Near-Death Experiencer Barbara Harris Whitfield Speaking at Findhorn in 2015
What Researchers Found
The Story
Barbara Harris experienced her near-death experience in 1975 during recovery from back surgery after a fall that led to chronic pain and addiction to medications. She had two episodes. In the first, she left her body in the Stryker frame bed, observed her body from above, moved through blackness where light separated from darkness, met her deceased grandmother, relived shared memories hyper-realistically, and was told heart-to-heart to return. In the second, during distress while face-down, she left her body again, saw her crying baby self and current self, let go of her lifetime, felt enveloped by divine energy, underwent a life review understanding her abusive childhood and risk of repeating it with her children, overheard nurses discussing her case, and returned with a message to change her life. After the NDE, Barbara overcame atheism and bitterness, became a respiratory therapist specializing in critical care and the dying, researched NDE after-effects at the University of Connecticut, co-authored over 20 books on healing and spirituality, married therapist Charles Whitfield, and dedicated her life to integrating spiritual transformation, promoting humility, and helping abuse survivors through therapy and writing.
“had to go back so I went back this was the first experience I had one in the”
The account features a strong veridical claim of perceiving a specific, confidential conversation at the nurse's station about the patient's body cast duration (6 weeks lie vs. 7 months reality) and a nurse being sent home, from an impossible location while immobilized face-down in a Stryker frame bed post-surgery. This was confronted immediately to the nurses with precise details, implying implicit verification via their reaction, though no explicit confirmation stated. Limited by only one primary verified perception amid other subjective elements.
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
The account features a strong veridical claim of perceiving a specific, confidential conversation at the nurse's station about the patient's body cast duration (6 weeks lie vs. 7 months reality) and a nurse being sent home, from an impossible location while immobilized face-down in a Stryker frame bed post-surgery. This was confronted immediately to the nurses with precise details, implying implicit verification via their reaction, though no explicit confirmation stated. Limited by only one primary verified perception amid other subjective elements.
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.