1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,500 Break free from the ordinary and check out a podcast with thought-shattering concepts 2 00:00:03,500 --> 00:00:05,660 that will reshape the way you interpret the world. 3 00:00:05,660 --> 00:00:08,700 We are The Swerve Podcast and our mission is very simple. 4 00:00:08,700 --> 00:00:12,740 Each episode we research and discuss topics that swerve off the mainstream path in an 5 00:00:12,740 --> 00:00:16,660 attempt to understand everything in the universe one obscure topic at a time. 6 00:00:16,660 --> 00:00:20,420 With your into forgotten history, cutting-edge science, strange frontiers of the unknown 7 00:00:20,420 --> 00:00:24,180 or just need a good laugh in an uncensored way, The Swerve Podcast has you covered. 8 00:00:24,180 --> 00:00:33,180 Listen to The Swerve Podcast today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other major platforms. 9 00:00:33,180 --> 00:00:37,420 From the time that they pronounced me deaf was a good 45 minutes. 10 00:00:37,420 --> 00:00:42,380 They cut my clothes and then they paddled my heart, my heart had stopped. 11 00:00:42,380 --> 00:00:47,060 And I could see people screaming and crying, but I didn't realize that was actually my 12 00:00:47,060 --> 00:00:50,260 physical body because I was somewhere else. 13 00:00:50,260 --> 00:00:56,340 The only thing that I could feel if you could imagine absolute love and peace, there wasn't 14 00:00:56,340 --> 00:00:58,340 anything else to be felt. 15 00:00:58,340 --> 00:01:01,500 I was greeted by people I had known in the past. 16 00:01:01,500 --> 00:01:03,220 I'm back home again. 17 00:01:03,220 --> 00:01:08,780 Incredibly safe and felt at home. 18 00:01:08,780 --> 00:01:14,260 Welcome, welcome to Round Trip Death everybody and a warm welcome to our special guest all 19 00:01:14,260 --> 00:01:18,260 the way from North Dakota in the United States, David Kipson. 20 00:01:18,260 --> 00:01:19,260 Hi David. 21 00:01:19,260 --> 00:01:21,140 Hey, how's it going? 22 00:01:21,140 --> 00:01:22,140 Good. 23 00:01:22,140 --> 00:01:24,420 Tell me how you're doing today. 24 00:01:24,420 --> 00:01:26,340 What are you doing North Dakota anyway? 25 00:01:26,340 --> 00:01:32,980 Well, other than freeze in the winter time, I just recently started my second semester 26 00:01:32,980 --> 00:01:40,900 at Minot State University and that's been very busy, very, very busy. 27 00:01:40,900 --> 00:01:42,900 What are you studying? 28 00:01:42,900 --> 00:01:44,540 I'm studying to be a social worker. 29 00:01:44,540 --> 00:01:49,180 Yeah, my goal is to kind of help other people and make a difference. 30 00:01:49,180 --> 00:01:50,180 That's awesome. 31 00:01:50,180 --> 00:01:55,940 Well, before we jump into your near death experience, tell us one or two other things 32 00:01:55,940 --> 00:01:59,500 about you so people can get to know you just a little bit. 33 00:01:59,500 --> 00:02:02,220 Well I have a daughter. 34 00:02:02,220 --> 00:02:07,940 She's 11 and she is just the focus of everything that I'm doing right now. 35 00:02:07,940 --> 00:02:11,500 She's a hoot, she's smart and she's a pretty good kid. 36 00:02:11,500 --> 00:02:13,900 I have a dog and a cat. 37 00:02:13,900 --> 00:02:18,220 That's kind of really the extent of things for me. 38 00:02:18,220 --> 00:02:23,500 Well, old time student, life revolves around that, I get it. 39 00:02:23,500 --> 00:02:26,900 Since I had my head still spinning. 40 00:02:26,900 --> 00:02:31,980 I was just in class about 30 minutes ago and I had to rush home and get ready. 41 00:02:31,980 --> 00:02:34,020 By the way, daughters are wonderful. 42 00:02:34,020 --> 00:02:42,060 Well, sons are too, but I should say, but I've digging myself a deep hole here. 43 00:02:42,060 --> 00:02:45,060 Yeah, daughters are awesome. 44 00:02:45,060 --> 00:02:47,340 Anyway, let's jump right into it. 45 00:02:47,340 --> 00:02:53,460 So you were one of those unlucky people back in, was it 2021? 46 00:02:53,460 --> 00:02:58,420 Yeah, 2021 that caught COVID in a bad way. 47 00:02:58,420 --> 00:02:59,860 Tell me what happened. 48 00:02:59,860 --> 00:03:02,980 What happened to your health for starters? 49 00:03:02,980 --> 00:03:09,380 Well, I would say at the beginning of October, I had been working outside. 50 00:03:09,380 --> 00:03:10,620 I had an outdoor job. 51 00:03:10,620 --> 00:03:15,380 It had been raining and I was feeling under the weather and I was like, well, I must have 52 00:03:15,380 --> 00:03:17,820 caught the flu working out in the rain. 53 00:03:17,820 --> 00:03:21,340 I just wasn't wearing the right gear. 54 00:03:21,340 --> 00:03:26,940 But after about a week of that, it wasn't getting any better. 55 00:03:26,940 --> 00:03:36,820 It just kind of spiraled after about a week and a few days after that, it was a fever. 56 00:03:36,820 --> 00:03:38,540 I remember the fever. 57 00:03:38,540 --> 00:03:43,580 It was the hottest, I think I'd ever been ever. 58 00:03:43,580 --> 00:03:45,700 I don't know what my temp was exactly. 59 00:03:45,700 --> 00:03:50,300 I just know that I couldn't take enough showers to cool down. 60 00:03:50,300 --> 00:03:54,340 There wasn't enough fans in my room to cool me off. 61 00:03:54,340 --> 00:03:59,180 It was just the hottest feeling I'd ever felt. 62 00:03:59,180 --> 00:04:04,460 My cough was getting really bad. 63 00:04:04,460 --> 00:04:11,020 And at the same time, my ability to breathe and take on air was being constricted. 64 00:04:11,020 --> 00:04:17,100 And by the night I went into the hospital, I remember, because our bedroom was down in 65 00:04:17,100 --> 00:04:22,340 the basement, I remember crawling on my hands and knees up the stairs and I barely made it 66 00:04:22,340 --> 00:04:29,700 to the kitchen and I made it to the couch and I told my wife, I need an ambulance. 67 00:04:29,700 --> 00:04:34,700 After that, it was flashes, flashes of things happening. 68 00:04:34,700 --> 00:04:37,700 The COVID itself was just nasty. 69 00:04:37,700 --> 00:04:39,380 Yeah, that fever. 70 00:04:39,380 --> 00:04:43,300 There's a lot of things I can't remember and a lot of things that I can't, but that 71 00:04:43,300 --> 00:04:45,860 fever sticks out to me. 72 00:04:45,860 --> 00:04:49,180 It was just something I never felt before. 73 00:04:49,180 --> 00:04:56,220 I remember her calling the first responders and them getting there, me making light of 74 00:04:56,220 --> 00:05:00,580 the situation because that's what I do and trying to make the firefighter left, which 75 00:05:00,580 --> 00:05:01,580 they did. 76 00:05:01,580 --> 00:05:08,340 And then they wheeled me off into the ambulance and they shut the doors and I don't remember 77 00:05:08,340 --> 00:05:09,540 the right there. 