Transcending Physical Realms: Venia Hill's Profound Encounter with Spirituality and Near-Death Experience

You know you need something, you're just not sure what. You've been listening, you're doing the work, but there's still this feeling that you're circling the same place, like you're waiting for the thing that finally moves you. Now maybe you've thought about working with me one-on-one. Maybe something's held you back, the timing, the money, or you're just not sure you're ready yet. I get that. And I want you to know there's still a place for you. I built a resource for exactly this moment, guided meditations for when the waves hit and you just need to breathe. Workbooks to help you get out of your head and onto the page, ebooks on what near-death experiences tell us about the people we've lost, and whether they're really gone, a full course for widows and widowers who are ready to find their way back to living, and a full course for the evidence of the afterlife. And all of it is available for pay what you want. Nobody gets turned away because of money. I think these resources are valuable, but I don't want to hold them back because you don't have the money to pay for them. You don't have to wait until you're ready for coaching. The next step might be a lot smaller than you think. To find out, go to grief2growth.com/store. That's grief, the numeral 2, growth.com/store. And check out the resources I've made for you. Hey everybody, this is Brian D Smith back with another episode of Grief 2 Growth. I've got a very special guest with me today. Her name is Venna Hill. She's born and raised in Philadelphia. She's an Air Force veteran. She's traveled and resided in several countries. And she had a profound NDE in her late teens while she was visiting Italy. And she's going to tell us about that. And then she had a visit through the void years later. She's had several extraordinary experiences in her life. And they all combine to solidify the message that she's here to share with us today. So she's going to start off by telling us about her experience. But we really want to do is just get to the messages that she's got for all of us, because I think you're going to find them to be fascinating. So with that, I want to introduce everybody to Venna Hill. Hello.

Hello, Veena.

I'm sorry.

Veena, that's all right.

So Veena, thanks for being here. I've seen some of your other interviews. I know you've got a really interesting story. So I want to start off with your experience, of course, but we also want to get into the lessons that you learned.

Well, first, thank you for having me. And as I expressed, I think what you're doing is very important work for a lot of people. And I think it, it helps a lot. I've actually checked your, your channel out too. So it's— you're doing some very good work. So thank you for that. And yes, I did have— I've had several experiences in my lifetime. Some are sound unbelievable. And yet I've had people tell me that, you know, as unbelievable as they sound, and as fantastic as they sound, they believed every word of it. And I guess, probably because you just can't make it up. Some of the stuff I went through, you really can't make it up. But anyway, I was 17 when I really had my first major experience, and that was the near-death experience where I literally died. I was on a trip to Italy, and I was on the bus after we got off the airport. I was on the bus, had loaded all our luggage up, and prior to getting on the bus, I had taken some caffeine pills. And I took way too many. And by the time I was getting on the bus, the caffeine was just like I could almost come out of my skin. That's how much it was just going through my system. And of course, back then they were called, I believe, NoDoz. And I don't think they put any kind of warnings on what it would do. But I started to feel my heart race, and it raced so much. And to the point where I could hear it in my ears. And I don't know if anyone has ever experienced that, but it's a very scary feeling. Because you're literally hearing your heart in your ears. And it was going like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And at one point, it reached a peak, and I felt something in my chest. Obviously my heart, it did something really strange. And then the sound in my ear, my heartbeat started slowing down, slowing down, slowing down. And it actually just came to a stop, complete stop. And at that moment, I opened my mouth to scream. But I had lost complete sensation in my body. Like, I, I was not attached to my body anymore physically, on a physiological level. And right at that moment, my, my spirit just popped and literally popped out of my body. And I was looking at my fleshly self on this bus. And not only myself, but I could just see everything around me. And I didn't even know I had died at that point. That's the funny thing, Brian. It didn't really occur to me that I was dead. I just knew something had happened. And that's where things just really got really interesting. And the start of the near-death experience.

Well, I'm sure at 17, you probably had— I would guess you had no concept of like, I could die. And you probably hadn't heard much about or anything about near-death experiences at that point. So being outside of your body, I'm sure, was— had to be disorienting.

Oh, it was, it was disorienting. But you feel so First of all, when I first popped out of my body, I did eventually take like what you would call a spiritual form. But immediately after, I was pure consciousness. I just— there was no breakdown in, in a barrier there on the bus. So I— you feel so alive. Death doesn't even occur to you because you're so alive. And you're, you're so hyper-aware of everything. There's a, there's an awareness that, you know, I joked with someone one time, I said, if I could have the same awareness at the casino, I'd be like a millionaire, because you could just see everything. Like through everything, everything, you know, and, and I remember one of the very first things that, that I became conscious of when I did pop out of my body was everything is energy. Everything has energy, everything on that bus had energy. And not just the bus, but I was conscious of things outside of the bus. The cars. There were mountains there. Italy is a very mountainous country. I don't know if a lot of people are aware of that. But we were passing by some. They were emitting energy. The people on the bus, they had different energy fields around them, which I know now is the auric field. Back then, I had no clue what an aura was, none whatsoever. So I'm seeing these these beautiful— some of them were beautiful, some of them not— but these streams of energy around people. And I had, like, I didn't know what it was. But yeah, so at 17, there's so much you're not aware of. You're feeling great, you don't think you can die. But I was very dead. And looking— it's funny you say that, because looking at my body on the bus, ever, like I said, everyone else's auric field was so expressive or colorful. And I mean, they weren't all the same. You know, they were different. But mine, my body hardly had any, any energy coming from it. There was— it was so little. And I remember not doing like a double take, but I, I twice looked at people, their, their lights, and then I looked at my body and it's like, there's like nothing, there's none of that coming from it hardly. You know. So, and by the way, we look totally different outside of our bodies than we do like when we're looking in a mirror. Our bodies are not the same because you're seeing things, the whole— I guess, in a mirror, it's what, 1 or 2 dimensions? Well, when you're looking at yourself from outside of yourself, it's you're seeing the whole slab of— which is what it is— meat.

