Divine Encounters Episode 052 | Near-Death Experience Story
Gary L. Wimmer was 29 when, he says, a week of escalating psychic ability ended in a head-on collision with a speeding car on February 7, 1977, and he found himself expanding into what he calls infinite mind. In this Divine Encounters episode he tells Alex Ferrari about the visions of humanity’s future he says he saw, the ten days that followed in a psychiatric hospital, and the message his guides gave him months later.
Key Takeaways
- Gary says a week of rapidly growing, highly accurate psychic ability came before the car accident, and that he could not understand why.
- He says he was hit head on by a speeding car, expanded outward in all directions, and felt “I’m free. I’m liberated.”
- He describes infinite mind as a place where “everything was separate and everything was one big pulse.”
- On the way back he says he saw three series of pictures: the troubled times we are living through, a peaceful Aquarian Age to come, and his own life as a musician.
- He says he stood up without a scratch, then spent ten days in a psychiatric hospital, where he played guitar and was known as Mr. Smiles.
- Eight months later, he says, his guides told him, “you had this experience because you wanted to know.”
- His takeaway: “There are no accidents,” and everything we go through can teach us something.
| Guest | Gary L. Wimmer |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 052 |
| Age at the time | 29 |
| Date | February 7, 1977 |
| What Gary says happened | Hit head on by a speeding car, he left his body and expanded into infinite mind |
| Where he says he went | Through a tunnel of light, a realm of colors, and then infinite mind |
| What he saw on the way back | Three series of pictures about the present, a peaceful future and his life as a musician |
| The message | There are no accidents, and we can benefit from everything we go through |
A Week of Escalating Psychic Ability
Alex asks his usual first question. What was life like before you died? Gary does not describe a job or a hometown. He starts with a week. In 1977, when he was 29, he says he went through seven days of psychic ability that kept building and building, was highly accurate, and that he could not understand.
He had no framework for it. He only knew it was escalating. Then, a week later, he says, he was in the middle of a car accident.
Gary also shares that he went through hard years in his twenties. He says he went through hell with depression and what he describes as bipolar. He names feelings of inadequacy, fear, doubt and confusion. He says he now knows they are temporary, and that our mindset, our heart and our intentions can help us grow beyond them, and even benefit from them.
Hit Head On, Then Free
Gary says he was hit head on by a speeding car. He describes being outside his body and watching his body tumble over in front of the car, unaware of what was happening. Ten minutes earlier, or ten seconds earlier, he says, he had been terrified.
Then, out of the clear blue, he says the terror was gone. “I’m free. I’m liberated.” He did not know where he was going, but it was beautiful.
Soon he says he was not even aware of himself. He started expanding outward in all directions. It was the most beautiful feeling.
In that expansion he says something became obvious all at once: this is how souls enter and leave the body. We expand outward at death, he says, and at birth we come into the mother from all ages of the universe. It became apparent to him instantly, he says, in 1977.
The Colors and Infinite Mind
Gary says he kept expanding, to what he thought was the edge of the universe. He felt he went through a realm of consciousness he calls the colors. They gave us, he says, the power to use our senses, our intelligence, our mind and our experiences to go back and understand who we are, why we got here and what we are to do. There are connections to everything, he adds, that we can discover.
Finally he arrived at what he calls infinite mind. It felt like a blue sky as far as he could see. “Everything was separate and everything was one big pulse,” he says.
He calls it “infinite mind over infinite time,” completely unbiased. Nothing could limit it, he says, and every possibility would manifest, because it was infinite mind imagining everything. He did not realize that he was part of it. He felt at one with it, and then he was observing it.
For readers new to this idea, our glossary entries on consciousness and oneness are good places to begin.
Three Series of Pictures on the Way Back
Then Gary says he felt pulled away, back toward something. He went through a tunnel of light in reverse, somewhat apprehensive. He had no idea who he was or where he was going. But where he had just been, he says, was beautiful.
As he got closer to Earth, he says he felt a connection with the planet. And then he saw three series of very distinct pictures.
The first, he says, was the chaos we are going through now. He describes flashing, spinning newspapers. He says he saw COVID 19, 9/11, Earth changes and environmental changes. When people ask him what he saw, he says, he suggests watching the news for five minutes.
The second series, he says, showed the result of entering the Aquarian Age, a time that is very peaceful and healed, with space and technology coming from the sea. We are a little way from it, he says. He describes a transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius, with about a hundred years of confusion, and says we are in the middle of it. “I’m an optimist,” he says.
