Divine Encounters Episode 037 | Near-Death Experience Story
Nancy Rynes was a scientist and a regular bike commuter near Boulder, Colorado, when, she says, a driver who was texting struck her in a traffic circle during the holiday break of 2014. She tells Alex Ferrari that part of her consciousness rose out of her body and watched the crash from the grass, calm and loving, while the rest of her fought to survive. In this Divine Encounters episode she explores what she says followed during surgery: a meadow, a silvery teacher, a life review seen through other people’s eyes, and a lesson about love without dogma.
Key Takeaways
- Nancy says she was a scientist trained to believe the brain produces consciousness, and that she was an atheist whose parents had told her she was going to hell.
- She says she was hit by a driver who was texting while she cycled through a traffic circle near Boulder, Colorado, at the end of 2014.
- She describes a dual view of the accident, with her human self fighting to survive and her higher self watching calmly from about 75 feet away.
- She says that during surgery she found herself in a misty summer meadow, feeling “like I was being hugged energetically with love.”
- She says a silvery, glowing teacher helped her review her life, where she felt other people’s emotions as well as her own.
- She says one incident with her younger sister was enough to show how much “your words and actions impact those around you.”
- She says she was up and walking by Wednesday after a Monday surgery, and chose to change her life for the better.
| Guest | Nancy Rynes |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 037 |
| Background | A scientist in the physical sciences; a bike commuter near Boulder, Colorado; raised to expect hell as an atheist |
| When and where | Between Christmas and New Year of 2014, in a traffic circle half a mile from her home |
| What Nancy says happened | A broadside collision with an SUV, then a dual state of awareness, then an experience during surgery |
| Where she says she went | A misty summer meadow and a pond covered with thousands of tiny videos |
| Who she met | A silvery, glowing woman who said she would be her teacher |
| Time away | About two hours in surgery; she says she coded for roughly a minute and a half to two minutes |
| The message | Live a love-centered life, and know that you are accepted for who you are |
A Cyclist, a Scientist and a Holiday Ride
Nancy tells Alex that before the accident she was living near Boulder, Colorado, which is a huge biking community. She used to bicycle to work about three times a week, 15 miles one way, so she was used to traffic. She had taken time off between Christmas and New Year in 2014, and Colorado winters, she notes, are actually pretty nice for the most part. There are cold times and warm times, and this was a warm one. She decided to go out for a ride.
Her professional background matters to the story. She trained as a scientist in the physical sciences, and she says she was taught “that brain produces consciousness.” In her words, that was it: once the brain goes, you are done. Her parents, she adds, had told her she was going to hell because she was an atheist. We will come back to that.
The Traffic Circle
She did not even make it half a mile from her house. She rode into a traffic circle, which was new to the little town where she lived, and people did not know how to navigate it. It was not well designed for cyclists. There was a bike lane coming in and one going out, but nowhere for a bike to be inside the circle itself, and it was narrow. She did the best she could, knowing there was other traffic.
As she came in, a very large, truck-sized SUV was coming from her right. She thought the driver was stopping. She did not stop. It turned out later that she was texting. Nancy uses it as a teaching moment, she says: this is why you do not text while you drive. The SUV hit her broadside.
Indiana Jones on the Hood
The first part of the crash is the only part of the entire experience Nancy does not remember. After that, she says, it is crystal clear. She flipped up off the bike and landed on the hood of the vehicle, looking in at the driver. Time dilated. That split second felt like an eternity, she says. She compares the next part to the first Indiana Jones film, where the hero slides off a vehicle and underneath it, except that she was not wearing body armor.
She says the driver was so bent on texting that she did not see the person on her hood. She did not feel the hit and did not hear a thing. Nancy adds that the woman had her driving glasses off to text better, so she could see clearly only a couple of feet from her face. She kept driving.