Yeah.

And for lack of a better word.

Yeah. So was there— I've heard some people have NDEs say, well, there was like really no attachment to my body. How did you feel about your body at that point?

There was no— there is— there was no attachment. But I just felt like I knew it was me. But you're so, you're so alive, Brian, and you're so in that consciousness, that it's like looking at this laptop right now, almost the attachment you feel towards it. It's like, okay, subjectively, yeah, I know this is like my body, but I don't, I don't feel attached to it in that sense. But there was a moment though, I did have like some type of compassion for myself when I was looking down at myself. Because things were running through my mind about the vena that was laying there and the life that she had lived up to that point. And so there was a very detached compassion towards me. Okay, but along with that, you have like an understanding and awareness more of she was just going through the motions of life. Does that make sense?

Yeah.

Nothing really affected her. Truly, she was just going through the emotions of life. But I did have a sense of compassion for me. Yeah, even though I was very detached from me, from the body. I'm making sense.

Yeah, well, I think so. But you know, it's interesting because we, a lot of times we identify with our bodies, we'll say this is me.. And I think, you know, for people like myself that have been doing this as long as I have, I will say this is my body, I suppose this is me. So I think when people come outside of it, it's like, well, no, I'm not dead because this is me, right? You're, you're, the essence of you is now removed from the body. So the body is just like, I've heard it's like taking off old clothes.

It is, it seriously is. And that's one of the reasons from a birth, from that point forward, race took on a whole different meaning for me. And especially when we will talk about this. But when I, when I did go into the actual spiritual realm, and made connection with my actual soul, you realize how race is literally nothing. I mean, it's, it's It is just a cover. And that is it. I mean, that's not to take away from having racial pride, or recognizing ourselves, our species, because we are racial here. Okay. But our true essence, there's no race, there's no race, no gender. No, none of that. This is literally a covering. And when you see yourself in true spiritual form, you realize you are purely spiritual. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

You know, one of the hardest things about grief, most of the people in your life just don't get it. They want you to be further along than you are. They get uncomfortable when you bring it up. So you stop bringing it up. And that's why I started writing. My Substack is where I go deeper, thoughts I don't always get to in the podcast, essays on consciousness, on continuing bonds, on what it actually means to carry a loss and still build a life. The stuff that used to keep me up at night, written out in a way that I hope meets you in the morning. But here's what I didn't expect when I started it, the community that showed up. People who are doing exactly what you're doing, listening, learning, trying to find their footing. Readers who comment, who share their own stories, who remind each other that none of us are as alone in this as we feel. And that's what the Substack has become, a place to go deeper with me and to find your people. It's free to subscribe. Find me at grief2growth.com/substack. That's grief, the numeral 2, growth.com/substack, or just go to Substack and search for Grief to Growth. I hope to see you there. Wow, it's really, really interesting you bring it up. I just want to interject this here when you said that, because for me, I resisted the idea of race for the first 20+ years of my life. I'm like, I'm not a Black— I mean, I am Black, But like, everybody keeps telling me, you're Black, you're Black, you have to be Black. I'm like, no, I'm just— I'm human. I'm a person. And, you know, but then eventually you take on that identity when you're here, because you're forced on you.

And that's what you are here. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm a Black woman.

Right, right.

I'm a Black woman here. Yeah. But what I'm trying to say is, I have had the privilege of seeing my true form. And my true form is spiritual. And it has nothing to do with race, race, sex, creed, none of that. And so while we're here, I totally get racial pride. I get all that. I have racial pride. Okay. But our, like I said, our true spiritual form, we have to understand, is none of that. Yeah, it involves none of that. As a matter of fact, it never even came up when I was on the other side.

Yeah. So let's talk about your experiences on the other side. So now you're out of your body and you're on the bus. Yeah.

Yes. And I had, you know, some more, you know, experiences on the bus. And then eventually, this being kind of, I'll say, niggled or touched my consciousness with its consciousness. There was no speaking. But it was like a major thought transference of we're going to go now. Like, it was identified as my guide, and we're, we're out of here. And so we left the bus, it took me out of the bus, we went out of the bus, and we landed in this white realm, which is the only— it wasn't a tunnel, did not go through a tunnel. None of that. We landed right in this white, pure, loving realm, the most reverent place. I just cannot describe it fully. But I will say that Imagine a room that is all white. And you're just completely 100% at peace there. Okay, you're infused with so much love. So much divinity. You couldn't and can't think a negative thought. And it just— this— the energies of this room just permeate through your entire being and even deeper. And imagine that in this room, you just feel like you finally have come home. That's what this realm felt like to me. I'm actually sort of experiencing it again.

And I can tell.

