Mind-Blowing NDE: From Atheism to Spiritual Awakening After a Near-Death Experience! | Ray Catania

I was in my bedroom, which was directly above the kitchen at the time, and there was a gas leak. I inhaled so much gas. That was the problem. So I try to get out of bed. When I try to get up, most of my body is paralyzed. I can't move my legs or my head. And I managed to inch my way, kind of like pull myself to the edge of the bed. I fell. I fell out of it, and I fell face first onto the. Onto the floor. And the reason I didn't feel any pain is because at that moment, I was no longer in that body. I was above it. I was looking down on my lifeless body. There was that being who's. Who's been there every time I nearly died to pull me out of that situation. For some reason, I'm not meant to go yet.

And I'd like to welcome to the show Ray Catania. Ray, thank you so much for being here.

Remy, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. It's a privilege.

If you don't mind, I'd love to jump straight into it and maybe start by asking you if you could share more about your childhood and how it influenced your initial beliefs about religion and spirituality.

Sure. So I was. Excuse me. I was raised in a Christian home, and Christianity, well, I kind of rebelled against it, and I believe that it was because I was rebelling against my. My family, because I guess I. You could say I grew up in a. An environment that was less than perfect. There was a lot of drama and trauma and a lot of fighting and things of that nature that went on in my household as a child that made me withdraw and try to isolate and hide myself, you know, and separate myself from what was going on in the home. It was. It was uncomfortable. I would hide for many, many hours, you know, in my room or in the basement or outside. I was just trying to get away from what was transpiring. So. But keep in mind, I was raised Christian, and that was. That was the way it was and nothing else. It could not be really disputed. However, when I was spending all that time isolated, we didn't have computers or cell phones. You know, I was. I was young, so I'm. I'm much older than you are. It was just me and me, you know, staring at a wall or staring at something. And it was. So I would go into my own self, my mind, and I would create places that I could visit and go. And what would happen eventually is that I learned. I didn't know this at the time, but I started to be able to See energy. I started. It wasn't just a wall that I was looking at, but I could see that it wasn't just a wall, that there were energetic lines in that wall. It wasn't a white wall or a blue wall. It now became an energetic wall. And if I put myself into that state of trance, I could see it anywhere. And I didn't think that this was a big deal. I thought everybody could do this, you know, So I thought nothing of it. Didn't really say too much about it, because if I ever said that these entities that I eventually could communicate with because the energy was taking on, I had imaginary friends. That's what I thought they were, was imaginary friends. But they, they were, they. They would answer me, right? And we can have conversations now, of course, that's the beginning of my mediumship, but I have no idea of this at that time. So I take that to my parents and what happens is, you know, oh, I'm going to hell, and, you know, never tell anybody that that's not real, you're crazy, don't do you know, etc. Etc. Etc. You can imagine. So I would just keep that silent and not discuss it. Um, and so it was around the age of 20, when I'm still living in that household. And this is when I have my nde. And this is the catalyst. This is. This is the thing that blows everything open. I was in my bedroom, which was directly above the kitchen at the time, and the stove ran on natural gas and there was a gas leak. Now, nobody knew, of course, and the gas would rise and it was going up into my bedroom. So I was breathing it in because I was sleeping just above the stoves, so to speak. And in the morning, I guess my mom came down to turn on the stove, make breakfast or what have you. And there was a big ball of flames. The wall caught fire, but it was small, it was contained, there was smoke, there was fire. But the way I understand it, my father was able to put it out rather quickly with a fire extent. We sure. So it wasn't the smoke and it wasn't the fire, but I inhaled so much gas that was the problem. So here's what happens. The fire trucks come, the police department comes to the house, and I hear all this noise downstairs. I'm still sleeping, technically, right? And I hear all this noise. It wakes me up and I want to know what's going on downstairs. So I try to get out of bed and. And this is the first sign that something is very wrong. Because when I try to get up. Most of my body is paralyzed. I can't move my legs or my head. I can't yell. I couldn't move my face. You know, it was. It was very scary in that moment. And my right arm worked my left arm, so. So. And I managed to inch my way, kind of like pull myself to the edge of the bed, just inch by inch. I would pass out a couple of times and then the noises downstairs would make wake me back up again. And eventually, when I got to the very edge of the bed, I fell. I fell out of it and I fell face first onto the. Onto the floor. Now I remember hitting my face and I remember waiting for pain. But the pain never came. And that was very strange. And the reason I didn't feel any pain is because at that moment, I was no longer in that body. I was above it. I was looking down on my lifeless body. And I was. It was a square room and I was in the corner and I was looking down on myself. Now, that was not scary for some reason. I don't know why, but it actually felt calming and it felt amazing. There was this white, beautiful light that came from the other side, adjacent corner. And it was shining on my energetic self. Not my dead self, but my energetic self. And this light is just absolutely beautiful. It's love and painlessness and happiness and euphoria. And I was. I was commingled. I was one with that light. So there was no separating me and the light. And I could go into it further, I could enter it and continue. It was like a tunnel. And at the end was a being who's told me, ray, it's okay to come into the light. It wasn't set exactly like that because it's a transmission of information. Like, I'm not hearing anything. It's just a transmission. But the being says it's okay to come into the light. So the more I go in, the more the euphoria increases. So it. It feels better and better as I go further and further. So I want to go to the other side, very much so. But I get, I don't know, maybe a quarter of the way or halfway. I don't know exactly what it was, but my father kicks in the door of the. Of the bedroom. Now, he must have heard me hit the floor. So he came running upstairs and he found me on the floor, not breathing, and he scooped me up and he was yelling for the paramedics, help. Help. Help. And he was really distraught. And, you know, believe it or not, I was kind of surprised to see that because we didn't have a good relationship like that. Like, I just never really felt that closeness from him. You know, he was kind of like a tough guy and everything was, you know, a little different. So when I saw that and I. And I saw that love that he had for me, I wanted to return. Now I'm not saying that's why I got to go back, because I really have no idea. But I did ask if I could go back because I saw that and I said something like, I can't leave him that way or something. And the next thing I remember is I woke up now I'm not in that. I wasn't in his arms anymore. I was. When I. When I came to, I was actually downstairs. I was on the living room floor. All the paramedics are around me and they're working on me, you know, doing what paramedics do, you know, resuscitation. And. And I woke up and I came to and you still have that certain amount of euphoria that's kind of running through your body. And I was like, guys, guys, you know, what are you doing? Stop. I didn't know what was going on. I was like, I feel great, you know, like, get off me. I'm. I'm great. And they're like, kid, you're not great. Trust me, you're anything but great right now. You're lucky to be alive. And I was like, what are you talking about? Did you, did you see the. Did you see the light? Did you hear the voice? And now these guys are looking at each other like there's something wrong with this character, right? So I immediately shut up before I wound up in a wrong hospital, you know, because they started to think I was crazy or on drugs or something like that. So I just kept my mouth shut and they took me to the hospital. And I'm just trying to process what the heck just happened, you know, because here I am clinging, trying to be an atheist, really. And again, it goes back to my rebelling against my parents beliefs. I