October 17, 2025 • 50 mins
Join Sandra as she explores a hospice doctor's research into the comforting end-of-life visions that bring reunions with deceased loved ones and cherished pets in our final hours.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And you're here. Thanks for choosing the iHeartRadio and Coast
to Ghost Day and Paranormal Podcast Network. Your quest for
podcasts of the paranormal, supernatural, and the unexplained ends here.
They invite you to enjoy all our shows we have
on this network, and right now, let's start with Chase
of the Afterlife with Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to our podcast. Please be aware the thoughts and
opinions expressed by the host are their thoughts and opinions
only and do not reflect those of iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, Coast
to Coast, am employees of Premiere Networks, or their sponsors
and associates. We would like to encourage you to do
(00:42):
your own research and discover the subject matter for yourself. Hi.
I'm Sandra Champlain. For over twenty five years, I've been
on a journey to prove the existence of life after death.
On each episode, we'll discuss us the reasons we now
know that our loved ones have survived physical death and
(01:05):
so will we. Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. I'll
start our time together today with a true story shared
by a hospice volunteer about one of her patients. An
elderly man named Frank. Frank had been a quiet, stoic
man all of his life, but in his final weeks,
ravaged by cancer, he had grown even more withdrawn, Rarely
(01:28):
speaking to his family or the staff. He spent most
of his days in a state of semi consciousness, his
breath shallow, his eyes closed. His family was heartbroken, feeling
as though they had already lost him. They would sit
by his bedside, talking to him, but getting no response.
(01:49):
One afternoon, the volunteer was sitting with Frank while his
family took a much needed break. The room was still
and quiet, filled only with the soft toumb of an
ox machine. Suddenly Frank's eyes, which had been closed for hours,
fluttered open. But he wasn't looking at the volunteer or
(02:09):
the ceiling. He was looking toward the foot of his
bed with a look of pure, unadulterated joy. A huge,
brilliant smile spread across his face, a smile no one
had seen in years. His frail hand lifted from the blanket,
reaching out toward the empty space. He let out a soft,
(02:32):
breathy laugh and whispered a single word, Sadie. His eyes
tracked something invisible moving from the foot of the bed
along the side right up to his hand. He began
to make a soft, rhythmic stroking motion in the air,
his fingers gently curling and uncurling, as if he were
(02:55):
running them through a thick coat of fur. There's my girl,
he whispered, his voice filled with love. There's my good girl.
The volunteer watched, mesmerized as this dying man, lost to
the world just moments before, was now completely engaged with
(03:16):
his unseen companion. He continued to pet the air, his
eyes sparkling. He murmured, you came to take me for
a walk, didn't you. Okay, girl, Okay, let's go. He
closed his eyes, but the blissful smile remained. His hand
slowly came back to rest on the blanket. His breathing
(03:39):
became slower, deeper, and more peaceful than it had been
all day. When his daughter returned, the volunteer told her
what had happened. The daughter's eyes filled with tears. She
explained that Sadie had been Frank's cherished black labrador dog,
his constant companion for fourteen years, who had passed away
(04:03):
ten years earlier. Every single day, without fail Sadie would
wait for him at the door, ready to go for
their evening walk. Frank passed away peacefully early the next morning.
His family found immense comfort in knowing that in his
final hours, he wasn't scared and he wasn't alone. He
(04:24):
was with his best friend Sadie, setting off for one
last walk together. That my Friend, is a classic example
of a bedside visitation, also known as eldv's end of
life Dreams and Visions, coined by doctor Christopher Kerr. On
(04:45):
our episode today, we'll discuss doctor Kerr's prize winning essay
from the Bigelow Afterlife Essay Contest. But before I do,
I want to share with you some words from a listener,
plus the extraordinary dream I had last night that contained
my loved ones and pets. So first listener Jen's email
(05:07):
was filled with the most beautiful stories and they are
perfect example of how our loved ones and spirit can
communicate with us in ways that are deeply personal and undeniable.
The first story she shared is a illustration of what
I call a sign from the perfect personality. As we
started our episode with pets today, the dog Sadie, Jen
(05:28):
told me about one of her cats she had ham
fed as a tiny kitten. Now, after all that care,
you think that would be a cuddly lapcat, But he
grew up to be independent and very stand offish. Jen
said that he acted like she was the bane of
his existence, and holding him for even two minutes was
a miracle. Sadly, he was diagnosed with cancer, and Jen
(05:51):
and her boyfriend spent his last few days loving him
before helping him peacefully pass into the warm sun. Two
days later, Jen was lying on her bed and she
felt the bed move with a very distinct motion. If
you're somebody who has ever had a cat, you'll know
just what I'm talking about, That unsubtle thumping movement when
(06:12):
they are scratching an ear with the back of their foot.
She looked over, and of course there was no cat there.
But then it happened again, and again Jen knew it
was him. It wasn't a gentle nudge or a soft whisper.
It was a clear, physical and almost demanding sign which
perfectly matched the personality and the nightly routine of the
(06:33):
little cat she lovingly called Bratt. She feels it was
so evidential because it was so perfectly him. But Jen's
signs didn't stop there. She shared another story from this
past week that she calls putting a spirit to the test.
It started when Jen was listening to an old episode
of mine. During the show, she was prompted to think
(06:55):
of a sign she would like to receive from a
loved one, and she said her sign out loud, a dragonfly. Well,
that Friday night, her dog became extremely sick. It was late,
there were no vets available, and she was terrified. She
sat with him in the dark and prayed, begging her
deceased mother to watch over him and help him get
(07:16):
through it. The next morning, her dog was still wobbly
and she was heartbroken, praying, please, Mom, watch over him.
When a little while later she was walking him in
the backyard and a dragonfly landed directly on his little
dog jacket and walked around the yard hanging on to him.
Then two or three more dragonflies appeared, landing on the
(07:39):
chairs and even on Jen herself. In that moment, she
said she knew her dog would come through this and
that he would be okay, and he was. If the
story ended there, it would be amazing enough. But the
very next day, Jen was sitting with her grandson, who
looked at her and said, I wish she, meaning Jen's mom,
(08:00):
could have met River his baby boy. Jen told me
that right after her grandson said that, several dragonflies flew
over and just hovered right above their table, and she
believed it was a message from mom. How often do
we have the courage to ask for a specific sign?
For Jen, her mom delivered a sign, not as a
(08:20):
casual hello, but in a moment of desperate need, bringing
comfort and peace, and then she sent it again like
a little wink from heaven to remove any doubt. It
just shows us that our loved ones are listening, they
respond when we need them the most, and their love
is always with us. Now you would think me, I
Sander Champlain, am an expert on asking for signs and
(08:42):
getting them from my loved ones. But I'm going to
admit I'm human, and although I do trust that my
loved ones are around, I don't often ask for signs
or do many of the afterlife communication methods that we
so often talk about Tan Shades of the Afterlife. But
last night I finished recording last week's episode and at
the end spoke about some different ways we can talk
(09:05):
to and connect with our loved ones and spirit. So
I remembered episode one eight four when I spoke about
a dream expert and psychologist, doctor Janet Pete A. Latto.
She talks about a dream gate, so you can wake
up in the morning or just before you go to bed,
imagine a doorway or a gateway, and allow our loved
(09:28):
one to appear in your mind, just on the opposite
side of it. So we're kind of like jumpstarting a
dream visit and allowing the space for our loved one
to connect with us. You'll get all the details on
episode one eighty four. Anyways, this morning, I woke up early.
It was too early to get up. I was in
that day dreamy state and decided to try at that
(09:50):
dream gate. So I pictured my own backyard of my house,
but invented a fence with a gate. On the other
side of that gate, I pictured my dad, who was
in spirit. Well, apparently I fell asleep because I awoke
from the following very vivid dream. In my dream, I
(10:10):
walked into a beautiful house in the woods and my
dad was sitting at the kitchen table. I could clearly
see the black and white flannel shirt he was wearing
and tan corduroy pants. I was happy to see him,
of course, and although I don't remember what we talked about,
I know we talked for a few moments and he
(10:30):
stood up and gave me the biggest hug, which I
can still feel. Then he said, to me, let me
show you something. So Dad led me down the hallway
to a closed door, and then he opened it. Behind
the door was my grandmother, his mom, I call her Grammy,
(10:52):
who passed away seventeen years ago. She was sitting on
a couch. I bent down and I gave her a
very real kiss on cheek. But the sweetest thing was
that around her lap, sitting cozied up against her, was
my three cats that are in spirit, Millie, Ozzie and Harry,
(11:13):
who just passed last month. I was so happy I
could feel there, for I could even feel Millie kind
of nuzzle up against my gin. And then I woke up,
and I woke up with tears of joy in my eyes.
So I want to thank Jen for sharing her stories. Friends,
I love hearing your stories of signs, et cetera. Don't forget.
(11:35):
You can email me Sandra Champlain at gmail dot com.
And I also want to thank my loved ones who
made a special guest appearance in my dreams. I feel
like after today I'll be asking for some more signs.
