Kathrine Frich
What happens in the moments when life appears to slip away remains one of humanity’s oldest questions.
For centuries, accounts of visions, tunnels, lights and divine encounters have fuelled debates among scientists, theologians and sceptics.
Near-death experiences sit at the centre of this mystery, offering stories that challenge our understanding of consciousness and the boundary between life and death.
One woman’s account, first shared decades after a devastating accident, continues to draw attention for its vivid and unexpected detail.
Life before the crash
According to her recollections, Beverley Brodsky grew up in Philadelphia in a conservative Jewish household.
Her faith collapsed in the late 1950s as she confronted the horrors of the Holocaust and the suffering described by survivors.
By her early adulthood, she considered herself an atheist.
That changed in 1970, when she was 20 and travelling near Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
A motorcycle collision left her gravely injured, with a fractured skull and severe facial trauma.
Doctors treated her for two weeks, during which she later recalled that her consciousness seemed to separate from her body.
The moment she left her body
Beverley told author Kenneth Ring that she found herself floating above the hospital room before being approached by what she described as an angelic presence.
“Hand in hand with the angel, I was led into the opening of the small, dark passageway,” she said.
She recalled moving through a narrow tunnel toward a radiant light that seemed to communicate compassion and intelligence without words.
Encounter with ‘the light’
At the end of that passage, Beverley said she confronted a being she could not categorise.
“There was neither form nor sex to this perfect being,” she explained.
She later chose to refer to the presence as “he” only for linguistic convenience, describing it as containing “everything, as white light contains all the colors of a rainbow when penetrating a prism.”
Her account included an overwhelming sense of recognition. “I, even I, was facing God,” she said, adding that she felt filled with understanding and unity with the being.
A changed life
Beverley said she asked questions and felt immersed in what she perceived as a source of knowledge before the experience came to an end.
After recovering from her injuries, she eventually embraced Christianity and began sharing her story publicly.
Her account remains part of the wider debate surrounding near-death experiences, offering a deeply personal perspective on a phenomenon still largely unexplained by science.
Source: Ladbible
