Divine Encounters Episode 024 | Near-Death Experience Story
Anne Bayford was a busy working mother of two, rushing through a London morning in March 2002, when, she says, her late grandmother’s voice told her everything was going to be okay a moment before a van struck her at a pedestrian crossing. In this Divine Encounters episode she tells Alex Ferrari what she says she experienced next: a view from above, a circular library of books and scrolls, her guide, and a message about her mission.
Key Takeaways
- Anne says she was 37, with children aged about five and seven, and was rushing to get them to school and herself to work on the morning of 11 March 2002.
- She says she heard her late grandmother’s voice at a crossing telling her everything was going to be okay, and a moment later she was told to buy the newspaper, which changed her angle across the road.
- She describes being thrown by a van, then looking down at a body she did not at first recognize as her own, and feeling no pain at all.
- She recalls a circular library with corridors of books and scrolls, her guide at her side, and a blueprint of her soul’s journey.
- She says she was shown some past life material, and later trained as a past life practitioner.
- She says she was told again and again that she had a mission and had to go back, and that she returned through something like a water slide.
- Her message: be present, enjoy your life as it is now, and learn to be intuitive so you can help yourself.
| Guest | Anne Bayford |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 024 |
| Age at the time | About 37 |
| When and where | 11 March 2002, Essex Road, Islington, London |
| What Anne says happened | A van hit her at a pedestrian crossing |
| Where she says she went | Above her body, then a circular library with books and scrolls |
| Who she met | Her guide, her grandmother (her Nan), and angels and archangels |
| The message | You have a mission; be present and learn to be intuitive |
Who Is Anne Bayford?
Anne has two grown children now, in their late twenties, who she jokes now tell her what to do. At the time of her experience they were five and seven. She was in the same position as many of us, she says: rushing through a nine-to-five job, paying bills, unhappy in a relationship, torn and pulled in different directions.
She says it is easy to think time is always promised. You put things off. You tell yourself you will do them later. If she had known what the next day would bring, she says, she would have done things differently. She would not be able to put her son or daughter to bed for about four years, because she could not walk.
The Night Before, and the Morning
The night before the accident, Anne went upstairs and read her children a story. Her son had a bunk bed and her daughter had her own room. She had been upset about her job, and she doesn’t think she was fully present as she read. That pains her even today, she says. She still holds that emotion.
The next morning she was rushing again. She got the children into the car and to school. She kissed them on the forehead, but she was in a hurry, so she didn’t fully embody it. It was a quick bye, gotta go, see you later. She did not make eye contact or hold them. She says that really pains her too.
She tells it plainly, and not to make anyone feel guilty. If you recognize that rush, you are in good company.
The Crossing on Essex Road
She remembers reaching the pedestrian crossing on Essex Road in Islington, busy central London. Someone had pressed the button. She decided to cross. There was a middle island, and she thinks about five people were crossing near her.
She wasn’t meditating at the time and hadn’t been connecting with guides. She had been hearing information, though, and had no idea we have guides. She just assumed someone was always there to look after her, like her Nan, who died when Anne was younger. Her Nan had looked after her until Anne was 15, during difficult times at home.
Standing on the crossing, Anne heard her Nan’s voice. She was about 37. The voice said “everything’s going to be okay.” Anne thought: what is going on? She also remembers thinking about the practical things, whether to post the letter or buy the newspaper. Posting the letter meant walking straight across. Buying the newspaper meant going at an angle.
Her Nan said, “buy the newspaper now.” Anne changed direction slightly and crossed at an angle. She did not hear or see anything else. She says the police later told her that if she had gone straight across, the outcome would have been very different.
The Impact
The van hit her on her left side. She says she didn’t feel anything at all when her Nan said everything was going to be okay, and that must have been the moment of impact. She was thrown about thirty feet and bounced.
Anne lists her injuries. She says she fractured her pelvis, broke and tore her knee, had seven breaks in her foot, damaged her Achilles and ankle, had damaged kidneys and spleen bleeding internally, and fractured ribs on both sides. She did not hit her head, and she is glad of that. She needed operations. These are her own descriptions of her medical situation, and we share them as she gave them.
