Please note, this is an automated transcript so it is not 100% accurate.

David (00:00):
At the time we had one of those old old World War II life vests, you know, the old Mae West that looked like giant orange pillows, you know? Yeah.

David (00:07):
And so I’m hanging on to Mae West, waiting for her to bring me up to the surface and I’m being tumbled and tossed like a rag doll. And I’m waiting and I’m waiting and I’m waiting. And guy, you can only hold your breath so long, you know? And eventually I drowned and I found myself in this absolute darkness.

Guy (00:43):
Guy here. Welcome to my Let It In podcast. And my awesome guest today is David Bennett. And what a great guy. What an amazing conversation. He had a near-death experience where he drowned and he can only describe as what meeting his soul family. Fascinating conversation. The sincerity on this guy and the message that he shares is powerful. And it was a pleasure to have him on the podcast today. Later in the podcast as well, which I didn’t realize, was that he works with people as an intuitive energy healer as well. So if you enjoy the podcast, enjoy what he has to share, be sure to check out his work. Yeah, great human being. And we dive deep into how he explains everything, how it unfolds and whether you’re searching, you’ve had a near-death experience or not, or been flirting with mystical ideas or whatever reason you’re listening to this today. I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it. And if you do, please be sure to let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are. Any future guests you’d like to see on the podcast as well, or even share this episode with a loved one or friend. It continues to get these conversations and messages out there. And if you want to find out what we’re up to with Living Flow, whether online or whether in-person retreats and events, there’s links below as well. Also, you can start with free seven days of meditation, which is a free download with three meditations in it. It’s pretty cool. Anyway, much love from me. Enjoy this conversation with David. It was awesome. Beautiful. David, we’re recording. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

David (02:25):
Guy, thanks for inviting me. This is a privilege. I’m excited to be here.

Guy (02:31):
Me too. I stumbled across you somehow on YouTube at some stage. And I have a little folder and I just kind of start collecting names. And then in my own time, when my family life allows me, I go start listening to these different conversations and podcasts. And like we were speaking off air just now about how important these conversations are, I think, and for people to listen to and start to have a deeper understanding, I guess, of what reality is.

David (03:06):
Yeah, you know, it’s kind of interesting. And people that listen to these profound experiences that people have, it actually helps them. It gives them more tools on how to live a better life, you know.

Guy (03:19):
Totally. I always say actually podcasting is quite selfish in some respects because I get to talk to awesome people like yourself every week. And I’m always learning. And I really want to bring that beginner’s mind into every conversation, every person I meet and hear different languages, different perspectives, deeper thinking. It’s quite amazing. It really is.

David (03:42):
Yeah. And to me, it seems like because it’s coming more prevalent, you’re hearing more and more about it. It’s creating its own global movement, which I think is amazing. I speak to people from all around the world and we’re all looking for the same thing. We’re looking for our spiritual connection. We’re looking for, you know, a more empowered type of life. So, yeah, these podcasts are vital.

Guy (04:07):
Yeah, totally. Thank you for coming on. And I’m intrigued for you to share your journey, your story and your lessons from it, I guess. And I’m intrigued as well. Did you have a spiritual connection before your near-death experience?

David (04:22):
Not really. Guy, I was kind of brought… When I was young, my mom was a single mom. It wasn’t a popular time to be a single mom. And so she used to put me in different families and she’d find out one family was maybe neglecting me or another one may have been abusing me. And so I was thrown from one family to the next, to the next, to the next. And I got to see all these different families had different, you know, religious views and followed different paths. But I didn’t see where they were really benefiting from it. So I never adopted a religion. I never adopted a spiritual path. But I did have an encounter when I was younger when my mother took me back and I started living with her and she moved to Arizona. And there were some Native American kids there. And I used to hang out with them. And their grandmothers saw the dysfunction that was in my life. And so they taught me some Native American spirituality that I really believe saved my life because it really calmed me down because I was quite a brash young man early on. What about it do you think had such an impact on you at that time? Well, actually, there was a spiritual component that I fell into. They taught me how to go into my sacred space. And I went and I tried and tried and tried. I had this little quiet place that I used to go to. It was on top of this little plateau and I could overlook this valley and I would try to go into this sacred space that they were talking about. And then one day it happened and I went. It was almost like a shamanic journey in a lot of ways where I went into the earth. But then I was flying above and then a guide came to me and it was Father Mountain came and spoke to me and he kind of grounded me. Gave me this very grounded approach. And I swear that really calmed me down because I was quite a radical kid at that point.

Guy (06:31):
I can imagine. How old was you at that stage to have an experience like that? I was 14. That was when I was 14. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s funny, isn’t it? You only need one experience. You know, I often think about the fact that we can have one traumatic experience that can change the trajectory of our life. But also we can have one awakening spiritual experience that can truly change the trajectory of our life too.

