I Predicated My Near Death Experience with Stephanie Arnold

Stephanie Arnold 0:00
At 36 weeks to the day my husband is on a business trip and I'm giving my daughter breakfast and you know, I started bleeding on the kitchen floor and I know that today's the day so I sent him a text saying, you know we're going to deliver today and so he stops meeting he gets on a plane our Skype chatting when I'm triage at the hospital. The doctor said, you know the O Rs are very quiet right now. I know you've been stressed this whole time. Let's go ahead and get Jacob out. Adina was playing and you know, I kissed her a million times. Because I was convinced it was the last time I was ever going to see her.

Alex Ferrari 0:48
I've been able to partner with Mindvalley to present you guys FREE Masterclass is between 60 and 90 minutes, covering Mind Body Soul Relationships and Conscious Entrepreneurship, taught by spiritual masters, yogi's spiritual thought leaders and best selling authors. Just head over to nextlevelsoul.com/free. I'd like to welcome to the show Stephanie Arnold. Hey, Stephanie.

Stephanie Arnold 1:21
Good. How are you doing?

Alex Ferrari 1:22
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We've had a wonderful pre interview conversation, which we felt like maybe we should start recording this conversation.

Stephanie Arnold 1:33
Done. We had everything we got the family connections, it's all good.

Alex Ferrari 1:37
It's all good. Exactly like my Latina sister. So, so your story is fascinating to me, because it's you know, we've had a lot of any of these on before. But your story is really interesting, because you saw it coming. And we're gonna get into that in a minute. So the first question asked for you is, how was your life prior to this information coming into your life like, Hey, you're gonna die soon? Like, were you always kind of, you know, intuition. Like you were like an empath. Were you able to figure it figure things out? Did you feel things? Or was this like, out of nowhere, all of a sudden, you're like, hey, you're gonna die when you give birth.

Stephanie Arnold 2:19
And so horrible. So I had moments, intuitive moments as a kid, my grandmother was from Cuba. And we talked a little bit about the human connection between us. And, and so she was a huge believer in ESP extrasensory perceptions, and then people would always call my, my, our, my centera. No, Santana have more like witchy and everything's a little intimidated by her but for your audience who are like What the hell's a scent that you know, so.

Alex Ferrari 2:44
Santana, for everybody. So everybody is a Santana is basically a kind of a witch doctor and Cuban lore, it's kind of Caribbean. There's white magic and black magic. I actually have members of my family who went through the whole process were white for a year, like, the whole, the whole shebang, it's a thing. It's a religion, it's a, it's a thing and ask any Cuban or any Puerto Rican or any Caribbean? Yeah, they like, Hey, I don't know about it, but I ain't gonna mess with it. It's kind of like voodoo in the Haitian culture,

Stephanie Arnold 3:23
100% 100%. And so, so, you know, people would, you know, my grandmother would see things and she would express them. And so when I was 10 years old, I was 3000 miles away from her, and I was very close to my grandmother. And we look a little bit of like, we're the only ones in the family that to in that respect, my both of my parents are redheads, we look nothing alike. But so I was 3000 miles away, and I felt my grandmother's fatal heart attack. And in that moment, I talked to my dad and I was like, Have you spoken to a whale? And he's like, no, no, but I'll talk to her tomorrow. And it was that moment. And I was scarred by it. Because I felt it so strongly. It was just this overall sadness. And then, a few years later, my uncle Marvin, who's my mother's brother, I hugged him and were Jewish, and in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, which were, you know, a few days, I have to because very healthy, he ran five miles a day and I had this overwhelming sadness that he was going to die, it would be the last time I would see him. And two days later, he had a heart attack and died. And as a kid, you think you're willing it to happen? I had no one to talk to about it. And I felt like I thought it and it happened. So I shut it down. I didn't want to know from it. I didn't want to hear from it. I didn't want to talk about it. It was definitely scary. And so nothing like that had happened intuitively until until this incident, where it was my own foreboding that I ultimately hurt.

Alex Ferrari 4:56
So, so I tell us the story Tell us the story of how you knew what was going to happen.

Stephanie Arnold 5:05
So I met my husband married him moved to Chicago from LA we worked in TV for most of my career. And, and so just so your audience knows I'm not a histrionic, neurotic person, I work extremely well under pressure. My husband's a PhD economist from University of Chicago, very level headed, very grounded. And we get married, and I moved to Chicago, and we have our first child, and it was difficult process having children. So I had to go through IVF, which is in vitro fertilization, it's done outside and inside of the body. And we had after three rounds of IVF, we had a beautiful, healthy baby girl, after and the only complication I had was that she was too big and had to have a C section. But it wasn't, that wasn't complicated Other than that, and then the second child, Jacob that I got pregnant with that was after seven rounds of IVF. And, and so first half of the pregnancy, the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, no problem, we had no issue and at the 20 week ultrasound, I was diagnosed with something called a placenta previa, which is basically where the placenta is growing on top of the cervix. And you know, it's a one in 200 risk, right? It's, it's, it's very complicated. And basically, as the belly grows as the uterus grows, the placenta will move out of the way and you deliver but worst case scenario is you have a C section and b Okay, I, I've had one before, that's not I don't have any fear of that. However, when the doctor said, I have this placenta previa, I It startled me and I looked at my husband, I said, I have a very rare blood type O negative, and which is 7% of the population. I said, I don't want to be special in any other category. And I've have a bad feeling about this. And of course, my husband who's very level headed says, Honey, we don't have all the information relax, you have great prenatal carrier and great hospitals. I think we'll be fine. But you know, I'm total type A personality and you know, I'm very research oriented. So I get back to to the apartment, and I'm typing on placenta previa. What's that, that turns if it happens to turn into a placenta accreta, which is what Kim Kardashian had where the placenta marries itself to the uterus. If that happens, you might bleed. If that happens as I keep reading, you might hemorrhage if that happens, you might need a hysterectomy. And if that happens, during the hemorrhage you and the baby could lose your life. And I sat back and I looked at the computer and I told my husband I said this is going to happen to us. The only difference is the baby's going to be fine. Except that I'm going to be dead on the operating table.

