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 Ned Dougherty
is a near-death experiencer, a featured speaker, a former
director and media spokesperson for the
International Association
for Near-Death Studies. Following his near-death
experiences, Dougherty started the
Mission
of Angels Foundation through which he is a featured
speaker on life-after-death issues, near-death experiences,
Marian apparitions, and more. During his near-death
experience, Ned received visions of the future which were
published six months before the September 11th terrorist
attack. Here is what the prophecy stated: |
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"A
major terrorist attack may befall New York City
or Washington, DC, severely impacting the way we
live in the United States." |
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This prophecy given to Ned Dougherty is just one of the visions of the
future he received during his NDE. Other near-death experiencers,
such as Dannion Brinkley,
were also given visions of terrorist attack in New York and
Washington. In fact, a great number of near-death experiencers have
seen the future.
Ned Dougherty was a most successful
nightclub owner and lived life in the fast lane. Despite his
religious upbringing as a Roman Catholic, he had no interest in a
spiritual life because he didn't believe in an afterlife. He was too
busy searching for a good time to be bothered with such things. This
all changed when he had a near-death experience resulting from a
heart attack during a heated fist fight with a business associate.
His near-death experience gave him a conscious awareness of his
mission in life. The following is an excerpt from his book,
Fast Lane to Heaven, which documents his amazing experience.
This excerpt is a small part his experience and to get the full
story, I highly recommend reading his entire experience in his
outstanding book.
The Threshold of
Murder
 I
agreed to meet my friends at the restaurant after doing a
walk-through tour of Marakesh
(Ned's nightclub) and checking up on the employees who were
preparing the club for opening. I thought that the business
associate, who had already been released on bail, would have enough
sense to lie low for a couple of days after his arrest. Knowing that
I would not have to deal with him personally, I started feeling even
better as I approached the club.
Several of the club's security personnel were setting up the
stanchions and velvet ropes on the sidewalk in preparation for the
night's crowd. I walked into the front lobby and climbed the
stairwell that led to the private VIP lounge that overlooked the
main level and dance floor of the club. From my vantage point in the
VIP room, I could look out over the rest of the club and decide how
the staff was performing.
Although the VIP room was relatively dark and quiet, I sense that
someone else was in the room. It was the business associate who was
the focus of my rage. He began shouting as he walked toward me with
a drink in one hand, while pointing a finger at me with the other. I
didn't even listen to what he was saying. I just exploded; I leapt
at him with a volley of fists, knocking him backwards. As he
stumbled and fell, I lunged at him with both hands in a death-like
grip around his neck. My instincts, fueled by rage, were murderous.
As he gasped for breath, I squeezed harder, recognizing that I could
easily resolve this business association by pressing my thumb
further into the vulnerable spot at the center of his throat. As I
seriously contemplated actually murdering him, something happened
inside me that I didn't expect. I couldn't force my thumb to sink
further into his neck to cause more severe or even fatal damage.
As I recognized that some invisible
force was holding me back, I realized that some other, evil force
had overwhelmed me only moments before to the point that I was
actually contemplating murdering someone and, in a moment of
madness, had assumed that the murder would somehow be justified. For
someone who took pride in maintaining control and being patient, my
explosive reaction in this situation was as much a surprise to me as
it was to the employees who overheard the commotion.
At the moment, when my uncontrolled
and violent attempt to commit murder was abated by an inner voice,
another force in the form of a security guard grabbed me in a
body-hold from behind and pulled me away from the object of my rage.
I was as startled by the inner voice that had stopped me from
committing murder as I was by the security guard's intervention. For
several seconds, as I was being pulled from my intended prey, I
realized that only a few seconds and an unforeseen force had kept me
from committing murder and possibly spending the rest of my life in
prison.
The security guard, probably as startled by his own response as he was
to the unreality of the situation, persuaded me to go back
downstairs. As I stumbled down the stairs to the front lobby, I
concentrated on calming myself. I was gasping for air and trying to
control my breathing. I soon realized that my lungs were
hyperventilating out of control. My chest seemed to be expanding and
contracting more and more rapidly, but with each expansion and
contraction, less oxygen was reaching my lungs. I could hear my
heart pounding heavily in my chest.
