The life story of Nadia McCaffrey, a
three-time near-death experiencer,
is a message of hope and inspiration.

She views her life as a journey that,
after many turns, has led to the joy of
connecting with her true purpose.

But it began very differently.
This rendition of her story was
compiled from an interview and
subsequent conversations over two
years.
Nadia was sent to a fulltime boarding
school at only four years of age, and
was raised primarily in a strict
Catholic convent.
She recalls early childhood as a time
of nagging sadness, of feeling
different and out of place in a
seemingly harsh world.

MESSENGER OF HOPE:

THE STORY OF NADIA MCCAFFREY
A THREE-TIME NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCER
Interviewed by Loraine Magda

From Vital Signs Magazine
Her first near-death experience (NDE) occurred at age seven while spending
thesummer with her grandparents on their estate in central France.

Nadia remembers…

“I was running outside in the field but stopped abruptly. I realizedthat I had disturbed a red asp, a deadly snake. It stayed
perfectly still for a long moment, curled on its tail in a perfect circle, the upperbody straight up and two eyes apparently piercing
into my soul. Iwas petrified. I wanted to scream. I could not move. A terrible pain suddenly flooded my senses—the snake
moved away very quickly with undulating movements as two tiny spots of blood appeared onmy left ankle.
Only then did I start screaming.
Somehow I was no longer afraid; yet I knew with certainty that death was near.”Her grandmother heard her screams and came
running down the hill. Realizing what had happened, she picked Nadia up andquickly carried her inside. The snake that bit Nadia
typically can kill adults, and her onset of sickness was immediate.
She soon lostconsciousness, lapsing into a coma that would last ten days. During this time she recalls floating above her body and
watching events below. These included seeing her heavily swollen leg and hearingthe doctors talk about possible amputation. She
recalls viewing all this with a sense of detachment and even repulsion: “Slipping out of my gray skin, the site of this puffy form
was unbearable to behold. I could not comprehend that this was, in fact, me.
My leg was three times its normal size and this frightened me because it was the same mottled color as the snake.
”Floating above her body, Nadia suddenly became aware of a feminine presence—a being of light who introduced herself to
Nadia as:
‘Je suis ta petite Maman du ciel’ (I am your little mother of the sky).
Nadia recalls: “She was so beautiful. She was everything…you just can’t really...describe the peace, the love, the well being....
She opened her arms...and I just wanted to curl up...and touch her. She made me understand that I couldn‘t do that, I couldn‘t
come any closer, that she had things to communicate to me, so I stopped. I stayed there floating in mid-air.”
Nadia was told that she was going to be all right, and would recover.

She was told she had work to do in the world and, although its nature would unfold only over time, she would eventually come to
represent hope for people.

Presented with no choice in the matter, Nadia returned to her body.Although her NDE produced some positive aftereffects, such
as increased confidence and heightened intuitive abilities, Nadia did not want to be back in this world. Having experienced such
beauty and perfect love on the other side, shesimply wanted to go back. “I had no choice.
My body claimed me and I was overwhelmed by pain and sadness,unable to completely understand what had happened to me.
I refused to talk to anyone. I hated being back in this dimension and I was filled with resentment.
I longed to slip out of my painful and disfigured body. I was not able to share my experience with anyone and ended up hurting
people as I rejected their offers of friendship.
Both doctors and others said it was a miracle that I had survived.
I finally learned how to walk with a cane. My body took months to recover, but my spirit didn’t heal so quickly!” The next ten
years were tumultuous and rebellious.
With the desire to go back becoming even stronger over time, at age seventeen Nadia tried to commit suicide. Her first attempt,
overdosing on medicinal pills, failed because a friend found her and rushed her to a hospital. Months later, after release from close
psychological surveillance, she tried again—and succeeded to the extent of having
a second near-death experience: “I left my body and I saw people running around, pumping, working on me...people crying...I
just left…I was in the corner, I remember that very clearly. I saw the whole thing, but I just turned away. I wanted to go to the
light.
So I did. I saw something that looked like a tunnel, but it was not exactly like you would imagine a tunnel.... It was sort of a dark
hole. And I...knew that the light was beyond, so I kind of floated there...I was kind of sucked [in] by it.... The speed was
incredible. I just went there, and finally that thing [the tunnel] sort of threw me out and here I was...in the light, the love, the
peace so profound... I was part of the Light again.”

