Divine Encounters Episode 040 | Near-Death Experience Story
David Bennett was the chief engineer of a research vessel in March 1983 when, he says, a rescue run through 25 to 30 foot seas ended with him drowning off the California coast. In this Divine Encounters episode he tells Alex Ferrari about the darkness, the fragments of light that welcomed him home, the life review he lived from many points of view, and the word he was given as he was sent back: purpose.
Key Takeaways
- David says he was catapulted into the sea when a wave folded the Zodiac in half, and that he drowned about a mile offshore.
- He describes a calm, silent void, a pinprick of light, and waves of love as he moved toward millions of fragments of light that moved in unison.
- He says three of those fragments broke away to welcome him home, and that he recognized them as a soul family, though not from this life.
- In his life review, David says he experienced every interaction from the other person’s point of view, and that actions done with loving intention made the biggest ripples.
- He says the light told him, “This is not your time. You must return,” and that the word purpose brought him to acceptance.
- David believes a fulfilled life means being authentic, connecting to your higher nature and recognizing the divine in yourself and in everything.
| Guest | David Bennett |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 040 |
| When | Early March, 1983 |
| What David says happened | A wave folded the Zodiac he was in and threw him into the sea, where he drowned |
| Where he says he went | A silent void, then a vast light made of millions of fragments of light |
| Who he met | Three, then a dozen light beings he came to call his soul family |
| What he was shown | A life review from many points of view, and a corridor of possible futures |
| Time away | His crew says they searched for 15 to 18 minutes |
| The message | “This is not your time. You must return.” |
The Chief Engineer and the Storm
David was the chief engineer of a research vessel. In early March of 1983, his ship had just completed a survey with a new ROV, an underwater vehicle, and was trying to come into home port. The seas were running 25 to 30 feet, and the Harbor Master would not let the ship in.
A number of engineers on board had been working with the ROV and needed to get to LAX, so the captain decided to put the Zodiac in the water. This was the rubber landing craft they used for retrieving their submarines, and it was very durable. No one was worried about it. Because the ship was on evaluation, not on an actual job, they were running a skeleton crew without a lot of skilled techs. The captain asked David to go along because he knew the harbor. Normally, David says, he did not take people back and forth in the Zodiac, since he was in charge of the ship. But the captain thought the night called for it.
Into the Surf
They found some old Mae West life vests in the boatswain’s locker, the kind that were on board mostly to meet Coast Guard requirements. They had to beat the dirt off them. Most of the time, David says, they did not wear life vests. They put them on, jumped in, took a last bearing and headed for shore.
It was a stormy night. They were about two miles out, and could only now and then see a flash of light from the harbor buoy, which was bouncing as much as they were. They would ride up a swell, try for a bearing, ride down the trough, and try again. Then they lost track of the buoy. The shoreline was lit up, though, so David figured worst case they could do a beach landing and get the engineers on their way. Looking back, he says, “That was the beginning of the end.”
About a mile offshore they drove off the back of a breaker. David, in the bow, yelled at the mate to turn them around, because this was a dangerous place to be. Just then the next wave came down on top of them. It folded the Zodiac in half “like a peanut butter sandwich,” and he was thrown into the sea.
Drowning, and Then Silence
David was tumbled and tossed and lost all sense of up or down. He had trained as a commercial diver, so he says he was not freaked out. His Mae West would carry him to the surface. All he had to do was hang on and protect himself. But a person can only hold their breath so long. Eventually, he says, he drowned, and then he popped out of his body.
What he found was an absolute darkness, a void. The roar of the sea was gone. He says the water on that coast in March is frigid, but he was no longer cold. He was comfortable. It was quiet and calm. He was curious, he says, and a little amused, because his diver training included oxygen deprivation exercises and this was far beyond any of them. The funny thing, he says, is that you are in complete darkness and you do not feel alone.
Fragments of Light That Welcomed Him Home
Then he saw a light, just a pinprick. He felt as if he were moving toward it, and as he did, he says, waves and waves of love came over him, like being wrapped in a warm embrace. The closer he got, the more the light revealed itself as millions upon millions of fragments of light, all moving in unison, the way a school of fish moves together. He found it mesmerizing and spellbinding.
As he got very close, three fragments broke away “and they were welcoming me home.” It was, he says, the most emotional and life-affirming event ever. He had never had much of a sense of home in his early life, he says, and suddenly here were these light beings welcoming him. He looked at himself and realized he had become a fragment of light too. Eventually a dozen of them came to greet him, and he says he was overwhelmed with the love and support they were embracing him with.