Yeah. And when I close my eyes, I'm literally like trying to relive it again so that I could explain it and express it in the most clearest way that I can. But I can tell you, and I'm just right at this moment. I'm getting goosebumps. But I'll just say that this realm was not necessarily like a place. But it was the atmosphere of the spiritual world that permeates throughout it all. Harmonious, divine, loving, pure, pure, pure love. Yeah. And in this realm, and the being that, that took me there, I knew that they were still there, but I was so at peace. And so aware of the spiritual world through this white realm, that I knew that the being was there, my guide, that they identified themselves to me as my guide. But they were so— not standoffish, but so in the background and just allowing me to experience this wonderful beautiful realm. And in this realm, I saw, I saw many different souls. They were just streaming through. I sensed them, but they weren't intrusive on my, on my peace there, or none of that. I just knew that they were there. They were experiencing it. But we were just, we just left each other alone because we were just absorbing and experiencing this realm. And I saw so much, but one of the things that I did see was, or did experience, was my soul. So I, when I first went into the realm, I was just conscious basically of, of me and this guy. And then I started experiencing other souls in this realm. But then I realized my true highest self, which is the soul— your soul is your highest being of the you of you, I'll just put it that way. I realized that the Veena that was in the white room was not the whole Veena. Hmm. It was not the ultimate Veena. The ultimate Veena was my soul, which I did make a connection with. But it was so much more than this, that vina that just went to Italy and died on a bus. And I'm laughing because I was such an— that vina was not insignificant, but such a small part of the overall vina. This, the overall vina had been around for ever, and had experienced so much and had created so much, and was completely in tune with these high— the, the higher realms of the spiritual world. And believe it or not, I was not in the highest realm of the spiritual world, because there's so many layers over there. Just so many. But my soul, which I did connect with, I experienced a lot of that through that connection. But that Veena was just one small aspect of the overall soul that we all have. And is our, our ultimate the Brian of Brian, which is not even Brian. Hmm.

So yeah, I don't want to interrupt, but I— so this might be confusing some people because we think that I am my soul, you know, that my soul incarnates in my body. You're saying there's something beyond this, and this is just a small part of what we ultimately are.

So the soul never incarnates.

Ever.

People— and I know that when I first told people that, they were like, what? No, that's, that's not true. I'm here. The soul, the highest aspect of you, me, and all of us, which is the soul, never incarnates. It cannot, it cannot be confined to this 3D. However, the soul has— can send spiritual offshoots here and elsewhere, and it does. It sends out, you know, think of the soul as like the head of an octopus. And the octopus has what, like 8 legs or something, or maybe some more, I don't know. But those legs are, are you and me, and wherever else the soul wants to experience life. Because there's many more, there's many more worlds, there are many more existences we can live and experience. This is just one of them. But so your soul, this is not Venus's soul. This is an aspect of Venus's soul. And now, mind you, we're always connected. You cannot, you know, disconnect that octopus leg from its head, or whatever you call it.

I don't know.

Right. But is it a head? I don't know.

Yeah. I think it's a great analogy.

Yeah. Okay. I just want to make it as clear as possible. That is what I saw in the realm. And it forever— it just imprinted on my brain. And, and once I started processing that throughout my life and understanding, I realized just how powerful our souls are. Our souls are immensely powerful. But this is just one aspect of it. Like the rays of a sun, we're just one of those rays.

Interesting. Yeah, that's a really interesting concept. And it's something— it's I've heard it put other ways. Frankie— Frances Key wrote some books called the team books. And the way she describes it, she says, when we're incarnated here, I think the analogy she uses is like, she's like, you're sitting on the bank of a river and your big toe is in the water. She goes, that's, that's what it's like being incarnated as a human, you know, and our soul is the rest of the rest of the body.

Yes, yes. We are not— this is, this is not our soul. Trust me, it's not. It's not. And if you think about it, the soul is so— it is so powerful, and it's indestructible. It cannot be diminished. The soul can never be controlled, destroyed, diminished in any way. However, aspects of the soul can be, like in our human form we can be, or if we were— we decided to incarnate elsewhere, You know, yes. But the soul is very powerful. It is literally a part of the source of all. Wow.

So when you experienced your soul, what was that like? I mean, you described it as being powerful. Was it like coming home? Do you reconnect with your soul? Because I think a lot of us are saying, well, okay, well, then I'd be— am I going to be absorbed? Am I going to be lost?

Oh, gosh, no, no, no. Like I said, the soul can never be diminished in any way or form. And there was no— I still had my complete identity as Veena. And but I— it was a connection made to it, but it wasn't an absorption into it. Because I would imagine that if I did completely absorb back into my soul, we wouldn't be talking now.

Right?

Okay, so, but there was a major connection to it. And I gotta tell you, there was a reverence in connecting to it. I felt such a— not that I— there's no worship on the other side, okay? But I felt such a reverence towards my soul, because the soul, you know, is, is is the highest aspect of any of us. And it contains all the divinity and love and pureness of the other side. And so when you're face to face with your soul, you are face to face with that divinity, that love, that purity. And it's, it's a beautiful and awe-inspiring moment. Not that I wanted to be like this to my, you know, my, my soul. But it was just a beautiful connect to a part, a major part of me, or the me of me. Like, it allowed— I was allowed to experience the soul. But always I knew that this— I could not merge with it yet. That's just the best way I can describe it.

Yeah, well, you're describing concepts that I believe are beyond our human understanding. So we're trying, we're all trying desperately.

Yeah, I really am. I always want— when I decided, finally, after all these years to really come out with this, I said that I was just going to do it and be as forthcoming as I could be with almost everything I experienced. Because it's— I would want to know. You know, I would want to know.

Yeah.

And, and so I really—

I'm still here.

I'm still okay. Okay. I really want to bring out as much of it as I can. But unfortunately, I'm a tad bit limited by language.

Yes. Well, and again, you're— I— language has only evolved to describe what we can comprehend, right? So when you go beyond something we can comprehend, we don't have the language. So you just have to do the best you can, which is, is what you're doing. Uh, for anybody that's wondering, my camera just went off for some reason, but I'm still here, so just go ahead.

