One of life's greatest questions is what happens to us after we die?
Is death the end or a new beginning?
Welcome to the Round Trip Death Podcast.
In this show, we listen to firsthand accounts of people who have gone beyond the veil and
return to talk about it.
Anyway, we are so happy to have with us today, Crystal Merzlach.
I hope I pronounced that properly, Crystal.
Yes, you did.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing good.
Thank you.
And you live in one of the most beautiful places in the continental U.S.
Do you want to tell us where that is?
So I live in Star Valley, Wyoming, and it is pretty close to the Idaho border on the
west side of the state.
And when I go to Jackson Hall, you're right on the way.
Yes.
Okay.
Tell us a little bit about you.
So I am a clinical director of a mental health agency here.
I've been working, living and working here for eight years, eight and a half years.
Just living my life as a mom and I don't know, a friend, probably just, I don't know, I try
to go see my family.
I'm a big family person, so I have to always go do that.
They're in Idaho and Pocatello.
So a couple hours away, roughly, right?
Yeah.
Well, I heard your story first at the IANS conference in Salt Lake City, and you were
famous when you were younger.
I'm not saying you're not anymore.
No, no, no, that's okay.
That's okay.
You were very famous back then.
And why don't you tell us a little bit about your story leading up to your NDE?
What happened?
What were you doing that particular day?
So I went to a swimming or sorry, a birthday party that day.
And all of this is are things that are told to me because I don't remember any part of
this, but I went to a birthday party.
My parents dropped me off.
We didn't know that I was going swimming.
And so borrowed a swimsuit and all that.
And off we went to the local swimming pool.
And were you a good swimmer?
I know.
I had just learned how to swim.
So in my elementary school, they took us as a class to get swimming lessons.
And I just learned.
How old did you say you were again?
Seven.
Okay.
So I'm going to jump ahead.
We've teased that a little bit.
Let's jump ahead to the famous part.
How did you become famous after this happened?
How did I become?
I never thought I was famous.
So and but then again, I was so young.
I don't know what was happening.
My parents kind of took over.
But the famous part, what do you mean the famous part?
Well, I believe you were on TV and some things like that.
There was quite a bit of news around what happened with your situation.
There was.
So locally, I kind of did some meetings and I was honored by the Lions Club when I was
probably eight or nine.
But then after that, when I was a teenager, I went on to the Phil Donahue show.
And then I think near death experiences were just starting really to kind of take off in
popularity.
People wondering what they were.
So then I was on Sally, Jesse, Raphael and Oprah and Unsolved Mysteries.
It doesn't get any bigger than Oprah.
You might as well stop there.
I was on 60 Minutes Australia.
So you were not just huge here.
You were famous in Australia, too.
Okay.
And I didn't ever understand why I actually had to ask someone.
And I said, why are you so interested in my story?
Why is everyone interested?
And I didn't know that I was the youngest near death experience and the most I don't
know, thorough is the word near death experience that was out there or that that people knew
of.
How did it get out there?
Dr. Morris that kind of put it out there?
Yeah.
So I think it all came out with Raymond Moody's first book.
I think it was Life After Life, something like that.
And he's of course, very, very close to Dr. Morris.
And Dr. Morris kind of led me into that.
And actually, Raymond, I was in Raymond Moody's book.
I didn't know, but my name is Katie in that book to protect my innocence, I guess, protect
me from publicity or whatever.
That's nice of them to leave it up to you to eventually want to use your real name or
not.
Yes.
So.
Okay.
Well, and Dr. Morris, I've talked to him.
We're going to have him on this show here in a couple of weeks also.
And I think people will find him very interesting because he's a medical professional who has
studied this topic.
And I'll save the rest of that for later.
All right.
Go back to when you were seven years old.
You're at the birthday party.
You head to the pool.
What happened?
Okay.
So I was waiting down the side of the pool, you know, just, you know, moving with my hands.
And I wanted to get out.
And I got out, was walking down to the deep end.
As I got down to the deep end, I was pushed in.
I think there was a group of boys.
They were just playing, pushing each other.
