Divine Encounters Episode 048 | Near-Death Experience Story
Annette Bricca was about seven or eight years old, growing up in a divorced household in the 1970s, when she says she passed out in a school lunch line and found herself moving through a tunnel toward a sparkling white light. In this Divine Encounters episode she tells Alex Ferrari what she says it felt like to be home, how it shaped the rest of her childhood, and how her early psychic sense later led to work with the FBI.
Key Takeaways
- Annette says she was about seven or eight when she passed out after hitting her head at school, and had a near-death experience before waking in the nurse’s office.
- She describes a large tunnel, a white light with colors and music, like a sparkler, and a feeling of complete love and of being home.
- She says she was told “this was not your time,” and that she did not want to go back.
- Annette says she was not afraid at all, and that the experience gave her a lifelong sense of gratitude and a bigger picture.
- She describes seeing, at age 10, that a girl about 12 would be abducted for three days, and says that girl turned out to be her.
- She says she took the lesson that she had to save herself, and that she went on to help the FBI and local police with cases while still a teenager.
| Guest | Annette Bricca |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 048 |
| Age at the time | About seven or eight |
| What Annette says happened | She passed out in a school lunch line after hitting her head on a metal stand |
| Where she says she went | A large tunnel toward a white light with colors and music |
| What she felt | Complete love, an enveloping of love, a feeling of home |
| What she was told | This was not your time |
| Her gift | Psychic sense from early childhood; later helped the FBI with cases |
| The message | A near-death experience can be a gift that gives a bigger picture |
A Child Who Already Knew Things
Annette says her near-death experience happened when she was about seven or eight. Her parents were divorced, and she lived with her mom, her brother and her sister. It was typical, she says, of what a divorced family felt like in the 1970s.
She also knew she was psychic from a very early age, though she did not really care about it. She knew things that would happen. When someone in her family was going to pass, she says, she would see their face melting. A few people in her family and some people she knew who were older were psychics too, so it was familiar. She was just a kid. She was Catholic and went to church, and she knew about God, but at seven she did not care much about that either.
The Hot Lunch Line
She was at school, in the hot lunch line, a big long line, with two of her friends. Right next to them was a free-standing record player on a metal stand. They decided to play a game of who could hold their breath the longest. Annette went last. She told them she knew she was going to beat them both. And she did, she says, because the next thing she knew she was in the nurse’s office.
She had passed out and hit her head on the metal stand. But before she came to, she says, something else happened.
A Tunnel Toward a Sparkling Light
She saw a white light and a tunnel, which she says is almost the classic story. But the tunnel was not small. It was big, and she knew she was surrounded by something. She felt herself going toward the light, not walking, but being shuffled or scooted forward, like she was being pushed gently.
It was not just a white light. She could hear music. The light had colors in it too, she says, and it was like a sparkler on the Fourth of July, sizzling and crackling and sparkling. And above all, she says, it was complete love. She felt “an enveloping of love,” and she was not afraid.
Feeling at Home
As she was scooted toward the light, she says, “I felt like I was home.” At seven, she adds, she does not think she even knew the definition of home. But she knew she felt it.
She also knew this was not the same realm. She was not in the consciousness realm she knew, she says. It was a different one. She felt she had passed away, or was about to, but then she was told, “this was not your time.” She was scooted back. She did not want to go. She wanted to stay.
Awake in the Nurse’s Office
Then she woke up in the nurse’s office, with the nurse leaning over her asking what happened. She did not tell her family right away. She waited a day or two. She was living with her mom, who she says was not the stable one, so she waited a day to tell her father, who lived out of state. He understood, she says, but she thinks he was afraid. She does not think she explained well enough that it was a gift, not something to be afraid of. She says she tried to tell him there was nothing to be afraid of.
She remembers telling older family members, who were in their 50s, 70s and 90s. Their reaction was, wait, what happened? She says that for her, it was a life-changing event.
From Seven to Thirty
Annette says it felt as if she went from seven to 30 immediately. She felt older even though she was still a kid doing kid things. She was not afraid of anything. She says she was “the opposite of afraid.”
It is, she says, “one of the greatest gifts you could ever have.” She says she feels bad that people have to die for a time to have it, but having it, especially young, changes what you think and how you feel about the world. You know there is more than this. “You know that there is a higher being.” Even now, at 57, 50 years later, she says, “once it happens, it can never not happen.” It feels like it happened yesterday. It set her up for a life of gratitude and a bigger picture, even through some terrifying things.