would have rebelled against whatever religion they were. I'm not picking on Christianity, whatever they were, I would have went the other way. That's just how it was. So I went as far as I could to the other side, which is atheism. Probably not even understanding it. But also, I will say that religion really didn't resonate with me because, you know, if there was a loving God who could do anything, well, then why do some people suffer more than others? Why do I have to endure what I have to endure. And also, why do other kids on the other side of the world have no food? And we're celebrating Thanksgiving? Something seems wrong with that. You know what I mean? So it just did not make sense to me. Something had to be wrong there. So that's what pushed me to the atheism arena, if you will. And it was a short time. I imagine about a year or maybe two later that after that. Nd when I move out and I get my first apartment, and it's like, you know, it's my bachelor pad. So I'm all excited. This is my bachelor pad. We're going to have. I don't know if you remember the movie Chicks and Guns and Fire Trucks. What was that called? Bachelor Party was the movie. You're too young to know that movie. It's like a 1980s movie, but. Excuse me. Anyway, so I was all excited. I'm thinking it's going to be parties all the time, and this is going to be great. None of that ever happened because from the time we moved into this apartment, I had a roommate, but he was never there. This room, this apartment, was filled with entities. So if being a kid and being able to see energy is not enough, I now crossed over and came back. I'm a direct portal for them into this realm, and they know that. And when I say they, I'm talking about the deceased in the fourth realm. And so I. It was as though the whole room would be filled. You know that feeling you get when you're. You feel like you're being watched, and then you turn around and sure enough, there is somebody looking at you? Well, I would get the feeling, but I would turn around, there'd be nobody there. Or it would just be like a black line that shoots across the room or one of those little swirly things out of the. Out of my corner of my eye. And. And this was really starting to have an effect because I could feel the presence. I knew they were there. I knew something was there. I knew I wasn't crazy, or at least I thought I wasn't crazy. And the apartment itself, everything that was electrical would malfunction. And I mean everything. So television phones. We had landlines in those days, and the phones were just cut out, you know, I remember having a conversation with one of my friends, and I was kidding around and jest. I said, you know, I think. I think my house is haunted. And the phone went click. And I called him back, and I said, why'd you hang up on me? He goes, I didn't hang up on you. You hung up on me. And I said, no, no, no, no, no. Well, anyway, forget that for a moment. What I was saying is I think my house is haunted. Click. And it goes out again. And. And I'm like, they are getting carried away, you know. And then the alarm would go off and I would get up thinking somebody's breaking in and there's no one there. So I must have called the maintenance guy like 150 times to come to my apartment and check it out. Finally he comes and says, listen, don't ever call me again. There is nothing wrong with your apartment. You're crazy. And I said, okay, maybe I'm crazy. So the this went on. I lived there for 10 months and it worsened over time. I guess in hindsight, it's because I wasn't paying attention to what was they were trying to say to me. I also didn't know how. I wasn't educated on this. I had no idea. So I wasn't trying to be dismissive. I just didn't know what to do with it. So what did I do? Well, I was 20 something, I drank and I took drugs. And that's what I would do to avoid this and to be able to sleep. Because I had severe sleep disorder. I could not sleep. And. And I know it's because they were constantly, energetically changing the room. So I move out of that apartment and I go to another apartment with a fresh start, and I'm like, okay, this is going to be the place. This is going to be the party place, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I move in. It's the same thing all over again. So the place is not haunted, quote, unquote, Ray's haunted. And wherever Ray goes, they're coming. And I need to accept this. But remember, I. Everybody's telling me I'm crazy. So that's starting to resonate. Like I'm starting to believe I'm crazy. So I start to take the attitude, well, I'm just going to live it up and I'm gonna drink and I'm gonna do drugs and I'm gonna live life on the edge and I'm gonna do all, you know, whatever I want to do because I'm crazy and I'm gonna die anyway. So I put myself in really bad situations. I work for some shady characters, criminals. And although I'm not participating in the criminal activity, I work in the businesses in which they run. One night after hours, I'm tending bar and there's gunshots, and I duck beneath the bar to Try to hide. And I don't know how I'm going to get out of this room. I don't know who's shooting at who. All I know is I hear, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. So I'm hiding under the bar, trying to figure out how I'm going to get out of this room alive. And here comes this being that was the same one that was at the end of the tunnel and says, side door, side door, side door. Well, the side door. In order for me to get to the side door, I will be seen by the shooter or shooters. I can't just, you know, I can't just get up and walk to the side door. But I have nowhere else to go. So I do it and I run and I get to that side door. But that's not the end of it because you have to go out that door and then you kind of have to make a left really quick, a hard left, and you got to go down this long corridor which leads you to another side door, and that takes you to the parking lot. And I did make it, obviously. And when I got out there, don't you know, I parked my car right outside that door. And I had never, ever parked my car there. I literally had my own private parking space on the other side of the building that I didn't use that day for whatever reason, I put my car there and I got out of there. And that being has been with me numerous times when I've had near death experiences. I call those near death experiences. The one that the NDE is a real death experience, trust me. But I've had several situations where I almost died. And in another one that I didn't realize this until later, who the being was. But I was 10 years old and my parents took me to the beach and I swam out too far and the lifeguards were bringing in everybody because the undertow was really bad. Now there was 10 kids on that side and I was all by myself on the other side. So the lifeguard goes to save 10. Not the one, I'm the one. So I start going under and I'm waving, trying to get anybody's attention, doing anything that I possibly can, and I start to panic. And when panic sets in, that's the worst thing that can happen. So I, in that moment, I just feel like this is the end. I'm very young, I don't know what to do. I'm starting to panic. And there's this being that says. And when I say, says again, it's just A transmission of information. I have no other way to explain this. He says, calm down, swim sideways, take all the time you need. Calm down, swim sideways, take all the time you need. And I can't calm down because I'm a little kid. So that happens for me. It just a feeling of warmth overtook my entire body. And then I did what he said. I started to swim on an angle. And then, and that's, I later learned that's how you get out of an undertow. I didn't know, but if you're trapped in an undertow, you swim on an angle and eventually you'll get to shore. It'll take you a very long time, but you'll live. So I just swam really, really slowly, didn't panic. He took the panic away. And I just took my time and eventually I got to shore. And when I got there I collapsed. And then I remember a bunch of adults coming to try to help me, thinking, you know, oh my God, what happened to him? You know, because I'm way down shore now. I'm nowhere near where my parents were with the blanket and everything else. So that scares me more because now it's like stranger danger. You know, I got all these big people around me and I get scared and I try to get up and I try to run and I fall down and I get up and I try to run. I'm trying to catch my breath. So it was a really traumatic event for a 10 year old to have. Um, but the thing is, is that there was that being who's. Who's been there every time I nearly died to pull me out of that situation. And I've got at least nine more of those that I can share. It's just been for. For some reason I'm not meant to go yet. And I don't know what that is. I don't claim to know what that is. I just don't. I know it's. It's not my time.