I don't think anybody just spitefully pushed me in, but I got pushed into the pool.
The other interesting fact is the pool was overpopulated, overrun.
There were too many people than what the fire code would allow, I guess, would call it now.
That makes it more difficult too for a lifeguard.
Was there a lifeguard there?
There were two lifeguards.
Okay.
But it makes it more difficult to keep track of everybody, I would think.
Yeah.
So as soon as I was pushed in, I was scared.
I lost all thought of even trying to swim, except to try to get up into the water and
breathe.
And all of a sudden I was in a state of blackness and I heard seven sounds that scared me.
And still to this day, I don't remember exactly what those are or compare them to something
else.
And then I found myself sitting in a tunnel.
And this tunnel was very bright.
It was a colorful tunnel, meaning there were some large bricks on the wall and it's like
they were shining light through the back of the bricks with fluorescent colors coming
through.
It's very vibrant, very bright.
And at the end, I saw the light and I thought, I don't know what that is.
I need to get to this light.
And so I tried to get up on my feet and start walking.
And the ground was very unstable to me.
So I got down on my hands and my knees and I started crawling toward the light.
I could feel so much love radiating from this light that there was no other.
It was drawing me to it is kind of what I felt.
As I crawled a little way, I saw the figure of a woman coming from the light and coming
to me.
And I saw that she was a woman, dark brown hair and wearing all white.
And when she got to me, she said, Crystal, my name is Elizabeth.
I am your guardian angel and I'm here to help you.
And from that point, she took my hand and I stood up and we walked to the light together.
After that point, the ground was stable.
You know, I wasn't afraid to fall any longer.
And we walked in through the light into what I believe is heaven.
Okay.
And take your time.
We want lots of detail.
You want lots of detail.
So from that point, I just kind of looked around.
Well, I did.
I looked around and could not in one point, I could not believe what I was seeing.
The other point, I felt totally at home with where I was and knew where I was and what
I was doing.
And what I saw was beautiful green, like a beautiful green meadow.
Or more of now, that's how I described it when I was seven.
But I would more describe it as more of a rainforest type of place with these green,
big, luscious plants that were over, you know, they could be overflowing.
There was a waterfall.
As I turned left and I always, always see that when I describe it, but I turned left
and there was a some water running through like a small river.
And there was a bridge that went across that.
And on the other side, there was a tree.
And what was interesting about this tree to me is it had white fruit that came from it.
And it was just very beautiful, very big, very vibrant as well.
I've never heard of a tree with white fruit.
Yeah, that's fascinating.
Okay.
What else did you see?
What else did I see?
I saw I was greeted by people I'd known in the past.
Relatives, my grandpa was there, an aunt that had died just previous to this.
Some other relatives that I'd never met before, like my great grandma, Dora.
And my grandpa had a friend with him.
He said that his name was George.
I have no idea who he was, but he was very nice.
And they just welcomed me and said they were so glad that I was there.
I can't remember everything or the content of what we said, but it seemed to be that
we were talking for a few minutes.
And I don't remember the sequence of events necessarily, but I do remember I had a chance
to look down on my body.
And when I say look, I just kind of turned my head and seemed like I could see myself,
my physical form that is.
And I was lying on an operating table.
There were a lot of doctors that were around me at that time wearing white coats.
It was like I was looking down from them, but I was in heaven looking at them, not like
hovering above, anything like that.
And they were putting something up my nose and trying to put different things in my wrist
to help with whatever.
And I didn't like it, so I looked away.
And when I looked away outside the operating room, that is, I saw my parents.
And they were so worried about me.
I didn't spend a lot of time really looking at them, but I just remember thinking, don't
worry about me.
I'm in a good place.
I'm safe.
There's no reason for you to worry.
Do you know, while you're thinking about that, did you find out was Elizabeth a relative?
I never did find out who Elizabeth was.
There are some Elisabeths that are in my genealogy.
But she also said that she, and I don't think it's one of them, because she also told me
that she was going to be born, that she had not been born yet.
So she wouldn't really be in your genealogy at this point.