David (06:57):
Yeah. And the funny thing is, though, I mean, I had that experience. It calmed me down. It gave me some sense of direction. But then, you know, we have to get on with life. We have to make a living. We have to, you know, our culture teaches us to to strive and to compete and all of that. And so I kind of forgot about it. You know, I kind of forgot about it and I got on with my life and I became an engineer. I became actually the chief engineer of a research vessel. We did underwater exploration. So and that’s a very analytical type of job. You know, so I was using most of my brain power using the thinking mind. Yes, the logic thinking mind. What attracted you to it? Was it was an attraction to engineering or was there attraction to the ocean? A little of both, because when I was a teen, not my mother moved us around a lot. But I took up scuba diving and so I had this love for scuba diving. So I went into the Navy as an engineer thinking that I would go that I would try it because you couldn’t go into diving. You know, in the time that I went in the service, you couldn’t go into diving until you had a career path. And so I went into engineering and and thought that then I would go into diving. But then after I spent my, you know, my time in service, I realized I could go to dive school outside of service and and and be diving a lot faster. And so I went to private. I went to a private dive school and and they hired me right out of school to be chief engineer of their research vessel. So, you know, it’s that guidance, you know, that little inner guidance that you don’t really understand, but you just feel this nudge to go in this direction or you feel a nudge to go in that direction. And so that’s kind of what happened. You know, I just and it always feels, you know, if you’re not paying attention to that quiet voice, it just feels like synchronicity or it just feels like you were in the right place at the right time. But but yeah, so guidance kind of kind of led me to become the engineer of this research vessel. And it was my dream job. Absolutely loved it. Oh, amazing, amazing. So how long had you been doing that to when your near death experience happened? Well, my near death experience happened in 1983. And so I was probably the chief engineer of that vessel for because it happened while I was the chief engineer. And I’ve probably been I’ve barely been the chief engineer for a good seven years or so.

Guy (09:45):
Yeah. So talk us through what happened on that particular day.

David (09:49):
Yeah. Well, it was, you know, 1983 and we were evaluating a new remote operated SUV, you know, remote operated vehicle. And and a storm was coming in and we’d seen that there was a storm coming in and we thought that maybe we could beat it into the harbor because the design engineer for the sub needed to get to LAX in California. And this is on the West Coast. And we we didn’t quite beat the storm. And so we were two miles off the coast and the harbor master wouldn’t let the ship in. But we needed to get this guy into the harbor. So we lowered a small boat, a rubber zodiac, and we and we use that zodiac to retrieve our submarines and stuff. So it was, you know, it was very durable. We’ve used it in heavy seas. So we weren’t really all that concerned. And but the captain, because we were on a trip where we were evaluating a submarine, we didn’t have our full crew on board. You know, so we just had the engineers and the, you know, and the sub crew and that sort of stuff on board. We didn’t have the full complement on board the ship. So the captain thought that it would be best because the mate that we had wasn’t too familiar with the harbor. So the captain thought that I should go along. And as chief engineer, normally I don’t leave the ship, at least not for something like this. But this night, the captain thought it would be a good idea. And we went down to Boatswain’s Locker, put on some life vests because there were 25 to 30 foot seas. And so, yeah, it was a rough night. And so we jumped in the Zodiac. We, you know, we took our bearing on the harbor buoy, but two miles out. So we had to go up a roller, you know, get up on the top of a, you know, a swell, kind of get our bearing, go down the trough and get up on top of the next swell, do the same thing. And it wasn’t long. We lost track of where the harbor buoy was. But we figured, you know, a Zodiac, we can land that on the beach. So it’s not a big deal. We’ll get this guy in there somehow, some way. And so he can make his flight. Well, we didn’t realize the storm had blown us a mile south of the harbor already. And we hit this breaker zone about a mile out. And we drove right off a 25-footer. I mean, we actually flew off of this because the Zodiac could, it could really move. And we flew off this, the top of this, this breaker. And I yelled at the mate to turn us around because I was in the bow trying to navigate. And just as he got us turned about, we’re about to head back out to sea. Another one came and it was right over our head and it broke right on top of us and it folded the Zodiac in half. I was in the bow. It catapulted me into the ocean. But I, I’ve, I’m a commercial diver. I’m trained, you know, I’m a trained commercial diver. So I’m used to being in the water. I’ve logged thousand hours. I wasn’t really all that freaked out other than, you know, well, here we are. And so I hung on to, and at the time we had one of those old, old World War II life vests, you know, the old Mae West that looked like giant orange pillows, you know. Yeah. And so I, I’m hanging on to Mae West, waiting for her to bring me up to the surface and I’m being tumbled and tossed like a rag doll. And, and I’m waiting and I’m waiting and I’m waiting. And guy, you can only hold your breath so long, you know, and eventually I drown. And I found myself in this absolute darkness. And I was really curious because, you know, I just came from this raging sea and you live near the ocean. You know how loud that sea can be. Right. Well, it was quiet. It was peaceful, was calm. And I’m in this absolute darkness. And I’m like, what is going on? You know, because as a commercial diver, we’re trained about oxygen deprivation and all that stuff. And this is way beyond anything that I experienced in training. And so, but I didn’t really, I was very comfortable on the, on the West coast of the U.S. The water currents come down from the North and this was in March. So it was water was very cold, but I was no longer cold. I was just very comfortable in this absolute darkness. And I felt like, you know, there’s something about this because the, the black, they call it the void, but it’s, it’s so, it, it feels like everything is contained within it. It’s, it’s an incredible experience to be in this darkness, but not feel alone, not feel, you know, And, and many people are frightened by this darkness. Many people that experience this can, can be frightened, but I just died this violent death. And so I was just very curious.