What are we talking about today? Yes, I said, We're
going to turn to doctor Christopher Kurz prize winning essay.
(11:57):
Back in twenty twenty one, Robert bigel Hello, founder of
Bigelow Aerospace, created a contest looking for proof of the afterlife.
The winners were chosen based on the power of their arguments,
and the essays they wrote were all about human survival
of consciousness beyond a reasonable doubt, as though they were
(12:20):
in a courtroom presenting it. When we get back from
the break, we'll dive right into doctor Christopher Kerr's winning
essay called Experiences of the Dying Evidence of Survival of
Human Consciousness. We'll be right back. You're listening to Shades
of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast
(12:43):
AM Paranormal podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife.
(13:10):
I'm Sandra Champlain, and next I want to feature some
words from doctor Christopher Kerr's prize winning essay Experiences of
the Dying Evidence of Survival of Human Consciousness, which he
entered in the Bigelow contest back in twenty twenty one. Now,
if you go back to episode two hundred and forty four,
(13:31):
I feature some of the words from the first prize winner,
which is Jeffrey Mishlev. The reason I picked doctor Kerr's
essay for today is simply because it is one of
the subjects that brings me personally the most comfort. That's
how I chose it. So today, no talk of near
(13:52):
death experiences or mediums. We are going to look at
the afterlife from the perspect of a hospice doctor who
has spent more than two decades at the bedside of
the dying. His name is doctor Christopher Kerr, a neurobiologist
and the chief medical officer at the Center for Hospice
(14:13):
and Palliative Care in Buffalo, New York. What doctor Kerr
has documented is something that happens not after death, but
in the weeks, days, and hours before death. These are
the profound, vivid, and deeply meaningful dreams and visions that
the vast majority of his patient's experience. He calls them
(14:34):
end of life dreams and visions, or eldvs for short,
and what they reveal is a consciousness that not only
remains vibrant in a failing body, but also seems to
transcend it, connecting the dying with loved ones who have
already passed on. This is not spooky, It's not about
(14:54):
ghosts any abstract theology. This is about love, connection and
the power, powerful, lived reality of the human soul at
its most vulnerable and perhaps its most heightened and enlightened moment.
So let's dive into some powerful stories and evidence that
doctor Kerr has gathered. Doctor Kerr began his work by
(15:18):
admitting that his extensive medical and scientific training, including a
PhD in neurobiology, hadn't prepared him for what he would
witness at his patient's bedside. He, like many in the
medical field, was trained to see dying as a series
of failing organs, a biological process to be managed until
(15:40):
it inevitably ended. It was, in his words, about caring
for life pre death. But what he discovered was something
entirely different. He came to realize that there is so
much more to dying than just the physical act of
death itself. He saw that in the final stages of
life life, as our bodies deteriorate, the mind and consciousness
(16:04):
often do the opposite. They elevate, they expand they become
more acute. He makes a powerful point right away in
his essay. To find evidence for the survival of consciousness,
we can't just focus on what happens after death. The
dying process itself might be the key. It's a continuum,
(16:25):
a transition where patients often experience a heightened awareness of
their entire existence, past and present, and most incredibly, this
awareness is often shared with people who have died before
them and pets who are now in that moment fully
present to them. What he and his team at Hospice
(16:46):
Buffalo began to see time and time again where patients
having vivid, meaningful reunions with their deceased loved ones, parents
and children lost decades earlier, would return to provide comfort,
peace and forgiveness, helping their loved one transition. This is
what doctor Kerr calls the great paradox of dying. At
(17:10):
the very moment we associate with physical decline and darkness,
patients often spiritually and perceptually are vibrant, filled with an
inner life that defies their failing biology. Now, many of
us are familiar with the near death experience or NDEs
Skeptics of NDEs often attribute them to a lack of
(17:33):
oxygen in the brain, anesthesia, or the trauma of resuscitation.
But doctor Kerr's work is very different. His patients aren't
having a sudden, traumatic brush with death. For most, dying
is a prolonged process. His team has studied over fifteen
hundred patients, many of whom were fully awake, lucid, and
(17:56):
neurologically intact when these experiences began, not just minutes before
their death, but in the days and weeks leading up
to it. These experiences are not the result of a
brain shutting down or rebooting. They happen on a continuum,
from full intact cognition to the final hours. Doctor Kerr
(18:19):
argues that it is the dying themselves who have the
best and most unique vantage point, the keyhole through which
to see what lies beyond. So what are these experiences
really like? Doctor Kerr and his team conducted rigorous, peer
reviewed studies to find out. They interviewed patients daily, screening
(18:41):
them to ensure they weren't suffering from delirium or confusion.
What they found was staggering, and their first major longitudinal study,
eighty eight percent of patients reported having at least one
end of life dream or vision. These weren't fleeting and
fuzzy dreams. Nearly all of them ninety nine percent were
(19:04):
described by patients as feeling more real than real. This
is a phrase that comes up again and again. These
weren't just memories, they were lived, felt, tangible experiences. And
who were they seeing. Overwhelmingly, they were seeing people they
loved who had already died, And seventy two percent of
(19:28):
these end of life visions involved reunions with deceased friends
or relatives, and critically, these were consistently rated as the
most comforting experiences of all. As the patients got closer
to death, the frequency of these visits from the deceased increased,
and so did the comfort level they provided. Let me
(19:49):
share the story of Florence, a patient doctor Kerr describes.
Six days before she died. She was physically frail, but
completely lucid with with no neurologic disease, and not on
any psychoactive medication. She described her dying process not as
something to fear, but as a vibrant, conscious experience. She
(20:12):
wasn't having grand, abstract revelations. Instead, she felt the comforting
and familiar presence of her deceased husband and daughter. She
was back with them and back at her family's kitchen table.
In her own words, she felt she had been put
back together and she was truly home. Her awareness was acute.
(20:35):
Love was the entire experience. It sustained her and removed
any fear of death. This validation is so important. Think
of Bridget, an eighty one year old grandmother who started
having such vivid visions that they blended into her waking state.
Her daughter didn't know what to say. Bridget saw her
two deceased aunts standing and watching over her. Then she
(20:59):
saw her mother wearing a long luminous white dress, sitting
at a table and crocheting. Bridget was deeply religious, but
these experiences created a crisis of faith for her. She
kept asking, why am I seeing this? Am I going crazy?
She expected to see angels, not her dead relatives. The
weight was only lifted when doctor Kerr's team explained that
(21:22):
what she was experiencing was not only normal, but incredibly common,
that nearly ninety percent of their patients had similar experiences.
After that, Bridget became comfortable, even delighted, to share her visions.
She even told them that she learned spirits like to
follow the living, especially disbelieving people. These experiences don't just comfort,
(21:47):
they reconnect people with the very essence of who they are.
Take Ryan, a fifty one year old man who had
never married and still lived in his childhood neighborhood. His
whole life was anchored in the seinem joys of his youth,
the music and culture of the nineteen seventies. As he
was dying, his dreams returned him to that life. He
(22:08):
was going to concerts and fishing in the local river
with his deceased friends. He revisited the weekly garage sales
where they used to hunt for old record albums. He
felt alive and unburdened by his illness. For a time,
his health actually improved, and the dreams and visions stopped.
His reaction, he sighed and said, I'm back. I really
(22:33):
missed the other stuff. He missed the vibrant, lived reality
of his visions, which felt more real and satisfying than
his physically limited existence. Another patient, Frank, was ninety five
years old and was a lifelong baseball fan with an
encyclopedic memory of the game. Though his body was failing,
(22:53):
his mind was sharp. When he would close his eyes
to rest, his room would become crowded with dead wad relatives.
One of them was his uncle Harry, dead for forty
six years, who, as he said, just wouldn't shut up.
Over time, Frank's inner world returned him to what he
treasured most, his wife's love. The more he dreamt of her,
(23:16):
the more peaceful he became. Eventually, he felt her presence
so strongly that he requested to discontinue his treatment, telling
the staff he wanted to join Ruthie in heaven. His
decision was not one of despair, but a much awaited
reunion with the woman he loved. You won't hear doctor
(23:36):
Christopher Kerr's voice on this episode, but I encourage you
to go to YouTube type in I see dead people.
Doctor Christopher Kerr is a Ted talk seen by over
five million people. There are hundreds of comments, many people
sharing their stories. This One person said, the last words
(24:00):
my father said before his death was I have to go.
My parents are sitting here next to my bed. They
want to take me somewhere. He was very relaxed and
peaceful when he died. Another person says, I was taking
care of a hospice patient when my brother died. She
hadn't spoken above a whisper in weeks. My brother died
(24:20):
on the Thursday afternoon, seven months after being diagnosed with
stage four lung cancer. He was buried on a Sunday,
and I returned to work on a Tuesday around two am.
My patient clearly said, your brother is here. She had
no idea I had a brother. She passed soon after.
