MIND-BLOWING Creativity: How an NDE Unlocked David Ditchfield's Artistic and Musical Talent!

Announcer
Hi there. Welcome to grief to growth podcast. Your host is Brian Smith, spiritual seeker, best selling author, grief survivor and life coach. Ryan believes that the worst tragedies of life provide the greatest opportunity for growth. Brian says he was planted, not buried, and he is here to help you grow where you've been planted by the difficulties in life. In each episode, Brian and his guests will share what has helped them to survive and thrive. It is his sincere hope this episode helps you today.

Brian Smith
Hey, everyone, this is Brian Smith back with another episode of grief to growth. And I've got with me today a new author. His name is David ditch field and David had a near death experience that is really amazing. But the really cool thing about David's near death experience one thing that I think is makes it more interesting than some is what happened the after effects of his MD and we'll talk about those today. So let me just read David's introduction and then we'll get started with our conversation. David is an NBA player By inspired artists, composer and author, he wants to use his MD MD to make a positive difference in people's lives. In 2006, David was dragged under a speeding train in a freak accident. And as a surgeon sought to save him he had a profound and he when he woke up in the hospital, he required new astonishing abilities. He found that he could paint dramatic paintings of what he had seen in the afterlife. Far beyond any artistic ability had before. David den discovered he could compose classical music having never received any training in classical music. To this day says he cannot read or write a single note of musical notation. And yet his debut and the inspired Symphony, which is called the divine light, was premiered at a sellout orchestra concert to a standing ovation. And David Swensen is composed further classical works, which have also been premiered at sell concerts, and David has completed over 40 paintings. David currently lives in a converted Riverside mill near Cambridge and the UK. Want to get David's website we're going to talk about that also. It's shine on the story calm That's shine on the story calm. And with that, I'd like to welcome David digital. David, welcome to grief to growth.

Unknown Speaker
Thanks for having me on.

Brian Smith
David, I'm really excited to get a chance to talk to you today. I was telling you before we get started, I got an email from your publicist about reading your book, and I get these, you know, occasionally people want me to read their books and bring them on the show. And I thought, yeah, you know, I'll read the book. It's another guy that had it and the But first of all, the book is really, really well written. I mean, I sort of read the first part of like, Am I reading the right book because it reads like a novel. It's really well written, it brings draws right into the story. So tell me about your experience and share as much as you are a little as you like about, you know what happened to you?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, well, basically what happened to me was, I was seeing a friend of the rail station in Cambridge, and I've been staying at my sister's for a few days just to sort of chill out for a bit Because my life had pretty much hit hard times. So my sister said come and hang out there so I was there that actually for a few weeks, and then a friend of mine had just come up to visits from London and she was going back on the train sighs I was seeing it off helps on onto the carriage with her backs as it were, you know and gave her a hug and a kiss say goodbye and then the emergency door sort of thing buzzer started going and so she said Come on, you're gonna have to get off this idea yet or uncle. But as I sit back, it wasn't cool because the bottom part of my coats I was wearing like a sheepskin coat that day just got caught in the doors and it was trapped. And so I tried everything I could to release my coat but it wasn't happening. So I turned around and looked for a guard and chatted for help, you know frantically but no one turned up there was no God. If that was only one of the Go on the platform and he said, Take your jacket off, mate, you know, but there was no way that was going to happen because the thickness of this coat was like pretty dense. And I knew it just wasn't in the time, it wouldn't, it wouldn't happen. So I was banging in the windows, trying the electric door buttons at cyber, nothing. And then I remember looking into the eyes of my friend, and I think who I'm seeing off. And the look of horror in her face was not surprising because we knew what was about to happen that the train was just revving up the engines to leave. So they pulled out of the station and started pulling it off pretty fast speed and I lost my footing. And then I was dragged along the platform and then through the space between the platform edge and the actual, you know, then the train itself and now went through. Now it's just pulled down, right down and into, into complete darkness and hell it was just horrific. So I figured at that point that I was going to die. There's no way I was gonna survive this. And I remember actually just seeing like, I heard this tremendous rip at this point. And then I just looked up and I saw what looked like the carrier's doors disappearing up into the sky and I went down into this darkness I tossed around like a rag doll just like bouncing around from from side to side pillar to post as it were, you know, and it felt like a be thrown into a spin dryer, you know, sort of beyond full speed. And it was incredibly stressful and painful, but I never lost my conscious, fully conscious for the whole deal. And then finally, I hit the ground. And I was laid down between the tracks and the train was still at this point was still racing, but my head a tremendous speed.

Brian Smith
Underneath the train as it's passing over, you suck. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker
yeah. Okay, that's correct. Yeah. So

Unknown Speaker
I knew I figured even though I'd been you know, released from everything that wasn't over yet. You know that if I thought something some undercard or whatever could just kind of wipe me out with the back of their head. And that would be it. And so I just kept my head right down into the gravel. And I could remember the smell of the oil and it was just really intense. And then the sound of the train was rattling above my head and eventually passed. It just moved on. And I realized that I was alive so it was incredibly beautiful to know that but also I was in immense pain, and I looked see what the damage was. And this wants beautiful, rich sheepskin coat. I thought I was now ripped to shreds all from the old Dan anyway. And also so was my arm. And in fact, my arm had been cut off when the top half of it had been cut open and cut off. And so there was a lot of mess and I was in another a lot of pain. And but the other thing was I just I just thing figured out, right? I better get my cell phone out and call my sister and let her know what had been happened so she can alert the emergency services. And of course, that wasn't gonna happen. The phone wasn't working and somebody arrived anyhow. They were they're really, really quick. And you know, these guys jumped down onto the track and, and you know, the emergency services were there and they they cut my clothes open and got me onto the stretcher and got me into hospital and I'm pretty quick. And when I arrived in the hospital, there was like a big team of paramedic, sorry doctors and surgeons and nurses all there waiting like in a big semi circle. I remember as I looked, and I went straight into this bay and then they were all running around frantically trying to save me. At this point. I was losing copious amounts of blood from the injuries and my family arrived to my family arrived really quick and so they came into See me um, I remember my mother was in tears. He was going, I was going Mom, I'm so sorry. It's always me messing up causing all those dramas in the family, you know, the course you sit down and apologize, you know, so she would just flat out live. And, and then I saw my friend anna and i wanted to speak to her she was just sat at the basket, can I speak to Anna and so she stepped forward and we spoke. And I remember she was shaking her head in complete disbelief that this had happened. And it was at that point that I, I am sent, the pain got so immense that I left my body. And I left the whole sort of, you know, complete sort of overkill of noise and light in the hospital to this beautiful, dark, warm place. And I figured At first I was in a very small, dark, darkened space, although it was a lovely darkened space. And the first thing I noticed was around me with like these kind of orbs like, pulsating all around mean there's beautiful colors like sort of oranges, hamburgers, yellows and blues and just just slowly pulsating and I felt very calm just looking at these and I thought where am I you know, and the next thing I looked and just I could feel this well it could feel this this sense of Sunday or Sunday they're with me and I looked at my feet and right to the to the right hand of my feet, I could see this this being of light it was like a beautiful androgynous being wearing like a simple black contemporary t shirt, you know, nothing cereal at all just very you know, under