Looking Down
Anne says she was out. The next thing she was aware of was looking down at something, though she did not know it was her body. She could see and feel everybody’s emotions and energy. She could see that people were worried and panicking.
At no point did she feel any pain. She felt a white light around her, and she felt warm, even though it was March in London and quite cold. She did not realize she had died. She says she had no idea at all what she was experiencing.
The Circular Library
To Anne it felt as if she was in a circular library. There were long corridors or passages with loads of books and scrolls. She thinks it was what felt safe for her brain to handle. People who study ideas about the akashic records often describe a similar library, though Anne does not use that term in this conversation.
She had a guide beside her, though she did not know to call it that at the time. She does now, because of the work she does. As a book opened, it was like magic. Things came out of it, showing her her life and the journey of her soul. Scrolls were pulled out. She describes a large blueprint, not paper but something that pulled out. She says they described it as “an architect of my life.”
She says it was “like a blueprint of my soul,” the journey it had been on. She says they showed her some past life material too, and she became a past life practitioner. For more on that, see the glossary entry on past life regression.
She now understands, she says, that our souls are on a recycle button, like a washing machine, going round and round. Each lifetime is for looking at the lessons of why we came, who we meet, and why they trigger certain things in us.
Her Nan, Angels and a Mission
Her Nan was there too, she says. She also felt that angels and archangels were present, protecting her. She understood that she was not meant to die. She was here for a great purpose, a great mission. She felt that everything she had been through and all the work she had done was meant to help her become the person she is becoming now, and the person she will be in the future.
They also told her that there is no such thing as past, present and future in the way humans like to see them. On that day she was shown all this information, and she could feel into everything. The energy became very powerful and very strong. Still, she says, she did not even realize it was her down there, and she did not realize she had died.
For more on how people describe guides, see our glossary entry on spirit guides.
Hearing the Ambulance, and the Water Slide Home
Anne then heard the ambulances arrive. She says she watched them cut her clothes and use paddles on her chest. She was being shown the scene, she says, but at first she felt nothing. It was only when they paddled her chest that her heart jumped back. Then she felt so much pain.
Through all of it, she says, she was told so much. She was happy to be where she was. She felt she belonged. “I didn’t feel abnormal or crazy,” she says, the way she had in the physical world. She wanted to stay. But she was told constantly: “you have a mission.” You have to go back. She didn’t want to.
When she returned, it was like a water slide at a theme park. She felt herself washing all the way around and down, and she landed back in her body. And then she felt the pain. She was screaming.
In the ambulance she lost consciousness, in and out. She could see the top of the ambulance. At the hospital, three sets of teams worked on her. She says that if she had been fully there, she would have been embarrassed at being undressed. Instead she was above her body looking down, and she could feel into the team members. They were anxious. They thought they were going to lose her.
She was scanned and had many fractures. At about 40 miles per hour, she says, the organs were still moving about, so they had to wait before they could fix anything. She was battered and bruised. Then she went to intensive care.
Where’s My Nan?
In intensive care, a nurse told her there were moments when she could see Anne’s hand squeezing. Anne asked: where is my Nan? The nurse said there was nobody there. But Anne says her Nan, who had died when Anne was 15, was by her side the whole time in spirit form.
How It Changed Her
“It made me see life really differently,” Anne says. Before, it was seeing is believing. Now it is “believe and you shall see.” She feels more connected, as one with the universe.
She says it is not necessarily about individual religions. If that is how you connect, it is absolutely brilliant. What matters more, she says, is the spiritual soul message within you, which is non-judgmental. There is “endless, boundless knowledge out there,” and this life is about learning and getting as much as we can from it.
So she says: be present, to absorb as much as you can. “Enjoy your life as it is now.” If it is hard, you are learning something, and it is soul growth. “You will get through it.”
Her Work Now
Anne says her work now, through her own platform, is to “teach people to become more intuitive” so they can understand their journey and help themselves. They can ask their guides, or connect to their higher self, she says. It is about soul wisdom and helping people understand who they are and what their journey is. You can read more in the glossary entry on higher self.
How Anne’s Story Sits Beside Other Near-Death Experiences
Many accounts describe a view from above, no pain, warmth, a presence of loved ones who have died, and a sense of being told it is not time. Anne’s account has all of these. What stands out is the image of a library and a blueprint, and the very ordinary details around it: a school run, a pedestrian crossing, a newspaper. For the wider picture, see our complete guide to near-death experiences.