When I asked Nadia how it felt to be there, her response was unexpected: “That was what I wanted, exactly what I [had] wanted
all these years. And…nobody [was] there [i.e., no “little mother of the sky” as in her first NDE]. Just me in this bright light.

VITAL SIGNS Nadia McCaffrey
Continued on next page 4

And I heard this huge voice, a man’s voice this time, saying ‘You can’t stay, you have to go back, you have a lot of work to do.
You haven’t even begun yet.’”  Although accustomed to arguing herway through most situations, Nadia states unequivocally,
“Youdon’t argue with that voice.”

Despondent and depressed, Nadia would turn for the worse before getting better. Soon after this NDE her life bottomed out. She
married impulsively and divorced six months later. A few years later she remarried and moved to the US. Then in 1980 Nadia
moved to French Polynesia, and it was here that she began to discover she was able to help people. Her service was to begin
shortly. She began to notice the effect she had on others—people seemed to be drawn toward her. She felt a kind of fearless
compassion, and her intuitive abilities increased to the point that she could often read people’s thoughts. She began to help others
in various ways, through social activism and acts of kindness.

She explains: “Once I understood that I couldn‘t go back, I stopped fighting the world and began trying to pass on the
love that I received to those around me.”

Having lost all fear of death—or life—Nadia began to work with the dying, the homeless and the disadvantaged. Nevertheless,
though her work was bringing a greater sense of satisfaction, Nadia still didn’t feel she had a choice in being here.

On December 22, 1999, more than thirty years after her second NDE, Nadia had a third NDE—this time of the
“empathic”variety. An empathic NDE is said to occur when the experiencer “feels” another person’s death experience as if it
were one’s own experience.

This experience was to truly change her life. Nadia had by now been working with the dying for many years, and felt so attuned
to clients and loved ones that she often knew—even from miles distant—when they were about to depart this life.
She had shared the visions of many clients on their death beds, a time when departed loved ones may appear and communicate
with the dying person in preparation for transition to the other side.

This third experience began with sudden intense pain in her solar plexus as she sat by the bed of a dying person in a nursing home
(although she feels it was not necessarily directly connected with this particular dying person).
Aware that something was wrong, Nadia quickly phoned home and left a message that she was still working but feeling odd, and
if anything should happen she would call again. As she put down the phone, in her words:

“I was sitting in a green chair when I realized...my hair was glowing. But not the chair. I was in a golden light. Then I found
myself in another dimension. As I opened my eyes in this other place, I was shown pictures...flashing pictures of the past, the
present, and two different futures—one of destruction and fear, the other bright and peaceful. And this enormously powerful
voice said: ‘Do you want to come Home?’ “At the same time the pictures [were] showing my involvement
with the center [a healing center described below]. [I saw] endless lines of people waiting to be helped. The sky was grey and
reddish in color. There was a very tall and wide dome [on the healing center]. Everyone was waiting to be admitted inside. The
voice asked again, louder: ‘Do you want to come Home?’ I never thought that I would say this, but I said: ‘No I can‘t, I must
help these people and fulfill my mission.’

Nadia was shown that, if she chose, she would build a self-sustainablecenter. It would be built according to very specific plans
involving sacred geometry and natural resources.
The center would serve as a haven providing home-like palliative care, assistance for the dying, healing, and education to show
people how to reconnect with the earth and thereby regain lost values. The center would be run by volunteers, and services would
be free to all who came there. Nadia was shown that the center would be a model for many more to come, and would benefit
thousands in many ways. She has no doubt of the support being provided to get the center up and running. At the time of
interview she had land set aside and had begun recruiting volunteers, including an architect specializing in sacred geometry.

The flashing pictures also showed Nadia that the future of our planet depends on our own actions, individually and collectively.
She feels the future scenarios were a warning that there is not much time left in which to choose our future. She now feels called
to speak about the message she was given, especially the image of the center.

