#315 - David Is Run Over By A Train And Has A Beautiful NDE

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Welcome to Round Trip Death. On this show we have discussions with real people who have had near-death experiences. 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:20,000 This is a safe, non-judgmental, non-denominational space where we all have something we can learn from others. 3 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:29,000 While every NDE is different, one of the commonalities is that experiencers come back changed and their lives going forward reflect that change. 4 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:34,000 The question is, what will you and I learn from listening to their stories? 5 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Okay, we are going across the pond today and talking with David Ditchfield in Cambridge. David, good morning. 6 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:48,000 Good morning. Great to meet you. 7 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Or apologize, afternoon for you. 8 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,000 It's afternoon, yeah, of course. 9 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,000 Tell us where you live and what you do back there. 10 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:08,000 Yeah, well, I'm in Cambridge. I've been living here since an accident that I had some years back, which changed my life dramatically. 11 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:15,000 I'm now, I'm an artist and a musician, a composer, I compose music for orchestra. 12 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:20,000 But none of this was happening in my life prior to my accident. 13 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:33,000 In fact, my life was pretty dire. I'd been living in London and I'd moved to London when I was young, hoping to sort of make something of it because I'd left school without any qualifications. 14 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:39,000 I'm dyslexic, so I struggled at school to get any academics. 15 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000 So life was a bit of an uphill struggle, like it is for a lot of people. I realized that, you know, I'm not alone in this. 16 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:54,000 And especially living in a capital city, because living in any capital city, it's a lot more challenging, it's a lot more expensive. 17 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:00,000 And I was surrounded by people who were successful and were doing really good at their game. 18 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000 And I just wanted to be part of that. But it was never going to happen. 19 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:09,000 In all fairness, I think that I was just trying to push on all the wrong doors that weren't meant for me. 20 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:14,000 You know, it's a lesson that I've learned not to do that. 21 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,000 So, yes, I'm in a different place now. 22 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:21,000 It can be amazing how lives change from a near-death experience. 23 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,000 And we'll talk more about that and how years changed before to after. 24 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:38,000 One of the things that I find fascinating on this show, as I get to interview interesting people, is not just what happened during their experience, but what led up to it. 25 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:47,000 In other words, how they died. And some are, you know, and that's not what the show is about. 26 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,000 We're not trying to, you know, talk about crazy stories. 27 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:59,000 But we have had some that are very unusual, such as one man who was run over by a Navy ship. 28 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,000 We've had drownings. We've had all kinds of things. 29 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:09,000 But congratulations, David, you are the first person that I've talked to that's been run over by a train. 30 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:12,000 Yeah, I know that is a freak accident. 31 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:17,000 And when I tell my stories to people, most people are like, what? 32 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Because as Dr. Raymond Moody said, I saw I did a quick interview with him and he said he introduced me. 33 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:27,000 And he said that if you think about it, it's a lot of us. 34 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:33,000 It's our worst fear because we've all been there where we stood on a crowded platform waiting for the train to come in. 35 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:42,000 And we're all thinking, you know, imagine if I got pushed under by the swell of the crowd, that would be our worst possible nightmare. 36 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,000 But you never think it's going to happen to you. But in my case, it did. 37 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:49,000 It did happen to me. And it was it was terrifying. 38 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:53,000 Well, take us back. When did this happen? What led up to it? 39 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:59,000 You know, what were you doing this I assume was just an average day, but then an un average thing happened. 40 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:05,000 Yeah, it was an average day. I was just I was seeing a friend off at a rail station. 41 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:11,000 I, as I say, I was down on my look when I was in London running out of money. 42 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,000 I was about to get evicted from my apartment. 43 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:18,000 And I just met somebody, actually, a really nice girl called Anna. 44 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:25,000 And I said, look, I'm going to have to go away and stay at my sister's just to try and get myself grounded. 45 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:31,000 And while I was up there, we were in touch and I myself, she wanted to come and visit. 46 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,000 So it was her that I was seeing off at the station. 47 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,000 And I was helping her onto the car with my bags, with her bags. 48 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:45,000 Sorry. And it was as we were saying goodbye and I was giving her a kiss and a hug that the accident happened. 49 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:50,000 The automatic doors closed on my coat and I couldn't pull it free. 50 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:53,000 It was like a very thick sort of sheepskin coat. 51 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:58,000 And it was just was not going to come out. I tried everything, of course, you know, I mean, I really pulled. 52 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:04,000 I was pressing the buttons to open the doors, screaming at the top of my voice for help. 53 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,000 But there was no guard on the platform. 54 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:12,000 It was one of these stations where it's all, you know, it's all done by the driver basically. 55 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,000 And the driver had not seen me trapped in there. 56 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:22,000 So I remember looking into the in through the doors and seeing my friend Anna and seeing the look of sheer horror on her face. 57 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,000 And I thought I thought this was it. 58 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:29,000 I thought I'm going to die as the engine started to rev and pull out the station. 59 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:31,000 It pulled out a great speed. 60 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:37,000 You don't realize that how fast these trains pull out when you until you attach to the outside of one. 61 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,000 And I lost my footing. I was dragged along the platform edge. 62 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:47,000 And then finally, between the platform and the speeding train and non-drive went under the wheels. 63 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:54,000 And it was like being pulled into this great mechanical beast that was just throwing me around relentlessly. 64 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,000 And it was very violent. It was painful. 65 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,000 And as I say, it was immensely terrifying. 66 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,000 But I had this kind of fight or flight mode, I guess. And I decided to fight. 67 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:10,000 I decided I was not going to let this beast take me under. And it didn't. 68 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:15,000 It threw me down to the ground in between the tracks as the as a train sped on. 69 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000 It was a very long train. So I thought it's not over yet. 70 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:23,000 Keep your face down into the gravel. Keep as flat as you can, because something could just hit me. 71 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:29,000 At this point, had you detached from your coat so you weren't being drug any longer? 72 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:38,000 No, yeah. I mean, the sheer pull of the train, the speed of it and the weight of my body, I heard a great rip. 73 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,000 And then I just went down. That's when I went under. 74 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,000 You know, so it ripped my coat. 75 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:47,000 So you're no longer dragging, but you are under a moving train. 76 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,000 I'm under a moving train and being thrown around. 77 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:56,000 It was like being thrown into a dryer, into a washing machine and just throw it on full spin. 78 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,000 It was just, you know, I was just tumbling all over the place. 