Divine Encounters Episode 018 | Near-Death Experience Story
Larrick Ebanks spent months in the hospital after a severe case of COVID pneumonia in November 2021, including a long induced coma. In this Divine Encounters episode he tells Alex Ferrari what he says he experienced while his body was on life support: tests in a rehearsal room, frightening beings, angel wings, a life review, and a voice telling him to use his God breath.
Key Takeaways
- Larrick says what he was told would be a three day coma lasted three months, and that his experiences began there.
- He describes a Groundhog Day room where he kept waking up among others, taking mental and physical tests that he understood were about remembering who he truly is.
- He says he met beings he calls lower frequency, and that some of his time was distressing; what he says he learned is that compassion and love reach even the darkest places.
- He recalls angel wings coming to a hospital window three times, and a light that carried him across.
- He describes a partial life review, including a moment from childhood when he saw how a small unkind act affected another boy.
- He says he was told twice “it isn’t your time,” and that he came back by trusting his God breath, a deep belly breathing.
- His message: the magic inside us is worth remembering, and our smallest actions matter.
| Guest | Larrick Ebanks |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 018 |
| What Larrick says happened | Severe COVID pneumonia in November 2021, then an induced coma on life support |
| Time away | About three months in a coma, and eleven months in hospital in all |
| Where he says he went | A test room, other dimensions, a place that looked like Earth, and an energy wall |
| Who he met | Guides, lower frequency beings, and his mother, who showed up during his time in hospital |
| The message | Remember the magic inside you, and trust your God breath |
| After | He wrote the experiences down as soon as he could, and later put them in a book |
Who Is Larrick Ebanks?
Larrick describes himself as someone who was already on a spiritual path when he fell ill. He says he tried to meditate his way through the early symptoms. He also has a close circle: a sister he calls a dear, dear friend, a brother, and a best friend named Marina.
Larrick says he was in the hospital for eleven months. His illness began in November 2021. What the doctors called severe COVID pneumonia came after nine days of feeling unwell. By day nine he could barely move, and he could not breathe.
Into the Hospital and the Coma
His friend and sister called an ambulance. From there, Larrick says, things are a blur. He remembers the ambulance and the oxygen. He remembers being rushed toward intensive care, a night on the ward, and then ICU the next morning.
He was induced into a coma. What he heard, he says, was that it would be for three days. He thinks he texted his brother, his sister and his best friend Marina to say so, though he does not remember doing it. The three days turned into three months.
He says his lungs were hardened and full of liquid. What helped save his life, in his words, was an ECMO machine, which takes blood out through the neck, oxygenates it and puts it back in. He still has the marks. He says the doctors told people close to him that he had a 10 percent chance of living. This is his account of his medical care, and we present it as he told it.
The Groundhog Day Room and the Tests
Larrick says the first thing he heard, telepathically, was that “this is an endurance test.” He was to make his way back. After that it was like Groundhog Day. He kept waking up in a room with other people, as in a rehearsal, and they all kept waking up there and rehearsing.
The first test was mental. He had to work out how he had got into the room. Each time he woke, his first wish was to wake up in his own apartment. Then it came to him: “I came here for one audition.” He says that was the right answer.
The second test was about physical strength, with weights to move from one position to another on boards. At first he felt he could not do it. He thinks that is when he became aware that something was going on with his body, that he did not have that strength. He was told, telepathically, that in another life he had been the strongest man in the world.
He says what he has come to understand is that the guides were giving him information as he took the tests, and that all of it was about remembering “who I truly am, and who we truly are.” He says that includes the magic inside each of us. For more on how people describe guides, see our guide to spirit guides.
The God Test
One test came back to him later, and he wrote it down. He was asked certain questions, and when he finished answering each one he had to say, one, two, three, God. He says the beings he describes as lower frequency were trying to trick him into saying cod instead. If he did, he would be pulled into their realm and more within their belief system. So he had to stay focused on the word God while his mind worked on the question.
He knows it sounds strange. He says he is sharing it because it came back to him as a real challenge.
Other Dimensions, and a Place That Looked Like Earth
Larrick says he was shown what he understood as the fifth dimension. It looked very much like Earth life. It was suggested he could be of great use there, and that what he could bring there as the person he is could be beneficial. It was an offer of where he might go, he says, depending on how well he did and how he stepped up.
He thinks this was setting him up for the work he is beginning to do now, including charity work. At first, he says, it was so heavy to make sense of after he woke. Writing it down was cathartic. He describes what he calls automatic writing, in which guides gave him information and connected dots, and he says he was writing almost immediately after coming out of the coma. If you want to read more about the practice, see the glossary entry on automatic writing.