We share this as a personal account in her own words, and we make no medical claims.
Questions to Sit With
- Anne wishes she had been fully present with her children the night before. Where could you be more present today?
- Her Nan’s voice was a comfort in a hard moment. Who is, or was, that voice for you?
- Anne says hard times are soul growth. What are you learning from something difficult right now?
Pick one ordinary moment today, a goodbye or a hello, and give it your full attention for ten seconds. Eye contact, no rushing.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Anne says time is not promised, so be present in the moments that matter.
- She describes a blueprint of her soul’s journey, with lessons that repeat until learned.
- She says we have guides and loved ones in spirit who stay close.
- She says it is not about any one religion, but about the soul message within you.
- She says hard times are soul growth, and you will get through them.
Please enjoy my conversation with Anne Bayford.
Guest Links: Connect With Anne Bayford
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Anne Bayford?
Anne Bayford is a near-death experiencer from London who became a past life practitioner and teaches intuition. She was about 37 when, she says, a van hit her on 11 March 2002.
What happened to Anne Bayford?
Anne says a van hit her at a pedestrian crossing on Essex Road in Islington. She says she was thrown about 30 feet, had serious injuries, and left her body.
What did her Nan say?
Anne says she heard her late grandmother tell her that everything was going to be okay, and then to buy the newspaper, which changed the angle at which she crossed.
What was the circular library?
Anne describes a circular library of books and scrolls, with a guide at her side, where she was shown a blueprint of her soul’s journey. She thinks it was what felt safe for her brain to handle.
Did Anne see past lives?
She says she was shown some past life material, and she later became a past life practitioner.
Did Anne know she had died?
She says she did not. She did not at first realize the body she was looking down at was hers, and she says she had no idea what she was experiencing.
Why did she return?
Anne says she was told constantly that she had a mission and had to go back, even though she wanted to stay.
What was it like coming back?
She describes it as a water slide at a theme park. She washed around and down into her body, and then felt the pain.
What is Anne’s message?
She says to be present, enjoy your life as it is now, and learn to be intuitive so that you can help yourself. She says it is not about any one religion.
Is a near-death experience proof of an afterlife?
Next Level Soul shares near-death experiences as personal accounts 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 past life regression means, in plain language
- What spirit guides are, in plain language
- Karen Thomas on the Book of Lives on the operating table
- Susan Dyer on meeting her spirit guides
- Toni Reilly on past lives and soul contracts
- Mariko Frederick on hidden realms and life between lives
- Felice DiMartino on a message from the other side after a truck crash
- 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.
Anne Bayford 0:08
I had two children, or I still got two children. When I say they're adults, they're adults now they're like 27, 29 it's like they're, you know, they're your children forever, but you know, it's now they tell me what to do. So it's a bit different. But at the time, they were seven and five, and I it's just like, it's like all of us, you know, when we're rushing the nine to five job, you got to pay bills, and things are going on in your relationship, you're unhappy, and, you know, there's so much going on, and you just feel torn and pulled in different directions. And I remember that morning that I was rushing to get the children ready for school, and I had to go to work because obviously had to make ends meet and pay the bills and everything. And it's like all of us. You then get caught up in the detail of like you. You think that you think that time's always promised. You always think that you're always guaranteed the next breath, yeah, and you just think you'll put things off, or you think you do things later. And if I'd known that was that day when the day before that, I would never, or wouldn't be able to put my son to bed or my daughter to bed for about four years because I couldn't walk, then I would have done things differently. So the night before the accident, he's got a bunk bed, my son and my daughter had her bedroom, and I go up and I read them a story. And I think even the night before, I was upset about my job, and I don't think I was fully present in the moment when I was reading them their stories, which pains me even today, that experience, that emotion I still hold. And then the day that it happened, I was rushing them, getting them into the car, and I got them to school. So they're five and seven years old, and I remember, I did kiss them on the forehead, but I was in a rush, so I didn't fully embody that. I wasn't in that emotion. I was rushing. So, you know, my lips were just kissing their forehead, bye, bye. Gotta go see you later. And that was it. And diving off. So I wasn't fully in that emotion. I wasn't that eye contact with them. I didn't hold them or anything. And that really pains me today. I remember I got to the zebra crossing, the pedestrian crossing in the UK, in London, busy Central. It was the Essex Road in Islington, part of London. I remember getting there and I thought, Okay, someone had pressed the button. And I thought, if they press the button to say, okay, then it's gonna go green man, and you can cross it. I'll do this. Now it made my mind up. I'm gonna do this. So I was like, okay, walking