David's Fall From 75' Cliff - Beautiful NDE (Near Death Experience)

0:03 From the time that they pronounced me that was a good 45 minutes They cut my clothes and then they paddled my heart my heart stopped and I could see people screaming and crying But I didn't realize that was actually my physical body because I was somewhere else The only thing that I could feel if you can imagine Absolute love and peace there wasn't anything else to be felt. I was greeted by people I'd known in the past I'm back home again. Incredibly safe and felt at home. I'd like to welcome to the show today, David Cooke. Thank you so much for being here all the way from Kentucky, right? Yes, yes. I live in Kentucky. It is a beautiful place, although the last time I was there was snowing, but I hear it's beautiful in the summer. Yeah. It gets to be, it's pretty nice here. It gets to be hot and humid sometimes, but you'll find that probably anywhere, anywhere in the Midwest, I guess. Well, I know you're a listener of the show and I appreciate you reaching out. And I hope I don't surprise you too badly. I just feel like doing something backwards today. And that is before we've learned a little bit about you and get into your whole experience. I want to ask you one question about your NDE. Okay. And that is, what does it feel like when you leave this body and enter a heavenly

1:36 place? Well, it feels, you know, that's a very good question, and it feels weightless. It feels like, you know, you feel the presence of your hands, you feel the presence of your body, presence of your feet. I can feel my feet on my legs right now. But when you go into an ulterior place, a heavenly place, a place other than your earthly bounds, you don't feel the weight of your body. It's like you're walking or you're floating.

2:19 You just feel light. You move about. Just moving you want to go from here to there you go from here to there Maybe like no gravity Like no gravity exactly. Okay. Well, there's a little tease of much more to come But before we jump into your whole story David tell us just a little bit about you so our listeners can get to know who David cook is Okay. Well, I am 58 years old I had a Tragic, well, not so tragic, I guess you could say, but a life -changing experience back when I was 51 years ago, back when I was seven years old. I am the youngest of four. My oldest sibling, my sister, and my oldest brother had a part in my story. They were an intricate part in the bringing about my My hospital stay, I guess you could say. I have been a believer in Christ for probably since I was five years old. And my parents were missionaries to the Native Americans in Northwestern New Mexico, the Zuni Indians. And that's where my story takes place is in Northwestern New Mexico. I was the youngest of four. I have

3:52 a middle brother also, and he was, he really didn't have a part of my story. I am husband of my wife. I'm a father of two daughters. I stepfather of three daughters and a son. I have a granddaughter and a step -granddaughter also. That is awesome. Aren't those daughters and grandkids the very best? Yes. And I say that with joy in my heart and half laughing because I didn't mention sons and Will, my son, is doing some editing on this and hopefully he's getting a little chuckle from it right now too because he thinks he's the favorite. So anyway, let's move on from all that before I dig myself a deeper hole here and get myself more in trouble with my family. Let's go back to when you were seven years old. I know what happened, but Please tell our listeners what led up to your big fall that day. Well, OK. I was like I said, I'm the youngest of four.

5:01 And this particular day, in fact, it's right at 51 years. It was March 19th, 1975. So it was almost to the day I was home. And my mom was at work. My dad was away on a speaking trip to raise support for the ministry. And my oldest brother and a friend of his, my oldest brother's name is Greg and a friend of his name is Jamie, they were going to explore a canyon around our house. And so I followed my oldest brother and they came upon this canyon and there was this crevice that led down to the bottom of this cliff and they went down into this crevice and I stayed up on top and I was kicking these rusty cans over the edge of this cliff. This cliff was 75 feet but down to the bottom and before long I got closer and closer to the edge of that cliff and I fell. I ended up falling head first. head first on the rock bottom and Jamie and my brother Greg heard me fall and they came running out Jamie screamed and he went and ran to get his father as he went and ran into his father his father King came down in their car to pick me

