Divine Encounters Episode 074 | Near-Death Experience Story
Felice DiMartino was an educational consultant at a Montessori school when, she says, a pickup truck struck her in a crosswalk and she found herself above her own body, looking down. In this Divine Encounters episode she tells Alex Ferrari what she says followed: a luminous blackness, a presence of light, a download of her soul’s journey, and a simple instruction to live big.
Key Takeaways
- Felice says she was hit by a truck in a crosswalk on December 2, 2015, and was thrown about 30 feet.
- She describes rising above the scene and watching it, including feeling the emotions of the people below.
- She says she moved through “the blackest of black” into a timeless presence with no ego and no separateness.
- She describes a presence of light that shared her whole soul’s journey in an instant, without words as we know them.
- Before returning she says she heard, “When you go back, it’s time to live big.”
- Felice says her life review let her feel what the driver felt, and showed her how every action ripples outward.
- She says she came back understanding that boundaries and spirituality belong together.
| Guest | Felice DiMartino |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 074 |
| Her work at the time | Educational consultant at a Montessori school |
| What Felice says happened | She was struck by a truck in a crosswalk at dusk and left her body |
| Date | December 2, 2015 |
| Where she says she went | Above the scene, then into a luminous blackness, a cocoon of light and a bright presence |
| Who she met | A presence she understood to be herself and more |
| The message | “When you go back, it’s time to live big.” |
Who Is Felice DiMartino?
Before the day she describes, Felice was working as an educational consultant and teaching in a Montessori school. Her days were full of children and classrooms. She also had kids of her own, and she says they were a big draw for her later, when she had to decide whether she could go back.
She was also, by her own account, a woman who was holding back. She felt called either to do more in the Montessori world or to use her own life experiences in service to others, and she says she was doing neither. Keep that in mind as you listen. It shapes the message she brings home.
A Misty Evening at a Busy Corner
Felice remembers the details clearly. It was December 2, 2015, at dusk. It was a little misty. “It was unusually warm for that day.” She had left the school and was walking to her car, parked off campus. At the corner she put her phone away. She says her head was somewhere else, caught up in a conversation she knew she should not be having.
She had the right of way. She looked both ways, a car stopped to let her cross, and she stepped into a busy crosswalk. Then, she says, a large pickup truck came up from behind her. The driver was speeding because she wanted to make a left turn before the oncoming car. She hit Felice about three quarters of the way across and threw her roughly three and a half car lengths, about 30 feet.
What did it feel like? Felice says it was a thud on the right side of her body, not a smack. She had a laptop in her bag and wonders if it softened the blow. As she whipped her head around, time seemed to slow. She had one thought: “something’s wrong.” She says that thought stayed lodged in her neck for years, until she replayed the moment and let it go. That, she adds, is a whole other conversation about how “the body really does keep the score.”
Looking Down at Her Own Body
Felice says she caught a pair of eyes across the hood of the truck. The next thing she knew, she was above her body, looking down at the scene. She could see in every direction, with what felt like a spotlight below. Her body lay on the pavement. She says she felt the emotions of the people on the ground, even from above.
She watched a man jump out of a car and start directing people. He sent a woman to stop traffic. The driver said she had called 911. Felice says she could feel the sheer terror around her body as it lay still, while she herself was completely conscious, just not in her body.
Then came what she calls an assessment. The question was whether she would be able to go back to that body. Her children pulled at her. She knew there was serious damage, including internal organ injuries, fractures and a cracked skull. Yet from above, she says, the body looked like it was in one piece, and she understood she would be able to return. After that, she felt a lifting, higher and higher, as the scene faded below.
The Blackest of Black
As the scene faded, Felice says she entered complete blackness. “It was the blackest of black.” She says we do not have a name for it. It was not even a color. And it was not dark in the way we usually mean. She describes it as illuminated, with “a luminosity to the blackness.”
She says that as the energy and vitality of her body were diminishing, the part of her that was still present felt more energized and more alive. In that blackness she merged with what she calls pure presence. “There was no time, there was no space.” There were no questions, no ego, no me, no separateness. She says it was timeless, expansive, all things and no thing at once. No gender. No right or wrong.