The third series was about being a musician. Then he saw his body and jumped back into it. See our entry on the Age of Aquarius for background on the term.
Standing in the Street Without a Scratch
When Gary came back, he says, the first thing he saw was red hair flowing over his head. It was the driver, hanging over him and screaming, terrified. Gary says he could not stop and did not care. “I’d just been to Heaven and back.” He pushed the driver back and got to his feet.
He describes it as an eerie world, but he says he was fearless. He had the thought to just walk home. He says he was not hurt. People in the crowd, which he puts at twenty or thirty witnesses plus the driver, told him to stay for the police and the ambulance.
When the police arrived, he says, they were looking for a body splattered in the street. Instead, people pointed to him. He raised his hand and said he was the one they were looking for. They asked how he was standing. He says he felt no pain, had no scratch and no blood.
Gary answered every question honestly, and he understands now why that did not make sense to them. At the hospital he says he was x rayed and checked, and was not hurt.
Ten Days in a Psychiatric Hospital
Then a man walked into the emergency room. Gary says he recognized him from premonitions. They had never met, but he knew about the man and his family. When the man asked how he knew this, Gary says he answered that he knew everything right then.
He says the staff arranged protective custody. It took a couple of days, and his brother came into town to sign. Gary spent ten days in the hospital. He describes it as a joy ride. He entertained the other patients by playing guitar for them. They called him Mr. Smiles.
He also began writing down times, putting them in envelopes, and asking the nursing staff to hand them to his psychiatrist when he walked in. The doctor opened one and found 10:30, and Gary told him to look at his watch. The next day, the note said 2:14. The psychiatrist, whom Gary calls a beautiful man but a conservative one, could not handle these explanations.
At the end of ten days, Gary says, he stood before a board of ten psychiatrists. He told them he was not changing his story. He had a near-death experience, though he did not know that term then. He says he told them they should study the patients there, because there was a distinct relationship between psychiatric issues, higher mind, spirituality, creativity and breakthroughs. They agreed he could go home, and he says his own psychiatrist was grateful for the help Gary had given him with his kids.
About two months later, he says, he had a kind of reboot and felt infinite mind again. His roommates called his parents, his mother took him to Brackenridge Hospital, and he did another ten days.
Gary shares this with warmth, not blame. If any part of this story brings up something heavy for you, remember that mental health support is real and available. If you are struggling, you are not alone. In the US you can call or text 988 any time.
The Question He Kept Asking His Guides
The experience, Gary says, was the most beautiful, empowering and enlightening thing anyone could have. But it was so intense that it took him months to come to terms with. He was not afraid. He was trying to figure out why.
He asked his guides over and over, the same guides who, he says, had asked if he trusted them and had protected him. Eight months later, out of the clear blue, they answered. He says he did not see them. He felt them. A message went into his brain, and at the same time he saw something like screen credits rolling in the distance, and the words were repeated into his ear.
The message, he says, was: “you had this experience because you wanted to know.” He was always curious, always seeking information, so he could handle the truth. “We took you there, we brought you back unscathed.” That, he says, is why there were grounding agents in the car accident. It made sense. It was not an accident.
Our guide to communicating with spirit guides explores how others describe this kind of message.
There Are No Accidents
Gary says a guide helped him design this little trip so he could see infinite mind and come back. “There are no accidents.” Everything is cause and effect.
He encourages anyone who wants to grow to put fears and doubts aside, and he admits that we all have them. “If you never went through doubt, you’d certainly never look for certainty.” And “If you never went through fear, you could never be on the road to fearlessness.”
He also says everything in life can teach us something. We can benefit from the good, the bad and the ugly. He says you would not become a good healer if you never felt things to heal people with.
Placing Gary’s Story Beside Common Themes
Gary’s account includes things many experiencers describe: leaving the body, a tunnel of light, a sense of expansion and unity, and a pull back into the body. His story is distinctive in what happened afterward, since he says he returned with strong premonitions and spent time in a hospital trying to explain what had happened.
He is also clear that he did not know the term near-death experience at the time. For the bigger picture, start with our complete guide to near-death experiences and the glossary entry on precognition.
Questions to Sit With
- Gary says nothing is an accident. Looking back, which turning point in your life now reads like part of a design?
- He says doubt and fear are part of the road to certainty and fearlessness. Where could doubt be pointing you toward something?
- What difficult season in your life has given you something to offer others?