Unknown Speaker
this androgynous being had this like sort of like

Unknown Speaker
skin that was a radiating light from within you know, so it was very luminous skin and the hair was kind of like a white sort of blonde hair. I guess. The eyes were just staring at me but When I say they were staring at me they were kind of there was a calmness there was like a smile in their eyes. And and I felt the sense of protection, overwhelming sense of protection and love coming from from this androgynous being and But not only that, I felt like I'd known him or her for the whole of my life and beyond, you know. And so there was this real connection there. Like Like, like a soulmate if you like, Look, I'd known this person, really. And I lay my head back and I thought, this is it. I've died. This is the next stage where we go so and I was quite happy with that. I had no sense of like, sort of, Oh, no, I'm dead. You know, it was like this, right? Okay, I'm dead.

Unknown Speaker
And that's cool.

Unknown Speaker
As I laid back, I remember looking up and I could see like these three grids of white lights suddenly started coming towards me now This intense pure white light, it was amazing. It was just very, very bright. And I couldn't take my gaze away from the light. Even though it's so bright, I mean, you know, if it had been electric lights or that even the sunlight itself, of course, I never would be able to look, it would be too piercing but this I just couldn't stop looking at. And because it felt like the energy that was coming from this light was healing me. And it was just beautiful. And it was at that stage I suddenly thought I got to other but I thought I got I got more presence with me in this space. And I looked and either side of me were these two beings, a female form.

Unknown Speaker
What one was

Unknown Speaker
sort of, I suppose either Asian or American Indian in luck and the other one was more sort of like white Caucasian and brown. have brown eyes and they were both hovering their hands over my body and they were kind of like, almost protecting me and give me this energy that was like, healing my soul if you like, because as I looked down, I looked at my body to check out my wounds, which I knew I've been pretty bad. And my arm was fine. It was reconnected, in fact that, you know, I've got no clothes on other than being covered by this blue. Sort of, sort of like a, like a beautiful silk cloth. You know, it was like a blanket of silk. I mean, this is keeping me cool and relaxed. And I looked and so yeah, everything was intact, not even a bruise or a scratch. So my whole body was fine, but though it's like they were healing, every everything, the trauma that just happened to me, and they were just like, trying to bring me grand Middlemiss. And when I was a grand, I suddenly realized that I was lying on this huge piece of slate was like a big sort of almost like a mess. Evil rock alter, you know, it was like very big as the only way to describe it. And normally you would think that that would be a very uncomfortable situation lying on a piece of slate like that, but it wasn't, it felt remarkably comfortable. And what I realized at this point is well, I was the energy I was getting from all these beings and on this light was just pure, unconditional love. It was just like this energy of love, you know, all the all the feelings of love you've ever had in your life, whether it's through your lover, your mother, your father, or even your pet, dog or whatever, you know, it was all in encompassed into one and it was just coming through, you know, the energy from these beings and the light itself. Then I suddenly start to think to myself, well, what about my family, you know, they're going to be down in the hospital. They're already distressed enough to see what just happened to me and they're going to be like, you know, Dan, they're looking at me and and can Pretty mortified because I was dead. Yeah, so I looked over the side, but I didn't lose art because before that my whole life is always filled with guilt as I was just sad. I was apologizing to my mother for what had just happened, which was crazy, but, but I didn't feel any sense of, you know, oh my god, like my family. It was just, it was just a sense of wanting to check on them. I looked over the edge of this huge rock thinking that I would see them, but I didn't see them at all. But what I did see was this most remarkable site, it was like a, it was like a huge Ark. It was like a, like a waterfall of stars, if you like a beautiful, massive waterfall. And this starts with just slowly cascading over the edge and dropping down into what seems like other galaxies. And what into infinity. It just kind of went on and on and on, you know, and the colors that were dropping down into just like beautiful, and it was like shooting stars. It just seemed to be dropping through the middle. thought, wow, then I knew that of course, I wasn't in a small darkened space at all, you know, I was actually in the universe itself if you like, because that's when I looked around there was there were millions of stars everywhere. And

Unknown Speaker
and I just thought, wow, this is just like incredible. It's it's just amazing. It was just a very euphoric feeling to, to be in this place. And as I slowly turned myself over, I thought to myself, Well, okay, I can't see them, but I'm going to be seeing them or soon there'll be, you know, we'll be fine. We'll all go over this thing. I'll be seeing them in this place. Or if I don't, at least I know they're going to be enjoying this beautiful experience themselves, you know. And then as I turned over, I suddenly realized at that point that the level and intensity of love that I was experiencing is suddenly that like a dial just turned up to tenfold and I thought what is going on now and then I look Just the head of me was this huge sort of tunnel of white light, very intense tunnel of light. And it was just slowly edging in towards me and, and this tunnel was like surrounded by like flames that were slowly rotating around very powerful. And, you know, oranges and yellows are the oldest colors you'd see with a fire. But it wasn't like the kind of fire or that you would normally feel fear of, you know, there's no sense of danger, it was more like it was, it was just, it was just powerful, you know. And I straight away I knew, as I looked and felt this energy, that was really, my whole, my body was just I could feel every molecule was vibrating from this energy. I thought now this is God. This is the source of all creation. This is like where all comes from. It's not It's not the vision of God that we tend to sort of all be given when we're all growing up. You know, like the the stay on the ceiling of the Vatican. chapel you know, with a guy with a beard reaching out his hand, this is the this is god this is a huge energy of light. So yeah, and I laid back and I remember as I'll put my head back I was kind of laughing and smiling to myself all this beauty and knowledge and it was at that point that I suddenly found myself crashing back down to earth and I was back in my body in that in the the emergency departments of the hospital where the doctors flying around and the pain suddenly rushing straight up through every part of my body.