Although I didn't see my brother, I think he was
(24:41):
there to comfort me. It's time for a break. We'll
be right back with more end of life visions and dreams.
You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio
and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast Network. Welcome back
(25:15):
to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain and on
our episode today, we're exploring a prize winning essay by
hospice doctor Christopher Kerr on end of life dreams and visions.
As his research team analyzed hundreds of these experiences, clear
themes began to emerge. They weren't random, They followed distinct
(25:37):
patterns that seemed to serve a profound purpose in the
dying process. First, there was the comforting presence. This is
the most common theme where deceased loved ones simply appear,
offering a sense of peace and reassurance. One woman dreamed
of her dead sister sitting by her bed and said
it was extremely comforting because I'm not going alone. My
(26:00):
sister will be with me. Another patient named Alice described
an intense vision of deceased loved ones that left her
with a feeling of enormous love and a sense of
joy and peace that was hard to describe. Another dreamed
of her deceased mother in a beautiful garden, who told
her everything will be okay. This was so comforting to
(26:23):
the patient that she told her family she wanted to
go back to sleep because her mother would be coming back.
One patient who dreamed of both deceased and living friends
and relatives, said that in the dream, they were all
simply telling me I would be okay. Perhaps one of
the most incredible examples was a ninety five year old
(26:46):
man who dreamed of his mother, who had passed away
ninety years earlier when he was only five years old.
The dream was so vivid that he reported smelling her
perfume and hearing her soothing, comforting voice say I love you.
The second theme was preparing to go. About thirty nine
(27:07):
percent of patients had dreams that involved travel, packing a suitcase,
boarding a plane, or driving somewhere. One man dreamed he
was boarding a plane with his son. He didn't know
their destination, but he felt comforted. In a later interview,
he said that he and his son were on the
edge of leaving. Another patient dreamed that he was just
(27:30):
driving around town and had to go somewhere, but again
he did not know where. It's as if the consciousness
is getting ready for a journey that the body can
no longer take. The third theme was watching or engaging
with the dead. Sometimes the deceased would just be present
watching over the patient, which was found to be very comforting.
(27:53):
One patient said she dreamed of her two aunts standing
over and watching her while she was lying on a couch.
Other times the engagement was more active. One woman dreamed
her deceased husband and sister joined her for breakfast, and
that she played cards with her dead friends. Another patient
dreamed that her father and two brothers, all deceased, were
(28:16):
silently hugging her and playing games. Then she described how
they were welcoming her to the dead and in a simple,
beautiful vision. Another man dreamed he was able to pet
and play with is deceased dog. The fourth theme, closely related,
was loved ones waiting. Here the message is more explicit.
(28:39):
The deceased are not just visiting, they are waiting to
welcome the person home. One woman had waking visions of
six dead family members in her room, and she said
they were just waiting for me, and that it was
good to see them just three days before she died.
Another woman dreamed she was at the top of a
(29:01):
beautiful staircase with her husband waiting for her at the bottom.
Of course, not all experiences were purely comforting. The fifth
theme was distressing experiences, and the sixth unfinished business. We'll
talk about these in more detail, but they show something profound.
(29:23):
We die as we have lived. These experiences are not
a generic heavenly escape. They're deeply personally tied to the
life of the individual, including their traumas, their regrets, and
their deepest worries. The idea that end of life experiences
are always peaceful and beautiful, unfortunately, is not the complete picture.
(29:48):
Doctor Kerr's work shows that these visions are an extension
of the life that was led, and for some that
life include trauma and some unresolved pain. But even in
these distressing visions, there is always a path toward healing
and resolution. Let's talk about Dwayne. Dwayne was a forty
(30:09):
eight year old man dying of throat cancer after a
lifetime of substance abuse and crime. When he arrived at hospice,
he was charming, funny, and sociable, acting as if he
had a clear conscience, despite a violent past that included
killing two men in self defense. His cheerful demeanor was
(30:31):
a survival mechanism, a way to avoid the deep pain
and guilt of his past. But his end of life
vision would not let him hide. He had a recurring,
terrifying dream. In it, he was grabbed and stabbed right
at the side of his cancer. He said, it was
like I was fighting somebody. They were digging the knife
(30:55):
trying to cut off my neck where the cancer was.
When a nurse tried to reassus sure him that people
just talk in their sleep, Dwayne insisted, no, this was real.
These visions led to a complete transformation. During a filmed interview,
this man, who was known for his jokes and casual
attitude began sobbing uncontrollably. He was finally confronting his past,
(31:20):
talking about his cancer as karma and regretting his life
of ripping and running. In tears, he said, one thing
I know is that I heard a lot of people
and I feel bad about doing it, very bad. And
I just hope and pray that they do forgive me
because they see what influence I was under at the time.
(31:41):
His consciousness, which he suppressed for a lifetime, returned with
a vengeance, forcing a reckoning that ultimately led him to
seek forgiveness, especially from his estrange daughter Brittany. Their deathbed
reunion was so powerful that it helped Brittany, who had
followed her father into drug use, to turn her own
(32:01):
life around after his death. Then there's the story of
John Stinson, an eighty seven year old World War II veteran.
For his entire life, John had never spoken to his
family about the horrors he witnessed as a twenty year
old soldier during the D Day landing on Omaha Beach.
He had been part of a rescue mission, and the
(32:24):
vision of the bloodied beach, strewn with mutilated bodies and
floating limbs, had haunted him silently for over sixty years.
As he lay dying in hospice, the trauma came roaring
back in his nightmares. He was terrified, crying out, There's
nothing but death, dead soldiers all around me. His son
(32:45):
later said, I learned more about my dad in the
last two weeks than I did during his lifetime. But
then a few days later, a remarkable shift occurred. John
was visibly at peace. He told to Occur about two
new dreams, and the first he joyfully relived the day
he got his discharge papers from the military, and the
(33:09):
second he was approached by a soldier who had been
killed on Omaha Beach. The soldier came back to tell
him soon they are going to come and get you.
John instinctively knew that they were his fallen comrades, and
this was not a message of judgment, but one of
joyful reunion. His overwhelming guilt that he had carried for decades,
(33:34):
the feeling that he had failed to save his brothers
in arms, was finally lifted from him. Their consciousness returned
to grant him the forgiveness he could never grant himself.
He finally had closure and could rest, and their stories
are not unique in this regard. Other patients reported dreams
that replayed specific anxieties and traumas. One woman dreamed of
(33:58):
her son's serious injury that occurred on a naval ship.
Another man had distressing dreams of his very critical brother.
Several patients that relived abusive childhood experiences. This connects to
another important theme, unfinished business. The dreams are a continuation
(34:18):
of life, including its worries. One young mother had distressing
dreams about her daily responsibilities like getting her kids ready
for school and getting them to practice. Another young mother
dreamed about her real life worries about bills and her children.
These heartbreaking stories show how the consciousness remains focused on
(34:41):
love and responsibility right down to the very end. Sometimes
the power of consciousness can even seem to override biology.
There was a ninety eight year old matriarch named Maizie
who had cared for over one hundred foster kids in
her life. She had eating days earlier and was no
(35:02):
longer verbal. Her family gathered worried that her estranged biological son, Ronnie,
wouldn't make it from Oregon in time to see her. Suddenly, Mazie,
who had seemed unconscious opened her eyes, sat up in bed,
and cried out her deceased husband's name. Amos, my amos.
(35:23):
I can't come to you now. My son Ronnie is coming.
Ronnie arrived later that same day, twenty four hours later,
Maizie closed her eyes for the last time. You know
how we hear of life reviews. When someone has a
near death experience, they see all kinds of screens simultaneously,
and they relive different portions from their life from other
(35:47):
people's perspectives. Well, it sounds to me and doctor Kerr's
research that a small group of people experience what's mainly
on their consciousness. So if we don't have something resolved,
or if we have some worries, they might be there
for a short time before we find out that everything
(36:08):
is going to be okay. So I know, for myself,
I don't want to relive shameful things that maybe I've
done in my life, So I try to live my
life with integrity and clean things up and be in
communication so I don't have to review anything in a
life review. I think the same holds true for these
end of life visions. Why don't we do our very
(36:29):
best to keep communication open? Resolve problems and all of that,
so that when our time comes, we can just be
greeted by our loved ones and our pets. Let's head
off to the next break. Oh but before we do,
here's a story. Tracy says. My grandmother on her dying bed,
said that there were angels with her and also told
(36:50):
her daughter, who could not have children, that she was pregnant.
Her daughter told her that can't be true. You know,
I cannot have children. But eight months later she delivered
a healthy baby boy. All right, now, let's head off
to the break and we'll be back with more end
of life dreams and visions in the work of doctor
(37:12):
Christopher Kerr. We'll be right back. You're listening to Shades
of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast
AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife.