No, no, but it's always fun to come back and look and see what Elisabeths were there.
But no, there wasn't.
And I don't really think I don't know if I've met her on this earth or not.
That's interesting.
And I think there is something to learn from that about about the fact that people pre-birth
and people post-death may be in the same place.
True.
At least your experience was.
In my experience, it was.
Yeah.
And Elizabeth was with me through this whole time.
So she didn't just appear and disappear or that kind of thing.
She was with me.
So yeah, definitely.
And I love to hear your feedback and your thoughts about all of this, too.
It just helps me further process.
Yeah.
Well, I don't want to try to interpret it until we well, I really don't want to try
to interpret it, but I do want to hear.
But I do want to hear what else happened.
What can you remember what happened next?
Yes.
So after I saw my parents.
I remember looking a different way.
And I could see like my baby sister and she was just playing with some toys at home.
About then she would have probably been six, seven months old, just remembering how much
I loved her.
And I think that's about all I really saw when I looked down on Earth is just my body,
my parents and my sister, which was interesting because they're all very different locations.
You know, sure.
And that's OK.
Anything else that you saw there in that heavenly place where you were?
I yes.
So I had I had the chance to meet two girls and I saw them as my playmates in heaven.
Their names were Heather and Melissa.
And what was interesting about them is they also said that they were going to be born
soon.
I don't remember.
I didn't think anything about it.
It was just something that was normal.
And I don't remember talking about too much, just playing.
What was interesting about that is.
I saw myself and them as as girls about my age, you know, seven, eight years old, same
height.
But the rest of the time when I was there, I could see eye to eye with everybody that
was there, which was a big deal to me when I was seven, because I wanted to be grown
up.
I wanted to be as big as everyone else.
And I was as big as everyone else.
And even the kids that I was playing with.
So just interesting to me.
I felt like I was a child when I was playing with them from there.
I I had a chance to go and I met Christ.
And he asked me whether I wanted to stay in heaven or whether I wanted to go back and
live on earth.
And I met Heavenly Father who was with him.
But he wasn't there the whole time he was.
The Heavenly Father was there when when they first came to.
I see it as them coming to get me.
And they kind of took me to another side of the same area that we were when and we in
my mind, we sat on a rock in this meadow and we're talking.
And at first, after they asked me if I wanted to stay or go, I thought, no, I want to stay.
The one thing I haven't talked about that you hear a lot is just this immense love that
you feel when from the light that I saw at first and everything that's in heaven, it
is feels like the perfect space.
I thought I want to stay here.
Why would I want to leave?
And then I thought about my mom.
I thought about how much I miss her.
And I said, no, I want to go home.
And Jesus said to me, OK, OK, remember, you you will have to live, righteously obey rules,
something like that in order to make it back here.
Basically live a good life.
And I answered as if I knew what he was saying and said, yes, yes, of course.
And then he told me, I remember a few things.
He told me to obey my parents, that they were good parents, to live.
I guess my religion, my spirituality follow the examples that are given to me.
And don't forget him.
Don't forget his sacrifice.
I have some questions if you don't mind.
No, go ahead.
That's really, really an amazing experience.
Just amazing.
How did you know who they were?
Speaking of Christ and Heavenly Father, did they introduce themselves or did you just
know?
No, I just knew.
So they were.
Everybody in heaven wears white.
They were brighter than everybody else.
So and their presence was unmistakable.
And I just knew who they were.
And they communicated with you one on one?
Yes.
As if you were the only person there that mattered right then.
Yes.
Do you remember anything else about them?
I remember their appearance.
And what was that like?
So they were both wearing white, just like everyone else.
Jesus had brown hair, no facial hair.
It was shorter than is usually displayed in pictures.
Very kind eyes.
Just very kind, peaceful eyes.
I remember that.
Very soft touch.
Heavenly Father had white hair and a white beard.
And I don't know how else to explain him.
You don't happen to remember eye color, do you?
That you saw in them?
If I told you, it would just be my best guess.
And I don't.
Yeah.
So no.
Wow.
This is amazing.
Keep going.
OK.
