OLLI OLLI - Exceptional People Supplemental Materials An Anecdote by Gary Schwartz

The Rescued Great Dane and a Spirit-Mediated Healing

Though my trip to California was memorable, it merely set the stage for what would transpire when I returned to Tucson. It turned out that I did not actually meet the Debneys on this trip. They had to cancel due to an unanticipated illness, and we rescheduled for the following month. This turned out to be propitious. By the time we finally met, I had inadvertently been led to firm evidence indicating that the foundation of the movie Dragonfly—that messages can be spontaneously conveyed during NDEs— was real.

Here’s what happened.

I returned to Tucson on a Monday afternoon. I had a dinner meeting scheduled at a Chinese restaurant not far from my house with one of my university colleagues. It is worth noting that we had at least fifty dinners out together over a five -year period, but only that fateful night did we eat at that Chinese restaurant, or any Chinese restaurant for that manner. (In the process of editing this chapter, I was inspired to add the name of the restaurant . The Golden Dragon. It was only upon typing the name that I saw an apparent dragon/ dragonfly connection that I had previously overlooked.)

Because I happened to arrive at the restaurant fifteen minutes early, I had the unanticipated opportunity to meet the biggest dog I have ever seen. And curiously enough, connected with this dog was a real-life NDE story even more unbelievable than the fictional story in Dragonfly.

Around the corner from The Golden Dragon is a Starbucks with outdoor tables. Three women sat with a gigantic Great Dane— which are typically large , but this one was huge. Being a dog lover, I felt the need to meet him. As I quietly and gently approached the dog, he showed an obvious desire to make contact with me (which included licking my face— quite an experience given the size of his tongue).

The young woman holding the dog’s leash was surprised and pleased. I introduced myself and asked about her dog. She explained that she had recently adopted him from a Great Dane rescue center in Phoenix and that he apparently had been abused and was shy around most men. For some reason the dog sensed I was safe and responded with great affection.

I explained that I taught at the University of Arizona. The young woman said, “Really! I am a junior there.”

Then one of the older women asked, “Are you the Gary Schwartz who wrote a book called The Afterlife Experiments?”

I said, “Yes, why do you ask?”

She replied, “Because I was recently given your book, and I’m reading it right now.”

I asked who gave it to her, and she said, “Jerry Cohen, the CEO of Canyon Ranch. Do you know him?”

“Yes. In fact, one of the experiments in the book is called The Canyon Ranch Experiment because it took place there. How do you know Jerry?”

“I’ve worked at Canyon Ranch for years,” she explained. She then said, “You know , a friend of mine had an experience that is more extraordinary than any account you provide in your book.”

Did I hear her correctly? Was her friend’s experience more extraordinary than any account in my book? Needless to say, I was intrigued.

I said, “How interesting! Would your friend be willing to speak with me?”

She replied, “Actually, my friend wrote up an account of her experience over six months ago and has wanted to contact you, but she’s been afraid.”

“Really?” I asked. “Let me give you my cell phone number. Please tell your friend I would be happy to meet with her and discuss her experience.”

The next day I received a phone call from the woman’s friend. Her story turned out to be so unbelievable and evidential that I requested that she and her husband meet with me to record the events for future research. What made her story so unbelievable was that it related directly to the movie Dragonfly and the possibility of NDE contact with the deceased.

A few days later we held the meeting and I videotaped it. What I can share here is a synopsis of the key points of her story, changing names plus a few details to preserve the anonymity of the people involved. We will refer to her as Lynn. She was suffering from a repetitive-motion injury and was about to have it surgically repaired in Phoenix. During the anesthesia process, Lynn apparently had a severe allergic reaction and she had to be resuscitated. When she stabilized, the surgical team decided it was safe to perform the operation.

In the recovery room, the lead surgeon informed Lynn and her husband that, while there had been a problem during the administration of anesthesia, it was caught in time. He also said that something unusual and upsetting had happened immediately following the surgery concerning one of the surgical team members, but that the operation itself was successful and uneventful and he expected Lynn to have a smooth and full recovery. The surgeon did not offer any details about what transpired immediately following the surgery, and Lynn and her husband did not request additional information at the time.

Meanwhile, Lynn began to vaguely remember that during the surgery she had had a surprising and disconcerting out-of-body experience where she felt that she was floating above the operating table. She also remembered being awake at one point and saying something to one of the surgeons. She had relatively little memory of what else transpired. Lynn was embarrassed to talk about this strange experience, and though she did tell her husband about it later, she did not share it with her surgeon.

Here’s where the story gets eerie.

A few weeks later, Lynn and her husband happened to see the movie Dragonfly. As she watched the various scenes with children having near-death experiences and supposedly receiving communication from the other side, she began to wonder if her own out-of-body experience was somehow accompanied by afterlife events that might have upset one of the members of the surgical team.

After mustering her courage, Lynn called the lead surgeon and asked him if he would tell her what had happened following the surgery. What he told Lynn and her husband would have been completely unbelievable had she not been prepared by seeing Dragonfly.

Apparently she was lying down on the operating table, still under the anesthesia, when she suddenly bolted straight up and looked around room, scanning the five people in surgical masks. She then selected one person in particular and said: “There is a woman here. Her name is Sarah. She has a message for you. She wants you to know that it is not your fault that she died.”

Lynn then fell back on the table, apparently unconsciousness again. The person to whom she directed the message fled the room in tears.

Lynn later learned that the person who fled the room had indeed been married to a woman named Sarah (name changed to preserve her anonymity). According to the surgeon, Sarah had been suffering from an incurable and deadly disease, and she had become severely depressed. Sarah decided to end her life by slitting her throat. Sarah’s husband happened to come home as she was bleeding to death. He attempted CPR but was unsuccessful. As a result, he lived with extreme guilt, believing that had he come home sooner, he might have been able to save her life.

Just imagine the string of synchronicities that drew all three of us together for our own personal epiphanies: the surgical team member who witnessed his wife’s suicide and then had a heavily sedated patient relay a message from her that it wasn’t his fault; the patient who had the out-of-body experience and whose memory of it was jogged by seeing a movie about messages from the beyond; and the scientist whose seemingly chance encounters led him to this woman and her story, the one person she had meant to tell about it. The combination of these three sets of synchronicities is breathtaking to say the least. It would appear that a highly improbable, if seemingly impossible, set of events and connections was unfolding among a diverse and widespread group of people over extended periods of time.

Schwartz, Gary E.; Edward, John (2011-01-11). The Sacred Promise (pp. 150-154). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

This is an unusual near-death experience related by Gary Schwartz in his book with John Edward called The Sacred Promise.

In this NDE a message is conveyed to a person in the OR other than the person on the operating table having the NDE.