Woman Clinically DEAD for 10 Mins; What Happened Next in Her NDE Was AMAZING! with Rosemary Thornton

On today’s episode, we welcome Rosemary Thornton, a resilient spirit whose near-death experience transformed her perspective on life, healing, and divine love. In this profound conversation, Rosemary opens the door to her journey through unimaginable grief and loss, only to find herself catapulted into a spiritual realm of peace and wholeness.

Rosemary’s story begins with tragedy. After ten years of what she believed was a blissful marriage, her husband ended his own life, leaving her devastated and unmoored. She recalls how she masked her pain, pretending to move forward while silently battling a profound sense of loss. It wasn’t until she was diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer and endured a series of medical mishaps that she truly reached the brink, both physically and emotionally. As she recounts, “I said, ‘God, heal me or let me go,’” and that simple prayer set the stage for a journey far beyond this world.

What followed was a medical emergency that led Rosemary to an otherworldly experience, one she vividly describes with a sense of awe and peace. After a surgery gone wrong, she found herself floating in a vast, comforting darkness, free from fear and physical pain. In this spiritual realm, she encountered a divine presence, a being she describes as both massive and loving. The message she received was profound yet simple: “You are the image and likeness; I am the original.”

The most striking aspect of Rosemary’s experience was not fear or resistance to leaving the earthly plane, but the overwhelming sense of being welcomed home. As she floated further into this divine space, she felt the presence of spiritual beings—her “tribe”—celebrating her return. It was as though the burdens she carried through life had been stripped away, leaving behind only her true essence: peace, love, and humor. “I realized the fear, anxiety, and worries were left on that gurney. What went with me was who I really am,” she reflects, her voice filled with wonder and relief.

But the spiritual journey didn’t end there. Rosemary found herself in a white room, facing a closed door—a symbol, perhaps, of her next phase. She remembers asking the divine being with her, “Is this the divine will for my life?” The answer was not what she expected: “No, but whatever you decide, you go with all God’s blessings and mercy.” This moment of choice encapsulates a profound spiritual truth: we are never alone in our decisions. Whether we move forward or return, we are always held in divine love.

SPIRITUAL TAKEAWAYS

  1. Healing Goes Beyond the Physical: Rosemary’s near-death experience wasn’t just about overcoming cancer; it was about restoring her soul. “My soul got rebooted,” she says. True healing, as she learned, is about reconnecting with our spiritual essence.
  2. We Are Never Truly Alone: In the darkest moments, both in life and in death, we are surrounded by spiritual beings who welcome us home and support our journey. Rosemary’s tribe of angels affirmed this deep truth: “Welcome home, dearie.”
  3. Our Decisions Are Guided by Love: Even in moments of great uncertainty, we are guided by divine love. Whether we take the long way or the direct path, we are always aligned with the will of God, surrounded by grace and mercy.

In this conversation, Rosemary Thornton reminds us that life and death are not opposing forces but parts of a grander journey. Her experience offers solace to those facing grief, loss, or illness, and her message is clear: we are loved, we are guided, and we are always whole in the eyes of the divine.

Please enjoy my conversation with Rosemary Thornton.

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Follow Along with the Transcript – Episode DE035

Alex Ferrari 0:00
Tell me what your life was like before you died.

