Author and screenwriter Sai Marie Johnson flatlined during a high-risk C-section complicated by placenta percreta.

While doctors fought to stop catastrophic hemorrhaging, Sai experienced a profound “void, tunnel and light." During her NDE (Near Death Experience) she met and saw her deceased grandmother and great-grandmother. They told her that she had to go back.

Above all else, she felt "Every good emotion we can feel on earth, times 5,000!" Goodness and Pure Love.

Following her NDE, she woke to a premature son in the NICU, a partial hysterectomy, and 25 transfusions—but also a new clarity that reshaped her confidence, career, and view of death.

In this conversation, she unpacks the medical rollercoaster, the otherworldly peace she felt, how she parents two sons with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and the hard-won faith that guides her now.

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/nGlyLx3LDVw

Chapters (Timestamps)

• 00:00 — Cold Open: “They pronounced me dead…”
• 00:40 — Welcome & Guest Intro: Meet author/screenwriter Cy Marie Johnson
• 01:19 — About Cy: Mother of four; two sons with Duchenne
• 03:23 — High-Risk Pregnancy: Early warnings and specialist care
• 04:40 — From Previa to Percreta: What went medically wrong
• 06:08 — Hospital Prep: Steroids, IVs, arterial balloons, central line
• 10:41 — Countdown to Two: Going under anesthesia
• 11:01 — The Experience: Darkness, distant ember, irresistible light
• 12:04 — The Guardians: Grandmother & great-grandmother say “not yet”
• 13:52 — Void or Tunnel? How it felt, and what drew her forward
• 15:11 — Who They Were: Portraits of Elizabeth and Bernice
• 19:31 — Back in the Body: “Where’s my baby?” — NICU update
• 22:15 — Recovery Begins: Hysterectomy, pain, and walking laps
• 24:51 — What Happened on the Table: Hemorrhage and 25 transfusions
• 26:13 — Life After NDE: Confidence, creativity, a second chance
• 28:49 — Writing Career: From romance to nonfiction craft
• 29:57 — Duchenne Awareness: Strength for her sons
• 30:44 — On Death: Why she isn’t afraid
• 32:14 — Closing & Call to Action

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Dead 15 Minutes! At nine years old, Mario was declared dead at home after violent spasms and unbearable chest pain. His first NDE followed.

He describes separating from his body and entering a realm of tunnels and roads made of fluorescent, multicolored light, where he felt only absolute love, safety, and belonging.

Family had begun preparing for his funeral, but he revived within minutes, telling his father he’d wanted to stay “there.”

The years that followed were marked by poverty, bullying, and vivid encounters he interpreted as demonic—experiences that deepened his prayer life and sense of spiritual warfare.

Decades later, in 2016, after months of harassment and a poisoning that put him in the hospital, he says he died again. A nurse exclaimed she saw his “aura” leaving as monitors detached. During this second NDE, Mario reports first arriving in a heaven-like space and searching desperately for his late father; when he couldn’t find him, the scene shifted to a dark, sulfurous realm with hostile entities. This is know as a "distressing NDE" (near death experience).

How did this NDE end? A “gigantic hand,” which he believes was Jesus, touched his forehead and returned him to his body.

Though some relatives and others doubt his story, Mario insists the lesson is clear: become a kinder person, pray often, hold fame and achievements lightly, and know—at least to him—that heaven is real.

Video Version: https://youtu.be/EBQVdBVS3Xs

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NDE Episode Summary

At eight years old, singer–writer Kara Marlene was thrown over her bike’s handlebars and was dead for roughly 45 minutes.

What followed was an immersive near-death experience (NDE) of overwhelming love, peace, and a wordless guide—“love itself” in a familiar, humanlike form.

In this intimate conversation, Kara recounts the crash, the boundary between light and vast “space,” a brief child-sized life review, and the moment she agreed—simply—to “follow love.” Returning changed, she navigated physical recovery, learning differences, empathic sensitivity, and a lifelong dialogue with the Divine.

Kara also shares how this love/fear polarity shaped her art, relationships, and her mission to help others recognize the “fingerprints of love” in everyday life.

Key Takeaways

• The NDE: Kara perceived blinding light, an endless, protective darkness “like space,” and a figure she understands as love taking on a form she could trust.
• Felt Reality: Absolute love left no room for fear; the inner voice asked, “Are you ready?”—not to go back or forward, but to follow.
• Return & Recovery: A severe head injury (right temporal lobe) changed academics (reading comprehension/math), shifting her to an audio learning style.
• After effects of Near Death Experience (NDE): Heightened empathy, deep nature connection, spontaneous inner guidance, and several premonitions about loved ones’ passings.
• Love vs. Fear: In Kara’s framing, fear is the earthly opposition that clarifies the breadth of love; living “from love” is possible here and now.
• Message of Hope: You are “meant for miracles”—love is seeking connection with you, moment by moment.

Video Version: https://youtu.be/rgZYpdAGLfo

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https://www.karamarlene.com/

Can an NDE actually last for 2 years? How about other spiritual experiences?