She calls it a game changer. She jokes that holding her breath in the lunch line was one of the best things that has ever happened to her. For more on how people describe the experience, see our complete guide to near-death experiences and the glossary entry on near-death experience.
Why She Thinks It Happened
At the time, Annette knew it was profound, but she did not fully understand why it happened until she was about 10, and then 12. Looking back, she believes it happened for a particular reason. She thinks it was so she would be brave and courageous enough to get through what was coming. She thinks they worried it was too much and overwhelming, and did not want her to be afraid that she was about to die. But she says she was not.
What She Saw at Ten, and What Happened at Twelve
When she was 10, Annette says, she saw that a girl about 12 years old would be abducted, kept for three days, and that terrible things would happen to her. Two years later, she says, that girl was her. This part of her story is hard, and we handle it with care.
In 1979, she says, two strangers took her from her bedroom in the middle of the night. She was held over three days, about four miles from home, in a room with a Christian radio station on. She says she suffered terrible harm there. She does not know how long it lasted at the time.
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A Radio, a Window and a Phone
The radio kept saying that if you believe in God, you can ask God for whatever you need. Annette remembers thinking, “if there’s a God, yeah, God, I could use you.” She got brave, she says, and took the tape off her eyes. She saw an open window in the room, since it was September, with the curtains billowing, and a phone beside the mattress.
She picked it up and called her mom, and the FBI got on the phone. They asked her to look out the window and describe her surroundings. She did. Then she heard the men coming back up the stairs, hung up, and put the tape back on her eyes.
“I Had to Save Myself”
About an hour later, once the men went back downstairs, Annette realized she was going to get away, and not because the FBI would charge in the door. “I had to save myself.” She got dressed, jumped from a second-story window and broke her foot. She hobbled to the next-door neighbor, a young man in his 30s lying under his Corvette. All she could see was his legs. She hoped she could get his attention. She was crying, and he came out and asked, “Are you the girl that’s been on TV?” She said yes. He called 911, and the police and the FBI came.
Because she was a minor in 1979, she says, the news showed her face blanked out and did not say her name. The two men were caught and went to trial. Six months later each was sentenced to 30 to 60 years, and each served 26 years in prison.
Helping the FBI as a Girl
While preparing for the trial, she says, she told the two FBI agents on her case that she had kind of known it would happen, which is why she had the nerve to jump from that window. They said they had a couple of other missing person cases, and asked if she could help. She had never done anything psychically for anybody. She said she thought she could but did not know how. They gave her a little information. In those six months, she says, she solved two cases for the FBI.
About a year later, at 13, she moved in with her father. She asked him why it had happened to her. He showed her two New York Times articles. One of the kidnappers, she says, had escaped from a prison in Schenectady, New York, seven months earlier and drove to Michigan to take her in particular. She did not know that at the time of the trial. Finding out was frightening. “Thinking it was random was less scary than knowing” that someone had come for her.
She tried to live a normal teenager’s life. She was a cheerleader and did book reports. On the side, the FBI and the local police contacted her to help with cases, unpaid. Once, at a friend’s house, she and her friend’s father, a local police detective she had been helping, realized who the other was and pretended not to know each other. Nobody knew what she was doing except those involved.
After high school she decided she did not want that life. “I’m going to reinvent myself,” she thought, and she moved to California.
Annette’s Story Beside Other Accounts
Annette’s near-death experience has features many people describe: a tunnel, a white light, music and color, a sense of unconditional love, a feeling of home, and a message that it is not yet time. It is also a child’s account, and a reminder that these experiences are reported by people of all ages. Her story goes on from there into psychic work and hard-won independence. We share what she says as her own experience, not as a medical or investigative claim. Our glossary entries on precognition and extrasensory perception offer more context on what she calls being psychic.
Questions to Sit With
- Annette says the experience gave her a bigger picture at a very young age. What gives you a bigger picture when things are hard?
- She says she knew she had to save herself, and she did. When have you found strength you did not know you had?
- She calls her experience a gift to be shared, not feared. What gift have you been treating as a burden?
Write down one moment you got through something hard, and name the quality that carried you, such as courage or calm. Keep the note where you can see it this week.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Annette says a near-death experience can be one of the greatest gifts, a bigger picture that lasts a lifetime.