This week, write down one hard experience and one thing it taught you. Share the lesson, not the story, with someone who might need it.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Gary says souls enter and leave the body by expanding outward, and that death can feel like freedom.
- He describes infinite mind as unbiased and boundless, where every possibility can appear.
- He says guides gave him an answer: he had the experience because he wanted to know.
- He says there are no accidents, only cause and effect.
- He says the hard seasons of life, even depression and fear, can become the source of healing for others.
Please enjoy my conversation with Gary L. Wimmer.
Guest Links: Connect With Gary L. Wimmer
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Gary L. Wimmer?
Gary L. Wimmer is the guest of this Divine Encounters episode. He says he was 29 and living with escalating psychic ability when a head-on car collision on February 7, 1977 led to his near-death experience.
What happened to Gary before his near-death experience?
Gary says he spent a week experiencing growing, highly accurate psychic ability that he could not understand. He says a week later he was hit head on by a speeding car.
What is infinite mind?
It is Gary’s name for the place he says he reached after expanding outward and passing through a realm of colors. He describes it as like a blue sky, boundless and unbiased, where everything was separate and one big pulse at the same time.
What did Gary see on his way back to Earth?
He says he saw three series of pictures: the troubles of our current times, a peaceful Aquarian Age to come, and his life as a musician.
What happened when Gary came back to his body?
Gary says he saw red hair flowing over his head, which was the terrified driver. He got to his feet with no scratch and no blood, and the police had been looking for a body in the street.
Why was Gary in a psychiatric hospital?
He says that because he was honest about what had happened, and because of his premonitions about a psychiatrist, the staff arranged protective custody. He spent ten days there and was released after meeting a board of ten psychiatrists.
Who was Mr. Smiles?
That was the nickname patients gave Gary during his ten days in the hospital, where he says he entertained them by playing guitar.
What did Gary’s guides tell him?
Eight months after the accident, he says, his guides told him he had the experience because he wanted to know. They said they took him there and brought him back unscathed.
What did Gary take from the experience?
He says there are no accidents, and that everything we go through, including fear and doubt, can teach us something.
Did Gary know about near-death experiences at the time?
No. He says he did not know the term and did not use it when he described what had happened to the psychiatrists.
Is a near-death experience proof of an afterlife?
Next Level Soul shares near-death experiences as lived experiences told in the person’s own words. Researchers continue to study and debate what they mean. Nothing here is medical advice or a medical claim.
Keep Exploring
- The complete guide to near-death experiences
- What precognition means
- What the Age of Aquarius means
- Bill Tortorella on seeing the future of humanity
- Nekesha Burrell on being shown humanity’s future
- Annette Bricca, a psychic, on predictions after her NDE
- David Suich on years of NDE research and humanity’s future
- Branden Densmore on being shown the future
- Browse more free masterclasses and the Divine Encounters podcast.
Follow Along with the Transcript
Alex Ferrari 0:00
Tell me what your life was like before you died.
Gary L. Wimmer 0:03
When I was 29 years old. In 1977 I went through a week of escalating psychic ability that I could not understand. That was highly accurate, and it kept building up and up and up, and I couldn't understand why, until a week later, when I in middle of a car accident. I was hit head on by a speeding car, and I was taken to infinite mind. I went through the tunnel of light. I went to infinite mind, completely forgot who I was, came back to my body a couple seconds later of Earth time, and I was laying in the middle of the street. I'd just been hit by a car. People were screaming. People were hollering me, I'd just been to Heaven and back. I jumped to my feet, somewhat excited, but certainly rather confused. It was an eerie situation. I wasn't hurt. I thought about just walking home, but the people around me, which were quite a degree of witnesses, 20-30 witnesses, plus the driver of the car, who was terrified. They were all they were all screaming at me to just stay at the scene till the cops come up and the police and the ambulance, and, okay, that'll make sense. I didn't want them chasing me down through the alleys trying to figure out what happened. So I stayed there. And few minutes there, cops, police, ambulance came up and asked me what happened. Well, that started a real I opened a can of worms, because I told them truthfully that I went to infinite mind, that I had had a week of escalating psychic ability, on and on. And of course, they weren't too pleased to hear that. They didn't know how to deal with that, and I didn't know how to make up some story that made sense to them. They didn't know what to do. I wanted to just go home. They insisted I go to the hospital. I had to they took me to the hospital. The ambulance, x rayed me, checked me out, didn't have a scratch, not even hurt. And then a psychiatrist came in, and he started talking to me. And I had known this. I had a premonition about this psychiatrist. A week