That's a really interesting story. Thank you for sharing. You mentioned that you were discussing with this being when you were younger, that you had discussion with this imaginary friends. I'm curious, what were those discussions like? And then how did your understanding of what that entity might be have evolved over the years? Over the years. And what's your current understanding?

So what I've learned since is that, or this is. This is my personal belief on the afterlife. When we die, originally we go to. If we're going to call this the third realm, the next one would be the fourth. Right. And I'M just saying what other people use. So the fourth is kind of like where we go when we die, but we are not evolved enough to go to the fifth. In the fifth realm are those who are enlightened on this earth. This is what the Buddha also told us. If you're enlightened on earth, you don't go to the fourth, you go to the fifth. And that's where guides and masters, spirit guides, things of that nature, whatever you want to call them, that's where they reside. They no longer have human form. They're just lines. The way I see them, they're just lines of energy. And the communication is very non human. It's just a transmission, a telepathic way of communicating with an entity that you can barely see. And the other ones that were my imaginary friends were more along the lines of folks that were in that fourth realm. And they were just like. When I explored mediumship, I learned that, you know, when we talk to people on the other side, they're just the same as they were when they were here. You know, you're just. They know more. They become all knowing. They know what they, they, they seen their life, they know what they did right, they know what they did wrong, etc. Etc. But they're just, they're kind of the same people. So you can have regular conversations to a degree, or at least if you want to call it regular. Regular, I don't know. But the, the thing is, the information is just as normal as you and I speaking. It just comes across much differently and very fragmented, if that makes sense.

It made total sense. At what point did you decide to embrace this reality of yours? You mentioned that you felt crazy for a little while. At what point did that change and what do you think helped in this process?

So the biggest event that transpired was I had children of my own. So from the time of the ND through that wild time in my twenties when with the drinking, the drugs, and living the rock star lifestyle, that all came to a halt when I had kids because now I had a reason for living, but before that I really didn't. So it really didn't matter if I lived or died. I was like, you know, no one's really going to be affected by my death. You know, it doesn't really matter. I'm not, you know, I didn't think of anything of it at that point. But when I had kids, I had a reason to stick around. So I immediately checked myself into rehab. I got clean and sober and I've been so Since. And I went back to college. I got a college degree. I went to work for a large company in finance, worked my way up, did very well, switch companies, got another large company, worked my way up the ladder, had a great job. My kids had a very, very different life than I did. Considerably better, I like to think. But my marriage to their mom fell apart very quickly. It was only two, two, maybe three years until that marriage fell apart. But, you know, I had these two little humans, two boys that were dependent on. On me providing a good life for them. And there was my reason for living, and that made me turn myself around completely. So I'm still not at a point where I understand what's transpired, but I have clarity because I got rid of their drugs and alcohol and the entities or the beings, they come, they go, but they know that I can't communicate. I don't know what I'm doing. And they kind of just come and go, you know, it's not as intrusive. Where it was, like at one time they were just bombarding me. It became much less of that. And I never spoke about it, never told anybody. I told a few people about the ND early on, and they told me I was crazy. So I just, you know, figured I'm never going to talk about any of this stuff again, and I'm just going to live my life and take care of my kids. That's my goal, that's my why, that's my reason for living, and that's what I'm going to do. So many years later, I guess I think I was probably in my mid-40s when I decided to date again. And date seriously, I should say. And I went online to meet somebody because that's how we do it nowadays, you know?

Yeah.