His mother also showed up. She has since passed, he says, but she was with him during his time in hospital. When he mentioned it to her after he woke, she seemed to have been jumping into those realities with him, helping him come back.
The Distressing Part, and What He Says He Learned
This part of the story is difficult, so we will tell it lightly. Larrick says some beings he calls low energy beings were insistent that he join them in the dimensions he was shown. He says he was vulnerable at first, and that they tortured him and put him through humiliation tests. He says he traveled between realms to try to reach higher ones, because the beings followed him.
He learned to raise his frequency to get away from them. The higher he went, he says, the less they could reach him.
Then came a turn. While he was on a table in what he calls a torture chamber, the head of the beings left the room, and Larrick overheard the others talking. They said they needed his light. They had messed up a little and wanted to raise their own frequencies, and they needed light beams, energy and frequency to work with. The head being came back, angry, and said it was not up for discussion.
What he took from that was compassion. He says even through the darkest states there is still “a form of love, which I learned is Divine Love.” He also says he was shown that in the deepest places there is hope.
Three Sets of Wings
Larrick says he was floating in two dimensions at once. He could not move, but he also had an awareness of the hospital, and some of what he sensed there was confirmed to him afterward by things people said.
The first time wings came, he says, they appeared outside the hospital window. He heard telepathically that all he needed to do was open his arms, which would mean he was ready to receive and cross over. He could not, and it frustrated him. There were two more attempts. By the third, he heard that if someone was sent to him and he held on to the back of that person, he could be crossed over.
By then, with all he had been through, he did want to cross over. And he says he eventually did, by way of a light that came to him. He had to connect with it as he lay there.
A Life Review: Wizard Hats and a Doorstep
On the other side, Larrick says, he was shown half of his life. They showed him an image of himself around eight years old, in a purple wizard hat that his father had bought him. They were reminding him of the magic inside everybody, and that we should always tap into it.
Then they showed him how his behavior affects others. A boy who lived on his street, when Larrick was eleven or twelve, came and knocked at the door. Larrick opened it, and as the boy put his foot on the front step, he nudged it away, as if to say you cannot come in. The boy had not done anything to him. Maybe, Larrick says, someone had been mean to him and he was passing it along.
He then had to watch what that did to the boy, and feel it. It did not ruin the boy’s life, but it made him feel unlikable. Larrick says he understood how actions, even the simplest ones, affect another person. The glossary entry on life review describes how others report this part of the experience.
The Wall of Energy and the Words “It Isn’t Your Time”
After he crossed, Larrick says he was shown an amazing place. It was almost like a wall, but an invisible one, a wall of energy. He knew there were many energy beings inside. He could sense them and see beams of light coming from it. He wanted to join. It looked to him like “the best party on the planet,” he says, and he does not mean that kind of party. He means a lot of love.
Then a divine presence, as he understood it, told him twice that it was not his time. He says it said “it isn’t your time.” He found himself working his way back into his body, struggling with the idea of leaving something so beautiful and magical, which he says words truly cannot explain.
The God Breath
As he returned, Larrick says he was told to “use your God’s breath.” He had never heard that phrase before and says maybe he should Google it. He was struggling to come back. He was hearing the prayers of many people, including people who did not know him.
The guides described deep belly breathing, the kind that lives at the bottom of your stomach. That is the God breath. He says they reminded him of how, when you sleep, you do not have to think about breathing. There is a breath that brings the body in, they said, and to trust that.
He says that meant surrendering. He had also said, he recalls, that if he was going to come back disabled, he did not want to. He was asked to surrender and “trust my god breath.” And that is how he says he came back fully into a body that was not functional at the time.
If you are struggling, you are not alone. In the US you can call or text 988 any time.
How Larrick’s Story Sits Beside Other Near-Death Experiences
Near-death accounts often include a review of life, a presence that says it is not yet time, and a sense of overwhelming love. Larrick’s story has these. It also includes parts less often told: a series of tests, distressing encounters, and a very specific instruction about breath. For more on common themes, see our complete guide to near-death experiences.
As always, we share these as personal accounts in the guest’s own words, and we make no medical claims.
Questions to Sit With
- Larrick says he kept being asked to remember who he truly is. How would you answer that today?
- He saw how one small unkind moment affected another boy. Is there a moment from your own past you would like to see differently, and what might repair look like?
- Larrick found writing cathartic. What have you been carrying that might feel lighter on paper?
