Excerpt from "Mentoring the Near-Death Experience Survivor"

We all have a mission in life.

However, it would appear that near-death experiencers (NDErs) have been given an opportunity to strongly focus on this and also to bring their new understanding and knowledge to others through the channel of their chosen life missions. Consequently, they feel an urge to discover what missions they need to complete before they can again join the Light after their final physical death. NDErs come back into physical life knowing that they need to complete their personal life missions, and many know what their missions are. However, as noted, there are some who do not know, and they feel inwardly anxious about discovering their purpose in life so that they can fulfill it. Others require clarification on what they think their purpose is.

During eighteen months of research work, I explored the phenomenon of the near-death experience (NDE) and worked with NDE survivors. Near-death experiencers are individuals who have been declared clinically dead, yet have returned to life with an urge to complete their often-unknown life missions. The need to know the mission in life is one of the main concerns of the near-death experiencers. Though this is not the only challenge, as there are several others that are common to NDErs, it is the one that is addressed in this book through a course that is designed specifically to aid the near-death experiencers find their unique missions in life and how to manifest them.

After presenting the pilot course, I found that NDErs wanted to see the course made available for future NDErs or even for themselves as a course to be retaken at intervals throughout life. The course, which is given in full in this book, is the updated version of the original pilot. Other information is provided for those who wish to present the course themselves and take on the role of mentor for near-death experiencers.

[The results of the pilot course] demonstrate how the course can successfully address the particular need that NDErs face in seeking their mission in life, and it is believed that this course can be of use in the healthcare field and other support services for NDErs.

It is very important to the NDE survivor to be able to know without any doubt what his or her mission is. Being helped, where necessary, to know how to manifest this mission in the individual’s life is equally important. Without this kind of support, many NDErs do not know how to fulfill their mission nor how to fulfill themselves. This causes increasing anxiety and a sense of being without purpose in life, which in turn can lead to other problems.

Using the information presented in this book, helpers and mentors can become more familiar with the way that NDErs think, what their challenges are, and the best approaches to use, both when presenting the course and in mentoring practices. Most importantly, it is hoped that through these avenues, more practical help will be made available for the near-death experience survivors who can benefit from the course.

Some of the pilot course participants commented that they had waited years to have their experiences validated and to know what their missions in life were. Others said the course gave them hope and healing and that they felt great relief in having their experiences validated. Many felt a release from the stress and anxiety they had experienced in not knowing what it was that they had been sent back to physical life to complete.

There is a real need to have this Mission in Life course available to NDErs at what is often their first point of contact on reentry into physical life: the medical world, which includes healthcare and other support services. As has already been noted, there is a tremendous opportunity here for developing new helping tools and methods tailored to meet the needs of NDE survivors and their families and partners.

This author believes that the course on helping near-death experiencer survivors to find their soul’s mission in life is a necessary and vital tool that is effective and easy to use by qualified mentors. Presenting the course and working with near-death experiencers is a rewarding experience; it is always educational, as each individual’s story and path are unique. This kind of mentoring work encourages a greater spiritual awareness and a further development of spiritual understanding.

Feedback in the course evaluations from course participants is useful for those in the caring professions who seek to learn more about how to help NDErs by updating and revising their counseling and mentoring methods. It is hoped that the revised course will inspire further support and assistance for NDE survivors from other sources and authorities, thereby promoting beneficial change and stimulating greater societal awareness.

Carolyn M. Matthews earned a Master of Arts degree in Transpersonal Studies from the Atlantic University in Virginia, USA. Her thesis was about the near-death experience (NDE) and its survivors, for whom she developed and presented a successful course for finding the mission in life. During this period, she became a mentor for near-death experience survivors. Carolyn’s work attracted international interest, resulting in her current book, Mentoring the Near-Death Experience Survivor. Her book is written for the general reader, but also designed for the health-care support services for NDE survivors, and international organizations such as the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). Carolyn was born in the UK, and moved to Canada in 1971 with her husband and their two children. They now have four children and two grandchildren.

Purchase info: ISBN 978-0-9880260-0-1, Cove House Publications, $18.95

www.ndemission.com and will shortly be available in bookstores and on-line stores.

The above excerpts are taken from Mentoring the Near Death Experience Survivor: Addressing the Need to Find the Mission in Life. © Carolyn M. Matthews. 2012.