Alex Ferrari 7:51
What What was it? Did you see visions? Did you have a voice? Like was it

Stephanie Arnold 7:57
I call it a knowing you don't know how you know you just do you know how when your wife looks at you and says do not do this? Like she just knows. Now she might be doing this like get you to do something but but there's certain things men and women habit I hear more women than men like have this more instinct and especially maternal instinct. They have this feeling and I call it a knowing you don't know how, you know, you just I just knew this was going to happen. And so again, my husband's like, what you're thinking is going to happen is a half a half a half percent chance of happening. And it did not settle me because even though he it made sense to him, I mean, my husband was a former Air Force pilot. So for him all the the mechanics were working fine. All the gauges were working fine. All the tools were working fine. So what's the problem? Because you have a crazy thought in your head that you made me maybe there's too much testosterone running through your body with this baby boy, right? So he's just thinking like, all of these crazy things. So I was like, Okay, fine. So, I didn't just talk to him. I talked to everybody. I talked to nurses, doctors, you know, every visit I had I told that the doctors this was going to happen this was going to happen they're like Stephanie, there's no indication that this can happen and in their defense, the tests were negative. So at some point, I was told that if I deliver and I have an emergency situation where I need a hysterectomy, the my OB will not be the one to do the procedure. They will transfer to maternal fetal medicine. So but I don't want an MFM to do it. I want a gynec to a gynecological oncologist to do it and the reason why you want a guy not to do it is because they have more experience with high risk reproductive organ surgeries. And with that, that information armed with that I made an appointment with the head of gynaec at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which is a huge teaching hospital which delivers 12,000 babies a year. It is not easy to get an appointment with a GYN on the head of Guyana, when you are not suffering from any kind of cancer, you are a healthy pregnant woman, you have no diagnostics that tell you that you need a hysterectomy. So ultimately, Jonathan went with me to each and every appointment with with me probably because again, he didn't want to get divorced. So he's sitting with me in this, this waiting room with all of these women. And so they have IVs in their arm, they have no hair on their head, they have they're suffering from from cancer, and they're barely surviving. And so he's like, I am embarrassed to be here. And I said, I don't know what to tell you. Because I everybody's telling me that all they see is an open highway, and I see an 18 Wheeler headed straight for me. And so maybe this doctor has heard of a patient who has this kind of foreboding thoughts, and maybe just maybe they will give me something to do some sort of homework assignment dude, to give me some diagnostics, but this is what's actually going on in my body. So we go in, we meet the head of GYN on he's like miserable, how can I help you? The the resident is taking notes. And the guy goes, I explained my center previous going to turn into an accreta. I'm going to do a hysterectomy. My husband likes to say that was very mafia, like because like, I see you, you see me, you're my doctor. So he sends back the rest of that stops talking. And just like Mrs. Arland, have you been on the internet? I was like, Why, yes, I have a doctor. But this is going to happen. And he's like, Okay, what I'd like you to do is I would like you to have an MRI. If the MRI is positive for an accreta, then I will schedule myself at your mandatory C section at 37 weeks. And then we will take care of it then. And I felt better because now I had something to do maybe a little bit more invasive, that wasn't going to hurt the baby. But at least to give me more information. I do the MRI, the MRI is negative for an accreta Jonathan says you should feel better. And I said I feel worse. Because now I'm running out of people to tell this crazy foreboding story too.

Alex Ferrari 12:06
So real quick, let me stop you there for a second. Because I am a husband. Yeah. And I have to I'm just trying to sit your husband's chair here for a second. This absolutely sounds insane. And, and, you know, we all go through moments of insanity. And I've had a pregnant woman in my life. Yeah, I have children. So I understand that. It's such a it's such a tightrope, because you just don't you want to be supportive when you don't want to get killed by her or you don't want to get killed by her. Because I was also, you know, Latina. So, but there's a point when everybody, everything, the tests, there's nothing anyone can see. Other than you saying, Yeah, I know. I know. It says it's black, but I know it's really white. It's going against everything you see. So how did you relationship and all this kind of stress?

Stephanie Arnold 13:04
You know, luckily, my husband says that I am the love of his life.

Alex Ferrari 13:10
Luckily,

Stephanie Arnold 13:11
Yeah, and he is He is mine. But I think that if you don't have a strong enough foundation for the love, you're gonna make this but just crazy. And I'm out. Right like, you know, I'll we'll deal with a custody situation after he, you know what I sound I know, I totally understand his point of view. I mean, even on the Netflix show that we're on, you can see the way that he talks and the way that I'm rolling my eyes at him because, you know, but his brain functions a certain way and I cannot force someone who thinks in data and science and how his foundation is built. I cannot, you know, change his way of thinking to adapt to mine. Right. So, so I it took me a long time to understand that years even because I felt I wasn't listened to I wasn't protected. So what ended up happening was we we get to a point where my doctor is like, Okay, why don't you have a consultation with anesthesia? I said, Fine. I have a phone call with anesthesia. She said, I explained what's going to happen. They say, you know, this way you recover that you have epidural, and again, I go through my whole spiel and so she's like, you know, Mrs. Arm, we're in a teaching hospital. We prepare for all of these emergencies. I hope I made you feel better. And I said she said I'll never forget the last word you said and the last words I said were, it is what it is. Right? This was the last the last person I do. That's it. So then I took to Facebook I said, If anyone has my blood type, I'm gonna need a job that was like, No, don't.