79 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:02,000 So it was a miracle that I survived. 80 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:09,000 I mean, the British Rail Police did a huge inquiry because they take these things seriously, obviously. 81 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,000 And they took them a year. 82 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:17,000 They said that they took the train down to London and stripped the carriage doors down to the last rivet. 83 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:22,000 And they said after a year on, they said we finished all our investigations. 84 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:28,000 And they said, David, the head of the police said to me, we don't get it. 85 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,000 We banged our heads together. You should not be here. 86 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,000 You should actually be dead. I don't know how you survived it. 87 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:40,000 And by then I knew what had helped me, what has helped me to survive this story. 88 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,000 And yeah, so there you go. 89 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,000 All right. Go blow, go blow, blow, blow as what happened. 90 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,000 You're getting tumbled around. 91 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:56,000 Blow, blow, blow. So I'm thrown down to the ground, as I say, and I'm in between the tracks and the train continues on. 92 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,000 And it's finally moved off down the tracks. 93 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:06,000 And there I was in complete agony, but also complete sort of joy that I'd survived. 94 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:10,000 I remember looking up and it was a beautiful blue sky that day. 95 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,000 It was a February day just like now. 96 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:23,000 And I looked to check my injuries and the coat that the sheep's can coat I'd been wearing had been ripped to shreds, particularly on the left side. 97 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:28,000 And my left arm had been ripped right open as well. I could see all the workings of my arm. 98 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:35,000 And it was odd because rather than go into a complete panic, I remember looking at my arm and thinking, wow, that's the inside of my arm. 99 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:41,000 That's all my the tendons and muscles that are me that I'd never seen before. 100 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:47,000 All of a sudden, the paramedics arrived really quick because there was a small hospital just around the corner from the station. 101 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:54,000 So they were there and they jumped down on the tracks and they started cutting through my clothes and started to talk with me and keep me calm. 102 00:08:54,000 --> 00:09:00,000 And then they somehow got me onto a stretcher and in the back of an ambulance. 103 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,000 And I don't know how they did that because it's a huge drop. 104 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:07,000 You know, it was like being down in this sort of horrible pit. 105 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:19,000 But they did. They got me in the ambulance and the ambulance driver, the doctor said to me, said, look, there's a hospital around the corner, but the one that's going to save your life is a 25 minute drive. 106 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,000 Can you hang in there? I said, yeah, let's go. 107 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:34,000 And I was still in this fine mode, you know, and I remember we sped off down the highway like a rocket and we arrived at the hospital, which is called Addenbrook's Hospital, which is one of the best ones in the UK. 108 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:40,000 There's a whole team of medics waiting for me, you know, and then they just wheeled me in and they started to work on me. 109 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:45,000 And I was losing a lot of blood at this point and I knew it wasn't all over. 110 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:53,000 I didn't feel safe yet because I could hear fear in the voices of the actual doctors and the medics as they were all working on me. 111 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:57,000 I didn't know what they were talking about. It was all science to me, but, you know, it didn't sound great. 112 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:03,000 And I could see all this blood sort of literally sort of covering the floor. 113 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:11,000 My family arrived at this point, you know, they came in and I was really amazed that they were there because I thought, how did they find out? 114 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:18,000 You know, Anna had called from the train and phoned my sister and told her what had happened. 115 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:27,000 And she thought I was dead. So my sister was completely, you know, in shock, but she turned up with my parents and they came in to see me. 116 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:34,000 And my mom was in tears, I remember, and she said, Mom, it's always me bringing all the drama to this family. 117 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,000 I'm so sorry. She said, stop it and put a hand on my mouth. 118 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:46,000 And yeah, and I remember just all I wanted to do was see Anna because we'd just been through this together. 119 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:51,000 I was just so concerned for her, you know, she'd seen an awful thing happen, you know. 120 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Yes, she had no idea what happened to you. 121 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:55,000 Exactly. That's it. 122 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:58,000 She thought you were probably dead, I assume. 123 00:10:58,000 --> 00:10:59,000 She did do. Yeah. 124 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:05,000 Before we move on to her, would you mind telling us what some of your injuries were? 125 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:14,000 Yeah, well, the main injury that I received was my left arm had been cut, it had been severed from the elbow. 126 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:23,000 And I've still got it because as we went into surgery, I asked the surgeon, I begged him, I said, can you please save my arm? 127 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:32,000 My left arm, I said, because I play guitar, which I used to and I can't play guitar anymore, but they saved my arm and I can kind of use it. 128 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:35,000 So it's amazing. That was the main injury that I sustained. 129 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:41,000 I suffered internal injuries, which came back to haunt me a few years back, actually. 130 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,000 But also, but really, other than that, I came out really well. 131 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:53,000 My whole body was shattered and cut and bruised and I still feel a sense that it's never really fully recovered. 132 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:58,000 There's a sense of me that's not as fit and nimble as I was before. 133 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,000 But ultimately, I came out incredibly well, considering. 134 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,000 Yeah. How many years ago was this? 135 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,000 This was in 2006 that this happened. 136 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:12,000 Okay, keep going. Go back to the hospital. You're going into surgery. 137 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,000 Well, yeah, and it was then I said, I need to speak to Anna. 138 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:20,000 And so Anna came over and she was just ahead of us, just going from side to side. 139 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:23,000 And she said, I can't believe you're alive. 140 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:30,000 They told me over the system when we got to the next station that you were dead, that you'd been a fatality. 141 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,000 And so she was, I said, yeah, I'm still here. 142 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:37,000 And it was at that point that I left the hospital. 143 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:42,000 I left all the agony that I was in and I left the drama of it all. 144 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,000 And I was suddenly in a much calmer place. 145 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:52,000 I was in what seemed to me at first to be a darkened space, a darkened room. 146 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:56,000 And I looked around me, figuring that I was dead. 147 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,000 I figured, okay, this is it. I didn't make it. 148 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,000 And I didn't feel scared. I didn't resist it. 149 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:08,000 I didn't want to die, but I was from what I'd just been through, which was so horrific. 150 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,000 It just felt great to feel calm and no pain whatsoever. 151 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,000 And I was greeted by these pulsating colors all around me. 152 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:27,000 They were like orbs of light of oranges, ambers, yellows, greens and reds, just slowly pulsating, like landing lights on an airport. 153 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:32,000 And I thought, this is a really beautiful place. 