To Heaven and Back

The concept of this book intrigued me from the very beginning. I've never doubted the existence of God, or of life after death, but since I haven't exactly been through it myself, I was curious to read about the personal experiences of someone who had.

In her book, To Heaven and Back, Dr. Mary C. Neal shares a very detailed, very personal account of what happened when she drowned during a white water rafting accident, went to heaven, and then realized it wasn't her time and she would be returning to her mortal body to complete her mission here on earth.

What a remarkable story. It was uplifting, compelling, and incredibly interesting. Time and time again, it validated my own feelings about God's awareness of who we are, and what we are doing. It bore witness to his involvement in our lives, and expressed incredible joy in the realization that this life isn't all there is. There is more. There is so much more to look forward to.

When asked about how her faith changed after her accident, Dr. Neal said the following:

With my near-death-experience, the truth of God's promises and the reality of eternal life became a part of my every breath. I am in constant prayer and regardless of what I am doing, I try to reflect God's love and live for His glory. I try not to miss opportunities to uplift or encourage the spiritual life of others, and I live with gratitude and joy, knowing that I never face challenges alone.

Pretty awesome, huh?

What's interesting, is just like Eben (who suffered from an extremely rare form of meningities), it seemed like God used Mary's injuries to get her attention.

As she was kayaking, she was trapped in the boat underneath a deluge of water. As people tried to rescue her, both her legs broke as she was sucked by the water out of the kayak. On top of that, she obviously inhaled a lot of water and after her resusitation, developed a lung injury (likely pulmonary edema) related to drowning.

What amazes me is that she and her doctor husband chose to take public flights back to the US without medical attention (they were initially treated at a clinic) which probably should have resulted in her death considering how sick she was.

A couple of things facinated me about her account.

One: Her views of God and our life. She gives an account of a conversation with an angel in a field where we know our life plan before we come to earth. God essentially lays out the blueprint for our approval and there are several branches of where we can make good and bad choices. This fascinates me on many levels-- such as-- did I really choose or "give the okay" for this kind of trauma in my life. Because if so-- man!-- I was really crazy to think that was a good idea. Unless we remember that suffering and crisis for many people brings them closer to God.

Two: The events surrounding her son Willie's short life are nothing short of astonishing. During this conversation with an angel she learned that she needed to go back to help her family cope with the forthcoming death of her son before his 17th birthday. I believe the night before his 17th birthday, a man had pulled a gun on her son after a minor car accident. This incident he survived. But a short time later, as he was on a hike with a friend, he literally looked out over the landscape and said something close to-- "Wouldn't this view be the best thing to see before you die?" And within minutes he was run over by a car and killed. The whole account of Willie's life is seriously skin chilling and inspiring.

Three: How God uses nature as a witness to His presence. Really, you just have to read her story to believe some of the things that happened here. Barren trees blooming after loved ones had died.

What was amazing in reading these books about NDE's is the other things that occurred to these people after their experiences-- nothing less than what I would call miracles.

An interesting read.

My kindle holds the book To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal MD and I read this on my earlier trip to Texas. This is a story of a physician who has a life after death experience following a kayaking accident in Chile. She is forever changed and even prepared for future events. This is an interesting read. It appealed to me since she is a doctor and does write more from a factual, not sappy point of view.

Inspring Read!

I've always been inspired by people's accounts of being in Heaven. Whether they've had a near-death experience or they've been given insight into Heaven it's a sign to me that Heaven is real and that God's promise to us is true. So when I was given the chance to review this book I jumped at it. While I may be a bit impartial on the subject I did truly enjoy this book.

Mary's story is inspirational. What I loved about her story is she wasn't perfect. She admitted that when her life was crazy - school, family, work, and just life - she had put God on the back burner and went about trying to make everything work. And yet she was still chosen to be a messenger, this imperfect woman was taken to Heaven so she could share with people that it is real. It inspires me to think that even though I'm not perfect and I don't always put God in the fore front of my life, though I do try to be aware, I am still capable of doing great things for God. And I think that's at least part of what her story is about, you don't have to be perfect in your love for God because he realizes that we're not perfect.

Mary's life, like most of our lives is filled with great joy and great tragedy. Going through those emotional highs and lows with her really pulled me into her story. I wanted to see how she dealt with her experience in Heaven, how she dealt with her sorrow over being sent back, and how she took that experience and the instructions given to her and turned it into the positive and inspirational story she shares with us. Her life wasn't easy after her trip to Heaven and while she tried to do what she was instructed to do - share her story with the world - she had many upsets in her life that kept pushing that goal to the back burner. I can't say that I would have been able to deal with what she went through as well as she did, but I would hope that like her, I would be able to eventually push aside my insecurities and listen to what God was saying to me.

This was a really good book. I would have like more information about her time in Heaven and her meetings with angels, but I understand her feeling that some of that was veiled to her for a reason. So I can't really blame her for not being able to include everything. Even with out the overt details I would have liked to read I was still inspired by her story and hope that I can live my life a little better with the added insights this book had given me.

I love reading heartfelt books and this was one of them. I couldn't put the book down! Was definitely an eye opener for me. "To Heaven and Back" is a true story by Mary C Neal, MD who is a doctor who defied all odds. She shares her story of her death, heaven, Angels and life again. Dr. Mary Neal is an orthopaedic surgeon who is a devoted wife and mother who drowned in a kayak accident. While she was cascading down a waterfall, her kayak became pinned at the bottom of the fall and she was immediately submerged. Mary was under the water too long and drowned and died.

This book shares her story of her life's journey and what happened as she moved from life to death to eternal life and back again. She shares her feelings and surroundings of heaven and her communication with the angels and every captivating thing that happened. Dr. Neal's life has been forever changed and this book is a wonderful book to read and share to learn more about. I highly enjoyed the book and I have shared it with others too. I'm looking forward to reading it again in the future. This book will share hope, love, faith and wonder and stories of heaven.

You can get this book at most retailers and also at amazon.com as well.

"I received the copy of "To Heaven and Back" by Mary C Neal, MD from Blogging for Books to compensate my own opinions on the book."