across, there was a middle Island, and I remember that there were some people by the side of me, behind me. I think there's about five of us in total. And then I hadn't been practicing meditation at time. I hadn't really been connecting to my guides. I'd been hearing information. Didn't even realize we had guides, but I just thought somebody was always there to go after me, like my Nan, who died when I was younger. And at the time, when I was standing on this crossing in the middle of the road, I heard my nan's voice, and she looked after me till 15 because I was taking out my home environment. She looked after me because there's difficult times at home. So I was 37 or something like that at the time, and I heard a voice, and everything's going to be okay. And I was like, what? What's going on, you know? And I remember thinking, look, I've got to cross the road. Shall I post the letter or buy the newspaper? If I post the letter, means I walk straight across the road. If I buy the newspaper, I've got to go an angle, whatever. So there was this gun in my head, and I still could hear her, and that was it, the human that was it. I didn't hear or see anything. That was it. What happened was she said, buy the newspaper now. Because she had said, Go get the newspaper, I changed direction slightly. I was an angle, so I was off to my right, and luckily, I had crossed the road at a right angle and didn't go straight across. Later, the police said, if I'd gone straight across, my head would have gone through the windscreen of this van. There was no coming back. I mean, it would have been severed off. I mean, knowing me, I would have put the head under my arm. I said, I'm ready. Let's get on with it. Go back to life. So on the crossing, I crossed at the right angle, and the the van had hit me on my left hand side. I didn't feel it at all. I didn't feel anything when she said, everything's going to be okay. Go get the newspaper. That was it. And that must have been when the van had impacted me on my left hand side, and I bounced. It threw me across the ground, I don't know, about 30 feet or whatever it was, and I bounced off the ground. And then I had broken. I fractured my pelvis. I had broken my knee. I torn the cartilage in my knee. Had seven breaks in my foot. I'd ripped my ankle. The Achilles was damaged. I had operations on that. My kidneys were damaged. They were bleeding internally. My spleen was damaged. My kidneys were bleeding. My ribs on both sides were fractured, but I didn't hit my head. That was good, and but I was out. I was just out. I didn't know that had happened to me. I didn't know what had happened, and all I know is the next minute, I was aware was that I was looking down at something, but I didn't know it was my body. I was looking down and I could see and. Feel everybody's emotions, all their energy. I could feel it all, and I could see that they were worried and panicking. At no point did I feel any pain at all. And then, while this was going on, I remember I felt that I just I felt this light around me, this white light, and I felt very warm, because this was in March, 2002, 11th of March. And it was quite cold in the UK then, but I felt warm and I had no pain. And for me, it felt as if I was in sort of like a circular library and and I remember being there, and I remember they were current, like, like long corridors or long passages where there was loads of books and scrolls. It was like, what my I think you I just heard, sorry. They just came in. It was a bit like what felt safe for my brain to handle. So they showed me this, the books and stuff. And I remember the book sales has been open. I remember I had a guide. I didn't know it was called a guide at the time, but the work I do now, my guide was standing by my side, sort of as the book opened. It was like magical. There was like things coming out of it and showing me my my life, my journey, of my soul, scrolls being pulled out. And I was it was like this large blueprint of like, not paper, but this something that pulled out. They like, I think they said it was the, like an architect of my life. So it was the blueprint of where I've come from. Okay, can keep sorry I'm they're here as well into it coming in. They know I'm a bit nervous, so they're prompting me. So it was like a scroll, like a blueprint of my soul, of the journey I'd been on. And they were showing me some past life stuff too, and I ended up becoming a past life practitioner. Now, learning about that, I understand now that our souls on a recycle button, you know, like a washing machine. It's going round around, they just said, and it's about our soul mission that each lifetime we're here, it's for us to look at the lessons of why we've come here, who were meant to me, and why they trigger off certain things in our lifetime. So I remember being there and this light, and also remember feeling my my nan was there as well. Now I'm not really mentioned this before, but I remember feeling that there were angels there as well, because I knew they were there protecting me and arc angels and stuff that are there. I obviously wasn't meant to die. It was meant to come in to protect me, that I was here for a great purpose, a great mission. And I remember feeling that everything I'd ever been through, or the work that I'd done, all the work that I'd done, that it was meant to help me to become the person that I'm becoming now, and the person going to be in the future. And they said Not that there is such thing as past present and future. It's what the human likes to see as past, present and future. So on that day, I was shown all this information, and I could feel into everything, feeling to all the energy became very powerful and very strong. But I remember looking down and I didn't even realize it was me, Alex.