Alex Ferrari 14:54
So spreads are crazy on social media. Exactly right. You probably

Stephanie Arnold 15:01
Because then he's getting phone calls what's going on with staff. You know what's, and it's not that I said, I wrote, if anybody has my blood tip on me, not that I believe that they could submit their blood, but maybe again, just like what the guy not, maybe somebody had a crazy relative that that had this kind of foreboding. And what does that mean? You know, maybe they could they could tell me, I think you should try this to kind of test and maybe it because I was racing against the clock, if you imagine being buried alive. And you imagine, like you're sitting there and you're just waiting and and people are tossing the dirt on top of you. I'm like, I'm trying to take my last breath. And by the way, when somebody gives you an expiration date and says, Okay, this is data, you're gonna die. And they say, just spend the time with your family. Enjoy those moments. Have those fun times, you know, I failed all of that. I didn't do any of that. And he said, You because all I did was focus on like, how am I going to save when I'm no one is listening to me. So I have to do this. And so Jonathan would spend really beautiful time with family and trying to calm me down and I'm like, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I was in Starbucks at 1.11 woman says, Well, how's your pregnancy going? I'm gonna die. I told everybody, but it was it became I mean, you'd think it was a joke. And so like, even in gym the trainer's like, you know, you're not going to die. Get up and do this workout. I said, No, I'm being serious. This isn't a joke. It's like, they all think it's crazy. Yeah,

Alex Ferrari 16:25
Chicken Little is Chicken Little syndrome like this. It's you really, everyone's like, the sky is not falling, you're gonna be fine. And you're like, Oh, you're hormonal, you're pregnant, it's gonna be fine. You've gone through this already. I can't I can't even comprehend like how I would handle that. As a husband, as a partner. It's just such a difficult place to be. Because that is because men are just generally wired like, this is this and it's very ones and zeros.

Stephanie Arnold 16:55
Yeah, and I can I can appreciate that now, but in the moment, I'm like, I'm the love of your life. Wake the fuck up, you know? And the other thing was a curious I am feeling that there's something there's this other vibrational I like I'm feeling something. And if he doesn't believe that there's something beyond this realm is that it is our I love over like, I'm dead, gone. And that's it. And my children are not going to feel me around. My husband's not going to feel me around. Especially if I'm going to haunt him and he's having sex with somebody in our bed. Like, I want him to know. I am still here.

Alex Ferrari 17:30
So Latina Oh my god.so Latinos, so funny. Hilarious. No, but okay. So so you're going through all this process? Yeah. By the way, during this whole process? Is it just the knowing Are you getting visions? Are you getting not dreaming?

Stephanie Arnold 17:51
It's, I'm awake. It's yeah, I had one point. My daughter was a year and a half, two. And I was taking her in a stroller. And, you know, we were walking across the parking was a winter day. And, you know, I was explaining how the fountain when it's flowing is beautiful. And then the fountain turned in my mind's eye to blood and started rushing and

Alex Ferrari 18:11
Very Kubrick.

Stephanie Arnold 18:12
Yeah, yeah, but it wasn't a fucking movie. It was my life. And so all of a sudden, I, by the way, my love of curse on your podcast, it's okay. It's fine. Okay, so that God forgives. So then I'm like, I had a visceral reaction to a hemorrhage in my body. And I grabbed this. And I, I call my husband said, meet me in the, in the emergency room. So I go to the emergency room, and they triage me and they're like, Mr. Arnold, are you okay? I said, No, I'm bleeding. And you know, I was wearing black leggings and I have no idea. And so they're like, No, you're not amniotic fluids. Fine. Everything's fine. And my husband's like, thank God. It's just, it's a false alarm. And I'm like, No, this soul warning. It was so

Alex Ferrari 18:53
I mean, listen, listen, Stephanie. I mean, I have the I mean, you sound absolutely mad. I mean, you sound absolutely mad. And if I was, I'd be like, I don't know what else to do. Like, you could just I mean, you can tell me the sky is purple. But I'd keep looking up and it's blue. Like I don't know what the I love you, but I don't know what to tell you.

Stephanie Arnold 19:14
And I have no idea from his perspective. If he was rolling his eyes. You know, he's very private. So I have no idea whether he said anything, any friends or anything. Like my wife is falling off the deep. I know inside he thought maybe there was something wrong with the baby and he didn't want to articulate that. So he was like, maybe that was something that was making me a little crazy.

Alex Ferrari 19:32
So could you imagine like, it's like hey, maybe it's like you're about to die. Maybe something's wrong with the baby and now you have something else

Stephanie Arnold 19:42
Right! No, it's it was to me it was to my but I was so you know, as a producer, you just come up with solutions. And so I was very concentrated on Who do I need to prepare to be in the ER at the time of delivery. I was so confident this was going to happen that I'm Like, everybody needs to be in place to make this happen. And so whether and I tell people this all the time, I mean, women come up to me and like book events, and they're like, by the 10th time the doctor said, You're crazy, I would have shut up, I said, then you would have stayed dead? Because the reality is, is that, you know, you will never regret speaking up and being wrong. Because people judge you all the time. They were judging me every single second and thinking I was crazy, but in the chance that you are right, it's not worth staying quiet, if it's gonna save your life.

Alex Ferrari 20:31
Absolutely. If you got something to say, just because if you want to kept quiet, imagine if you would have done all this quietly to yourself.

Stephanie Arnold 20:38
No, no, there. I couldn't say we'll get to that. So I'll speed up. Okay. So I mean, so ultimately, you know, I wrote goodbye letters. I sent out goodbye letters. I told people I know, you're thinking like, This is amazing. It's crazy. But you know what, at this point, this is what's helping doctors understand that there's something else going on. There's something happening. Yeah. So um, so at 36 weeks to the day, my husband is on a business trip, and I'm giving my daughter breakfast. And, you know, I started bleeding on the kitchen floor. And I know that today's the day so I sent him a text saying, you know, we're going to deliver today. And so he stops meeting he gets on a plane, our Skype chatting when I'm triage at the hospital. The doctor said, you know, the O Rs are very quiet right now, I know you've been stressed this whole time. Let's go ahead and get Jacob out. Adina was playing and you know, I kissed her a million times. Because I was convinced it was the last time I was ever going to see her. And then I'm Skype chatting with my husband. And I told him, he's made me the happiest woman in the world. And I love him. And please don't blame this child. And please take care of our children. And you know, and it was more like my goodbye letter to him and he still wasn't getting it. So he said, Where do I meet you? And I said the eighth floor recovery, hopefully. And that was the last conversation I had. So they take me down to the bar. And I try one more time I tell my doctor, there's something wrong you need to put me under general anesthesia. And she is like except me. I'm not gonna put you to sleep. I know you're nervous. But Jonathan, because Jonathan is not here. But I'm here for you. If I put you to sleep, I put the baby to sleep. It's not good. And that was it. Right? Epidural in I'm delivering this baby no matter what. And they're wheeling me into the room that's going to give life to my son. And I am I'm 100% convinced that this is the room that's going to take my life. So they set me up. When you have a C section. Your arms are in a tea, there's a curtain in front of your face. The room is really cold and it's bone chilling cold for me because the fear is palpable now, because I know the minute that he gets delivered, I am no longer here. So imagine that you can see the 18 Wheeler headed straight for you. They no one else can see it. No one else everybody is looking at the clock doing their job. You'd call doing roll call everything else. They cut they take care of Jacob Jacobs delivered happy and healthy no problem and seconds later. I'm dead.