When Nancy hit the pavement she heard bones breaking and knew it was not good. All she was doing, she says, was trying to survive. The chest strap of her small backpack hooked on something under the SUV, perhaps on the axle, and was dragging her. Without thinking, she reached up and grabbed the axle so she would not be run over. The SUV was in a turn, so if she had not, the back wheels would have gone over her. She says she would not have survived that.
Two Views at Once
Then, she says, something strange happened. A part of her consciousness was no longer in her body. This freaked her out, because nothing in her scientific training had prepared her for it. She describes her higher self, “my higher self, or my soul,” as outside her body, watching the accident from about 75 feet away on the grass.
She calls it a very unusual dual view. The human level of consciousness stayed in her body and was doing what animals do: fear, and trying to stay alive. The other part of her was calm, loving and present, and it talked her through the whole thing. “Don’t worry, this is going to be okay.” She says it told her it was supposed to happen this way, and she would be fine. Seeing the accident from both vantage points began to blow her mind, but she needed to focus on survival, so she put it on the back burner. For more on the idea, see our glossary entry on the higher self.
Bystanders, Paramedics and Surgery
Another driver got in front of the SUV and stopped her. Bystanders called the paramedics. Nancy says she stayed in that dual state for several minutes, until the paramedics arrived. A trauma nurse in another vehicle arrived at the same time. The two professionals converged on her and had to hold her down physically to keep her from getting up.
When the paramedics began prodding her neck, she says, the pain kicked in with a vengeance. She had never broken a bone before. She says the doctors at first did not think she would survive. She reports at least 24 broken bones, a completely fractured and shattered spine, and surgery to install titanium rods in her back. They planned the neck as well, she says, but ended up doing only her back so she could heal properly.
These are Nancy’s own descriptions of her injuries. Next Level Soul shares her account as she tells it, and we make no medical claims.
A Meadow, a Hug and a Realization
As she drifted off from the anesthesia, Nancy says, she noticed she was no longer in the operating room or the hospital. It felt like a meadow on a hillside overlooking distant mountains and a valley. It was misty, a warm summer day, and beautiful. She thought: this is kind of cool, I can hang out here. “This was not a hallucination.” She realized that fairly quickly.
Then she started paying attention. She was feeling love coming into her. That was not normal, she thought. “I felt like I was being hugged energetically with love.” She felt completely at peace, welcomed and accepted. Things began to click. She wondered whether she had died back on the operating table.
Her second thought was a puzzle. If she had died, why did this feel like love and acceptance? Her parents had told her she would go to hell because she was an atheist. This did not make sense. She heard a voice that welcomed her and said this was her home, where she belonged, where her soul lives, and “that you are accepted for who you are.” She calls it all the wonderful things we all want to hear.
A Silvery Teacher
After a while, a figure approached. It looked like a woman with long hair, glowing, silvery. She welcomed Nancy and said she would be her teacher. She would teach her what she needed to know to make her life on Earth one that was worth living. In Nancy’s words, she was there to help clean up her life and get on a path of love. Her two main goals were to teach her about living a love-based life, and to help her get her life back on track where it was supposed to be originally.
When the teacher said she wanted to send Nancy back, Nancy says her reaction was, “that’s not gonna happen.” She wanted to see her dad and her sister, who had both died before her. That was not to be. She says she is kind of glad now, because it would have been even harder to come back. The teacher reminded her that she had agreed to go back.
Thousands of Little Videos
The teacher showed her a kind of video in the air, which Nancy describes as a life review. The memories came with it, and the emotions, reminding her why she came into this life and what she had agreed to do. They went on a little journey. She learned about “the nature of divine love,” how to be loving to each other on Earth and what that really means, the nature of gratitude as another form of love, and the importance of connecting with other people. It was challenging, she says, to be in a transition between human body and soul essence.