6:34 up my brother came out and my brother did what he remembered that our parents taught us to do he got down on his hands and knees and he began to pray. He prayed that God would not let me die. Jamie's father came and picked me up and took me to the hospital there and on the way to the hospital he ran across my sister Christy and he says Christy you need to get in the car. David has been hurt. We need to go pick him up. She jumped in the car with Jamie's father. They got down to the bottom of the cliff and they walked up a small slope to where I was laying at my lifeless body. They picked up my lifeless body, laid it in the back of their car, took me to the Zuni hospital for whatever repairs, whatever the Zuni hospital could do. The Zuni hospital did not have the adequate equipment to prepare to do any kind of major surgery on my head that wasn't needing to be done. So a airplane had to be called in to fly me from Zuni to Albuquerque, New Mexico. And when I landed at Albuquerque, I went in and was checked into Loveless Batan Medical Center in Albuquerque.

8:04 When I was checked into the hospital, this is where I can first remember an OBE or an NDE, however it might be described. But I remember being rushed into the hospital screaming my head off because I was not only scared to death, but I was in pain. Not only that, but I could also remember myself seeing the whole thing taking place. I was watching it. take place like I was overhead watching the nurses running in, rushing in. And I remember a female paramedic say, it's okay, buddy. You're going to be okay. I was rushed into the hospital and I entered the hospital and I had eight days in a coma in the hospital.

9:04 My mom and dad showed up at the hospital. My dad thought he would never hear me ever again. Eight days in the middle of the night, my dad heard me pray. And my dad would always kneel down and pray with us at night before we would go to bed. And I always would pray the same thing, Dear Jesus, help us to obey our parents. And in the middle of the night, the silence was broken. with me praying dear Jesus help us to obey our parents and That's the first words that came out of my mouth when I came out of that coma During that coma I can remember times where I would be laying down there in the in bed and my Spirit my soul would leave my body and would float Above my body and up float and I would see myself laying in that bed I would not leave the room. My soul would not leave the room per se But I would float back down into my body during the time in the hospital though. There were times that I can remember my soul leaving my body and floating up above the hospital and Just kind of floating around above the hospital and then

10:37 floating back down into my body. And there was one time in surgery where I was going into surgery. I had cerebral surgeries on my skull. I can remember the nurse giving me the shot. I can remember crying and saying, ow, ow, and crying. And as I went into the surgery, the doctor said, okay, come on, buddy. lifted me up off off of the the crib of sorts and it was like a metal crib and put me on the operating table and during the surgery I can remember my soul leaving my body leaving the hospital not so much floating away but it was like just walking from one room into another just as simple as walking from one room into another and I can remember as it were, being in a heavenly realm. And I can remember an angelic figure at a gate, at a large gate. And he had, as it were, like a clipboard -type thing. As I went into that heavenly realm, I said, okay, well, we're going to need to go. And somebody directed me toward that angelic figure. And I went toward that angelic figure. I said, well,

12:08 I said, I guess here I am. He said, well, he says, you're not supposed to be here yet. You have more things to do. I said, why can't I go over there? He says, you have more purpose on staying where you're at. And I can remember as it were, souls crossing the gate. I wanted to go where they're at. I said, why can't I go where they're going? And the angelic figure said, you have to stay. I said to the angelic figure, what are they doing? And the angelic figure kind of directed his hand behind me. And I turned around and I said, can I see? It looked like there was clouds as He wiped away the clouds. I could look down and I could see the doctors working on me, working on my head as I had fallen and was in surgery. When I was looking down, I can remember the presence of a person beside me. The person beside me, I could almost... I have the comfort of saying that it probably was Jesus. And I have his arm around my shoulder. Say that he was there

13:42 with me. He said, you have to go now. And as I went down back into my body, it was just like crossing, just like walking back from one room into another. And when I entered back into my body, I could feel the confines, the weight, the confinement, I guess you could say, of my body. My hands, my feet, the pain, the pain I was in. And when I entered my body, I could hear a doctor say, we got him back. Because I think when I had left, I think I was probably flat -lined. They were afraid that they were going to lose me. When I entered back in the doctor said we got him back and I think that each of my outer body experiences each of my NDE was God's way of Progressively saying I got you David.

