Few individuals on Earth can claim to understand what may occur after death as well as Dannion Brinkley.
The ex-US Marine was pronounced dead for 28 minutes after being hit by lightning in 1975, but he eventually returned to life and made a complete recovery.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the chances of being struck by lightning in any given year are less than one in a million. This means you would have to be incredibly, incredibly unfortunate for it to happen to you.
However, it’s not entirely out of the question. Technically, every storm carries a slight risk of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting struck by lightning. Brinkley is well aware of this.
On September 17, 1975, the businessman, athlete, and veteran was holding a phone to his ear when lightning struck, traveling down the phone line and through the device he was using, directly into Brinkley’s body.
“It entered the side of my head above my ear, and it traveled down my spine,” he recounted, as reported by 8 News Now.
“It fused the nails of my shoe heels to the ground. It propelled me into the air, I see the ceiling, it crashes me back down, a fireball rushes through the room and blinds me. I am aflame. I am engulfed in flames. I am immobilized.
Brinkley can vividly remember actually leaving his body after the terrifying event, and he didn’t return to it until it had been taken to the morgue… approximately 28 minutes later.
So what transpired during his absence? Well, it didn’t all just go dark, it seems. In fact, he has since discussed the traumatic ordeal to provide insight into exactly “what occurs when you die”.
Brinkley recounted that he felt as if he was floating alongside the ambulance as it carried his body to the hospital, while he observed from above as doctors declared him officially deceased.
He mentioned that his consciousness traveled through what he described as a tunnel, before meeting a spiritual entity made of light in a ‘Crystal City’.
In an interview with T&H – Afterlife on YouTube, Brinkley shared that he experienced a replay of his entire life in a ‘360-degree panorama’.
“You view it from a second-person perspective,” he clarified.
“In the life you just reviewed, what impact did you and God create?”
Brinkley certainly has his doubters, yet he has remained true to his account of his experiences. Furthermore, he has had two additional near-death experiences that have reinforced his beliefs.
In 1989, during open heart surgery, Brinkley remembered being “reunited with his angelic instructors” and stated that he learned how to “utilize his new psychic and spiritual abilities to assist the dying and the desperate.”
He then experienced another near-death episode during brain surgery.
“When you discover that you don’t die, when you realize you’re a spiritual being, and that you won’t go to hell, that’s enough to motivate you to change,” he shared, according to 8 News Now.
What are your thoughts on what happens after death? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