I asked Nadia how she now feels about being on the earth, in light of her previous strong resistance.
She replied, “I am totallyat peace. In fact it’s like being there [with the Light], except that you’re here. It’s not nearly as
powerful, but the feeling is the same.”

She said that when she connects with this feeling she has a sense of knowing she is doing what she is meant to be doing. Having
had the choice of whether to come back or not has also made a significant difference in her outlook on her life, which she no
longer views as a burden. She expresses her understanding of the meaning and purpose of life thus: “We are here to love one
another and to serve one another"

MESSENGER OF HOPE
VITAL SIGNS
Continued from page 3

‘You can’t stay, you have to go back,you have a lot of work to do.
You haven’t even begun yet.’

I realize that love can never fail and, with this certainty born of my near-death experiences, I am like a mountain.
No doubts can shake my faith in what I know to be true.
It is certainty that I can pass along to people who are dying and to those who are troubled and in turmoil, living
in a world that erodes their faith in goodness and often fails to make a lot of sense.”

Nadia McCaffrey is the founder of www.Angel-Staff.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation providing all-
volunteer services for people at the end of life, as well as workshops and coaching for end-of-life caregivers.
Considerable information is available on the website (www.angel-staff.org), from which the following are

Excerpted:
Our angels are a group of beautiful and peaceful human beings who are dedicated to bringing their light into the darkness
that we are experiencing today. Our Angelstaff of volunteers are always ready to provide bereavement support and
resources to those who ask for assistance. Angelstaff participates with NMC-International,
an NGO working to bring help and assistance to women and children who have survived the trauma of war. We are a non-
religious non-denominational (interfaith) service organization. We respect each and everyone’s beliefs regardless of
religion, culture, race, age or gender.

Nadia McCaffrey’s war began in June 2004, the day her only son Patrick died in northern Iraq. At a
time when the Pentagon was trying to keep photographs of returning coffins out of the media, Nadia
invited the press to the Sacramento airport when her son’s flag-draped coffin was flown home. The
scene attracted international attention.

Nadia was outspoken about her opposition to the war, as well as her son’s growing reservations at the time he was killed.
Dedicating herself to the anti-war movement, she has appeared at dozens of anti-war vigils, peace rallies. She give aid to
families of other soldiers killed in action or wounded, as well as war veterans suffering from PTSD or TBI. www.
veteransvillage.org

In December 2004 she traveled to Jordan with a humanitarian aid delegation that distributed $600,000 in humanitarian aid
for children victims in the Iraqi city of Fallouja (plans to travel inside Iraq were cancelled due to security concerns) and met
with Iraqi mothers who had lost children in the fighting. “My dream,” she said, “was to be able to find at least one Iraqi
mother who, like me, suffered a loss, and be able to have an exchange without hatred or anger about the way we feel.
Talk about what to do to start working for peace. And do it mother to mother, with no governments.”
“The basic meaning of the mission is peace,” she stated. “It’s a first step, and I hope that other people will follow.” Asked
about her safety abroad, Nadia replied in a strong, clear voice: “I am not afraid. I am not afraid of dying.”

Nadia said she asked herself why she was still alive while her son was dead.

“When I thought of this, and Patrick, I would have taken his place with joy, but that’s not the way the plan was.
I think there are no coincidences, no accidents. Things happen because we are meant to do certain things.
It’s totally up to us to fulfill what we have been left to do. “Both Patrick’s death and the war itself drive me to do
something.
I have opposed every war, always. But with this war it became stronger. I won’t stop anymore, never. I also believe that
the road to end the war goes from people to people, and from mother to mother, not through the government. For mothers
especially there is a very important task in the struggle against the war. What we need is a worldwide alliance against the
war. We, the people, have to unite our powers. To me, human rights are the highest priority.”

As with many NDErs, Nadia’s message is about the importance of love and the hope that exists for a
world abundant with love. She views her life as a testimony to the joy that can be experienced by
connecting with one’s life purpose. For example, after her son was killed in the Iraq conflict, Nadia
pursued the purpose of starting a “Bridge of Peace” by forgiving the Iraqis who had killed him and
traveled to the Middle East to hug Iraqi mothers who also have suffered losses in the war.
North-California I.A.N.D.S. Chapters
"This is my story"
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