Divine Encounters Episode 051 | Near-Death Experience Story
Dean Braxton says he was clinically dead for 105 minutes after a kidney stone procedure sent him into sepsis, and that during that time he left his body and traveled to heaven to be with the Father and Jesus. In this Divine Encounters episode he tells Alex Ferrari about the fearless moment of leaving, the light, the feet of Jesus, the beings who greeted him with a question, and the words that sent him back.
Key Takeaways
- Dean says that as he was dying he felt no fear, only “joy, peace, comfort came all over me.”
- He describes his spirit leaving first and his body dying afterward, and says “the spirit can live without the body, but the body can’t live without the Spirit.”
- Dean says he entered a light brighter than anything on Earth that he could look into without being blinded, and felt that everything there was right.
- He recalls falling to his hands and knees at the feet of Jesus, saying “You did this for me,” and then thank you again and again.
- He says the beings he met greeted him not with hello but with an offer, “how could I serve you,” and that “servanthood is the highest form of exaltation.”
- He describes seeing his grandmother Mary and generations of his family, all smiling, and says it showed him how important family is to God.
- He says he was told, “no, it’s not your time go back,” and that he woke after intubation with a message to share.
| Guest | Dean Braxton |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 051 |
| Time away | 105 minutes, according to the episode title; Dean says the doctor in the room told him he was dead for a long time |
| What Dean says happened | A kidney stone procedure led to sepsis; his lungs stopped and he left his body |
| Where he says he went | Heaven, into a light, through a forest, to the feet of Jesus, and to the throne of God |
| Who he met | Jesus, beings who offered to serve him, his grandmother Mary and generations of family |
| The message | “no, it’s not your time go back” |
| Back on Earth | Intubated for days; he says things turned around on the third day |
Before: A Kidney Stone and a Fast-Moving Infection
Alex opens with his usual question, and Dean starts in an unexpected place. According to the medical records, he says, the doctor in the room, whom he names as Dr Rigay, said he was really dead for a long time. Dean describes this as leaving his body on the planet and going to be with the Father and Jesus in heaven.
He then explains how he got there. He says he had a kidney stone and what was called a kidney infection. He was given antibiotics that, he says, did not work on him. When the stone was blasted, he says, poison was pushed into his bloodstream and he became septic.
The first thing to go, Dean says, was his lungs. They stopped operating, and he suffocated. This is his own account, and we share it as he tells it, with no medical commentary of our own.
No Fear at the Moment of Dying
Dean says he always assumed he would feel fear as he died. Instead, he says, when the moment came and he knew he was dying, he had none. He believes Jesus took the fear away.
What surprises him even now, he says, is what he said out loud: I’m going home. Then “joy, peace, comfort came all over me.”
He adds a second surprise. He had always thought the body died and the spirit then left. What he says he experienced was the reverse. His spirit left, and then his body died. From that, he says, he came to understand that “the spirit can live without the body, but the body can’t live without the Spirit.”
Why He Says the Father and Jesus
Dean is careful with his wording. He says he always speaks of the Father and Jesus in heaven, because he has always wanted to be with God Almighty, whom he calls Father, and Jesus, His Son. That desire, he says, has been inside him all his life.
He also says he came to understand later that heaven is not heaven without them. Take the Father and Jesus out, he says, and the realm itself would not be there. He does not mean to say it is not heaven, only that those beings are what make it so.
Our glossary entry on heaven gathers how different traditions and experiencers describe this place.
Faster Than Light, Then the Rightness
Dean says he left his body at a pace faster than the speed of sound, faster than the speed of light. When he entered that realm, he says, there was more light than you could ever imagine.
It was not blinding, he says, the way the sun on a hot day is. He felt he could look into it and see everything he needed to see. It was brighter than anything here, and it did not seem to fade.
The next thing that hit him was a sense that everything was right. There was nothing wrong. He believes we are created to live in rightness, as God defines it, and that this is why things going wrong on Earth feel so unnatural to us. Arriving, he says, felt like plugging into what he was always made for. He compares us to fish out of water.
