Barbara Bartolome’s Ceiling Friend
What Researchers Found
The Story
Barbara Barole, a 31-year-old mother of a three-month-old daughter and an eight-year-old son, had a near-death experience during a myelogram procedure before back surgery. A technician pushed the wrong button on the X-ray table, causing her to black out and suffer cardiac arrest. She rose to the ceiling above her body and felt calm, loved, and centered. An eternal companion joined her. She watched the team place an oxygen mask on her face, attach a heart monitor that flatlined, and the orthopedic surgeon thump her chest twice with full force. She telepathically told the companion she wanted to return for her children and to complete her life's purpose. After the second thump, she opened her eyes in her body. She described the events to the doctors, but they denied it, so she stayed silent for 15 years. Later, she connected with IANDS, discovered an infant NDE at 18 months that explained her lifelong intuition and lack of fear of death, started a local support group, and developed a direct connection to God without attending church.
“because I felt so close to them I felt that I'd known them for so long like for”
This account features highly specific veridical perceptions of resuscitation details, including a rare precordial thump and overheard surgeons' conversation, immediately reported to the medical team eliciting shock reactions, with later independent confirmation by a nurse. The primary limiting factor is the same-room ceiling vantage point, reducing access impossibility, though multiple precise details were corroborated by reactions and expertise. Overall, the prompt reporting and medical crisis elevate its evidential strength exceptionally.
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.
Are you here because someone you love has died?
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 account features highly specific veridical perceptions of resuscitation details, including a rare precordial thump and overheard surgeons' conversation, immediately reported to the medical team eliciting shock reactions, with later independent confirmation by a nurse. The primary limiting factor is the same-room ceiling vantage point, reducing access impossibility, though multiple precise details were corroborated by reactions and expertise. Overall, the prompt reporting and medical crisis elevate its evidential strength exceptionally.
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.