Four People in the Afterlife Describe Their Transition Experiences

One of the common occurrences during the transition is that the person is suddenly hovering over their lifeless body or standing next to it. But they are very much alive. One example is from the archives of direct-voice medium Leslie Flint. A direct-voice medium has the ability to have people whose bodies have died speak as clearly as though they had been standing at a microphone.

During one of Flint’s direct-voice sessions [1], a man in spirit known as Mr. Biggs described what happened at his transition. He was sitting in his easy chair, felt odd, and found himself standing over his body, which was still slumped in the chair. This is the recording of Mr. Biggs speaking through the mediumship of Leslie Flint describing what happened.

I was sitting my chair, you know and, um, I was reading the newspaper, which had just come, you know . . . and I felt a bit sort of odd, like, you know. And I thought, well that’s funny. I took my specs off, you know and put them on the table, and all that. I’ll just sit quiet for a minute, it will pass off, you know.

But, uh, the next thing I knew was that, I was sitting there, but I wasn’t there. I wasn’t. I was, sort of, standing—so it seemed to me—standing by the chair, looking at myself. There was the newspaper on the table and my glasses and I thought; this is odd, very strange, you know. I couldn’t make head nor tail of this at all.

And then I was conscious of the fact there was someone knocking at the door. Don’t know how, but it was funny that. I was standing there, sort of, looking at myself sitting in the chair and yet, it was as if I could hear this knocking at the door. And at the same time, almost to the minute, second, I was able to see who was knocking at the door, yet I was still standing in the room. And it was my sister. And she lived a few doors down the road, you know.

I thought: ”Oh dear, what am I going to do? I can’t open the door.” I don’t think, in any case it’s . . . you know I was in a proper sort of panic. Anyway this knocking went on and I was, sort of, getting all flustered, like, you know; thinking I was, sort of, dreaming or something. And I was hoping I’d wake up and go and open the door to my sister, but, nothing happened.

And then, I could see her, came down the path. She was looking proper upset and agitated and I thought; well I don’t know, what do I do, you know? And, um, anyway, what must have been only a few minutes, she came back with a policeman. ”Oh dear, what did she want to fetch a policeman for?’

And it suddenly dawned on me; “Course, she couldn’t get in, perhaps she was upset or worried about me. And yet I thought, well there’s nothing I can do about it. So I, sort of, just stood there beside myself—it sounds silly when you say that—and I thought; well I don’t know, if she comes in and sees me slumped in that chair like that, she’ll get probably quite a fright. I must try and wake myself up, you see.

So I shook myself like mad, you see, but nothing happened and I could see I was in a proper state, you know. And I thought; well I don’t know, what am I going to do? This is most peculiar. Anyway, eventually, the policeman got in at the window and he came into the room—and I recognized him. I’d seen him many a time on the beat [patrolling his district] you know.

There was . . . well, a time before . . . I couldn’t understand what was going on. Anyway, he shook me. He thought I was asleep you see, the same as I did. Nothing. Nothing happened. He hadn’t even realized I was dead. And he opened the door, of course, and my sister came in. She was in a proper state, I tell you. “Course, that’s all I had left, was my sister, at that time; May . . .

Anyway, they went for the doctor of course, old Doctor Foskett. He came you know, but he was no bloody good anyway. I mean, he couldn’t do anything for me. I mean, it was obvious then. I realised myself that I’d had it [died].

But I was trying to, sort of, calm down my sister, she didn’t take notice of me. And I went and stood and put my hand on her shoulder and tried to tell her I was alright, it was not me that was there, that I was standing beside her. But she obviously didn’t seem to cotton on [realize] at all, the fact that it was me at all, you know. She just sat there and . . . a proper state she was in.

Anyway, then, uh, th . . . th . . . th . . . the doctor, he went, and then they came and they took my body away, you see. They slumped me down like an old sack of potatoes. I thought; well, I’m not going after that, I’m going to stay here in my home. I might as well sit down in my chair now it’s empty. So I sat down there and tried to think it all out. Anyway, my sister, by this time, she’d gone off and I was alone in the house again.

In another example of what happens during the transition into the next life, Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, who transitioned into the life after this life in 1914, spoke clairaudiently through medium Anthony Borgia, describing seeing his body as he made the transition from it. He was lying in bed near the time for his transition. This is the account of what happened from the book Life in the World Unseen [2]. A narrator speaks the words.

