Divine Encounters Episode 112 | Near-Death Experience Story
Kelly Sammy grew up in a chaotic home with two alcoholic parents, and by the time she was raising her young son far from home she was living with what she calls a Plan D. In this Divine Encounters episode she tells Alex Ferrari what she says happened when she left her body above an SUV: a loving black void she says she was part of, a soft pink beyond any color on Earth, Archangel Gabriel, and a celebration instead of a judgment.
Key Takeaways
- Kelly says she grew up with two alcoholic parents and lived for years with a background of dark thoughts she named Plan D.
- She describes moving abroad with her 14-month-old son after a divorce and a major surgery, and hiding her pain behind a brave face.
- Kelly says she found herself out of her body above an SUV, watching her body with no feeling at all, like a TV show about someone she did not know.
- She describes bursting into a black void and being all of it, a love she compares to holding her son for the first time, “times a million.”
- Kelly says she became the most beautiful pink she has ever seen, with a scent like gardenia and what she believes were angelic choirs.
- She describes a life review with no judgment, in which her 38 years were relived as a celebration, “almost like a high five for every experience.”
- Her message: she says every encounter led her back to love of herself and her true divine nature, and that there is an inner calling home in each of us.
| Guest | Kelly Sammy |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 112 |
| Life before | Raised with two alcoholic parents; a single mother and project manager living in New Zealand |
| Her age | 38 when she says the experience happened |
| What Kelly says happened | She left her body above an SUV and moved through several stages beyond the body |
| Where she says she went | A black void, a soft pink space, then a cave-like place for her life review |
| Who she met | Archangel Gabriel, relatives who had passed, light beings, angels, Jesus and Mother Mary |
| The message | There is no separation; love of self is the way home |
Who Is Kelly Sammy? A Childhood in Chaos
Kelly begins with honesty. She grew up in a chaotic family, with two alcoholic parents and a lot of destruction and breakdown. She says she navigated life from one obstacle to the next, and sometimes sabotaged things so she could say that this is just what life is
Over time, she says, a pattern became clear. She lived with what she calls a Plan D. Most people have Plans A through C when chaos hits, she explains. In her world, Plan D was always there, humming in the background. She did not know most people did not live that way.
She tells this part gently, and so will we. Her story includes dark thoughts, and she speaks about them with compassion for the person she used to be.
A New Start in New Zealand
Kelly was an American who moved abroad with her son, who was 14 months old, to a tiny island in New Zealand. She had just been through a hysterectomy and a divorce at the same time. Her ex-husband was a New Zealander, and part of their agreement was that New Zealand would be a positive place to raise their son. She was a project manager by trade, and she could find work there.
Looking back, she says she was either insane, absolutely brave, or part of something bigger. She suspects the last.
She then met a new partner, another American living in New Zealand. Some healthy things began to happen. And yet, she says, untreated depression, anxiety and trauma will resurface. “I put on a brave face,” she says. She would live life happily and normally, and when everyone was asleep she would climb into the shower, turn it on, sit on the floor and cry.
She says she has deep empathy for that woman. “I’m not her anymore,” she tells Alex. “I love what she went through.” She adds that many people live this way without a name for it.
Getting Healthy, and Getting Honest
The irony, Kelly says, is that when she started getting healthier, she saw how unhealthy she had been. A loving partner could hold space for her, so she started counseling. She says she kept going back and telling her care team that she was getting sicker and the dark thoughts were getting louder. She was very honest, she says, and they kept adjusting her treatment.
Then one day, she says, she heard an inner voice say, “We’re done here.” That was the final straw. From that moment she felt a compression come over her.
If you are struggling, you are not alone. In the US you can call or text 988 any time.
Out of the Body, Above the SUV
Kelly says there was a last compression, and then, poof, she was out of her body, above the SUV, looking down. She watched the body moving and going through what looked like very miserable things. But she felt none of it. No empathy, no regret, no shame, no sadness, no happiness. She was flat and stoic, she says, as if watching a TV show about someone she did not know.