Rosemary Thornton 0:08
I met my second husband in 2006 and I was so grateful to find him. I'd been through a messy divorce. Had five years of living single, and I had some success as a writer. I'd written books on architectural history. And in fact, after our first date, one of my stories, because I had, I had good publicity, one of my stories about one of my new books, was written up in the Wall Street Journal above the fold, no less someone. I was very proud that it looked like this happened all the time. You know, here's this new young this new fellow I'm trying to impress. And I say I was in the Wall Street Journal today, above the fold. He was like, wow. So he and I were married 10 years, and I thought it was a good marriage. In fact, in my wedding vows, I thank I thanked God for bringing him into my life. Thought he was the answer to a lifetime of prayers. My first marriage had failed after 24 years. And has anyone who's been through a divorce can tell you that's that's hard when you put your best energies, efforts and prayers to marriage and a fail. So I really thought Happy Days had arrived, really and truly. I thought all those hard years were over, and then after about nine and a half years of marriage, came home for lunch one day and ended his life. And as a sensitive soul and a writer, to say I was devastated would be an understatement, but we had a good life. In fact, there are times that I was prone to sadness, typical creative type, you know, ruminate over everything, think too much all time. And he would frequently tell me, we have a good life. You know, look at all the wonderful blessings we have in our life. And for him to do this for about two and a half years, I just just lost my mind in the vernacular of the day. I learned how to mask. I learned how to pretend to be fine, because nobody wants to be around somebody who's like, Oh, my life is awful. And I was going out to lunch with friends, and, you know, pretending. And, you know, an interesting thing happened. I was at a fancy restaurant somewhere, eating by myself on this particular day, but somebody opened a door to my side, and the wind caught the door, and it swam very, very hard, and it swam so hard, and it startled me, and I jumped up out of my seat, and I yelled, with children around and everybody else around, I yelled, what the f is wrong with you? It's nobody in particular, but It startled me so badly, and I, you know, people were just gaping at me. I jumped up and ran out of the restaurant because I saw, you know, you had to buy Oh, but I was still pretty messed up. And then 29 months into it, I'd had a bunch of physical symptoms, very disturbing symptoms, including some bleeding and, you know, gynecological problems, blah, blah, blah. And I went to a doctor, and I went to a couple doctors, actually went to three. I was diagnosed with cervical cancer, stage two, and I said, you know, God, I was pretty clear on this, heal me or let me go. I meant fast. It didn't mean from some lingering illness, and during a related surgery, somebody made a boo boo. And then I awakened from that surgery, bleeding profusely. It had been a cervical biopsy, and I awakened, you know, in the recovery, bleeding a lot, and they told an RN, I said, Look, something's gone wrong. 59 years old, I tell you something's gone wrong. I bleed. Once you get home and lay down, you'll be fine. So three times I protested, and three times she told me just to go home and lay down. And I did. And once at home was getting worse and worse and worse, and I had a friend staying with me, and I told my friend, I said, call an ambulance. I'm bleeding to death. And ambulance game took me to another hospital, a little er that was actually not connected to a hospital, and they made more boo boos. And, you know, I used to tell this in front of live audiences, and when I would tell the part where they gave me a morphine derivative as a drug, I don't know why, but they did, everyone in the audience gasped, because when a patient presents with dropping blood pressure and profuse bleeding, morphine depresses it further. It really does kind of grease this kids to the afterlife, you know? And I had never been in an ambulance, and I get into this, er, and this very kind RN, about my age, is attending to me. And I was so frightened, because now I made a decision, okay, I'm, I'm gonna live, you know, I've agreed to go to the hospital. And I grabbed this RNs hand, and I said, promise me you're not gonna let me die. And she was so compassionate and so motherly. And she grabbed my hand, she squeezed it, and got right in my face, very, very sweetly, almost as a mother consoling a child, and said, Oh, honey, we're not going to let you die. We have many solutions for this. And then they gave me the morphine derivative, in a way I went. And the thing is, to the onlooker. It was a pretty peaceful passing. And in my experience, what I was experiencing, the thing is, it after they gave me that Dilaudid, I don't know the time, my friend was at my side, I'm on this gurney and a little cubicle in an ER, my friend said that after they gave me the audit, I just passed right out. And, you know, the thing about that, it was actually Dilaudid, morphine derivative. The thing about that is, I