As I walked out of the front lobby onto the sidewalk, I passed the
security guards and employees at the entrance who were unaware of
the explosive incident that had just taken place in the VIP room. I
was walking alone now, still trying desperately to catch my breath
as I stumbled into an alleyway. I spotted my friend Bill and
suddenly realized that something was seriously wrong. Alarms were
going off inside my head, but just as suddenly I felt surrounded by
a warm and secure feeling, despite the fact that I felt that I was
no longer in control of what was physically happening to me. For the
first time in many years, I shot a glance up into the dark sky above
me as if I was reaching to heaven to come to my aid. The warm and
secure feeling that I was experiencing must have been coming from
someplace other than from inside because what was going on
physically within my body was creating terror and trauma in my mind.
As Bill met me, I tried to tell him
I needed help, but it was too late. Although my uncontrolled
hyperventilating had ceased, so did my breathing. Time and space
stood still. My sense of hearing turned inward, and I was listening
for sounds from my now-silent lungs, which seemed to have collapsed.
Just seconds ago my heart had been pounding loudly and now,
suddenly, the pounding stopped. For a long pregnant moment,
everything before me stood still. I was dying and I knew it. In a
split second, I thought: This is it! This is how it all
ends! Suddenly, I felt what seemed like an electrical explosion in
my head, and my body collapsed to the sidewalk.
The Fast Lane to God
 As
a massive field of energy began to form in the sky directly in front
of me, I heard a loud, grinding mechanical noise as the mass of
energy shaped itself into a cylinder funneling upwards. It seemed as
if the darkness of the sky turned into liquid as the mass of energy
curled like an ocean wave and formed a perfect tunnel that stretched
into the heavens.
As I stared into the large and imposing tunnel of energy, a
shimmering, luminescent-blue field of energy began to float down the
tunnel toward me. As it rapidly approached, I watched the
luminescent-blue field mass into a form and begin to materialize
into an image of a human being. As the image composed itself, I
found myself face to face with an old friend. His name was Dan
McCampbell, but I had never expected to see him again. After all, he
had been killed in Vietnam.
As Dan and I communicated, I realized that we did not speak to each
other as we had communicated in our earthly lives. As soon as I
thought, "Dan, I recognize you," it was communicated to him. We were
communicating telepathically, which connotes a communication of
words between minds by means other than by vocal communication, but
such a description falls short of the spiritual communication we
were experiencing. We were not only communicating with words; we
were communicating with feelings and emotions. As we thought, we
also emoted our thoughts. Both thoughts and emotions were being
communicated telepathically and spiritually in a manner that far
surpassed normal human communication.
Dan communicated to me, "You are on the threshold of an important
journey. Each of these places and events that are before you are for
you to absorb as much as you can. It is important that you remember
everything that you see before you. You will be going back, and you
must go back with what you experience. You have a mission ahead of
you in your life, and this experience will guide you on that
mission."
Suddenly, I was enveloped in this brilliant golden light. The light
was more brilliant than the light emanating from the sun, many times
more powerful and radiant than the sun itself. Yet, I was not
blinded by it nor was I burned by it. Instead, the light was a
source of energy that embraced my being.
I was alone in the glow of this
light and suspended before a magnificent presence. I immediately
believed that I was in the presence of God, my Creator. I felt that
God was embracing me, and he had love for me, a love greater than
any love I had ever known on Earth. I realized that God was
bestowing his light of love on me, as his light transformed from a
brilliant golden light to a pure white light. As I became more
accepting of God's love, the light of God became brighter, of a pure
whiteness beyond description. When I sensed that my spiritual being
had received God's love to the point of overflowing, I became aware
that God was stabilizing and energizing my being in preparation for
my mission. I realized that I would be returning to earthly life and
that God was preparing and orienting me for that return.
God began to imbue me with universal
knowledge. I realized that I had always thirsted for this knowledge
and I wanted to absorb as much as I could. As I remained suspended
in God's light, I felt this knowledge penetrate and absorbed by my
spiritual being. This knowledge was flowing through me in the same
manner as God's love, pulsating through my being. Dan was back at my
side again. We descended together from God's light into a universe
of bright stars. We were again in the deepest void of space, but now
I felt comfortable in this environment as well as in my spirit body,
and I felt at home in this celestial location. As Dan and I
continued to descend, I was startled by the magnificent ethereal
structure directly below us. The heavenly structure resembled an
amphitheater similar to those found in ancient civilizations. This
amphitheater was made of a brilliant, crystal-like substance that
radiated multi-colored waves of energy throughout its form. The
amphitheater was suspended in the void of space in the same fashion
that a space station might hover in space. The amphitheater was
similar in size to a sports stadium and conveyed a great majesty.