78 00:05:09,540 --> 00:05:14,700 I remember the doors of the ambulance opening into the emergency room and then it was lights 79 00:05:14,700 --> 00:05:20,660 out for, I don't know what that time span was when I went into the emergency room to 80 00:05:20,660 --> 00:05:23,380 the time I got up to the COVID ward. 81 00:05:23,380 --> 00:05:29,500 I do remember coming to the COVID ward and it being scary. 82 00:05:29,500 --> 00:05:31,420 I was very scared. 83 00:05:31,420 --> 00:05:36,100 It must have been around mid-October. 84 00:05:36,100 --> 00:05:37,300 No. 85 00:05:37,300 --> 00:05:43,820 So I went in on the 24th to the hospital and then it was a couple of days later because 86 00:05:43,820 --> 00:05:48,940 I remember there being scary movies on TV and I was watching them, which was somehow comforting. 87 00:05:48,940 --> 00:05:51,300 How long were you in the hospital altogether? 88 00:05:51,300 --> 00:05:54,340 A total of 94 days. 89 00:05:54,340 --> 00:06:00,300 Yeah, three months of my life was spent in a hospital. 90 00:06:00,300 --> 00:06:02,300 Were you intubated? 91 00:06:02,300 --> 00:06:03,300 Yes. 92 00:06:03,300 --> 00:06:04,460 I was. 93 00:06:04,460 --> 00:06:10,380 That's when I was in the COVID ward for about a week and a week and a half and I had an 94 00:06:10,380 --> 00:06:16,940 incident in the hospital and the internal emergency crew had to come get me. 95 00:06:16,940 --> 00:06:22,500 The next day the doctor came in and he talked to me and my wife and he was like, he needs 96 00:06:22,500 --> 00:06:23,900 to go to the ICU. 97 00:06:23,900 --> 00:06:30,940 He needs to be intubated and it was scary at that point because I had nurses come talk 98 00:06:30,940 --> 00:06:35,860 to me and they'd be like, hey, you got to fight this, you got to do what the doctor 99 00:06:35,860 --> 00:06:40,180 say and I was doing my best to do that but I was scared out of my mind because I thought 100 00:06:40,180 --> 00:06:42,020 I was going to die. 101 00:06:42,020 --> 00:06:44,620 When he came in he was like, this is what's happening. 102 00:06:44,620 --> 00:06:50,660 This is the cold, hard truth about it all and I didn't know what to do and I looked 103 00:06:50,660 --> 00:06:57,180 at my wife and she nodded her head and then I was whisked away into the ICU. 104 00:06:57,180 --> 00:07:00,300 Yeah, that sounds really scary. 105 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:08,180 So I assume they put you in an induced coma for how long was that? 106 00:07:08,180 --> 00:07:11,340 That was about 30 days. 107 00:07:11,340 --> 00:07:16,420 So the near death experience that you remember was it, so it was during that 30 day period 108 00:07:16,420 --> 00:07:17,420 sometime? 109 00:07:17,420 --> 00:07:19,940 Yeah. 110 00:07:19,940 --> 00:07:21,340 I don't know when. 111 00:07:21,340 --> 00:07:24,180 There was no way to track. 112 00:07:24,180 --> 00:07:25,820 I don't know when. 113 00:07:25,820 --> 00:07:29,380 It could all happen in the first five minutes or it could have been over the span of the 114 00:07:29,380 --> 00:07:31,140 30 days. 115 00:07:31,140 --> 00:07:33,780 There's just no way for me to clock time. 116 00:07:33,780 --> 00:07:36,300 I wish there was though because that would have been really, you need to be like this 117 00:07:36,300 --> 00:07:39,220 happened then but it doesn't really work out that way. 118 00:07:39,220 --> 00:07:46,940 So that was 30 days of the induced coma in the ICU and there were some very strange experiences. 119 00:07:46,940 --> 00:07:49,860 Well, go ahead and jump into it. 120 00:07:49,860 --> 00:07:51,980 What did you experience? 121 00:07:51,980 --> 00:07:59,140 So the first, the strangest, the stranger ones were like the out of body experiences. 122 00:07:59,140 --> 00:08:06,140 I can recall the view out the window and it was near the helipad and you could see rocks 123 00:08:06,140 --> 00:08:08,100 on the ferrufi material. 124 00:08:08,100 --> 00:08:09,940 I remember looking out the window and seeing that. 125 00:08:09,940 --> 00:08:17,540 I remember looking out into the hallway seeing the nurses, the ICU station, like the color 126 00:08:17,540 --> 00:08:19,660 of the cabinet stood out to me. 127 00:08:19,660 --> 00:08:20,940 They're like the wood grain. 128 00:08:20,940 --> 00:08:22,140 It was a dark. 129 00:08:22,140 --> 00:08:23,580 I really remembered that. 130 00:08:23,580 --> 00:08:30,220 I remembered looking down on my body saying that's kind of strange and not really thinking 131 00:08:30,220 --> 00:08:32,860 twice about it. 132 00:08:32,860 --> 00:08:40,020 So the out of body stuff was very interesting and I've asked doctors before, hey, you know, 133 00:08:40,020 --> 00:08:41,420 how much am I supposed to remember? 134 00:08:41,420 --> 00:08:43,860 How much am I not supposed to remember? 135 00:08:43,860 --> 00:08:47,860 And they get kind of shy about it and they're like, you're not supposed to remember anything 136 00:08:47,860 --> 00:08:49,380 and that's enough for that conversation. 137 00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:50,780 And then they just move on. 138 00:08:50,780 --> 00:08:53,780 So that kind of told me a lot in that response. 139 00:08:53,780 --> 00:08:55,420 I was like, okay, there might be more there. 140 00:08:55,420 --> 00:09:02,940 And then there was what happened while I was in my body or what I think is my body. 141 00:09:02,940 --> 00:09:10,420 There was two distinct variations of what was induced by drugs because that was wacky. 142 00:09:10,420 --> 00:09:12,460 Those dreams didn't make any sense. 143 00:09:12,460 --> 00:09:15,300 Those were just outrageous. 144 00:09:15,300 --> 00:09:18,260 But then there was two experiences that I had. 145 00:09:18,260 --> 00:09:20,060 I can't explain. 146 00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:22,620 I don't know. 147 00:09:22,620 --> 00:09:23,700 I don't know where I went. 148 00:09:23,700 --> 00:09:25,460 I don't know what it was. 149 00:09:25,460 --> 00:09:29,380 I don't know who was showing me. 150 00:09:29,380 --> 00:09:38,580 I just had these two very, very distinct instances where it felt like I was ripped out of the 151 00:09:38,580 --> 00:09:43,180 call-on into something else, whether it was another dimension, another timeline. 152 00:09:43,180 --> 00:09:44,580 I have no idea. 153 00:09:44,580 --> 00:09:48,900 But it felt like I was ripped out of that because everything was clear. 