Well, and you know, I don't know if you believe in it, but Mercury is retrograde and it That's the kind of stuff that happens with Mercury.

Yeah, yeah, it's really weird because it's just, just went off for absolutely no reason. But it does. It's not important that people see me. So, so what else happened when you were on the other side?

So I was, oh my goodness, I mean, there was a bunch of knowledge that I collected. While I was in the white realm. And then eventually, my guide said that we're going to travel. And I had a brief, brief moment. I'll say a questioning moment. Like, was this okay? And that type of thing. But you know, my soul, since I had made that connection, it— you're back, by the way.

Yeah.

It said that it was like, it just infused me with, it's okay. It's okay. And I got that from my inner guttural, instinctive level. And so I was game to travel. And we went through this— it wasn't a tunnel, but it was like a portal of energy, I'll just say. And we went out into space. And I'll just say this, before I had that near-death experience, I astral traveled once in my— was laying in bed and I astral traveled, my body zoomed out into space. And I think I was there for nanoseconds, Brian, and then it was like, oh my God, it was just so overwhelming. And I zoomed right back in. I just literally, I just couldn't take it. It was too much. But this time, I was with this being, my guide. And when we went out there, it was still overwhelming. And it was still massive. And it was still endless and everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean front, back, side, everywhere, up, down. I mean, just— but I just felt not protected because there wasn't— there wasn't like a threat. But I felt energy of them just kind of like comfort and calming. And so I was able to see so much out there. And I gotta tell you, there's some stuff going on out there that a lot of it we don't even see through our telescopes, probably never will. Some of it we do see, and we've been lied to. There's so many planets out there that we're not they're not telling us about. There's so much space traffic out there. Hmm. A lot of space traffic. I actually saw souls traveling in orb-type forms. And by the way, my guide was always an orb, always presented itself as an orb to me, never as a humanoid type figure, never as a, even a spiritual figure. It stayed an orb the entire time. I couldn't tell you if they were male or female. That was deliberately kept from me. And I was never given their name. And I understand now why they did tell me kind of partly during the experience, you know, that names, spiritual names are very powerful, and they, they contain a lot of energy behind them. And so that is why we're not usually given, given spiritual names, like you and I have spiritual names on the other side. But We're rarely given them here because of the power that they contain. And it's, it's symbolic, and it's energy. And it's, it's a lot in that one name.

Yeah.

And it fits us perfectly. But anyway, and sorry for rambling off like that. But so there were orbs that were traveling out in space that I saw. And some of them I knew were humans. And some weren't. Some were other types of species that were in orb form traveling. And some were like, very determined to get to their destination. And some were just kind of hanging out, sort of like we were. Because I was in an orb form at that point, too. And I gotta tell you, space is literally mind-blowing. I don't know if you've ever meditated and went out into space.

I've never been out of my body that I've been wearing. Okay.

Well, It's, it's, it's mind-blowing. It really is. And there's so many dimensions out there.

I was just going to ask you to interrupt you for a moment, because there is the space that we know of in our 3 dimensions, but there's also dimensions beyond this. So do you think you were seeing other dimensions? Are we actually in our dimension as well?

Absolutely. I— well, somewhere in our dimension, for sure. I did see quite a few ships traveling, and I knew that they were three-dimensional. But I also saw some in other dimensions. There's a lot of dimensional traffic. And I described in the book that if you— there's more traffic out in space than like on an Atlanta highway. Except it's, it's You know, it's— you've got alien species traveling, you've got souls traveling. And some are— some of the aliens are three-dimensional, but a lot of them aren't. They're, you know, there's a lot of inter— interdimensional travel going on out there.

Well, you know, it's interesting you bring up But our government, you said they, they're lying to us, and typically I would go to government. Um, you know, there is some disclosure now of, you know, some admission of UFOs or aliens that, that we've been in contact with, even though we've known for decades that, uh, you know, we've known from anecdotal stories, but the government's starting to finally admit it.

Yes. Um, and you know, I, I, I I have a YouTube channel and I answer questions and answers. And one of the questions was, does the government— someone asked, does the government, um, are they deliberately covering up, uh, you know, the alien existence, etc., etc., etc.? Absolutely. And they have been forever. But people will be surprised, I think, to know that a lot of that is due to the aliens' request. In other words, if you think about it, if today we woke up and they said, yes, aliens definitely exist, they're here on Earth. And here they are, I think our entire society would probably collapse. I think for some, it would just be too, too much mentally for some. Um, some would have breakdowns, others would be happy. Um, but I think it's more done more for our protection, and a lot of it is because of the aliens want, um, to remain incognito. Yes, the government covers up, absolutely. 100%. But it's not all because they're doing it just to keep it from us. It would have a devastating effect on a lot of the population of the world. And this I saw, I saw that. Because, you know, when I was coming up, and especially when I had this experience, they completely were denying the existence of aliens, right? And so for me to actually see them, and, you know, at one point, I saw this humongous sphere out in space that was three-dimensional, by the way. And it was not— it was maybe the size of Earth, but a little bit smaller. Okay. And I was told by my guide that it could not show me this particular species of this, of beings, because it would just be too much for me to handle.

Hmm.

Now, mind you, at another point, we went to another portion or section of space. And I was actually told kind of where it was. But not like in longitude and latitude, because I don't have a scientific type mind. And I know my guide knew that. And I still don't. But the beings that I saw, Brian, I gotta tell you, they were If you saw them now, you would probably just, I don't know, pass out. They were— they just had two vertical slits, no nose, no, no mouth, just vertical slits. And the slits open this way. They did have ears. And they were like a crystalline, a bio-crystalline type of entity. And, and so was their ship. Their ship was just about the same type of material as their body. And at 17, it was—

I—

you just can't make any parallels. So mind you, I came from the government saying there's no aliens, we're it, that's it, to seeing this species. And it was just like, it was too much. It was, it was just, I was, I was so disinterested, it wasn't even funny. And but I saw, I, my guide let me see just enough of these creatures. And their ship and how they did their ship. To remember, and I guess to talk about it now.