Alex Ferrari 23:22
You flatline flatline. I'm not your husband and I'm stressed the hell out of this story. Because I'm there with you because I everything you just went through, you know, my wife went through very similar stuff. Not not the not the Near Death Experience stuff. But I'm there I was I was in the room when it happened. And when

Stephanie Arnold 23:41
And he would have been there to this day he feels guilty that he wasn't there. And I said you know what? God has different plans. I said, you know, it's one thing to hear that your wife flatline it's another thing to see it is it because if you saw it, you out immediately and you can never get that right. And he to this day, he's like, I should have been there at least I would have been there and I was like, you know when he God works in mysterious ways.

Alex Ferrari 24:03
So what happens after you flip it so the baby's out? Jacobs out everyone's good. And then what happens to you when you have a cardiac event?

Stephanie Arnold 24:11
Yeah, I went into cardiac arrest. I ended up having a very rare pregnancy complication called an amniotic fluid embolism and it's a one in 40,000 risk for amniotic cells get into the mother's bloodstream. And if you happen to be allergic to it, your body goes into anaphylactic shock and in most cases, you don't make it if you've heard about it, you know, they're, you know, you know, someone who's died just to give you perspective. You know, Northwestern delivers 12,000 babies a year at the time when I delivered, they had 10 amniotic fluid embolism 10. In their entire history, they've been around for almost 30 years. Six did not make it and the other three are in permanent vegetative states. I am the first to have survived at that time from full blown aFe and there was something in the operating room I predicted a lot, but there was something in the operating room I did not predict. And that was there was a crash cart and there was extra blood available. And I needed both of them. So in your blood. So in a typical C section, there's about six units of blood. And because I'm on negative, you know, having that blood is is important, because I can only receive that blood I can give my blood to anyone, but I can only receive negative. So there are six units of blood. Typically, there were 20 units of blood, or I don't know how much there was there were already defrosted, cycled and ready for me. And so and there was a crash cart. And later I asked her why that was and the anesthesiologist, I'd spoken to my last conversation, she said she didn't feel comfortable that I, I should never heard a patient speak so clearly about what was going to happen had had a baby before, and had sought out specialists to save her life. And with that one phone calls, she flagged my file incorporating the extra measures to save my life. And that is on her life today.

Alex Ferrari 26:01
Wow. Because she just had something told her something told her you need to have Yeah, wow. So you see, she flat line, what

Stephanie Arnold 26:11
Line for 37 seconds they read, they got me back up, they intubated me and take my eyes shut. And then the second part of an AFP starts which is your body's inability to clot blood. And so your normal body has 20 units of blood I was given 60 units of blood and blood product to save my life. So they Jacob is fine, healthy, removed and put into the nursery. They put they stabilize me with a a ball, a soccer ball inside and they they stabilize the hemorrhage. And that's when Jonathan arrived. And so when Jonathan gets to the hospital, he texts the doctor, you know how how's everything and she says Jacobs fine, Stephanie stable, and he's smart enough to know, that's not good. So he gets to the consultation room anesthesiologist comes in different anesthesiologist the attending that was there on my case. And she says Do yourself a favor do not look up what an amniotic fluid embolism is because when you look it up, it's a widowers site. It's like all of the different versions of what happens. It is. And then then he said before she loves it. If she needs a hysterectomy, this is the doctor we met, what two months before. And she took note of it. She thought it was odd. But she's like she's stable right now. So he returned to the surgical ICU, I'm on life support, they put me in a medically induced coma. And seven hours later, they show that I'm still bleeding. And they call in the guy knock that I had met with to perform the hysterectomy. They do the pathology on the uterus, and they show that I create a head started to form but where the MRI was where they the attachment was, it was too early. I don't know they didn't pick up. But it was there. And so that leaves everybody with a scratch in their head. Right. So on day six, I had kidney failure. I have all this who are you? I mean, you can take a look at any photos anywhere online, but it was pretty bad. And no one knew. They knew that I was oxygenated, but they didn't know how much neurological deficit, how much would be. And so they excavate you to see where you are. And as soon as they excavated me, I looked down at my swollen belly because I'm severely anemic. I look still pregnant. And the very first thing I said was my speaking pregnant. And so Jonathan at that moment was like, she's gonna be okay. So I knew where I was, but it took I was in the hospital for a month and during that process, I had every department in me on me around me and it's their residence because it's a teaching hospital and they're like, I'm like they're like how did you know? And I was like, I don't know you guys tell me and then like will foreboding exist prior to an ambulance or heart attack but moments before maybe a day before but three months before and the detail that you had no I'm sorry I don't know. I don't know what that is. And one doctor actually said I think you need to go spiritual on this one. And that didn't didn't set right with me in that moment when we first you know it was it was hard for me to process everything so so I get home I you know trying to acclimate friends family I'm shell shocked physically I'm getting better about a wheelchair I get off the the ports my kidneys go back online, but psychologically, totally messed up and I was on a talk show and I started to share the story because I went into producer mode. Okay, how can the story help others intuition and then sharing this. And I think, you know, my feeling was, the more I share the story, almost like third person, the further I am away from my trauma. So I, I give a reason Oh, this is the reason this happened. But it was it was hard for me to deal with the fact that this all happened to me. So I felt like I was telling a story, right? And so then I go, at some point, the therapists was like, you know, we can help you get out the trauma is at first, I need you to help me understand how it is I saw everything ahead of time. And they were like, you know, let's not worry about that right now. I said, No, so you don't understand. I feel like it was a self fulfilling prophecy. I'm manifested this, you know, what happens if I think of myself having a heart attack? Am I going to have a heart attack and now everybody, including you, as you're sitting there, if you had heard the story for months, and you watch the whole thing come down, you'd be like, damn, okay, well, she obviously is feeling something like I don't want to be in her line of sight. What happens? Right, you know, it's like, it's really tough. So, so anyway, so we go, you know, I said, Okay, well, let me talk to somebody. So a friend of mine, a Latina friend of mine said, I think you should go meet with this Cuban once about a regression therapist, and regression uses hypnotherapy to take you back into the moments of trauma. So what the hopes are, is that you can be the observer. In those traumas, it's like your your memory, or those memories are like filmstrips stored in your head. And through this hypnosis, you can access them. The pain will not be as severe as it was the first time around. But you could mean a calm way. Look at things and everything around you. And I really wanted to understand what happened during those three months before was I given messages by someone before Special Force outside of my own was I you know, what happened during the 37 seconds? Because people wanted to know, what did I see? And then what happened after and so

Alex Ferrari 32:03
Can I stop you for a second? So when you died for those 37 seconds, you have no recollection at that up to this point? You didn't see anything? You don't remember anything?