She also says it was peaceful and loving, though she hesitates even at the word loving, because it makes the experience into something. It contained everything, she says, and nothing. If you are curious about how people describe this kind of unity, our glossary has a short entry on oneness.
Floating in a Cocoon, Waiting
Next, Felice describes a shift in dimension. She felt herself floating, as if in a cocoon, and she sensed other cocoons around her. Others, she says, yet also somehow the same as her. There was no fear. “It’s like being in a flotation tank, almost.” She felt held in a warm, nourishing, loving space.
In that place, she says, something like an energy packet began to emerge, and with it a wondering. What am I waiting for? The moment that thought completed, she says, the energy packet popped open into a being, met with exactly what she had been waiting for.
The Presence in the Light
She found herself in a bright, effulgent light that kept growing. Within it was a presence that was not her own, yet was made of the same light. It was there for her, to communicate, to share and to show her things. Felice says it was clearly understood without a thought process as we know it.
She compares it to touching foreheads with someone and instantly knowing everything about them. In this case it ran both ways. She says she understood everything about her soul’s journey, with all its many dimensions, and everything going on in her life on Earth at the time. A great deal was shared about her own life and about being embodied as a human. All of it arrived at once, in no time at all.
If you want to explore how others talk about this kind of knowing, see our entry on the higher self.
Time to Live Big
Eventually, Felice says, an energy began to build and an urgency came with it. If she was going back, she needed to get back into the body. Right before that, she heard the presence say, “When you go back, it’s time to live big.”
She asked the presence who it was. She says the answer was that it was her. Then she began to descend. She could hear and see the paramedics calling to her, and she watched her own mouth move from above. She describes being squeezed back in “a genie being squeezed into a bottle” while still existing as an expanse outside. She heard yelping and understood it was coming from her, in the ambulance.
She came more fully to consciousness at a level three trauma unit, which she remembers as organized chaos. For a long while afterward, she says, it was hard to know where the boundaries of her body were, where space was, and how she experienced the world.
The Life Review and the Ripple Effect
Felice does not describe a film of her life. What she equates to a life review was different. She says she could see how every action has ripple effects out into the collective. She was even able to experience the woman who hit her, and to feel what that driver was experiencing at the moment of the collision.
She says she also saw how she had co-created everything that had happened up to that point. She is clear it was not shaming or blaming. It opened up spaciousness instead. To read more about this kind of experience, visit our glossary entry on the life review.
Then she connects it to the message. To live big, she says, means aligning the inner voice with the outer life, so that you live in what she calls an embodied expression of your truth, connected with the Divine and with love. She says that was her dharmic path, and she had been holding herself back from it. You can read more about the idea in our glossary entry on dharma.
Both Spiritual and Human
One of the most practical things Felice says she brought back is about boundaries. She says “we are spiritual beings having a temporary human experience” and also human beings having a human experience. When you treat everyone as the essence of who they truly are, she explains, you can end up suffering, especially if you have no limits.
Her answer is both. You can honor the essence of someone and still protect yourself. You can have compassion from afar. If it is not safe, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, energetically or genetically, boundaries are okay. “Boundaries don’t make us less spiritual.” She says she was a person without a lot of boundaries, and that learning this was part of her return.
Felice also says we are here to be embodied expressions of love, source or the divine, by whatever name you call the infinite intelligence of your understanding. When you look into another person’s eyes and see that divinity looking back, she says, “we’re all made of the same stuff.”
How Felice’s Account Fits With Other Near-Death Experiences
Researchers who study near-death experiences often list recurring features: leaving the body, a sense of peace, a bright light, a feeling of unity, a review of life, and a sense of being sent back. Felice describes nearly all of them. The detail that stands out is her emphasis on the blackness as a luminous place, and on a presence that she says was both other than herself and also her.
Psychiatrist Bruce Greyson published his 16-item NDE Scale in 1983 to help describe and compare these accounts. A 2001 study in The Lancet by Pim van Lommel and colleagues reported that 62 of 344 cardiac arrest survivors, about 18 percent, described a near-death experience. Scholars still debate what such reports mean. Here, we share them as experiences, told in the person’s own words.