I suddenly felt a great urge to rise up. I had no physical feeling whatever, very much in the same way that physical feeling is absent during a dream, but I was mentally alert, however much my body seemed to contradict such a condition. Immediately I had this distinct prompting to rise, I found that I was actually doing so. I then discovered that those around my bed did not seem to perceive what I was doing, since they made no effort to come to my assistance, nor did they try in any way to hinder me. Turning, I then beheld what had taken place. I saw my physical body lying lifeless upon its bed, but here was I, the real I, alive and well. . . . At no time was I in any mental distress, but I was full of wonder at what was to happen next, for here I was, in full possession of all my faculties, and, indeed feeling “physically” as I had never felt before.

The experiences when a person’s body dies suddenly are different from those of someone who has been ill for a while. The person suddenly out of the body may go on with the same activities the person was doing before the transition, unaware they are not in their body.

A World War I soldier named Alf Pritchett, speaking in a Leslie Flint session, described himself running toward the enemy on the battlefield but noticing that the enemy was running past him, as though they couldn’t see him. It wasn’t until some time later that he realized his body had been killed suddenly, most likely in an explosion, but he was still running on the battlefield as the spirit person. His physical body was lying dead on the battlefield somewhere, but everything else—his mind, personality, and memories—was exactly the same.[3]

This is Alf Pritchett in spirit describing his experience in a 1960 Leslie Flint session, 43 years after his body’s demise on a battlefield in World War I.  

One moment I was…one moment I was alive and we were…I always remember it so well. We’d been under a heavy bombardment practically all day and I thought to meself at the time, “if we come through this lot we’ll be lucky”, you know and then we were…early morning we were given the command to go over the top. Well, I thought, “this is it, boy,” you know, “oh well, if I come out of this lot I’ll be bloody lucky.” Anyway, I went. I must admit, that it took all I’d got to really get myself over the top.

Anyway, I don’t like even going into it, ‘septing that, all I know is that I was running forward and I still kept running forward. And the funny part about it is, that some of the Germans were coming towards me and they rushed past me as if they didn’t see me. I thought, “Well, that’s a funny how-d’ya-do.” All I remember was feeling in a pretty bad state, you know, sweating and, “Oh, crying out loud, this is it,” you know.

But instead of them attacking me or in any way, sort of, taking any interest in me, they were rushing past me. I thought, “Well, good lord ! I can’t make this out at all.” And, it took me quite a while to, sort of realize what had happened. In fact, it was some time I think, before I realized what happened. I went on and all I can remember is running and running and I thought, “Well, if they’re not going to see me, I’m certainly not going to bother about them. I’m going to try and get into a little cubby hole somewhere and get out of it.”

And all I remember is getting into a hole, in the ground that had been created by a bomb I expect, at some time. Anyway, all I know is, that I got into this hole and just crouched down and thought, “Well, I’ll wait till this shindig’s over and hope for the best. Might get taken prisoner, who knows? I don’t.”

And I was lying there thinking to myself, “Well, it’s a funny how-d’ya-do. They didn’t see me. They must have seen me, yet they went right past me.” And I started to think about it and I thought, “Well, I don’t know. I’m lucky.”

People who transition because of a horrendous accident are spared the pain of the trauma that results in their transition, although they may experience the fear and trauma leading up to the accident. But they describe being taken out just before the actual trauma.

A man communicating through South African trance medium Nina Merrington explained that he was spared the pain of a fatal auto accident and actually observed the event from outside of it. [4]

Mike Swain, who died in an auto accident, told his father Jasper Swain, a Pietermaritzburg, South Africa lawyer, that he left his body an instant before the cars actually impacted. Heather, his fiancée’s young sister, was also killed in the accident. Mike told of being blinded by the glare of the sun reflecting off of the windscreen of the oncoming car. “All of a sudden, the radiance changes from silver to gold. I am being lifted up in the air, out through the top of the car. I grabbed little Heather’s hand. She too is being lifted up out of the car.” When they were about 30 feet above the car, they witnessed the collision below them and heard a noise like the snapping of steel banjo strings. They had suffered no pain.

All speakers from the life after this life say there is no pain during the transition. People who transition because of illness have no experience of the body’s pain at the end, even though the people gathered around the deathbed may see struggles or signs of pain in the body.

Our transition from this life to the next is as easy and comfortable as can be. It’s a glorious release from all pain, worries, and the burdens of the body. No one needs to fear the transition from the body.

[1] Mr. Biggs recording from the Leslie Flint Trust archives at https://leslieflint.com.

[2] Anthony Borgia, Life in the World Unseen (London: Psychic Press, 1985), 11.

[3] “The Alfred Pritchett séance,” Leslie Flint Trust, November 4, 1960, https://www.leslieflint.com/alfred-pritchett.

[4] Tymn, The Afterlife Revealed (Guildford, UK: White Crow Books, 2011), 68.