson Porter
What Researchers Found
The Story
Joan Johnson Porter was a 25-year-old mother who had a near-death experience after a head-on car accident at about 100 miles per hour. She was driving to pick up a friend from school when another car pulled into her lane on a two-lane road. Her four-year-old daughter was in the passenger seat. During the NDE, Joan felt puzzled and then found herself in a field with mountains. She saw children playing to the left and people setting up picnic tables for a family reunion to the right. She talked to a tall, loving man like an angel about physics, the universe, and how systems change. He told her she had to go back. Her grandfather Toby appeared, recognized her wish to stay, but motioned for her to return. Joan then viewed the accident scene from above, saw the wreckage, paramedics, and her bloody but unharmed daughter. A nurse declared her dead, but Joan felt angry about returning. After the NDE, Joan suffered brain damage, a skull fracture, broken vertebrae, and profound amnesia. She relearned basic skills like choosing food and lost her ability to form beliefs. With little help, she created thought-mapping tools from her NDE insights on systems and change. These tools help change perspectives, solve problems, and aid in PTSD. She wrote the book 'How to Fly a Caterpillar' to share them and was mentored by psychologist Dr. Albert Ellis.
“i felt like i was home and i looked over at the group of people again and my grandfather toby stepped out from the crowd now if”
The account describes an OBE during a severe car crash with clinical death indicators, observing specific details like a nurse declaring no pulse from an impossible vantage point. However, details are somewhat predictable, verification is vague ('later found out was a nurse'), and no confirmed corroborated perceptions or timely pre-verification reporting are mentioned.
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
The account describes an OBE during a severe car crash with clinical death indicators, observing specific details like a nurse declaring no pulse from an impossible vantage point. However, details are somewhat predictable, verification is vague ('later found out was a nurse'), and no confirmed corroborated perceptions or timely pre-verification reporting are mentioned.
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.