Yeah, well, you know, as you're saying this, I think, I wonder how much of this comes through in our, in our fiction, in our movies and stuff, because you think about movies like Star Wars with the different aliens and Star Trek, you know, Gene Roddenberry back in the '60s, showing all the different species and most recently James Cameron with Avatar. And I've understood that James Cameron had an NDE. So you know that? I believe so. I believe that's true. Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Okay. You know, you know, our government has told us on the one hand, there's nothing else out there. But meanwhile, we've got all kinds of imagination, at least of what is out there.

Yeah, yes. And a lot of the, a lot of people are, you know, fed that information, you know, when they're either sleeping and they're traveling to the other side and getting these downloads.

Right.

Right. And a lot of times our guides, you know, will give us this information. If it's time for stuff, certain things to get out. You know, so those Gene Roddenberrys and James Camerons, you said he had a near-death experience.

I believe that's true. Yeah, maybe he did.

Yes. But yeah, we're fed that information, or it's just through our travels, because we do a lot of traveling.

Right.

You know, when we're asleep, right?

The pictures behind you, did you, did you paint those?

Or— Yes, I did. Okay, so those are those representations of some of your experiences, I assume, from the near-death experience. So yeah, this one here. While out in space, I saw one of these— this looks like a nebula. And you think, yeah, that's a nebula, right? Okay. Except I experienced that out in space. But it was an actual living being that was very intelligent, and it was moving with purpose out there.

Wow.

Okay. And so I've never been able to look at a nebula the same again. I'm not saying that they're all alive like that. But this, the one that I experienced was very much alive. There was a— I was allowed to see an asteroid moving. And on this asteroid was this creature. It was huge. And it looked like a sort of like a hippopotamus, but a huge hippopotamus out on this asteroid. And mind you, it was— it wasn't enclosed in anything. There was nothing housing it. It was just on this asteroid. And back then, I had no clue what I know you've heard of a tardigrade.

I'm not familiar with that now.

Okay, good. Because I wasn't. So that's good. Back then I wasn't. But they are, they are beings, they're microscopic beings that can withstand nuclear energy. Okay. And they're basically indestructible. And when I saw this a few years ago, this being through a microscope, because that's how tiny it is, it looked exactly like this huge being I saw on this asteroid. Hmm, okay. And putting two and two together, I'm like, oh my goodness, this is just a bigger, larger version of the tardigrade. And it made sense because, like I said, the tardigrade, you can't even destroy it with nuclear energy. So what's out in space? Nuclear type of energy, right? And this being was on this asteroid, and it was fine. So it was just like I said, a bigger version of the tardigrade. But yeah, so That was one of the creatures. This, this sun, I— one of the last places I was taken to during the near-death experience was a water planet. And the planet had a blue sun.

Hmm.

Beautiful, beautiful blue sun. And so I tried to capture that here. And it was just a full water planet. There was very little landmass on this planet. And there were creatures on this planet. Marine life creatures, mer-creatures. And let me tell you, they don't look like our sweet little mermaid cartoons or in our movies here. They're, they're quite frightening looking, some of them.

Interesting. Wow.

Yes. But yes, both of these, and I've done several more. But yes.

Okay. So, so you had to expect— you did some traveling. Sounds like there's several places. And I want to tell people, it's— you're gonna have to get the book to really, I think, get a full aspect of this because it sounds like there's a lot more than we can cover in an hour.

Yeah, absolutely.

But how, how did you eventually come back into your body?

So my, my guide, after, after we come from the water world, we went back into the white realm. And I was taught quite a few things. And I was also taken to a lovely, beautiful garden, meadow, whatever you want to call it. But to answer your question, do you mean the physiological, like how I was put back in?

Well, I was there because it's interesting. I've heard some people say just like suddenly I was back. Some people said there was a conversation. Are you going back? You know, so what was that process like?

It was definitely a process. It wasn't a boom, you're back. No. And, you know, sometimes when I, when I've heard people say, yeah, boom, I was just right back in, I'm like, wow, because mine was such a process.

Hmm.

And it wasn't instantaneous. You literally, you can feel your spiritual aspect, trying to fit back into your body. And you're, you're not connected to your body right away, your body has to reconnect to those sensations of the physical form. So it's, it's, it's like a sucking type motion, or process. And it's, it's not instantaneous.

Was there a conversation about— I meant to ask, was there a conversation about coming back? Was it like, were you given a choice?

No, no choice. It was, it was basically understood there was abs— I didn't, I didn't want to stay. I didn't, as much as I loved it, and felt that it was home. But during the near-death experience, I saw why I was here.

Wow. Okay.

And so I understood that I still had more time here.

Okay.

So it wasn't like a No, I'm not going back. I'm staying. No. And it was no forcing, none of that.

It was—

I was understood.

Why were you here? What did you remember what they told you about why you were here?

It wasn't what I was told, but what I saw.

Okay.

I saw, and I saw the purpose and the reason, you know, for me being here and you know, this time. And there was quite a few reasons for it. I did have some, some karmic obligations with some family. I also agreed to help certain people. And a few other extremely personal reasons why.

Sure.

But yeah, I I knew why I was here. So it was no question of me coming back. And I, I have no problem living life like I want to finish out this time.