Guy (15:02):
Do you remember your last breath? Sorry. I do. You do? Yeah. Yeah.

David (15:09):
That was not a pleasant part. And I usually don’t talk about that because it was, but it happens very, very quick. There’s a burning and then, you know, when you breathe in the saltwater, there’s a burning, but then boom, I popped right out of my body into this darkness.

Guy (15:16):
Into the void. Yeah.

David (15:27):
Into the void. And, but then I saw this pinprick of light. I mean, just this tiny little light. And I started looking at it. And as I looked at it, it felt like it was coming toward me or I was going toward it. And, and as I got closer, I saw that it was millions upon millions of fragments of light. And they were all moving kind of in unison, like they had one mind. And it was just absolutely beautiful. And it was infinite as I kept getting closer and closer and closer. You know, it became more defined. And as I got closer, I started feeling these waves of love. It was like a warm embrace and like nothing I’d ever felt before in my life because I had a pretty dysfunctional childhood. So, you know, a feeling of being embraced in total love was something I had no concept of. And eventually these fragments, three fragments broke away and came toward me. And as they did, they emanated this welcoming home. Just welcome home. And I still get, it still kind of gets me because they felt like family. They felt more like family than anything I have here on this earth. And eventually there were a dozen of them and they were all welcoming me. And we, they kind of communicated that we were going to go deep into the light. And as we went into the light, we went to this area. To me, it felt like a, like a giant bubble and inside a sphere. We went inside and I started to relive my life. And they were experiencing my life just as I was. It was like my consciousness had broken up into multiple fragments of consciousness. And I was experiencing everything in my life through my perspective, but everyone I’d ever interacted through their perspective. I got to experience how they felt about our interaction. I got to feel, you know, what they, you know, how maybe it would affect them. It was incredibly humbling, is a fact. Because like I said, it’s, I was a brash young man, very brash young man. And I stepped on a few toes in order to get to the position of being the chief engineer of this ship. And they were my soul family. I call them my soul family. These 12 light beings. And they were experiencing it with me. And I was, tell you the truth, I was a little, I was a little ashamed that they were experiencing this, but they just love me. They didn’t judge me. They just loved me and supported me through this. You know, this life review. And, but eventually I reached a point where I had gone past my drowning and, and I had gone into, I didn’t know it at the time, but I was previewing my future. And it’s kind of interesting when you, when I crossed that threshold, everything in the life review was absolutely crystal clear. But when I got to the, you know, that threshold of, of future, it was like I was looking down this corridor and, and everything in the center of the corridor was very much in focus. But there was also this periphery that was kind of out of focus. And I got the impression that, that this was, you know, my future potentials, my future, you know, where I could go down the central corridor and I would hit these marks. But if I veered to the right, I could, you know, possibly experience some additional things, but I would always be nudged back to the center. So I eventually reached a point where the light, okay, these, this infinite fragments of light, all spoken, unison. And I perceived this to be God. And it said, this is not your time. You must return. And I said, no way. I am not going back. I found a family that I feel that loves me. I feel love like I’ve never felt before. I know my body is broken in that ocean and I have no desire to go back to it. And the light spoke one more time. It said, you must return. You have a purpose. And that word purpose just kind of resonated in my being. And when we’re in these, when we’re out of our body and when we’re in, you know, in this other state of being, we have more available to us as far as consciousness. It was like we’re connected to all the souls that ever were and all the souls that ever will be. And so within this expanded consciousness, I understood that word purpose. I understood it. And it was so simple and so efficient. And and so I immediately came to acceptance. And the minute I came to acceptance, I found myself outside of my body. I’m still in my light body. And my original three soul family members that greeted me are with me. And we’re observing my body still in the breaker zone being tumbled and tossed. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it. I saw my body still in the breaker zone being tumbled and tossed. I’d gotten caught in that in that breaker zone. And it I saw the bow line of the zodiac come. I got my body came close to the bow line of the zodiac where it wrapped itself around my arm. And another wave came through. And there must have been some air left in one of the pontoons of the zodiac. And it popped up. And when it did that, it cinched that line around my arm and it pulled my body up, up, up to the surface and where I got tangled. And I’m observing this from outside my body. I’m watching this happen. And I’m just in awe. And when it did that, it dislocated my shoulder. But I didn’t feel anything. I was because I was outside my body just observing this. And. My body got caught up in all the lines and it some other ways came and they pounded me up against this wreckage. And when it did it pushed a little bit of that saltwater out of my lungs. And that’s when my soul family gave me a gentle push and I found myself vibrating right back into my body.