154 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:38,000 I thought I no longer laid on the hospital trolley, but what I was laid on was a huge rock. 155 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:43,000 It was like a slight sort of medieval altar is the way I describe it. 156 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:48,000 It was like a huge slight rock, considering you would normally feel think that that was uncomfortable to lay on. 157 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:53,000 But in this case, it wasn't. I felt so relaxed and comfortable on this rock. 158 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:57,000 I laid back on it and I decided to check my wounds. 159 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:04,000 I thought, how's everything looking? Because as I said earlier, I'd seen the state of my arm that was cut right open. 160 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,000 But everything was in place. It was not even a single scratch. 161 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,000 Everything was just completely there. 162 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:19,000 And I was just covered in this blue satin sheet that comforted me and made me feel safe. 163 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:28,000 So I laid back and closed my eyes. And as I closed my eyes, I laid there for a while and I could sense light coming through my eyelids. 164 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:36,000 So I opened my eyes and I looked up and there were three symmetrical grids of white light, very bright and pure white. 165 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,000 And I couldn't take my gaze away from this light. 166 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:44,000 Normally it would be too bright to look into, but in this sphere, I could. 167 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:49,000 I could look right in and I wanted to because I sense was more than just light coming at me. 168 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:58,000 I sense that there was a healing force, a gentle healing energy that was like healing all the trauma that my body has just been through. 169 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:05,000 And the whole shake up, you know, that my whole essence had had to endure. 170 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,000 And it felt very calming and very relaxing. 171 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:14,000 So I closed my eyes and kind of bathed in this light, if you like, and continued this for some time. 172 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,000 And then I felt the presence of somebody. 173 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:22,000 I felt somebody had kind of walked into what I thought was this dark room. 174 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,000 And so I lifted my head slightly and opened my eyes. 175 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:37,000 And there was a person stood at my feet, an androgynous person, you know, with this pure white blonde hair and wearing a very simple contemporary gown. 176 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:44,000 And this simple contemporary black T-shirt, which was really surprised me because I figured that I'd been dead. 177 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,000 That I had seen all the paintings and the images that we do. 178 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:53,000 And I thought that if this is an angel, it would be wearing some kind of ethereal outfit. 179 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,000 But it wasn't. It was a simple contemporary black T-shirt. 180 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:59,000 And I knew this person. I knew this person's face. 181 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:03,000 And I said, I know you, don't I? Where do I know you from? Who are you? 182 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:08,000 And this person just smiled back at me with a kind of knowing smile. But I felt protected. 183 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:13,000 I felt that this angel that was there was guarding me. 184 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:25,000 And so I knew all was good and decided to lay back and close my eyes and continue to sort of feel all this energy coming from the grids of white light. 185 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:31,000 Then time went on a bit further and I sensed that there were more people had entered the whole scene. 186 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:37,000 So I opened my eyes again and there were two female forms either side of me. 187 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:45,000 The girl to my right was with very long brown hair and dark skin and a long brown dress. 188 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:53,000 The girl to my left was more American Indian or Asian Indian or Brazilian maybe, you know, in her look. 189 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,000 And she wore a more traditional dress. 190 00:16:55,000 --> 00:17:02,000 But anyhow, they had their hands slowly hovering over my body, just going over the contours of my body. 191 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:07,000 And the energy that was coming from their hands was just so powerful. It was just beautiful. 192 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:15,000 It felt like an energy of love that was just like, this was not just healing the physical wounds that I'd endured. 193 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:19,000 But it felt like they were just going right down to the essence of my soul. 194 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:25,000 Like they were peeling off all the layers of hurt that I carried with me, you know, as we call it baggage. 195 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:29,000 You know, the baggage that I carried all my life was slowly being taken away from me. 196 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:34,000 And they were healing all that and they were healing my me, my pure essence. 197 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:40,000 It was a remarkable feeling. That was something I'd never felt in my life. 198 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:46,000 I'd never felt this unconditional love just coming through in these waves of love from their hands. 199 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:51,000 I started to think about my family because I knew that they were distraught. 200 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:55,000 I knew my mother was in tears and I thought, well, I'm clearly dead now. 201 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,000 And they're going to be upset. They're going to be really distressed. 202 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:07,000 So I tried to edge my way over the side of this huge rock and looked down and hoping to see them. 203 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:12,000 And I didn't see them. But when I did look down, what I did see was this incredible sight. 204 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:17,000 It was a beautiful, huge waterfall of stars. 205 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:22,000 It was a waterfall of stars the size of, you know, Victoria Falls, Niagara Falls. 206 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:28,000 It was like really powerful. And instead of millions of tons of water cascading over the edge, 207 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:34,000 it was just billions of sparkling stars just falling over. 208 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:40,000 And I looked down and as I saw these stars tumbling down, I could see shooting stars. 209 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,000 And my eyes started to adjust. And then I started to see colors. 210 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:48,000 I started to see nebulas and beautiful things that I'd never seen before with the human eye. 211 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:55,000 And I knew that I was looking from one galaxy into another. I was looking into infinity. 212 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:04,000 And this was just so exciting. And I just remember just pulling myself over after a bit and thinking, wow, you know, this is incredible. 213 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:09,000 I'm not in a small darkened room, as I figured initially. I'm actually in the universe itself. 214 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:19,000 I'm actually part of it. And I felt this being, you know, being part of the universe was really quite a sort of prolific thing to me. 215 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:23,000 Because it was just, it was just, I don't know, I'd never felt that before. 216 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:27,000 You know, I'd always looked up at the sky every now and again and seen the stars sparkling. 217 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:34,000 But I never felt that I was part of the universe. And now I realize that we all are. We're all part of that energy. 218 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:43,000 Anyhow, I laid back for a while longer and the most powerful part of the whole experience was about to happen. 219 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:53,000 And I felt the energy before I saw it. I felt this energy of love and unconditional love from the hands was now turned up like a huge dial. 220 00:19:53,000 --> 00:20:01,000 Like my every single molecule of my body was vibrating with this pure love. And it was coming through, you know. 221 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:16,000 And so I lifted my head and I looked and just behind the being of light that was stood there with the black t-shirt was a huge, huge tunnel of white light that was just coming through the universe. 222 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:29,000 And it was slowly getting closer to me. And this tunnel of white light was surrounded by very powerful flames that were slowly rotating around the edge of this pure white light. 223 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:36,000 And normally I would be quite sort of scared or worried about this because it was quite terrifying to look at. 224 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:42,000 But in this sphere, there was no sense of fear whatsoever. All I felt was excitement. 225 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:51,000 And the closer it got, then I started to feel love. I felt that this energy of love was just coming from the center of this pure white light. 