So I went online and I was going through the different websites. Not. It wasn't like Tinder or anything. I had my time with Tinder, but this was. I was looking for something serious and I was trying to pick, you know, a good website. And when you go to these sites, they all. You put in your address or your location or something like that, and they show you maybe like four ladies that are in your area that you might be interested in so that you. You click and you join.

Right.

So each site I would go to, you know, they would show me a few. And one of the sites I went to, I'll never forget, she was the third one down on the right. And I knew her. Like, when I say I knew her, I feel like she was a part of Me, it was a knowing like I've never known anybody before. Mean, it was just so. It was scary almost.

And you know her like you already met her in your life or like a past life. Okay, so you never met the woman, but you still felt that you knew this woman.

That's right. That's right. So I knew that was my wife. I knew for a fact that was going to be my wife. So I joined the site and I only sent one email, and that was to her. And I pretty much kind of said this.

I know you from a past life. Let's go on a date.

Yeah, it was kind of like that. I mean, it was. I actually copied and pasted it and put it into the first book. It's kind of funny, but I'll just shorten it. It was more or less like, hi, my name's Ray, you're my wife. You just don't understand that yet. And if you'll have dinner with me, I can explain the whole thing. And she said, lol, you are crazy. And I said, I know, I know. I get that all the time. But anyway, we had dinner and we are married and we live here and everything is beautiful. She is my soulmate. There's no question about it. And I'm going to tell you how I know that now. It was the beginning days of our relationship when we were just dating. So maybe six, seven years ago, and we had just started dating. And when this was, this will be the first time that I will see an entity in human form come to me and speak to me, okay? So this is what happens. A. It's like a movie screen opens up in my mind, okay? And there's a man on the movie screen and he's talking to me as though I'm sitting in the theater. That's the best way.

And when does this happen?

This happens at home.

And then all of a sudden, I'm.

Two months into the relationship, I'm at work, it's a Friday. And it's the first time that it happens at the vibrations start. All the things that I experienced when I was in that apartment, I started to feel them again as magnified just like that. And then here comes this being who's in my face, so to speak, and says, I effed up. I made a mistake. You can help her. I cannot. That was the message. And I was like, what the heck was that? I really. It freaked me out. I mean, I had no idea. And I went. I went home because it kept happening. And I said, I just. I said, I Have a headache. I'm just going to leave for the day. I don't have to be back till Monday. This is probably just some crazy thing. I don't know what's going on, but I'll figure it out. So I go home and he keeps coming and keeps talking to me and he says the same thing. I effed up. I made a mistake. You can help her. I cannot. Now I'm starting to get really worried because I'm starting to go back to, okay, I'm crazy. And maybe my craziness is getting to a point where I have to check myself in. On Saturday, he was there like every hour on the hour. That's not exact, but, you know, it felt like it was every hour on the hour. And then by Sunday, it felt like it was every five minutes. The same message, the same eight second video loop over and over and over. I could no longer drive, have a conversation with anyone. I couldn't function normally because he was there all the time. And I remember I. I tried to go to the store and buy some things and I was paying for my merchandise. And the lady behind the counter goes, sir, are you okay? I don't know what I did, but I said, no, no, I'm really not okay. And I took my card and I went back to my car and I broke down and I just started crying and I was like, this is unbelievable. Like, I did everything I was supposed to do to turn my life around. I went to rehab, I went back to college, I got great jobs, I busted my butt to get to where I am. I gave my kids everything. And I finally meet a woman, you know, that I feel like I'm going to spend the rest of my life with and you take it all away. I was angry. I was really angry. And I thought it was the end of my life. So I called my brother and I made sure that he had my will, my dnr, because I do not want to be resuscitated again. If I go, let me go. I don't want to be connected to any machinery or anything like that. All the things he had, that, those paperwork, power of attorney, everything. I just wanted to make sure he had it and it was all in order. And he's like, why? Why are you asking me this? And I'm like, no reason. I just want to make sure that you have it. I didn't want to alarm anybody at that point. But I do have to tell this woman that I, I love, that she needs to move on and find somebody that's not Crazy, because I owe her that. And so I'm trying to get my courage to tell her this. And if all this isn't crazy enough, my wife is a doctor of psychology and neuropsychology.

Yeah, you can't make that up.

Yeah, but I looked at it like, well, at least maybe she'll point me in the right direction to get help. I know I'm going to lose her. That's a given, I think. So anyway, I finally explain and I start to tell her about many of the things I just described to you. And that leads up to. This guy comes and he says to me, I effed up, I made a mistake. You can help her. I cannot. And I proceed to tell her what he looks like. And I say, he's a big, stocky guy, thick black hair, beard, mustache, you know, like a. Like a tough guy look. And just big guy. And. And I. I say it again, and she says, not what I expect her to say at all. She actually leans in and says, oh, my God, that sounds like my dad. And I was like, babe, you told me your dad was. Was dead. And she's like, he is. And I was like, so you think I see dead people now? Remember, I don't put this. I'm not putting two and two together to this point. Right. I know what I know today, but back then I had no idea where, you know, what, what was what. So now I'm thinking she's crazy and I need to get out of there. You think I see dead people? People can't see dead people. And she's like, yeah, they can. And I was like, what? She goes, I've been to many mediums, and my father always comes through exactly like that. He's very powerful, very prominent. He's always right in their face. And they all say the same thing like you just did. And I was like, okay, but this does not look like your father. I saw a picture of your father. It does not look like him. This guy had a beard, a mustache, it was heavier. And she's like, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. You saw a very, very old photo. Let me show you what he looked like before he died. And she goes through her phone and she sends me the photo. And I'm like, oh, my God, you know that man? She goes, it's my dad, silly. She says, you're probably a psychic medium and you don't know it. And I said, what the hell is a medium? I don't know these things. Literally. So she says, relax, you're probably not Crazy. That's the good news. And I was like, oh, okay. But that doesn't make me relax, you know, anymore. But don't, you know? The second I told her the message, he was gone. So apparently that's all I was supposed to do, is deliver the message to her. It was her dad telling her, giving her a message. So she says, my wife says there's a medium that I was going to go see in a couple of weeks who's coming to our area. She'll be here for a couple of weeks, I should say. She's coming soon. And I'll. I'll make an appointment for both of us, and then you can explain what you see and how you see it, and you can get some validation if it's real, and you can decide for yourself what you want to do. And I was like, wow, now I know this woman's my soulmate, right? You know, who reacts that way. So she takes me to see the medium, and I go into the room to meet with her, and I'm petrified. I mean, I am literally scared. I have been in so many different predicaments where I could live or die, and this woman scares me more than any of those, which is, you know, kind of funny, but. So I walk in and I say, hi, my name's Ray.