(37:47):
I'm Sandra Champlain. If you want to know more about
end of life visions and dreams, I encourage you to
pick up a copy of doctor Christopher Kerr's book It's
called Death Is But a Dream, Finding hope and meaning
at life's end. Also, his research was featured in the
Netflix docuseries called Surviving death and you can find his
(38:10):
website doctor Christopher Kerr dot com. That will lead you
to a YouTube channel for Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo
where you can watch a documentary. He's got many playlists
and you can meet some of these people who had
the end of life dreams and visions and you can
(38:31):
hear their stories directly from them before they passed. One
of the most powerful aspects of doctor Kerr's end of
life dreams and Visions research is how it demonstrates the
universality of these experiences. Yes, they can happen to children,
and they happen to people with severe cognitive impairments, challenging
(38:52):
everything we think we know about how the mind and
brain operates. Let's start with the children. How does it
ch child who may have a limited concept of death
process the end of life? Doctor Kerr found that children
too have these profound experiences that provide comfort and meaning.
Pick Jessica, a thirteen year old girl. She wasn't focused
(39:17):
on the life she would miss. She was too busy
living in the now, and her end of life vision
was a natural part of her present moment. Her greatest
fear was being without her mother, her visions addressed that
fear directly. She had a waking vision of Mary, her
(39:37):
mother's best friend, who had died from leukemia when Jessica
was just eight. Jessica described it in detail. Mary is
one of my mom's best friends. I'd seen her in
my mom's room. She had her favorite shirt on, which
she then described as a gray and blue checkered flannel shirt,
a detail her mom confirmed. This vision of a loving,
(40:01):
motherly figure brought her tremendous peace. Her mother recalled, you
told me all the time that Mom, I saw an angel,
and then you were able to go to sleep. Jessica nodded,
saying I was not afraid of it at all. These
experiences assured her that she would not be alone. In
(40:22):
addition to this vision, Jessica also had dreams of her
deceased dog, Shadow, who reaffirmed that she was okay and
helped her to feel secure and loved. Then there was Ginny,
a fifteen year old girl. She had a beautiful dream
during an MRI. She was in a castle filled with
(40:44):
warmth and light, playing with her deceased aunt. She saw
a stained glass window depicting a baby and that you
could see the sun through it. The castle was a
safe place and populated by her deceased family pets, who
were now all healthy and playful. In the dream, Aunt
(41:05):
Mimi hugged her and whispered, You've got to go back
down there and fight. She woke up from the dream euphoric,
telling her mother, I'm going to be okay. I'm not alone.
A few days before she died, her mother heard her
having an animated conversation. When she asked who she was
talking to, Ginny replied, I was talking to God. She
(41:28):
told her mom, I'm not going to be sick. You
know where I'm going, you know, to the castle. These
experiences also occur in patients whose minds we often marginalize,
those with cognitive impairments like dementia or autism. Consider Gerd,
a woman who suffered from dementia and the lifelong trauma
(41:51):
of living through the Nazi occupation of Norway as a teenager,
where she saw her school principle executed. From much of
her illness, she was consumed by bitter memories of the war,
but as death neared, a transformation took place. The anger
faded and she became uncharacteristically affectionate. She began spending hours
(42:17):
staring lovingly at a portrait of her son Thomas, who
died of leukemia at the age of three. She would
blow kisses to his picture, reclaiming a love that had
been buried under decades of trauma. In her final weeks,
her consciousness returned not to the trauma, but to the
one memory that brought her peace and love. She became
(42:40):
so angered in the distant past that she no longer
recognized her own eighty five year old reflection in the mirror,
which she used to call herself the Crazy Lady. Perhaps
the modest touching story is a story of Andre, a
seventy five year old man with high functioning autism. He
was childlike and joyful, and had become a beloved member
(43:03):
of his cousin Lisa's family. He and Lisa's young son,
Hazen were inseparable best friends, playing nerf guns and communicating
with walkie talkies around the house. His family chose not
to tell him the severity of his terminal diagnosis, but
his end of life dreams and visions told him in
(43:25):
the gentlest ways possible. He started having waking visions, first
a friendly man and a hat who waved at him.
Then a man and a woman who looked familiar like
his grandparents. From an old photo. He saw a man
taking pictures, which was one of his favorite hobbies. His
most moving vision was a little boy chasing butterflies. It
(43:48):
was his cousin's nephew, Lucas, who had died of leukemia
at the age of six. Through this beautiful, innocent image,
Andre's consciousness was being gently familiar on with mortality in
a way that was completely devoid of fear. He just
knew these experiences were real and positive, and they made
(44:08):
him feel secure and loved. And just as these visions
can gently guide someone who isn't aware of their prognosis,
they can also break through to someone who is actively
denying it. This brings us to the powerful story of Sierra.
At only twenty eight, she was in hospice with days
to live, yet she insisted I am going to beat this.
(44:31):
Her care team was worried, assuming her denial meant she
wasn't having these experiences. The breakthrough came when her physician
asked if she'd been having any dreams. After a long pause,
Sierra looked past the doctor, smiled and whispered hi Grandpa,
her deceased grandfather, an Army veteran, was there with her.
(44:53):
When her mother asked what he was saying, Sierra replied,
he says he is proud of the young woman and
mother I have become. He does not want me to suffer.
Her grandfather reached her and away no one else could,
providing the love and guidance and acceptance she needed to
find peace. The impact of these end of life experiences
(45:16):
doesn't stop with the person who is dying. It ripples outward, profoundly,
affecting the families and loved ones who are left behind.
Caregivers repeatedly told the research team how much peace these
visions brought. One elderly sister of a patient said, when
he told me that he saw his favorite sister who
(45:36):
was deceased hold out her hands to him, it made
me feel comforted because I knew it comforted him. Another
caregiver put it plainly, he did find comfort talking to
and seeing people who passed before him. He was not
afraid or scared. Sometimes the consciousness of the dying person
is so strong that it feels shared by the living.
(45:59):
The story of Son and Joan is a perfect example.
They were an elderly couple who had spent a lifetime together.
After Sonny died, Joan's health began to decline rapidly, but
for her, Sonny was never gone. She kept him alive
through constant pre death visions, both asleep and awake. Her
daughters would hear her calling out to him at night,
(46:20):
come and get me. I miss you. Her daughter Lisa,
said that Joan's visions made Sonny's presence so real that
she felt it too. For Lisa, the true full weight
of her loss didn't hit when her father died. It
hit when her mother died two months later, because it
was only then that Sonny's felt presence finally faded from
(46:41):
their house. The transformative effect on the family is especially
important when it comes to the parents of children who
have passed. We talked about Ginny, the girl who dreamed
of the Castle. The impact of her visions on her mother, Michelle,
is a story in itself. Michelle, by her own admission,
rather agnostic, but witnessing her daughter's profound comforting left her transformed.
(47:07):
Two days before Ginny's passing, when her daughter was no
longer responsive, Michelle looked at her and said, she is
always teaching me something. Ginny's final experiences forced Michelle to
question her own belief system. She threw up her hands
in surrender and concluded, who knows, Maybe there is a castle.
(47:28):
I no longer know what not to believe. Years later,
Michelle's bereavement is shaped by that continuity. She sees rainbows
and heart shapes in the clouds as evidence of Ginny's
continuing presence, sustaining her until the day she says she
too will find her way to Ginny's castle. So what
(47:49):
does this all mean? Doctor Kerr's decade of research paints
a consistent and compelling picture. At the end of life,
something extraordinary happens to all of us. As our bodies
and brains fail, a heightened form of consciousness takes place,
and our loved ones our pets are there to greet us.
These are not regular dreams as we think of them,
(48:11):
their lived experience, as people say, more real than real.
A dying patient named Horace struggled to find the words
to describe what he was experiencing, but he described his
wife as being even more beautiful than he remembered, and
then everywhere there was happiness. Man named Patrick was reliving,
eating his family's secret spaghetti sauce with his deceased grandmother.
(48:36):
Just before he died. Patrick's end of life vision revealed
the secret ingredient the grandmother put in the spaghetti sauce.
And there was Irene, an elderly woman with advanced dementia.
Days before her death, she joyfully attempted to leave her
nursing home. In her mind, she was experiencing the best
(48:56):
day of her life, her wedding day, and she needed
to get to the service. These visions and dreams come
back to heal old wounds, offer forgiveness, and reassure us
that nobody dies alone. As doctor Kerr puts it so beautifully,
death becomes less about finality and more about life's resilience.
(49:18):
It's not a pulling down of the shades, but an enlightenment,
an expansion of reality to include a world that has
been there waiting all along. If you'd like to read
doctor Christopher Kerr's full essay, you can find it at
Bigelowinstitute dot org and read many of the others while
(49:39):
you're there. I hope you've enjoyed our time together. Want
to remind you come visit me at wee Doo'tdie dot
com so much to explore and come meet me at
one of my free Sunday gatherings with medium demonstration included.