Alongside that rightness, he says, came a feeling of acceptance for exactly who he was.
The Path Through the Forest
Once there, Dean says all he wanted was to see Jesus. He recalls a force in front of him that opened and made a pathway. He compares stepping on it to the moving walkways in an airport. You can still walk, he says, but you go much faster.
He says the trees, the flowers and the grass around him seemed to be saying that he was going to see the King. He describes the trees as every color you could think of, like a fall day in New England or Pennsylvania.
He came out into a clearing, he says, and there was Jesus, to his left, at about ten or eleven o’clock. Dean says he did not need a description to know who it was. He just knew, and he wanted to be where Jesus was.
At the Feet of Jesus
Dean says he went down on his hands and knees and spent a long time looking at the feet of Jesus. The first words he said out loud were: “You did this for me.” He says he meant that the only reason he was there was what Jesus had done. His good works did not get him in, he says, and his bad works did not keep him out.
Then came thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He says he could have said it for three thousand years, though he adds there are no years there, because there is no time.
The feet, he says, loved him. His toes, his ankles, his arches, all of it. For Dean, this is one of the hardest parts to pass over, because “the fullness of the love of God was coming through the feet of Jesus.”
Later, he says, he came to understand that God creates a love for each of us that no one else can receive. What he felt was his own personal love, and it seemed to grow stronger every moment, as if it would outlast him. In that moment, he says, he knew he was an eternal being.
Love for Everyone, and a Moment of Grace
Dean worked in the juvenile justice field, and he says he saw real damage done to children he worked with. Before his experience, he says, he assumed that anyone who had harmed a child would be among the very last to be forgiven, if at all.
He says that in the presence of Jesus he was reminded how much Jesus died for everyone. If anyone asks for forgiveness, he says, they will be forgiven, because Jesus paid the price for them. Dean offers this as what he came away with, and he does not say it lightly.
If this topic touches something painful for you, you are not alone. In the US you can call or text 988 any time, and support exists for every kind of hurt.
Light, Healing and a Face That Kept Changing
Dean says he looked at Jesus’s head and saw light coming off it, like a crown that was not really a crown, with beams rising far up into the atmosphere of heaven. He understood the beams to have something to do with healing, both emotional and physical.
When he looked at the face, he says, it seemed to change every moment. There was something different each time. Light came off Jesus the way light passes through a diamond and breaks into every color of the rainbow.
For a while, Dean says, Jesus was looking away. Finally he looked at Dean and said, “no, it’s not your time go back.”
Beings, Living Water and the Throne of God
Dean says he did not walk back through the floors; he flew over them. He knew his body was not ready, and he says the joy of that moment was more than he could express. He thought: I get to stay here.
He then traveled through hill country and mountains and communicated with beings. He calls them that because they were everything God created them to be. When they met, he says, the first thing they said was “how could I serve you.” Everyone had something to serve someone else with. In God’s kingdom, he says, “servanthood is the highest form of exaltation.”
He says he could still see the throne of God from the mountains. A half circle of created beings stood before it, some redeemed, some created there, and he saw them being sent out to answer the prayers of people on Earth.
On the other side of the forest, he says, was water that was alive. It danced and played and seemed to have the best personality in heaven. He describes buildings, each with a different realm inside, and things that appeared in front of him the moment he thought of them.
Like many accounts, this one has no clock. If you are curious about the broader themes, see our complete guide to near-death experiences.
The Call Around the Throne and a Family Smiling
Dean says he then returned to Jesus, back on his hands and knees, as all of heaven was called around the throne to worship the Father. He says Jesus melted into the Father, along with the other spirits near the throne, and the rest gathered around in hundreds and thousands and billions.
One angel stood above the rest, raised on a mountain, and sent out a musical note. Dean later came to understand it as the note A. He says each of them had their own special A, a call to come and tell the Father how much they loved Him.