226 00:20:51,000 --> 00:21:05,000 And I realized what I was looking at was the source of all creation. This was God. This was not the image of God that I figured that I'd seen, that most would see in some kind of human form, 227 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:14,000 like the images of God on the ceiling of the Vatican in Rome with the long gray beard. No, this was it in this tunnel of white light. 228 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:25,000 And as it rotated and got closer and closer, I just went, wow, I was just so overwhelmed. I started to laugh because I was just so happy. 229 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:34,000 And it was at that point that I left this whole place that I was in and I came crashing back into my body. I was back in the hospital. 230 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:45,000 I was back and all the pain came rushing through me. And instead of the beautiful bright lights I'd been looking at there, I was now suddenly staring back into the fluorescent strips, 231 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:51,000 which I couldn't look at. And the noise was just like overkill on my ears. Yeah. 232 00:21:51,000 --> 00:22:03,000 Wow, that's spectacular. Yeah. Let's come back and discuss a bunch of that. But first tell us what happened the rest of your time in the hospital and recovery. 233 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:09,000 Most people say to me, you must have been really disappointed to come back after all this. But I wasn't. 234 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:17,000 I was actually charged with so much energy that there was a part of me still felt like I was attached to that whole energy that had been given. 235 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:24,000 And in fact, Anna came up to me and I said, look, something amazing has just happened, really important. I've got to tell you. 236 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:31,000 She said, not now. They're going to take you into the theatre. I said, no, but you've got to hear this. And she said, you can tell me later. 237 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:39,000 I said, OK. So anyhow, they will be interested. I was there. They operated for about eight hours, I think it was. 238 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:47,000 And I came through, they'd given me my own room in the hospital. And I remember being in that room, it was around 2am and it was very dark. 239 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:52,000 I just got this little machine bleeping next to me. And I got tubes and wires coming out. 240 00:22:52,000 --> 00:23:03,000 And part of me was obviously sort of trying to deal with what had happened with the accident, because that was obviously very huge and that was very big. 241 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:11,000 But more importantly to me, I was trying to deal with the whole experience, the whole thing that I had this whole day. 242 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,000 I knew nothing about NDEs at this point. So I didn't even know what had happened to me. 243 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:22,000 And all I could think of was I got to tell everybody about this. And I was actually scared I was going to forget moments of it. 244 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:28,000 So I decided there and then, right, I'm going to paint this. I'm going to get out of hospital and do a huge painting. 245 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:37,000 I'd never done anything like this before, but I wanted to do this. I wanted to paint something like these things that you do see in the Vatican in Rome, 246 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:45,000 these big sort of Renaissance paintings, the biblical scenes. I thought I want to paint something like that because that's how I saw it. That's how I felt. 247 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,000 And had you been an artist prior to this time? 248 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:56,000 No. I mean, when I was at school, I could have been, you know, because I really enjoyed, I was always sketching and I was always, you know, 249 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:04,000 enjoying and wanted to take that further. But I was discouraged immediately because the teachers just said, look, you haven't even got a chance. 250 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:10,000 You've got no academic qualifications. If you want to go to art school, you need those. So forget it. 251 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:15,000 You know, you're going to you're you're working in a factory and that's it. You know, that's where I was being lined up. 252 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:22,000 And so it's like I got no training to be able to start painting. 253 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:27,000 And once I did start painting, I was apprehensive, of course, because I didn't want to mess this up. 254 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:36,000 But I've still got this sense of kind of all the love that had been given to me in this other realm gave me this sense of self-worth and self-confidence. 255 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:44,000 And I wanted to do it. And once I started painting the actual first painting, I did start to come together really well. 256 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:49,000 I knew that I was being helped. I knew that I was still attached, as I say, to this other realm. 257 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:58,000 And they were giving me this energy and this confidence to bring out all the creativity within me and produce this painting. 258 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:04,000 Do you have pictures of this and some of your other paintings that we can post with this episode? 259 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:08,000 Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I'll send them over to you. I mean, yeah. 260 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:14,000 All right. Listeners can look forward to that then. Did they did the paintings come out how you expected? 261 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:21,000 I mean, were you able to actually communicate through painting what you saw and felt on the other side? 262 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:26,000 Or was it kind of a disappointment? It was far from a disappointment. 263 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:39,000 I was excited. I remember when I was doing the very first painting and with all of them, actually, I realized that I was channeling through what was going on to that canvas. 264 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:45,000 And I was excited. I'd sit back each day and I'd go, I'd look at the work and I go, wow, this is amazing. 265 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:50,000 And I knew that it wasn't just me that was creating this painting. I knew that I was getting help. 266 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:56,000 And this continued on with all of them. And there were things that would happen. 267 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:04,000 There was one painting that I did of my own idea. And I was trying to capture the tunnel of light. 268 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:10,000 And there was this kind of like sort of nebula kind of formed as I was painting it. 269 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:18,000 And obviously, I developed it, you know, physically myself. But it was something that was given to me. I didn't actually plan it. 270 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:23,000 Some years later, some friends of mine said, have you seen the news? And I said, no. 271 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:30,000 And they said, oh, you should look because the Hubble telescope has just captured some images from the far side of our galaxy. 272 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:35,000 And it's just like your painting. And I was going, right, I'll go check it out. And it really was. 273 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:43,000 It was just kind of like it was just, you know, it was almost like I was recreating something that was there that I'd never actually seen. 274 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:48,000 But then but the telescope did, you know, so it's really incredible how it all came together. 275 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:54,000 That is really cool. So what kind of a recovery did you have? How long were you in the hospital? 276 00:26:54,000 --> 00:27:01,000 I was in I should have been in there for they said to me it was going to be about four months recovery at least. 277 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:09,000 And I was out in I was there for three and a half weeks in the end. And they were amazed at the speed of my recovery. 278 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:20,000 I knew by then that I was still I was being helped to recover as well, you know, and which was incredible because it's just it's really bizarre because, you know, 279 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:27,000 my family would come and see me and my friends expecting the worst, of course, of course, you know, and they were walking. 280 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:33,000 They go, wow, you just look amazing. You know, you've got all these tubes and wires coming out. You can't move. 281 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:39,000 You've been under a train. You're just glowing. One of my friends said, you look animated, you know. 282 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:49,000 And I remember my mom came in and because I went it took me a week to tell my mom about the NDE because my parents are Christians 283 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:54,000 and they both would attend a church each week. And I thought it's probably going to jar with their faith. 284 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:58,000 And I wanted them to get it, you know, because my parents, it was important. 285 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:04,000 And after I did tell them, my mom turned around and said, we know it's like a mother's instinct. 286 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:09,000 I said, I said, how do you know? She said, well, we both talk about it whenever we come to see you. 287 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:14,000 You're in this room and we walk in and you you're glowing. 