Take five slow belly breaths today, letting your stomach rise and fall, and notice what changes. Nothing to fix. Just breathe.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Larrick says the point of his tests was remembering who we truly are.
- He says compassion and divine love are present even in the darkest places.
- He says our simplest actions affect other people, and that this is worth knowing.
- He describes the God breath as deep belly breathing, a way of trusting the body.
- He says there is magic inside each of us, and that we should tap into it.
Please enjoy my conversation with Larrick Ebanks.
Guest Links: Connect With Larrick Ebanks
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Larrick Ebanks?
Larrick Ebanks is a near-death experiencer who says he spent eleven months in hospital after severe COVID pneumonia in November 2021, including three months in a coma.
What did Larrick experience in the coma?
He describes tests in a room he kept waking up in, encounters with guides and lower frequency beings, angel wings, a partial life review and a wall of energy filled with love.
What was the God test?
Larrick says that after answering questions he had to say one, two, three, God, while beings he calls lower frequency tried to get him to say cod, which would take him into their realm.
What does Larrick mean by the God breath?
He says he was told to use his God’s breath, which he understood as deep belly breathing, and to trust that the body knows how to breathe.
What did the angel wings mean?
Larrick says wings came three times, and that he was told he only needed to open his arms to cross over. By the third, he did want to cross, and he says he went by way of a light.
What did Larrick learn from the distressing experiences?
He says the beings revealed that they needed his light, and that he took from this that even in the darkest states there is a form of love, which he calls Divine Love.
What did the life review show him?
He says it showed him a happy image of himself in a purple wizard hat, and a childhood moment in which a small unkind act hurt a neighbor boy, and he felt what the boy felt.
Did Larrick hear that it was not his time?
Yes. He says a divine presence told him twice that it was not his time, and he found himself returning to his body.
Did Larrick write about his experiences?
He says he began writing almost immediately after the coma, in what he calls automatic writing, and later put the experiences into a book.
Is a near-death experience proof of an afterlife?
Next Level Soul shares near-death experiences as personal accounts 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 spirit guides are, in plain language
- What a life review is, in plain language
- Mark Hodges on other dimensions and past lives during surgery
- Dean Brinson on the astral world and levels of heaven
- Sharon Kumara on many worlds and the purpose of life
- MK McDaniel on seeing hell, heaven and what she learned
- Dean Braxton on being clinically dead for 105 minutes
- Browse more free masterclasses and the Divine Encounters podcast.
Follow Along with the Transcript
Alex Ferrari 0:00
Tell me what happened to you, when you left this realm.
Larrick Ebanks 0:09
So I was in hospital for 11 months, I'm just trying to think of a year where we 23. So 2021 November, I came down with what they termed COVID pneumonia severe, just severe nine days build up to that I wasn't feeling well, it was recognizable people around me Larrick union to see a doctor, I was struggling breathing, I was cleaning, I couldn't meditate it and find my way through. But yeah, by day nine, I just couldn't really move. I couldn't breathe. My what I call her my sister, and dear, dear friend, sister of mine, called the ambulance. And from there, bit of a blur. I remember going into the ambulance, remember the oxygen, I remember thinking all the way they're behaving, they're picking something up here, but I was like, going into hospital. And I was almost rushed to ICU. I'm trying to run it. Yeah, did a night in the in the ward. And then morning ICU, what I heard was okay, because I got induced into a coma, I was in a coma for three months. But what I heard was three days. And I don't remember doing this, but I probably I text my brother, my brother called sister, and my best friend, Marina. And I said to them, Oh, I'm getting induced to a coma for three days, I see on the other side, something to that effect, which then turned to three months. And that's where I started to experience a lot of what I've been writing down. So I was in a coma basically, three, three months in ICU for five is it just because it was so severe, lots of liquid on my lungs, yeah, hardened lungs. And what helped save my life is, is the thing called what a lot of people don't know, it's an ECMO machine, it's a machine, I've still got the marks there, which is they plug it into your neck, it's a take the blood out, oxygenates it and then put it back in body. So I just remember being told telepathically, this is an endurance test, you've got to make your way back to it's the first thing I heard.