She was brought to a pond covered with thousands of little videos. When she focused on one, she was pulled right back into that bit of her life. Each was an incident in which she had interacted with someone. Some were positive, some negative, some neutral. When she focused on an incident, she not only re-experienced it from her own point of view but was also in the head and heart of the other person. For more on how guests describe this, see our glossary entry on the life review.
One incident involved something nasty she once said to her younger sister. She experienced it from her sister’s perspective as well as her own and felt the hurt. “All I needed was one of those,” she says. It was astoundingly transformative, a lesson about “how much your words and actions impact those around you.”
Cloud Animals and a Return
The teacher brought her to another meadow and tried to make her feel light-hearted. They did something Nancy loved as a kid: spotting animals in the clouds. She finds it funny. “Why are there clouds?” in the afterlife, she wonders. Then the teacher sent her back, and she woke in the recovery room.
She later learned that she coded for roughly a minute and a half to two minutes while she was on the table. Then they said, well, she is fine, and continued with the surgery. She was in surgery about two hours in all, maybe a little longer. That is how much human time it took.
Choosing to Change
She spent a couple of days on pain medication and felt heavy but not in pain. The surgery was on Monday. By Wednesday morning she was up and walking around, and she refused further pain medication, telling the doctor she did not need it. She wanted to do the best she could to change her life for the better. She had no idea where that would lead.
It was hard, she admits. She was glad to have a core group of friends who loved her no matter what, and two sisters who were already spiritual and were right there with her. Her purpose now, she says, is helping other people in whatever way she is allowed, and helping them live a more creative, less fear-based, love-centered life. For her own higher self, she thinks it is to learn how to live in that state of love in many different circumstances. Creativity, she says, is more than painting. It is living from a place of “being curious and open and expansive.”
Placing Nancy’s Story Beside Other Accounts
Several themes in Nancy’s account turn up often: seeing the accident from outside the body, a meadow, an overwhelming sense of welcome, a teacher or guide, a review of life where the experiencer feels others’ emotions, and a return with a purpose. What stands out is how she met the experience as a trained scientist and an atheist, with no religion to explain it. Her account is about love, not dogma.
If you are new to the topic, our complete guide to near-death experiences is a good place to start, and our glossary has a short entry on consciousness.
Questions to Sit With
- Nancy felt the hurt of a hurtful remark from her sister’s side. Who might you see differently if you could feel it from their side?
- She was told she would go to hell for her beliefs, and found love and welcome instead. What have you been told about yourself that does not match what you feel?
- She defines creativity as being curious and open and expansive. Where could you bring a little more of that into your week?
Before you speak to someone close to you this week, pause and ask how your words will land in their heart. Then say it with that in mind.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Nancy says her higher self stayed calm and loving while her human self fought to survive.
- She says love felt like an energetic hug, and she was accepted for who she is.
- She says a life review lets you feel what others felt, and one example was enough to change her.
- She says gratitude is another form of love.
- She says living creatively means living curious, open and expansive.
Please enjoy my conversation with Nancy Rynes.
Guest Links: Connect With Nancy Rynes
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Nancy Rynes?
Nancy Rynes is a near-death experiencer who trained as a scientist in the physical sciences and lived near Boulder, Colorado. She shares her story in this Divine Encounters episode.
What happened to Nancy Rynes in 2014?
She says she was cycling through a traffic circle near Boulder, Colorado, when a driver who was texting struck her. She says part of her consciousness rose out of her body and watched the accident from the grass.
What does Nancy mean by a dual view?
She says her human level of consciousness stayed in her body, trying to survive, while her higher self watched calmly and told her everything would be okay.
Where did Nancy find herself during surgery?
She says she was in a misty summer meadow on a hillside overlooking distant mountains and a valley. She says it was not a hallucination, and she felt hugged with love.
Why did Nancy think she might be in trouble?
She says her parents told her she would go to hell because she was an atheist. She says that made the love and acceptance she felt confusing at first.
Who was Nancy’s teacher?
She describes a glowing, silvery figure who looked like a woman with long hair. She says the teacher said she would help Nancy clean up her life and get on a path of love.