154 00:09:48,900 --> 00:09:50,580 It wasn't foggy. 155 00:09:50,580 --> 00:09:54,140 It was very clear. 156 00:09:54,140 --> 00:09:56,020 You need to see this. 157 00:09:56,020 --> 00:09:59,740 Over the years, I've had a lot of time to think about it and kind of go back and revisit 158 00:09:59,740 --> 00:10:04,300 and focus on kind of what those were. 159 00:10:04,300 --> 00:10:12,180 The first one was, it was like I was placed in space somewhere. 160 00:10:12,180 --> 00:10:14,460 I know that sounds crazy. 161 00:10:14,460 --> 00:10:20,420 But then whoever was showing me this was saying, hey, this is you. 162 00:10:20,420 --> 00:10:24,860 This is where you fit into the universe. 163 00:10:24,860 --> 00:10:27,860 I remember it looking like a giant double helix. 164 00:10:27,860 --> 00:10:29,860 It was like DNA. 165 00:10:29,860 --> 00:10:34,300 I was like, okay, well, that's the heat. 166 00:10:34,300 --> 00:10:37,620 I was really hoping for some more explanation. 167 00:10:37,620 --> 00:10:42,580 But whoever or whatever is, it doesn't work that way. 168 00:10:42,580 --> 00:10:45,620 The universe shows you what it needs to show you. 169 00:10:45,620 --> 00:10:51,100 And at the time and for months after that, I didn't understand what it meant. 170 00:10:51,100 --> 00:10:58,580 And then the second experience, it was a really bright room. 171 00:10:58,580 --> 00:10:59,580 It was white. 172 00:10:59,580 --> 00:11:02,020 They had white floors, white walls, white ceilings. 173 00:11:02,020 --> 00:11:09,380 And every so often, a big colored block would just kind of go whoop and then back in. 174 00:11:09,380 --> 00:11:15,500 And they would be different colors and they would be kind of just going off every so often. 175 00:11:15,500 --> 00:11:19,260 And that one, I still have trouble wrapping my mind around. 176 00:11:19,260 --> 00:11:22,220 Because I'm not exactly sure what that means. 177 00:11:22,220 --> 00:11:24,020 I don't know. 178 00:11:24,020 --> 00:11:25,420 I couldn't get that one. 179 00:11:25,420 --> 00:11:31,140 But the first one, that's the one that hit home over time. 180 00:11:31,140 --> 00:11:34,540 The more I thought about it, the more things in my life were happening. 181 00:11:34,540 --> 00:11:39,980 The more I went back to that and the more it shaped my current decisions. 182 00:11:39,980 --> 00:11:42,260 I really wish... 183 00:11:42,260 --> 00:11:48,220 I've watched Strange Things Since I Was a Kid on Self-Mystery, Sightings, you name it. 184 00:11:48,220 --> 00:11:52,900 And I always watched the Near Death Experiences. 185 00:11:52,900 --> 00:11:57,260 They were always similar, at least from what I remember seeing. 186 00:11:57,260 --> 00:11:58,780 You see a bright white light. 187 00:11:58,780 --> 00:12:01,380 You see a family member. 188 00:12:01,380 --> 00:12:04,660 You see the deity of your choice. 189 00:12:04,660 --> 00:12:06,700 I didn't have any of that. 190 00:12:06,700 --> 00:12:10,580 And I felt slighted by that because I was like, hey, how come no one came to visit me? 191 00:12:10,580 --> 00:12:14,460 And I was like, okay, well, that's cool. 192 00:12:14,460 --> 00:12:17,260 But it was nothing like that. 193 00:12:17,260 --> 00:12:19,540 The message was delivered. 194 00:12:19,540 --> 00:12:22,260 But it was just the form that I wasn't expecting. 195 00:12:22,260 --> 00:12:24,100 What was the message? 196 00:12:24,100 --> 00:12:26,580 The message was to help other people. 197 00:12:26,580 --> 00:12:34,980 That was the one clear message that I got was that I have lived a life that was rough. 198 00:12:34,980 --> 00:12:35,980 It's rough. 199 00:12:35,980 --> 00:12:40,700 It was rough by a lot of people's definition. 200 00:12:40,700 --> 00:12:44,940 And this was the universe saying, hey, this is your chance. 201 00:12:44,940 --> 00:12:45,940 This is your last chance. 202 00:12:45,940 --> 00:12:48,300 We're not going to work with you anymore. 203 00:12:48,300 --> 00:12:49,300 This is it. 204 00:12:49,300 --> 00:12:50,860 Like you get it or you don't. 205 00:12:50,860 --> 00:12:54,620 From then forward, I've been trying to do my best to do that. 206 00:12:54,620 --> 00:13:01,260 And so that's what led me to go into college and pursuing a career in solar work and doing 207 00:13:01,260 --> 00:13:09,060 volunteer work and just being of service to others because that's really, that's a big 208 00:13:09,060 --> 00:13:13,700 thing I got from it was, it doesn't matter where you work, what you drive, where you 209 00:13:13,700 --> 00:13:24,300 live, we all have needs and we all need help and we all need to be heard and to be seen 210 00:13:24,300 --> 00:13:27,660 and to be cared for. 211 00:13:27,660 --> 00:13:33,900 And prior to the, prior to the hospital experience, I was, I would say I was very selfish. 212 00:13:33,900 --> 00:13:36,740 I would say I was probably, I was not a good person. 213 00:13:36,740 --> 00:13:40,380 We'll just say that afterwards. 214 00:13:40,380 --> 00:13:41,940 You spend three months in a hospital. 215 00:13:41,940 --> 00:13:43,580 You wake up after 30 days. 216 00:13:43,580 --> 00:13:44,680 You can't move. 217 00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:45,780 My muscle mass was gone. 218 00:13:45,780 --> 00:13:49,700 I had lost 62 pounds and it was all muscle. 219 00:13:49,700 --> 00:13:54,300 You rely on people that you don't know to take care of every need. 220 00:13:54,300 --> 00:13:58,780 And now there's more needs because they're, you're hooked up to everything. 221 00:13:58,780 --> 00:14:01,600 They're trying to keep you from getting blood clots. 222 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:05,300 They're trying to keep you from, they're trying to just keep getting you to eat. 223 00:14:05,300 --> 00:14:11,380 They're trying to get you to move again and everything is not wanting to move. 224 00:14:11,380 --> 00:14:16,860 And that was very, it was a lesson in humility for me. 225 00:14:16,860 --> 00:14:20,180 I've been very independent up until that point. 226 00:14:20,180 --> 00:14:23,740 How long was your recovery after the hospital? 227 00:14:23,740 --> 00:14:28,580 I was laid up on the couch for probably six months. 228 00:14:28,580 --> 00:14:32,580 It was physical therapy, I believe four times a week. 229 00:14:32,580 --> 00:14:37,940 And then I had physical, physical therapy at home that I did on my own, which was very 230 00:14:37,940 --> 00:14:38,940 hard to do. 231 00:14:38,940 --> 00:14:40,860 I just wanted to lay there. 