When Amber Cavanagh thought she was going to die, the unconscious mother could hear her family saying goodbye before entering the ‘meeting point of heaven’.
The 43-year-old psychic medium from Vancouver Island, Canada, suffered two strokes in December 2021 and was rushed to hospital for emergency brain surgery.
Although she was semi-conscious and unable to communicate clearly, her family and doctors believed she could not hear them as they said goodbye.
Mrs Cavanagh said: “It was terrible. I heard the nurses say to my children, “Say whatever you want to your mother now, because you probably won’t see her again.”
When she was flown by helicopter to another hospital, she closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she found herself in another dimension.
Now, in her book, she has revealed where we go before entering heaven and the surprising decision we have to make when we get there.
Amber Cavanagh was 43 when she suffered two strokes and entered heaven’s ‘meeting point’, she writes in her new book
The mother, from Canada, said she met guides at the crossing who gave her two options: stay there or return to her family
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Ms Cavanagh, who led a healthy lifestyle before her stroke, was watching a film with her family when she suddenly had an ‘excruciating’ migraine and went to bed early.
However, a few hours later she woke up and fell to the ground because the right side of her body had become completely paralyzed and she went blind in one eye.
In an attempt to call for help, she banged on the wall to alert her husband, who immediately called an ambulance and rushed her to the hospital.
Mrs Cavanagh had suffered a stroke and was semi-conscious. Doctors then told her she was having a second stroke and her brain was bleeding ‘uncontrollably’.
To stop the bleeding, she was given a blood clotting drug that has a 50 percent survival rate due to its intense effects on the body.
However, this treatment was unsuccessful and she was flown to a nearby hospital for emergency brain surgery.
Initially, Mrs Cavanagh thought the whole ordeal was a ‘dream’, but when she arrived at hospital, reality set in.
Throughout the emergency, her family assumed she couldn’t hear them – but she could, leaving her ‘petrified’.
She said: ‘It was horrible. It seemed more than likely that I would actually die.
“I heard the nurses say to my children, ‘Say whatever you want to your mother now, because you probably won’t see her again.’
“I was literally terrified, and I was non-verbal. Everyone thought I was just mumbling in a state of unconsciousness, when in reality I was trying to talk to them to find out what was going on.”
Mrs Cavanagh added: ‘I heard everyone saying goodbye and crying, not knowing I was still there.
“It’s still to this day one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever experienced.”
While in the helicopter, she remembers taking one last look at the sun before closing her eyes.
When she opened them again, she said she was in another dimension, having crossed over to the ‘other side’.
Mrs Cavanagh said: ‘I could see my physical body beneath me, but I could also see my children being driven to hospital by their grandparents. I could see my husband crying over my body.
‘There was no way to go to the light, or people calling me – I just watched over everything and everyone.’
Ms Cavanagh said yes [in] an incredible garden, where I could really feel the grass under my feet’
Mrs Cavanagh said she could see her husband (pictured above) ‘crying over’ her body
She added: “I went to what I can only describe as Heaven’s ‘meeting point’ before I officially transitioned. There was no fear, only love.
‘I looked like the best version of myself and had everyone I had ever loved who was no longer with us around me – including my childhood dogs.
‘There was no who, what, why, when or where to answer anymore, I just knew everything. Around me was an incredible garden, where I could really feel the grass under my feet.
“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.”
However, Mrs Cavanagh’s ‘guides’ left her to make a difficult decision: ‘Whether I wanted to be with my children again, or stay in this place where I felt peace like I never had before.’
If she stayed, her family would suffer and have to overcome the intense grief of her death.
But when she returned to her physical body, she would undergo a grueling recovery – and regret the decision.
Mrs Cavanagh said: ‘It sounds bad but I wasn’t scared for my family because I knew everything would be fine.’
However, she knew it wasn’t her time to die yet. She closed her eyes and suddenly she was back in her own body.
She said, “It was so hard to know that I had to leave this place that had an overwhelming glow of loving light.”
She remained in the hospital for the next two weeks, and doctors were convinced she would need to remain in care for the rest of her life.
However, within hours she was talking and moving.
She said: ‘They still don’t understand. My doctor says I’m his “miracle patient” because I didn’t even need the surgery as planned.
‘Yes, there was a lot of damage to my body and brain, but I was alive – and that was the most important thing.’
Mrs Cavanagh added: “It really wasn’t easy because it was like coming home, I didn’t want to leave.
‘I had to learn everything again; how to walk, talk and eat. It’s put my family through hell and back, but now I’m not afraid of dying or going to the other side. I’m afraid I can’t go back to that place again.’
Over the course of ten weeks, the psychic medium had to relearn all her basic functions and undergo physical therapy and speech therapy.
Although she is still numb on the right side of her body, life has returned to some semblance of normal, although her experience has taught her a valuable lesson and changed her outlook on life.
The psychic medium was given a 50/50 chance of survival upon arrival at the hospital after her stroke
While an experience like Ms. Cavanagh’s may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, near-death experiences and people who have “crossed over” or gone to the “other side” and returned are a topic of interest for doctors and researchers. for years.
Dr. Jeffrey Long – a cancer expert who practices in Kentucky – has studied thousands of near-death cases. His research has uncovered similarities between different accounts of people’s brushes with death and upended what he originally believed happened when someone died.
In 1998, he and his wife founded the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation, a website that allows people around the world to document their own spiritual and out-of-body experiences.
He has so far collected more than 5,000 stories in more than 30 languages from people of different religions and cultural backgrounds.
Through his decades of research, Dr. Long has concluded that approximately 45 percent of near-death experiences involve an out-of-body experience, in which people’s consciousness is separated from their physical being.
About three-quarters of those who experienced this indicated that they wanted to stay in the afterlife because of the immense love and joy that overwhelmed them. More than half say they have seen a ‘heavenly’ realm and about a quarter of them are shrouded in light or mist.
Ms Cavanagh hopes her story will help people be less afraid of dying and help us realize that we are never truly alone: ’Death was the most incredible thing I have ever experienced. The whole experience actually made me grateful for the strokes.”
Mrs Cavanagh remained in hospital for two weeks to recover from her stroke
She added: “I have learned a lifetime of patience. There is more to life than society’s expectations of people – and there is evidence that we are not alone.
“On the other hand, there is a group of loved ones who cheer us on every day. I was stripped naked and had to build myself up again.
‘It was terrible, but also humiliating. My family and I are much closer and we don’t take life so seriously.
“It made me appreciate the beauty of life and gave me a new perspective.”
She continued, “I’m human, so I’m afraid I’m going to have another stroke, but I’m not afraid of dying anymore.
‘I’m afraid I’ll abandon my children too soon, because they’ve been through enough and I want to see them grow up.
‘But it’s something I’ll never regret, it’s given me the chance to grieve the old me and welcome this new chapter.
‘Sometimes, when I’m having a hard day, I close my eyes and remember feeling the grass under my feet.
‘I then wonder if I made the right decision; but I know I was given the choice to spread the message that we are all here for a reason.”
Amber has written a book, On the stroke of eternityhoping she can educate people about her experiences and what happens when someone is on the brink of death.