Guy (22:29):
Wow. You’ve triggered about 20 questions in that.

David (22:37):
I’ll bet. And it was a rough night, but we still had and we had to swim another mile. But the heroes of my story are the guys that I was with in that zodiac. They had stayed on station. They had stayed there looking for me because I mean, that’s what we do. We rally in a situation like that and we all help each other in. Right. Well, they had stayed there and one of them had found a flashlight, some had hung onto a flashlight because they were coming in with their gear. You know, they were they had they had all their gear. And and one of them was using a flashlight as kind of like a navigational thing on the boat. And so he hung onto that thing in these raging waves. I don’t know how he ever managed it. But so they were they were looking for me. And I was just I couldn’t talk after you breathe in all that saltwater. It’s kind of you just squeak and squawk a little bit. But they found me. And then we all swam that final mile in together.

Guy (23:39):
Wow. Well, even getting in, I still can’t I’m I’m kind of pictured because I was in the surf club in Koji here. You have some pretty tremendous waves there. Yeah, I know. But but look, I’m a Welshman that came to Australia. I couldn’t swim, let alone knew what a rip was. And I went through the did my bronze medallion training just to get up to speed a bit. And, you know, and just thinking of a 10 foot swell that would come in would be like, you know, oh, my God.

David (24:08):
But you understand the force and you understand how it can just push you down. Yeah, it just and a mile off shore, this breaker zone, it was like there was a bar out there and there was which created an up swell that, you know, pushed us down.

Guy (24:25):
I wish people would even just go online and look at what a 30 foot swell looks like. And imagine being under one of those things. My God. I got to ask you initially the light beings that appeared who and you say the soul family. Who is what did they look like? Who were they?

David (24:45):
Yeah, you know, it was kind of interesting. They were like I said, I call them fragments of light. They were they were light and you could see their eyes and in their eyes, you could recognize that I could recognize them as beings that I had spent lifetimes with. And so I recognized that immediately. And it was it was very emotional for me, you know, to to see them again. And it wasn’t like there was only one of the people in this group were like, you know, people that I had lived in this life with. And that was my guardian, one of my guardians. And he and he was still alive. This is an interesting thing. He was still alive at the time of the near death experience. But, you know, when we come back, I have this theory about this, that when we come into this life, we only bring a small portion of the near death experience. We only bring a small portion of our light with us. The greater part of our light, our being, our essence resides in that oneness. And and so the greater portion of our but when we die, we we reintegrate with that and be and and connect with our totality of who we really are, our essence, you know, our light essence.

Guy (26:08):
Do you think then because I ponder on this a lot, but so the greater totality of us is witnessing and knows what’s going on. But we’re taking the lessons here. Because we have that spiritual amnesia. We don’t we don’t remember the connection at first. Right. Allow us to learn the lessons.

David (26:32):
Yeah, because we live in this illusion of separateness where we’re all separate individuals forging our life when in fact we’re all really interconnected and we have this connection to our light, our our being, our greater being in the oneness. At least that’s the way I experienced it. And and and so and then our interconnectedness with everyone else is, you know, that’s to me that’s God. That’s that’s the great the greater oneness and the interconnectedness of all life, not just human beings, but all life.

Guy (27:12):
Why why do you think it do you ponder on like it was it just a freak accident? Was it was it part of your soul’s growth journey? Yeah, boy. You know, to have that insight is is huge, right? You know, like we were talking off air because, you know, over time, I was slowly talking about it more having different out of body mystical experiences. It really changes your perspective on who we are with other humans and more about life like it’s an incredible gift, really, at the end of the day.