14:49 I got you you're taken care of you are in my hands I have you under my control and the amazing thing is is that the doctors said when I entered the hospital that there would be a 10 % chance of life, that I'm more than likely that if I was able to survive, that my quality of life would be nothing, that I would just be a vegetable and that I would never be able to walk or talk again. Dr. Glover, the neurosurgeon that worked on me, 10 years later, I was in a restaurant in Albuquerque with my dad. My dad said, do you recognize that man over there? I said, no, I don't. And he says, let's go over there and talk to him. And he says, Dr. Glover, he says, I want to introduce you to somebody. This is my son, David. You worked on him 10 years ago. And Dr.

15:53 Glover, his mouth dropped open when he saw me. because Dr. Glover said that he never expected to see that I would be able to survive like that. That is just so beautiful, David. I really appreciate you sharing. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? Absolutely. Okay. Just help fill in some of the blanks for me. First of all, it's not uncommon. for people to have these out -of -body experiences when they're in a coma. Sort of like you said earlier, whether it's O -B -E -N -D -E, the terminology really doesn't matter very much, okay? You were having these experiences where, I guess we'll just call it what it is, out -of -body experience, because you were up looking down on your body, which could only happen from a third -person kind of standpoint. But then I imagine if you were 20 years older than just being seven years old, you might've asked specifically the doctors later, hey, when I was in surgery, did my heart stop? But at the age of seven, of course, you wouldn't think to ask those kinds of things.

17:13 Or say, hey, at this point in surgery, I felt like I was gone, you know, tell me what was going on. That would have been fascinating to hear that side of it, which we don't have. But I want to hear some more about during the surgery, when you were out of body and went to what you described as a heavenly realm, were there any other things that you felt or that you saw or that you even thought about? I was just thinking that that I didn't want to go back. I knew that I had to go back because that's what they told me to do.

17:57 I wanted to go where the other souls were going. I wanted to cross that gate, and I didn't want to go back to the pain, to the earthly confines, so to speak. I wanted to be at peace, but I knew that I had to. because that's what they said I needed to do. Were you feeling peace there or were you feeling just longing for something? Well, both. I was feeling peace and I was feeling that I was at rest. I was at my final destination, so to speak. Obviously I didn't cross the gate, so to speak. was wanting to be. Because some would say our human instinct is to stay alive.

18:51 It's to be here in our body. So what was it about that place that made you want to stay? Oh, no, no, no. When we're here in our physical bodies, this is a temporal. This is temporary. When we're there, it's much more. It's 50 times greater. It's 500 times greater. It's more alive. This is just a dream. There, it's real life. Here, it's just a vapor, as scripture says. Okay. I want to ask you about the angelic figure at the gate, because it sounded like the description, the typical Saint Peter with the clipboard at the pearly gate kind of thing. It almost sounded too cliche, but is that what you felt was going on? Was he just checking, hey, you can go and you can't go? What's the deal with a clipboard?

19:51 Well, I think it was also in the minds of a seven -year -old. I think that if, like you were saying, if it was 20 years later, the whole experience may have been different. A seven -year -old The mindset may have been a clipboard. A 20 -year -old or 27 -year -old may have been something different. Someone checking you in, you know, like a teacher doing bro -call or something like that. You know, that's an experience of a seven -year -old in elementary school. The angelic figure was... A person was, I don't even say it was a person, but it may have been St. Peter, may have been, who knows? But it was somebody or an angel, angelic figure up there who was just saying, you need to go back. You still have purpose on earth. And obviously I do have purpose because If I didn't come back, I wouldn't have two daughters of my own. All right, let me call for what may be a little bit of speculation.