232 00:14:40,860 --> 00:14:44,740 Eventually I got out of the hospital and my lungs were at 45%. 233 00:14:44,740 --> 00:14:49,700 So there wasn't a lot I could do, but over time I was able to kind of work at it and 234 00:14:49,700 --> 00:14:53,460 slowly get back to normal. 235 00:14:53,460 --> 00:15:00,100 It was, I got off of the portable oxygen probably a year and a half after I left the hospital. 236 00:15:00,100 --> 00:15:01,500 So that was pretty recent actually. 237 00:15:01,500 --> 00:15:04,060 Yeah, that's a long time. 238 00:15:04,060 --> 00:15:07,900 Just a brief interruption here to mention our sponsor, Smart Labels. 239 00:15:07,900 --> 00:15:12,260 If fall season means you're putting away summer clothes and toys, there's a product that helps 240 00:15:12,260 --> 00:15:13,980 you keep it all organized. 241 00:15:13,980 --> 00:15:18,580 Get the Smart Labels and stick their QR codes on all your storage bins. 242 00:15:18,580 --> 00:15:21,980 Scan in the app, add names, descriptions, even pictures. 243 00:15:21,980 --> 00:15:26,700 Then months down the road when you're looking for that thing that you know you stored somewhere, 244 00:15:26,700 --> 00:15:29,780 you can just search in the app and it'll tell you where you put it. 245 00:15:29,780 --> 00:15:33,100 Seriously, it's organizing magic. 246 00:15:33,100 --> 00:15:38,460 Click on over to Amazon, search for Smart Labels, that's one word, Smart Labels and 247 00:15:38,460 --> 00:15:40,300 get organized today. 248 00:15:40,300 --> 00:15:42,620 Now, back to the guest. 249 00:15:42,620 --> 00:15:46,060 All right, there's a whole bunch done pack here. 250 00:15:46,060 --> 00:15:49,700 I let your breeze through, but I want a ton more detail. 251 00:15:49,700 --> 00:15:55,100 So first of all, I want to make sure that we're clear. 252 00:15:55,100 --> 00:16:01,540 You had some drug induced things, dreams, whatever you want to call them. 253 00:16:01,540 --> 00:16:04,260 I'm trying not to call them hallucinations. 254 00:16:04,260 --> 00:16:06,620 And you had these other two experiences. 255 00:16:06,620 --> 00:16:07,620 What's the difference? 256 00:16:07,620 --> 00:16:10,740 How do you know one's real and the others are not? 257 00:16:10,740 --> 00:16:13,500 It was how they felt. 258 00:16:13,500 --> 00:16:14,580 It was how they felt. 259 00:16:14,580 --> 00:16:18,500 It was how they made my spirit feel. 260 00:16:18,500 --> 00:16:24,380 Like the drug induced dreams were nonsensical. 261 00:16:24,380 --> 00:16:26,260 They were crazy. 262 00:16:26,260 --> 00:16:31,500 I mean, I thought I had escaped the hospital, stolen my own pickup and drove to another 263 00:16:31,500 --> 00:16:32,820 state. 264 00:16:32,820 --> 00:16:37,940 With craziness in between, that's not what happened at all. 265 00:16:37,940 --> 00:16:42,580 And the two experiences were so clear. 266 00:16:42,580 --> 00:16:48,060 They were clear in how they were presented to me. 267 00:16:48,060 --> 00:16:57,140 It just felt like somebody had ripped me out of this physical world and whatever internal 268 00:16:57,140 --> 00:17:01,300 prison you get put into by a coma. 269 00:17:01,300 --> 00:17:06,740 I felt like it pulled me out of that and I went somewhere else for a bit. 270 00:17:06,740 --> 00:17:11,580 You also mentioned seeing your body and seeing things around the hospital. 271 00:17:11,580 --> 00:17:17,940 Was that part of these two experiences or was that a little bit separate? 272 00:17:17,940 --> 00:17:21,380 That's a whole other set of things. 273 00:17:21,380 --> 00:17:23,500 I kind of get a kick out of hearing that. 274 00:17:23,500 --> 00:17:27,620 I've heard that from a lot of people that I was up in the room in the hospital, looked 275 00:17:27,620 --> 00:17:30,220 down on my body. 276 00:17:30,220 --> 00:17:33,460 And very matter of factly, I think that's fascinating. 277 00:17:33,460 --> 00:17:34,460 That there's no panic. 278 00:17:34,460 --> 00:17:39,300 There's no, oh no, I got to get back in there or, I'm dead, what do I do? 279 00:17:39,300 --> 00:17:43,900 No, it was very, you're like, you're standing there and you're like, okay. 280 00:17:43,900 --> 00:17:44,900 And that was that. 281 00:17:44,900 --> 00:17:47,380 Like, there's my body and it doesn't register. 282 00:17:47,380 --> 00:17:49,540 You're like, well, look at that. 283 00:17:49,540 --> 00:17:52,820 And then you're looking outside, you're looking around, you're kind of seeing what's going 284 00:17:52,820 --> 00:17:54,020 on. 285 00:17:54,020 --> 00:18:00,860 And then you're back into whatever mystery realm you go to. 286 00:18:00,860 --> 00:18:07,780 I also think the fact that all endies are different frankly gives them some credibility. 287 00:18:07,780 --> 00:18:12,700 If you were somebody that was just making this up, you'd probably say, oh, I went through 288 00:18:12,700 --> 00:18:13,700 this tunnel. 289 00:18:13,700 --> 00:18:16,020 I saw this bright light, blah, blah, blah. 290 00:18:16,020 --> 00:18:18,380 But your experience was completely different. 291 00:18:18,380 --> 00:18:22,620 I find that very interesting and credible. 292 00:18:22,620 --> 00:18:27,140 Tell me about the being shown your place in the universe. 293 00:18:27,140 --> 00:18:33,140 Did you have any idea who or what was showing you or did you feel like it was just the universe 294 00:18:33,140 --> 00:18:35,020 unveiling itself? 295 00:18:35,020 --> 00:18:40,860 I think it was the universe just kind of pointing me in the direction that I needed to go. 296 00:18:40,860 --> 00:18:46,980 Over the years, I've had weird experiences and it's like with each new experience, the 297 00:18:46,980 --> 00:18:49,860 universe is like, okay, well, here's a little bit more. 298 00:18:49,860 --> 00:18:50,860 You can handle that. 299 00:18:50,860 --> 00:18:52,100 Here's a little bit more. 300 00:18:52,100 --> 00:18:58,380 And then with the hospital visit, that was it cracking me open completely and saying, 301 00:18:58,380 --> 00:19:00,100 hey, this is what we have to show you. 302 00:19:00,100 --> 00:19:02,300 This is what you need to do. 303 00:19:02,300 --> 00:19:05,740 But that's the strangest thing about it. 304 00:19:05,740 --> 00:19:13,100 It was such a simple image, but there was so much information packed into that simple 305 00:19:13,100 --> 00:19:15,220 image. 306 00:19:15,220 --> 00:19:17,660 I'm still unpacking it. 307 00:19:17,660 --> 00:19:21,100 And there was no verbal exchange. 