Stephanie Arnold 32:12
No, I was like, they gave me a lot of drugs, scratched it.

Alex Ferrari 32:15
Okay. So then you go into recess and psychotherapy. Okay.

Stephanie Arnold 32:17
Yeah. Because I think part of it was, you know, I wasn't afraid to say there's nothing there. But you know, it was their way to find out because I wasn't getting help the way that I needed it psychologically. And there was nothing typical about my case. So I needed to do something that was atypical when it came to the therapies. And so, so I videotaped my therapy. And when we did it over Skype, I had split screens, I was like, let me document everything. I didn't know if I'd remember anything. I've never been hypnotized before. And so, you know, it took well over 30 hours of therapy to get me finally back into the alarm. And when she did it, one of the, you know, you could see my body convulse and sees and then I started explain, what I saw was a complete out of body experience, which nurse hit the button for the code, which nurse jumped on my chest to give me CPR, what my doctor was doing down by my feet, what the anesthesiologist is doing down by their feet when my daughter was doing down the hall and labor and delivery room, what my husband was wearing on a plane, what my mother was doing when I was the third day of my coma, like, there were there were just all these little things. And and when I got done with that session, you could see like, there was the sense of relief, like I felt better. And so when the so of course, my husband takes a quick gander. It's really graphic. He can't you know, he doesn't want to watch his wife and pain. He said the very first thing he says, like, how do you know this isn't a recalled episode of Grey's Anatomy in your head? Whose husband? Wow, yeah, so? Yeah. For all his PhDs, not, not smart, not smart. Not smart.

Alex Ferrari 34:07
There's no bueno.

Stephanie Arnold 34:08
No bueno. So he was like, like, I was like, I called him a lot of names. But you know, I said, I said, you know, I, I think the book became a much better book, because he pushed me a lot harder. There were certain things that I accepted as spiritual, but for someone's very scientific, he's like, No, I don't I don't, I'm not going to take this at face value. That's really nice story for you to tell at bedtime. But I'm not going to accept this for what this is, unless there's more proof. So he says, so. So okay, so I called the therapist. I said, How do you know what I'm telling you is the truth. And she said, Well, sometimes the only validation we get is the patient feels better, and you feel better. I said, that's not good enough for me. I have witnesses. So Oh, I took the tapes. It wasn't hearsay, I took the tapes with my therapy. And I handed it to the anesthesiologist and to the OB and I videotaped and recorded their reactions as they watched it. And John was like, I'm going with you. I don't want this edited. I don't want this TV talk. And like,

Alex Ferrari 35:18
He's just, he's just searching for beaten.

Stephanie Arnold 35:20
You know, I but but I can understand I mean, you you can understand if your entire career is based on a solid concrete foundation. And now what I'm telling you there's a crack in that foundation, because not only did I see all this, I saw hundreds of spirits and the spirits were not like, and this was in this moment of flatline, where somebody said, oh, did you see the light, I'm like, you know, I was an observer watching what was going down. I saw my body on the table. And then I saw my spirit perpendicular. And then as I flatline, I see a shooting star. Now, maybe if I was the eyes of spirit, I would have seen a tunnel of light, I don't know. But that's not what I saw. And so but I went to this, this heavenly place, it was not I didn't see God and see buildings, but I saw hundreds of spirits. And they were like two steps up, like almost a gathering of congregation and people that I knew. And that was lovely. And then there were people that I didn't know, and one being his father, Jonathan's father. And so when I explained that I saw his father, and then he had a message because he had a specific coin, and he had this tweed jacket, and I was describing the details of the tweed jacket, and describing the details to the point because the point was a foreign mine. And his father was a Foreign Service officer in a diplomat. So it's, you know, maybe I could have made shit up in my head. But he was like, tell my father said, Hi, right. And my father never had a tweed jacket. Right? I'm like, Okay, fine. Forget about the jacket. What about the point and he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. 70. So, like, all these things, I take that. So I take the tapes, the doctors, the doctors were like, You shouldn't know any of this. It's accurate down to where we're standing what we're doing, and again, on the Netflix, and you can hear my doctor saying that because I said to my doctor, did you say you, this can't be happening, this can't be happening. She's like I did. Put in my head. And so but in her mind, the sheep is down by my feet on her mask covering her mouth, like saying, and in her mask. There's no way. You know, like, with all the commotion, and the chaos and the screaming and everything, that there's no way that I would have heard any of it. And then, you know, and then this nurse when I went to thank everybody, when I went to say hi to the doctors, you know, this nurse came up to me and she said, you know, Misano, you don't know who I am. But it's really nice to see you walking again. It was like, You broke my ribs. And she said, and I do it again to save her life. And I was told later, that she went back to her office and cried for a long time, because I should know that she was the one that gave me the CPR. And, and so it was accurate down to I said, and there wasn't just one crash cart, there were two crash carts, and she's like, they're like, I'm like, I don't know about that. And then they went back and checked it. And it was absolutely accurate. And then I said that my own doctor didn't deliver the baby. And Jonathan's like she was there. She had blood all over Scotland. So I know she did. But she didn't deliver the baby. So suddenly, we're talking about who deliver the baby. I said, I said, Remember the resident in the gynec? Consultation? She delivered the baby? And it's like, why would that be? She was on gynaec rotation. And he's like, so my doctor, I go to my doctor, I said, Did you deliver the baby? And she said, No. And I said, Did this doctor deliver the baby? And she looks at me, she said, How do you know that? So it was like, all of these things. And then what the coin I write about this book, I was like, I found out that you know, I go to Jonathan's mother's sister or whatever. And I'm like, Yeah, this tweet, Jack said, What is he talking about? Of course, he had a tweed jacket had had patches here. I said, Yes. And I had green strips. I go back to Jonathan, I said, we talked about that was his favorite jacket. And he said, Well, if you what is that hearing about?