And then it was like Groundhog Day from there, because I just kept waking up in this room with other people like in this rehearsal, and they just kept waking up in this room rehearsing. And the test that first test was a mental test was I had to figure out how I got into the room. But I just remember every time I woke up, my first feelings or thoughts were just want to wake up in my apartment. And then it came to me, I came here for one audition. Right? And they he was correct. And then I went straight on to another test, because I had so many experiences. And I just remember the second test being more one of physical strength and with weights involved with it. And I had to move weights from one position to another on these boards. But I initially felt like I couldn't do it. And I think that's where I was conscious that there was something going on with me physically that I didn't have that kind of strength. And plus my physical strength isn't what I tend to use in life in general anyway, sort of thing. So I struggled with the idea of being able to move the weights and which became a bit of a concern. And then telepathically I was told in a life and another life, I was the strongest, strongest man in the world. And that idea came in. And what I've come to understand is as my guides were giving me information as I was having tests, but the information was about remembering, remembering who I truly am, and who we truly are, and the magic that's inside of us. Because that starts playing out. As I have a lot of experiences. I was constantly being guided. So given tests that were humiliation tests, and torture tests, and just some really nice situations but and coming to understand, I was really leaving out a lot of my fears in other dimensions and sent to the situations and living them out. Because I was told that part of me exists somewhere. So I was kind of stepping into it. And there was a lot going on. There's a lot of experiences, it's really hard to go through F because every kind of situation has this build up story to it. That's why even when it came out of the coma, I was almost immediately writing once I couldn't move because I couldn't move and I couldn't talk shouldn't further even even think a thing called the God test where I was tested. I'm just trying to tap into this memory actually, which was tested where I had to I was being asked certain questions. And when I finished answering the question, I had to say 123 God, immediately like it was like, answer 123 God, then the what they were terming lower frequency beings that were interacting with me. They were trying to get me to say the word cod. I know it sounds a bit strange but That was, so if I had to quickly say 123 God, but I said 123 Cod, it would then take me into a realm where they reside and be more within their belief system and say, but I just remember that and really having to be concentrated and very work focused on the word God. Because it asked this question and get my mind into the question more of the question. So I'd have to be thinking more figuring out an answer. And then it means you got 123 God, and they are they play this a lot with me initially, just wanted to put that out there. Because that was a, there was a lot of challenges. And that was one in particular that I'm like, you just kind of came back into my memory bank, I've written it down. And it's like test after test experience after experience, because, you know, being shown, like what was considered the fifth dimension, and I had an experience there, which looked very much like the Earth life, but it was suggested that I could be a lot of use there, this, there's a lot of development going on there. What I could bring there with the person that I am, could be very beneficial to me, because it was kind of on offer of where I would go. Because where I would go, just depends of how well I was doing, and how I could really step up, which I'm becoming, which I'm beginning to understand, the more that I'm living with what I've experienced, was really setting me up for the work that I'm beginning to do now, because a lot of charity work and things aren't doing in general. But I am recognizing that when I first came out of the coma, and trying to make sense of it, it was so heavy and still be that for me. But it was a cathartic for me to write it down. And I was writing because I was just getting downloads and suggesting I needed to write write the experiences but also telling me why. So I've got in that job in my book. And I call it automatic writing where guides of mine were suggesting and this and kind of connecting dots for me because it's just a lot of information. So there was a lot of telepathy going on voices, my mother showed up. I've just shared this with you. But bless her, she's just passed, but she was with me as in during my time in hospital, and she showed up a lot she was able to unknowingly to her when I mentioned it to her when I came out of a coma. And we were talking, she was kind of jumping into the realities with me, help me back. So my mom played a big part in the way that I was coming back to work, my mother would show up because there was some beans, which they were referring to as low energy beings that were very insistent that I join them around and be a part of that, in these dimensions that I was being shown, the more I could raise my frequency into a higher dimension, they wouldn't be able to reach me. But initially, when I went into the coma, and the initial experiences, I was kinda very vulnerable, let's say low tea and trying to find my my way in what was going on comprehending it. So it's almost like these beings kind of who there is this new, whatever they want to say that I am consciousness or, you know, here and trying to reach me. And they were torturing me, I had moments where I was tortured, humiliation tests. And what I came to find out because I was jumping, I would say jumping, traveling to different realms and trying to reach higher rounds. So I could eventually get away from them, because they were following me on different dimensions in different realms, managing to find me almost haunting me. And I was raising for each pregnancy, which I managed to do. But then when I was done in this in this torture chamber that said I was on this table, the head of the beings kind of left this room, the space we were in, and the rest of them there, I overheard them talking so basically, why I was there was there was saying that they needed my light that they had messed up a little bit and wanting to raise their frequencies, but they