What was Nancy’s life review like?
She says she saw thousands of little videos on the surface of a pond. She says when she focused on one, she re-experienced it from both her own perspective and the other person’s.
What did Nancy learn about love?
She says she learned about the nature of divine love, how to be loving on Earth, and that gratitude is another form of love. She also learned the importance of connecting with other people.
What did Nancy do after her surgery?
She says she was walking by Wednesday after a Monday surgery and refused pain medication. She says she chose to change her life for the better.
What is Nancy’s purpose now?
She says it is to help people live a more creative, less fear-based, love-centered life, and to learn to live in love in many circumstances herself.
Is a near-death experience proof of an afterlife?
Next Level Soul shares near-death experiences as lived experiences told in the guest’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
- A short explanation of the life review
- What the higher self means, in plain language
- Stephanie Kraft, an atheist who says she met Jesus
- Anna Stone, a former atheist, on what awaits beyond the veil
- Jack Morrigan, an atheist stunned by a life-changing experience
- Betty Eadie on what she was shown about church and the Bible
- Nanci L. Danison on what she says she was shown about religion
- 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.
Nancy Rynes 0:08
I was living near Boulder, Colorado, which was huge. It still is a huge biking community. I used to bicycle to work like three times a week, and that was like 15 miles one way. So I was used to being in traffic. People would see you, and it wasn't that big of a deal, but, but I had taken a little bit of time off work between Christmas and New Year that New Year holiday break, that one year it was 2014 and Colorado winters are actually pretty nice for the most part. There's cold times, but then there's also warm times, and this happened to be fairly warm, so I went out on a bike ride one of those days that I was off from work over the holiday, and not even I didn't even make it, I think, a half a mile from my house, and went into a traffic circle, which was new back then for, you know, this little town I lived in, people didn't know how to navigate these things. It was, and it was not well designed for cyclists. There was a bike lane coming in and a bike lane going out, but, but nowhere in the in this traffic circle for a bike to be, and it was very narrow, so I did the best I could navigating it, knowing that there was other, you know, other traffic around me. And as I'm coming in, there's a, there's a very large SUV, like a truck sized SUV, coming in from my right. And I thought she was stopping. She didn't stop. Turns out later, she was texting. And I always use this as a teaching moment. This is why you don't want to be texting while you're driving. She was texting as as she was trying to navigate this traffic circle, which was not good for me. She ended up hitting me on broadside. So you know, like this, and I don't even like the first part of this. This is the only part of this whole experience I don't remember. The rest of it is crystal clear. I somehow ended up, I flipped up off the bike and ended up on the hood of her vehicle, looking in at her. And I don't know it really in honest to gosh, it was, it felt like it honest. And as I'm in this, you know how you hear people talk about like time being dilated, it felt like forever, like this split second felt like an eternity. And what I'm thinking is, I'm going through this accident. It's just like Indiana Jones, that first movie, and if you have that picture in your mind, that's basically what happened to me, except I wasn't in full body armor when this happened. She was so bent on texting that she didn't see this person on the hood. She didn't feel the hit, she didn't hear anything. She just the other thing is that she had her driving glasses off so that she could text better, so she didn't have like, her her her vision was really only clear up to like, a couple of feet from her, from her face, so she really didn't see anything beyond, like, arm's length, because she was driving in violation of her license. So anyway, she kept driving, and it really was like that point in Indiana Jones where he's sliding off the vehicle kind of went over the edge and then underneath. That's basically what happened to me. But when I hit the pavement, I actually heard, like bones breaking, so I knew this was not good, and all I'm doing is I'm trying to survive. At that point, I somehow got my I had a little backpack on and had that, there's a chest strap that goes across here, that got hooked on something underneath of her vehicle, something on her axle. I'm still not really sure what. So that was kind of dragging me. But I also reached up, didn't I wasn't even thinking, and I reached up and I grabbed a hold of her axle so that I wouldn't get run over. So think about it, she's in a turn going into this traffic circle. If I wouldn't have done that, her back wheels would have run over me. So I was kind of in a bad spot, like I didn't have any