288 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:20,000 You've got this glow about you that we've never seen on you before. And you're just radiating love to everyone, 289 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:27,000 to the nurses and everyone who walks in. And that's not to say that I was, you know, I don't know what it was. 290 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:33,000 It's because I was still feeling that, you know, unconditional love filling within me. 291 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,000 And it stayed with me throughout my recovery and it helped with the speed of my recovery. 292 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:42,000 In fact, the surgeons turned around and said, David, you're healing an incredible race. 293 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,000 Do you realize that? You know, and I said, yes. 294 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:50,000 And I started to tell them why. But of course, the scientists and they said, OK, you know. 295 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,000 Yeah, it can't be that. Yeah. 296 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000 So was Anna the first person that you told about it? 297 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:02,000 My sister was the first person I told about it because she was the first person who came to visit me and we're very close. 298 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,000 And I knew she would she would listen to me and she got it. 299 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:12,000 But I told Anna she was the second year I told her like she came to because she had to return to London. 300 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:18,000 But she came up from London the next day. And I told her, Anna said to me, this is amazing. 301 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:23,000 And I said to me, she said, I knew something had happened to you. And I said, why? 302 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:32,000 How do you mean? She said, because I stood over you at the time you had your near death experiences, she said. 303 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,000 And your eyes changed. And I said, what did they close? 304 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:39,000 She said, no, they remained open. But your eyes were suddenly sparkling. 305 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:45,000 They were just kind of you know, all this sort of you were in a bad place. 306 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:51,000 Clearly, you know, I was I was in shock. I was I was shaking. I was you know, I was in pain. 307 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:56,000 She said, you suddenly look calm and your eyes just kind of had this kind of glow about them. 308 00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:02,000 So that was amazing that she she noticed a physical change in me, especially in my eyes. 309 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,000 So did everybody believe what you said? Maybe the doctors, it sounds like not so much. 310 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:09,000 What was the reaction with some other people? 311 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:18,000 Well, I didn't. I decided not to take it much further than the doctors, because I mean, without those doctors, without science, I wouldn't be here chatting with you now. 312 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,000 So I've got so much space and time for science. 313 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:30,000 But at the same time, it's very hard for a scientist to be able to really take it on board because of all these things like near death experiences. 314 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,000 There's no scientific equation for it. 315 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:42,000 But I always if people do doubt that I don't actually say, well, look, you know, there's no scientific thing equation for a lot of things that we take for granted. 316 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,000 I love you know, there's no scientific equation for that. 317 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:55,000 But we take it for granted that we we we meet someone or attracted, we fall in love and we all feel that sensation of love and love bonds us together. 318 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,000 But we don't question it. We don't ask why that happens. 319 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:08,000 So the other thing is as well is, is that we don't really talk about death, which is which now I find kind of strange, you know, because it's it's going to happen to us all. 320 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,000 You know, it's like we plan everything else. We plan birth. 321 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:18,000 We plan marriage, even driving our cars. But we don't plan death, you know, and we don't talk about it. 322 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:25,000 So the fact that we don't talk about it obviously, you know, will give some people a sense of doubt about people having the NDE. 323 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:29,000 But when you've had one, you know, you've had one, you know, it's happened. 324 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:35,000 And it's it's it's because it's it's so real. It's kind of it's like ultra real. 325 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:49,000 I always say, you know, when you're there in that realm, it's just so incredibly bright and all your feelings and sensations are amazing because because all of all the stuff that we carry around on Earth doesn't happen. 326 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:56,000 Doesn't belong there. You know, there's no sense of negativity, guilt, fear or shame. All those things are gone. 327 00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:01,000 That's a common comment that I love from people as they're saying this couldn't have been a dream. 328 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:06,000 This was this was not only real, it was more real than real. Yes. 329 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:13,000 And I don't know that that I can truly understand that, but I've heard it so much. I certainly believe it. 330 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:19,000 Yeah. So can we pick apart a little bit of your NDE experience here? 331 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:25,000 Let's see. I'm just going back to that. You were greeted by colored pulsating lights. 332 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:30,000 Did you get any feel for what those were, what they meant, anything? 333 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:40,000 I felt that they were slowly introducing me to the fact that I was now in the next stage of life, but it was making me feel calm. 334 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:46,000 You know, I wasn't suddenly thrown into, you know, seeing the tunnel of white light, for example. 335 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:52,000 You know, it was just like a gentle ease. It was making me feel comfortable and safe. 336 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:56,000 So they were like welcoming lights, basically. That's what they felt like. 337 00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:02,000 OK. And then there were the three grids of white light with healing energy. 338 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:09,000 What do you think those were? Well, as I say, I think those three grids of white light were there to sort of 339 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:17,000 you know, because our bodies are, I know that our bodies, of course, are not completely our souls, but while we're alive, they are. 340 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:24,000 They're part of us, you know, every single part of our body is, you know, is our essence, you know. 341 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:33,000 And so in the next realm, although I wasn't, it wasn't me physically there, it was my soul that had moved on. 342 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:39,000 I still felt like I was in my body. And when I looked down, that was my body that I was looking at. 343 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:45,000 But it was it was those grids of white light were just trying to put everything slowly back together. 344 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:53,000 You know, they were just trying to calm down the trauma that my body had been through because my body is part of my of me, you know. 345 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,000 And, you know, so that's why I figured that they were there for. 346 00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:07,000 Yeah, it is traumatic to see that separation. And then the person in the black T-shirt and the two females, they were there at the same time, right? 347 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:13,000 Well, the first one in the black T-shirt was alone. The two female forms arrived later. 348 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:21,000 So that was the first one that was there. And that I knew that this that one was the most important one, that that was my guard. 349 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:31,000 You know, that was a if you like my guardian angel or my higher self is is what I was figuring that I was looking at there. 350 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:39,000 OK, I wasn't sure if those two overlapped with that person and then also the two females. 351 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:45,000 So that person left when the females came. No, they all three of them stayed. That's what I thought. 352 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,000 And did you get any kind of communication from these three beings? 353 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:55,000 They didn't speak to me at all. But I was gaining knowledge while I was there. 354 00:34:55,000 --> 00:35:02,000 So I guess it was telepathy that I started to realize what was happening and who they were and why they were there. 355 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:08,000 There was no because, as I say, I spoke out loud initially to the first being of light that greeted me. 356 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:20,000 And it didn't speak back to me. But I knew that I was being given information that this person was my higher self, 357 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:24,000 that this person had been with me throughout the whole of my life and beyond. 