And she goes, oh, I'm curious, actually. What were you scared of?

The unknown. Am I crazy?

What she would tell you. Yeah, it's real.

Yeah.

What.

What she's going to tell me. This is. And then what do I do with it? You know? So she said, what's going on? And I said, well, sometimes I kind of see people that aren't really there and they can talk to me. And she goes, ha, ha ha. Me too. Me too. And I was like, okay, this is crazy. But I got to tell her everything, like, from all the way back to childhood, everything that I've seen, the way I've seen it, the what happens first, second, third, and so on. And she validated it all. She was the first person ever in nearly 50 years who understood me and didn't say I was crazy. And it was the most beautiful moment because my whole life, I thought I was nothing but crazy. And I spent my life living on the edge of living or dying because, hell, I was crazy. Anyway, what difference did it make? And here's this one person. Well, my wife, who brings me to this person, and that turns everything around, changes my perception of everything, of reality. And so I left there kind of on cloud nine, but I also Left there thinking, well, now what responsibilities do I have with this? What do I do with this? Where do I go with this? Luckily, she took me on as her mentee. She was my mentor for a year and she kind of guided me through the process of how to turn it on, how to turn it off, things of that nature so that it doesn't drive you crazy. Because from what I understand, if you are a medium and you are seeing things, or if you are extremely intuitive or in psychic and you can see visions, they will drive you crazy if you don't know what they are, you will be driven. If that man would have kept coming and coming and coming, I would not have been able to function in society and I would have eventually been thrown away and, and locked away. So how many people are in there that are just mediums, that don't know that they're mediums, and how many are actually crazy? My mentor confided to me that she was admitted to a hospital because her parents didn't know what to do with her before she realized she was a medium. So if anybody out there is experiencing these types of phenomenon, find a mentor, find somebody you can speak to, find out if it's real. So this way you can distinguish what's going on and don't wait 50 years like I did.

For me, And I think it's a generation, new generation, we have new tools. And in the era of YouTube and Facebook, where you have access to groups and communities of people for pretty much every topic you could imagine, it's hard to believe for me that someone could for so long believe you're on your own, when in reality there seems to be a lot of people that do experience these kind of things. But yes, if you don't have that kind of tools, you can feel pretty isolated.

When I was 20 years old, there was no computer, no cell phone, no nothing. It wasn't even, wasn't even a blip on the radar yet a couple years later they were just starting to come out. So I couldn't go to a computer and type in near death experience or nde. I had nobody to take it to, nowhere to go. And, and, and, and, and the Internet was in its infancy, so I don't think there would have been much information regarding it anyway.

Did you know that ND was a thing when you had your, your first nd? Because that's one of the major critic people have is. Okay now that NDEs are in the collective consciousness, people just, you have something happening in the brain and then you attach it To. To a. To a memory. So. So I'm curious, did you have any knowledge about this kind of phenomena?

So when it happened, the answer is no. I don't know exactly how many years later before I became familiarized with that term and learned a little bit more about it, and I really. I was still extremely skeptical. You have to remember that it was easier for me to compartmentalize this and make it not real so that I could go on with my life, because if it was real, then I had to acknowledge things that I didn't want to acknowledge. So the way I did it was I justified it this way. I said, well, the day I fell on the floor, that day, I felt I fell in front of a window, and the sun was shining through the window, and it was probably a sunny day, and that was the white light. And then I was inhaled so much gas that I was hallucinating. And that was the voice and the being and everything else. So that's how I chalked it up to myself. And it wasn't until many years later that I started to hear about other people's NDEs that I perked up and I paid attention. I was like, wait a minute. That sounds kind of familiar to something that happen to me. And then I leaned into it a little bit more, but I still would not accept it, because it was easier not to. It was easier to just put it in a box and say, that's not real. Because open the box, and you can't unsee what you see, what you've seen. It's life changing.

And on this, opening the box and the life changes, at what point did you decide to make the jump and to move away from your past life, as in business and normal life, let's say, or more normal life for most people. So at what point did you decide to transition, and what were some of the challenges you faced after?

It's a great question. After the first year that I was with my first mentor, it was right around my birthday, and my wife and I went away, and she asked me, she said, what do you want to go for your birthday? Let's, you know, let's go someplace. And she said, do you want to do a beach or, you know, an island or something like that? I was like, no, no, no, no, no. All I want are trees. Give me a cabin in the middle of nowhere and trees or a tent and an outhouse, I don't care. I just want trees. All of a sudden, I have this huge attraction to nature, and I don't really know why just yet? But that's what we did. We found a cabin in the middle of nowhere. And I really spent the whole time meditating. And during our stay, my wife pulled out a illustration that was drawn of her father. And, and when she showed it to me, she goes, I've been meaning to dig this out of the closet and show it to you. And she showed it to me and I was like, wow, that's your dad. She goes, I know. And I said, but no, no, no, here's what you don't know. That's how I see him. That's how he appears to me. That's the shirt he's wearing. That's the way his hair looks. That's the way the must, everything. That's him. And she goes, well, that's kind of ironic. And I said, why is that? She goes, because a medium drew this. And I was like, who drew? A medium can draw? And she's like, yeah, they have spirit artists. And I'm like, spirit artist? What's a spirit? I need to know what. Where can I find this guy? And we, we went to the computer and we typed in his name and his website came up and it said, write big letters right across his website. Now taking applications for a two year mentorship with Medium Joe. The deadline to apply is February 15th. That's my birthday. So I had 48 hours to get that application in. And she goes, are you going to apply? I said, yeah, I'm going to apply. And I.