Alex Ferrari 39:03
He did he was just not want to do now.

Stephanie Arnold 39:08
I'm like, What the heck is herringbone? And so I'm looking I'm hearing words like the name of a stitch in a tweed jacket. And I'm like, Are you kidding me? Are you really? Are you really fine with me? Now this whole thing? And like the coin was a very specific message, which I leave your audience with a cliffhanger. So they should read it. But but it was it was down. It was so accurate, that it's scary. And so yeah, to me, the there's no question. Not only does consciousness exist, because the brain starts shutting down after 20 seconds. And yes, a hearing is the last to go. But I most certainly couldn't have seen and my eyes were taped shut, and I was on life support and there were just a lot of things that that happened. And and I will tell you that after this whole experience, that my doctors have changed the way they practice medicine, because on one hand, you know they're dealing With the emergency and they're, they're saving your life and they're saving your body and they're dealing with the trauma. But they forgot there was a spiritual soul for persons still there. And no one was talking to me. And yet I was there and present this entire time.

Alex Ferrari 40:15
So, wow, I'm just like, one. I am I'm gobsmacked by your husband. I just have a look, I could believe you at a certain point, but at a certain point, I would just go. Yes, I would just I Sure. Absolutely. I. Tweed, yes. Like, yes, I would have just I, me personally, as a husband, I would have just eventually just gone probably would have saved years of therapy, but just just go. So that's one. But God bless him. I mean, look at the stress and the what he went through on his purse on this side of the fence is remarkable. I can't even I can't even comprehend it. When you were when you were dead, when you were legally dead for those 37 seconds. So you, you saw everything that was going on, you saw spirits, group of spirits of OLFA family members and of the tweed jacket, and the father. And he saw shooting like was there anything else. And then and when it happened when you were brought back in. And by the way, you felt nothing at this time or you felt

Stephanie Arnold 41:30
Nothing, you know, I talk about how the fact that the moment of death is not painful. That's not That's not to be scared of it. Because that is it's not that it's pleasant. But it's it's peaceful, there's not the moment of impact is not felt the actual moment of crossing over is not is not painful. Coming back into my body after going through that was painful. It was the therapist said this is not going to hurt the way it did the first time she came alive. It was not. I felt it in my whole body I wanted to throw up and then coming back in it's like, you know, the way that I describe it to her was that your soul is tethered by an umbilical cord. And when you flatline it gets severed, but then because of the the amount of time and time and space don't exist in this other dimension. And I remember when you know, we were sending out the manuscript one, one publisher said she didn't dialogue enough to make it compelling. Yeah, I, I have that framed so. So

Alex Ferrari 42:44
Die long enough to make it compelling.

Stephanie Arnold 42:47
So yeah, that's what she said. And so so the umbilical cord, when you're tethered to it, it's like you're floating until you're, you're severed, and then coming back into your body's like, your, your thrusted neck. And that was not pleasant. But no, I, you know, the actual afterlife, the actual consciousness and what you're seeing, you're floating. And when people talk about astral travel, they talk about the ability to, to feel things empathically around them, those spirits around you. And I continue to feel that there's there is a a pleasant vibration around that the sadness I felt. And what I feel like a lot of people are when they're afraid of death, is that they'll never physically be able to touch their loved ones again, that there will be a gaping hole in their life because they, you know, life goes on. And they are not there physically to take up space. But they do matter. And they do exist. And we go from a solid to a gas, you know. And so we're still around, we're still we're still made of energy, we just transition from one form to another.

Alex Ferrari 44:00
It's like water. I mean, you could be ice you can be gas, you can be liquid, it could be many different forms of of the same it, but it's all water. Right? It's all water. And so I have to ask you, when you came back, and you actually after your regression therapy, and you had figured out what happened and you kind of process I'm assuming that helped you process all of this a lot. What was the relationships in your life like afterwards? Because did you come in? Come back? I assume differently than when you left?

Stephanie Arnold 44:34
I did. I mean, my background like I said it was in TV. So I produce a lot of crazy exploitative reality shows and, you know, we work in a really crazy industry and it's fun. It's an adrenaline rush. It's you know, we're not thinking of really consequences. We're looking at ratings and, and sales and when I came back there are things that unfortunately I can't do like the average Mom Can I can't do the school parties or the the playdates and get to talk frivolously I don't, I don't laugh as much as I used to. Why is that? Why are serious, because I think once one goes through this kind of near death experience or any near death experiences, you're acutely aware of how close a call it was. And it also, you remove the bullshit meter. So when you meet people, yes, I'm much more empathic, and I feel things, but I'd rather connect with you with a real moment than just talk about sports or the weather. And so that, that, when you have those kind of deeper connections, inevitably you get to a really vulnerable place. And whether I see you again and speak to you again, that moment is incredibly real, and incredibly important to me, because those are connections I'm making now, based on who I am and what I've shed past. And so I feel things differently. And I wish I do wish that I could be that mom at the school that could join the PTA and be very involved with, you know, big school functions and celebrate, I can produce the heck out of a party, but I'm, I'm somewhat removed. And it's only because I feel too much from people and I feel I feel their pain at a level that I've never felt before. And so in order to stay grounded, I have to distance myself a little bit, and it might come off aloof, or it might come off. You know, that I'm difficult to get to know. But the reality is, is that's that's not the reality. It's because of the trauma and not wanting to re traumatize myself, because I'm feeling other people's pain at a much greater level.

Alex Ferrari 46:58
That's really, it's fascinating. When people are empaths, they they tend to bring in get pulled into drama.

Stephanie Arnold 47:07
Yeah. I don't know about the other people that you've interviewed that have had near death experiences, but I'm sure there's certain similarities that you know.