didn't have much blood volume at that point, so that Dilaudid, you know, I don't know technically, if I bled to death or if the Dilaudid was just the final blood of my little heart is going. I need fluids. I need fluid. I need fluid. And then that's right, let's finish her off. But my friend said. And he looked at the blood pressure cuff, which is, you know, inflating and deflating automatically, and the medical staff have left the room. And he said, at one point, it said, 35 over 20 or 33 over 25 as my blood pressure well, which is, mean, you're on your way out. And he stood up to go get help, because I, you know, she's dying. And as he did, my eyes popped open. I don't remember this, but he said, you reached your hands up to heaven, and, you know, wiggled your fingers almost like a child reaching for a parent, and said something. And he said, he got up and stood over me and looked right in my face. And he said, You looked right through me. You were talking to somebody that you could see and nobody else could. And you know, there's a term for this. It's called terminal lucidity. Have you heard of that, that often at the very end of life, we get a burst of energy. What happened next was I fell back on the gurney. I've been trying to sit up, which is pretty impressive for somebody the blood pressure of 33 over 25 but I fell back on the gurney. And he said, and then you just went real still. And meanwhile, I was having the time of my life. I felt myself awakening from what seemed like a deep, dreamless state. And man, I was catapulted out of this body. And I mean, catapulted like toast out of a toaster. I went flying off, and I was floating away in blackness. A lot of people say, could you see your body? No, I couldn't see my body. And I really think that's God's mercy, because I learned later my friend the medical staff did come rushing in when they hear the blood pressure alarm going off. And he said they ushered him outside, into the, you know, wait outside the little room, and brought a crash card in. He said, Actually, it was kind of funny. The nurse came running into the room first, and he said she did a sternal rub. Have you heard of that, where they take their knuckles and rake them over your sternum? It's it elicits a pain response. If there's any life at all, you'll, you'll wiggle or jolt or something. But he said she did that for a minute, and nothing. And he said, and then she, she went over to the blood pressure cuff machine and checked the plug at the outlet, like, well, this thing isn't working. It looks like she's dead. I was catapulted very dramatically. And then as I'm floating in this perfect blackness. And I hear a lot of people talk about the love they feel, I would say the predominant emotion I felt was peace. And I thought, This is great. Everything I am has gone with me, my macabre, goofy sense of humor, my silly little giggle, the sound of my voice. And I thought, What did I leave on that gurney? And I realized the fear, the anxiety, the worries, the woe, everything negative was what I left behind, and what went with me was me, who I really am. And that was very comforting, by the way. That was very comforting to know that everything I really am went with me. This floating went on for some time, and at some point in this blackness is I'm still floating further and further away. And the thing is, I had always had this inherent fear of the dark, and I remember thinking I'm in pitch black. I mean, you know, kind of came see your hand in front of you, and I thought I had I'm not afraid. So maybe I'm not really afraid of the dark. And very early on in this experience, I felt a massive presence join me, and I mean, massive, and he was he she was to my left and much taller than me. And I turned my head up and looked to the left to see him her. And I thought, this is interesting. I'm turning my head to the left to look over my left shoulder. And I thought, so I have some sort of form. I'm not just some ethereal spirit floating away, but I turned and I'm smiling, literally, with a happy smile. I said, and who are you? And the answer was before, again, before I could even finish the sentence the question, the answer was, immediate. You are the image and likeness. I'm the original. I was like, Whoa, that's Genesis, 125, and 26 Yeah, we're made the image and likeness of God. So this went on, and in some place, still flirting in this blackness, I felt the presence of what you might call spiritual beings or angels. But it was they were welcoming me home. And it wasn't with words, but it was with a feeling like she's back. She's back. We're so glad you're back. And I could summon up the sum up the entire experience in three words. It would actually be pretty easy, but it would be welcome home, dearie. You know, my whole life, I've been a weirdo and an oddball. I've just been that kid that from the playground to career life just different, you know. But it was like these people got me, and they were so glad I was back home. So glad, and that was so comforting that I was with my tribe, you know. And it was like they were saying, we know this was a hard one, but you're back. And one of the spiritual beings with me said, Remember, your mom told you you were given up for dead as an infant.