- She describes feeling at home, enveloped in love, and unafraid.
- She believes her experience prepared her to be brave when she needed to be.
- She says she learned she had to save herself, and trusted her inner knowing to do it.
- She believes there is a higher being and more than this.
Please enjoy my conversation with Annette Bricca.
Guest Links: Connect With Annette Bricca
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Annette Bricca?
Annette Bricca is a psychic and near-death experiencer who says her near-death experience happened when she was about seven or eight years old. She shares her story in this Divine Encounters episode.
What happened to Annette Bricca at seven or eight?
She says she and two friends were playing a breath-holding game in the school lunch line when she passed out and hit her head on a metal record-player stand. She woke in the nurse’s office.
What did Annette see during her near-death experience?
She describes a large tunnel and a white light with colors and music, like a sparkler, and a feeling of complete love, like being enveloped.
What was she told in the light?
She says she was told that this was not her time, and she was scooted back. She did not want to go.
How did the experience change Annette?
She says she was not afraid of anything, felt older than her years, and lived with gratitude and a bigger picture from then on. She says it can never not have happened.
Was Annette psychic before her experience?
She says yes. She knew things before they happened from a young age and would see faces melting on family members who were about to pass, but she did not care much about it as a kid.
What does Annette say she saw at age 10?
She says she saw that a girl about 12 would be abducted for three days. Two years later, she says, it was her.
How did Annette get away?
She says she heard a radio message about asking God for help, took the tape off her eyes, called her mom from a phone in the room, and later got out of a second-story window and reached a neighbor.
How did Annette start helping the FBI?
She says two FBI agents on her case asked if she could help with their missing person cases, and in six months she solved two cases for them. She also helped local police for several years.
What did Annette do after high school?
She says she did not want that life, so she moved to California to reinvent herself.
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Follow Along with the Transcript
Alex Ferrari 0:00
Tell me what your life was like before you died.
Annette Bricca 0:08
So my near death experience happened when I was about seven or eight years old. So I was my parents were divorced. I lived with my mom, my brother, my sister and I would, you know, say that it was typical of in the 70s, what a divorced family would have felt like. But I knew that I was psychic even at a really early age, but I didn't really care. I mean, I knew things that would happen. I would see my family members when they were going to pass over. I would see their faces melting, and a few people in my family and people I knew that were much older were psychics. I was familiar with it, but I was just a kid. I didn't really care about that, necessarily. So when the near death experience happened at a very young age, I mean, I knew right away what it was, but it at seven years old, it completely changed my life. Because even now I'm 57, years old, and what I think 50 years ago that this happened, once it happens, it can never not happen. You don't ever not remember it. I don't you know, it's just like it happened yesterday even now. So it kind of set me up for living a life of really, of gratitude, of feeling grateful and thankful, even as a really young kid, and that there was a bigger picture of everything, so that the way that my life ended up evolving for a lot of really scary, terrifying things that happened. But I think that the near death experience happened so that I did get a big picture feeling at seven years old. So, you know, at that moment, I wasn't I knew it was profound. It did change the way I thought about things, but I didn't until about I was 10, and then 12 is when I really understood why it happened. But it was, it's transformative. You know, I've said to a couple people in the past that whether or not people have had near death experiences, it's like one of the greatest gifts you could ever have. I mean, I feel bad that people have to die for a period of time to have it, but, but having it, and especially the at a young age, it changes everything that you think. It changes how you feel about the world. Because you know that there's more than this. You know that there is a higher being. So even if you're religious, even if you know I was Catholic, going to church, and I knew about God, but no seven, I really care about God, but I I got it. I got it. There was a big picture. And I remember after the near death experience, like telling my family members about it, and they, you know, they were in their 50s and 90s and 70s, and they're like, Wait, what happened? It's just a life changing, Game Changer event. So I was at school. I was in the hot lunch line. It was, you know, big, long line, but it was me and two of my friends. And there was a record, a free standing record player, like on a metal stand, and we were right next to it. We were going to play a game that who could hold their breath the longest. And there was, like, I said, three of us, I was going to go last. I told them, I know that I'm going