Brian Smith
So during this time when you're when you're with these these three beings and then you see the light that you perceive as God was there ever Were there any words spoken telepathically or anything? Or did you get any impressions? Or did you know who these people were?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, the no word spoken. I know that some I've obviously read up now since and some people do get word spoken to him but it was more it was telepathy radio, it was all coming through in forms of telepathy. And I felt that the the initial being that the most was the most important one was the one that was studying my feet. I felt that that being was was was my complete and pure and ultimate soulmate. You know, it was almost like a mirror of myself because, interestingly enough, when when I was a child, I had very white blond hair myself, which is odd because my parents my dad had really jet black hair. You know, my mom had very dark brown hair. It was a joke, you know, when they used to tell me for the time that again, you sure this is your son, you know? And so, it was almost like there was a I don't know that there was this. There was a kind of there was a very form, strong form connection. Oh, it was basically my mom. High conscience if you like, my consciousness, yeah, consciousness is walks that that my fi, and it was protecting me. And I know, I feel that that being is with me at all times. So so.

Brian Smith
So yeah. Any feeling like I want to stay here. Was there discussion about you coming back? Are you just started yourself back?

Unknown Speaker
And well I was quite happy to stay there so there wasn't not there was no part of me was saying I want to go back does that you know, you know, when I did come back there was mixed feelings because there was a sense of like, Oh, hey, why'd you send it was quite happy there but that was that only lasted for a short amount of time because ultimately, I was so charged with what just happened that I just couldn't wait to tell the world and I figured that at that point. I've never heard a near death experiences. I never knew that this happened to people. And so I figured at that point, I was the only one that this Okay, so I figured, right? I didn't come back, you know with this kind of big ego so sense of ROI unspecial Don't get me wrong, but I just write this has happened. Now what? Why? Why have they sent me back? What is my mission? From right from the off? I thought what am I supposed to do now what you know, and I spent most of my time in hospital trying to forget that on a

Brian Smith
day if you don't mind, I'm gonna interrupt you for a second I wanted to share some of your paintings, so people can get an idea of what we're talking about. Right? So let me share my screen here and for people watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see these so this is the scene that David talked about. And I think you did I just it's amazing that you captured this and you've got no no art artistic training and you've never painted before. That's right That's the very first one I did I see that you've got up at the moment. So I think it says are in so this is here the beam, the beam that you said is the kind of androgynous being with the white hair. Yeah. to women is the two in the slab. I mean Said I looked at your paintings and I'm like, I'm not an art critic, but they look pretty amazing to me. And this guy depicts the scene at the at the accident and that's how your left arm is, right?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, that's right. That's what I saw. I saw the the, the inside of my whole arm. And rather than feeling horrified by what I saw, I was actually going, Wow, that's the whole the inside of my arm. That's how it all works. I could see every single nerve ending and what have you. So I wanted to paint that that was the second painting I did. But I also had to do that one because even though I'd had the near death experience was obviously changed my life, but also on a human being, you know, just been thrown onto the train and which was, I had to deal with that and process it. So that painting was also part of me processing. What had happened in the actual accidents. Yeah,

Brian Smith
yeah. The trauma that you went through.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so so that's so that's

Brian Smith
why we're looking to break I did have a question for you because you don't mention Your nd that you saw Jesus but I see a painting here that is that

Unknown Speaker
what is that's right this painting yeah that is that is Christ Ogden the guy that came about because

Unknown Speaker
a little later on I came across a spiritualist church in a time where I was staying where I live and I wanted to go in there and I'm what I went through the door and I went into like a one of the surfaces and it was really beautiful. And at the end one of them turned around said look, we don't only say this invite people along but you're looking at pretty bad wire here and I've got all this stuff holding my arm together at that point. And they said, We do spiritual healing. I said Oh great. So I started going for spiritual healing and through some of those healers are also clairvoyant, and they would just give small messages at the end of the session sometimes and then pick things up. And there was once I was in there having some healing. You know, I'd see you see the Halo there and that that's that's some of the images that I would see images of light while I was being healed. But in one of the sessions I saw, I saw Christ. And just like as I painted in there just kind of hovering above me, or and, and so I came to the end of that healing session, and the one person who was telling me So Amanda said, Oh, do you know that Christ was with you? Christ. And so she felt exactly the same. And it was just so remarkable that I had to go home and start painting that straightaway. So that's where

Brian Smith
I want to share one more. This is the I guess this is a tunnel that you saw, right?

Unknown Speaker
That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Smith
Yeah. I mean, I just just incredible work, how you were able to capture that and I was telling you before we get started, I think one thing about indies A lot of times people dismiss them as the, you know, the hallucinations of a dying brain or it's a dream that you had or whatever, but what it's interesting when people have what I call our was called vertical and these were, you know, so times people can describe something happened while they were supposedly dead. But there's also the after effects of in the some people come back with mediumistic abilities. Some people come back with enhanced abilities to for, you know for intellectual or spiritual they can see things and you came back with this ability to and and desire I guess even pain.