 As
Dan and I descended closer to the amphitheater, I realized that it
was filled with thousands of spiritual beings. We hovered directly
over the structure, and I felt a vibrant energy envelop me. The
energy seemed to come from the crystalline structure of the
amphitheater. The lower we descended, the more I was drawn to the
energy.
I sensed that the thousands of spiritual beings there were also
absorbing this energy. They were sending out waves of energy to one
another as well as to Dan and me. We were now descending onto the
celestial field, which was surrounded by the large arc of the
amphitheater. Although I first felt it as energy, I recognized that
the energy emanating from the crystalline structure was also a
symphonic sound.
Soon Dan and I were suspended in the center of the celestial field
which meant that we were the focus of attention for the thousands of
spiritual beings positioned throughout the amphitheater. Above,
below, and behind us was the deep void of space. In front of us,
thousands of spiritual beings were communicating, by musical sounds,
feelings of goodwill to me. Their sounds of greeting were in harmony
with the symphonic sounds of energy emanating from the amphitheater.
Once I settled onto the celestial field, I could look directly into
the crystalline surface of the amphitheater and watch as
multi-colored prisms of light pulsated through the structure.
I was overwhelmed by the awesome sight before me, but the feelings of
love that were conveyed to me by the spiritual beings were even more
overwhelming. The spiritual beings were cheering me, conveying
loving encouragement and support. "You are doing wonderfully. We are
here to support you. Continue to do good work, and we will help you.
You are part of us, and we are part of you. We stand ready to come
to your aid when you need us, and you will. Call us. Beckon us. We
will flock to you when the time comes!"
Frankly, I was confused by all the attention. There wasn't anything
wonderful about the way I had conducted my life. Perhaps the
spiritual beings were speaking of what was yet to come. They
certainly could not have been speaking of earlier events in my life.
I thought, "How can I be doing wonderfully? I almost killed someone
tonight. Could I be justified in what I tried to do?"
Dan interceded. "You were spiritually rescued from a negative event
that was taking place in your life. You just tried to communicate a
negative thought concerning this event. You cannot speak of such
things here. There are no negative thoughts here, only positive
affirmations. They cannot hear you; they will not hear you when you
speak or think in negativity. You must be positive to perform your
mission."
I turned to my right, realizing that a group of spiritual beings had
joined us on the celestial field. This event was indeed a homecoming
for me. Among the group of spiritual beings, I recognized deceased
friends and relatives from my life. I also recognized other friends
from my spiritual life prior to my birth on Earth. I was filled with
joy when I recognized my grandparents, aunts, and uncles who had
died during my life. However, I was disappointed because I did not
see my Dad among the group. I then recognized other friends from my
life, including a girl from high school. I did not know she had
died. The feelings of love and joy that I shared with these
relatives and friends were far beyond the emotions I had shared with
them during my life. As the child of an alcoholic and broken home, I
did not communicate feelings to relatives or friends very well. In
fact, I wasn't aware that I had many feelings. Most of my feelings
were hidden inside.
Now that I was at my homecoming as a spiritual being, the greetings
were the kind that I had imagined took place in a healthy family. It
seemed as if we were celebrating every major holiday, every birth
and birthday, every wonderful event in all of our lives in a manner
that we could never celebrate as mortal human beings. I wanted this
celebration and homecoming to continue forever, but a silence
suddenly fell across the crowded amphitheater.
All attention seemed to be directed to the celestial field around me,
and a shimmering, luminescent sphere enveloped me, making me feel as
if I had stepped into a crystal globe. Although I was aware that the
crystalline sphere was suspended on the celestial field in view of
all the spiritual beings in attendance, I found myself in a
different celestial realm. Somehow the spiritual beings were still
observing me inside this crystal sphere. I realized why the hush of
silence had fallen over the crowd: My life review was about to begin
– in public, it seemed. I was aware that I was about to review every
event, thought, emotion, and experience of my life. I became aware
that the purpose of the review was for me to evaluate my life in
terms of my intended mission as a human, to review my life in a
manner that permitted me to focus on the areas that provided the
most important experiences in terms of my spiritual growth and
development.
Although I was alone in the crystalline sphere, I was aware that I was
in the presence of God and watched over by the many spiritual beings
in the amphitheater who were encouraging me with their love and
support. Nothing about my life was a secret to God, nor to the
spiritual beings, yet I did not perceive that I was being judged. I
realized that all who were part of God's spiritual creation had
fallen from God and had made mistakes in their own journeys. There
was no one among the assemblage of spiritual beings who was about to
cast the first stone at me.