David (27:43):
Yeah, this. Well, I I there were a lot of little things that happened, like when I saw that bow line, it was the bitter end of the bow line was tapping my lifeless chest when I was observing my body before I was miraculously resuscitated. And the and so the bitter end was tapping my my lifeless chest. But what was supposed to save me my life vest actually is what drowned me. And because it was an old May West, but I didn’t realize the fiber lining was dry rotted and it became super saturated with with saltwater. So it never had a chance to bring me up to the surface. So I like so I played with that played with my mind something terrible after I got back, you know, what was supposed to save me killed me, but I was saved by the bitter end. And and and it just, you know, so why and why and I argued with God and that I wanted to stay there. And, you know, no one does that. So I felt very, very scared me. Honestly, it scared the heck out of me. And I didn’t know how to deal with it. I couldn’t talk about it with my mates, because we had incredibly dangerous work that we did is in the 80s doing underwater exploration was incredibly dangerous work. And so we put each other’s lives in each other’s hands every day. So talk about death was kind of taboo. So I didn’t feel like I could share that. And I tried to share it with my wife at the time. That was my first wife. And and that didn’t go too well. And so I didn’t feel like I could share this with anybody. And so I had to deal with this myself. And it really I only took what I could deal with at the time. And that was I had this profound life review and I got to really see who I was. And so I could accept this is who I am. I know I’ve got a lot of work to do, but this is who I am. And then tolerance for others before this experience. I really didn’t have tolerance for anybody. I just had my own self-involved view of war of the world. And and that was it. So suddenly I could see that we’re going to cross each other’s paths. And we may you know, I may not agree with choices that you make in life, but they’re your choices. It’s your life. And I can now be tolerant of that. You know, because of what I saw in the life review and that interactions that, you know, that I had with people. And then the other thing was an inner truth. Before I was an engineer, I saw things pretty much black and white, you know. And then suddenly I realized that within us, we have not only our mental capability, but we also have our heart and our being and our essence. And a lot of times things across our path that just light up in our life, you know, and those that’s a personal truth. And so I started paying more attention to that. So those three things, acceptance, tolerance and truth kind of became my mantra. But I didn’t share it with anybody for over 11 years until I had a second experience that told me. Yeah, a second one. Yeah. That but the second one, I really didn’t die. I just re-experienced my life. I’ve talked to some NDE researchers and they’ve told me that, you know, it’s not uncommon for if someone represses their experience because I really did. I only took that. The talking with God, my soul family, the love, all of that. I tried to forget. I tried to get past. So no one knew really? No. Well, I tried to share it with my first wife, but other than that, nobody knew.

Guy (31:41):
Wow. Because today you can go on the YouTube, you can search, you can, you know, these conversations, right?

David (31:46):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And that’s why these these conversations online are so important because people that are having experience today now have resources that I didn’t have back in the early 80s. So I can see how vital this is, you know, and how important these are. But yeah, so it you know, so that’s what I took for 11 years. And then I had a second experience where I saw, you know, in the Life Review, the second time I saw I’d lived 11 years and just that little bit that I had taken, you know, acceptance, tolerance and truth and how it had really changed me and how I didn’t realize how much it had changed me. But it kind of pointed out that I really need to accept the entire experience. I need to just live with it, make it who I am and start living by what I learned in this experience. And then I really feel that my integration of this experience, really, that’s when it started was 11 years later in 94.

Guy (32:50):
Wow. Because you mentioned as well that you had stage four lung and bone cancer. That was in 2000. Yeah. Oh, so that was later.

David (33:00):
Much later. Yes. I had stage four lung and bone cancer, and it was lung cancer that metastasized into my spine, ate away two and a half bones of my thoracic. My spine actually collapsed because the bones of my spine.

Guy (33:17):
Yeah, sorry. Yeah. Wow.