I didn't know that I died. I didn't know what I was experiencing was what I was experiencing. I had no idea at all. And then, literally, I heard the ambulances come in, and they had cut my clothes, and they had paddled my chest with electric. I didn't feel it at first. I was seeing all this happening. I saw the paramedic, the bike arrive. I could see that from where I was, I was being shown that I was being shown the ambulance, but I didn't feel anything. Could Talk. It was only when they paddled my chest, the electric my heart sort of jumped back. But then I felt so much pain now, the process of me not feeling that in my body, I was still shown and told so much information, so much I was happy to be where I was. I felt I felt I belonged. I didn't feel abnormal or crazy like I did in the 3d world. I felt I wanted to stay there, but I was being told constantly, you have a mission. You have to go back. I was constantly told this. I didn't want to go back. And then when I came back into my body, it was like, you know, the water slide that you get a theme park. It felt like I was washing all the way around and down, and I landed back in my body, and then I felt the pain. I was screaming in pain, and the from the ambulance taking me to the hospital, I literally lost consciousness. I was in and out, and I could see the top of the ambulance I saw when I was taken to the Crash Team had three sets of teams working on me, you know, they and if I was fully there, I'd be going, oh my god, they're cutting my bra off. I'm naked at this point. I would have been embarrassed, you know, the normal human thing, right? But I was above my body looking down, and I was like, I could feel the tension. It was an out of body experience. So, you know, the heart was still going, but it was like an out of body experience at that point. So I could look down at the team, and then I could feel into all the team members, what they were feeling. They were anxious. They were like they were thought that they were going to lose me. So the whole eye body was scanned, and there were so many breakages, and at one point the split, I mean, 40 miles per hour, I was quite fast to hit the body. So the organs were still moving about. So they had to wait until the. All good and settled down. And they couldn't go in to fix anything. It was just literally battered and bruised. And so they cut everything off. And then I was taken to intensive care. Was there for some time, and I remember the nurse who looked after me. She said, There were moments she said, I could see your hand squeezing. I said, Where's my Nan? And she said, there's nobody here. And my Nan, who died when I was 15, in spirit form, she was by my side the whole time. So yeah, it was a good experience, Alex. It made me see life really differently. It made me think that before it was seeing as believe, and now it's believe and you shall see. Okay, now I feel more connected as one with the universe. So I know there's more to this. I know now it's not necessarily about individuals religions. Is that if that's how you connect, that's absolutely brilliant. If you connect with whatever religion is absolutely fine. It's more about that spiritual soul message interning within you, and it's non judgmental, and it's is it's like endless, boundless knowledge out there that I've always had this burst for learning so much. And this is about us learning and getting as much out of this as we can. And it's about us being present in the moment, to absorb everything as we can any particular moment, enjoy your life as it is now. And if it's hard, just means you're learning something for it's one of those lessons. It's soul growth. And you'll get through it. You will get through it. But I think it's more important. Like, now what I do with people, it's more important about teaching people to be intuitive so that they can help themselves. So like, now, what I do, like through my own platform, is teach people to become more intuitive, so that it helps them to understand their journey of who they are, so they can work with it. They can have their guides and say, Oh, should I do that or connect to the higher self? So it's more now that I look at the soul wisdom and teach people through my new platform about connecting to their soul progression and helping them to understand who they are, what's their journey.
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