After I was asked and decided that I wanted to go back, I don't really remember saying
goodbye to them necessarily.
The next thing I remember is being back with my family, the same individuals who welcomed
me into heaven.
And Elizabeth tapped me on the shoulder and said, Crystal, it's time to go.
So I said, OK.
And I started to walk away.
And then I got confused and looked back and said, I don't know how to go.
And that's the last I remember.
Before I ended up, well, I was back in my body and trying to feed.
I don't know if it was feed myself or remember something.
And I was doing it all wrong in the hospital.
I need to learn some of that over again, I imagine.
Yeah.
OK.
Let's get back to the physical part of what happened here.
How were you rescued and how long were you in the hospital?
So when I was when I fell into the pool, because the pool was overcrowded that day, I was floating
on top of the water.
And two scouts are what we we know as scouts that was determined later, who were racing
across the pool, bumped into my body floating on the water.
And they were the ones who them and one other woman grabbed me out of the pool and started
to resuscitate me.
There was also a doctor who was in the dressing room who was dressing and getting ready to
go swimming.
And his name is Dr. Bo.
And when he came out, he started working on me and working to resuscitate me.
It was him who who really did a lot of the work.
It was also him who they said, oh, no, we're not going to come get this girl.
We're not going to rescue her.
She's she's dead.
And he said, no, we're going to rescue her.
And he continued to work on me.
The other thing is, when the ambulance got there, the swimming pool, which was inside
of a building, had panicked and they had locked all the doors so the paramedics couldn't even
get in when they arrived.
Whoops.
Yeah.
So eventually that happened.
They took me to the hospital.
But all in all, they I don't know, it's determined or the average that I was not breathing for
20 minutes.
That's a long time.
That is a long time.
Have you had any long term effects from that?
I think I have I think that's where a little bit of my shortness of breath comes from.
Because there's not really asthma or things that run in my family.
And it's gotten better, a little better with age, although I do still have some asthma
at times.
But no brain damage or anything like that?
No, no.
That's so interesting.
And then how long were you in the hospital?
So I was in the hospital in Pocatello for I don't know how long I was there to tell
you the truth.
I know that I was in the hospital for three to four days before I woke up.
So when I was when they took me to the hospital, I was 96 97% apparatus and only functioning
three to 4% on my own.
And when they called primary children's, which is where they transferred me to, they asked
the doctors, why are they transferring a dead girl to them?
Why are you giving us a dead girl?
And I don't know what happened, but the transfer was made.
And I was moved to primary children's.
I was life blinded over there.
And I don't know.
I don't know what what happened here.
But at one point, my dad said he was looking through the glass watching the doctors working
on me.
And he saw my toe wiggle.
And he burst through the door.
And I lifted my arms up to him and said, Dad, wow.
So and then he said, the doctors just cheered.
So the doctors cheered.
So and then from there,
as a dad of daughters, I can say that brings a little tear to my eye just thinking about
that picturing that scene.
Wow.
Yeah.
You know, and it still gets me especially now that I'm a parent, too, I can I can feel
that I would probably do the same thing if I saw my child be terrible.
So I they told my parents that I would pretty much be a vegetable because I had had almost
no brain activity for for a few days.
And I was everything was miraculous from that point.
So the first day, I really wasn't able to do anything very much.
They were still feeding me through a tube.
And the next day, I was trying to feed myself and not being able to find my mouth, that
kind of thing.
And then I was eating on my own just fine.
They I couldn't walk, you know, one day and the next day I or two, I would be running
down the hall.
So they called in probably 14 to 15 specialists to come and see me and only one to two actually
came.
Why do you why is that?
They just didn't believe it.
No, I didn't need it.
Oh, I didn't need it.
I recovered really fast from from the injuries.
OK, I got it.
I thought you meant specialists to come and sort of witness this miraculous recovery that
you had made.
But no, I didn't need the special help at all.
No, no, I didn't.
And within a week, I was back.
As you probably heard Dr. Morse say within a week, I was back to back home and in front
of him saying, you know, you don't remember me, Crystal.
I remember you.