Yeah, I think I deal with a lot of people that have been through tragedies, you know, people that have lost children, etc. And so when we hear about realms where there's peace and love and kaparita, and we think about all the all the chaos that we go through on Earth, people sometimes struggle with, like, why, why am I still here? Absolutely.

Absolutely. You know, you'd be surprised, Brian, how much we choose during our life, the situations we go through, and why we put ourselves through those situations. And believe it or not, there is— there are reasons for them. Some of them are karmic, but not all of them are. Some of them are to help others with their karma. There's so many reasons for why we go through certain things.

So how much of life is planned and how much of life is just random luck?

There's almost no randomness, believe it or not. And, you know, people don't like when I say that. But almost everything is planned. You know, Love, which is the, the, the foundation of everything. Okay, whether in this world, or the spiritual world, it is perfect, and it's harmonious. Okay, and that never changes, that never changes. However, in this world, in this realm, this 3D human existence, We don't always see it that way, because of how we need to learn certain things. So certain things are presented to us in a way that we can understand. And they don't always seem perfect, or sweet, or loving. But that's just love fitting the experience to our understanding. So for instance, Here's a good example of that. If I'm walking and the ground suddenly drops off, but I don't see that the ground is going to drop off, so does love be its sweet, loving, beautiful self and say, hey, Bina, be careful because the ground's getting ready to drop off? Or does love say, yo, watch out, be careful? Which one is going to get my attention?

But the second one.

Yeah, exactly. Because that's how I need to understand it. So that's how love works. It doesn't always seem loving. But it always is. It's just in ways that we have to understand. And some things we make hard for ourselves. You know, depending on where we're at mentally, emotionally, etc.

Right.

But so most of what we go through, believe it or not, is planned. And you'd be, you'd be amazed that even the little experiences that happened to us are planned.

Yeah, that's the conclusion I'm starting to come to. And I know, again, people will say, well, why would— well, first of all, I guess the first question is, who's planning it? And the second question is, why would I plan it?

And it is you. It is you. It is me. We have a lot of say in what goes on in our lives. Our soul does, put it that way. When we're planning it, we have tremendous amount of say. Now, there is a thing called divine wisdom. And in other words, that divine wisdom or that love will kind of step in sometimes and tailor situations in ways that we really needed, and maybe that we didn't see fit to make ourselves experience. But that Divine Love, that Divine Wisdom will, will step in and, and tailor things for us in ways that we need to understand.

Well, you know, you just made a couple of really important distinctions there. Because, you know, the thing about— you said, I think you said our soul plans a lot for us. And so sometimes people say, well, why would I plan this? And it's— I think the way I've always put people is like, I think you're planning it from your higher self, you're looking at it from your, from your higher, the higher perspective that this is good for me, almost kind of like a parent would to a child. You know, sometimes the parent will tell, tell a child to do this or do that, and the child's like, yeah, that's not really what I want to do. But the parents knows better and then tells the child out of love, this is the better thing for you.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And you have to remember something, Brian, when you're, when you are on the other side, you see this much, everything. Okay. But here, you're only seeing this much. So when you're on that other side, when you're on the other side and looking at things through a 360-degree perspective, shall we say, you see the short and long term on everything. You see all sides. Here, you're only seeing it basically from one side. And that's kind of it. And so naturally, you know, since we're not getting the bigger picture here, things seem unfair. It doesn't, you know, bad luck. No, luck has very little to do with anything there. The luck factor doesn't even play. It is, like I said, that divine wisdom that is seeing the whole bigger picture. You know, I talked about one of the, one of the things I was shown, my guide showed me a couple of my lives, and one of my lives, I was a very cruel teenager. Unfortunately, I didn't live past being a teenager in one of these lives. And I was in one of the Nordic countries, like Norway or Sweden, one of those type countries. But anyway, I loved inflicting pain. And I did it to a lot of kids. My so-called friends. And it was very disheartening seeing that. But I— it was just something I just got such pleasure from doing. And in this life, I've had some very painful operations. And I have a lot of scars. Different scars. And a lot of them are permanent. Most of them are permanent. More so than your average person, shall we say. And let me tell you something, Brian, I earned those scars. I mean, the pain that went behind them, I earned them. And there was a connection, there's definitely a connection between that teen that I was. And this pain and, and these scars that I have in this life. Now, to your average onlooker, you're saying, my God, V, you've been terribly unlucky, you know, yeesh. But no, the bigger picture is that this was something that really needed to be flushed out.

Interesting. Okay. So we talk about reincarnation, obviously, you believe that reincarnation is true. So, but I've heard it also described that there is no time on the other side, right? How do past lives fit into that?

And they're not necessarily, you know, we say past lives, but they're like concurrent. They are, they are concurrent. And they're in the now. So although we're saying past, and I guess Earth time, it would, it would have been a past life of Brian D Smith, in Earth-wise. But when I was on the other side, seeing this, I experienced it almost as is right next to the life that I was living.

Right?

Did you get that?

That's my understanding. Yeah, that's my understanding. That's why I wanted to see if you shared that. Because we do talk about past lives. And people say, well, I'm— this is happening because this happened before.

Right?

My understanding, and this is from the Seth material, it kind of all overlaps.

It does.

And this life that we're living now also influences our other lives simultaneously.

It does. It does. And, you know, off that same exact point, but just slightly different. The soul, you know, the soul can and does send out offshoots into other lives. Now, like, while I'm here, I'm existing elsewhere.

Yeah.

And experiencing other stuff. And not just necessarily in a life, but you know, there's all different types of worlds, right? It's not just human-type worlds. There's all different types of worlds, existences. And our soul is experiencing those. So, yeah, yeah, it's all concurrent. All now. All now.