[Ned then
experiences his life in complete review and is shown the future of
humankind including a message from the Archangel Micheal.]
Archangel Michael's Message
 Some
time after his near-death experience, Ned visited the Vietnam War
Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. While standing in front of a
friend's name on the wall, Ned had another near-death experience
involving the Archangel Michael. The following is the experience as
he describes it:
"I stood again in
front of the slab of granite bearing my friend's name. I thought
back to the night of July 2, when I left my body in the ambulance
and floated free to be greeted by Dan. That evening had been the
start of a long and difficult path of spiritual discovery that was
still only just beginning. It was no coincidence that I had been
drawn back to this wall on this particular night. As I reached out
to touch my friend's name on the wall, a shock of energy went
through my body. I felt my body falling to the ground. I was now
free of that body and floating above it.
"I was enveloped in an intense light. I was in the presence of a great
spiritual being. A booming voice filled the air; it was the most
powerful voice I had ever heard. It was the voice of the Archangel
Michael. I recognized that he was conveying a message of importance:
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 Your
forefathers created one nation under God, with liberty and
justice for all. These were men of high ideals, spiritually
guided and inspired to create a nation and a civilization to be
admired and respected, to set an example for the rest of the
world. In exercising their free will under God's guidance and
direction, they created a Constitution and a Bill of Rights for
every man, woman, and child to live in freedom in the pursuit of
happiness. Yet these high-minded and spiritual men were soon
replaced by others who, in the exercise of their free will,
chose to put their egos before God and to joust with God's plan.
You became a nation of
spoilers, man against man, brother against brother, government
against citizens, and the chosen nation became a warrior with
and against other nations. You have become a nation of criminals
and murderers. You murder in wars. You murder the innocent. You
murder your children. Your leaders create laws to justify the
murders, to attempt to make wrongs right, to rewrite morals and
ethics to support your own earthbound greed and desires.
You have become a nation
further and further from the spirit and the influence of God.
You have created sciences and philosophies to support activities
that only recognize earthbound realities that not only refuse to
recognize the spiritual nature of man himself, but refuse to
recognize even the existence of God.
You have taken God and his
works of prayer and meditation out of your government, out of
your institutions, out of your schools. You have done everything
you can to deny his existence, and you find yourselves in a
world filled with wars, hatred, starvation, and death, and you
do not understand why the rest of the world does not follow your
shining example.
You are a nation at war
with itself, filled with hatred, prejudice, crime, drugs, and
murder. Yet when the few of you who do look to God ask him why
all these things are allowed to happen, you do not hear his
answer.
You are members of the
human race, universally created by God and given free will
individually by divine right, and you would not wish to have it
any other way. Yet every little act of free will that man has
exercised from the beginning of time that was not in accordance
with God's plan, multiplied in its impact and its negativity on
the future of man. Every simple act of aggression multiplied
into acts of world war. Every simple act of greed multiplied
into worldwide human suffering and starvation. Every act of
destruction of God's environment on Earth multiplied into
destructive forces of nature - earthquakes, floods, pestilence,
nuclear destruction and nuclear waste. Every act of violence
escalated into acts of murder and the extermination of ethnic
people for their appearance or beliefs.
Yet, God created a nation
of high ideals for you to survive other empires and
civilizations that crumbled into oblivion, for their leaders
placed themselves as men above God, and now those empires and
civilizations are but piles of dust or buried under the waters.
You sit on the edge of the new millennium, poised for the future
of humankind, and you are headed, like all great civilizations
of the past, to be reduced to piles of dust, to be covered over
by the waters.
Yet, God comes to you
again, to appeal to you as a people, to appeal to you as a
nation, to appeal to your leaders. His army of angels is
visiting upon you with a life force of energy, a spiritual
energy radiated by the Creator to all humankind. Many of you
feel the vibrancy of his energy and his divine presence. He is
communicating with you spiritually, telling you to raise
yourselves to the level of spiritual transformation that is
necessary for those of you who hear him to spread his message
and his energy, to recognize that he is coming.
Guided by prayer and
meditation, all men, women, and children may answer his call,
but it must be soon. Time is running out! The angels are coming!
Do you hear them? Are you listening?
Are you listening? |
As the Archangel
Michael's message ended in a haunting echo, I began to float gently
back down into my body. Several people were standing over it as it
lay sprawled on the sidewalk at the base of the wall. Further away,
I could see a team of EMTs with a gurney rushing toward my body.
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