later, in fact, I had a premonition about this whole incident. The psychiatrist who is now standing in front of me was just one of them. I knew all about his family and his kids, and he's mind blown, and he's asked me how I knew all this, and I tried to explain to him, and he was rather confused, too, but he admitted that we can't just let you go home, Gary, you've been in rather strange circumstance. You know, you're hit by a speeding car, you didn't get a scratch. This is bizarre. I had no problem with it. I wouldn't have understood what I'd been through. I wouldn't have believed that I was saying either, because what I was telling people spent on 10 days in a psychiatric hospital. It was a joy ride to me. I was entertaining the other clients, the other patients at the hospital playing guitar for them. They called me Mr. Smiles. At the end of 10 days, they bring me before a board of psychiatrists to see if I'm stable enough to let me walk free again, or to recommend another 10 day mandatory commitment, at which point I explained to them that I'm not changing my story. This is what happened. I had a near death experience. I didn't know the term at the time. I didn't use that term, but I told them what happened, that I went to infinite mind came back. But it's relevant, because that's why I'm here and I'm okay. And even my psychiatrist who'd been treating me, I helped him deal with his kids, because I was picking up while he was analyzing me, I was picking up about problems he's had with his kids, and in the week of analysis at the hospital, I ended up talking to him a lot, and he was grateful, although he had a hard time admitting it. So at this meeting of 10 psychiatrists, he, along with the other ones, agreed that Gary's saying he can go home. And I did, and at that point I told the psychiatrists, you guys should study these people in here. They probably do have some psychiatric problems, but there's a distinct relationship between psychiatric issues, higher mind, spirituality, creativity, breakthroughs, and we need to study this so they realized I was intelligent, I was in good health. I was saying they let me leave. About two months later, I had sort of a reboot. I started feeling infinite mind again. This time, my roommates called my parents. My mom came down, took me to Brackenridge Hospital. I did another 10 days. This near death experience in 1977 blew me away. It was the most beautiful, empowering, enlightening thing anybody could have. But it was so intense it took me. Months, months to kind of come to terms with it. I wasn't afraid. I was just trying to figure out what happened and why, why, why? And eight months later, me asking my guides over and over and over, the same guides that said, do you trust us and protected me? Why did I have this experience I had to know. And eight months later, out of the clear blue, they appeared. I didn't see them. I felt them. They sent a message into my brain. At the same time, I saw like screen credits rolling off in the distance, and they repeated red out into my head, into my ear the same thing I was seeing, and it basically said, you had this experience because you wanted to know. You're always curious. You're always seeking information so you could handle the truth. We took you there, we brought you back unscathed. And that's why there was grounding agents in the car accident. It all made sense. It was like not an accident. It was a guy that helped me design this little trip so I could see infinite mind and come back. There are no accidents. Everything's cause and effect. And so I encourage other people, you really want to grow. You really want to see power, believe in it, ask in it. Put your fears and doubts aside. We all have them. We all go through them. If you never went through doubt, you'd certainly never look for certainty, and you probably wouldn't find it, because you're not looking for it. If you never went through fear, you could never be on the road to fearlessness, period. And so everything we go through in life can teach us something. We can benefit from The Good, the Bad, the Ugly. We can benefit from everything. And that's one of the things I think I'm so grateful for having learned because I went through hell on depression in my 20s, bipolar. I know feelings of inadequacy, fear, doubt, confusion, but again, I also know they're temporary, and our mindset, our heart, our intentions, can help us not only grow over those problems, but benefit from them. Maybe become a good healer. You wouldn't become a good healer if you didn't feel things to heal people with so everything we go through in life, we can benefit from. I was going through such intense changes and challenges that eventually led to a car accident in 1977 a head on collision that I was outside my body, and I was looking at my body getting tumbled over by a car, not aware of what's going on, what's happening. And soon I wasn't even aware of me, but I started expanding outward, in all directions. It was the most beautiful feeling. 