They communicated that it was time to go into the light. They went deeper, into a place that felt spherical, like a giant bubble. David says he later came to call these beings his soul family. He did not know them from this life, but he says he recognized their eyes. His own words are that the connection was probably lifetimes old. Our glossary has more on the idea of a soul group.
A Life Review From Every Point of View
Inside that sphere, David says, they began to relive his life. But he did not relive it only from his own point of view. His consciousness seemed to fragment into multiple streams, and he experienced every interaction from the perspective of each person involved. Every action created a ripple, and the ripples cascaded outward.
That was not easy. He calls himself a brash young man, and he says he was not proud of some of what he had done. The soul family was experiencing it exactly as he was, but they supported him and loved him through it, giving him the extra strength he needed to get through his review.
What he noticed most was this. The things he did out of loving intention, expecting nothing back, “just my heart to your heart,” made some of the biggest ripples. And the things he had held in high regard, like becoming chief engineer of a research vessel, were the ego’s kind of important. He says he was amazed. To learn how this fits in with other accounts, see our glossary entry on the life review.
The Corridor and the Voice of the Light
Everything in the life review, David says, was crystal clear. When he crossed the point where the review reached the drowning and kept going, it was different. He describes his future as a corridor, clear in the center and a little out of focus on both sides. He felt that he could go this way or that. To him it represented free will. We have a path we have chosen, he says, but we can also venture to one side or the other, and we come back to the center.
He began to live, or pre-live, events from his future. Then, he says, the light itself, all those millions of fragments in unison, spoke and said, “This is not your time. You must return.”
David says he refused. He said, no way. He had a family that loved him, and he felt loved and supported as never before. That body was broken, he says, “just cold meat in the ocean,” tumbled and tossed. But the light spoke again: you must return, you have a purpose. It said so with so much love. In the light, he says, our consciousness is far more expansive than it is here, and he understood what the purpose was. With that understanding he came immediately to acceptance.
Watching His Own Body in the Waves
When he reached acceptance, David says, he found himself outside his body, watching it. It was still being thrown around in a spot where the waves keep recycling. Part of the wreckage, the bow line, wrapped around his arm and yanked it up, dislocating his shoulder. He says he watched this from above. His three soul family members were with him, and they all rose up together as his body tangled in the wreckage.
More waves hit and slammed his body against the wreckage, and some salt water came up. That is when, he says, they gave him a gentle push and he came back into his body. He remembers wondering how the enormity of himself was going to fit into that small physical body. The loose end of the bow line was tapping on his lifeless chest.
The Crew Who Stayed on Station
David says the real heroes of the story were his crew. They were all ex-Navy, with the same training: look out for each other, and everyone comes back together. They stayed on station. They told him afterward they were there for about 15 to 18 minutes. One of them had held on to a flashlight through everything. They gathered and called his name.
When he came up, David says, he coughed out salt water and took a breath. After you have breathed in salt water, he says, you can only squeak and squawk, so he struggled to get their attention while staying on the surface. They found him. They rallied around a piece of the wreckage, one pontoon that still had some air, and swam a mile in toward shore.
He had a dislocated shoulder and thumb and kept sinking. Then he looked down and saw that the lining of his old Mae West had dry-rotted. The fiber filling was soaked with water, so it was pulling him down instead of holding him up. He took it off, and could finally hang on with one arm and scissor kick his way in with the others.
How David’s Story Fits With Other Near-Death Experiences
People who report near-death experiences often describe leaving the body, an absence of fear, an overwhelming love, a light, deceased or familiar beings who greet them, a review of life, and a choice or instruction to return. David’s account has all of these, and also a detail that stands out: a life review from every point of view, with the ripples carrying outward.
Our complete guide to near-death experiences and the glossary entry on near-death experience lay out the common themes. At Next Level Soul, we share these stories as experiences in the person’s own words, with no medical claims.
What David Takes From It
David says a fulfilled life is about being authentic and true to yourself, learning all you can about your higher nature, connecting to it and bringing it into every interaction. As rough as his life was, he says there is not much he would change.
To him, God is omnipresent. God is a part of everything and within each of us. He is something so much greater than our minds can comprehend. “I see God in the trees, in the dew, in the grass,” he says. And he believes there is a shared purpose for all of us: to recognize our own divine.
Questions to Sit With
- David says actions done with loving intention, expecting nothing, made the biggest ripples. When did you last act that way without needing a thank you?
- He felt a sense of home in the light that he had not felt in this life. What does home mean to you, and where do you feel it?
- He describes a corridor that stays open to either side while a center path remains. Where in your life are you being asked to trust your free will?