Then he saw his family. His grandmother Mary stood in front, shining, with pure joy and a big smile. Behind her were relatives, generation after generation. The reason for the smiles, he says, was that there were no worries in heaven. It taught him, he says, how important family is to God.
Once more he heard the words: “no, it’s not your time go back.” Dean says he knew they were meant for him because everything in front of him moved aside, leaving a clear path to Jesus.
Hovering, Waking and a Message for the Tube-Puller
Dean says he then hovered over his body on a gurney and watched the doctors and nurses cleaning up. He entered his body, the monitors started up, and the team went back to work. They intubated him. For three days, he says, they did not expect him to make it.
On the third day things turned around, he says. His wife told him he began to pass urine, which mattered because he had been on dialysis. The next day the tube was taken out.
The man who removed it was someone Dean had met three months earlier and befriended. As soon as it was out, Dean says he looked at him and said, “You don’t have to hope there’s a Jesus.” He told him to go tell everybody.
Questions to Sit With
- Dean says he felt no fear at the moment of dying. What fear are you carrying that you would like to hold more lightly?
- He describes beings who greet each other with an offer to serve. What gift of yours could you offer someone this week?
- What would it mean to believe you are loved personally, as if no one else were loved quite like you?
This week, greet one person with a real question about how you can help. Then listen to the answer.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Dean says he felt no fear at the moment of death, only joy, peace and comfort.
- He describes a place where everything is right, and says we are made for that kind of rightness.
- He says God creates a personal love for each of us that no one else can receive.
- He describes service as the highest form of exaltation in the place he visited.
- He says family matters deeply to God, and that his loved ones greeted him with joy.
Please enjoy my conversation with Dean Braxton.
Guest Links: Connect With Dean Braxton
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Dean Braxton?
Dean Braxton is the guest of this Divine Encounters episode. He says he was clinically dead for 105 minutes after complications from a kidney stone procedure and traveled to heaven to be with the Father and Jesus.
What happened to Dean Braxton before his near-death experience?
Dean says he had a kidney stone and an infection, that antibiotics did not work for him, and that when the stone was blasted he became septic. He says his lungs stopped working and he suffocated.
Was Dean afraid when he died?
No. Dean says he had no fear at all. He says he said, I’m going home, and that “joy, peace, comfort came all over me.”
What did Dean see when he arrived?
He says he entered a light brighter than anything on Earth that he could look into without being blinded. He says everything felt right, and he had a strong sense of being accepted.
What happened when Dean met Jesus?
Dean says he went down on his hands and knees, looked at the feet of Jesus and said, “You did this for me.” He then said thank you repeatedly and felt the fullness of the love of God coming through the feet of Jesus.
What did the beings in heaven say to Dean?
Dean says they greeted him with an offer, asking how they could serve him, and he offered the same in return. He says servanthood is the highest form of exaltation there.
Who did Dean see besides Jesus?
He says he saw his grandmother Mary, shining and smiling, with generations of his family behind her, all with big smiles because there were no worries in heaven.
What was the musical note A?
Dean says an angel standing above the others sent out a note, which he later understood as the musical note A. He says each person had their own special A, a call to gather around the throne and tell the Father how much they loved Him.
Why did Dean come back?
He says Jesus told him, “no, it’s not your time go back.” He says his body was not ready, and that he woke up after being intubated.
What did Dean say first after waking?
Dean says that when the tube was removed by a man he had met three months earlier, he told him there is a Jesus and asked him to go tell everybody.
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 heaven means across traditions
- What is a near-death experience?
- Brian Hoyland on meeting Jesus after being clinically dead
- Sheila Gillette on a divine meeting with Jesus
- Susan Grau on what Jesus showed her in heaven
- John J. Davis on a tour of heaven with Jesus
- Lura Ketchledge on a detailed tour of heaven
- 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.