For a wider view, start with our complete guide to near-death experiences and the glossary entry for near-death experience.
A Grounding Way to Live Big
You do not need a crisis to ask Felice’s question. She was a woman who knew what she was called to do and was not doing it. Try naming one small way your outer life is out of step with your inner voice. Then pick one boundary, just one, that would let you stay kind without abandoning yourself. Start small. Let it be quiet.
Questions to Sit With
- Felice says her inner life and outer life were out of alignment. Where do you feel a gap between what you know and how you live?
- She says boundaries do not make us less spiritual. Is there a boundary you have been avoiding because you thought it was unkind?
- If every action ripples out into the collective, as she describes, what small action could you send out today?
Write down one thing your soul keeps asking of you. Then take one ten minute step toward it this week.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Felice says every action ripples outward, and we are connected to everyone it touches.
- She describes a presence that was other than herself, yet also made of her.
- She says to live big is to align the inner voice with the outer life.
- She says boundaries and compassion belong together.
- She says we are all expressions of love, knowing itself.
Please enjoy my conversation with Felice DiMartino.
Guest Links: Connect With Felice DiMartino
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Felice DiMartino?
Felice DiMartino is a near-death experiencer who was an educational consultant and Montessori teacher at the time she describes. She tells her story on Divine Encounters with host Alex Ferrari.
What happened to Felice DiMartino?
Felice says she was crossing at a busy corner on December 2, 2015, when a speeding pickup truck made a left turn and hit her. She says she was thrown about 30 feet and left her body.
What did Felice see when she left her body?
She says she was above the scene and could see in every direction. She watched a man direct people, saw the driver say she had called 911, and felt the emotions of the people near her body.
What was the blackness Felice describes?
She says it was “the blackest of black,” yet illuminated, with a luminosity. She describes merging with a timeless, expansive presence with no ego and no separateness.
Who was the presence Felice met?
Felice says it was a presence in a bright light that was other than her own, yet made of the same light. When she asked who it was, she says the answer was that it was her.
What was Felice told before she returned?
She says she heard, “When you go back, it’s time to live big.” She understands this as living in alignment with her soul’s voice, which she describes as love, joy, relationship, expression and service.
Did Felice have a life review?
She says what she would equate to a life review let her see how actions ripple out into the collective. She also says she experienced what the driver felt at the moment of the collision.
What does Felice say about boundaries?
She says boundaries are okay and do not make us less spiritual. She says you can acknowledge the essence of another person and still protect yourself.
How did Felice describe her return to her body?
She describes being squeezed back like a genie into a bottle while still feeling like an expanse. She says she could hear yelping and understood it was coming from her in the ambulance.
How did the experience affect Felice afterward?
She says it was hard at first to know where her body ended and where space began. She says she came back understanding that she had been holding herself back from her dharmic path.
Is a near-death experience medical evidence?
Next Level Soul shares near-death experiences as lived experiences 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
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- Jane Thompson on why we come to Earth to be human
- Ruth Rousseau Clothier on what she learned about love
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- 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.