I'm Sandra Champlain. Thank you for listening to Shades of
the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast a
(50:00):
paranormal podcast network.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Thanks for listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost
Ay and paranormal podcast network. Make sure and check out
all our shows on the iHeartRadio app or by going
to iHeartRadio dot com
And you're here. Thanks for choosing the iHeartRadio and Coast
to Ghost Day and Paranormal Podcast Network. Your quest for
podcasts of the paranormal, supernatural, and the unexplained ends here.
They invite you to enjoy all our shows we have
on this network, and right now, let's start with Chase
of the Afterlife with Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to our podcast. Please be aware the thoughts and
opinions expressed by the host are their thoughts and opinions
only and do not reflect those of iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, Coast
to Coast, am employees of Premiere Networks, or their sponsors
and associates. We would like to encourage you to do
(00:42):
your own research and discover the subject matter for yourself. Hi.
I'm Sandra Champlain. For over twenty five years, I've been
on a journey to prove the existence of life after death.
On each episode, we'll discuss us the reasons we now
know that our loved ones have survived physical death and
(01:05):
so will we. Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. I'll
start our time together today with a true story shared
by a hospice volunteer about one of her patients. An
elderly man named Frank. Frank had been a quiet, stoic
man all of his life, but in his final weeks,
ravaged by cancer, he had grown even more withdrawn, Rarely
(01:28):
speaking to his family or the staff. He spent most
of his days in a state of semi consciousness, his
breath shallow, his eyes closed. His family was heartbroken, feeling
as though they had already lost him. They would sit
by his bedside, talking to him, but getting no response.
(01:49):
One afternoon, the volunteer was sitting with Frank while his
family took a much needed break. The room was still
and quiet, filled only with the soft toumb of an
ox machine. Suddenly Frank's eyes, which had been closed for hours,
fluttered open. But he wasn't looking at the volunteer or
(02:09):
the ceiling. He was looking toward the foot of his
bed with a look of pure, unadulterated joy. A huge,
brilliant smile spread across his face, a smile no one
had seen in years. His frail hand lifted from the blanket,
reaching out toward the empty space. He let out a soft,
(02:32):
breathy laugh and whispered a single word, Sadie. His eyes
tracked something invisible moving from the foot of the bed
along the side right up to his hand. He began
to make a soft, rhythmic stroking motion in the air,
his fingers gently curling and uncurling, as if he were
(02:55):
running them through a thick coat of fur. There's my girl,
he whispered, his voice filled with love. There's my good girl.
The volunteer watched, mesmerized as this dying man, lost to
the world just moments before, was now completely engaged with
(03:16):
his unseen companion. He continued to pet the air, his
eyes sparkling. He murmured, you came to take me for
a walk, didn't you. Okay, girl, Okay, let's go. He
closed his eyes, but the blissful smile remained. His hand
slowly came back to rest on the blanket. His breathing
(03:39):
became slower, deeper, and more peaceful than it had been
all day. When his daughter returned, the volunteer told her
what had happened. The daughter's eyes filled with tears. She
explained that Sadie had been Frank's cherished black labrador dog,
his constant companion for fourteen years, who had passed away
(04:03):
ten years earlier. Every single day, without fail Sadie would
wait for him at the door, ready to go for
their evening walk. Frank passed away peacefully early the next morning.
His family found immense comfort in knowing that in his
final hours, he wasn't scared and he wasn't alone. He
(04:24):
was with his best friend Sadie, setting off for one
last walk together. That my Friend, is a classic example
of a bedside visitation, also known as eldv's end of
life Dreams and Visions, coined by doctor Christopher Kerr. On
(04:45):
our episode today, we'll discuss doctor Kerr's prize winning essay
from the Bigelow Afterlife Essay Contest. But before I do,
I want to share with you some words from a listener,
plus the extraordinary dream I had last night that contained
my loved ones and pets. So first listener Jen's email
(05:07):
was filled with the most beautiful stories and they are
perfect example of how our loved ones and spirit can
communicate with us in ways that are deeply personal and undeniable.
The first story she shared is a illustration of what
I call a sign from the perfect personality. As we
started our episode with pets today, the dog Sadie, Jen
(05:28):
told me about one of her cats she had ham
fed as a tiny kitten. Now, after all that care,
you think that would be a cuddly lapcat, But he
grew up to be independent and very stand offish. Jen
said that he acted like she was the bane of
his existence, and holding him for even two minutes was
a miracle. Sadly, he was diagnosed with cancer, and Jen
(05:51):
and her boyfriend spent his last few days loving him
before helping him peacefully pass into the warm sun. Two
days later, Jen was lying on her bed and she
felt the bed move with a very distinct motion. If
you're somebody who has ever had a cat, you'll know
just what I'm talking about, That unsubtle thumping movement when
(06:12):
they are scratching an ear with the back of their foot.
She looked over, and of course there was no cat there.
But then it happened again, and again Jen knew it
was him. It wasn't a gentle nudge or a soft whisper.
It was a clear, physical and almost demanding sign which
perfectly matched the personality and the nightly routine of the
(06:33):
little cat she lovingly called Bratt. She feels it was
so evidential because it was so perfectly him. But Jen's
signs didn't stop there. She shared another story from this
past week that she calls putting a spirit to the test.
It started when Jen was listening to an old episode
of mine. During the show, she was prompted to think
(06:55):
of a sign she would like to receive from a
loved one, and she said her sign out loud, a dragonfly. Well,
that Friday night, her dog became extremely sick. It was late,
there were no vets available, and she was terrified. She
sat with him in the dark and prayed, begging her
deceased mother to watch over him and help him get
(07:16):
through it. The next morning, her dog was still wobbly
and she was heartbroken, praying, please, Mom, watch over him.
When a little while later she was walking him in
the backyard and a dragonfly landed directly on his little
dog jacket and walked around the yard hanging on to him.
Then two or three more dragonflies appeared, landing on the
(07:39):
chairs and even on Jen herself. In that moment, she
said she knew her dog would come through this and
that he would be okay, and he was. If the
story ended there, it would be amazing enough. But the
very next day, Jen was sitting with her grandson, who
looked at her and said, I wish she, meaning Jen's mom,
(08:00):
could have met River his baby boy. Jen told me
that right after her grandson said that, several dragonflies flew
over and just hovered right above their table, and she
believed it was a message from mom. How often do
we have the courage to ask for a specific sign?
For Jen, her mom delivered a sign, not as a
(08:20):
casual hello, but in a moment of desperate need, bringing
comfort and peace, and then she sent it again like
a little wink from heaven to remove any doubt. It
just shows us that our loved ones are listening, they
respond when we need them the most, and their love
is always with us. Now you would think me, I
Sander Champlain, am an expert on asking for signs and
(08:42):
getting them from my loved ones. But I'm going to
admit I'm human, and although I do trust that my
loved ones are around, I don't often ask for signs
or do many of the afterlife communication methods that we
so often talk about Tan Shades of the Afterlife. But
last night I finished recording last week's episode and at
the end spoke about some different ways we can talk
(09:05):
to and connect with our loved ones and spirit. So
I remembered episode one eight four when I spoke about
a dream expert and psychologist, doctor Janet Pete A. Latto.
She talks about a dream gate, so you can wake
up in the morning or just before you go to bed,
imagine a doorway or a gateway, and allow our loved
(09:28):
one to appear in your mind, just on the opposite
side of it. So we're kind of like jumpstarting a
dream visit and allowing the space for our loved one
to connect with us. You'll get all the details on
episode one eighty four. Anyways, this morning, I woke up early.
It was too early to get up. I was in
that day dreamy state and decided to try at that
(09:50):
dream gate. So I pictured my own backyard of my house,
but invented a fence with a gate. On the other
side of that gate, I pictured my dad, who was
in spirit. Well, apparently I fell asleep because I awoke
from the following very vivid dream. In my dream, I
(10:10):
walked into a beautiful house in the woods and my
dad was sitting at the kitchen table. I could clearly
see the black and white flannel shirt he was wearing
and tan corduroy pants. I was happy to see him,
of course, and although I don't remember what we talked about,
I know we talked for a few moments and he
(10:30):
stood up and gave me the biggest hug, which I
can still feel. Then he said, to me, let me
show you something. So Dad led me down the hallway
to a closed door, and then he opened it. Behind
the door was my grandmother, his mom, I call her Grammy,
(10:52):
who passed away seventeen years ago. She was sitting on
a couch. I bent down and I gave her a
very real kiss on cheek. But the sweetest thing was
that around her lap, sitting cozied up against her, was
my three cats that are in spirit, Millie, Ozzie and Harry,
(11:13):
who just passed last month. I was so happy I
could feel there, for I could even feel Millie kind
of nuzzle up against my gin. And then I woke up,
and I woke up with tears of joy in my eyes.
So I want to thank Jen for sharing her stories. Friends,
I love hearing your stories of signs, et cetera. Don't forget.
(11:35):
You can email me Sandra Champlain at gmail dot com.
And I also want to thank my loved ones who
made a special guest appearance in my dreams. I feel
like after today I'll be asking for some more signs.
What are we talking about today? Yes, I said, We're
going to turn to doctor Christopher Kurz prize winning essay.