358 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:29,000 You know, this person had been there all the time. And the other two as well. 359 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,000 The other two there and I sense all three of them still with me. 360 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:43,000 But I just wasn't I wasn't open to it before. I was very close down, you know, even though my life was going completely wrong and downhill. 361 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:49,000 I couldn't connect with them. I wish I could have done. You know, I do know I connect with them. 362 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:56,000 I call that for their help. I don't know if you realize, but you just said that person had been with you throughout your life and beyond. 363 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,000 What do you mean by the and beyond? 364 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:13,000 Because I realize that I hadn't just lived this one life that I'm living now that I realized that I've been reincarnated and will be reincarnated again. 365 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:18,000 So that's why I say that, you know, in my previous life, I don't even know what I was. 366 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:24,000 You know, I could have been I could have been a cat. I could have been another person. 367 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:39,000 But whatever it was, my my soul that was in that other physical being in my previous life was still being guarded by this particular person in the black t-shirt. 368 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:44,000 And the pure love with the tunnel, that just sounds amazing. What did that feel like? 369 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:54,000 It was it was just tremendous because it was it was as I say, I felt like I felt like a vibration of love was so powerful. 370 00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:00,000 It was going through me. And that was the energy that stayed with me throughout my recovery in the hospital, really. 371 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:09,000 But also, again, the telepathy, the knowledge that was being given to me that I was now staring at God, the creator. 372 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:16,000 That was really profound. You know, that was really, really strong because I'd never been religious before. 373 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:23,000 You know, like I say, my parents were Christian. They took me to church when I was younger and I just didn't get it. 374 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:27,000 And they were very liberal. My parents said, I'm not I don't enjoy this. 375 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:31,000 I'm not I just want to be over and get home. They said, well, that's fine. 376 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:35,000 You can stay at home on Sundays and the rest of the family will go. So that's how it was. 377 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:44,000 So I got no faith whatsoever. So to suddenly see this and realize that there was a God, but and this was it. 378 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:50,000 And to feel the love, the pure vibration of love coming through me was really profound. 379 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:54,000 Has that changed you as far as a religious life now? 380 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,000 Yes, it has done. 381 00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:58,000 Do you attend a church? 382 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,000 I don't attend the church. That's the only thing that hasn't changed. 383 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:10,000 You know, I don't, you know, I've been I started going taking my parents to church on quite a few occasions. 384 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:17,000 And I would sit down through some of the services, but I find that it's still jarred with me because people who go to church, 385 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,000 most of the majority of people who do go, they're really lovely people. 386 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,000 And so I really enjoyed that. The fact that I was surrounded by goodness. 387 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:31,000 But I just didn't like I found that some of the sermons kind of jarred with what I'd experienced myself. 388 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:37,000 You know, there was no like I say, there's no sense of guilt or shame or anything like that. 389 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:45,000 Whereas I feel that in a lot of faiths, you do feel a sense of, you know, of shame. 390 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:51,000 There's a certain sense of light, you know, it made to feel like you're a sinner and you should sort of, you know, 391 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:53,000 pray for forgiveness for your sins or what have you. 392 00:38:53,000 --> 00:39:01,000 But I kind of feel that didn't work with me, you know, because that's not what I was always being taught when I was on on the other side. 393 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,000 If you like, you know, yeah. Yeah. You didn't feel any guilt or shame, did you? 394 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:13,000 No, whatsoever. And this was one of the biggest lessons while I was there that I brought back because before that, 395 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,000 you know, I used to carry around so much guilt and shame. 396 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:23,000 And I spent a lot of time worrying about the past, past mistakes I've made or opportunities I'd missed. 397 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:29,000 Then I was also worried about the future, you know, where my apartment was about to be taken from me. 398 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,000 What was I going to do? How was I going to fit in with this world? 399 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:37,000 So in this other realm, there was no sense of time. Time did not exist. 400 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:43,000 So and all those feelings of worrying about the past, they were just stories and worrying about the future. 401 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:47,000 I didn't even think about the future. You know, it was just you're in the moment. 402 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,000 And that was really powerful to feel that. 403 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:58,000 Lastly, you were used the word, I think, if I remember right, you were crashed back into your body. 404 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,000 So and everybody describes that differently. 405 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:07,000 OK, for some people, it's painful. For some people, it's just it's just kind of a blink and it happens. 406 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:11,000 What do you mean by crashed back? That sounds kind of violent almost. 407 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:17,000 Because it was it was the reason I say that is because it was it was violent because 408 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:25,000 I was in an awful lot of agony from the accident and all that pain suddenly came back. 409 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:35,000 And but like I said, the just the kind of the noise of the hospital and the fluorescent light was just it was just 410 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:39,000 I can't think of a word that we use for that, you know, but it's just like overkill. 411 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,000 It was just like I just couldn't stand it. Kind of a shock. 412 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:50,000 Yeah, there is a word that I think my mind now like overstimulation overstimulation. 413 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:56,000 That's it. Yeah, you know, I just couldn't I couldn't bear the noise or or the or the brightness of the light. 414 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,000 It was just I just felt like I wanted to go out like that. 415 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:04,000 So, yeah, so that's why I said I can't crash him back because I came from all this peaceful, 416 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:13,000 useful calmness into a very hysterical sort of place because the doctors were still there working on me and they were still kind of panicking. 417 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:20,000 You know, they were trying to save me. They were worried, you know, because the blood loss was getting pretty crazy and stuff. 418 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:24,000 And so, yeah, but they go. That's that's that's why I say I can't crash him back. 419 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:33,000 So after a few weeks in the hospital, how has your life been different since I came out and I started painting once I was well enough. 420 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:37,000 You know, I covered my my sister's house with her family. 421 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:46,000 So that was lovely. And once I was able to get up and get out, I decided to I got this canvas. 422 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:50,000 My aunt bought it for me. She came over from Canada to visit me and I told her the story. 423 00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:53,000 And so she went and bought the canvas, which was great. 424 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:57,000 So it was leaning against the wall and I kept looking at it and I thought, I've got to start this, you know, 425 00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:04,000 and I found there was a lot of synchronicity starts coming to my life because I knew nobody obviously where I'd moved. 426 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:10,000 But people started to come along that were there to help me with my my pathway. 427 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:16,000 And the first lot of people were two friends of my sisters who come over to pick up their boy. 428 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,000 And they came in and they saw the canvas against the wall. 429 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:24,000 And Jane, who runs a yoga place, said, when are you going to start this painting? 