And I told my mom, he's like, I said, no, I remember him.
And I scowled at him because he was one of the doctors that was putting things at my
nose and trying to work on me.
And and that kind of thing.
I told him things I can't remember now.
He probably remembers and has documented more things that I told him.
But yeah.
So you told him things that you should not have known and kind of blew his mind.
Correct.
Well, that's fun.
That'll be fun to talk to him.
I want to sort of compare your experience to some others.
I try not to do this, but yours is a very special experience.
It has become sort of commonplace or cliche for people to think of a near death experience
as going through a tunnel to the light, being greeted by relatives.
And with the many, many people that I've interviewed on this show, that's actually not very typical.
Oh, OK.
No, it's it's not.
Everything is different.
There are tunnels, some have lights, some don't.
Some have colors.
Some don't.
I've heard any described like glowing bricks as sort of how you did.
But no, your experience is really I hate to use the cliche word special, but it's a really
fascinating experience.
And I also hate to say better than some people have, but it's an amazing experience.
And and that's really cool that you have that.
How do you think that has made your life different all these years compared to people that haven't
had that sort of experience?
I have always I've never doubted that there was a God.
I've never doubted that there was heaven.
I never doubted that there was Christ and that he died for me.
I was able he showed me the prints in his hands.
I just I haven't I have never doubted that.
I look at my kids and say, OK, well, this they need.
I think that they're just going to know everything that I know.
And have and have felt that I've always known, but that's not true.
I need to do things a lot differently than I did when I was growing up.
I think I've I've always been led by what felt right to me.
And I've felt that that's just tuning into that that love that I felt and just that peace.
And if something has given me peace or leads me in one direction versus another, I have
tended to to go with that.
And it hasn't been wrong.
This is one way or the other.
Tell us what you do for a living now and if this has affected that at all.
So I am a mental health clinician and a substance abuse counselor.
And I think it does.
I think it does.
When I first went into college, I didn't really have any desire to get a degree.
I just was going there because that was the next step.
My friends were going to college.
I was still young, didn't know really what I wanted.
And after a semester or two, I fell into social work and just absolutely connected with the
classes, connected with everything that was in there, ways to help families, ways to help
groups of people.
I through this, I never in my life thought I would be led to be an addiction specialist
and work with trauma.
And those are those are my specialties now.
So and I really think that it has led me to to do some of that.
That is what I feel.
It's hard to say because other people have that same mission, that kind of thing.
And it has always been the right thing for me.
So what else did you learn from this whole experience that you want to share with other
people?
That's a good question.
This experience, when I first started telling it and that kind of thing, I didn't know.
I have always just told it just because not necessarily that I was supposed to.
You know, when you're 10 and 11, you just kind of are you OK with telling your experience?
Do you want to?
You've done this fireside.
Do you want to do?
And I've always said, yes.
So I've always been drawn to this.
I want people to understand and to know that that there is life after death, that there
is a God in heaven that loves them and wants the best for them.
And that Christ not only loves me, but loves everybody else just just the same.
And one thing that I didn't say, because I just kind of involved in the story, is that
Christ held me on his lap.
And when he did that, I could feel tremendous love like I have never felt before.
Probably or since either.
Probably or since.
Could you describe that love?
I've asked other people this.
I know it's very difficult.
I have some weird things coming to mind.
But I have something that I don't know.
I've never had this thought before.
But being in like an embryo or a sack or something like that and just filled with everything
that you need and everything not necessarily want, but everything that you need is given
to you because this person, this being wants everything the best for you.
It tingles everywhere in your body.
You feel swelling in your heart.
No chaos in your mind.
You're just complete where you are.
That's great.
No one's ever asked me that before, I don't think.
Well, I think that's a beautiful place for us to finish our conversation.
Thank you so much, Crystal.
You're welcome.
If you have had a round trip death experience, we would love to hear about it.
Send an email to eric at roundtripdeath.com.
And lastly, if you have found this program uplifting, if it's given you just a little
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to write us a review.
Until next time, I wish you everything good that you're looking for in this life and
the next.