This week, do one small kind thing for someone without telling anyone about it. Notice what it feels like to give with no audience.
Spiritual Takeaways
- David says the actions with the biggest ripples were those done with loving intention, heart to heart.
- He describes a soul family that welcomes us home and supports us even through the hard parts of a review.
- He says the things the ego prizes, like titles, mattered far less than how we treated one another.
- He believes we have free will within a chosen path, and that we have a purpose to recognize.
- He says God is omnipresent, in everything and in each of us.
Please enjoy my conversation with David Bennett.
Guest Links: Connect With David Bennett
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is David Bennett?
David Bennett is a near-death experiencer who was the chief engineer of a research vessel. He says he drowned in March 1983 after a wave destroyed the Zodiac he was in, and describes what happened next in this Divine Encounters episode.
What happened to David Bennett in 1983?
He says that during rough seas of 25 to 30 feet, he and others took the Zodiac toward shore, drove off a breaker and were thrown into the sea when a wave folded the craft in half. He says he drowned about a mile offshore.
What did David see after he drowned?
He says he found himself in an absolute darkness that was calm and silent, then saw a pinprick of light that revealed itself as millions of fragments of light moving in unison.
Who does David say welcomed him?
He says three fragments of light broke away to welcome him home, and a dozen eventually greeted him. He recognized them, not from this life, and came to call them his soul family.
What was David’s life review like?
He says he lived his life not only from his own perspective but from the perspective of everyone he had interacted with, and saw every action create ripples. The biggest ripples, he says, came from actions done with loving intention.
What did the light tell David?
He says the light spoke with all its fragments in unison and said, “This is not your time. You must return.” When it added that he had a purpose, he came to acceptance.
What is the corridor David describes?
He says that after the life review he saw his future as a corridor, clear in the center and a little blurry on both sides. To him it represented free will within a chosen path.
How long was David in the water?
David says his crew told him they searched for about 15 to 18 minutes before they found him. They then swam about a mile toward shore with him, using part of the wreckage as a rally point.
Who did David recognize in the light?
He says he recognized the eyes of the light beings who welcomed him, though not from this life. He believes the connection spans lifetimes and calls them his soul family.
What does David believe about God?
He says God is omnipresent, within everything and everyone, and greater than the mind can understand. He believes our shared purpose is to recognize our own divine.
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Follow Along with the Transcript
Alex Ferrari 0:00
Tell me what your life was like before you died.
David Bennett 0:08
Early March in 1983 I was the chief engineer of a research vessel. We had, we just completed a survey with this new ROV, an underwater vehicle, and we were trying to come in to our home port, and there were 25-30 foot seas, and the Harbor Master wouldn't let the ship in. So the captain decided that we were going to because there were a number of engineers on board that were attached to this ROV and that they needed to get to LAX. And so they decided that they were going to put the Zodiac in the water, which is a rubber landing craft, you might say, and we use it for retrieving our submarines and stuff like that. So it was very durable craft, really reliable. We weren't concerned about it at all. But they got in and the captain decided that, because we had a skeleton crew because we were on evaluation. We weren't on an actual job, that I should probably go in the Zodiac with them, because I knew the harbor. We didn't have a real skilled tech crew on board that day. And so normally I don't, I don't go on the Zodiac and take people, shuttle people back and forth, because I'm in charge of the ship. I'm the chief engineer, but Captain thought this night would be probably prudent. So we went down bosons locker, got some really old life vests. They were the old may West ones, you know, and we hadn't, because it was a rough night. We finally, we thought, well, maybe, you know, most of the time we didn't wear life vests, and so these were on board to meet Coast Guard requirements, but warm, you know, so we had to, like, beat the dirt off them, put them on, jumped in the Zodiac, took our last bearing of where the harbor was, tried to try to see where the harbor buoy was. But we were two miles off, so you could just barely see, now and then a flash of light from the harbor buoy. But, and it was a stormy night. I mean, you know, it was really rough. And so we headed in. That was the beginning of the end, in a lot of ways, because you can imagine 2530 foot, when you're a couple miles offshore, they're just rollers, right? They're just just big rollers. And so we'd go on top of a swell, try to get a bearing on the harbor, ride the trough down, up to the next. Well, do the same thing again, and but at the same time, you got to realize the harbor buiei is bouncing up and down too. So, you know, are you in sync? You know? And we lost track of the harbor buiei, but the shoreline was lit up, so we figured, worst, worst case, you know, we're in a Zodiac. We can just do a beach landing. We'll get these guys into the harbor somehow, some way, and we'll, we'll get them on their way to the airport. And we were about a mile offshore when all of a sudden we actually drove off breaker. And so we, you know, we boom, and I yelled at the