And at that point, you were still in your job, day to day job.

Still had the day job. And I kept it, I kept it for a long time after that. I studied with him for two years before I took the leap and went all in, so to speak. And I had already written the first book. I don't recall if I published it, but I had written it. And the day job, it just didn't align with who I was. I was learning so much from this man. It wasn't just about mediumship because I actually don't practice mediumship for. Professionally, That's. I had to learn about it because I wanted to. It was a. It's a part of me and I. And I needed to learn about it, but I don't practice it professionally. It's very taxing. It's very taxing. So I chose to go a different route. I started studying metaphysics and scientific spirituality, how science and spirituality meets, how they. Where they meet, where they come together. So the first book is just about my life and how I got to this Place. The second book picks up where that leaves off. And it's all the research that I did to figure out what's under the hood, so to speak. What makes this work. How is it that I can speak to dead people? Where are they exactly? All that is in the book. So. And as I was on that exploration and things started just coming together. I just, I studied under or either read books or studied by everybody you could possibly think of. Joe Dispenza, Eckhart Tolle was my mentor for a short time. I was so blessed to have that in my life. Not just me. I mean, there was a lot of us, but also Deepak Chopra. I studied and then I also studied physics. I studied Einstein, Tesla, Niels Bohr. Everything I wanted to absorb so that I could start putting this stuff together. It's not as complex as people think. It's actually pretty simple. Religion and science can actually get along if they wanted to. They don't want to. That's why they don't. There is common ground. I found it. It's in the book. And if they wanted to come together, they could do it. They both just have to make little adjustments that they don't want to make and admit to some flaws that they don't want to admit to, but it's possible. So when I found that, I was like, well, this is my message to the world. This is what I have to deliver. This is. This is maybe why my life was saved. To point out that we all can agree on these topics, These things are real and we can all come together. And I believe very strongly in Carl Jung's image of the collective consciousness that we are all connected and we are all one. Carl Jung was Sigmund Freud's disciple for many, many years. And I think he's one of the smartest men that that's ever lived. So I completely get what he's talking about and agree wholeheartedly. We are one. We are one consciousness. That consciousness is energy. And energy we know is the unifying factor of all things. Energy is in everything. So if consciousness is energy and we can affect energy with our consciousness, we can affect everything to a degree. What I'm saying to you is you are one with source and source is one with you. So if you want to say, use the term God, you are co Creator. God is a part of you and you are a part of God. There's no separation, there's no sub. You're not less than. You're equal to. Collectively, we are God divided, we are little gods that's how it works. It's our consciousness as one that becomes the source, that becomes the Creator. So you can create your life. You may not be able to create somebody else's life. We may not be able to move mountains, but we can change our existence. And you can make it any way you want it to be. Any way.

And I think it brings us to the Law of Attraction, which has gained some steams over the years, the last few years. What is today, your understanding of the mechanics behind the Law of Attraction?

One of my favorites, actually, that question. So the Law of Attraction works because of energy, frequency and vibration, just like Nikola. Nikola Tesla told us. He told us the secrets of the universe are located in energy, frequency and vibration. So if everything's made of energy and everything is on a frequency, the frequency is measured in hertz, right? That's how we measure frequency. Everything has. There's an infinite number of frequencies, but everything is on a frequency. So, like, frequencies will attract almost like magnets. That's the reason I don't fall through the floor.

The.

The particles that are all on the same frequency stick together, and that creates the solid that appears to be solid. It's not really solid, but it appears to be solid. And my perception of it is that it's solid. And I believe I don't fall through it, and therefore I don't. Okay, now, with water, which is on a different frequency, if you drop me in water, then I'm going to go through the water because that's a completely different frequency. Okay, now what if I told you that you can align your consciousness with various frequencies? You can change your consciousness? We are one of the very, very few animals on the planet that are aware that we are aware. We are aware that we're conscious. We are conscious of our consciousness. That allows us to change our consciousness. And there are techniques that people will show you. I use meditation to change my frequency to what it is that I'm trying to acquire. And it's not always about money. It could be love, it could be anything. Every. All these things are on frequencies. And when you emit the frequency of the thing you desire, it finds the match and it will bring it to you. That is the basis. There's more to the Law of Attraction, but that is the. That is the basis. So let's look at it like our telephones. If I pick up my mobile phone and I dial your phone number, it rings. Why? Because my phone adjusts to your frequency of your phone. And then you can answer it. We can talk, we can Exchange information because they connect like frequencies will connect, just like a satellite dish and a radio. The satellite dish is projecting a frequency. And when you go to your radio and you tune it into the. To the dial, now I'm really showing my age because there are no dials anymore. But if you tune it in to the frequency, you get to hear the song. If you're a little bit off, what happens? It's static. You don't get to hear it. So you can't be a little bit off. Okay. But you can adjust your consciousness, which is energy energetically based, to the frequency you desire to acquire the things you want. That is the law of attraction. It's really run by the law of vibration.

Hmm. And what is the. The limitations of this law of attraction? Like, if everything is vibration, can I pick just whatever vibration I want? Or are there some limitations of. Okay, this one is a little bit too far, too far from where you are at today.