There was a popping and crackling sound. Time and space are strange to talk about, she says, but she had a knowingness that this felt familiar and safe, and that she did not need to try to go anywhere. There was no drive to get back in the body and no curiosity about where to go. She does not know how long this lasted.
The Void and the Sardine Can
The popping and crackling grew stronger, she says, the upward pull returned, and then there was a thrust. She knew she was not a body. She burst into darkness, which she calls the void. “Everything was black, and I was all of it.”
She stresses that she was not someone experiencing it. She was it. “It was the most loving and beautiful experience I’ve ever had.” The closest comparison she can offer is “the first time I held my son as a baby,” looking into his eyes, and then that feeling “times a million.” She felt held and loved. “Call it God, call it source, call it universe,” she says. She just knew she was it, not a part of it.
She describes the expansion this way: “imagine a sardine that’s been in a can,” and the can is rolled open. A floppy, bodiless energy expands beyond. She remembers less of what was happening than of the edges of everything opening to her. She says she was space.
This idea of being the whole, not just a visitor, is close to what the glossary calls oneness, though Kelly has her own view of that word, which we will come to.
The Softest Pink and the Choirs
Another upward pull came, and then she was in “the most beautiful pink I have ever seen.” Kelly considers herself a creative person and has tried to recreate it. “There’s no color like it here,” she says. It is the faintest, most baby soft pink.
Again, she was not seeing it. She was it, she says, the expression of it knowing itself. There were smells she likens to gardenia, potent and powerful, though she was the smell and not someone smelling it. There were choirs she truly believes were angelic.
It continued for a time she cannot measure. Then she had an intuitive sense that “something was beckoning me.” Without a body or thoughts, but feeling calm and familiar, she trusted it.
Archangel Gabriel
For the first time in the experience she saw something that was not herself. She knew intuitively that it was Archangel Gabriel. She grew up Catholic, and she believes near-death experiences tend to bring forward things that feel familiar from a lifetime. Catholicism held a lot of beauty for her, including the angelic realm.
There were no words. She moved along with the presence, without guiding it. It seemed to know what to do. If you would like to read more about this figure, our glossary has an entry on Archangel Gabriel.
A Life Review Like a Celebration
Kelly then found herself in a space she describes as a tomb, a cave, or something like a mosque. This is often called a life review, she says, but hers was unique, as was her whole experience. All around her appeared every expression she had lived over 38 years. She was not watching. She was reliving it as it happened.
There was no judgment. “It was just almost like celebration,” she says, and she compares it to “almost like a high five for every experience.” No this is bad, no this is karma, no this is sin. Just: you did that, look at that, isn’t that incredible? There was joy in it, and peacefulness.
She says it is hard to put in a line, because we are linear beings, and we want these things told linearly. For her, downloads have kept coming since 2008. In that space, she says, she also met others whom she did not recall at the time. These memories are still surfacing.
Ancestors, Angels and Masters, Without a Word
Kelly names who she says appeared: her great grandfather, her uncles who had passed, ancestors from different timelines, light beings, angels, archangels, ascended masters, Jesus and Mother Mary. It went on and on, she says. Nobody needed to speak. There was only knowing.
She says everything woke up. The experiences have always led her back to love of herself and “my true divine nature.” She says none of the figures led her to a master outside herself. Her view is that there is only one true master, and we are part of it.
This is why, she says, a figure like Jesus can appear everywhere: he is an internal play within the human being who was never separate from you. She suggests this is why so many experiencers describe similar things such as tunnels. There is a relatable piece because there is no separation.
She also has a challenge for the word oneness. If you say oneness, she says, you may already be off the mark, because the mind has turned it into something mystical. Her own experience kept pulling her “back to myself.” Readers who want a broader view can start with our glossary page on ascended masters and the complete guide to near-death experiences.
The Message: Love, Earnestness and the Inner Calling
Kelly’s message is simple. “The only thing I want from you is love,” she says. “I just want to recognize you as you are.” The only responsibility she feels is earnestness.