21:14 What do you feel was beyond that gate versus where you were? Well, OK, I think that where I was at was the entrance to the heavenly realm. And beyond the gate, I think I believe was was heaven. was the throne of God, the purling gates, whatever you may, the streets of gold, however you may want to illustrate that, the crystal sea. Or if you want to just call it heaven, call it heaven. That's okay. Exactly. And I've had a lot of other people tell me about something kind of similar, whether it was a gate or a hill or a passageway or something else. Many people feel like I'm headed somewhere and I really want to go there, but I also know if I go I'm not coming back to my body and It sounds like that's how you felt Yes, I believe that if I had crossed that gate Well, the time will come when I will when I cross that gate then there's no There's no return to the earthly realms now if you can think of any other detail that you can remember about looking down, seeing that person beside you that you felt was Jesus. Was there anything else you remember about that? I just felt like he had a loving presence that had his arm around

22:47 me. I just felt his presence beside me. I didn't look to see who it was. I was looking down to see what the doctors were doing. I felt love. I felt belonging, I felt like I will be there again someday. You also mentioned that you had been going to church since you were a young boy years before this. And I forget your exact words, but it sounded like you really believed what you were learning in church. And then at seven, you have this extraordinary experience that most seven -year -olds don't have. In what way did that, do you think, changed you? So that, I mean, you were growing up a different kind of person than the other seven and eight and nine and ten and fifteen year olds were. How were you different than everybody else? How am I different? Well, I think everybody's different in their own way.

23:44 I grew up in a, as a missionary kid in a Native American culture, standing out like a sore thumb. really had us surrounded by spiritual training and really knew, really had us in scripture. But how did your NDE make you a little bit different than everybody else? Or did it? Well, I'm not going to say my NDE made me any different. When it all comes down to it, when I had an NDE, I... had an NDE just like anybody else, just like if it was a kid who never even went to church, never had any kind of knowledge of God or anything like that. And if God so sees fit to allow that child to have an NDE like that, to experience God like that, then God will do that. I'm not saying that my NDA would be any different than anybody else's. Most people in this life have some degree of fear of death, healthy fear of death, we'll call it. Even people of faith have some degree of fear of death. How about you?

25:10 Having had this experience of death, I have no fear. I don't fear death. No, I'm not going to go walk out and Jump out in front of a semi or nothing like that. I'm not gonna speed it up but I don't fear it because The way that I see it is that I've already experienced it. I know what it's like It's walking one from one room into another as far as I'm concerned as far as what I've experienced and may I suggest that that is You're not having a fear of death because the experience is something that did make you a little bit different than most of us in a good way. I would, over the next few days, I'm going to give you a little assignment. Just think on that topic right there. How did having that fear of death removed affect your life since then?

26:10 Did it make things easier? Did it make them more difficult? And then you and I'll talk again sometime in the future. Sure. Well, I can tell you, kids and stuff like that, they might watch some sort of scary movie or something like that, and it's like nothing to me. It's a movie. That's the way I see things. It just doesn't bother me as much. I know that my life, my real life is to come is not on this earth, and I don't fear that. There were somebody out there today that is really struggling with faith in the future. They're really totally afraid of death or they're mourning the passing of a loved one. What kind of message of hope do you have for them? My message of hope is that death does not have to be fear. When you have a faith in God and a faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, that this life is just temporary.

27:15 This life is just a vapor, and our eternal home has nothing to do with this earth. Our eternal home is in heaven, and our eternal hope is in heaven. And that salvation is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and for what He did for us. That is our hope. That is our home. That is our eternal life. That is my message. David, I really appreciate your time today. I really appreciate you having the courage to share all of this. Thank you very much. Thank you. If you want to share your near -death experience, or if you have questions or comments about the show, send an email to eric at roundtripdeath .com.

28:12 Until then, I wish you everything good that you're looking for in this life and the next.