308 00:19:21,100 --> 00:19:25,140 It was like, you just get all this information out once and there you go. 309 00:19:25,140 --> 00:19:27,300 And then you're just like, okay. 310 00:19:27,300 --> 00:19:33,300 And it's up to me to sort through it and to make sense of it and to find a new purpose 311 00:19:33,300 --> 00:19:34,300 from that. 312 00:19:34,300 --> 00:19:36,620 Yeah, absolutely. 313 00:19:36,620 --> 00:19:42,620 And like you said, there was a message there that you'd need to help other people now. 314 00:19:42,620 --> 00:19:45,140 Get out of your selfishness. 315 00:19:45,140 --> 00:19:51,340 And maybe that's part of your place in the universe to use your words that you were meant 316 00:19:51,340 --> 00:19:52,340 to learn. 317 00:19:52,340 --> 00:19:55,660 David is this guy that helps others. 318 00:19:55,660 --> 00:19:56,660 I like that. 319 00:19:56,660 --> 00:19:58,660 I like that too. 320 00:19:58,660 --> 00:20:04,700 That's kind of the lasting legacy I'd like to leave behind that I've helped as many people 321 00:20:04,700 --> 00:20:09,140 as I could before I actually left this world. 322 00:20:09,140 --> 00:20:11,620 Tell me about the big white room. 323 00:20:11,620 --> 00:20:15,260 Get any more detail you can remember about it. 324 00:20:15,260 --> 00:20:20,660 I've tried to think about more of it, but it was really just a big white room. 325 00:20:20,660 --> 00:20:27,260 It almost looked like a dance floor, like where the floors and the walls, it would start 326 00:20:27,260 --> 00:20:31,180 out really bright in the middle of a wall and it was white, but then it would kind of 327 00:20:31,180 --> 00:20:36,900 fade so you get this glowing effect on the walls and on the floors. 328 00:20:36,900 --> 00:20:42,700 And then every so often a light would just pop out and then pop back in and pop out and 329 00:20:42,700 --> 00:20:44,300 pop back in. 330 00:20:44,300 --> 00:20:49,580 And that was kind of it, but that was very different from everything else too. 331 00:20:49,580 --> 00:20:51,980 And that came in very clear. 332 00:20:51,980 --> 00:20:59,180 And that was one that I needed to pay attention to because I felt the same way where I got 333 00:20:59,180 --> 00:21:06,660 ripped out of the physical realm and not in a coma, but I'm just in this room and I needed 334 00:21:06,660 --> 00:21:07,660 to watch this. 335 00:21:07,660 --> 00:21:10,820 And for what reasons, I'm still very unsure of. 336 00:21:10,820 --> 00:21:13,860 So I wish I could elaborate. 337 00:21:13,860 --> 00:21:19,140 I mean, I have so many questions and I don't know how to get them answered and I don't 338 00:21:19,140 --> 00:21:21,820 think they're meant to be answered on this plane. 339 00:21:21,820 --> 00:21:22,820 Yeah. 340 00:21:22,820 --> 00:21:27,020 So I'm going to probably ask you some of the questions that you already have and that's 341 00:21:27,020 --> 00:21:28,860 okay to tell me. 342 00:21:28,860 --> 00:21:29,860 I don't know. 343 00:21:29,860 --> 00:21:32,340 What do you make of that big white room? 344 00:21:32,340 --> 00:21:34,540 You've had a couple of years or so to think about it. 345 00:21:34,540 --> 00:21:36,140 Do you think it meant something? 346 00:21:36,140 --> 00:21:40,180 Do you think it was representing something? 347 00:21:40,180 --> 00:21:45,700 I think it was representing something, but what I'm not quite sure yet. 348 00:21:45,700 --> 00:21:51,900 I can understand and I can wrap my head around the big DNA looking thing where, you know, 349 00:21:51,900 --> 00:21:58,380 this is you, you kind of get inserted here in your part of this big world and you're 350 00:21:58,380 --> 00:21:59,900 important, you matter. 351 00:21:59,900 --> 00:22:01,500 But so does everybody else. 352 00:22:01,500 --> 00:22:02,740 The room? 353 00:22:02,740 --> 00:22:03,740 Oh. 354 00:22:03,740 --> 00:22:06,140 I don't know. 355 00:22:06,140 --> 00:22:09,740 I kind of wish I knew. 356 00:22:09,740 --> 00:22:16,180 I really do because I mean, it was just seamlessly coming out of a wall and then going back in 357 00:22:16,180 --> 00:22:21,660 and I'm like, okay, but as it was coming out, it would, it would light up in a color. 358 00:22:21,660 --> 00:22:22,660 It would be blue. 359 00:22:22,660 --> 00:22:23,660 I remember blue. 360 00:22:23,660 --> 00:22:28,060 I remember orange and I remember green being very, very bright and I'm like, oh, that's 361 00:22:28,060 --> 00:22:29,060 cool. 362 00:22:29,060 --> 00:22:33,540 And then as it was just a flash and I wish I knew how long it was. 363 00:22:33,540 --> 00:22:35,780 I wish I knew how long I was there. 364 00:22:35,780 --> 00:22:41,580 But then and now it just seems like a flash in your mind and that's, that's about the 365 00:22:41,580 --> 00:22:43,020 only way I can describe it. 366 00:22:43,020 --> 00:22:48,180 It's, I really, I really wish I knew what that meant. 367 00:22:48,180 --> 00:22:50,860 Do you remember how you were feeling at the time? 368 00:22:50,860 --> 00:22:58,620 I was a piece both times and nothing felt, it felt very light. 369 00:22:58,620 --> 00:23:01,940 Something I haven't felt in maybe ever. 370 00:23:01,940 --> 00:23:06,580 It was just a new kind of piece and it was, this is calming and very calming effect on 371 00:23:06,580 --> 00:23:07,580 you. 372 00:23:07,580 --> 00:23:14,260 I just, yeah, I remember being very calm and very, very awake and being like, oh, somebody's 373 00:23:14,260 --> 00:23:15,260 here. 374 00:23:15,260 --> 00:23:16,260 There's somebody else in the room. 375 00:23:16,260 --> 00:23:17,760 It's time for me to listen. 376 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:22,300 Yeah, I was just very peaceful, very almost like you're floating. 377 00:23:22,300 --> 00:23:27,220 I would say, I mean, I've never floated, but if that was floating, I was floating and 378 00:23:27,220 --> 00:23:30,180 that's kind of how that, that felt. 379 00:23:30,180 --> 00:23:32,700 What were you supposed to listen to? 380 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:38,900 The message, the message of the universe saying, hey, we're done with you and your games. 381 00:23:38,900 --> 00:23:41,580 You've got to wake up now. 382 00:23:41,580 --> 00:23:43,620 Time to grow up, David. 383 00:23:43,620 --> 00:23:45,140 That's exactly what it was, man. 384 00:23:45,140 --> 00:23:46,140 It was cool. 385 00:23:46,140 --> 00:23:47,940 You get it right on the head there. 386 00:23:47,940 --> 00:23:50,540 Like it, yeah, it's, you got to get moving with your life. 387 00:23:50,540 --> 00:23:52,540 You can't just keep spinning your wheels here. 388 00:23:52,540 --> 00:23:57,340 You mentioned that this shaped the decisions further down in your life. 389 00:23:57,340 --> 00:23:59,660 Tell me about some of those. 