A Michigan woman could have suffered a tragic death in a terrifying car crash, but instead had near-death experience that changed her life.
Michigan native Willow Caelan, 34, was the victim of a devastating collision with a semi-truck that pushed her into oncoming traffic, leaving her car so mangled passersby assumed she was dead.
An ‘unexplainable force’ saved her, and while unconscious, she descended into a peaceful state where ‘nothing mattered’ and she believes she got a glimpse of the afterlife.
She felt she was made of pure consciousness outside of her own body and connected with the ‘greater universe.’
Ms Caelan was leaving a new job when a semi-truck rear-ended her, launching her 40 yards into oncoming traffic.
At the point of the collision, she blacked out. Her car was so mangled that passersby likely assumed she must have been dead until she came to and flagged down help.
But while she was blacked out, she said that she ‘felt like I was just pure consciousness and love, not a human with a body.
‘It was almost like I was floating into a void to be connected with god or some form of the greater universe.
‘I couldn’t see or hear anything, but I remember it being dark, comforting and warm. It was incredibly relaxing.
She added: ‘I was finally at peace – no longer worried or questioning anything – it was like heaven.’
The experience changed her life and how she lived it.
Her mannerisms and way of speaking softened. Colors were brighter. She became more purpose-driven and had a renewed zeal for life.
She said: ‘Quickly, I realized I had gained a unique awareness of life…I wanted to experience everything. It became clear to me that we never know how long we truly have here.’
Ms Caelan also switched careers, becoming a reiki master and spiritual coach to help others ‘explore their soul.’
She added: ‘The experience has allowed me to see the beauty of life and our physical reality. We don’t need to sit in what we’ve been through as our definition of self, as we have opportunities each day to recreate who we choose to be.
‘I feel so much more connected to my soul.’
An estimated five to 10 percent of Americans have near-death experiences, including somewhere between 10 and 23 percent of cardiac arrest survivors.
Most people describe them in glowing terms, saying their experiences brought them closer to their higher powers and gave them a new lease on life, a loss of fear of death, heightened self-esteem, and increased compassion for others.
Dr Jeffrey Long, a cancer expert who practices in Kentucky, is one of the preeminent researchers into near-death experiences.
He has collected more than 5,000 accounts in over 30 languages from people of various religions and cultural backgrounds and established an online repository for people to detail their own brushes with mortality.
One user of the database named Harry said: ‘The bits of light closest to me were my parents, grand-parent, family who all passed before – and connected to them farther away were close friends, and connected to them were people who had influenced me and whom I had influenced.’
Another named Star wrote: ‘A pure, brilliant light engulfed me and I no longer had a physical body. But, I still existed? I had no eyes to see but I looked at everything around me. I was in the center of a vast nothingness, but the nothingness was not empty. It was completely filled with the presence of the living God.’
Through his decades of research, Dr Long has concluded that about 45 percent of near-death experiences include a sense of being out-of-body, in which people’s consciousness is separated from their physical being.
About three-quarters of those who experience this reported wanting to stay in the afterlife because of the immense love and joy that overtook them. More than half report seeing a ‘heavenly’ realm, and around a quarter are enveloped in light or mist.