Unknown Speaker
It was Yeah, yeah the desire was there right from the off. I remember my sister coming in to see me the very first night after I had the operation was in for about eight hours and then she came in the following night. And I was in a room they give me a room to myself, I remember both chatting, she said, Look, is there anything I can get you? And I said, Yeah, can you get me like a small sketch pad and a pencil? She went, Okay. All right, you know, and I remember I got the nurses to prop me up in the bed and I did this very faint sketch of what you saw in that first painting but because at that point, I was really scared I was going to lose it. Forget Because it was so important, but of course, I never had them. But, you know, so, but also, I just figured I was lying in that bed and I thought, I've got to paint a huge canvas. This has got to be something like a big Michelangelo sort of Renaissance painting, you know? Yeah, gotta be big. And so that was my, and that's exactly what I did. My aunt came over from Canada to see me and I was chatting about all about it, and she said, I'm going to buy you a campus and so she bought me the campus, you know? And yeah, in all fairness, you know, I left it stood against the wall for a while very nervous about starting it because honestly, I thought I could just make a real mess of this. But um, a friend of my sister came along and they rang her and her husband now there's kind of a gym and yoga center and video space going. If you want to come up and use one of our rooms and you can get started. She knew that I was putting it off. Okay, so I've got no choice but to start and when I started I couldn't believe it, it was just coming together, you know, so beautifully for me, you know, like, I'd start to fit. At the end of his day, I'd literally sit in a chair and look at my canvas, and I go, wow. And I knew at that point that I was being helped, that I knew the energy that from the other side that had been to was just giving me some knowledge of how to be able to translate what I'd seen onto a canvas and, and it went from there. And so I now connects, you know, all that with everything I do. I really, I'm very aware that I'm channeling ideas through and, you know, so you know, that connection stays with it. Yeah. So

Brian Smith
didn't think it was to talk to point out because I said that was read the book and kind of reads like a novel because we got some foreshadowing here too. Before you even have the accident. You haven't experienced the spiritualist church. So tell me about Tell me about that.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, well, that was just kind of like you might call it a

Unknown Speaker
fluke or synchronicity, as I put it. Because I was coming it was in the same town I was coming up a couple of months before the accident to visit my sister one weekend and I was on the train and and i was there and there was an elderly couple sat opposite me and and the lady Turman asking me where the next station was or what have you, and and then she turned around and said, we're gonna see medium tonight, and I was going, Okay. And I really wasn't interested in engaging in conversation at that point, but she was quite keen to carry on that conversation. She's very good. You know, she really is and stuff I said, Okay. And then as we got off the train, she handed me the flyer, you know, little a five poster or what have you. And I put it in my pocket and forgotten about it. And when I turned it to my sister's, there was a lot going on there. She was sorting out the kids and stuff. So I said, Well, I'm just gonna go have a drink. So I went to the local bar, had a drink, and then a four, I'm going to go so I went to this medium platform as we call it here. And there was like in the spiritualist church, and it was Packed something packed and people were going there looking for messages, they just lost their loved ones and, and messages were coming through, you know, she was brilliant. She really was great. And I thought, well, maybe but I wasn't looking for anything at that point at all. But he turned around and said, Man in the blue sweater over there. Your life's about to change. And, oh, okay. I said in what way and then she walks around who's going like this? And then she said, Dan, they're not telling me they're not they're not telling me they just said Be ready for it. It's going to be big, just be ready for it. And I said, Fine, great. And I figured right I'm gonna win the lottery or you're gonna get the girlfriend yes hoping world's chair. Yeah, all the you know the material things that I wanted out of life, but obviously that they never came all those things. And I was my life was spiraling downhill but now I realized looking back that what that misses Coming from from the medium was basically that I was going to go onto a train I was going to have a near death experience that was going to change my life that was a big change. Or they were talking about I should say, so yeah, so that was my first venture into spirituality. Before that I hadn't even entered my mind in a really really faithful religion hadn't really been a part of my life at all, you know?

Brian Smith
Yeah, you know, it's interesting they've you know, these little things that people do like this woman handing you a flyer which you know, you then you on a whim go to a spiritual church was kind of gives you the heads up a little bit, this is coming. So you know, but you know, and then the way you found the studio where you started, you know, you started painting you know, that was kind of a as you said, it kind of that was another synchronicity you bring in these people just happen to have a studio and you get the paint, you start painting. So how do we how did you get into the music, I mean, so, you've got the ability to pay now you start composing classical music.