390 00:23:59,660 --> 00:24:02,500 Some of them were difficult decisions. 391 00:24:02,500 --> 00:24:07,060 What they don't tell you when you leave the hospital is people are going to change the 392 00:24:07,060 --> 00:24:12,180 way that number one, you're going to look at the world a whole lot differently than 393 00:24:12,180 --> 00:24:14,940 you ever thought possible. 394 00:24:14,940 --> 00:24:21,620 Your motivations, your priorities are way off of everybody else's now. 395 00:24:21,620 --> 00:24:25,300 It is completely different and that can include your loved ones. 396 00:24:25,300 --> 00:24:32,380 It can include your wife and about a year later after I got out of the hospital, I ended 397 00:24:32,380 --> 00:24:35,060 up getting divorced. 398 00:24:35,060 --> 00:24:38,020 There was a lot going on. 399 00:24:38,020 --> 00:24:41,180 Nobody knew how to handle anything at that point. 400 00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:45,060 In my head, I thought something like this would bring you closer to, you know, your 401 00:24:45,060 --> 00:24:48,300 partner, but that's not how that works. 402 00:24:48,300 --> 00:24:50,220 And there's statistics that back that up apparently. 403 00:24:50,220 --> 00:24:57,500 And I was like, that hurts, but what's important to her and what was important to me were completely 404 00:24:57,500 --> 00:24:58,500 different. 405 00:24:58,500 --> 00:25:00,580 I was happy to be alive. 406 00:25:00,580 --> 00:25:01,780 I was happy to be with her. 407 00:25:01,780 --> 00:25:03,500 I was happy to be with the kids. 408 00:25:03,500 --> 00:25:09,740 I was happy to be alive, which, but that was a whole new experience for me. 409 00:25:09,740 --> 00:25:17,580 Being grateful to be alive and to have a second chance was, it wasn't as amazing. 410 00:25:17,580 --> 00:25:22,260 Over time, you kind of lose that a little bit, but when I think about it, I'm so lucky 411 00:25:22,260 --> 00:25:25,460 to be here, but priorities changed, things changed. 412 00:25:25,460 --> 00:25:26,980 My mentality changed. 413 00:25:26,980 --> 00:25:32,700 I wasn't so caught up in what I drove over how much money I made or the things that I 414 00:25:32,700 --> 00:25:33,820 wanted to buy. 415 00:25:33,820 --> 00:25:37,500 It was like, hey, you know, I got to spend more time with the kids. 416 00:25:37,500 --> 00:25:43,220 I got to do more things around the house and be productive again. 417 00:25:43,220 --> 00:25:46,140 And you know, how am I helping the next person? 418 00:25:46,140 --> 00:25:49,260 You know, how can I make this system a little bit better for everybody else? 419 00:25:49,260 --> 00:25:53,100 Because when you leave the hospital, they didn't give me a book. 420 00:25:53,100 --> 00:25:56,300 They didn't give me a, your life has drastically changed. 421 00:25:56,300 --> 00:25:57,300 Here's a pamphlet. 422 00:25:57,300 --> 00:25:58,940 I didn't get any of that. 423 00:25:58,940 --> 00:26:03,620 That was what inspired me to become a social worker because I had, I hadn't, there was 424 00:26:03,620 --> 00:26:07,060 nothing there for people when you leave the hospital. 425 00:26:07,060 --> 00:26:11,420 It's like, here's some, they didn't suggest get therapy, which I had to go seek on my 426 00:26:11,420 --> 00:26:16,940 own for like the medical trauma or, you know, here's what you do to restart your life and 427 00:26:16,940 --> 00:26:17,940 get a career. 428 00:26:17,940 --> 00:26:18,940 There was none of that. 429 00:26:18,940 --> 00:26:22,980 And so that inspired me to do, to go back to school. 430 00:26:22,980 --> 00:26:28,140 But yeah, like how things panned out was not how I expected them to bow. 431 00:26:28,140 --> 00:26:31,860 That's okay because I really feel like I'm on the right path now. 432 00:26:31,860 --> 00:26:36,140 I'm dedicated and focused on school and my daughter. 433 00:26:36,140 --> 00:26:40,780 And again, those are probably the things I should be focused on. 434 00:26:40,780 --> 00:26:44,260 It flipped my life inside out. 435 00:26:44,260 --> 00:26:51,020 I mean, I lost some people along the way, friends that weren't quite friends. 436 00:26:51,020 --> 00:26:53,140 They just looked at me differently because I was different. 437 00:26:53,140 --> 00:26:54,140 You don't come back. 438 00:26:54,140 --> 00:26:57,100 You don't go to the edge and come back and you can't stay the same. 439 00:26:57,100 --> 00:26:58,220 That's not the point of these. 440 00:26:58,220 --> 00:27:04,660 I don't think the point of these are, is you get pushed to the edge and you come back to 441 00:27:04,660 --> 00:27:12,820 tell the others what it was like, what's important, what you should probably be focusing on. 442 00:27:12,820 --> 00:27:15,260 We're just unexpected messengers. 443 00:27:15,260 --> 00:27:20,500 Like you get picked out of the lottery, you go to the edge and you come back and you report 444 00:27:20,500 --> 00:27:21,500 the findings. 445 00:27:21,500 --> 00:27:26,220 You're just like a astronaut that doesn't get to go too far, but you go really far. 446 00:27:26,220 --> 00:27:27,220 Yeah. 447 00:27:27,220 --> 00:27:28,220 Congratulations. 448 00:27:28,220 --> 00:27:34,540 I know this is your first time talking about this in a big setting like this. 449 00:27:34,540 --> 00:27:37,580 You have talked to a few friends about it. 450 00:27:37,580 --> 00:27:39,540 How did they react? 451 00:27:39,540 --> 00:27:44,620 So my friends, they're a very small group of people and they're weird like me. 452 00:27:44,620 --> 00:27:46,980 We discuss these things like near-death experiences. 453 00:27:46,980 --> 00:27:49,340 We discuss UFOs and ghosts. 454 00:27:49,340 --> 00:27:53,100 So they were surprised. 455 00:27:53,100 --> 00:27:56,900 My close knit friends were not surprised. 456 00:27:56,900 --> 00:28:00,360 Some other people have reacted differently. 457 00:28:00,360 --> 00:28:02,580 Some people don't want to hear it. 458 00:28:02,580 --> 00:28:05,980 It affects them so deeply that they just blog it out. 459 00:28:05,980 --> 00:28:06,980 They don't want to talk about it. 460 00:28:06,980 --> 00:28:12,100 They don't want to see it because it affects, we're asking bigger questions now. 461 00:28:12,100 --> 00:28:14,700 What happens after we die? 462 00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:19,060 It asks the questions that a lot of people, I think, may not be open to. 463 00:28:19,060 --> 00:28:23,140 So some friends just kind of withered away. 464 00:28:23,140 --> 00:28:26,100 I think that's okay too. 465 00:28:26,100 --> 00:28:28,340 Everything changes. 