Dean Braxton 0:08
According to the medical records, the actual doctor that was in the room, Dr Rigay, said, I was really, really dead for a long time. During that time of not being in this body, because that's what what happened. I left this body on the planet, and I left this left and went to to be with the Father and Jesus in heaven. I want to tell you some of the things that I experienced by leaving this body and going to be with the father of Jesus in heaven. Number one, I want to let you know that when that moment came upon me and I knew I was dying, I had no fear. I really believe I didn't have any fear, because I believe that Jesus in Jesus Christ, and he took the fear away from me, but I always thought I would fear I suffocated. That's what really happened, because I had a kidney stone. They called the kidney infection, and they had given me antibiotics for it, but it didn't work on me, and when they blasted this stone, they pushed the poison into my bloodstream, and I became what's called septic and the first thing to go was my lungs. My lungs stopped operating and I suffocated. But I thought I would have fear during that process, and I didn't have any fear, none at all. Matter of fact, the thing I said that really even surprises me still to this day is I'm going home, and joy, peace, comfort came all over me. The second thing that really hit me was it wasn't that my body died and my spirit laughed, it was my spirit laugh and then my body died. And I didn't know that would happen. I always thought it was the other way around. But then I came to understand that really, the spirit can live without the body, but the body can't live without the Spirit. So that that was really something to experience. I'm starting off with that just to let you know the point of how we got to where we're going, in the sense of going to be with the Father and Jesus in heaven. I always say the Father and Jesus in heaven, because I always had a desire to be with God Almighty, which I call Father and Jesus His Son. And that desire has always been inside me and I and I could say, I always look forward to going to heaven, but I came to understand later on that Heaven's not heaven. Without the father of Jesus, you have to have those beings there to be able to have that realm there. So that's why I say the father of Jesus. I'm not saying it's not heaven, but if you take them out, you don't have a heaven, or at all. I can remember leaving this body and going into that direction, and I left it in such a fast pace. It was faster than the speed of sound. You hear my voice, faster than the speed of light. I'm really, really fast. I remember coming into that realm. And when I came into that realm, I it was so much light. There was more light than you could ever imagine, and and it wasn't blinding like, like you're looking at the sun on a hot day and you can't look at it, or you have to have sunglasses. It seemed like I could look in that light and see everything I needed to see, but it's much brighter than anything here. There was no deterioration in the light. So when I entered into that light, the next thing that hit me was everything was right. There was nothing wrong. And I fit two things I want to be point out about that fitness. Number one is I really believe that we're created to be in rightness, not what we call rightness, but what he calls rightness. That's our natural environment. That's why we don't like things that go wrong on the planet. Because we were never created to be in things that go wrong. We were really wired for things that were right. And so when I got there, I literally plugged in to what I was always created to be in, which was the rightness. I feel like we're fish out of a water, you know, in a sense, since we're not in that realm, we could experience it here on the planet every once in a while. So there was an anticipation for me being there all along. Now, when I first got there, and I felt that rightness and felt that acceptance for who I am, I next thing I wanted to do was see Jesus. I wanted to see him so bad. And I remember, literally, there was a force before me, and as I was going toward that force, it opened up for me, and a pathway came, like a path that goes through the force. And I remember getting on that path and moving like, you know, I like to have those people movers in the airport, and they move you really quick, and you can make from one end to the other, and you can walk still, but you're you're walking much faster because of the movement of the path. That's what it felt like. I'm not saying that's what it is that's the closest I could come to describe and I remember the trees, the flowers, the grass and everything around me literally saying he's going to see the King. He's going to see the King. I saw the trees on the right side, the left side, because I was going through a forest, and the tree colors. Let me tell you what they were. They weren't just green. They were every color you could think of, plus, almost like a fall day in New England, like Vermont are are New Hampshire, those areas, you know, even Pennsylvania, I think beautiful fall days in Pennsylvania, i. Remember going through those through that area, and seeing the different colors of the trees. And I remember coming out into this metal. And when I came out to the metal, there was Jesus Christ to the literally, the left of me, about 10 or 11 o'clock, and I had to head over to that direction. I