Announcer
We'll get back to grief to grow. In just a few seconds, did you know that Brian is an author and a life coach? If you're grieving or know someone who is grieving his book, grief to growth is a best selling easy to read book that might help you or someone you know, people work with Brian as a life coach to break through barriers and live their best lives. You can find out more about Brian and what he offers at www grief to growth com www.ge Ri e f, the number two gr o w th calm or text growth gr o w th 231996. If you'd like to support this podcast visit www.patreon.com slash grief to growth www.ptren.com slash g ri EF the number two gr o w th to make a financial contribution. And now back to grief to growth.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, well Before I used to play guitar, like just basic three chords for the punk rock and roll stuff, and then but I couldn't play guitar anymore because my left arm accident, injured again. So but what happened was I was in through one of these sessions. Well, one or two of them actually, a couple of the healers kept saying to me is we are Why am I picking up a violin laid across your chest, I was gonna have no idea then one of them said, you're gonna write a piece of music about your experience. That's what they're telling me. And that's great. So I went home and I pulled out this had this old cheap synthesizer, you know, in the back of the cupboard or whatever. And I pulled that started playing around on that. And these chords came through, and I figured at that point, I'd be writing. Okay, a piece of music. I thought you meant like a three, three minute song, you know? Yeah. And I was trying to get the song together. And interestingly enough, it just wasn't coming. As that's all I saw. This is sounding more like it could be played by an orchestra or something. Yeah, it was. And more like that. And I started building on that and getting it together. And by that point I went out that the place was doing the paintings. I'd met a girl who played cello in the local orchestra who was coming up and looking at my paintings. People used to come in to the center used to come up, they were fascinated by what was going on. And she was one of them. And she said, Can we use one of your paintings for poster phonics? Constance said, Yes, that would be brilliant. She said, What are you up to? We used to meet for coffee. And I said, like, I'm just writing this piece of music. And it feels like it could be played by an orchestra. And I wasn't I got no intention of trying to push it at all. She said, oh, maybe maybe we could play house go. Okay, and then a haunted kind of thing in my mind. So I just developed it and got the first movement together. And my brother at this point in time ran to me and he said, Look, I've got this. This is like an apple Have you seen that you can use on your laptop. And when you play your keyboard, the notes that you play on the keyboard. It will You know, then then transform it into notation. So that's why I didn't. So I started hearing all different instruments coming through light horns and flutes. And then I recognize that that had to be a French horn, for example, or Piccolo. And then I just got it to sort of transform all these parts. And then I spoke to this girl, again from the orchestra. I said, Look, I've actually got some score would you be would you look at it? And she said, Yeah, so she bought one of the other guys along from the orchestra. And we had a meeting and they looked at the score. They weren't quite up some time. They said, Yeah, we'll do it. So they offered to perform it. And then then they said, It was great. They said to me, Look, do you mind just chatting to the local press? Because we always do something that's promote the concept said, Sure. I want to start talking to the local press and told them what the story was because the piece was actually a bad one near death experience. And everyone knew about the accident locally, because it'd been all over the news. You know, this guy got onto a train and what have you. So again, this is great. Can I Then the phone just kept ringing and other people started wanting to interview me. And then the BBC wanted to do like a piece on me. So the concert consequently sold out two weeks in advance. Yeah, it was fantastic, you know, for me, but also for the orchestra as well. So it was a brilliant five betweens all the energy was felt great, you know. And so yes, so the concert, I remember they given me and my family, the front row, and always just sat down. And I just enjoyed it because it was great not having to be stood on a stage or a new guitar, hoping for the best. I was actually watching it being performed, you know. And it just sounded amazing. It just sounded how I'd heard it when I was playing this little synthesizer, but

Brian Smith
I have to say, I took piano lessons for 11 years, I've had music theory. I wouldn't even know how to begin to write a symphony. You've got all these different instruments, you've got different sections of the orchestra. You You so far it's such an impressive feat that you did this even it was the I saw that you You said you got the app from your brother. So you were able to plink it out in your synthesizer and it converted to notes. But you got to know Piccolo versus the flute and violins and cellos and all these different things and how to bring them together. And then you actually add vocals and the last movement, if I remember correctly, yeah, that's right.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, that was I wanted to get somebody to sing last Park. So I thought it would be really lovely just to have a voice. Sort of like sort of talking about what it's about. And so I approached this guy, I knew he was like, one of the best. He ran a Choral Society. And he was like one of the best tennis singers in the area. So I phoned him up. I said, Look, I'm coming to see you. And I said, Yeah. And I took the school route. And I said, Look, I'm looking for someone to sing it could Could you recommend anybody? And he looked at me, so this is great. He said, he said, and he was saying stuff I know about various games. How did you manage to think of putting like a, a minor seventh over?

Brian Smith
That's what I'm saying, Wow.

Unknown Speaker
I don't know. He said that. He said, that's great, because you wouldn't normally do that. But it works. Right. And that he said, I'll sing it. I'll sing it myself. And I was gonna really Oh, fantastic. And you know, you've probably heard he's got really beautiful pure voice and so, so that was it. So he just turned up at the rehearsal, did one run through it, and it was there, you know, there was one service where I'd written it wrong in terms of light. But not hardly anything at all. And that was it. So one more off. So um, yeah. And he actually turned around, he was interviewed by the BBC afterwards because they knew who he was. And he turned around and said, Well, you know, I wanted to do this, because, you know, I knew all about David's accident and he said, I was just so impressed that he could just step out of his comfort zone and produce something like this. He said, I wouldn't even begin To start composing a piece myself, and that's what he told me and I thought that's mad, you've got all you've got so much knowledge, I thought you will be writing and all the time. He said, he said I wouldn't do it, I wouldn't attempt it. So, but again, I was channeling ideas for I knew they were coming through from somewhere. And by that stage, you know, I would just stop and as I do now, and when I did come through, I literally stopped them and I look up I go, thank you, thank you so much, you know, because it's just, you know, that acknowledgement is important. I feel, you know,

Brian Smith
there was a point your book when you met with joy at the spiritualist church, spiritual search one of the healers, and you that's when you I think you kind of got a lesson about unconditional love. Tell me about that.

Unknown Speaker
Um, well, basically, I realized through that experience that she helped me to sort of, you know, we talked about it understand that even more what has happened to me and that was Before my native experience, I got no sense of self love. And so my life was completely going wrong all the time I'd left school without any qualifications. So I was struggling to get by and I just never fitted in at all. So rather than giving stop and give myself any self love or self worth, I just kept beating myself up so that's one of those will go wrong so she helped me to understand that she knew that when she was healing me she could feel that still that you know that they've suffered a lot of pain for my life and that self love was was the most important lesson for us all put to learn and unconditional love as well.

Unknown Speaker
So yeah,

Brian Smith
yeah, I it's interesting. I was just I just realized this the the names of the people your book or their their real names joy and Irene.

Unknown Speaker
And yeah, I mean, I one of the one or two of them have changed.

Brian Smith
Just curious. I mean, it's interesting, her name is Joy, and then I read your your psychiatry Her name means peace. So I don't know.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, right. So

Brian Smith
yeah, I thought Irene was really interesting too and I love the story with Irene she's because she doesn't really believe that you have this experience right? She's just kind of memory humoring you.