She also says you cannot go back. Enough has unraveled, she says, that “there is an internal calling home within each of us.” There is a quiet knowing that there is more fulfillment here than out there. She says her relationships are far more intimate now “because I fill that cup first.”
She is realistic. There is a restlessness in us, she says, and the ego wants to keep pulling us back into the game.
Where Her Account Sits Beside Other Near-Death Stories
Many people who report near-death experiences describe leaving the body, a sense of unconditional love, angelic presences and a review of life. Kelly’s account has all of these, and also something different. She says she did not meet beings so much as become what she met: a void, a color, a scent. She also says that her life review felt like a celebration and not a reckoning.
She does not tie up her story with a neat ending, and the conversation does not cover how she returned to her body. What it offers is her view of what is true underneath. We share accounts like this one as experiences in the person’s own words, and we do not make medical claims.
Questions to Sit With
- Kelly says she hid her pain behind a brave face. Who in your life have you let see the real you?
- She describes a life review as a high five for every experience. What would it be like to look back on your own year that way?
- Where in your life are you waiting for love to come from outside, when you could fill that cup first?
Once this week, when you notice yourself being hard on yourself, stop and say one kind sentence to yourself out loud, the way you would to a friend.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Kelly says she was not separate from the love she met. She was it.
- She describes a life review with no judgment, only celebration.
- She says every spiritual figure she met led her back to her own true divine nature.
- She says there is an internal calling home within each of us.
- She says filling your own cup first makes your relationships more intimate.
Please enjoy my conversation with Kelly Sammy.
Guest Links: Connect With Kelly Sammy
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Kelly Sammy?
Kelly Sammy is a near-death experiencer, a project manager by trade, who grew up in a chaotic home with two alcoholic parents. She shares her story on Divine Encounters.
What is Plan D in Kelly Sammy’s story?
Kelly uses Plan D for the dark thoughts that hummed in the background of her life. She explains that most people have Plans A through C when chaos hits, and that she did not realize most people did not live with a Plan D.
What happened during Kelly Sammy’s near-death experience?
Kelly says she left her body above an SUV and watched it without feeling anything. She then describes a series of pulls that took her into a black void, a soft pink space, and a meeting with Archangel Gabriel.
What was the void Kelly describes?
Kelly says it was a black darkness in which she was all of it, not an observer. She calls it the most loving and beautiful experience of her life, and compares it to the first time she held her son, multiplied by a million.
What did the pink and the scent mean?
Kelly says she became the faintest, most baby soft pink, which she has never seen on Earth. She also describes a scent like gardenia and choirs she believes were angelic. She says she was the experience, not someone watching it.
Who did Kelly meet in her near-death experience?
She says she met Archangel Gabriel, her great grandfather, her uncles who had passed, ancestors from different timelines, light beings, angels, archangels, ascended masters, Jesus and Mother Mary, all without words.
What was Kelly’s life review like?
She says it was not a judgment. She relived every expression she had lived in 38 years, and it felt like celebration, almost like a high five for each experience.
Why does Kelly question the word oneness?
Kelly says that if you only say oneness, the mind may turn it into something mystical. She says her own experience kept bringing her back to herself, and that there is no separation to begin with.
What does Kelly say is her message?
She says she wants only love and to recognize people as they are. She says there is an inner calling home in each of us, and that earnestness is her responsibility.
Where can I get help if I am struggling?
If you are struggling, you are not alone. In the US you can call or text 988 any time.
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 is a near-death experience? (glossary)
- Archangel Gabriel (glossary)
- Rob Gentile on being shown the quantum secrets of the divine
- Susan Walter on a child’s near-death experience of light and love
- Michelle Clare on a light being who spoke to her after death
- Alysa Rushton on returning from an overdose with new wisdom
- Sal Adatsi on being shown infinite worlds
- 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.