mate, turn us around. Get us back, you know, turn us around. I'm in the bow, trying to, trying to, you know, trying to see our way. And there was a mate that was on the console driving, and I yelled, you know, turn us about. Let's get back out. We're in a breaker zone. This is a dangerous place to be. And just then the next one came, and it crashed down on top of this, and when it did, it folded the Zodiac in half like a peanut butter sandwich, and I was in the bow. It catapulted me into the sea and and I was just tumbled and tossed and tumbled and tossed and totally lost all bearing as to what was up down. But I trained as a commercial diver, you know, I wasn't freaked out because I had good old Mae West on, she's going to carry me up to the surface. I just have to hang on and protect myself, you know. And so I was doing that, and but it you can only hold your breath so long, and eventually I drowned, but then immediately pop out of your body, and I found myself in an actual void, this darkness, absolute blackness, and but there was no more roaring at the sea. You can imagine what 25 foot sea stones is horrendously loud. If you're on the West Coast. You know that the the current comes down from the north, so that water is incredibly cold. That's why surfers in the California coast wear wet suits, you know, because it's just the water there is very, very cold. And this was March, so it was frigid water, but I'm not feeling cold anymore. The roar of the ocean isn't there anymore. I'm comfortable. It's quiet, it's calm. I'm in this absolute darkness. And so I start, I'm really curious, like, what is going on? And it's kind of funny, because, you know, in diver training, we actually go through oxygen deprivation training and commercial training and commercial divert train. And so, you know, this is way beyond anything I'd experienced with oxygen deprivation. And so I'm just, I'm curious. But the funny thing is, is you're in this place that's absolute darkness, but it's calm and it's peaceful, and you don't really feel alone. It felt. Very peaceful. And then I saw a light, but it was just this pin prick, and I felt like I was moving toward it, and as I moved toward it, I started getting these waves and waves of love. Just it felt like I was being wrapped in this warm embrace, awe of what was was occurring. And I saw this light as it as I got closer and closer, was like millions upon millions of fragments of light, and they were all moving in unison, very much like sometimes you see large schools of fish, how they how they move together, you know, and and the light and the refraction it was, it was absolutely mesmerizing and spellbinding. But they got closer and closer, and as I got very close, three fragments broke away, and they were welcoming me home. It was the most emotional and life affirming event ever, because they were welcoming me home, and it felt like I was coming home. I didn't have a sense of home. We talked about, you know, my early life, I didn't really have a feeling, and suddenly I have this sense of, here are these light beings that are welcoming me home. I look at myself, and I realize I've turned into a fragment of light, one of these light beings, and eventually a dozen of them come greeting me. And I'm I'm just feeling overwhelmed with the love and the support that they're, you know, that they're embracing me with and then they communicated to me that we need to go into the light. We went deeper into the light, into this area that I it to me, it felt very spherical, like a giant bubble. We went inside, and we started to relive my life, but I relived it, not just from my perspective. It was like my my consciousness had fragmented into multiple streams of of consciousness, and I experienced it from my point of view, but everyone I've ever interacted with from their points of view as well. And it was like, um, every everything, every interaction I ever had, would create a ripple, and these ripples would cascade out. And it was kind of interesting, because, you know, I was a brash young man, like I said, and I wasn't real proud. I didn't want this soul family to see some of the stuff that I'd done. And so I was it was hard for me. It was very difficult for me to to because they were experiencing it exactly the same way I was experiencing it, but they were just supporting me and loving me through it, kind of kind of giving me that extra support that I needed to get through this review of my life. The interesting thing was, I saw that when I would do something with just loving intention, when I did something in my life with loving intention, wasn't looking for anything, just my heart to your heart, type of intention that created some of the biggest ripples. And that was, I was just amazed by that, and that the things that I thought were important in life, like becoming the chief engineer of a research vessel, all of these things that you know, were I held in high regard, or maybe my ego held in high regard. I went through the life review, and I came to the point where I had drowned, but we kept going. And it was kind of interesting, because in the life review, everything is so crystal clear, absolutely crystal clear, as far as all the interactions, the ripples, the the, you know, the different streams of consciousness and but when I crossed that threshold, sure was my future, it became like a corridor, like I was looking down this corridor, and it was clear in the center, but it was a little out of focus on both sides. And so it felt like I could go this way, or I could go that way if I wanted to. And to me, it kind of represented a free will that we live in this life, that we have a choice, you know, but we have a chosen path that we've we've picked, but we have this, also this opportunity, our free will, to kind of venture off to one side or the other, but we'll come back to, we'll come back to the center center path. So anyway, we're going