In this moving episode of Round Trip Death, host Eric Bennett welcomes Rebecca Kastl, a speech-language pathologist from Colorado, who shares her extraordinary two-year-long spiritually transformative experience (STE). Unlike typical near-death experiences (NDEs), Rebecca’s journey began not with physical death but with deep emotional trauma and an earnest desire for complete healing.

Her story begins with a traumatic event at age 13, which set her on a lifelong path toward spiritual wholeness. At 26, while journaling during graduate school, she spontaneously dedicated her life to God — an act that opened a profound, two-year encounter with divine light, angelic beings, psychic dreams, and a heightened sense of interconnectedness. This led to her NDE/STE experience of transformation.

Throughout the episode, Rebecca reflects on:

• The night a radiant light appeared in her room, filling her with love and peace while revealing hidden parts of herself.
• How she began to perceive ethereal light in everyone she met, symbolizing the divine essence in all beings.
• Her experiences with angels and spontaneous life review moments, where she felt how her words and actions affected others.
• The challenge of integrating these experiences and the deep depression that followed once the light faded.

Now, years later, Rebecca shares how this journey reshaped her worldview — inspiring her to work with children, act with compassion, and recognize the sacred light within all people.

In closing, Rebecca offers listeners a heartfelt message of hope: even amid suffering, every prayer is heard, and everyone is deeply loved and guided by a higher light.

Video Version: https://youtu.be/tyoiHRAkn0Y

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https://rebeccakastl.com/

Mystic and former monastic, Kimberly Braun joins Round Trip Death to share the near-death experience (NDE) she had at 19 after a suicide attempt—a passage not of tunnels and relatives, but of awakening “as and within the luminous void.”

Held in unconditional love and freedom, she was offered a choice and chose to return from that heavenly place.

Kimberly unpacks the paradox of being both an individual and the whole, the emotional and psychological healing that followed (including therapy), the surge of mystical phenomena in her 20s, service with the homeless, and the path that led her into monastic life. It all started with her NDE Experience.

She closes her NDE explanation with a grounded message of hope: love is the end toward which all things move—and we can begin to live from it now.

Video Version: https://youtu.be/1N7oh1KLcJ4

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https://www.kimberlybraun.com/

Voices said, "Welcome Back, We're So Glad You're Home."

At 26 years old and eight months pregnant, psychotherapist Deborah “Deb” Hanie survived a head-on collision that triggered a profound near-death experience (NDE).

Instead of a tunnel of light, Deb describes entering “the void”—a dark, peaceful expanse filled with loving, luminous beings who told her she could stay or return because she “had a baby.”

Choosing to come back meant waking to excruciating pain and a difficult recovery, but it also opened a spiritual path: work with Stanislav Grof’s ideas, shamanic training, and hospice “journeying” with people at the end of life.

Deb shares how her son carried prenatal trauma, why the return can be harsher than the leaving, and two extraordinary deathbed stories—including her scientist father’s passing, escorted by a circle of elephants into the light.

Video Version: https://youtu.be/TM3PtxqaIl8

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He now has ZERO fear of death: "It's like walking through a door into another room." Ned shares his NDE experience publicly for the first time.

When a stubborn bladder infection spiraled into sepsis, Ned Barnett flatlined twice in the ER. During his near death experience, he lived three vivid, sequential “lives”:

NDE #1 - Tranquil, dove-gray creative realm where ideas were built and freely shared;

NDE #2 - An ordinary, domestic life that quietly corrected priorities;

NDE #3 - A hyper-real action life as a hostage negotiator and rescue-show producer leading SWAT-style interventions.

On “re-entry,” Ned realized the “hotel” with stark black-and-white ceiling panels was actually the ICU—and his overwhelming drive was simply to call his wife and tell her he was okay.

The NDE completely erased his fear of death, redirected his career toward helping authors, and deepened his Christian faith. He closes with gentle advice for listeners in pain: simple prayers, the Psalms, and the reminder that what we are continues.

Video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/zLZVh4ND4tY

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In this moving conversation, Shanna Arnold recounts her journey from a promising high school athlete to a survivor of a horrific rollover accident that claimed her best friend’s life, briefly ended her own, and resulted in a near death experience she would never forget.

She describes being ejected 150 feet from the vehicle, pronounced dead, and revived after her heart stopped. During that time, she experienced what she believes to be a glimpse of the afterlife, an NDE Experience —walking with her best friend in a dark space, exchanging tearful hugs and promises to meet again.

Her recovery was long and grueling—months in a coma, over a year in rehab, and relearning everything from reading to walking. Yet Shanna went on to graduate with honors, raise two daughters, and live with a deepened faith and gratitude. Her near death experience left her with a new perspective on mortality: not fearing death but seeing it as a reunion with loved ones.

She encourages listeners to approach others with compassion, knowing that everyone carries unseen battles, and to give thanks for the blessings and talents God provides.

This episode (and her NDE) is a reminder that life is fragile, death is not the end, and love carries beyond this world.

Video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/z1-oCzeD3_w

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