Felice DiMartino 0:08
I had been educational consultant and teaching in a Montessori school, and I was leaving Rick one day, I got to a corner my my car was parked off campus. And I got to there was a light that I had across. So I waited for the it was December 2, 2015 it was dusk. It was a little misty out. It was unusually warm for that day. And I got to the corner, and prior to crossing the street, I had been engaging with someone that I knew I shouldn't be engaging with. So I put my phone away, just like, you know, kind of in my head about all of that, and I looked the light. I had the right of way to cross, so I looked both ways. The car stopped, giving me the right away. It's a busy intersection, and I proceeded to cross the street, and up from behind me came big ass Dodge Ram pickup truck came up from behind me, and it turns out she was speeding to because she was wanting to make a left hand turn before the oncoming car right she could go straight, so she made a left and hit me about three quarters of the way across the crosswalk, and propelled my body three and a half car lengths from the crosswalk, about 30 feet in the air. Apparently. Know what it felt like? It felt like a thud on the right hand side of my body. And, you know, it's a big truck, so it's good portion of the right hand side of my body. And I had a bag, and I had a laptop in the bag. I don't know if that steel, you know, whatever it's, it blocked some of it, but it felt like a dull, I don't want to say smack, because it's more like a thud on the right hand side of my body. And I whipped my head around, but it felt like I was whipping it like time stopped. It felt very slow motion, and I had the thought, something's not right, something's wrong. And it turns out that was what was stuck in my neck for a long for a while, like my all of my practitioners couldn't get to it until I replayed it. And that's what was stuck there was something's wrong. And once I realized that that's a whole nother conversation about healing and the body really does keep the score. So what happened was I caught for a split second, a pair of eyes across the truck, across the hood of the truck, and the next thing I was above my body looking down at it. I was looking down at the scene. I could see there was an expanse. I could see in 360 degrees, yet there was a it was like there was a spotlight below. And I was observing the scene. I saw my body lying on the right hand side of my head to the left, there was I could feel the emotions of the people on the ground from above. Again, this is all from above, so I'm watching this. And there was some disorientation and getting my bearings. And there was a man that jumped out of the car, and he was directing. He directed a woman to go. I saw the whole thing play out. Directed someone to go, stop the traffic. The Woman Who hit me said she had called 911, and I could feel the sheer terror as my body was laying still, and in my was completely conscious, yet not in my body conscious, and an assessing was taking place. And part of the assessment was, am I going to be able to go back there, back to that body? And after all that I had just gone through, my kids were a big draw for me, right? Like it wasn't. So the question was, for me, am I going to be able to go back there? And there was a lot going on. There was a lot of internal organ damage, a lot of fractures. I had a cracked skull. I mean, there was a lot happening, but from above, the body looked in one piece, and I understood that I would be able to go back. And once that kind of was that, that assessing started to take place, there was a sensation of lifting higher and higher and higher, and the scene below faded. As the scene below started to fade, I was in a complete blackness. It was the blackest of black. It's like we don't have a name for this. It's not even a color. We don't have a name for this. And it was an illuminated blackness. There was like a luminosity to the blackness. And it was it felt like on the way there, it felt like at some point it like there was as this energy and vitality of the body was diminishing, that part of me that was existing was being energized and having more life to it, as the body was shutting down, and in this blackness, it was merging with pure presence. There was no time, there was no space. It was all space. It was simply being merged in with this experience. And there was no questions. There was no. Wondering. There was no ego, there was no me, there was no separateness. It was being merged in completely with this blackness, and I was existing as that, and that was the first thing that happened. And there was also this sense of, it's completely timeless, it's completely expansive, it's completely all things and no thing at the same time. There's no gender, there's no right wrong. It's simply existing in pure presence. And it was also there was a quality to it that was very peaceful, very, I want to say, loving, but that gives it, makes it something. It's like it contained everything. It contained all of and nothing. And then there was like a shift in a dimension, almost. It's like a shift in a from that emerged this sense of floating. And I was floating, and it felt like I was in a cocoon, and there were others in cocoons, and I say others, yet they were also made up of we were the same, yet there was no fear. There was simply being and it felt super nourishing and nurturing and warm. It's like being held in water. It's like being in a flotation tank, almost. You're just held in this nurturing, warm, loving space. And in that place, we call it, thought, I'm going to call it an energy packet, because it felt like an energy packet started to emerge. And there was a wondering. And the wondering was a waiting started started to come with that energy packet. And it was like, Aha, what am I waiting for? And as soon as the What am I waiting for culminated that thought, that energy packet, kind of like culminated, it popped into a being met with exactly what I was being waited for. And I found myself in a completely bright, effulgent light. And the light was growing and growing, and there was a presence in the light that was other than my own, yet that was also made up of this light that was communing with me and there for me, and