David (33:21):
Yeah. And, and so, you know, here we go again, close to death. But this time I had actually seen this in that part of the life review where I was looking at my future. I had seen I was going to deal with cancer, but I also saw I was going to live beyond it. So I didn’t realize it was going to happen. And that’s the thing. You know, there’s no time on the other side. So it’s hard to determine, you know, because we live in this linear life where we, you know, we’re constantly putting things in a timeline. And but on the other side, everything is kind of like at once. And so there is no time. So I had no idea when cancer was going to happen, but I was pretty sure I was going to have it. But I also thought I was going to live beyond it, but I didn’t think it was going to be that severe either. You know, so this was kind of a third experience actually in its own way. And I learned that, you know, this is this all comes back around to the purpose that I had that I was told about because going through stage four lung and bone cancer and a collapsed spine. With a really poor prognosis, the doctors only gave me eight weeks to survive because when they started testing, they found I had lesions in my hip, my brain, my kidneys was traveling to my body very rapidly. And they didn’t expect me to survive. And this was back in 2000. And I use my inner guidance because after the first and second experience, I actually started communicating with spirit and I call it spirit. But it’s I believe it’s my soul family that communicates with me through my light through my light connection. And because each one of them has a different flavor, different strength, a different voice. And and so through all these years since 83 all the way up to, you know, 2000 when I was diagnosed with the cancer, I had developed my my spirit communication. And so I was using that guidance to overcome the cancer because I knew I was going to overcome it. Everybody else thought I was in denial, but but I believed I was going to, you know, I had seen in my life review, I was going to overcome it. So I was pretty certain. But so I immediately accepted the prognosis and started using my guidance on, you know, on how to overcome it. So I did a combination of traditional and holistic approaches in order to overcome the cancer. And within six months, my guidance was telling me that it was, you know, that I was doing well. And so I asked for another scan and they did finally got around to a PET scan. And when they did it, it showed that my body was cancer free.

Guy (36:37):
Wow. How do you cope when you’ve got external pressures of people influencing you saying, are you crazy? You need to do this. You need to do that. You know, you’re standing strong in your face.

David (36:49):
Yeah, yeah. You know, it used to bother me. It used to really bother me. I used to be afraid. That’s why 11 years I was in. I didn’t tell anybody because I was afraid they’d think I was nuts. Right. But then I started to realize and I met some other experiencers who validated that these experiences are real. And that helped me. That was a leg up for me. And then when I started talking about it, I was because I had 11 years to kind of deal with my own experience, I was very self-assured in my experience. I didn’t compare it to anybody else’s. And so I just when I did start talking about it and start being more public because Spirit was encouraging me to speak more about it. I didn’t really want to. But, you know, Spirit made me write a book and all that kind of stuff. And it changed. And that shifted my life as well. It took another turn with that. And so I guess when I got to the point that I was self-assured within my experience, I no longer really. And this I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but I don’t really care if people think I’m crazy or not because I’m secure in my experience. I know that it was real. In fact, it felt more real than this life, you know. And so I really, really am living with what I’d learned in that in these experiences. These experiences have all built one on another to to who I am right now. So I’m very secure in who I am now. I know I have people that come up and they’re, you know, they’re a little skeptical. And I tell people, you know, skepticism is a healthy thing, especially in today’s world when there’s, you know, all this, you know, false reality stuff going on. So I think skepticism is a healthy thing to be, you know. It’s cynicism that we don’t want to adopt because cynicism means that you have a hard, you know, way of looking at things and you don’t allow other viewpoints, you know. But whereas skepticism is, you know, we’re looking for the truth. We’re looking for truth. If you’re a skeptic, you’re actually looking for truth. If you’re a cynic, then you’re hard and fast in your belief and you don’t want to know anything else, you know. Yeah. What do you think is then our soul’s purpose? Yeah, that’s I get that question all the time. A lot, I bet. I really believe that we have the purpose is multifaceted. I believe that we have our own purpose, our own paths, but also we have shared paths because of this interconnectedness. Like one example of a shared path is for all of humanity to come in touch with their spiritual source. OK, that could be a shared purpose for all of us. But then we all have personal and even moment to moment type of things. Another example, like say you’re researching something on the web and you come across this information that just really blows you away. Something you hadn’t ever read before or you haven’t watched before. And then, son of a gun, if somebody doesn’t come into your life or cross your path that was looking for that exact information, that’s a little small purpose that we achieve within our lives where we can share and we can be a part of someone else’s life and help them along on their path. So I believe that purpose is, like I said, multifaceted. There are personal purpose, there are shared purposes, and then there’s these spontaneous purposes where the universe may put us in a certain set of circumstances so that we can fulfill something.

Guy (41:04):
Yeah, I ponder on that too, because it’s as if we get hung up on what is my life’s purpose. And it’s just this very straight linear arrow that I can jump on and off I go.

David (41:17):
Yeah, I don’t necessarily subscribe to legacy anymore. That I want to leave some legacy behind. I really don’t subscribe to that anymore because in fact, it’s kind of funny because I started doing these podcasts quite a while ago. And some people you connect with, like Guy, you and I, we kind of had this connection, right? But some people are very rote in the way that they, because they do thousands of these and they just boom, boom, boom, they have the same questions. And I was really not connecting with this one. And I tried to tell her that, you know, I don’t plan my future because if I’m being the best person I possibly can be in this moment, then I’m building the brightest and most empowering future I can possibly build. So I don’t really need to plan my future. I don’t need to build a legacy. And so then she asked me, well, where do you see yourself in 10 years? It’s like, apparently you’re not listening because I don’t know where I’ll be in 10 years. And that’s the beauty of it. I allow it to unfold. I just want life to unfold and I will flow with it and I will go with wherever it leads me.