10 minutes earlier, or 10 seconds earlier, I had been terrified, but once I was hit by this car, out of the clear blue, I'm free. I'm liberated. I'm going to I don't know where, but it's beautiful. And I start expanding and growing. And at that point, I realized that's how souls come into the body and out, we expand outward to death. We come into the mother at birth from all ages of the universe. And that's how we take an impression. This just became so apparent to me instantaneously in 1977 so I'm expanding, expanding. Went to what I thought was the edge of the universe. Felt like I went through a realm of consciousness called the colors that gave us the power to use our senses, our intelligence, our mind, our experiences, to go back and understand who we are, why we got here, and what we are to do. There's connections to everything that we can discover. So I'm expanding, expanding, and finally went to what I call infinite mind. It felt like a blue sky. As far as I could see. Everything was separate and everything was one big pulse. It was infinite mind over infinite time, completely unbiased. Nothing could limit it, and every possibility would manifest, because it was all infinite. Mind imagining everything, and I not knowing that it's me am observing this. I felt like I was at one with it. And then all of a sudden, I'm observing it. I'm being pulled away. I'm being pulled back to something. I go through this tunnel of light in reverse, somewhat apprehensive. I have no idea who I am or where I'm going, but where I just was was beautiful. So as I get closer and closer to Earth, I felt some sort of connection with this planet. Then I saw three series of pictures, very distinct as I started coming closer Earth. The first was all the K officer we're going through now. I saw these like flashing newspapers, spinning newspapers, pictures. I saw COVID 19. I saw 911 I saw the Earth changes. I saw environmental changes. And people today sometimes ask me, what did I see? Watch Breaking News for five minutes. It's all over the media, this big transformation the next series of pictures I saw would result of entering the Aquarian Age, where things are very peaceful. They're healed. We're getting space and technology from the sea, and, you know, things are a lot better. We're a little ways from that right now. But that's the where we're headed. We're going to the transition from Age of Pisces to the age Aquarius, and there's about 100 years of kind of confusion, and we're right in the middle of it. But I'm an optimist, and that's where we're headed. The third series of pictures I saw was about me being a musician, and then I saw my body, and I jump back into my body. This is 1977 this is February 7. 1977 I saw my body. I jumped back in. First thing I know is there's this red hair flowing over my head. It's the driver hanging over me, terrified, screaming. I couldn't stop I didn't care. I'd just been to Heaven. I pushed him back, got to my feet, trying to figure out what's going on. And it was definitely an eerie world. But I was fearless, and the little distraction of this accident kind of became a little bit more than I can handle. I kind of pushed the driver away, and then I thought, Well, I'm just going to walk home. I'm not hurt. But people suggested, no, stay around to the cops. Come the ambulance. Come explain the situation. No problem. I'll just tell them what happened. Because when the cops came and the police came first, they're looking around for a body that's laying in the street. Bud splattered. There wasn't a blood splatter body. It was just me, and all the people around me were pointing, like, here's the guy. I raised my hand. Yes, I'm who you're looking for. They're asking me how I'm even standing just like you did. I felt no pain, I had no scratch, I had no blood. I'd just been hit by a speeding car, and it's like I didn't even feel it. They were mind blown. I was mind blown every time they tried to ask me questions, or every time they asked me questions about what happened, I answered honestly, which didn't make sense to them, which I completely understood. The next thing that happened, they wanted to take me to the hospital because they wanted to X ray me. No problem. Took me the hospital, x rayed me, checked me out. It wasn't hurt. Then a man came into the emergency room, walked over to me. I recognized him from premonitions. He was a psychiatrist we never met, but I knew about him and his family and so forth, and he's kind of, how did you know this? And I said, I know everything right now, you know. And what I didn't know is that they were going to put me in a psychiat psychiatric hospital to explain. You know, the things you've been talking about, little weird. I had no problem with that. I've been to Heaven and back. It's been a strange night. You think I care? Put me anywhere you want to. I just needed to come down. Well, next thing I knew, I'm in jail because they had to get a protective order of protective custody. It took a couple days. My brother came into town, signed it next bay. I'm in Shoal Creek hospital here, and I'm having quite a time, really. I'm entertaining all the patients. Everybody likes me, and I even started writing down the time that the doctor would come in to see me, because they the doctor would come in my psychiatrist, at random times, I'd write it down on a little piece of paper, put in an envelope, give it to the nursing staff, and asked them to hand it to the doctor when he came in. And they did. He walked in my little room with this envelope and said, It's a letter from you. Said, Yeah, read it. I'll read it later. No. Lead it now. Look at it. He opened it up 10:30 what does that mean? Said, look at your watch, huh? 10:30 coincidence, Gary. Next day, he opened again. 2:14, What's he want? He couldn't handle this. God bless him. He was a very beautiful man, but a very conservative psychiatrist, very fundamentalist, and he couldn't handle my explanations about God and the universe and picking up things anyway, we got to be reasonably good friends, and at the end of 10 days, he, along with other psychiatrists, decided that I was perfectly mentally healthy.
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