Gilles Bedard's Near-Death Experience and Music Research

"All day long, I went in and out of a coma. Around 2 a.m., the doctors came and put me on my back to examine me. Then I saw a round light at the ceiling. I felt as if I were looking at the moon. Suddenly, I couldn't see any walls. Then I saw myself from the ceiling. I was nine feet higher than my body and I was looking down at the people around me. It was very strange. I had never experienced anything like it. I could see myself, the people around me, the doctors, the nurse, my family, but I felt no emotion. It was just like watching television.

"In the blink of an eye, my vision expanded and I went into a place like a cosmos where there were twelve people standing in a half-circle. They were all pure white lights and they had no faces. Beyond them was a tunnel. I wasn't afraid. I somehow knew these people although they weren't family or people I could recognize. It was as if they were waiting for me. I asked them what was happening, and they told me, 'You are not going to die. You are going back to Earth. You have something to do.' I asked them what it was, and as soon as I asked it was as if I knew the answer. They said I would know what I had to do when the time came. At that moment, I could sense the future and I realized I had the choice to do what I wanted to do. I felt pure peace.

"What I remembered most is the music I heard when I was out of my body. It was fascinating. It was hard to tell how long the experience lasted. It could have been five seconds or half an hour. When I came back into my body, it felt very small. But it was OK. I felt calm, very warm. When I came to, around 5 a.m., I felt ready for a party. It was as if nothing had happened to me. I didn't remember the experience at that time. But a month after I left the hospital, I had another one.

"During the night, I had a sensation of falling into a tunnel. Going into it, I knew I was about to die, but just before arriving at the end of the tunnel, I woke up. It was not a dream. It was real. And it was then that I remembered the earlier experience. After I left the hospital I felt secure, as if I were in a large protective bubble. I knew I could cross the street without looking and not be hurt.

"During my convalescence, I began to remember the special sound I had heard on the other side. It was slow and calm, like very deep breathing. At this period, I had a vision. I was with a sage in the mountains and we were looking into a valley and he said, 'You are going to bring this music to the people.' Then one day, a few years later, I heard the special sound on an album by Steve Roach, a composer of electronic music. I had always been interested in music. I played the guitar and performed in a small rock group with some friends, but after I discovered that album I turned to electronic music.

Later, in 1988, I met Roach at a New Age music conference. There I found out that as a motorcycle driver, he had had a near-death experience. He said that when he wrote music, he tried to re-create the music he heard when he was in the light. I kept the experience to myself for a long time because I didn't know who to tell and I didn't want to be considered a freak. I am not afraid to talk about it now because people have heard about near-death experiences and it isn't as shocking. It happened to me and it changed my life. If people don't believe me, that's OK. I'm not a salesman for near-death experiences.

"I'm an ordinary guy. I'm into reality. The near-death experience was not a mystical experience. It was a major step that helped in my life. It opened a new dimension for me, a new way of thinking. It changed my relationships with other people, with friends, with people near me, because I realized that it's not other people who create your unhappiness. My near-death experience opened me to the possibilities of life. I know that I am going to live a long time. But I am not afraid of death now because I know what it is. People are afraid to die because they don't know what's there. But now I know that life will continue after death."

"Based on my experience, I would say that people usually have a romanticized view of the music heard during near-death experiences. That's why most people think first of new age music, harp or soothing music. From the outside, it would seem like that, but the music experienced from within is deeper and more profound than that. When I first heard the music of Tangerine Dream [www.tangerinedream-music.com] ("Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" from their CD called "Pheadra") in 1974, I thought that was almost it. But ten years later, when I heard Structures from Silence from Steve Roach [www.steveroach.com], I recognized the sound I heard on the Other Side. The music of Steve Roach is by far the most accurate and closest to the real sound of the near-death experience. When you go to the source of that sound, you then find yourself beyond the emotional side that we usually associate with the music on Earth. In my twenty-five years of research, on the television and radio programs I was invited to, I played that music and hundreds of people 'recognized' this particular sound. This happened also at the IANDS conference. 

"The music of Constance Demby [www.ConstanceDemby.com], especially the piece "Celestial Communion" from her album Set Free is the musical illustration of being bathed into the light. For many of the people who assisted at my conferences, that piece unfolded on many occasions, as a souvenir of the near-death experience for those who lived one.

"If you would like to explore the music of the near-death experience, here are some suggestions. These are a part of my workshop Sound Quest to Omega that recreates the near-death experience in music. Each listening has that power, if I may say so, to unveil forgotten memories. Each listening takes you beyond to the Source of the light. Some people who have never had a near-death experience and who came to my workshops, experienced a light experience through this music similar to the near-death experience, but without dying."

(1)  To prepare yourself for the experience, listen to "Structures from Silence" by Steve Roach. It will convey to you the light within.

(2)  For being in the presence of the light and feeling its energy, listen to "The Other Side" by Steve Roach from the CD "Dreamtime Return."

(3)  For being one with the light, listen to "The Unfolding" from Duality by Lisa Gerrard [www.LisaGerrard.com] and Pieter Bourke [www.myspace.com/PieterBourke/].

(4)  For being bathed in the light, listen to "Celestial Communion" from Set Free by Constance Demby.

(5)  For a glimpse of eternity, listen to "The Graceful Sky" from Cavern of Sirens by Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana [www.vidnaobmana.be].

(6)  For remembering, listen to "Dante's Prayer" from Book of Secrets by Loreena McKennitt [www.quinlanroad.com].