to beat you too. And I did go last. I did beat them, because the next thing I knew, I was in the nurse's office. So I so I passed out. I hit my head on the on the metal stand. I was in the nurse's office. But before it came to I saw a white light, and I saw a tunnel, and kind of like the classic story, almost, of what you hear about a near death experience, but not a tunnel that was small, like big, but you could, you felt like you knew that you were surrounded by something. So I was in a tunnel, and I felt myself like going towards this white light, but not like I was walking, like I was being, like, shuffled or scooted forward, like, like, just being pushed forward, but not me walking. And I saw this white light, but, but the thing that I that's notable and noticeable to say, it wasn't just a white light. It was, I could hear music, and it was also white light, but with colors as well. And it was almost like, you know, on Fourth of July, when you have a sparkler, and it's, you know, sizzling and sparkling, like, like crackling and like, kind of sparkling too. But it you just felt complete love, I mean, and I felt like I was embraced by it, and you felt like an enveloping of love, and you're not afraid. And you I was scooted towards this white light, and I just felt like I was home, you know, and at seven years old, I don't even think I know what I would even say the definition of home was, but I felt like I was home, and I and then all of a sudden, I was told that I had to go, and then I was being scooted back. But I did not want to go. I wanted to stay and I and I also knew that it was not in the same realm. I knew that I wasn't like in the consciousness realm. I knew I was in a different realm. And I and I felt like I knew that I had passed away, or that I was passing or about to pass, but I was told that, no, no, this was not your time. And then the next thing I know, I woke up. I was in the nurse's office. She was leaning over me, and, you know, just saying what happened, and I didn't tell like I said, my family members, till a day or two later. And then when I realized what that was. And, you know, I realized that. But once I had that conversation, I felt like I went from seven to like, 30 immediately I felt old er, even though I was. A kid, and I was doing kid things. I didn't, I wasn't afraid of anything. I mean, I just, it's such, it's really such a gift. You know, that's stupid. Holding my breath in the lunch line was one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my whole life. It was really fabulous. And even now, when I talk to people, and, you know, and like you said, many people, the big question they have is, you know what is out in there. You know what happens when we pass away? It altered my life. But I believe that the reason why that happened in hindsight now is because of all the things that were going to happen to me, so that I was brave enough and courageous enough to get through what I needed to so I do think it happened for a real, particular reason. I think that they thought that it was too much, and it was overwhelming. And they didn't want me to be afraid that I had maybe, you know, was about to die, but I wasn't afraid. I was the opposite of afraid I was, and I think that it only took a couple days to tell them, because, you know, I was living with my mom, and my mom was not the stable one my father was. So I didn't want to tell my mom right away, because she was unstable. So I waited a day to talk to my father, who lived out of state, to tell him he understood it. He, he, but I think he was afraid that I thought it was too much. I don't think I did a good enough job at the time of explaining, no, no, this was fabulous. It was a great gift. You know, he, he accepted that I went through it. But I think that he was trying to, trying to make me not afraid, but I wasn't afraid at all. I was the opposite of her free, but when I turned 12. So one of the things that I did see when I was 10 was that at there was a girl that was about 12 years old that she would be abducted. And I saw that there was a period of three days that she would be kidnapped, and then she would, you know, be taken from her home, and that a lot of awful things would happen. So it ends up that two years later, that was me. I was abducted from my bedroom from two strangers. They kidnapped me in the middle of the night. It was over a three day period, and they put me in a car. They had duct tape in my eyes to my mouth, and I went in. So it ends up that it was four miles away from my home. The next day, when my mother realized that I wasn't home, she called the police and the FBI. And back then, it was 1979 as a child, as minor, they didn't tell your name on TV. They so they showed like my face, but they blanked it out. They didn't say my name, and so they had said that, you know, here's this missing girl, and the the FBI was at my mom's house. So that happened for a three day period. So when this was happening, I was like, laying on a crack mattress, and so I was I had duct tape on my mouth and my eyes, and there was a Christian radio station on in this room, this this bedroom that I was stuck in with these two guys, but they were having parties, and they would have this music I love, but there was a Christian radio station on it at one point, it kept saying, If you believe in God, you know, ask God for whatever you need. God is here. God will listen. And here I am. I'm, you know, I'm being, you know, beaten, raped, drugged.