Alex Ferrari 47:17
Yeah, there's no question listen to I mean, first of all, you're you're a wholly unique story. There's nothing. I've not heard this kind of near death experience before, no one that I've ever heard of saw it coming. Definitely not three months out. So that's a very unique, a part of it. But that's why I was asking, like, what did you see on the other side, things like that. They're very, there's a bunch of common denominators. The pain that you feel when you're being you're thrust back in it was like, a slamming into the body. It's, I've heard that again, and again and again. It's really, really interesting. How do you? Well, first of all, did you get when you came back? Did you get anything you had you had intuition, you had these kinds of abilities? To a certain extent, prior? Are you more supercharged now after you came back and you have a more heightened? Are you dealing with more of that?

Stephanie Arnold 48:14
Yeah. So I talk about like that I was on low voltage with my, my grandma, mother and my uncle as a child, then you a systolic, which is no electricity running through your body, and now I'm on high voltage. Now it's more of I feel it, but it's been a few years now. So for me, I choose I walk into a room or I give a speech. I mean, the speech I gave in front of 3000 people, I was like, God help me, like just put a shield. Let me get through this. Because if I start feeling everybody in the audience, it's going to be a problem that I won't even be able to get up. So. So I've learned how to ground myself differently. But it's also taken, it's been a process to accept that what this is, is real, because for the longest time and being married to who I'm married, and then also questioning, like, you know, what happens if I didn't speak up? Like, what happened if I didn't believe what was failing? What what happens if I were you and saying, Okay, I'm crazy, you know, like, I'm just going to shut up because obviously, the tests are negative. You know, that scares me periodically, because I'm like, I am intuitive enough to feel it or I was given those messages that I was intuitive and to have enough to listen to them. And if I didn't, and what happens again, if it happens, if other things happen if I if I choose to ignore them, what will the outcome be? And so I no longer I no longer question that it's, it's not real, because for I think I wanted to question that. The validity of it all and thinking thinking that I made it up, which is also the reason why I documented everything along the way. I'm like, I have to keep myself so honest about every single process, because as a reality, if you've read producer, you know, we do enhanced reality. And I'm like, This is my own reality. In this enhanced or like, in this Supercharged world, this can't be real. And so if you start imagining where your brain and where you've been functioning your whole life, because I've been in TV since I was 14, like, it's impossible to believe this is real. But thank God everything. Like I was constantly with all everyone, I told the Facebook posting the goodbye letters, like, everything is so well documented, nor to keep me honest about it. I was very, I'm like, Oh, my I made this shit up. Right? I was like, No, it's I made it no. And I no one will let me know that we get away with that ever. And that's good.

Alex Ferrari 50:50
What's really interesting about your story is I've heard of other traumatic nd ease before people being pulled on the trains and left on the side of a mountain. Hiking accidents. There's a traumatic, but yours is interesting, because you have the trauma of knowing months ahead, that it's coming. It's kind of like the the bliss that animals feel because they don't know they're going to die. But we have the burden of understanding mortality. So you had that compressing a three month process. So all the trauma you're dealing with is not as much the death as it is the process leading up to the death. Does that make sense?

Stephanie Arnold 51:38
No. 100% right, there's still through the process, I still had issues. You know, even when you hear me tell the story over all of the media, you know, I skipped over, I gloss over again. So then I died for 37 seconds. And then I did this Baba, you know, like, like, I go like that, and I move on. And, and, you know, it's been, I'd say that i It has taken me a good eight years to live in my body and actually feel that moment of flatline where it's in my body, I have a massive scar down the center of my body and, you know, doing any kind of acupuncture on it to just kind of alleviate the the tissue damage and everything. When they stick a needle right through there. It's it's like the floodgates open up, I cry. And I'm like, No, we're not gonna go near there for a while. And so it's still holding on to that loss. And so there's no question that that area is still traumatized. A tremendous amounts, and little by little I start peeling away at that onion, because it's it's tangled separating.

Alex Ferrari 52:56
Why do you think this happened to you? What, what what was the grander purpose of this as far as to help other people to teach you something? Like what what, you know? Is it part of your souls? You know, I don't know, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm assuming you thought about this.

