In 2021, a 43-year-old woman from Vancouver, Canada, named Amber Cavanagh, suffered two strokes and was airlifted to hospital.
Along the way, she began to lose consciousness and heard the nurses telling her children that they might never see their mother alive again. She remembers opening her eyes to look at the sun one last time, then closing them again and immediately being transported “to another dimension” or “the other side.”
At first, she found herself floating above her own body, witnessing her husband crying for her, and at the same time watching her children and parents come to visit her in the hospital.
There was no bright light or tunnel; she simply ‘hung’ in place and observed what was happening below, still strapped to her body. But then she was ‘pulled into a point of contact’ and found herself in another world, where fear was absent and only love remained.
She saw herself in this realm as the ‘best version’ of herself, surrounded by loved ones who had already passed away. Her deceased pets, including children’s dogs, were also there.
‘There were no more questions – no ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘when’ or ‘where.’ I just knew everything,” she said.
She found herself in a beautiful garden where she could feel the grass under her feet. Amber mentally communicated with her deceased relatives, including her grandmother and great-grandmother, and felt “absolute comfort” in their presence.
“Then I saw all my loved ones on the right, every version of me, past, present and future on the left, and my guides standing right in front of me.
“I spoke telepathically to everyone, including my grandmother and grandmother… there was such a visceral feeling of pure comfort.”
But then they told her she faced a difficult decision: she could only stay in this peaceful place if she was willing to leave her children behind.
Amber knew that staying in the real world would mean death and her family would suffer. But returning meant returning to her ailing body and enduring a grueling recovery.
Ultimately, she realized that her family would be fine even if she died, but she wasn’t ready to die yet. With that, she closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was back in her body.
Amber spent the next two weeks in hospital, her condition was critical. Doctors warned her family that she could remain in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. But then, unexpectedly, she started moving and talking.
“The doctors still don’t understand,” she said. “My doctor calls me his miracle patient because I didn’t even need the planned operation. There was a lot of damage to my body and brain, but I was alive, and that was the most important thing.”
Amber had to learn to walk and even eat again, and her family endured the pain of watching her struggle. Her recovery took about 10 weeks. ‘But now I’m not afraid of death or crossing to the other side. My only fear is that I won’t be able to return to that place.”
Although Amber still has some lingering problems on her right side, her life has largely returned to normal.
“This experience has helped me see the beauty of life in a new way. I’m just an ordinary person, so I’m still afraid of another stroke, but I’m no longer afraid of death. My only concern is leaving my children too early; I want to see them grow up. But I don’t regret what I went through. It allowed me to mourn the person I was and embrace this new chapter of my life.”
“On hard days I close my eyes and remember what the grass felt like under my feet. I have wondered if I made the right decision, but I know I was given the opportunity to share the message that we all have a purpose here.”