(11:57):
Back in twenty twenty one, Robert bigel Hello, founder of
Bigelow Aerospace, created a contest looking for proof of the afterlife.
The winners were chosen based on the power of their arguments,
and the essays they wrote were all about human survival
of consciousness beyond a reasonable doubt, as though they were
(12:20):
in a courtroom presenting it. When we get back from
the break, we'll dive right into doctor Christopher Kerr's winning
essay called Experiences of the Dying Evidence of Survival of
Human Consciousness. We'll be right back. You're listening to Shades
of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast
(12:43):
AM Paranormal podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife.
(13:10):
I'm Sandra Champlain, and next I want to feature some
words from doctor Christopher Kerr's prize winning essay Experiences of
the Dying Evidence of Survival of Human Consciousness, which he
entered in the Bigelow contest back in twenty twenty one. Now,
if you go back to episode two hundred and forty four,
(13:31):
I feature some of the words from the first prize winner,
which is Jeffrey Mishlev. The reason I picked doctor Kerr's
essay for today is simply because it is one of
the subjects that brings me personally the most comfort. That's
how I chose it. So today, no talk of near
(13:52):
death experiences or mediums. We are going to look at
the afterlife from the perspect of a hospice doctor who
has spent more than two decades at the bedside of
the dying. His name is doctor Christopher Kerr, a neurobiologist
and the chief medical officer at the Center for Hospice
(14:13):
and Palliative Care in Buffalo, New York. What doctor Kerr
has documented is something that happens not after death, but
in the weeks, days, and hours before death. These are
the profound, vivid, and deeply meaningful dreams and visions that
the vast majority of his patient's experience. He calls them
(14:34):
end of life dreams and visions, or eldvs for short,
and what they reveal is a consciousness that not only
remains vibrant in a failing body, but also seems to
transcend it, connecting the dying with loved ones who have
already passed on. This is not spooky, It's not about
(14:54):
ghosts any abstract theology. This is about love, connection and
the power, powerful, lived reality of the human soul at
its most vulnerable and perhaps its most heightened and enlightened moment.
So let's dive into some powerful stories and evidence that
doctor Kerr has gathered. Doctor Kerr began his work by
(15:18):
admitting that his extensive medical and scientific training, including a
PhD in neurobiology, hadn't prepared him for what he would
witness at his patient's bedside. He, like many in the
medical field, was trained to see dying as a series
of failing organs, a biological process to be managed until
(15:40):
it inevitably ended. It was, in his words, about caring
for life pre death. But what he discovered was something
entirely different. He came to realize that there is so
much more to dying than just the physical act of
death itself. He saw that in the final stages of
life life, as our bodies deteriorate, the mind and consciousness
(16:04):
often do the opposite. They elevate, they expand they become
more acute. He makes a powerful point right away in
his essay. To find evidence for the survival of consciousness,
we can't just focus on what happens after death. The
dying process itself might be the key. It's a continuum,
(16:25):
a transition where patients often experience a heightened awareness of
their entire existence, past and present, and most incredibly, this
awareness is often shared with people who have died before
them and pets who are now in that moment fully
present to them. What he and his team at Hospice
(16:46):
Buffalo began to see time and time again where patients
having vivid, meaningful reunions with their deceased loved ones, parents
and children lost decades earlier, would return to provide comfort,
peace and forgiveness, helping their loved one transition. This is
what doctor Kerr calls the great paradox of dying. At
(17:10):
the very moment we associate with physical decline and darkness,
patients often spiritually and perceptually are vibrant, filled with an
inner life that defies their failing biology. Now, many of
us are familiar with the near death experience or NDEs
Skeptics of NDEs often attribute them to a lack of
(17:33):
oxygen in the brain, anesthesia, or the trauma of resuscitation.
But doctor Kerr's work is very different. His patients aren't
having a sudden, traumatic brush with death. For most, dying
is a prolonged process. His team has studied over fifteen
hundred patients, many of whom were fully awake, lucid, and
(17:56):
neurologically intact when these experiences began, not just minutes before
their death, but in the days and weeks leading up
to it. These experiences are not the result of a
brain shutting down or rebooting. They happen on a continuum,
from full intact cognition to the final hours. Doctor Kerr
(18:19):
argues that it is the dying themselves who have the
best and most unique vantage point, the keyhole through which
to see what lies beyond. So what are these experiences
really like? Doctor Kerr and his team conducted rigorous, peer
reviewed studies to find out. They interviewed patients daily, screening
(18:41):
them to ensure they weren't suffering from delirium or confusion.
What they found was staggering, and their first major longitudinal study,
eighty eight percent of patients reported having at least one
end of life dream or vision. These weren't fleeting and
fuzzy dreams. Nearly all of them ninety nine percent were
(19:04):
described by patients as feeling more real than real. This
is a phrase that comes up again and again. These
weren't just memories, they were lived, felt, tangible experiences. And
who were they seeing. Overwhelmingly, they were seeing people they
loved who had already died, And seventy two percent of
(19:28):
these end of life visions involved reunions with deceased friends
or relatives, and critically, these were consistently rated as the
most comforting experiences of all. As the patients got closer
to death, the frequency of these visits from the deceased increased,
and so did the comfort level they provided. Let me
(19:49):
share the story of Florence, a patient doctor Kerr describes.
Six days before she died. She was physically frail, but
completely lucid with with no neurologic disease, and not on
any psychoactive medication. She described her dying process not as
something to fear, but as a vibrant, conscious experience. She
(20:12):
wasn't having grand, abstract revelations. Instead, she felt the comforting
and familiar presence of her deceased husband and daughter. She
was back with them and back at her family's kitchen table.
In her own words, she felt she had been put
back together and she was truly home. Her awareness was acute.
(20:35):
Love was the entire experience. It sustained her and removed
any fear of death. This validation is so important. Think
of Bridget, an eighty one year old grandmother who started
having such vivid visions that they blended into her waking state.
Her daughter didn't know what to say. Bridget saw her
two deceased aunts standing and watching over her. Then she
(20:59):
saw her mother wearing a long luminous white dress, sitting
at a table and crocheting. Bridget was deeply religious, but
these experiences created a crisis of faith for her. She
kept asking, why am I seeing this? Am I going crazy?
She expected to see angels, not her dead relatives. The
weight was only lifted when doctor Kerr's team explained that
(21:22):
what she was experiencing was not only normal, but incredibly common,
that nearly ninety percent of their patients had similar experiences.
After that, Bridget became comfortable, even delighted, to share her visions.
She even told them that she learned spirits like to
follow the living, especially disbelieving people. These experiences don't just comfort,
(21:47):
they reconnect people with the very essence of who they are.
Take Ryan, a fifty one year old man who had
never married and still lived in his childhood neighborhood. His
whole life was anchored in the seinem joys of his youth,
the music and culture of the nineteen seventies. As he
was dying, his dreams returned him to that life. He
(22:08):
was going to concerts and fishing in the local river
with his deceased friends. He revisited the weekly garage sales
where they used to hunt for old record albums. He
felt alive and unburdened by his illness. For a time,
his health actually improved, and the dreams and visions stopped.
His reaction, he sighed and said, I'm back. I really
(22:33):
missed the other stuff. He missed the vibrant, lived reality
of his visions, which felt more real and satisfying than
his physically limited existence. Another patient, Frank, was ninety five
years old and was a lifelong baseball fan with an
encyclopedic memory of the game. Though his body was failing,
(22:53):
his mind was sharp. When he would close his eyes
to rest, his room would become crowded with dead wad relatives.
One of them was his uncle Harry, dead for forty
six years, who, as he said, just wouldn't shut up.
Over time, Frank's inner world returned him to what he
treasured most, his wife's love. The more he dreamt of her,
(23:16):
the more peaceful he became. Eventually, he felt her presence
so strongly that he requested to discontinue his treatment, telling
the staff he wanted to join Ruthie in heaven. His
decision was not one of despair, but a much awaited
reunion with the woman he loved. You won't hear doctor
(23:36):
Christopher Kerr's voice on this episode, but I encourage you
to go to YouTube type in I see dead people.
Doctor Christopher Kerr is a Ted talk seen by over
five million people. There are hundreds of comments, many people
sharing their stories. This One person said, the last words
(24:00):
my father said before his death was I have to go.
My parents are sitting here next to my bed. They
want to take me somewhere. He was very relaxed and
peaceful when he died. Another person says, I was taking
care of a hospice patient when my brother died. She
hadn't spoken above a whisper in weeks. My brother died
(24:20):
on the Thursday afternoon, seven months after being diagnosed with
stage four lung cancer. He was buried on a Sunday,
and I returned to work on a Tuesday around two am.
My patient clearly said, your brother is here. She had
no idea I had a brother. She passed soon after.
Although I didn't see my brother, I think he was
(24:41):
there to comfort me. It's time for a break. We'll
be right back with more end of life visions and dreams.
