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Surviving Death: The Evidence

Surviving Death: The Evidence

By: Simon Bown
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Surviving Death: The Evidence dives into one of humanity’s oldest, and most electrifying, questions: does consciousness continue after we die? Each episode guides listeners through compelling real-world accounts and cutting-edge research on near-death experiences, past-life memories, and other phenomena that challenge our understanding of life, death, and what might lie beyond. This podcast invites you to explore the stories, science, and mystery at the edge of existence, where the veil between the living and the dead becomes surprisingly thin. Science Social Sciences Spirituality
Episodes
  • Death Bed Visions
    Mar 2 2026

    In this episode I'm talking to Carla Wills-Brandon about her book 'Heavenly Hugs: Comfort, Support, and Hope From the Afterlife'

    Does life end at death? The answer is no!

    The nearly 2,000 cases of departing visions and visitations from deceased relatives and friends collected by the author prove that there is life after death. At the moment of physical death, departed loved ones return to the dying to ease travel from this life to the next. Friends, family, and healthcare workers also report seeing these loving spiritual travel guides.

    Such encounters--reported by individuals from a wide variety of cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds--clearly illustrate that the personality, soul, or consciousness does not disappear or "die."

    To live our lives to the fullest, we must relieve ourselves of the false notion that death is the end. Departing visions help us do this.

    Heavenly Hugs will introduce you to both historical and modern-day departing visions, proving:

    The dying have been reuniting with the departed--for centuries

    Departed loved ones escort the dying to the other side or next dimension

    Something has often been seen leaving the physical body at the moment of death

    Famous people have experienced beautiful departing visions

    Bio

    Carla Wills-Brandon always wanted to do two things professionally: be of service to others, and write. After receiving a scholarship to California State University, Fresno, she graduated with high honors and a degree in psychology. She then went on to finish a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, Fresno, an APA approved school. Her husband, Michael “Tex” Brandon, also received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from this institution. After publishing eight books, and developing a successful private practice as a State Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Carla decided to go back to school. Not interested in treading a traditional education path she completed a two year course of study and dissertation in a Doctor of Philosophy in Holistic Nutrition program at Clayton College of Holistic Health. Her dissertation was titled “A Four Pronged Approach to the Holistic Treatment of Food Disorders.”

    Carla has published 12 books, one of which was a "Publishers Weekly Best Seller." Her most recent book, “Beyond The Chase: Breaking Your Obsessions That Sabotage True Intimacy” is proving to be a great success. She has also lectured across the U.S. and U.K., and has appeared on numerous national radio and television programs, such as Coast To Coast Radio with George Noory, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Montel Williams, Art Bell’s Coast To Coast Radio Show, Uri Geller’s Coast To Coast Radio Show and Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher. Considered a relationship and trauma expert, many of her media appearances have been dedicated to discussing healthy intimacy, recovery from sexual abuse and trauma resolution. She has also appeared on several programs with her husband Michael, as the two clinicians often see couples in their private practice as a couple.

    Aside from her work with relationships, intimacy issues, sexual dysfunction, addiction, trauma resolution and grief, Carla has been investigating spirituality and other related phenomenon for over a decade. Her major radio show appearances have been dedicated to topics ranging from Near Death Experiences, After Death Communications, Deathbed Visions and Premonitions. She is considered to be one of the leading researchers into deathbed visions. In her private practice, grief work, lectures and workshops she teaches people how to integrate these unusual encounters into everyday living.

    Currently, she is working on another project involving the mysterious departing visions of the dying. Carla and her family live on an island just off the coast of Texas in a 100-year-old historical home, which recently survived hurricane Ike in 2008. She and her husband, Dr. Michael Brandon Ph.D., a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, have been in private practice for over two decades. They have been married for over 40 years. The Brandons have two sons, Joshua and Aaron. Along with this, they have one Golden Retriever, four kitties, one Chinese box turtle, and two Love Birds. Sadly, the tarantula did not survive hurricane Ike.

    https://www.drcarlawillsbrandon.com/

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J1LYL55

    My Book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP


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    1 hr
  • Near Death Experience With Verified Out of Body Evidence
    Feb 23 2026

    In this episode I'm talking to Barbara Bartolome about her two near death experiences.