Unknown Speaker
So shame early on Kevin please

Brian Smith
I love the story when you talk when she talks to you about the card reader the guy the terrorists shit Matt whatsoever. The tarot reader the card reader that shit Matt the tie Yeah, yeah. So tell tell us about that because I thought that was interesting.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Well, basically I wanted to sort of track down the the medium who I'd seen in a couple of months before and it took me ages to find it cuz I kept describing it to the people in the in the church. I said she's got dark hair stuff again and then and then to turn up one one Sunday and then she was but she dyed her hair blonde. So that's why nobody knew I was talking about. I went and talked to after the afterwards and said, Look, you know, I don't know if you remember. But then she, she hadn't recorded it for you know, but I said, what happened is you give me this message and that's all what happened. So she said, I do tarot card readings. I said, Yeah, I know. I said, Could I get one of you? Then he said, Yeah, I want to give you one for free. I'm not charging you. And I'm this, you know, so she gave me this amazing tarot card reading, and it was really brilliant. But in terms of Irene, you know, it's like, I could tell I mean, I totally respect anyone coming from a scientific point of view, certainly, because I needed that. And I knew we all need it, you know, and without them, I wouldn't be here talking to you. But, um, I couldn't let I every time I brought up spirituality or talks about things like this. He was I could see that she was kind of like getting almost a bit nervous. He was like, yeah, let's move on. But no, this is part of my life. I can't just move on, you know, so I could tell that she knew that and that as part of her was like, almost like I wasn't wanting to or anything like that. Right? Right. I knew that ultimately that there was just, you know, she respected that what I was talking about was was what happened, but she just couldn't turn around and say it. And so

Brian Smith
I thought was really interesting about and I like, I think you're her that mentality is really important in this world, we need to be skeptical. I think it's good to be skeptical. And as I said, as I'm reading your story, I'm like, okay, what's what's, what am I seeing here? Okay, so I see, first of all, you come back with the ability to paint can build it to write symphonies. You were drinking quite a bit before this and you stopped drinking you, you've really kind of turned your life around. So as in I'm thinking of her put myself in her and her place that she's watching you go through this, and she tells you the story, but she had seen a tarot reader and I guess he predicted she was going to make a career change. And what she ended up making and and then she still says, Well, maybe that was a self fulfilling prophecy. So I thought that story that you told the book was was really good. Interesting about how she actually had evidence that someone had given us this prediction, which came true, but she just kind of dismissed it, which I think we can tend to do. So I guess I thought that was an interesting part of the book yet. So it's really great, you know, character interplays that you have as you're going through this experience that you went through. So, after you've gone through this, how has your life changed, you were told by the medium, you're gonna have this big life change. So what in what ways as a life change?

Unknown Speaker
And well, as I say, before,

Unknown Speaker
I got no real faith in anything. I haven't got any faith in myself either. And, and I guess I was just everything that was going wrong in my life. I was looking for the quick fix, as you just pointed out there from the book and I was drinking heavily and eventually you can start to consume me. I mean, there was I was picking up mainly sort of manual laboring work and that kind of work. You had to go to the local bar basically, that was like the office that you go in there to hustle work, you know, after guys, I say, what's going on what's happening, you know, so you ended up hustling for work, you get the job, and then you just say the next day and you're just drinking your wages away, you know. So it's this vicious circle. And eventually I was I spiraled into complete, you know, a nonentity. And, but the thing is, I was just, as I say, I was beating myself up. I was never I was never attacking anyone else. I never let my own anxieties on others it was always me that was bracing myself for within it. But after the end, a completely opposite. I'd learnt self love and that self love gave me this completely different outlook on life. I'd learned to love everything that was around me, you know, learn to appreciate nature. You know, I learned to paint or learn to sort of create music and suddenly my whole life now feels like three dimensional compared to before, where it was just this one dimension. And I, when I looked back basically all I was doing was just, it was linear. I just got I was just going along the surface and trying to fill the cracks. Whereas now it's kind of, you know, it's not all great all the time, obviously, you know, that's, that's impossible but

Brian Smith
yeah,

Unknown Speaker
but but but I ride into it. When I take the dips, I go with it, I learned that I've got to go with that and I will come out again. And, and I just, you know, and I just know that my guides are there and I never feel like they've left me even even when things go go wrong and so yes, so it's just more three dimensional and a lot more fulfilling in yeah

Brian Smith
that kind of leads me to the next question I was gonna ask you was what do you think your your experience can teach all of us about life and I think you just kind of answer at least one of those things is that we are we go through these ups and downs, but we're going to be okay, we're never really alone.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so that again, sorry,

Brian Smith
guys, you We're saying that, you know, as you're going through these ups and downs, I think you've realized now that we're never really alone, you feel like, you know, you're Oh, yeah, you got these. And we all have these guides that you have, we all have that, that comfort in that love that's that we sometimes might not feel totally, yeah,

Unknown Speaker
yeah, this is something that I'm, I'm really keen to sort of press to everyone that I speak to, you know, just around me or whatever, and that you don't have to have a traumatic accident like me or an NDA, to be in touch with your guides. We've all got them. And we can all call upon them basically. And and it's nothing too difficult and it shouldn't be something that's made difficult. I think that when I look at a lot of white faith and the way we've been brought up, a lot of us have been felt that, you know, if you're going to actually call if you're going to pray, for example, then you're in a position where you're feeling like I'm asking for this help. I hope you don't mind me and yeah, when I ask Come on humble, but only in a sense that I'm, I'm humble showing respect, like as if the same kind of respect, I'd be humble with anybody who was helping me in on the earth plane or whatever you call it, you know, I'd be humble but I don't kind of go into this kind of feeling like I'm a sinner that I've seen that I've got to feel a sense of urgency and guilt, you know, just just be clear and ask ask your guides for any help, even if it's something small, even if you're just nervous, that you know, something that's going on that day just asked so can you help me please with this one? You know, this is this is tricky for me and and they will come they will come and help me

Brian Smith
so so you do believe in the power of prayer now and and yeah, so so prayer, tell me tell me more about that. How this prayer work.