430 00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:27,000 I said, I can't. There's no room in here. You know, the paint. 431 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,000 And she said, well, we've got a spare studio space going for a week. 432 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,000 You can use that until you've got no excuse now. 433 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:39,000 So I went, you know, and I started painting there and I got to the end of the week and I was nowhere near finished, of course. 434 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:41,000 And then they said, look, you can stay. 435 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:46,000 Yeah, we'll just move you around in different studios while different, you know, pilates classes are going on. 436 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:50,000 So great. So I stayed there for two years and they didn't charge me any money. 437 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,000 And I just became really prolific. I couldn't stop painting. 438 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:59,000 And I became known as the artist in the attic because I was up there, you know, up in the last. 439 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,000 And people would come in for the yoga pilates sessions. 440 00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:09,000 And they come up and see me and I started getting a lot of interest because of what the subject matter was. 441 00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:14,000 And they knew I'd been under the train. It was on the news, you know, and everybody knew about it. 442 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:21,000 And I found a lot of people were fascinated because I'd tell the story and what had happened and people wanted to listen. 443 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:26,000 And I realized that this was a good thing because I wanted to tell people I didn't want to hold back on this. 444 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:29,000 And there was no sense of worrying about it. 445 00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:34,000 And that helped me to start telling the story to more people and get out there. 446 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:38,000 And then I decided that I wanted to start writing some music. 447 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,000 Yeah, I thought, as I say, I used to play guitar. 448 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,000 But when I say play guitar, I was very rough and ready. 449 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:49,000 It was just like playing three, thrashing out three chords in local punk bands or whatever, you know. 450 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:52,000 And so I got no formal classical training whatsoever. 451 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:57,000 But I decided I wanted to write a piece of music about my experience. 452 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:03,000 And I'd been going for spiritual healing because I went to this spiritual church that I'd come across. 453 00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:08,000 And I'd actually seen this church before my accident. 454 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:14,000 And this is really fascinating because I'd been coming up from London to visit my sister at the time and her family. 455 00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:21,000 And there was a couple sat opposite me, an elderly couple, and they were asking where the stations were to get off and stuff like that. 456 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:25,000 And so I was helping them. And then the lady says to me, oh, we're going to see a medium tonight. 457 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:29,000 You should come along. And I said, OK, thanks. I'm not all that interested. 458 00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:34,000 She said, she's very good. She's very good. You know, she's not famous, but she's great. 459 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:38,000 And she gave me this little A5 flyer and put it in my pocket. 460 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:43,000 So I got to my sister's, I remember that day, and there was a lot of chaos going on, the kids running around. 461 00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:47,000 And I said, look, I'm just going to go to the bar and have a drink. 462 00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:53,000 So I went to the local pub and I had a beer and I pulled out this flyer and I thought, I'm going to go. 463 00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:58,000 So I went along to this meeting and it was packed. And yes, this medium came out. 464 00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:01,000 She was called Julia Knight. She was amazing. She was very animated. 465 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:07,000 You know, she walks around and she'd say, you know, gentleman over there, lady over there, I'm picking your grandfather. 466 00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:11,000 Did he wear this? Yes, totally. That's him. 467 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:14,000 So everyone was getting messages from their loved ones. 468 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:17,000 And I wasn't really interested in getting a message at all. 469 00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:23,000 But there was a moment where she stopped and she turned around and I felt like there was a shift in energy. 470 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:29,000 Even then, you know, she said, gentleman in the blue sweater, which is me, she said, your life is about to change. 471 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:32,000 I went, oh, OK. I said, in what way? 472 00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:36,000 You know, I said, am I going to win the lottery? You know, whatever. 473 00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:41,000 And she said she walked around and she was talking. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I know. 474 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:46,000 She was like having this conversation with these guides, I guess, you know. 475 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:49,000 And she turned around and she said, they're not telling me. They're just saying be prepared for it. 476 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:52,000 It's going to be very big, but you will be protected. 477 00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:58,000 OK, so I now realized what she was talking about was the accident and the experience. 478 00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:03,000 So I needed to find this church because I wanted to track this medium down and talk to her. 479 00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:08,000 You know, so it was there where they said to me, look, you look pretty banged up. 480 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,000 I got all sorts of plastic holding my arm together at the time. 481 00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:14,000 And they said, we do spiritual healing. I said, OK. 482 00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:19,000 So I went along to the spiritual healing groups, which I still do. 483 00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:25,000 And some of the mediums clairvoyant, you know, and they started to say little messages at the end. 484 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,000 They'd say, well, why am I seeing a violin laid across your chest? 485 00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:32,000 Why am I in Beethoven and Bach and stuff? 486 00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:38,000 And I said, I have no idea. Then one of them said, they're telling me that you're going to write a piece of music about your NDE. 487 00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:42,000 So that was the red, the green light for me to go home and start writing. 488 00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:51,000 So I did. All I got was an old cheap synthesizer that had been up in the loft and a basic cassette recorder, believe it or not. 489 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:57,000 And I just started recording the ideas on that and it just started to come together and pieced together. 490 00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:05,000 And again, synchronicity. One of the people who used to come into the yoga center was a cello player who played in the local orchestra. 491 00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:08,000 And we used to meet for coffee. She said, what are you up to? 492 00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:13,000 So I told her about this piece of music and she said, oh, maybe we could perform it with the orchestra. 493 00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:22,000 I was going, yes, please. You know, so anyhow, my brother said to me, look, you know, he's he got some software. 494 00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:30,000 He said that I'm going to give you my old laptop and some software. You need to have this now because you're going to play it with an orchestra. 495 00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:37,000 They all need, you know, manuscripts. And so I could play the notes I was playing now instead of having the old cassette recorder. 496 00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:45,000 And it would digitally transform this into manuscript. And I, you know, I got to learn all what parts were needed. 497 00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:51,000 I'd hear sounds and I thought, right, that's a French horn. That's, you know, it's the viola, that's cello and stuff. 498 00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:57,000 And I managed to pull it all together and the orchestra agreed to play it. They said, well, we'll play it and we'll perform it. 499 00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:02,000 So can you get me a copy of that too? Of course I can. Yeah. Of course. 500 00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:27,000 We'll put some of that in right now. 501 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:48,000 Okay, that's that's fascinating. So what do you do for a living now? 502 00:48:48,000 --> 00:49:02,000 Well, I'm basically the mixture of the two. You know, I'm painting, I'm an artist, but also from that concert, the concert sold out, which was amazing. 