You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio
and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast Network. Welcome back
(25:15):
to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain and on
our episode today, we're exploring a prize winning essay by
hospice doctor Christopher Kerr on end of life dreams and visions.
As his research team analyzed hundreds of these experiences, clear
themes began to emerge. They weren't random, They followed distinct
(25:37):
patterns that seemed to serve a profound purpose in the
dying process. First, there was the comforting presence. This is
the most common theme where deceased loved ones simply appear,
offering a sense of peace and reassurance. One woman dreamed
of her dead sister sitting by her bed and said
it was extremely comforting because I'm not going alone. My
(26:00):
sister will be with me. Another patient named Alice described
an intense vision of deceased loved ones that left her
with a feeling of enormous love and a sense of
joy and peace that was hard to describe. Another dreamed
of her deceased mother in a beautiful garden, who told
her everything will be okay. This was so comforting to
(26:23):
the patient that she told her family she wanted to
go back to sleep because her mother would be coming back.
One patient who dreamed of both deceased and living friends
and relatives, said that in the dream, they were all
simply telling me I would be okay. Perhaps one of
the most incredible examples was a ninety five year old
(26:46):
man who dreamed of his mother, who had passed away
ninety years earlier when he was only five years old.
The dream was so vivid that he reported smelling her
perfume and hearing her soothing, comforting voice say I love you.
The second theme was preparing to go. About thirty nine
(27:07):
percent of patients had dreams that involved travel, packing a suitcase,
boarding a plane, or driving somewhere. One man dreamed he
was boarding a plane with his son. He didn't know
their destination, but he felt comforted. In a later interview,
he said that he and his son were on the
edge of leaving. Another patient dreamed that he was just
(27:30):
driving around town and had to go somewhere, but again
he did not know where. It's as if the consciousness
is getting ready for a journey that the body can
no longer take. The third theme was watching or engaging
with the dead. Sometimes the deceased would just be present
watching over the patient, which was found to be very comforting.
(27:53):
One patient said she dreamed of her two aunts standing
over and watching her while she was lying on a couch.
Other times the engagement was more active. One woman dreamed
her deceased husband and sister joined her for breakfast, and
that she played cards with her dead friends. Another patient
dreamed that her father and two brothers, all deceased, were
(28:16):
silently hugging her and playing games. Then she described how
they were welcoming her to the dead and in a simple,
beautiful vision. Another man dreamed he was able to pet
and play with is deceased dog. The fourth theme, closely related,
was loved ones waiting. Here the message is more explicit.
(28:39):
The deceased are not just visiting, they are waiting to
welcome the person home. One woman had waking visions of
six dead family members in her room, and she said
they were just waiting for me, and that it was
good to see them just three days before she died.
Another woman dreamed she was at the top of a
(29:01):
beautiful staircase with her husband waiting for her at the bottom.
Of course, not all experiences were purely comforting. The fifth
theme was distressing experiences, and the sixth unfinished business. We'll
talk about these in more detail, but they show something profound.
(29:23):
We die as we have lived. These experiences are not
a generic heavenly escape. They're deeply personally tied to the
life of the individual, including their traumas, their regrets, and
their deepest worries. The idea that end of life experiences
are always peaceful and beautiful, unfortunately, is not the complete picture.
(29:48):
Doctor Kerr's work shows that these visions are an extension
of the life that was led, and for some that
life include trauma and some unresolved pain. But even in
these distressing visions, there is always a path toward healing
and resolution. Let's talk about Dwayne. Dwayne was a forty
(30:09):
eight year old man dying of throat cancer after a
lifetime of substance abuse and crime. When he arrived at hospice,
he was charming, funny, and sociable, acting as if he
had a clear conscience, despite a violent past that included
killing two men in self defense. His cheerful demeanor was
(30:31):
a survival mechanism, a way to avoid the deep pain
and guilt of his past. But his end of life
vision would not let him hide. He had a recurring,
terrifying dream. In it, he was grabbed and stabbed right
at the side of his cancer. He said, it was
like I was fighting somebody. They were digging the knife
(30:55):
trying to cut off my neck where the cancer was.
When a nurse tried to reassus sure him that people
just talk in their sleep, Dwayne insisted, no, this was real.
These visions led to a complete transformation. During a filmed interview,
this man, who was known for his jokes and casual
attitude began sobbing uncontrollably. He was finally confronting his past,
(31:20):
talking about his cancer as karma and regretting his life
of ripping and running. In tears, he said, one thing
I know is that I heard a lot of people
and I feel bad about doing it, very bad. And
I just hope and pray that they do forgive me
because they see what influence I was under at the time.
(31:41):
His consciousness, which he suppressed for a lifetime, returned with
a vengeance, forcing a reckoning that ultimately led him to
seek forgiveness, especially from his estrange daughter Brittany. Their deathbed
reunion was so powerful that it helped Brittany, who had
followed her father into drug use, to turn her own
(32:01):
life around after his death. Then there's the story of
John Stinson, an eighty seven year old World War II veteran.
For his entire life, John had never spoken to his
family about the horrors he witnessed as a twenty year
old soldier during the D Day landing on Omaha Beach.
He had been part of a rescue mission, and the
(32:24):
vision of the bloodied beach, strewn with mutilated bodies and
floating limbs, had haunted him silently for over sixty years.
As he lay dying in hospice, the trauma came roaring
back in his nightmares. He was terrified, crying out, There's
nothing but death, dead soldiers all around me. His son
(32:45):
later said, I learned more about my dad in the
last two weeks than I did during his lifetime. But
then a few days later, a remarkable shift occurred. John
was visibly at peace. He told to Occur about two
new dreams, and the first he joyfully relived the day
he got his discharge papers from the military, and the
(33:09):
second he was approached by a soldier who had been
killed on Omaha Beach. The soldier came back to tell
him soon they are going to come and get you.
John instinctively knew that they were his fallen comrades, and
this was not a message of judgment, but one of
joyful reunion. His overwhelming guilt that he had carried for decades,
(33:34):
the feeling that he had failed to save his brothers
in arms, was finally lifted from him. Their consciousness returned
to grant him the forgiveness he could never grant himself.
He finally had closure and could rest, and their stories
are not unique in this regard. Other patients reported dreams
that replayed specific anxieties and traumas. One woman dreamed of
(33:58):
her son's serious injury that occurred on a naval ship.
Another man had distressing dreams of his very critical brother.
Several patients that relived abusive childhood experiences. This connects to
another important theme, unfinished business. The dreams are a continuation
(34:18):
of life, including its worries. One young mother had distressing
dreams about her daily responsibilities like getting her kids ready
for school and getting them to practice. Another young mother
dreamed about her real life worries about bills and her children.
These heartbreaking stories show how the consciousness remains focused on
(34:41):
love and responsibility right down to the very end. Sometimes
the power of consciousness can even seem to override biology.
There was a ninety eight year old matriarch named Maizie
who had cared for over one hundred foster kids in
her life. She had eating days earlier and was no
(35:02):
longer verbal. Her family gathered worried that her estranged biological son, Ronnie,
wouldn't make it from Oregon in time to see her. Suddenly, Mazie,
who had seemed unconscious opened her eyes, sat up in bed,
and cried out her deceased husband's name. Amos, my amos.
(35:23):
I can't come to you now. My son Ronnie is coming.
Ronnie arrived later that same day, twenty four hours later,
Maizie closed her eyes for the last time. You know
how we hear of life reviews. When someone has a
near death experience, they see all kinds of screens simultaneously,
and they relive different portions from their life from other
(35:47):
people's perspectives. Well, it sounds to me and doctor Kerr's
research that a small group of people experience what's mainly
on their consciousness. So if we don't have something resolved,
or if we have some worries, they might be there
for a short time before we find out that everything
(36:08):
is going to be okay. So I know, for myself,
I don't want to relive shameful things that maybe I've
done in my life, So I try to live my
life with integrity and clean things up and be in
communication so I don't have to review anything in a
life review. I think the same holds true for these
end of life visions. Why don't we do our very
(36:29):
best to keep communication open? Resolve problems and all of that,
so that when our time comes, we can just be
greeted by our loved ones and our pets. Let's head
off to the next break. Oh but before we do,
here's a story. Tracy says. My grandmother on her dying bed,
said that there were angels with her and also told
(36:50):
her daughter, who could not have children, that she was pregnant.
Her daughter told her that can't be true. You know,
I cannot have children. But eight months later she delivered
a healthy baby boy. All right, now, let's head off
to the break and we'll be back with more end
of life dreams and visions in the work of doctor
(37:12):
Christopher Kerr. We'll be right back. You're listening to Shades
of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast
AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife.