466 00:28:28,340 --> 00:28:32,740 Some people aren't going to view things the same way that I do, but it's also difficult 467 00:28:32,740 --> 00:28:37,940 to relate to a lot of people because you've been through this experience. 468 00:28:37,940 --> 00:28:46,740 That's been a very difficult thing to try to work through and deal with is how far off 469 00:28:46,740 --> 00:28:49,660 until left field you really are now. 470 00:28:49,660 --> 00:28:51,780 People look at you crazy when you ask them certain things. 471 00:28:51,780 --> 00:28:57,380 I mean, I'm in college with all these kids and I ask what seems to be crazy questions, 472 00:28:57,380 --> 00:28:58,980 but to me it's normal. 473 00:28:58,980 --> 00:29:06,940 Why would you focus your energy on material things and why would you need the newest phone, 474 00:29:06,940 --> 00:29:09,260 why would you need the newest car? 475 00:29:09,260 --> 00:29:12,100 And I'm looked at like I'm crazy. 476 00:29:12,100 --> 00:29:15,820 And it's like maybe you should consider that there's other things in life that we should 477 00:29:15,820 --> 00:29:23,860 be worried about and that our relationships with the people that are around us are really 478 00:29:23,860 --> 00:29:30,100 what's important is how we're treating each other, how we're spending time with each other. 479 00:29:30,100 --> 00:29:32,620 Is it healthy? 480 00:29:32,620 --> 00:29:34,100 Is it productive? 481 00:29:34,100 --> 00:29:37,700 Are we working to make the world a better place or are we just kind of living and buying 482 00:29:37,700 --> 00:29:40,220 things and that's kind of how it goes. 483 00:29:40,220 --> 00:29:42,340 Yeah, you are crazy. 484 00:29:42,340 --> 00:29:44,700 Yeah, I do. 485 00:29:44,700 --> 00:29:50,500 No, you're unusual and a nice breath of fresh air in this world. 486 00:29:50,500 --> 00:29:53,140 Getting back to the friends for just a second though. 487 00:29:53,140 --> 00:29:54,140 Yeah. 488 00:29:54,140 --> 00:29:58,980 It's unfortunate that these things happen because there are some people that are going 489 00:29:58,980 --> 00:30:03,420 to like you mentioned that believe you and want to talk about it. 490 00:30:03,420 --> 00:30:09,300 There are others that may believe you but still do not want to talk about it. 491 00:30:09,300 --> 00:30:15,660 These kinds of realities are uncomfortable and just the topic of death in general or 492 00:30:15,660 --> 00:30:18,020 in afterlife. 493 00:30:18,020 --> 00:30:21,740 Some people are comfortable talking about it, some are not. 494 00:30:21,740 --> 00:30:23,020 That's okay. 495 00:30:23,020 --> 00:30:27,460 And then there are also people that just don't believe it and they may have been too nice 496 00:30:27,460 --> 00:30:33,620 to tell you but there may have been some that just are like, yeah, I don't believe that 497 00:30:33,620 --> 00:30:35,620 kind of crap. 498 00:30:35,620 --> 00:30:37,020 I've had those responses. 499 00:30:37,020 --> 00:30:39,940 I've had that's interesting. 500 00:30:39,940 --> 00:30:44,460 I've had the rainbow of responses. 501 00:30:44,460 --> 00:30:49,140 And like I tell people, I didn't sign up for this. 502 00:30:49,140 --> 00:30:50,980 I did not sign up for this. 503 00:30:50,980 --> 00:30:56,180 I'm just telling you what was told to me and whether you believe it or not is up to you. 504 00:30:56,180 --> 00:31:02,140 I'm just relaying the message and what you get from it or what you choose to listen to, 505 00:31:02,140 --> 00:31:03,940 that's up to you. 506 00:31:03,940 --> 00:31:08,660 But this is what happened to me and that's all I can really do. 507 00:31:08,660 --> 00:31:10,580 I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything. 508 00:31:10,580 --> 00:31:12,980 I'm not trying to change the world. 509 00:31:12,980 --> 00:31:17,620 I'm just relaying a message that was delivered to me. 510 00:31:17,620 --> 00:31:19,420 That's a perfect way to put it. 511 00:31:19,420 --> 00:31:22,860 I'm sorry to hear about your marriage. 512 00:31:22,860 --> 00:31:26,620 I don't know if it's comforting or not to know that. 513 00:31:26,620 --> 00:31:34,660 That's a fairly common thing with experiencers because you're different and your priorities 514 00:31:34,660 --> 00:31:41,740 are different and the person that she married is now a different person. 515 00:31:41,740 --> 00:31:43,460 Sometimes that makes for a better marriage. 516 00:31:43,460 --> 00:31:49,620 Well, often it just doesn't because that person's gone. 517 00:31:49,620 --> 00:31:55,700 There's a two point, a David 2.0 and while you and I think that's a better person, well, 518 00:31:55,700 --> 00:31:57,380 doesn't always work out. 519 00:31:57,380 --> 00:31:59,300 And I'm sorry to hear about that. 520 00:31:59,300 --> 00:32:04,780 I've had a lot of time to step back and really evaluate what she might have been going through 521 00:32:04,780 --> 00:32:05,820 during that period. 522 00:32:05,820 --> 00:32:11,580 And there was two times where they had told her that his organs are failing and he's not 523 00:32:11,580 --> 00:32:14,260 going to make it through the night. 524 00:32:14,260 --> 00:32:20,620 And I think that's when the two experiences might have happened is when I was right to 525 00:32:20,620 --> 00:32:22,100 the edge. 526 00:32:22,100 --> 00:32:23,100 I don't know. 527 00:32:23,100 --> 00:32:26,700 I can't imagine what that would be like. 528 00:32:26,700 --> 00:32:28,460 I was taking a nap. 529 00:32:28,460 --> 00:32:29,460 I was out. 530 00:32:29,460 --> 00:32:30,700 I was not present. 531 00:32:30,700 --> 00:32:38,220 So I don't know what it would have been like to view my loved one hooked up to six hoses 532 00:32:38,220 --> 00:32:43,180 that were in me plus whatever else they were hooked me up to. 533 00:32:43,180 --> 00:32:49,020 I don't know how that looks and I don't know how traumatic that would be on someone. 534 00:32:49,020 --> 00:32:51,500 So I tried to step back. 535 00:32:51,500 --> 00:32:52,940 Very traumatic. 536 00:32:52,940 --> 00:32:59,180 The family, the loved ones, they have a type of PTSD from this stuff. 537 00:32:59,180 --> 00:33:05,380 I've talked with some people that have said, my spouse does not even want to talk about 538 00:33:05,380 --> 00:33:06,820 it at all. 539 00:33:06,820 --> 00:33:08,940 We're not even talking about the NDE. 540 00:33:08,940 --> 00:33:13,780 We're talking about the accident or the hospitalization or whatever led up to it. 541 00:33:13,780 --> 00:33:19,540 And because it was so traumatic, they just don't want to go there again. 