    Barbara is a two time NDEr. Her first NDE resulted from a childhood illness at 18 months of age, when a high fever caused her to go into convulsions and stop breathing, which resulted in cardiac arrest. As the ambulance arrived outside their home, her parents and older siblings witnessed her spontaneously regain consciousness, after an 8-10 minute period without heart or lung activity. She was not informed of this early-life event until her siblings finally disclosed it, when she was 53 years old.

    Her second NDE occurred when she went into cardiac arrest due to a radiology technician's error during a pre-surgery diagnostic procedure in 1987, at St. Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara. Finding herself above the x-ray table, she watched the medical team's resuscitation efforts and experienced the presence of a magnificent spiritual being. After being successfully resuscitated, she accurately recounted to the astonished medical team their individual comments and actions during the resuscitation, which was quite alarming to the team. Because her medical team and the hospital staff then strictly avoided discussing her experience with her, she rarely spoke about it for over twenty years, until she found the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (www.nderf.org) in 2007 and the IANDS organization (www.iands.org) in 2009.

    These organizations helped to connect her to others who had experienced NDEs and they expanded her understanding of death and the survival of consciousness beyond death, allowing her to finally assimilate her experiences, as well as to understand their impact upon her life and worldview. She considers her NDEs as incredible gifts, deeply feeling that it is her life purpose to share what they teach with others.

    Barbara founded IANDS Santa Barbara in August 2011 and is strongly committed to the IANDS organization's purpose in promoting responsible, multi-disciplinary exploration of near-death and similar experiences, examining their effects on people’s lives, and their implications for the change to our beliefs about life, death, afterlife, consciousness, and human purpose. She serves as the IANDS designated Group Mentor to all IANDS groups in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Hawaii. Barbara has talked about her NDE experiences in videos, documentaries, podcasts, radio and TV shows, and at conferences, symposiums, hospitals, hospices, colleges, churches, and at various groups all over the country, and beyond!

    IANDS Santa Barbara https://www.iandssb.com/#/

    My Book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP


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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • An Amazing Near Death Experience
    Feb 16 2026

    This week I'm talking to Nancy Rynes about her Near Death Experience.

    Nancy Rynes was riding her bicycle when a large SUV approached. The vehicle’s driver, absorbed in texting while driving, plowed right into Rynes.

    Suffering from severe spinal and head injuries, Rynes knew she was dying. At that moment, she underwent the first of two life-changing near-death experiences—her consciousness split between her frightened, injured self laying on the road, and an impartial, peaceful observer-consciousness who watched as first responders fought to keep her alive. Her second, more lengthy near-death experience came days later, during the surgery that attempted to repair her traumatized spine.

    Rynes, a scientist and confirmed skeptic, was shown the wonders of Heaven, experiencing joy, love, and beauty on such a grand scale that she wept at its magnitude. She then met and spoke with a Being who gave her insights into life, love, and the wonders of Spirit. After her tour of Heaven, she was returned to her body to begin the long, slow process of recovering from injuries her surgeon affirms should have killed her.

    In her book 'Awakenings from the Light', Rynes recounts the amazing sights of Heaven, and explains the remarkable insights into life she returned with to share with others. She was gifted with a second chance—a precious opportunity to bring a little bit of Heaven into her life on Earth. The wisdom she passes on could well change your life as well.

    Bio

    My friends call me "the atheist who went to Heaven."

    I would never have thought I would be writing a book about spirituality and near-death experiences since I spent my adult life as a scientist and skeptic. Born Roman Catholic, I became an atheist, and later an agnostic, beginning in my late teens when I went off to university to study geology and archaeology. While I started out my education as an artist (at Chicago's American Academy of Art), I went on to earn a degree in geology from Northern Illinois University, then attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, for Masters-level coursework. The sciences taught me to base my views on things I could measure, and since spiritual matters were not measurable, for me they did not exist.

    During most of my adult life, a part of me hoped there was something more than just physical reality, but I never saw evidence for it. The skepticism remained until January of 2014, when the Divine gave me a wake-up call: an opportunity to return to Spirit! Since my near-death experience, I have returned to a more spiritual and creative life based on the wisdom I learned in Heaven.

    In the past, I have been an archeological artist, geologist, data analyst, and science/technical writer. But then Heaven threw me a curveball, one I desperately needed. Now I am writing and teaching about my experience of the Divine, what happens when we die, and how we can bring a little bit of "Heaven" to our lives our lives on Earth.

    Nancy's Book,

    https://www.amazon.com/Awakenings-Light-Lessons-Death-Experience-ebook/dp/B010MBT4QC

    My Book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP


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    55 mins
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