remember going down on my hands and knees. That's because sometimes people want me to describe him right off the bat. And I I knew it was him. I wanted to be where he was. And I went down on my hands and knees, and I really spent time looking at his feet for a long time. And the next words I said to him, and I said him out loud, I said, You did this for me. And what I meant is the only reason I'm there is because of what he had done. And I said, and I say that in a sense, because I knew my good works didn't get hit me in and my bad works didn't keep me out. So then I remember the next words that came out of my mouth were, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I tell people I could have said it for the next 3000 years. The reason I say that is there's no years, there's there's no time there, but I just wanted to thank him for what he had done. And I remember just just saying those words. They were just coming rolling one after the other, off my, off my off my mouth or off my tongue. Remember your physical body. I didn't go. It was my soul and my spirit. And your Spirit literally fills up your entire being. So from that moment on, I remember the next words I said, were that you did this for me. After I said that, I said, Thank you, thank you. Thank you. And I'm looking at his feet, and oh, man, his feet love me. And that's one of the hardest areas for me to pass by, because the fullness of the love of God was coming through the feet of Jesus. I saw his toes, his ankles, you know, his arches, and they all loved me. You know, everything about his feet loved me. Later on, I came to understand that God loves us so much that when we're created, he goes out and creates love for us that no one else could receive but us. And what I was receiving at that time was my own personal love that he had created for me when I looked into his eyes and I saw that love, it seemed like it grew every moment. It seemed like it would outlast me. I knew at that moment I was eternal being, and what I was really looking at is every moment, it was growing stronger and stronger for me. I didn't know that. I did not know that the love of God grows every moment stronger and stronger for us, He created for them, like they were the only one he loved. And that just said, you really do want everyone here the next day. When I said, even child molesters, some of you may say, Why did you bring that up? I had worked in the juvenile justice field, and a lot of the kids I worked with have been molested. And I thought about the, you know, he probably, they would probably get in, but they would be the last people to get in. That's what I thought, if they made it at all, you know, that he would forgive them if they asked for forgiveness, but they would be the last people to get on because of the damage I saw working in that field. And I just remember him telling me how much he died on that cross for everybody. And if anyone asks for forgiveness, he's going to forgive them. He's the one that paid the price for them.
I did looked at his head, and what I see on his head, I saw this light coming off his head. It looked like a crown. Not, not it wasn't, I say, like a crown. It wasn't really a crown, like we would think a crown. And the beans were going way, way, way up into the atmosphere of heaven. They were just coming off of him. And I remember, I remember those beams going up, and I knew they had something to do with with healing, emotional healing, physical healing. Then the next thing that really got me is I looked at his face. And when I looked at his face, it seemed like it changed every moment. It seemed like there was something different about him every moment. And then these lights that were coming off of him, where I always could say, Like a diamond that has light come through it, and you get all the different rainbow colors they were coming off one person Avenue. So here I am looking at him, and then he's and he's looking at and he's looking away from me all that time. Finally he looks at me, and when he looks at me, he makes this statement, no, it's not your time go back. And at that moment, I felt like, Okay, I could do that. And I remember leaving that realm. I didn't go through the floors. I flew over the floors to get back to where I started at. And when I got to that point, I remember if I took one more step, I would be out of that realm and out of heaven. But what really got me was this, my body was not ready, and I knew it wasn't ready, and the joy that I experienced at that moment was more than I could ever express, because I was thinking, I get to stay here, all right? I went to the right side of the force that I started traveling through, through heaven. Guy was moving really, really fast. And when I was traveling, and I traveled a lot of areas in heaven, and it's not, we're not on Earth time. There's no eternity. There's no time there. You're in eternity. And I just remember going to to the right and traveling. Among the, really, the you could say, the hill country, the mountains, I had communication with a number of beings I call them. And the reason I call them beings because they're being everything God created them to be. And when we would communicate, the first thing that we say, would say, how could I serve you? That really got me, because everybody had something to be able to serve somebody else with and I don't think we think about that, but in God's kingdom, servanthood is