Yeah, that's, that's a hard thing for us to grasp.

It is.

And I keep coming across that concept that there is no time or even space on the other side, that it's all, it's all now. And it's all here.

It is.

And our brains make up time while we're here.

We're linear thinkers, right? We have to think linearly.

Right?

That's a word. But in reality, it is all at one.

Right?

All at one, right? It's all a constant now. And you know, when I went through the void, I— that was even impressed upon me even more. It was— I saw the information I got while I went through the void. Would literally blow your mind. But I experienced it all simultaneously and understood every bit of it during my time in the void. But when I came back from the void, it was like, like, it was mind-blowing because You know, I, I'm a, I'm a linear thinker, and I had to take this and put it here, you know, thinking wise, put this here, right? You know, I even had to write down things because it was just all on top of each other. But I had no problem while I was in it.

Yeah, I think it was Einstein, spiritually. I think it was Einstein that said, it's like time is what keeps everything from happening all at once. So, right, right. Understanding is, is it our human experience, we have this experience linearly. So we, so we learned cause and effect. So we learned that this causes this, causes this, but on the other side, it's kind of all kind of jumbled together.

It is, you know, I had an experience also once. And this is definitely in the book. But my guide stopped time. Literally stopped time on a visit. And everything around me just froze during their visit. And, you know, at the time, while I was elated at seeing my guide again, and what had happened, but afterwards, I kind of understood. Did they freeze time or just put me in the now? Do you know what I'm saying?

Yes.

So maybe they didn't really freeze time. They just took me out of my sense of time. And I was in the now.

Right? Right. Yeah, I'd like to— we're running short on time. But there's several questions I want to ask you, because you cover some really interesting topics in your book. And I want to just ask you real quickly if you could answer about like, connection with our pets? Because people really have strong connections with our pets. What is— what's that about?

Listen, real quick, you're— you can edit all this, correct?

Okay.

Is it easy for you to do?

I don't typically edit, but I—

okay. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Because I did need to step away for about 3 minutes.

Oh, sure.

Yeah, do you mind that?

No, no, we just pause the recording.

And did you start? All right, great.

We go. So yeah, so I wanted to ask you about like our connection with our pets, because a lot of us, when we have very, very special connection with our pets, and you know, I know there's some debate, like, do animals have souls, which I think is a silly debate, but some people do. So what are your thoughts on that?

Yes, they do. They definitely do. They're, but their, their souls are different. You know, and there's— and what people don't understand is, you know, how can I say this? The human soul is not the only type of soul. There's, there's all different kinds of souls. There is an animal kingdom. And there's animal souls. So I don't know if you if you do believe that they have souls, but I gotta tell you, they do. And they're not like ours. But yes, they do have souls. And will we see our pets again? Absolutely.

Yeah, well, I've had 3 dogs, and I know that— I know they have souls. Just if you've ever had— if you've ever had a dog, you don't believe dogs have souls. I don't know what kind of a person that you are.

They're just different. That's all. They're just different types. But they— yeah, absolutely.

You— I think you have an answer to what autism is. So what is autism?

So I don't discuss autism. Mainly because we don't have really time to go into it. And I never want to treat it casually.

Okay.

But I will, I will just say this.

Autism.

And I do cover it much, much more in the book. But sure, autism is— let's just say that autistic people look through a different lens than you and I. And it's a It's a different spiritual type of lens. And at times, it's an extremely beautiful type of lens. But just like, you know, these glasses, I see one way, if I take them off, I can hardly see. No, but that's not comparable to autism. But in other words, they're just looking through a different spiritual perspective.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. And I refer people to the books. I know you do cover it. You do cover it in the book.

Yeah, I just don't talk about it casually or briefly. Right. Because out of respect.

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's perfectly fine. That's a great answer. What is— what are your thoughts on God?

There is no one God, guy. It's, it's— God is all, all in all. The— I call it the source, because that's what I saw, the source of all. And to break it, try to break it down and confine it to like one being, so to speak. We are all part of the source. We are all God. We are all a part of the fabric of love.

Yeah.

Which, and love is all in all, you know. So that's, that's my take.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting because I've been around for a while and everybody's, you know, trying to define God and we go grow up in Sunday school and God's this, you know, old white guy in the sky. And then we go to the point where people said, well, God is, there is no God or, you know, then Star Wars, again, going back to fiction, you know, you've got the Force, and we talk about source and stuff like that. And I'm coming to the conclusion, there's no being called God. And I was reading something the other day, and they said, you keep looking for an object, and God is not an object. So God is everything. It's the source. It's, it's the potential that we all, we all come from. So I think that makes sense. And you say there's no politics or religion on the other side. And I was looking at your Amazon page and I was looking through the reviews and some, some one was like, who— everybody gave this book 5 stars. I don't give it 5 stars because there's a bunch of liberal progressive utopian stuff in here. And I thought that was really interesting. So how would you react to his, to that comment?

Just like I'm reacting now. Yeah, I You know, when I first read that, I had to read it again because I was like, what the— you know, this person, I don't know how you literally can say a near-death experience is a liberal experience. But fine, because that's how they interpreted it. When you're on the other side, and like I say, you know, there's no politics on the other side in the spiritual realm, because there's no opposing sides. Okay, so, so, literally, there's no opposition to anything. Everything is harmonious, all one. So there is no politics, and there's no religion. And I That, I guess, is the liberal whatever that they're talking about. But if you think that you can confine the realm of love, spiritual— spirituality, harmony, perfection, peace, purity— if you think you can confine that into one religion. No, it just can't be done when you're talking about all in all. So no, there's, you know, but, but I have major respect for religions because I saw they're necessary. And I put that in the book. And so for that person to actually you know, say all that stuff and then still read the chapter on religion where I give major props to religion. Because a lot of people need religion. And it helps them. It helps a lot of people. I can't ascribe to any, just because of what I saw. But a lot of people do. And it has helped them tremendously, made them better people. So yeah, that was, that was, I don't know.