542 00:33:19,540 --> 00:33:26,260 But you may need to talk about it to process it and to deal with it on your end. 543 00:33:26,260 --> 00:33:28,580 Everybody's different. 544 00:33:28,580 --> 00:33:32,700 And some other people whose loved one went through it, yeah, they do need to talk about 545 00:33:32,700 --> 00:33:35,420 it as well to process it. 546 00:33:35,420 --> 00:33:39,580 So yeah, we're all different on this kind of stuff. 547 00:33:39,580 --> 00:33:43,940 And sometimes that lines up, sometimes it doesn't. 548 00:33:43,940 --> 00:33:47,180 But I'm glad you have a great relationship with your kids. 549 00:33:47,180 --> 00:33:51,220 Yeah, I really do. 550 00:33:51,220 --> 00:33:57,420 She is my reason for a lot of things these days. 551 00:33:57,420 --> 00:34:00,860 And whenever I feel low, I feel like I can't keep going. 552 00:34:00,860 --> 00:34:07,660 And I remember that I have her and then I do have a second chance and that I have a lot 553 00:34:07,660 --> 00:34:09,620 to offer the world. 554 00:34:09,620 --> 00:34:13,060 My social work professor, she was really excited. 555 00:34:13,060 --> 00:34:16,420 This is the first semester that I'm in class, in person class. 556 00:34:16,420 --> 00:34:18,540 And she's like, you're going to bring so much to the table. 557 00:34:18,540 --> 00:34:23,900 And I'm like, OK, I just have a different perspective on a lot of things now. 558 00:34:23,900 --> 00:34:26,140 And there is very excited to have me. 559 00:34:26,140 --> 00:34:28,140 And I'm excited to be there. 560 00:34:28,140 --> 00:34:33,420 So I recently watched a show on Amazon and there was a line that caught my attention 561 00:34:33,420 --> 00:34:39,940 and it has not left my mind since the character had said, if you climb high enough, even a 562 00:34:39,940 --> 00:34:42,380 nightmare can seem like a dream. 563 00:34:42,380 --> 00:34:49,740 And so there was times where I was in self-loathing, why me, you know, why this, why that. 564 00:34:49,740 --> 00:34:55,340 I step back now and I look at the good things that I have. 565 00:34:55,340 --> 00:34:58,860 I'm on a disability. 566 00:34:58,860 --> 00:35:04,620 So I'm taking care of, I don't have to worry where my rent's coming from. 567 00:35:04,620 --> 00:35:11,380 I have extra time, more than the average person, to go to school, to hang out with my kids, 568 00:35:11,380 --> 00:35:16,260 to participate in different events around the campus and volunteer and help other people. 569 00:35:16,260 --> 00:35:21,220 So what looked like a curse at the beginning now looks like a blessing. 570 00:35:21,220 --> 00:35:28,740 And that's been like a woe, woe kind of moment for me is that instead of looking at it as 571 00:35:28,740 --> 00:35:33,060 the cups have, have empty, that cups pretty full. 572 00:35:33,060 --> 00:35:36,140 And I'm pretty fortunate to be on this side of it. 573 00:35:36,140 --> 00:35:39,580 I mean, I look at the kids around me in school, they're working a job going to school full 574 00:35:39,580 --> 00:35:40,580 time. 575 00:35:40,580 --> 00:35:42,380 I don't know how they do that. 576 00:35:42,380 --> 00:35:44,620 Like this is a lot of work and I don't even have a job. 577 00:35:44,620 --> 00:35:52,980 So, and I'm like, oh, I feel gratitude about that, that things worked out the way they 578 00:35:52,980 --> 00:35:57,260 did and that I'm in the position that I'm in now. 579 00:35:57,260 --> 00:35:59,180 It hasn't been easy. 580 00:35:59,180 --> 00:36:02,860 Do I wish things were somewhat different? 581 00:36:02,860 --> 00:36:08,420 Some things, but I will always tell people that I will never regret going into the hospital. 582 00:36:08,420 --> 00:36:15,140 If I hadn't do that all over again, I would because of the person that I am today. 583 00:36:15,140 --> 00:36:22,020 And that's made it all worth it to be open to so many different things, willing to talk 584 00:36:22,020 --> 00:36:23,700 to anybody about anything. 585 00:36:23,700 --> 00:36:26,820 And I think that scares a lot of people, but I'm good with it. 586 00:36:26,820 --> 00:36:32,820 And to be friendly and genuine in a world that is often probably not that genuine. 587 00:36:32,820 --> 00:36:39,620 I think we lack that as a society and as a world is that a realness. 588 00:36:39,620 --> 00:36:42,780 And I was given all of that. 589 00:36:42,780 --> 00:36:44,660 And it's all thanks to COVID. 590 00:36:44,660 --> 00:36:48,300 So David, that's a beautiful way to wrap up. 591 00:36:48,300 --> 00:36:54,820 But before I cut you loose on a scale of one to 10, how much fear of death do you have? 592 00:36:54,820 --> 00:36:55,820 Zero. 593 00:36:55,820 --> 00:36:56,820 Not my have any. 594 00:36:56,820 --> 00:36:58,580 Isn't that amazing? 595 00:36:58,580 --> 00:36:59,580 No. 596 00:36:59,580 --> 00:37:03,020 Once you've done it and realize it's not that bad. 597 00:37:03,020 --> 00:37:04,020 That is a weird way to put it. 598 00:37:04,020 --> 00:37:05,180 And I never thought of it that way. 599 00:37:05,180 --> 00:37:06,380 And I love that. 600 00:37:06,380 --> 00:37:08,900 You know, I already did that. 601 00:37:08,900 --> 00:37:10,060 It's cool. 602 00:37:10,060 --> 00:37:11,540 People are people. 603 00:37:11,540 --> 00:37:13,860 And that's it's a whole other conversation there. 604 00:37:13,860 --> 00:37:19,340 So well, you are going to make a great social worker, someone that has really internalized 605 00:37:19,340 --> 00:37:23,180 the message of I want to help others. 606 00:37:23,180 --> 00:37:24,980 You're going to be able to do that. 607 00:37:24,980 --> 00:37:26,940 I'm really happy for you. 608 00:37:26,940 --> 00:37:27,940 Thank you. 609 00:37:27,940 --> 00:37:30,460 All right, David, I'll let you go. 610 00:37:30,460 --> 00:37:32,420 Thanks a ton for being with me today. 611 00:37:32,420 --> 00:37:34,780 Thank you for having me. 612 00:37:34,780 --> 00:37:37,540 Thanks again for listening and sharing this podcast. 613 00:37:37,540 --> 00:37:43,620 Don't forget to hit the follow or subscribe button and sign up for our newsletter at roundtriptest.com. 614 00:37:43,620 --> 00:37:47,900 If you want to share your near death experience, or if you have questions or comments about 615 00:37:47,900 --> 00:37:52,260 the show, send an email to Eric at roundtriptest.com. 616 00:37:52,260 --> 00:37:59,260 Until then, I wish you everything good that you're looking for in this life and the next.