Guy (42:40):
Yeah, beautiful. It’s almost like giving ourselves permission to give up that control because within that control we find a sense of safety, even though that is an illusion as well, I believe.

David (42:52):
It was a hard lesson for me, though. I can honestly say I’m at this point now, but it was a long road to get here because I was an engineer. I used to plan everything in my life, you know, and I used to, you know, I, you know, that was the way I live my life. And to give that up was it was really hard. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. My current wife, though, really helped me there because I was very when I had the cancer, suddenly I was out of work, you know, and I have these I have to deal with hospitals and doctors and all this kind of stuff. And and it was very daunting and I was very concerned. And and she she helped me out with we got to let go of the money and just allow it to come, you know. And and she taught me this cute little phrase that that I used to this day whenever I’m paying a bill and if it’s credit card, if it’s groceries or something like that, when I’m while I’m paying it, I say God is my supply. And even if I write a check and nobody writes checks anymore, but when I used to write a check, I used to put four little X’s after my name. That was God is my supply.

Guy (44:10):
Yeah, love it. Absolutely. So when did you write your book and started to really come out?

David (44:21):
2011. The book was published by Fintorn Press and it went on a two month book tour. So it was actually published. It wasn’t self published and and and went on this whirlwind tour that really, really started changing. You know, it really changed the way you live your life because now you’re not hiding anymore. You know, you’ve you’ve told your story in detail and how you integrated it, how you how it changed your life and everything. Because I put everything in my book. It’s not just the near death experience. It’s who I was before the experience itself and then how I learned to live with it and how I learned to integrate with it. Because, you know, when you have an experience like this, a profound experience, it rocks your world. And you have to, you know, how do I deal with this? How do I live with this? I said, you know, it just threw me into this new paradigm shift where my worldview doesn’t align anymore, you know, and I have to reestablish myself. And how am I going to move forward? And how am I going to live my life? You know, those are all questions that people that have had profound experiences have to deal with.

Guy (45:50):
And yeah, well, what’s your relationship with then death and life now after having something like that? Because, you know, it’s something I kind of contemplate on and learn in and I look around because I love life. Like, you know, I have a beautiful family and I’m very passionate about what I do. And, you know, and it’s like, wow, it’s a fascinating topic.

David (46:18):
It is. It is. And I’m like you. I want to squeeze all the juice out of life. I want to live my life, you know, like, you know, I have this. I have these disabilities, you know, I have a rebuilt spine. I can’t feel my hands or feet. I’m, you know, I have I have only one lung. And, you know, so I don’t have a lot of stamina. I have a lot of disabilities, but I do not allow that. I don’t think of myself as disabled. I’m not going to allow that to dictate who I am or how I live my life. I’m going to live my life. I know I have limitations, and so I try to live within those limitations. But I I push the envelope because I’m a guy, you know, but but I’m going to live my life. And like I said, I’m going to squeeze all the juice I can out of it because that’s, you know, that’s what why we’re here, you know, is to get as much experience in as we can. Now, as far as death, when my time comes, I’ll be happy to go. I’ll be happy to go. I’m I but I would never do anything to shorten this life because I understand the preciousness of living a life, what a living a life is all about. But when my time comes, I no longer fear it. I’m willing. You know, when my time comes, I will gladly cross that threshold. I’m not going to fight it. That’s for sure.

Guy (47:40):
Yeah. Wow. What do you when you look upon the world right now and see the vastness of changes and things that are happening, you know, there’s still a huge amount of fear out there and all sorts of conversations going on online and everything. Are you where are your views at this moment after having your experiences? Do you feel like humanity is waking up? Do you think things are changing?

