Dannion Brinkley: Surviving Lightning and the Edge of Death
Few people have stared death in the face like Dannion Brinkley. In 1975, the former U.S. Marine experienced a life-altering event that would change the way he viewed life, death, and consciousness forever.
On September 17, 1975, Brinkley was speaking on the telephone when lightning struck nearby. The electrical surge traveled through the phone and directly into his body, throwing him backward with a violent force. “It went into the side of my head above my ear, it went down my spine,” he later recalled. The strike was so powerful it welded the nails of his shoes to the floor and filled the room with blinding fire. Brinkley was paralyzed, burning, and unresponsive.
Emergency responders rushed him to a hospital, where medical staff declared him dead for 28 minutes. Yet in that time, Brinkley’s awareness didn’t vanish. Instead, he described a vivid separation from his body, observing events from above, including the frantic efforts of doctors working to revive him.
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