I thought that was, I thought it was funny too. I thought it was really interesting. But as you were talking, it reminded me of the song by John Lennon, the song Imagine, which, you know, imagine there's no heaven, imagine there's no religion, imagine, you know, there's, you know, all the things that divide us here. And people misinterpret that song. Because what do you, so he, you know, John Lennon was an atheist because he said there's no heaven and What do you mean there's no religion? You know, and he's like, these are things that divide us here. And you and I talked, we started off talking about race earlier on.

Yes.

There's two different levels. On the other side, there's, there's no race. On this side, we have divided by race. And so, right, I've accepted that I am perceived as a Black person. I do have racial pride. And I think our people have been through a lot, which has made us resilient people, strong people. And I'm proud of that, you know, while I'm here, because that's part of being a human being on this planet, you know, at this time. But ultimately, that's not who any of us are.

Hey, absolutely, you know, and that person who is very bigoted here will typically choose to come back as a race that they're not crazy about now. You know, they'll, you know, so I mean, you got to be careful of your hatred because, you know, that's— and if you hate on the LGBTQ, you might find yourself back as a person who loves the same sex, you know, so I mean, and I— and that's another thing. I do have a section in the book on LGBTQ, and I know that was another criticism that that person wrote. Yeah, about the liberal agenda, because I can't— I'm not gonna lie. And I'm, you know, there is none of that hatred or division over there. There isn't. So yes, it's here, but it's not over there. And that's not what I saw. So if you want to say that's a liberal agenda, fine.

But, you know, well, it's interesting once you start to believe in reincarnation, and there's a song by Logic, the rapper, and I've heard this, and he does a little piece with Neil deGrasse Tyson, and this guy is killed. And he's talking to God. And he's going through, you know, his life and everything. And he says, well, I'm going to send you back and you're going to be you know, you're gonna be this big shot, you're gonna have all this land and blah, blah, blah. And as a Black guy, he goes, and you're gonna own slaves. He goes, what? I'm gonna own— you know, it's like, no, no, I can't do that. So it's a comical play on this idea that, you know, once you really see that we're all— we all can reincarnate as anything, then you have to be very careful about what you do. And you did mention karma. I do want to come back to that maybe as we wrap up, because What's your, what's your perception of karma? You said you might find yourself back as an LGBTQ person. Does that mean someone's going to send you back as an L— as like a punishment? Or how does that work?

No, you, you basically, you and your guide will basically kind of do your life itinerary, and you'll decide that. But here's the thing with karma. Karma is not necessarily bad or good. It's just that you have to understand the universe, love, whatever you want to call it, God, the source, whatever. There's perfection, okay. And so when we— and everything, you know, is perfect balance, okay. So when we kind of have an imbalance, in an area, you're gonna have to balance that out. And so say, for instance, I just can't stand, I don't know, whoever or whatever. And I have an unhealthy imbalance towards a certain group of people. Okay, you have to balance that out. So whether you come back as one of them, or, or have a child that's one of them. Okay, however it meant, however you choose to manifest it, you'll do that in order to balance out, right, that imbalance, right? Okay, so that is basically karma. So it's not necessarily good or bad. It's just, everything will balance eventually. Our soul, our soul is perfect balance. Perfect. And so in all its experiences and all its existences, it will seek to keep that balance. However it does it, you know. So that's, that's basically what karma is. Balance.

Safina, I do appreciate you being so generous with your time today and doing this. It's been great getting to know you. Can people reach out to you? I know you have a YouTube channel. Can people reach out to you there?

Not on YouTube, but I do have an email, myndefromatogmail.com.

Okay.

I don't prefer that they use Messenger on Facebook. It's just too much to keep track of.

Sure.

Email is much better. And listen, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with you. And not only that, but your grasp on things is very— it's inspiring to me. Honestly, it's probably one of the better interviews I've had.

Thank you.

I appreciate that. On things and your, your questions. And, you know, yeah, definitely, for sure. And I've done a few.

So yeah, well, I appreciate that very much. I want to remind people of the name of the book. It's My Near-Death Experience from A to Z. It's by Vena R. It's V-E-N-I-A, the I is silent, from Vena R. You can get it on Amazon. And we just, I think, touched the surface today. So I encourage people to go out and get the book. And also, Dina has a lot of other interviews on her YouTube channel.

Yes, questions and answers. And yeah, and I definitely appreciate it. And I thank you. I thank you for some very thought-inspiring questions. Yeah.

Well, thanks. Hopefully I'll have you back one day. And but for now, enjoy the rest of your day.

All right. You too. Thank you.

Bye. Hi there, I'm really excited to tell you about my latest ebook. It's 4 Lessons That You Can Learn From a Near-Death Experience Without Going Through All the Trouble of Dying to learn them. I've been studying NDEs for several years now. I am completely convinced that not only are they 100% real, but that there's some very universal wisdom that we can get from the near-death experience. And I've distilled that down in this book into 4 short lessons. And I've also given you all the reasons why I believe that NDEs are absolutely real. So go to www.grieftogrowth.com/NDElessons to pick it up for free. www.griefthe2growth.com/NDElessons. I hope you enjoy it.