that it was just clearly understood. There wasn't a thought process as we know thought to be, was clearly understood. And this presence was there to communicate with me and share with me and show me things and for me. And in an instant, it was that presence. It's I say it was like you put your forehead. We put foreheads together, and I knew everything about you and everything about your life, all the multi faceted, multi dimensional aspects of your soul's journey and the events that have occurred in your life. It was like that. And all of this information was transmitted at, we say, rapid speed. And again, it's it's not time. There's no sense of time like we time to be and all of this information was completely downloaded, uploaded. I understood everything that my soul's journey had taken. I understood everything that was going on Earth in my life, in this lifetime, at the time. And there was a lot that was transmitted about my particular life and about being embodied as human and at some point that started to there was an energy that started to kind of amplify, and there was an anticipation, and there was a need, like I needed to get back. There was an urgency that started to build that if I was going back, I needed to get back into the body. And right before I came back, I heard from this present that was other than my own, yet that I was also merged in with. When you go back, it's time to live big. So that was the that was a hearing. And right before I descended, as I'll say, right before I descended, I asked this presence, who are you? And I heard, I am you. I started to descend, and I heard I was watching. At some point I it's like I was there was like a descending, and I was watching below, and I could also hear below. There were the EMTs were like calling to me and speaking. And I could see it and also hear it. And I was watching my mouth move. But from above, it was such a trippy experience, because there was this physical form, but I wasn't really in it. I was here. Yet it was all happening at the same time, and as I started to come closer and closer into the body, at some point I felt like I was being squeezed. It's like being a squeeze, a genie being squeezed into a bottle, and I was existing as this expanse outside of my body, yet also feeling the being squeezed into the body at the same time. And I could hear the body yelping. And there's at that point, it was a very like, oh, that's yelping sounds coming from me and in the ambulance. So I was I could see what was happening my head, like they were trying to keep me there. And there was someone at my head, and I kept being out so I could again. It was now. I know it as by location, where you could be in both places. And when I came more into consciousness, I was being taken into the it was a level three trauma unit, and it was organized chaos. And it was a while. I mean, a lot of things have occurred for a while. It was really hard for me to know where my body, where the boundaries of my body were, was, and where space was, and how I experience the world. Now, I would say my life review. You know, my life review was, that was what I would equate to a life review. For me, it wasn't like, Oh, this is you could see. I could see how, you know, all of the actions have ripple effects out into the collective and you're able to experience things like, I was able to experience the woman who hit me. I was able to experience what she was experiencing at that moment in time of this occurrence that I was a part of, and the live big was aligning that inner voice and that inner life with the outer life to be in total alignment and an embodied expression of our truth, which is connected with the Divine and with love. And for me, also, it was I wanted to either do more with a Montessori world and education, or I really wanted to use all the experiences that I just had again in service to others. And I was really being called to do that, and I wasn't doing either of those things. So it's the live big, like when you go back, it's time to live big and be on your dharmic path. Was holding myself back. And I was also, you know, I was also able to see how had co created everything that had happened up until that point, not in a shaming, blaming kind of way, but in a way that opens up spaciousness. And I also understood so much more when I came back about boundaries. Because yes, we are spiritual beings having a temporary human experience, and we are also human beings having a human experience. And when we go around and when we treat everyone as the essence of who they truly are and as their potential, we a lot of times we suffer or we go through a lot of hardship in the face of that. So it's possible to acknowledge the essence of who someone truly is and pay attention to their being. You can have compassion for people from afar. You can, you know, if it's not safe for you, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, energetically and genetically, boundaries are okay. Boundaries don't make us less spiritual. Well, that I was a person that wasn't having a lot of boundaries. So I learned to be in the both end. You know, we are all here to be embodied expressions of love, source the divine, whatever name you call the God of the infinite intelligence of your understanding. We are here to be embodied expressions of that to mirror that in one another and the dharmic path. We each have unique ways of doing that. And we are the divine knowing itself. We are love, knowing itself. And the individual part of that comes from our souls. Also have these kind of journeys, to come to to life, to learn, to grow. I mean, how remarkable that we are in human bodies. Truly, We are human bodies. That's pretty cool. And when you can look at another person in the eyes and see that divinity in them looking back at you, we're all made of the same stuff, living with alignment with the voice of the soul, which is love, joy, relationship, expression, service. Don't worry so much about what other people think. Love is the first word that pops into mine. And I want to say, how do I define God's source? Who we are, all what we are, all who we be. I am love, to be embodied expressions of love, of the Divine, of source, knowing itself.
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