needed light beams. This is what they were saying the energy and the frequency to work with. And that is because that was a that was a sign showing me compassion coming through even through the darkest stained states, there is still a form of love, which I learned is Divine Love, which were a part of I was told that later on but the build up to all of that I'm just found myself in these situations that just were initially feeling very unbearable to me. So they kind of let the cat out of the bag by saying this because we want your light and showing that professional side the head came in of the beings and was really angry. Like this is not up for discussion, especially in front of me in this whole thing got really angry and tortured me more what that gave me funnily enough, I've had time to really go into it a bit more, but I was understanding that I was constantly being shown that in it eeper spears, there is a hope there a wonderful experience that I had during the time in the coma, I was sent three sets of wings, angel wings, three different occasions. And this is when I was making sense again, where physically, I wasn't able to move, because I'm floating in two dimensions. But I also recognize I have an awareness of the hospital. And some of what was happening there, which was confirmed to me later on, when they came out of the coma with things that were said. And I said, and they said, well, actually, I've had those moments, the first time the wings came to me, they kind of came by the window outside the window of the hospital. And I heard telepathically that all I needed to do was just open my arms, which would suggest that I'm ready to receive to cross over because it was about crossing over. And I couldn't. And I was so frustrating that because I wasn't quite sure why, but I knew something's up. That's why I was making a connection. So I couldn't. And there was two other attempts. There was an attempt, by the third time when I heard that they were suggesting when I say they, it's like a, it's telepathic. It's like my guide, it's there's a voice within the voice. And they were suggesting that if they sent someone to me, if I could simply hold on to the back of the person, they could cross me over. Basically, I was agreeing to that, because by then, with a lot of experience, because there's so many to talk about, I did want to cross over I was definitely there, which I eventually did. So I eventually crossed over via lights, a light that came and I had to connect with the lights. Because I was lying there. And I crossed over that way. And then I was showing half of my life with you, which was interesting, because they showed me an image of me when I was younger, I think I was eight years old, something like that. And I had a wizard's hat on purple was a wizard's hat that my dad bought me. And they were reminding me of the magic that was in the that's in everybody. And we should always tap into that. And remember that they showed me a scenario of how it looks of our behaviors, how we affect other people, the one they showed me was there was a guy who's lived on my street when I was younger, I think it was about 12 11 12. He'd come and knocked my door for something. And I opened a door and the mean part of me because he went to put his foot on the stair, that front doorstep. And I kind of nudged it as to suggest you can't come in for whatever reasons he hadn't done anything to me particular. Maybe somebody's been mean to me and I was passing along, I don't know. But I did that. And then I had to watch how we affected him what it did to him. Now it didn't ruin his life, but it made him feel unlikable. And what and I had to witness that and feel it and know what our actions how our actions even on the simplest forms, how it affects another I crossed over. And I was shown an amazing place. It was almost like a wall. But like an invisible wall. It was like an energy wall. But I knew there was a lot of energy beings inside I could sense it, I could feel it. And I could see beams of light coming from it. And I really wanted to join I really wanted to be in there, it looked like it was going to be like the best party on the planet. And I don't mean that kind of party. Just Just a lot of love.
I felt the love. And what I considered what I would say was a divine said to me twice, it isn't your time, this is not your time, twice, I was told that. And as that Kristin said to me, I found myself working my way back, kind of coming into my body and struggling with that idea of having seen something so beautiful and magical, which words truly cannot explain rarely. But here's the thing of elements that really helped me to come back as I was coming back into my body. I was told use your God's breath. And I've never heard that before. I don't know if it's out there. And maybe I should Google that. I don't know. But I heard Use Your God breath because I was really struggling coming back in I was hearing all the prayers that was going on because a lot of people were supporting me even people who didn't know me because I've been you know in a coma for three months and it was going on it was just a long thing. You know, the doctors had put out there and through my circle of people that I had a 10% percent chance of living I was on an ECMO machine where you're meant to be on no longer than I think it's something like and they were talking about this deep belly breathing that resides in the bottom of your stomach deep belly breathing That's the God breath and they were constantly reminded me because I was trying to figure out what is that and the panic setting. I'm hearing and I've heard from doctors. There was a lot happening when I was coming around like on machines going off the scale and stuff like that easy hemorrhaging, you know this whole thing was going on, but I heard the god breath deep belly breathing and and they were showing me and says suggesting when I'm sleeping, I don't need to think about that. There is a breath that brings the body trust that. So I just basically then had to surrender to what was I was in complete surrender because I didn't know where it was going to go. But I did ask also, if I was going to be disabled that I didn't want to come back. If I was going to come back into a disabled body. I didn't want to come back here. There was a lot of stuff going on with me. And they just asked me to surrender and trust my god breath, which I did do. And yeah, and that's how I kind of came back fully into my body, which wasn't functional at the time.
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