And at this time, I didn't even know how long I had been there. I it ended up that I was there for three days. But at that time, I didn't know. I had no concept at the time, and I thought, okay, if there's a God, yeah, God, I could use you. You know, if you're here, I need you right now. And so I got brave, and I took the duct tape off my eyes, and I saw that there was a window in the room, and that the and it was in September, and that the window was up, and that the shears were like billowing. So I knew that the window was up, and I saw that there was a phone right next to the mattress that it was on. So I hurried up, I picked up the phone, and I called my mom, and the FBI got on the phone, and they said, Listen, you've been gone for a few days. Tell us, you know, look out the window, try to describe your surroundings. And so I did, but then I heard these, you know, bad guys come back up the stairs. I heard hung up the phone, put my tape back on my eyes, and then, like, about an hour later, when ever whatever happened happened. They went back downstairs. I thought, I gotta get myself out of this. They're going to kill me if I don't, you know. And I realized then that I was going to get away because I was going to get away, not because the FBI was going to charge to the door and save me. I had to save myself. So I hurry up. I got dressed, I jumped out of a second story window, and I broke my foot, but I hobbled over to the next door neighbor, and I remember, like it happened yesterday. I mean, there was a young guy who was, like, in his 30s. He was lying underneath his Corvette, working on it so I can only see his legs. And I thought, oh, you know, I hope I can get his attention. So we, I guess I was crying, and he came out from underneath the car and he said, Oh, are you the girl that's been on TV? And I said, Yes. And we hurried up, and we went into his house, and he called 911, and the police and the FBI came. And so it ends up that they were caught. I They did go to trial. Six months later, they were both sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. Each they served 26 years in prison, but at the time, when I was getting ready for my trial, the FBI agents that were in my house that so there were two FBI agents on the case, and they said to me, when I explained that, I kind of knew that this was going to happen, and that's why I had the the nerve to jump out of the second story window, and they're like, Well, what do you mean? How did you know? And I kind of told them, and they said, Listen, we actually have a couple other cases, like missing person cases. We're working on. Can, can you help us? And at that point, I had never done anything psychically. I just knew things, but I never, like gave anybody information. I said, Well, I think I can, but I don't know how. And they said, Well, you know, we need help, so whatever you can do will be helpful. So then I said, All right, well, let's, let's try it. And so they gave me a little bit of information. And at the moment, I don't think we all thought that I would start solving cases, necessarily. We just thought, Well, we'll see what happens. We'll see if I could help. And I actually, in that six month, times, solved two cases for the FBI. So here I was preparing for my own trial, and then I was solving two cases for them, and that's just kind of how it evolved. And so from that point on, then we six months later, they got, you know, they went to jail, to prison, both of them. And so about a year later, I was 13 years old, so then I went and moved in with my father, and I said to him, Listen, I need to know why this happened. Because even though, you know, I got away and they went to prison, and you know, everything's kind of okay. Why would they pick me, you know, like, and so my father showed me two New York Time articles. One, one of the kidnappers had escaped from a prison and Schenectady New York seven months prior, and drove to where I was living in Michigan to come and kidnap me in particular. So it was, it was some random it was a setup. He was coming to get me, and so I said to my father, what he he escaped from prison. Because I didn't know that at the time of the trial, when I was, you know, testifying, I didn't have to back then, I didn't have to be in the courtroom with them, so I got to testify. They were not in the courtroom. Then, when they testified, I didn't have to be in there. So when my father told me a year later that, you know, one of them was a escape, escape convict from prison. And I then I got really, really afraid. I thought you got because thinking it was random was less scary than knowing that somebody escaped from prison and drove all this way for seven months and came and got me and, you know, and I was really, really terrified. So then here I was trying to live a normal kid life. I was 13, 14, 15 years old. I was, you know, a cheerleader. I was doing, you know, book reports, whatever normal kids do. But then I was the FBI were contacting me and asking me to help them solve cases on the side. I wasn't getting paid for it. Then the local police, I was doing that for them as well, and even one of my best friends in high school. I remember I went over to her house one day. We were just hanging out, and her father, who was like the local police detective, who I didn't know was my girlfriend's father. When we both saw each other in the kitchen, we had act like we didn't know each other, because I was helping him on local cases, but I didn't know that that was his daughters. So we, you know, had because nobody knew that I was doing that, except the people that knew. So when I graduated from high school, I thought, all right, I don't really want this life. You know, here I was like solving all these cases. I was a psychic, but I didn't really want to do that. So I moved to California because I thought, I'm going to reinvent myself. I'm going to just, I don't know, do something else.
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