David (48:09):
I think because everything’s so fast paced right now, I think we are on the cusp of a lot of change yet to come. But we may because humanity is a little boneheaded sometimes. I mean, we just we don’t like change, you know, in general, humanity. I mean, people fight change. And and I really think that that’s, you know, that’s a detriment for humanity to fight change. And right now we’re going through a lot of change. I mean, you look at look at the world in itself, it’s going to change because of global warming. You look at humanity itself. We are evolving. It may not seem like it because when you look at all the, you know, the discontent in the world, we may not look like we’re we’re evolving, but we actually have grown. I mean, when you look at where we are today compared to where we were 100 years ago, we’ve evolved. But that’s a hundred year window that we’re looking at. So change happens slowly. It’s not an overnight thing. It’s not turning a light switch on. But I have faith that humanity will face whatever crisis comes, that we will move. We will be all right. But, you know, we’re going to have some bumps in the road. But I I really feel that it’s important to be aware of what’s going on in the world. But also, I think it all comes down to levels of awareness. I believe that, you know, a lot of times we get swept away from the circumstances. And when we get swept away from the circumstances, when we get tied up in all the rumble and bumble that’s happening in the world, then we are not connecting to our essence. We’re not connecting to our true nature. And so we get swept away. But if we can connect, have some sort of practice, I like I’m a proponent. My podcast is called Contemplative Living. It’s because I like to use meditation and contemplation to start my day. And it helps me to step out with being centered and with my awareness above the circumstances. I like to I like to look at life above the circumstances. Now, that’s not disconnected. In fact, if anything, I’m more compassionate for what’s going on in the world. But I can rise above. I don’t allow the circumstances to move me and to pull me. And so that I can stay centered. It’s also a very stoic way of looking at life. You know, I’m going to deal with what I can deal with. And I’ll be aware of everything else, but I’m not going to I’m not going to get carried away with other people’s stuff. I know what I know what belongs to me. And I’m going to deal with what belongs to me. And I’m going to do as much as I can to be helpful and to be a part of the solution. You know, but yeah, no,.

Guy (51:20):
I completely agree. It’s nice to hear you say about those practices in place, because it is a journey, right? We’ve got to continually work against the human condition as well on a daily basis, because I do ponder about the fact that, you know, there’s such a vast difference between having a belief and reading something from a textbook that you’ve just been taught to have in obviously an experience like yourself.

David (51:47):
Yeah. Well, a lot of times it takes discipline at first. In fact, that’s what that’s what this week’s podcast was about was about discipline, because we need in order to establish our practice, it usually starts with discipline before it evolves into a state of being and before it evolves into a practice, an actual practice that we can can live with and that we can enjoy using. But but it requires that action. It requires action on our part. We can’t read it in a book, like you said, you know, it just we can read about it and that can inspire us into action. You know, hopefully, hopefully.

Guy (52:31):
Yeah. And that’s my wish for, you know, humanity on a whole is that if we start to understand the true essence of ourselves, because there seems to be a severed connection. There certainly was on my journey anyway, you know, growing up in my culture that if that is nurtured back, the world would definitely look a very different place and a very different place for my children that are coming into this world right now.

David (52:57):
Yeah, because we have to think of our future generations. We have to think of what, you know, can we make it a better place for them? And can we help them to understand that there’s something greater than just ourselves?

Guy (53:10):
Yeah, absolutely. I got one last question for you, David, as we wrap up the podcast. And that is with everything we’ve covered today, what would you love our listeners to ponder on? Leave our listeners to ponder on.

David (53:26):
Yeah, I think my favorite parting gift, I guess you could say, is that I don’t we don’t need to go looking for spirit because spirit is patiently there. It’s there. And we just need to take the time to find our doorway, to find our practice, whether it’s mindful meditation, breath work, walking meditation, whatever it may take in order for us to quiet our minds enough. Do we need to if you may need to develop, you know, some sort of ceremony or something to give the mind something to do while you quiet and begin to listen. And when we find that stillness, when we find that quiet space within us, that’s when we can rise above. That’s when we can connect to who we really are, our true nature. And within that true nature is love, empowerment and and just a sense of who we really are. And when we can do that, I think our life tends to smooth out. So we don’t have to go looking for it because it’s already with us. We just have to look within ourselves.

Guy (54:52):
Beautiful. Thank you, David. Where can people find you? You mentioned you have a podcast as well. You have a book. Where can we send everyone?

David (54:59):
Yeah, yeah. If I also have a healing practice, I do, because what I learned in my my own recovery, I go into the light. I know that. Yeah, yeah. I have a healing practice, too. So but everything the portal to everything, Dave, is DharmaTalks.com. D-H-A-R-M-A-TALKS.com. So DharmaTalks.com. And you’ll find, you know, all the information about my healing practice, where I go into the light and I connect with your light essence. And, you know, that guides me through the healing process. Or you can find my book. You can buy my book on Amazon or through my website. If you want a signed copy, do my website. And then I also have another book about contemplation. And I have a page there of Contemplative Living page that shows all the some of the older podcasts and some of the subjects, you know, because we talk about things like, you know, things that help help us along our spiritual path and to develop that contemplative lifestyle.

Guy (56:11):
Yeah, beautiful. I’ll jump into your podcast. I’ll subscribe and get on there, David. All right. Well, look, well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing. I feel I feel honored to have you on the show, mate, and you share your wisdom. And I really appreciate everything you’re doing. And it’s just great to be able to connect and have these conversations. There’s so many angles and directions it could have gone into. Yeah, Guy, thank you so much for having me. It was a real privilege. You’re welcome. Thank you.