Near-Death Experience of John Wong, Author of Awaken Your Healing Power
John Wong is the founder of Transcendental Connection, an organization committed to helping people tap into the inner power for awakening and self-healing. He is a director of the National Neurological Foundation in Singapore and the author of the book “Awaken Your Healing Power: A Molecular Biologist’s Journey in Reversing Paralysis and Blindness through Transcendental Connection.”
In 2005, John Wong, a 31-year-old molecular biologist, was struck by a peculiar illness (known as Guillain-Barre Syndrome) that led to his paralysis from the neck down. Some his organs started to malfunction one by one. Then he lost his ability to see. His own body unexpectedly failed him at the peak of his career.
This book chronicles his journey of miraculously recovered from his paralysis and blindness over an arduous period of three years, defying the judgment of most medical doctors. From the medical point of view, nerve cells cannot be regenerated once they are destroyed. Yet, John was able to regenerate his damaged nerve cells to heal his body.
John Wong is a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and he chants the daimoku. The prayer and Buddhist chanting mentioned below is Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.
The following is the real life story of his near-death experience extracted from his book “Awaken Your Healing Power: A Molecular Biologist’s Journey in Reversing Paralysis and Blindness through Transcendental Connection”:
After spending a total of three monks in the hospital, I was physically, emotionally, and mentally drained; I was truly at the end of my tether. On top of the gnawing pain that I suffered as the weight of my rib cage constantly pressed on my lungs, I had to deal with other frequent but intermittent problems, such as a pounding headache, floating dizziness, a constant pulse of pain behind my eye that burned my brain, and difficulty in inhaling.
Above the constant torment of the pain was the nagging thought that I was a downright burden to my family and was probably better off dead. In fact, I felt certain that I was losing the battle against my disease and was ready to surrender my life, when the unthinkable took place.
On evening in early March 2005, I was all by myself in the quiet of my ward. As usual, I was immersed in a deep pain that left me physically depleted. Then, the pain seemed to fade into the background and an overwhelming sense of tiredness came upon me, slowly but surely, and I found myself slipping out of consciousness.
As surreal as it seemed, my recollection of what was to follow was surprisingly vivid.
At first, my breathing became much easier. In fact, it was almost effortless. But I began to feel a sense of foreboding as my eyes slowly closed. All of a sudden, I found myself engulfed by some indescribable universal force as I felt myself falling deeper and deeper into an abyss. I realized that I was, in fact, no longer breathing.
Somehow, I knew that I had become detached from my immobile body and I began to panic. As my consciousness continued to fade and I continued gliding silently down a dark, silent abyss, almost as if on a soft, invisible cushion, I was shaken by the realization that I was going to die, and perhaps was even in the process of dying right now.
Not like this…not in this manner. I begged desperately. Help me please, benevolent universe!
Suddenly, I no longer wanted to die. Instead, I tried to paddle my way upwards. However, I continued to fall and as it became increasingly quiet and peaceful as I fell deeper, I knew that my life would eventually come to an end.
At that instant, the succession of events in my life flashed before me and I realized that I was looking at myself from a new and totally different plane and dimension. All that had happened to me during my past lifetimes became apparent to me in just a few short seconds. Events that had spanned decades took mere seconds to replay before my very eyes, as if time itself had become subjective.
Intuitively, I knew that I was waiting for my higher consciousness or my ultimate true self to sum up the totality of my existence. For the first time, I was privileged enough to understand that at death, we would be judged by our emerging true self alone. This emerging true self would be the sole truth of our real identity.
As it had emerged from within me while I was slowly departing this world, I discovered that my true self is in fact also part of the universe and universal consciousness. I became part of the Divine Consciousness, yet I was still aware of my own identity on Earth.
I must confess that no words in the world can accurately describe the way I felt at that moment. In that instant, I finally realized that I was connected to the universe and that the universe is, in fact, in me.
Suddenly, the silence of space was filled by the resonance of Buddhist chanting and I was swept off my feet by what seemed to be a rising carpet that was preventing me from falling deeper.
As fleeting as it was, my near-death experience was one of the most fearful, yet most beautiful, humbling and profound experiences ever. At that moment, I became aware that I was one with the vastness of the universe. I came to the realization that I was merely a physical manifestation of the ebb and flow of the universe. Each of us is like a drop of water, part of the cosmic ocean of space and time. Essentially, we are all one, regardless of our form.
I recognized that the universe exists within us, but also outside of us. Time, space, matter and energy make up this cosmic oceanic space and we are, in turn, made of these elements. We are one within the never-ending momentum of cause and effect operating in this vast cosmic space.
It was truly a moment of epiphany. I had come face to face with death but had been held back in the nick of time. And, everything in life suddenly became crystal clear to me, as if I had been given true insight by a higher intelligence.
“John, did you know that we were praying for you earlier?” a friend asked matter-of-factly when a group of them visited that night.
“I know,” I mumbled weakly under my breath. In my heart, I knew that the chanting that I had heard earlier was their prayers for me. For the first time, I had experienced and acknowledged the power of distance healing via prayers. In my heart, I knew that their prayers had been my saving grace that evening. If anything, I was all the more convinced by the power of prayers.
Source: Extracted from the book by John Wong
Awaken Your Healing Power: A Molecular Biologist’s Journey in Reversing Paralysis and Blindness through Transcendental Connection®