Unknown Speaker
Right? Well, I discovered that and pretty much straight away because after the train have moved on from that point in the accident to my friend Anna was frantically trying to find somebody to stop it. Stop. trying it and then she bumped into like a like a ticket collector and he ran forward and stopped it. She said there was sat in the middle of nowhere on this carriage and there was like this emptiness and and she said there was just not emptiness or quietness, like, no just out there in the middle of nowhere. And she said, she turned around is very busy, carried for the commuters and said, Can we say a prayer, please? So my friend who's just diet has just gone under the train because she didn't think I would have survived it. And then and then she said, a woman stepped forward said, Look, I'm a Christian, would you like me to take the prayers? I said, please. And so they said, this woman just took these prayers. And she said, It was amazing. seeing everyone close our laptops put the newspapers down, and everyone prayed for me. And I felt that energy coming from them. And also my mother told me that various churches and small sort of villages surrounding where we lived and that we're all praying, and I knew it, because I feel it all throughout those early days in the hospital when I was in Agra You could fill this entity of prayer. So I firmly believe that that prayer does work. So, you know, if anybody turns around to me and says, look, you know, a friend of mine has son when I was in hospital that was something that happened over Christmas actually, a friend of a friend so said, Look, somebody sent the sons video in hospital can see was trying to get everyone to come together with a pray for him. So I said, Yeah, and we all did. We all said that all these prayers, I worked really hard at praying for this boy that I'd never met before. And I just looked at his photograph online and just visualized it. And you know, what he came through it came through the other side and he was like, he was like in a coma and it was like, you know, that work? It does work in that so it's just there's so much more out there that the way the energy of the universe works is just so incredible, you know, it's just, we just don't all we're not all educated in ourselves or we're not educated that's wrong. We're you know, we don't have that instinct to to know that and it's very hard to try and understand it, but it but it is Quite simply what happens if we believe in trust in the universe? It will, it will help us all.

Brian Smith
Yeah, I think what you said there is actually very true. I think it's very, very important. I think we do have that instinct, but we're not. We're kind of educated out of it. We're told that we're separate individual beings, and we don't, there is nothing out there. There is no connection to the other side. And I think that's why a lot of us feel so lonely. And unempowered, you know, so when someone goes through, like what you you go through, you've tapped into that other side. And you seem to keep that connection, even as you're back here now.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's just been part of my life, every single day since and, you know, going back to, you know, scientists who or what have your skeptics on near death experiences is that the way I look at it is, if it had been a hallucination or a dream, or what have you, I would have forgotten all about it by now. You know what I mean? And it wouldn't be that important to me just to still be talking about it and it wouldn't have changed my life the way it changed and you know, you know dream state as well when the dreams a Gemini chaotic and luck form where it's like a near death experience is it's real and it's it's very sort of intensely consistent you know and it's like you know that you're there okay it's a different dimension it doesn't feel like like you and I sat here talking now but it was but it was as clear as you and I are talking right it was it's it was just a it's an every other people that I've spoken to since who had any of us agree with that you know, this is this is common thing as well that when you talk to other people yes everyone's differ You know, it was a different story with any death experiences but there's so many similarities you know, we come off air or or whatever. We've been chatting I've been interviewed by a few people have identities and there may only be chapters and they go, how did you feel when you were in the hospital when you came through? After the operation on I talked about it that she's gonna Yeah, me too. I had that energy that you know, I just couldn't wait to tell the world all the same things and they had I says it's a very consistency

Unknown Speaker
going on there between us all yeah

Brian Smith
well you know there's there's some you know there's the the stereotypical gas you know, the tunnel of light the light might review the meaning of loved ones and but all these things don't occur at all and the ease Yeah, but they're very common but the one thing that is common across all indies is unconditional love the lesson of unconditional love and the unconditional love that's usually felt on the other side. And people that see an entity that they describe as God or source or creator. It's always usually light associated with it, and it's just an overwhelming feeling of love or being at home. I mean, those are the things that are just kind of at the at the root of the envy. But as I was telling you before we went on air The thing about your MD That to me is undeniable is the life changes that you experience afterwards people don't have life changes after having lucid nation. They don't have life. They don't they don't get suddenly get abilities that were lying dormant you know that now I can, I can pay then I can you know write symphonies those things will happen when people just, you know, go into a coma or something.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, yeah.

Unknown Speaker
I mean, generally speaking, I mean people who have had nd so that they will come back and pay or write music, but they are they, a lot of them do change where they want, they want to talk about it, and they end up getting in on platforms and, you know, talking about at conferences and things like that. And, you know, there are scientists, you know, Dr. Eben Alexander is, you know, one of the classic one of the biggest selling, you know, he was a neurosurgeon, and, you know, so he should be a skeptic, if you like, but he's not so he's always that's why he's a big seller. But you know, it's changed his life and as much as he's gone from, just being fat to also wanting to go out there and talk about To the world. So, you know, it affects many of us in many different ways. There are some people who've had near death experiences got in touch with me, but they've, they're chronically quiet about it. I mean, I remember meeting a guy in the hospital, because when I was recovering, we used to go into like this, like a gym, and everyone in there, they're all amputees at all, you know, had horrific accident, accidents and stuff. So they're trying to help us all back. And this guy come off a motorbike. You know, he'd been chased by the police, and he was going on the highway and came off at 125 miles an hour. And, again, should have shouldn't have survived, but he did. And I'd gone in there, and I told them, Mike, we we used to have coffee at the end of the session, and I told them the story when I was having a coffee one day, and that was like the first group of strangers that I told and they were so captive, and everyone was asking me questions, everyone was really tuned into it, and thought it was amazing. And then I just kind of remember Go waiting. felt great, you know that everyone wants to to know rather than dismissing it, and I sat down on my own and this guy came over to me, I come off the bike and he said, he said, mate, you said that a story is told I suggested that happened to me. Same thing I was really I said, right. I said, Have you told anyone his way? He said, I said, why not? He said, No, I want to just because crazy, I said, No, don't you got to talk about it? You know, I've never seen him since. But I kind of get the feeling that he probably wouldn't have done and which is sad, because it's like, he'd been given a second chance and opportunity to sort of, you know, well, maybe I'm wrong. I don't either, but he didn't feel like I didn't feel like I was convincing him to actually open up to his mates. And so I wonder how many people are out there have had near death experiences and haven't really or not acted upon it if you like, so I don't know.