I was three weeks old, and I contracted a disease, and the doctors sent my mom home and said, This baby's dead. She's not gonna survive another couple hours, and yet, the next morning, my mom went home and prayed that night, and the next morning, when she came back in the nun Catholic hospital, but a nun handed me over to my mom and said, this baby isn't better. She's healed. So the angels in this experience said you didn't almost die that night. You crossed over then and you were sent back. Well, I remembered, in this death experience, the firemen trying to get a gurney in the house, and they couldn't, they couldn't get it up the stairs and around the corner, so but I remembered, I didn't have a life review, but I remember those firemen trying so hard because I was still conscious when I was taken out of the house. I remember him trying so hard to be helpful, and I. Wow, they showed me so much love, you know, a total stranger. And I thought about how much love they showed me, but my predominant feeling, really and truly, was that I got early release for good behavior. I felt like if somebody opened the prison doors and let me out. And then at some point, I remember the transition, but at some point, I'm no longer floating, but I'm in a white room and I'm on my feet now. I'm no longer floating, but I'm on my feet in this perfect white room, and about 15 to 20 feet in front of me is a door, and it was shut. I remember being a little disappointed that the door was shut, because I thought, hey, I'm supposed to just go through that door. And I that door ought to be open for me. So I'm walking through this white room, and it was perfect white. And I observed that there were no light fixtures, no traditional light fixtures. It was just illuminated from within. But I had a spiritual being or an angel with me at this point. And I asked one, there was this mist or fog in the room, and I asked about that. It was very it was not just falling, it was encircling and very busy mist around me. And I asked the angelic being with me. I said, I feel like I'd be able to focus on one of the individual droplets. And the angelic being said, your eyes are not acclimated to this new environment yet, so you can't see it, but what you're seeing these are particles of light, and that when we go to heaven, we have to be cleansed of the muck. And that was the word that was used the muck of Earth, which is a word I just don't use much in everyday language, you know, but that the muck and the denseness and the heaviness of Earth has to be washed. And this was like most akin to a spiritual car wash. And as my friend said, leave your muddy boots at the door. We don't go to heaven with the heaviness of earth. And the other thing that was explained to me very clearly was we have a spiritual identity, and sometimes we get so accustomed to these physical disease process that we think, you know, like, I am a diabetic, I have hepatitis, I have this. We identify with a disease, and that the purpose of this was to strip that away and say, no, no, no, that's not your identity. Your real identity is spiritual child of God. That's who you really are. And so that's, it's kind of a reminder. And the other thing somewhere is, I'm walking because I see that door, and I think, okay, I know the gig. Everybody out of my way. I'm doing the door, let me out, and as I'm doing that, one of the messages that was very clearly conveyed to me. So while it looks to me like this thing happened and this, it's really hard to say, but at some point in that white room, I was told that if I agreed to go, or if I ended up going, not agreed, but if I ended up going back, that I would be restored to wholeness. And it wasn't said that you'll be healed of the grief, you'll be healed of this disease, but you'll be restored to wholeness and and so I get to the door, and I'm so grateful, and I go to put my right hand up to move through the door, pretty interested by the fact right handed on Earth and right handed in heaven. You know, still that that's part of my identity. But I paused, and I asked the angel that was with me, or spiritual being. Whatever I said, Is this the divine will for my life? And what I was going to say, is this the divine will for my life that a medical mistake sends me on to my reward and before I could even get is this the divine the answer was again, immediate, and the answer was no, but whatever you decide, you go with all God's blessings and mercy and grace and love and care, and that was the answer to that third prayer or the second prayer that I can't handle any more decisions. This is a pretty big decision, decide if you go to heaven or stay on Earth. And I was told it's okay. And one of the things, one of the takeaways for me on this, is if we are trying to do good, if we are trying to do the will of God, we're not going to make a wrong decision, because even if we take the long way around the barn, we're going to end up back where we need to be. So the healing of the disease process is very important. But you know, Psalm 23rd says he restoreth my soul. My soul got rebooted. My soul got restored. That's the real healing. And the thing I just I mean, this happened five years ago, next month, this whole thing, the Near Death Experience occurred, the thing I just thought about in the last six months, because this, I don't remember anymore, but the experience continues to unfold. My body was on that gurney. It's my soul, or my essence or my spirit that went to heaven, but that's where the healing happened. And when I went back to my body, the cancer was gone. So I mean, it's not my body that got hauled up to heaven for a reboot. It was my consciousness, my spirit, my essence, my soul. So I really believe, and I get in a lot of trouble for saying this too, but I really believe the next great frontier in medicine is going to be spiritual healing. I really do forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know, and be kind to yourself. Be gentler with yourself God. God is love. Love is God. And also, there's words. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, logos, you know, word God, God. God loves words. You know, if you're a wordsmith, man, you got it going on. I think God loves words. And I think the biggest thing, because some I've been having this thing about, you know, I'm aging, and I look in the mirror and I think, and look at pictures like, Oh, you're so old, you're not attractive. And then I think you're talking about God's creation. So I think we have to be real careful the words we speak over ourself. So God is the word, and words are God, and words are very powerful. Love, love alone is life.

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