(37:47):
I'm Sandra Champlain. If you want to know more about
end of life visions and dreams, I encourage you to
pick up a copy of doctor Christopher Kerr's book It's
called Death Is But a Dream, Finding hope and meaning
at life's end. Also, his research was featured in the
Netflix docuseries called Surviving death and you can find his
(38:10):
website doctor Christopher Kerr dot com. That will lead you
to a YouTube channel for Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo
where you can watch a documentary. He's got many playlists
and you can meet some of these people who had
the end of life dreams and visions and you can
(38:31):
hear their stories directly from them before they passed. One
of the most powerful aspects of doctor Kerr's end of
life dreams and Visions research is how it demonstrates the
universality of these experiences. Yes, they can happen to children,
and they happen to people with severe cognitive impairments, challenging
(38:52):
everything we think we know about how the mind and
brain operates. Let's start with the children. How does it
ch child who may have a limited concept of death
process the end of life? Doctor Kerr found that children
too have these profound experiences that provide comfort and meaning.
Pick Jessica, a thirteen year old girl. She wasn't focused
(39:17):
on the life she would miss. She was too busy
living in the now, and her end of life vision
was a natural part of her present moment. Her greatest
fear was being without her mother, her visions addressed that
fear directly. She had a waking vision of Mary, her
(39:37):
mother's best friend, who had died from leukemia when Jessica
was just eight. Jessica described it in detail. Mary is
one of my mom's best friends. I'd seen her in
my mom's room. She had her favorite shirt on, which
she then described as a gray and blue checkered flannel shirt,
a detail her mom confirmed. This vision of a loving,
(40:01):
motherly figure brought her tremendous peace. Her mother recalled, you
told me all the time that Mom, I saw an angel,
and then you were able to go to sleep. Jessica nodded,
saying I was not afraid of it at all. These
experiences assured her that she would not be alone. In
(40:22):
addition to this vision, Jessica also had dreams of her
deceased dog, Shadow, who reaffirmed that she was okay and
helped her to feel secure and loved. Then there was Ginny,
a fifteen year old girl. She had a beautiful dream
during an MRI. She was in a castle filled with
(40:44):
warmth and light, playing with her deceased aunt. She saw
a stained glass window depicting a baby and that you
could see the sun through it. The castle was a
safe place and populated by her deceased family pets, who
were now all healthy and playful. In the dream, Aunt
(41:05):
Mimi hugged her and whispered, You've got to go back
down there and fight. She woke up from the dream euphoric,
telling her mother, I'm going to be okay. I'm not alone.
A few days before she died, her mother heard her
having an animated conversation. When she asked who she was
talking to, Ginny replied, I was talking to God. She
(41:28):
told her mom, I'm not going to be sick. You
know where I'm going, you know, to the castle. These
experiences also occur in patients whose minds we often marginalize,
those with cognitive impairments like dementia or autism. Consider Gerd,
a woman who suffered from dementia and the lifelong trauma
(41:51):
of living through the Nazi occupation of Norway as a teenager,
where she saw her school principle executed. From much of
her illness, she was consumed by bitter memories of the war,
but as death neared, a transformation took place. The anger
faded and she became uncharacteristically affectionate. She began spending hours
(42:17):
staring lovingly at a portrait of her son Thomas, who
died of leukemia at the age of three. She would
blow kisses to his picture, reclaiming a love that had
been buried under decades of trauma. In her final weeks,
her consciousness returned not to the trauma, but to the
one memory that brought her peace and love. She became
(42:40):
so angered in the distant past that she no longer
recognized her own eighty five year old reflection in the mirror,
which she used to call herself the Crazy Lady. Perhaps
the modest touching story is a story of Andre, a
seventy five year old man with high functioning autism. He
was childlike and joyful, and had become a beloved member
(43:03):
of his cousin Lisa's family. He and Lisa's young son,
Hazen were inseparable best friends, playing nerf guns and communicating
with walkie talkies around the house. His family chose not
to tell him the severity of his terminal diagnosis, but
his end of life dreams and visions told him in
(43:25):
the gentlest ways possible. He started having waking visions, first
a friendly man and a hat who waved at him.
Then a man and a woman who looked familiar like
his grandparents. From an old photo. He saw a man
taking pictures, which was one of his favorite hobbies. His
most moving vision was a little boy chasing butterflies. It
(43:48):
was his cousin's nephew, Lucas, who had died of leukemia
at the age of six. Through this beautiful, innocent image,
Andre's consciousness was being gently familiar on with mortality in
a way that was completely devoid of fear. He just
knew these experiences were real and positive, and they made
(44:08):
him feel secure and loved. And just as these visions
can gently guide someone who isn't aware of their prognosis,
they can also break through to someone who is actively
denying it. This brings us to the powerful story of Sierra.
At only twenty eight, she was in hospice with days
to live, yet she insisted I am going to beat this.
(44:31):
Her care team was worried, assuming her denial meant she
wasn't having these experiences. The breakthrough came when her physician
asked if she'd been having any dreams. After a long pause,
Sierra looked past the doctor, smiled and whispered hi Grandpa,
her deceased grandfather, an Army veteran, was there with her.
(44:53):
When her mother asked what he was saying, Sierra replied,
he says he is proud of the young woman and
mother I have become. He does not want me to suffer.
Her grandfather reached her and away no one else could,
providing the love and guidance and acceptance she needed to
find peace. The impact of these end of life experiences
(45:16):
doesn't stop with the person who is dying. It ripples outward, profoundly,
affecting the families and loved ones who are left behind.
Caregivers repeatedly told the research team how much peace these
visions brought. One elderly sister of a patient said, when
he told me that he saw his favorite sister who
(45:36):
was deceased hold out her hands to him, it made
me feel comforted because I knew it comforted him. Another
caregiver put it plainly, he did find comfort talking to
and seeing people who passed before him. He was not
afraid or scared. Sometimes the consciousness of the dying person
is so strong that it feels shared by the living.
(45:59):
The story of Son and Joan is a perfect example.
They were an elderly couple who had spent a lifetime together.
After Sonny died, Joan's health began to decline rapidly, but
for her, Sonny was never gone. She kept him alive
through constant pre death visions, both asleep and awake. Her
daughters would hear her calling out to him at night,
(46:20):
come and get me. I miss you. Her daughter Lisa,
said that Joan's visions made Sonny's presence so real that
she felt it too. For Lisa, the true full weight
of her loss didn't hit when her father died. It
hit when her mother died two months later, because it
was only then that Sonny's felt presence finally faded from
(46:41):
their house. The transformative effect on the family is especially
important when it comes to the parents of children who
have passed. We talked about Ginny, the girl who dreamed
of the Castle. The impact of her visions on her mother, Michelle,
is a story in itself. Michelle, by her own admission,
rather agnostic, but witnessing her daughter's profound comforting left her transformed.
(47:07):
Two days before Ginny's passing, when her daughter was no
longer responsive, Michelle looked at her and said, she is
always teaching me something. Ginny's final experiences forced Michelle to
question her own belief system. She threw up her hands
in surrender and concluded, who knows, Maybe there is a castle.
(47:28):
I no longer know what not to believe. Years later,
Michelle's bereavement is shaped by that continuity. She sees rainbows
and heart shapes in the clouds as evidence of Ginny's
continuing presence, sustaining her until the day she says she
too will find her way to Ginny's castle. So what
(47:49):
does this all mean? Doctor Kerr's decade of research paints
a consistent and compelling picture. At the end of life,
something extraordinary happens to all of us. As our bodies
and brains fail, a heightened form of consciousness takes place,
and our loved ones our pets are there to greet us.
These are not regular dreams as we think of them,
(48:11):
their lived experience, as people say, more real than real.
A dying patient named Horace struggled to find the words
to describe what he was experiencing, but he described his
wife as being even more beautiful than he remembered, and
then everywhere there was happiness. Man named Patrick was reliving,
eating his family's secret spaghetti sauce with his deceased grandmother.
(48:36):
Just before he died. Patrick's end of life vision revealed
the secret ingredient the grandmother put in the spaghetti sauce.
And there was Irene, an elderly woman with advanced dementia.
Days before her death, she joyfully attempted to leave her
nursing home. In her mind, she was experiencing the best
(48:56):
day of her life, her wedding day, and she needed
to get to the service. These visions and dreams come
back to heal old wounds, offer forgiveness, and reassure us
that nobody dies alone. As doctor Kerr puts it so beautifully,
death becomes less about finality and more about life's resilience.
(49:18):
It's not a pulling down of the shades, but an enlightenment,
an expansion of reality to include a world that has
been there waiting all along. If you'd like to read
doctor Christopher Kerr's full essay, you can find it at
Bigelowinstitute dot org and read many of the others while
(49:39):
you're there. I hope you've enjoyed our time together. Want
to remind you come visit me at wee Doo'tdie dot
com so much to explore and come meet me at
one of my free Sunday gatherings with medium demonstration included.
I'm Sandra Champlain. Thank you for listening to Shades of
the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast a
(50:00):
paranormal podcast network.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Thanks for listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost
Ay and paranormal podcast network. Make sure and check out
all our shows on the iHeartRadio app or by going
to iHeartRadio dot com
The Best of Coast to Coast AM News
Host
George Noory
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.