Brian Smith
Yeah, I mean, there are there are those people and it's interesting as as life is changing, as we come more common and we learning about it, people are kind of coming out of the closet and talking about it. And I saw that Dr. Moody actually wrote the foreword for your book, you know, Raymond Moody, who coined the term near death experience in the, in the late 70s. So, but still, as you said, even when you had your experience, which was a 2006 Yeah, that's, um, you know, you hadn't heard the term, it's still it's still not known by a lot of people and the circles I read, and we all it's like, we accept it as just common. Yeah, but most people don't realize how common the near death experience really is. But thanks to people like you, who are, you know, going out and writing books and being willing to be open about it, people are starting to understand.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, well, exactly. I mean, you know, for me, I just want to try and sort of get the message out there to as many people as possible about it. It's just it's it's been my quest right from the off and also to help people not you know, to try and educate not adequate to tell people not to fear death by something. In fact, I was I was interviewed by some Somebody who contacted me from the Guardian newspaper, which is like over here is quite a big paper. And she was doing a short series of films, all about her fear of death. And so she came up from London and spent some time with me. And she was genuinely very scared of dying to the point that, you know, she would go to sleep nearly every night worried about it, and I noticed I was just so I try my best to sort of like, tell my story and try and help her through it and stuff and, and I've realized since that the people have got in touch with me and are now in a since I've been doing more interviews and stuff and genuinely fear death. Well, not only that, they've just lost somebody, they've lost a loved one, and that they're looking for that hope that their loved ones are safe. So it's lovely to be able to talk about my story. And then, you know, I've had people say that's, that's really helped me because I've just looked at a woman and it really is great to know That there is an afterlife and that they've been careful because it's really important for us to know that because I feel that we don't really talk about death enough I'm not saying we should get up every morning chat about it over our coffee but it's a taboo subjects in the Western world, you know, and it's just and it has been since a medieval times, you know, when when there was a lot of people dying at that point. So that so it was talked about a lot more so it's, it's, it's something that I feel that we should all just like to have. Just chat about with people like myself and or people like you, you know, just and just debate it for a short amount of time if you'd like it doesn't have to be and just so that people know that it's going to happen to us all eventually, and we're going to all start losing loved ones around us and our families and it's just to know that it's okay, you know, it's alright, I mean, it's, I lost my mother last summer, and of course are already thinking, you know, and I went for the physical You know, loss of my mother and stuff that brought me to the world, but I instantly knew where she'd gone. And it was so reassuring for me to have that firsthand knowledge. It felt great to know that she was she was having receiving like beautiful love on the other side that I'd had. Yeah, it would be great just to be able to say to everybody, you know, this is that that's it. Don't please don't fear what's happened to your loved ones because they are being cared for in a much better better way than a lot of us are down here.

Brian Smith
Yeah. So then what is your life like now? What are you doing? Are you are you painting? Are you selling your paintings or? Wow, yeah,

Unknown Speaker
well, um, I've written the book so and as you pointed out, so there's a lot of time spent really putting the promotion together for that because he had there to as many people as possible, but I'm also writing a new piece of music as well, for orchestra because I've written Quite a few since since that one and commissions so so this one Yeah. Which is which has been titled. I wasn't expecting this and that's a new piece for orchestra. So that's coming together really well that's again, there's a lot of divine energy coming into that for me and so it's awesome.

Brian Smith
Yeah, that's really awesome. I'm really great. So how about your painting you still painting?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, yeah still painting? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just finished off a painting for somebody who was commissioned me to write to do a painting for her company. She's she does like I went I was invited to the south of France last summer to talk to a group of people who are on a retreat and all these people were there all women are saying they're all end of life, doulas in there. They're like sort of soul midwives and then I never heard of them before. So, Neil tonight, and it was great. So they asked me to go out there and talk about my experience and when I was out there, the person who was running this retreat called Holly was runs around to the funeral directors company but the way her funeral directing is done is really beautiful they you know where they watch the body and care for it and send it off to the side so anyway so she asked me to paint a new logo for so that's that's the last piece of work I've just done in German beautiful done it because I felt so moved by what she all the words she does. And because it was it was just great seeing you know the the cheese treating death in the same kind of way that I'm talking about the cheat sheet. Please, helping the salt move on basically. Yeah, you know, because you

Brian Smith
go Yeah, the death till one thing is really is really great. And I think we are starting in the west to accept death as just a transition, which is what you're telling us today. Just not it's not an end. It's not it's the next phase. Life i think is the way a lot of people are putting it. So I'm really, really glad to see you, you know, putting yourself out there and real and telling your story and being part of that. And I want to encourage people to to get the book. It's a it's a fantastic book. It's a great read. So it's called shine on the remarkable story of how I fell under a moving train. Journey to the afterlife and then stashing proof I bought brought back with me by David ditch field, it's di te ch fi ELD. And David's website is shine on the story calm, and I previewed some of the paintings there. If you're listening to us, you're not watching on YouTube. You can go you can watch a YouTube video or you can go to David's website and see some of the paintings there that are really truly amazing. Okay, Dave, it's been really great having you on and getting getting to meet you. I said I really enjoyed the book. So I'm encouraging people again, you know, to get the book and thank you so much for all your work. So I appreciate what you're doing for the world for letting us you know, feel more comfortable about the transitions you said we're all going to face. Yeah. Thanks a

Unknown Speaker
lot. That's beautiful that you just said about my work by the way. I'm very humbled. So that's so that's great.

Brian Smith
Well, you know, I guess I think it's, it's, it's clear evidence to me of what you experienced. And I think that's and I'm glad you're sharing with the world because for people that are even skeptics, if you're a skeptic, get the book read the book, look at David's website and you explain to me how he got these abilities with something really crazy didn't happen.

Unknown Speaker
Right, well, thanks. But David, you enjoy the rest of your day. It's been great meeting you say? It's great meeting you so lovely chatting as well back It's been a

Brian Smith
while I hope you enjoyed the episode, I want to make it really easy for you to reach me. So just send me a text 231996 and simply text the word growth. gr o w th. In fact you can right now just say hey Siri Send a message 231996. And when Siri asked you what you want to send, just say growth. You can do the same thing with Ok, Google. Thanks a lot. Have a wonderful day.

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