other options. I mean, I would not have survived that. The first interesting thing that I noted. I noticed that all of a sudden, there was a part of my consciousness that wasn't in my body anymore, and this was kind of freaking me out, because nothing in my training as a scientist, in the physical sciences, anyway, had prepared me for that ever happening. You know, we were taught that brain produces consciousness, and once the brain goes That's it. And all of a sudden there was a part of me, my higher self, or my soul, was all of a sudden, outside of my body, watching the accident from like maybe 75 feet away, off on the grass, and I'm off on the side, and I had this really on. Usual dual view of the accident. So there was like what I call the human level of consciousness was still in my body. And that was animal survival, you know, fear, trying to stay alive. And then that other part of me was so different. It was very calm and very loving and just very present and kind of talking me through the whole thing, like, Don't worry, this is going to be okay. It's it's supposed to happen this way, but it's going to, you're going to be fine. And to be able to see the accident from both vantage points was like starting to blow my mind. I had no idea that was and I just needed to focus on survival. So I sort of ignored it. I wasn't fully ignoring it, but I was sort of putting it on the back burner to handle later, and I just worked on surviving. So finally, one of the other vehicles, you know, in this whole area, got in front of this woman's truck SUV and headed her off, and so he stopped her, and that's when, you know, they called all the bystanders, called the paramedics, and they got me to the hospital. The funky thing is that separated state of consciousness stuck with me. I was in that dual state for several minutes until the paramedics arrived and just kind of witnessing. It was very weird to see the accident from both perspectives. And there was a trauma nurse also in a different vehicle coming in same time. So the two of them, lucky for me, converged on me and helped me until they got me into the ambulance. Two medical professionals there with me to like they physically had to hold me down in order to keep me from getting up. So once the paramedics arrived, which was it was a few minutes later, they started kind of prodding on my neck. That's when the pain kicked in. It kicked in with a vengeance. I'd never broken a bone in my body up till that point. Now, the doctors, at first didn't think I was gonna survive. I had at least 24 bones that were broken in multiple places. So it wasn't like easy bone breaks, it this was like a completely fractured spine and just shattered and that's when they put me into surgery. What they wanted to do was install titanium rods. They were going to do it my neck and back. They ended up just doing my back so that I could heal properly. They did the best they could, given my state. And then all of a sudden, as I was starting to drift off from the anesthesia, that's when I noted that I wasn't in the or anymore or in the hospital at all, and I instead, it felt like I was out on a like a meadow on a hillside overlooking distant mountains and a valley. And it was just really beautiful. It was misty and summer, kind of a warm summer day. And I thought, well, this is kind of cool. I can hang out here. This was not a hallucination. And I realized that pretty quickly. And that's when I started to think about what, Okay, what else is going on here? And that's when I know I kind of paid more attention to my surroundings at that point. And that's when I realized, Now, wait a minute, I am feeling love coming into me. Now that can't be, because that's not normal. I felt like I was being hugged energetically with love, and I felt peace. I felt completely at peace and welcomed and accepted. And that's when things started to really click, like I wonder if I died back on the operating table. That was, that's when I first realized that I may have died. And then the second thought was, if I did die down there on the operating table, what's this? Because my parents told me I was going to go to hell because I was an atheist, and this didn't make sense to be loved and accepted. I heard a voice that welcomed me, that this was my home. This is where I belonged. This is ultimately where, where my soul lives, that you are accepted for who you are, all that wonderful stuff that we all want to hear. So I was there for a while, and then a figure kind of came up to me, but looked like a woman. She had long hair, but she was kind of glowy, you know, silvery looking, and she welcomed me, and she said she was going to be my teacher and teach me what I needed to know in order to make my life on earth one that would be worth living is, is the way that she put it, meaning, clean. I'm here to help you clean up your life, basically, and help you get on a path of love. Because those were the two main things that she wanted to accomplish with me, was teach me about living a loving life, living a love based life, and then learning what to do to kind of get my life back on it track where it was supposed to be originally.