Great question. So when you get yourself into a flow state, we call it a flow state, and that's when your. Your resonant frequency is usually around. We try to get in meditation. Now, in meditation, we try to get to about 8 hertz, because the Earth resonant frequency, or the Schumann resonance, is 7.83 Hz. Now, the Earth is harmonious with the universe. So if we become harmonious with the earth, and the Earth is already harmonious with the universe, then hence we become one with the universe. That's a starting point. That's where we like to begin. And while you're in that space, and you're in that meditative space, which is very relaxed, in the resonant frequency, now you're going to project the thing that you want. So let us say you're trying to get a new job. We'll just use that as the example. So what I tell people is in your meditation, what you're going to do is you're going to do a visualization technique that allows you to see yourself at that job. You're going to take your five physical senses, okay? And you're going to bring them up to the sixth. Right here. You have a sixth sense. Everybody has it. You're born with it. In fact, early medical journals back in the 1500s actually had sex, not five. So when you do that. So it's the job. Now let's think. How do I take five physical senses and put them into my six? Well, you know the company you wish to work for? Imagine yourself walking through the door. What does it smell like? What does it look like? What does a floor feel like when you walk on it? When you get into your office, do you have a desk? What is it made out of? What does it feel like? If, is it oak? What kind of wood is it? Is there coffee brewing in the, in the, in the conference room? What does that smell like? What does it taste like? Is it good coffee? All these senses and you put them in the sixth and you create that frequency that you need to acquire that job. And I tell people to go one step further, go to the place of the employment the day before and walk around the grounds, feel the energy that exists underneath the building of the place you wish to work. And I've helped kids get into college by doing exactly this. I'm like, you drive to that college, I want you to walk on that campus with no shoes on. I just want you to walk around and absorb the energy so that you know how to send it out because you know what it feels like. Now, if you have no concept, and I'll give you an example of what you said, what if you have no concept? Great question. My kid said that to me. He goes, dad, why don't you just manifest a billion dollars and we can all be set for the rest of our lives? I said, because I have absolutely no idea what it's like to have a billion dollars. I don't know anybody with a billion dollars. I've never been in the same room with anybody with a billion dollars. I have no clue what that energy is like. So I would have to get the somehow becoming, shake the hand of a billionaire, something to align myself with that frequency. Because I have no idea what it's like. But I know what it's like to be in love. And I know what it's like to have certain levels of money. And I can ask for those, and I've gotten them. So the things that I do understand and I can comprehend, I can have them. And if you want a million and you start with a hundred thousand and then work your way up to a million, and then you'll have the million, you know what it feels like. Then when you have the million, go one step further, do it step by step. You can get yourself to a billion, but I have no concept. So I can't start from zero to answer your question. So there are some things that if I can't believe it, I can't achieve it. But if I can believe it, I absolutely can achieve it.

So in many ways, your belief systems are also your limitations.

It's only a limitation That I. I can work around that limitation. I'll tell you how. So I decided here's. So maybe I can't see that billion, right? But what I can see is me selling 500 million books. I can see that many people buying my books, which will equate to that money. Because I know what it feels like to sell books. I know what it feels like to open my bank account and see the royalty checks coming in. I know exactly what that's like. And I wanted to get a million views on YouTube and I got it. And I wanted to expand my audience, and I got it. So there's other ways to backdoor the situation. It. You are still limitless. You just have to find another way around it. That's all. And I help people do that in my coaching practice all day long. There's always a way to backdoor the situation and get it done.

Switching gear a little bit. But. And there's probably a lot of coherence with everything you say about vibration and that everything is consciousness and vibration. But I'd love to learn more about what is your current understanding of what happens when we die based on everything you've learned and experience as well.

Okay, let me preface this by saying this is a hypothesis, so don't beat me up out there. It's just what I perceive and the way I think it works. Like I said earlier, we die, we do enter into another realm of existence. That. That much I think we can agree upon. Where is that existence? Where is it? That's what I wanted to find out. I wanted to try to find out, well, where's this other realm? Everybody says that it's always around us. And I can concur with that because there definitely are energies in this room right now that are not part of this realm, but they're. They're still here. So where are they? Well, what I learned is about something called dark energy. Dark energy is called dark not because it's evil or anything like that, because we can't see it, touch it, taste it, feel it. But it takes up 69% of the entire universe is dark energy. So it just made perfect sense. We have this energy within us. Consciousness. You could call it a soul, you could call it spirit. I'm going to call it consciousness because it's an energetic aspect. The brain creates consciousness, the brain creates the mind. But the mind controls the brain and the body and everything else for that matter. So it's the energetic properties of the mind that. Are you okay? So we know from the first law of Thermodynamics that explicitly states no new energy can enter our universe and no energy can cease to exist. It's always recycled. It has to be. So when your consciousness, when your body dies, your consciousness leaves your body. It has to go somewhere. Where does it go? It can't cease to exist like many think. So where does it go? I think it becomes part of the physical structure of the universe which is made up of dark energy, 69%. That's a lot of realms of existence and a whole lot of energies in there. There's a lot going on that we can't see. And that doesn't mean it doesn't exist because we can't see it. We always think, oh, we're humans, where we should be able to see anything. We're not even close. You know, like there was a scientist who explained how if you were an ant and you were part of an ant colony and you were building your house and you're building your ant farm and with all your ant friends, right? And literally about a mile away, humans are making a new road right through the, the forest in which you're making your ant hills, right? But it's a mile away. An ant never travels one mile in its lifetime. So that road will exist with humans on it, but they will never interact with a human. So to them, humans don't exist. So in what regard are we the ant? And we start saying things don't exist because we've never seen them. That's not true. We just might be the ant in the story. See what I'm saying?

It's, it's a lot. And what I find fascinating as well is trying to explain concepts and translate it into a language and a vocabulary that exists. That probably doesn't fit very well with what we are trying to explain. That's, that must be quite challenging.