Stephanie Arnold 53:16
I have I and you know, it depends on what you believe that you know, me personally, I don't find it's a coincidence that I worked in TV, that the biggest story I'm ever going to tell is the one that happened to me, and that I was primed at the moment that I was that this happened, that most of my friends have grown in the industry. And they were like, You need to share your story. And so and so as a producer, there's one thing for entertainment value, great, fine, whatever. But the fact of the matter is, like, you know, it was not easy to write a book, I was I would rather, I would rather create a reality show based around near death experiences. But when I started seeing people reaching out to me with their own foreboding, or people not listening to them, or the how to handle their traumas post, I realized that my voice is something that can help save lives, the story can help save lives. And all of us have a story and how you share it when you share it have the courage to share it, inserting yourself into the narrative of, of stories that are more spiritual in nature. And just like you said before, in our pre interview, where, you know, taking that leap of faith and saying, Okay, I'm going to leave this solid foundation and now move into this world of having these conversations that are very spiritual. You either are going to alienate some of the people, some people that are just fearful of having this conversation, so are entirely skeptical, and also be embraced by others. And because you're so grounded, people can feel like Okay, I could share this with you without feeling crazy. And so the more that I share the story, the more other people can say, I see myself and her, I had something similar to happen. And mind you when I was going through all of this, I was Googling for boning, pregnancy, premonitions, and it didn't exist. And now that our story is out there, there are other people that can relate to it and say, hey, what if this is foreboding? Because I actually feel something is gonna happen. And this isn't anxiety. And this isn't that and, you know, let's talk about it. So it will, in fact, help affect and save lives. And so that is my primary goal. I do not think my calling in this lifetime was to talk all about the afterlife. Although I there's no doubt in my mind, it exists. There were crazier stories that happened to me that you would be shocked that happened that in the middle of like, I'll tell you one of them, I was with a very, very big Hollywood producer. And they were considering and she was considering buying my rights. She read the book. We were in the middle of this meeting 10 People I did not know. And, and so we're sitting there, and it's big conference room. And in the middle of the meeting, I feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack. But I know it's not mine. So I have two choices, right? So I have two choices. And you can imagine you can imagine you're sitting there with someone who can make or change your career break your career doesn't matter. Like at this, at this point. I'm like, you know, I'm seeing her and it's this, this pain is getting tighter on my chest. And so one of my big emos or my mottos are like, if you send something, say something, right, if you if you, if you sense it, say it, because it might save your life. So I'm feeling this. And I'm like, I'm sorry. Somebody in this room has a male family member who's just had a heart attack, who in this room now, I'm talking like a psychic and I'm like, the hell am I right? And then this woman, this iconic woman in the industry says, You don't think I'm gonna have art sag? And I'm like, No, but as she's talking is getting tighter on my chest. So I know it's coming from her. Unlike to this woman. Like there's a woman standing next to you. She's screaming at you about a dress. I'm talking about a ghost in the middle. It's pitch side of me. And I most certainly don't know the side of it. She's like, No, it's definitely my mother's fine. And I'm like, camp. Sorry. She's like, Stephanie, here's your valet ticket. Nice knowing you. Don't let the door hit you. Right. So I'm walking out. My agent is like, what's with the theatrics? And I said, I don't know what to tell you. I know. I believe the pinch. And so I leave four days later, her CEO of a company calls me and it's like, Are you sitting down? I said, Yes. And so she says. So first of all, this woman wants to apologize to you. Her mother passed six years ago, and she knew exactly the dress you were talking about. But she didn't know you had these kinds of psychic abilities. I said, Okay, fine. Second, second of all, you everybody was worried about the offices split science and spirit. But she goes back to her offices was in LA, she goes back to her office, she got a call from her sister in New York, her father had a heart attack at the moment you were feeling it says he's going to be fine. She don't ever want to talk about it again, and we're buying your rights. And so it's still so I don't feel like calling as to I mean, maybe part of it is to validate these these kinds of things. But I feel like especially with people who are on the fence hopeful agnostics, if you will, skeptics, whatever it is, I feel like maybe having these kinds of things front and center in their face because this woman can change the world with one TV show. And so when you have that kind of access to audiences worldwide, you can affect change. And you can then be part of the narrative to help people speak up because and validate their own their own feelings so so I I really feel like the whole intuitive side and speaking up as more of the reason that the story is there. Yes, consciousness exists after flatline. Yes, there is life after death. Yes, it's unfortunate that we don't get to hold and but the signs are still there. And we continue to exist, we just transition so yeah.

Alex Ferrari 59:44
Are you afraid of death?

Stephanie Arnold 59:46
No, not anymore. The only the only thing is, is what I feel what many others do is that? I won't get to sleep next to my husband the way that I have before and if so, but some other bitch does, but I will be right there.

Alex Ferrari 1:00:01
I doubt that it'll ever be allowed after. All of a sudden you just see a cat just like

Stephanie Arnold 1:00:14
I'm gonna be like, right there. I'm like, don't even consider all

Alex Ferrari 1:00:18
Things just start falling off the mantle. He's like, Oh, gosh,

Stephanie Arnold 1:00:23
With a broom, it's like flying

Alex Ferrari 1:00:27
For boating.

Stephanie Arnold 1:00:30
Right!

Alex Ferrari 1:00:30
That's amazing. Sophie, I'm gonna ask you a few questions ask all of my guests. What is the definition of living a good life?

Stephanie Arnold 1:00:41
I think living honestly and living with love, I, you know, my I make mistakes every single day with my children, with my family and with my husband. But my intentions are coming from a real soulful place where I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to intentionally hurt anyone. And I think for for me, even if I'm being honest, and maybe the words that I choose are not the best. That there the intention behind it is coming with love.

Alex Ferrari 1:01:18
What is your mission in this life?

Stephanie Arnold 1:01:21
My what?

Alex Ferrari 1:01:22
Your mission in this life.

Stephanie Arnold 1:01:25
Like I said, I think it doesn't take a near death experience in order to have this happen. But for me, it definitely transitioned from what I thought the definition of success was, which was monetary and accolades and bigger shows, and then you're on this hamster wheel that just keeps you going. And the next greatest, the next biggest that most 100% has shifted my mission now is not only to make sure my family is happy and healthy, to nurture and foster the love and my soulmate, because there is no one person on this earth that matters more to me than him. And my you know, you talk about your children, but my goal is to build these into independent children who are going to rule their life with love, and I feel blessed to have even met my soulmate, and I want to my mission in life is to always make him happy and be by his side and be at this cohesive unit so that we can do really great things in the world to you know, help the AFA foundation so that we find a cure and protocols in place in hospital. So no other family has to have another mom lose their life or maybe lose their life. And to ensure everybody knows that their intuition is real, whether they believe that we are hardwired for it or comes from a spiritual place, it doesn't matter to me as long as they trust it.

Alex Ferrari 1:02:57
And what is the ultimate purpose of life?

Stephanie Arnold 1:03:03
You can I think that's, it's existential because each person has their own process to get there but it living a good life where you're not hurting anyone where you're loving, where you're caring, and where you are fostering more love. And you know, they the biggest, like we talked about this before in a movie, like the biggest stakes or you know, it's life or death. And if you can help stand in the way to prevent that from happening, then then you do everything you can to make that happen.

Alex Ferrari 1:03:41
And where can people find out more about you get your book and find out the good work you're doing?

Stephanie Arnold 1:03:46
Yeah, thank you. Um, you know, stephaniearnold.net And you can see a lot of the stuff there you can watch the Netflix series surviving death, we're in episode one. The book is available anywhere. The audio book came out with the Netflix show there's the paperback and then there's also the Kindle version of it. It's now in 12 languages and growing so and in my Instagram and Tiktok I am growing on Tik Tok. I actually like that format to my my teenage daughters. Broken Heart

Alex Ferrari 1:04:27
You're ruining Tik Tok.

Stephanie Arnold 1:04:30
So and StephanieArnold37 Or my Instagram is still at StephanieArnold37.

Alex Ferrari 1:04:36
Stephanie, is it a pleasure and honor talking to you thank you so much for being on the show. And thank you for doing the work that you're doing in the world. I I truly, truly appreciate it. My dear it has been a pleasure.

Stephanie Arnold 1:04:46
Thank you.