When she said she wanted to send me back here, it was like, that's not gonna happen. Just take me to see my dad and my sister. You know, I've had people that pre deceased me, and I'm like, I just want to go talk to my dad or my sister, but that was not to be. I'm kind of happy, in hindsight, that they did, and otherwise it would have been even harder to come back. And I agreed to do she said, you well, you agreed to go back. So she showed me like this video, in the air, like a past life review or a life review, and in the air in front of him, and that's basically what happened to me. And the funky thing is that the memories come with it, and the emotions come with it, reminding me why I came here into this life, and what I had wanted to accomplish and agreed to do. So I just agreed to go along with her, so she took me on this little jaunt. It looked to me like we were on this little journey. And I learned a lot of different things in different places. There was a lot of things I needed to learn, you know, the nature of divine love, and how to be loving to each other here on Earth, and what that really means, and the nature of gratitude, what gratitude really is as another form of love. And I learned things like the importance of connecting with other people. So it was really challenging kind of be in this transition state between human body and the soul essence that we are. And I was brought to this pond my little little videos on top of all over the surface of this pond, like 1000s of little videos. And when I would focus on one of them, I was pulled right back into that bit of my life. So each one of those videos was an incident in my life where I was interacting with someone, and some of them were positive, some were negative, some were neutral, but it was my way of reviewing what happened. The powerful part of this was when I would focus on one of those incidents, not only would I re experience it from my perspective in that moment, but I was also somehow in the head and heart of the other person I was interacting with. I had an incident where I said something somewhat nasty to my younger sister. I got to experience it from her perspective as well as mine, and feeling her hurt, all I needed was one of those. Like, all I needed to see was one of those. And it was astoundingly transformative. Like, you know, at that moment, how strongly we're connected, how much your words and actions impact those around you. I was brought to another meadow, and my teacher was trying to make me feel light hearted. I think since we were doing what I used to love as a kid, I would spot cloud animals, you know, up in the sky, which is weird, you know, like this is, this is the afterlife. Why are there clouds? In the middle of that tirade, she set me back, and I woke up in the recovery room. In the middle of the tirade, the anesthesiologist was there and one of the nurses was there. They were checking up on me. What I found out later, I coded for about two minutes or so, somewhere between one and a half and two minutes, and then they just said, Well, okay, I guess she's fine. They got me back, and they just continued on with the surgery. So I was I was out in surgery for about a total of two hours, maybe a little bit more. That's how much you know, human time this took. So I came back and they had me on pain meds for a couple of days. Now I felt heavy, like the body felt heavy, but not in pain. I was laying in bed for a couple of days. So the surgery was Monday. By Wednesday morning, I was up and walking around. I also refused pain meds at that point, because I told the doc I don't really need them. So I really wanted to do the best I could to change my life for the better. Now I had no idea where that was going to lead me. I just thought, well, I'll do my thing, and I'll help my friends and help my family and just be me, but in a slightly different way. That was hard. I'll fully admit that was really challenging. Luckily, I had some really good core friends that loved me no matter what. So there was that core group of people, and two of my sisters were just right there with me. They were already spiritual. For me, it's helping other people in whatever way that I'm allowed to do that, and helping people live that more creative, less fear based, more love centered, life for my own, my own Higher Self. I think it's to learn how to live in that state of love in a whole bunch of different circumstances, because I've been presented with a lot of them, and part of that is also learning to live in that state of creativity. And creativity doesn't just mean painting or, you know, whatever creative endeavor. It's the living, creatively living from a place. Of being curious and open and expansive.
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