Kelly Sammy 0:08
I grew up in a chaotic family. I had two alcoholic parents and a lot of destruction and breakdown, you know, I literally just navigated life to the next obstacle, and then I could sabotage, and then I got to say, See, see, life. This is what it is. And so it just kind of kept going from there, and that just built up over time, until, you know, the dialog became apparent that I lived with what I called a Plan D, and I didn't know that most people didn't have a plan D or live that way. For me, there was the normal Plans A through C that we all kind of have when destruction or chaos happens. But in my world, Plan D was always an option, and plan D was, I can exit stage left whenever I want, and it is my choice. And I lived with that, with ideation that was always humming in the background. There were a lot of things going on in my life. I was an American who had picked up with a small child. He was 14 months old, my son, when we moved abroad to New Zealand, on this little, tiny island, and I had just gone through a horrific, full blown hysterectomy and a divorce all at once, and part of the divorce agreement that I made with my ex husband was that New Zealand would be a really positive place to raise our son as a single mother as a project manager by trade, and so finding work there with my ex husband, being a New Zealander made sense, and I now look at it and think I was either insane or absolutely brave or something bigger than I had a bigger plan, which we all know was likely the case, and off to New Zealand I went and in that movement, with everything that was going on, it started to create the atmosphere of recognition that other people didn't live with a plan D, because I was starting to have some healthy experiences in life, I met a new partner who was also an American in New Zealand. He and I formed a relationship. Some healthy things started to happen and transpire for me, but as we often know, with depression, anxiety and trauma, if it's untreated, it will resurface, and that's absolutely what started to happen for me at that stage, I was really blessed to have a loving partner who also recognized that I was willing to talk about it, and I put on a brave face, I would just live life normally and happily, and then when everyone went to bed, I would climb in the shower and turn the shower on and sit on the ground and cry. I have empathy for this one, because I'm not her anymore. Don't even know her, but I love her. I love what she went through. And so many people do live that way. They just don't have a name for it like I did. So the the catalyst really was once I started getting healthy. I realized how absolutely unhealthy I was, the irony, the grand paradox, and so then confiding in a loving partner who could hold space for me, I started getting into counseling. That's where things got messy, because I was not someone who'd ever taken medication, and I'm very sensitive, and I'm not a drinker, and they immediately put me on antidepressants and anti anxiety medication and sleeping pills. And so this escalated everything. And I just kept showing back up and saying, I'm getting sicker. The ideation is louder. I was very honest. And they just kept adjusting, adjusting, adjusting. And then one day I went in and they went to adjust, and I heard in my internal dialog, we're done here. That was the final straw. And from that moment, I stopped taking the medication and I started saving it, and all of the sudden this last compression feeling came over me, and poof, I was out of the body above the SUV, looking down at the body, and there was just an awareness of that body moving and very uncomfortable, going through some what looked like very miserable things, but I felt none of it. I didn't feel empathy, I didn't feel regret, I didn't feel shame, I didn't feel sadness, I didn't feel happy. I felt just flat, stoic and just an awareness of what was seeming to transpire like I was watching a TV show of someone I didn't know. So as this popping and crackling went on again, time and space are so weird to talk about, I just have this knowingness is the only way I can describe it, that this felt familiar and safe and that I didn't need to try. And go anywhere, just trust what was happening. And since there wasn't a drive to get back in the body, and there was no curiosity or thoughts about where to go, I don't know how much time I was there, but the next thing I knew, the popping and the crackling intensified again, the sensation of that upward pulling arose again, and then all of a sudden there was this thrust, and I knew I wasn't a body. And all of a sudden I burst into this darkness. I call it the void. Everything was black, and I was all of it. I wasn't something experiencing it. I was it. It was the most loving and beautiful experience I've ever had, and literally, the closest thing I can use to describe it to was the first time I held my son as a baby and looked into his eyes, and I felt that love you just cannot recreate. And it was that times a million, I felt held, I felt loved. Call it God, call it source, call it universe. I just knew that I was it. I wasn't a part of it. I wasn't trying to be near it. I was it. I was all of it. And this