Glimpses Beyond: What Near-Death Experiences Teach Us About Love, Life, and Everything In Between
Mar 17, 2025Enjoy Robert Coppes, PhD's episode on Near Death Experiences on the Journey Mindfulness Podcast on Spotify, Apple, & YouTube.
Imagine standing on the edge of existence, teetering between this world and the next. The storm rages, a ferry boat tips perilously on a swollen river, and in that split second, a voice—clear as crystal—whispers through the chaos: “Don’t jump. It’s not your time.” That’s where James, host of the Journey Mindfulness Podcast, found himself years ago in Bangladesh, a moment that wasn’t quite a near-death experience (NDE) but brushed so close to the veil that he felt the peace of the other side. It’s also where we begin an extraordinary conversation with Robert “Bob” Coppes, a man who’s spent years researching and gathering whispers from those who’ve crossed that threshold and returned with stories that could change how we live.
Bob, a retired financier, Ph.D., and board member of the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS), joined James to unpack his latest and best book, Impressions of Near-Death Experiences. Picture this: over 100 voices from across the globe—North America to New Zealand, Hindus to atheists—sharing fragments of something so vast, so ineffable, it’s like trying to describe a sunrise to someone who’s never seen light. That’s why Bob chose a Monet painting for his book’s cover—an impressionistic blur of a harbor at dawn. “Critics hated it,” he chuckles. “They said it wasn’t finished. But that’s the point. NDEs give you an impression, and you fill in the rest with your own soul.”
The Shoe on the Ledge and Other Proofs
What if your consciousness could slip out of your body like a coat, wander the world, and come back with secrets no one else could know? Bob shares a jaw-dropping story: a woman, unconscious in a hospital, floats out a window during her NDE and spots a single shoe on a ledge. Later, she tells a nurse, who—half-skeptical, half-curious—leans out to check. There it is, just as described, in a spot no one could see without leaving their body. These “veridical observations,” as they are known as, pile up like circumstantial evidence in a cosmic courtroom. Another woman, Fiona, meets a baby in her NDE who tells her, “Ask your father about me.” Back in her body, she learns of a brother who died days after birth—a sibling her family never mentioned. Then there’s the kicker: the same NDE predicts she’ll meet Dr. Raymond Moody, the NDE pioneer, years before he becomes famous and moves to her town. When his young son knocks on her door for Halloween, she knows it’s time when a voice confirms that this is the moment and the man she is destined to meet.
These aren’t fairy tales. They’re breadcrumbs and reference points hinting at a truth: our consciousness might not be tethered to flesh. “There’s a book, The Self Does Not Die,” Bob says, “full of hundreds of these stories. It’s hard to argue with that many witnesses.”
Love Without Limits
But the real treasure isn’t the proof—it’s the message. “Love is the most important thing,” Bob says, echoing NDE'rs worldwide. Not the conditional, transactional kind of love we’re used to, but a love so vast it swallows judgment whole. One woman, reflecting on her life review in Dr. Raymond Moody’s famous book Life After Life, stunned Bob as a young seeker: she’d lived imperfectly, like all of us, yet faced no condemnation. “That hit me,” he recalls. “I’d grown up Roman Catholic, where it’s all about left to purgatory. or right to heaven. But NDE'rs say there’s no judgment—just love, for everyone.” Black, white, Muslim, Jew, soldier, civilian—no exceptions. It’s a light that shines through every crack, a unity that binds us to each other, to nature, even to the stones beneath our feet.
Bob leans into this idea of oneness. “We’re not just interconnected,” he says. “From another dimension, we might all be ONE.” Imagine that: every smile you give, every wound you inflict, rippling back to you in a life review where you feel it from the other side. “What I do to you, I do to myself,” James muses, quoting Bob. It’s a truth Jesus hinted at—“Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me”—and one NDE'rs live out in vivid color.
Homesick for a Place We’ve Never Been
Here’s the catch: once you’ve tasted that love, this world feels like a faded photograph. “NDE'rs say it’s more real over there,” Bob explains. “The colors, the music, the peace—it’s home. They come back with a homesickness that takes seven years, on average, to settle.” James nods, recalling his own brush with death: “There was this peace I’ve never felt before or since. You lose all attachment, and it’s beautiful.” For some, like a financial hotshot Bob knows, it takes two NDEs to stick. After the first, he softened but later became obsessed again; after the second, he never went back to chasing money obsessively.
And what’s our job here? Not to earn a big car or a corner office. “It’s the small moments,” Bob says. “A smile to a stranger, a kind word. That’s what counts in the life review.” Anita Moorjani, another NDEr, likens it to a tapestry: every thread—every one of us—matters. Pull one out, and the whole thing unravels.
A Hope Bigger Than Fear
In a world tangled with wars and fear, Bob’s book—and this conversation—offers a lifeline. “If we realized we’ll feel the other side of every bullet fired, every harsh word spoken, maybe we’d change,” he says. “I pity the soldiers, all of them, because they’ll know that pain.” But the flip side is brighter: we’re all loved beyond our wildest dreams, no matter who we are or what we’ve done. Even that boss you can’t stand? Loved. That politician driving you nuts? Loved. You, with all your mess and magic? Loved.
So why are we here? “To bring love into the world,” Bob says simply. “And if you don’t, you’re still welcome on the other side.” It’s a message that cuts through the noise, a glimpse beyond that leaves you wondering: What if the greatest lessons about life really do come from those who’ve peeked at what’s next?
Want to dive deeper? Grab Bob’s book, Impressions of Near-Death Experiences, or listen to the full episode on the Journey Mindfulness Podcast. You might just hear that whisper for yourself.