503 00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:09,000 And even the orchestra were amazed at that. You know, again, I felt I was being helped even to bring that together. 504 00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:18,000 It all started because I was at the rehearsal and they said, would you mind saying a few words to the local paper about your piece? 505 00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:26,000 Because that's what we normally do. I said, yeah, sure. So they gave me a phone number and I phoned up the local paper and they said, hang on, you're the guy who went under the train, aren't you? 506 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:32,000 And I said, yeah. They said, oh, this is going on the front cover, you know. So they did a big piece on it. And then more and more people phoned me. 507 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:40,000 And they said, we'd like to come down and film the rehearsal and interview you. And this was two weeks before the actual concert. 508 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:46,000 And then after that, of course, everyone just bought tickets and it was an amazing atmosphere. 509 00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:52,000 You know, it was a beautiful, beautiful experience. There was no sense of ego like me feeling like, yes, it's the big it's all about me. 510 00:49:52,000 --> 00:50:02,000 I was just like, great. People are going to be able to get hopefully through my music what happened and what it's like to experience the other side. 511 00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:11,000 And from that first concert, I was immediately asked to write a piece for another orchestra. 512 00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:18,000 And then I got sort of jobs coming in writing for the Cambridge clarinet choir. 513 00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:24,000 So they came to me and I wrote a piece for them and they said, look, we saw that piece and it was very spiritual. 514 00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:28,000 Would you write a spiritual piece based on your experience for us as well? I said, yeah. 515 00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:36,000 And they continue to draw lots of people in and sell out, you know. And so that's where I'm at. 516 00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:41,000 So I'm still getting commissions with both my music and my art. That's what I do. 517 00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:48,000 OK, so if people want to go online somewhere, see your artwork and hear your music, where do they go? Yeah. 518 00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:54,000 The best place to go is shine on the story dot com or daviddidgfield dot com. 519 00:50:54,000 --> 00:51:01,000 It'll take you to the same website and you can see my paintings on there and you can listen to the Divine Light, 520 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:08,000 which is my first debut symphony, which is based on the NDE Synth 3 movement. So you can listen to that. 521 00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:14,000 And then there's also links on there for my social media, because it's good if you're interested, 522 00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:18,000 if you want to follow me there, then you can see what's coming next, how things are developing, 523 00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:23,000 you know, the next things that are going to be happening for me with both. 524 00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:31,000 So David, go ahead and tell us about your book. Yeah, well, that's that's quite amazing, really, because as I said, I'm dyslexic. 525 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:35,000 A lot of people used to say to me where you should write the story. It's a great story. 526 00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:42,000 I said, I wish. And then a few years back, an old friend that I'd known from some way back, 527 00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:48,000 who had moved to the Highlands of Scotland, so we'd lost touch. And she'd moved back down to England and gone in touch. 528 00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:53,000 And she said, oh, you should write your story. And I said, you know, I can't. I'm dyslexic. 529 00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:57,000 She said, well, how about I co-write it with you? I said, that'd be fantastic. 530 00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:02,000 So we worked together on writing the story and it was published before it was published. 531 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:10,000 I'd sent it to I got an email of Dr. Raymond Moody, who coined the phrase near death experience. 532 00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:14,000 And I wanted to send it to him. I heard nothing back. 533 00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:21,000 Then a few months later, his manager, Lisa Smart, got in touch with me and said, I've just looked at your website. 534 00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:25,000 I've heard your music and I've seen, you know, that you'd like Raymond to read this. 535 00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:28,000 This is an amazing story. I'm going to make sure that he reads it. 536 00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:37,000 Can you send the manuscripts? I did. And he loved it. And he said, when it comes out, I'll write a forward for it. 537 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:42,000 So I said, that's great. So it was published and it came out. 538 00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:46,000 And Dr. Raymond Moody wrote the forward. He had a beautiful forward for it. 539 00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:50,000 And then, yeah, so it came out right at the beginning of the pandemic. 540 00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:55,000 And I had no idea whether it was going to, you know, completely die because there was no they were 541 00:52:55,000 --> 00:53:00,000 they were hoping that I'd be going and promoting it in bookshops, which I was dreading, to be honest with you. 542 00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:08,000 I thought I can't do this. And so it kind of saved me in a way because I started promoting through Zoom. 543 00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:13,000 You know, talking to people all over the world. And it suddenly became the book started to take off. 544 00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:18,000 And it's been really, really well received. So the book is called Shine On. 545 00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:28,000 And if people are interested, you know, it's out there on Amazon, wherever you live in the world, and it's still available to buy. 546 00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:34,000 So it tells the whole story. We'll put those links in our show notes. Thank you. 547 00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:40,000 So let's kind of wrap this up. Tell me what message that you got from all of this that you would like to share with the world. 548 00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:48,000 The message that I got was that we're all loved and we're all cared for. 549 00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:53,000 We've all got guides that are following us on a day to day basis. 550 00:53:53,000 --> 00:54:04,000 And we just need to stop and try to tap into that and accept that love, you know, because once you start it's all about self love, really. 551 00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:14,000 Once you start to love yourself and give yourself total, genuine, full on love, then you start to evolve as a person. 552 00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:19,000 You start to realize, like for me, it was my music and my art was already in me. 553 00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:26,000 And that feeling of self worth gave me the confidence to be able to bring that out and do something with it, you know. 554 00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:33,000 And so we've all got that. And the other thing is, as I say, that sense of time. 555 00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:37,000 We worry too much about time. We worry about the past, all of us. 556 00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:42,000 We worry about the future, especially at the moment, because there's a lot of chaos in the world. 557 00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:48,000 So everyone's scared of the future. And I just try and urge everybody to try not to do that. 558 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:52,000 Not to be, you know, the future doesn't actually exist, really. 559 00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:56,000 At the moment, it's a story that we're creating. 560 00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:00,000 And what does exist is the present moment that we are in. 561 00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:04,000 And we remain in that present moment and look around us. 562 00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:09,000 Even if we look at the news, it's very terrifying. If we stop, and like I am now, and I look around my apartments, 563 00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:13,000 I think, no, this moment in time, I'm safe and I'm OK. 564 00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:19,000 And that's what I try and urge everybody to do, because that's what I learned from that other realm, 565 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:28,000 that time, the past and the future are not as important as we give so much energy into. 566 00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:34,000 All right. Thank you for the good message. We're glad you're OK and made such a great comeback. 567 00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:37,000 Anyway, thank you, David. Appreciate your time. 568 00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:40,000 My pleasure. Great to talk to you. 569 00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:49,000 Thanks again for listening. We hope you will share this message with family and friends. 570 00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:54,000 To be notified when the next episode goes live, follow this show on your podcasting app, 571 00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:59,000 or click over to roundtripdeath.com and sign up for our email newsletter. 572 00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:25,000 Until then, I wish you everything good that you're looking for in this life and the next.