And yeah, you know, that's very challenging with the universe as well. The universe does not speak English, Spanish, German or any other man made language. It speaks vibration. So the way we say things or the way we think things in our mind determines how we're going to emit them into the universe. And I'll give you an example. This is very important. It goes back to the law of attraction that we were discussing. Let's say if I've been sick for a very long time and I want to get better, the worst thing I could say is I don't want to be sick anymore. Because that statement gets translated into visuals. Those visuals are what gets sent out. So what did I say? I Don't want to get sick anymore. So the symbolism is I sense of self. Right? And sick, those are the only two words that have any visuals in there. Don't want, doesn't translate ever. Universe has no idea what you're talking about. And it's a non judgmental universe. So if you say I sick, I sick, I sick. Guess what? You're getting more sick. If you say I don't want to be in debt anymore, you're getting more debt. So you have to rephrase these things. You have to think properly. I want to be healthy. I will be healthy. How do you feel? Today I feel healthier than I did yesterday, thank you. Tomorrow I'll feel even healthier. Never say I don't want to be sick anymore. That's going to take you down the wrong path. So take everything that we state in the negative tense and stated in the positive tense. And what's more importantly than your statements or what you think? Because your thoughts go right out, right out into the universe. And you have many, many more thoughts than you do statements. Your statements are almost worthless. I'm not Ray, right? I'm not Ray. You call me Ray and I turn around. I didn't give that name to myself. It has no meaning to me. It's nothing. It's a sound that when you make it, I turn around. That's all it is. But I am not Rey. I am body Ray. I am called Ray, but I am not Rey. So these sounds that we make are not as relevant as you think our thoughts. However, when I say I am something, I am that, you embody what that is. So be careful what you say to yourself. When you think I am something, you will become that something.

It makes a lot of sense, I think something that could be useful for. For the skeptics out there. And they are. And I was one not that long ago. No, me too. I've come to believe a lot of things that I would have never believed a few months ago. But maybe do you have a story or two that you could share about one time where manifestation worked? Maybe for one of the clients you worked with? Something in your personal life? I think that could help people really understand what could be done.

Sure. So I'll tell you my own experience. There was a time when my youngest son was leaving for college. And I was really proud because not many of us people from my family went to college. And I was really excited that my kids were going to college, he was going to live on campus. And he was leaving in about 48 hours he was packing and doing all that. And the college. Actually somebody from the office called me and said, you know, you still have this balance of $10,000 that you hadn't submitted. And I was like, whoa, wait a minute, no, no, no. I paid everything. And they're like, no, you didn't. You have a 10,000 balance. And I was like, oh my God. There's like, we're sorry, but he can't come to campus if you don't submit the funds. And I was like, I got 48 hours to come up with $10,000. And so I started to think where I can get it from. And that week was the week that my mentor taught me the meditation for manifestation. And just like you, I was a skeptic. I was like, this is woo woo. This is crazy. This is a little over the top. I love the guy, but this is a little over the top. But now I'm in desperate need of 10 grand. So I'm, I'm like, okay, I got nothing to lose. I'm gonna do it. So it's a twice a day meditation. I did it six times on the first day because I needed. I figured if I, the more I do it, the faster it'll come. I don't know. So I did it six times. By the end of the day, around 5, 6 o', clock, nothing happened. My mail comes late in the day, comes after 5, 5, 5:30. And my other son brought me the mail. And I'm looking at it and it's bills, bills, bills, bills, bills, tax bill. I'm like, come on, am I doing this wrong? You know, like, whoa, this is not what I'm looking for. So I go back into the meditation, I do it again the next day. I do it another six times throughout the course of the day. Every couple of hours I do the med. Exactly the way I'm supposed to do it. And nothing again. And now I'm down to the wire and I'm like, okay, am I just going to put this all on credit cards? How am I going to figure this out? I got to get this done. And I take a moment and I say, I might as well open the mail. And I get to that tax bill that I told you about. And it was my tax return. I was a 1099 employee. So every year I owe money. It's just a matter of how much is it going to be. Sometimes it's a lot more than others. So I open up the tax bill and my accountant does things the same way all the time. I take out the first letter and it says something like, dear Ray, thank you for your business, yada yada yada, you owe us X amount of dollars. Okay, great. Flip that one over. The second one I take out, it says, dear Ray, you've overpaid the federal government 8200 something something dollars and something something cents. And I was like, wait a minute, overpaid? That means refund. I've never gotten a refund over. I've read it like six times. I'm getting back 8200 and change. And then I took out the next letter and it said, dear Ray, you've overpaid the state of New Jersey 1,200 and something something dollars and something something cents. It's exactly 10,000 and change. Exactly. And it was there on the first day. I just was stubborn and didn't open up the mail.

Well, great story. I'm going to start meditating a little bit more. And on the process and the meditation, was it similar to what you explained a little bit earlier, which is really feeling and being at the right vibration and embodying having the, the money.

That's one part of it. It's, it's all in the second book, laid out step by step. But there is a process to it. Sometimes I do a class. It's a two hour class that I do online and, and you can jump on board and take a look at it. If you go to ray katania.com you can see when the next class is. If we had enough time, I'd love to share it with you, but it's kind of long and it's not difficult once you get the hang of it. It's very, very simple actually. It's just a matter of getting it down into a certain way. And again it's in the book. You can get it that way too.

Perfect. And that's actually a great segue to my final question. Where can people learn more about the great work that you do? You mentioned the book. I'll put the link in the description. But where can people learn more about you?

So Ray Catania.com is my main website and if you go there you can learn more about the books. And I do private coaching and I have online classes. Oh, and I now that you mentioned it, I just did a class with Udemy or Udemy, I think it's pronounced on manifestation and it just launched so. And it's perfect timing. Pretty inexpensive. Yeah. So you can get just that segment that you asked me about right there at Udemy. So thank you. Thank you for letting me say that. The books are in every bookstore, every place. The first one's the atheist in the afterlife, and the second one is, you're still alive, now act like it. Thank you.

I love it. Ray, thank you so much for everything you shared today.

Thank you. It was my pleasure. Thank you so much.

Thank you for watching. Click on the video below to continue your journey.

Sam.