expansion, like, you know, imagine a sardine that's been in a can, and that can's been rolled open, and all of a sudden, you know, this floppy, no body energy just expands beyond and you know the recollection is less about what was happening and more about almost the perimeter of it all just becoming open to me. I was space, and as I was feeling the love of all this again, not understanding time and space, the popping and the crackling began again, and I just relaxed into the love of it. And the only thing I can describe is another kind of upward pull to a nobody. And I was thrust into the most beautiful pink I have ever seen. And it you know, I consider myself a creative person. I've tried to recreate that pink. There's no color like it here, and I will just say it is the faintest, most baby soft pink. But I wasn't seeing it. I was it. I was the expression of it, knowing itself. There were these smells I likened to like a gardenia flower, very potent and powerful. But I wasn't smelling them. I was the smell and these choirs, you know, I truly believe it was angelic. You know, I was just it. It wasn't happening for me. I was all of it. And that continued. Again, I don't know how long, no time and space makes sense here, but I just had this again, almost an intuitive knowingness that something was beckoning me, for lack of better terms, and without being a body, without having thoughts yet feeling very familiar and calm, I just, again, just trusted it, and the next thing I knew, I was with that, and for the first time, I had a visual in this experience that wasn't me, and that visual I just knew intuitively was Archangel Gabriel. And growing up Catholic and Catholicism, I do believe that our nde's tend to bring forward things that we feel familiar with in the lifetime. So for me, Catholicism had a lot of beauty, and the angelic realm did, and I just trusted it, and I felt this beckoning. And so there were no words. I was still no body, and as it was moving ahead, I just was moving with it, and I didn't have to guide it. It just intuitively knew what to do. And the next thing I knew, I was in this space. I call it a tomb, or a cave, or, you know, like a mosque, and I was there, and this is often, I think, referred to as a life review. I don't necessarily call it that, because mine was very unique, just like my whole NDE and that all around me, appearing, not being a body, not having thoughts, was just every expression that I had lived for 38 years. But I wasn't watching it. I was reliving it as it was happening. And it was almost like a high five for every experience. There was no that was bad, there was no this is karma, this is sin. It was just almost like celebration. You did that. Look at that. That's amazing, isn't that incredible? And so there was just joy in it peacefulness. It's really interesting, because we're linear beings, and we want to see it translated very linearly. But for me, since 2008 I'm still getting downloads. I had experiences with others in that space that I didn't recollect in that time, that are still coming through, like my great grand. Grandfather, my uncles, who had transitioned ancestors from different timelines, light beings, angels, archangels, ascended masters, Jesus, Mother Mary. It just went on and on and on. They appeared to me, but I was nobody, and no one needed to communicate. It was all just a knowing. Was just a knowing. Completely everything woke up. For me, mine have all always led me back to the love of myself, my true divine nature. They never lead me to. You know, I say birth guy, Bernadette, right? All gods must die. There's only one true master here, and we're a part of it. So each of these expressions has shown up as a guide for me. But there's also an internal knowing that's also part of God, part of source. So how can Jesus be everywhere? Because he's just an internal play running in the dialog of the human being that's never been separate from you at all. Why there's a consistency that there's tunnels and things in these NDEs that we all kind of feel there's some relatable piece to because there's no separation. If you say oneness, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're already off the mark. You're already off of it. Your mental capacity has gone to something mystical mine, didn't. I kept being pulled back to myself, but the only thing I want from you is love. I just want to recognize you as you are. It's that simple. So I guess what I'm saying is earnestness seems to be the only thing I can say that feels like it's my responsibility. And I'll say a little more to that, because I think it's really important like anyone else at the end of the day, and I know everyone on this path will say that, but you can't go back, because enough of this is unraveled now that there is an internal calling home within each of us, and that earnestness just seems to grab a hold, that robotic knowingness that there's more fulfillment here than there is out there. And to me, my relationships are far more intimate and fulfilling now, because I fill that cup first. But absolutely there's a restlessness inside of us, the ego wants to keep pulling us into the game.
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