down the center path, and I'm start re, I start living, or pre living, you know, events from in my life. And I get to a certain point, and the light itself, okay, all these millions of fragments of light in unison, spoke and said, This is not your time. You must return. And I said, No way. I am not going back. I've got a family that loves me. I feel loved and support like I've never felt before. I have a family that I didn't even realize I have, and that body is broken. It's just cold meat in the ocean being tumbled and tossed. And I could still, I still had an awareness of that body, but this the light spoke to me one more time and said, You must return. You have a purpose. And it did it with so much love, you know. And that word purpose just resonated in my, my being. And when we're in that light, we have this expansive consciousness, so much more than what we have available to us in this. Physical life, that I understood what the purpose was. And so with that understanding, I immediately came to acceptance. And when I reached that threshold of acceptance, I found myself outside my body, observing my body in the ocean, now still being tumbled and tossed because I'd gotten into one of the cyclic turret areas where the waves come in, and it just constantly keeps you there, you know. And so my body's still being ragdolled around in the ocean when part of the wreckage of the Zodiac actually the bow line wrapped itself around this arm, and it yanked my arm up, dislocated my shoulder, and I'm outside my body watching this going up, and the three soul family members that had greeted me were with me, and we all rose up together as my body got entangled in the wreckage of this Zodiac. And then more waves hit. And when they did, they slammed my body up against this wreckage, and some of that salt water came up, and that's when they gave me a gentle push and I came back into my body. There was a lot of things that were going on there that played with my mind for years afterwards, the bitter lot, bitter end of the bow line was tapping my lifeless chest, and I was sitting there, and I was wondering, how is the enormity of me gonna fit in there, you know, in that physical body. And then, you know, they gave me that general push to go in, but it was, we're still a mile out, I just drowned. They were the heroes of this whole story, because they stayed on station. They rallied together. This is what we were trained to do, is in this type of environment, this is what you know, we're trained to do. We're trained to look out for each other and to, you know, we all come back together, basically. And so, um, very militaristic type of mindset. And, well, we were all ex military, so we're all ex Navy, so we all had the same training. So anyway, we're, you know, they had stayed on station. This is a dangerous place to be. And they had stayed on station. They told me that they were there about between 15 to 18 minutes. They reckoned one of them had found had held onto a flashlight all the things that happened this night, but he had held on to this flashlight. And so they had all rallied around together, and they were looking for me. They were calling my name. But when I came up and I finally took in, it was expelled some salt water and took a breath of air. I You can only squeak and squawk after you've breathed in salt water. It just it wreaks havoc with your larynx. So I was trying to get their attention, trying to stay on the surface, trying to breathe, and they found me, and we all came together, and we rallied around that that wreckage, because it was a little bit of air in one of the pontoons of the zodiac. So we use that as a rally point. And we swam a mile in shore, and I dislocated shoulder and a thumb, and I was having a hard time. I was hanging on to the Zodiac and kicking, okay, and and trying to help, you know, do my own thing. But I kept, I kept. I couldn't stay on the surface. I kept going down and I couldn't and but the funny thing is, is when we come back from one of these near death experiences, and I looked down and the the lining of my Mae West was dry rotted, and the fiber filling had become super saturated with water, and so it was actually pulling me down instead of bringing me up. And so I took that off, and then I could, I could maintain some buoyancy and be able to hang on and and just kick, you know, hang on with one arm and, and kind of kick and scissor kick my way in with with them. And we were all hanging on to these, you know, one pontoon of the boat. It's kind of interesting in the near death experience. They were fragments of light, but I could see these eyes. These eyes were in the and it was like that. I recognized them, not from this life. They weren't like grandma or grandpa, because I didn't have that in this life, but I recognized them. I recognized them as a family, and we had this connection that I think was probably lifetimes, and so that's how I that's and I just started calling them my soul family, because they weren't anybody I'd lived this life with. I think living a fulfilled life is being authentic, being true to yourself, trying to learn as much as you can about your higher nature, connecting to that higher nature, and then bringing it through and using it in all your interactions. As rough as my life was, there's not a lot that I would want to change, so I would just try to encourage him to stay in touch with what he learned from those grandmothers. God to me, is omnipresent. It's everywhere. It's a part of everything. It's within you, it's within me. So I see God as something so much greater than what our minds can even comprehend. So I see, you know, God in the universe. I see God in the trees, in the dew, in the grass. I mean, I see God in all of that. I think that there's a shared purpose. I believe, and that's for all of us to be able to recognize our own divine.
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