the highest form of exaltation. And whatever gift they had, they were ready to serve me, and whatever gift I had, I was ready to serve them. And that was really it's almost like saying hi, instead of saying, I would say, How can I serve you? So as I'm moving through this side of heaven, and I'm experiencing the colors, oh, more beautiful colors that you could ever imagine, then I could still see the throne of God. The mountains were high, but I could still see the throne of God the first time and what he was doing. So I can tell you, there was a like a half circle of all these being creations of God. Some had been redeemed, some had been created there. And he was communicating with them, and literally he was sending them out to answer prayer. They were they were going into the spiritual realm, but they were literally being sent out to answer prayer of people that were praying on the planet. I remember leaving again and kind of flying over the forest, and as I got on the other side to the point where I came in, I knew my body wasn't ready, and I was so happy. And when I went to the right side the forest, that's that was more of the water area, you know? And I remember literally seeing the water. It's living water. It was alive. I remember it it. There were times when it danced there. There was times it was playing. It was doing a lot of playing. Seemed like it had the best personality of heaven. I remember looking at something, and I thought about and the next moment, I'm right in front of it. I was looking at there were buildings there. I remember going through the buildings, the different buildings, everything's alive now. And every time I went through into a building, there was a different realm. There was just a different realm. So I was really enjoying it. And then I felt like, Oh, I got to go back to Jesus. So this time, when I got back there with that on my hands and knees, and I got to be there when all of Heaven was being called around the throne of God and to worship the Father. And so Jesus went and literally left me. He melted inside the Father. He went inside the Father. And I remember looking as he went in and and the other spirits that were around the throne, they all melted into the father. Then all of us that were outside, we came around the throne of God. And it was hundreds and 1000s and billions of us all around and all of a sudden there was this one angel that kind of stood up above all the others, and seemed like it was tall in itself. And then it was raised up on a mountain. And then it started sending out these notes all over the place. And I came to later on is the note A, and literally, each and every one of us had our own special a that was created for us in heaven, the note A, the musical note A, and it was a call for us to come around that throne and tell our father how much we loved him. So I got to go through this experience of of everything being called around the throne of God and literally telling the Father, how much we love him, and that was so wonderful. I remember him standing there again about 10 or 11 o'clock, and then on the other side of him was my family. My grandmother Mary was out front, and behind her were other relatives. And it was generation after generation after generation. There I'm looking at my grandmother Mary, and I said she was shiny. She had pure joy and a big smile. The reason that she was shining is because God Almighty was shining out of her for the first time. There was so much joy, you couldn't describe it. The third thing is they had a big smile. Everybody in my family was smiling, you know, and and I tell people the main reason they were smiling because there was no worries in heaven, your entire family smiling at the same time. So that was really something. It also taught me that how important family is to God. You know, in the Bible, literally, God creates family in the first chapter, and we were really meant to be with each other forever. And all of a sudden Jesus says these words to me, no, it's not your time go back and how I knew they were my words is because everything in front of me moved out of the way, and it was just a pathway between me and him. And then I remember hovering over my my body. It was laid on a bed like Gurney thing, and I saw the doctors and the nurses cleaning up, and then I entered back into my body, and I remember the monitors starting up, and they got back working on me, and they intubated me, put the tube down my throat. And for the next three days, they didn't really expect me to make it. And things turned around around the third day. One of the things that took place, and my wife said that I started peeing, and because I was on dialysis, because I, you know, no peeing, so I was peeing, and then the next day is when they took the tube out of my mouth, and, you know, from intubation. And when they took the tube out of my mouth, I knew the person that that that was taking it out. Me and him. I met three, three months earlier, just develop a friendship. And here he is taking the tube out of my mouth, because that was his job at the hospital. Those are those machines. And as he's taking the tube out of my mouth, once he got it out, I looked at him, and I said, you know, you know, you know there's a Jesus. You don't have to hope there's a Jesus. You have to wish there's a Jesus, there's a Jesus, and I told him to go tell everybody.
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