NDE revealing the Power of Love and Choice! With Jeffery Olsen

Jeffery Olsen 0:00

I believe I dozed off. I think I just nodded off, and I lost control of the car, and it was a horrific automobile accident. My inclination was, I've got to get to my son. I've got to get to my boy. But that's when I realized that I could not move. What had actually happened is that both of my legs had been crushed and I began to lose consciousness. But then I felt light come, and it felt as if I was being raised up out of this horrible situation, like I was raising above the accident scene, and as I was coming to terms of being in this light, suddenly, Tamara, my wife, who I knew, I knew she was deceased, suddenly, she's there in this bubble of light, if you will, with me, and she's gorgeous, She's radient, she's very much alive, but she's emphatic that I can't stay. She's like, you gotta go back, you gotta go back. You can't stay. And she was even emotional, and we literally had this conversation that if I stayed with her, Spencer, our seven year old would be orphaned. She couldn't come back, but I could.

Jannecke Øinæs 1:16

Jeffery Olson, a warm welcome back to the show.

Jeffery Olsen 1:20

Oh Jannecke, it's such a pleasure. It's an honor to be with you. Thank you for having me.

Jannecke Øinæs 1:24

You know, I just had to reconnect with you because we have collaborated before. You're one of my masterclass teachers in my own membership. You've been to Oslo. We had a live evening there. I've interviewed you before about your profound near death experience that you've also written two books about. You're a best selling author, and I had to have you back, because now that my channel has grown, I know there's so many who haven't heard your story, and it's one of those near death experiences that have touched me the most, so I had to share it. And I also feel that in your near death experience, it's so many lessons about life. There's so much wisdom there. And also it shares and tells us how much loved we are and how much love there is on the other side, despite of everything we're going through as humans that could be really, really challenging. So I know this happened actually way back when in I think it was 97. Yeah, and you it, you didn't share it for many, many years. So let's start there. What was the situation like before you had that near death experience? Like, how was your life like?

Jeffery Olsen 2:42

Well, I had, I really had a good life. I was madly in love with my wife, Tamara. I was, I was blissfully, hopelessly, endlessly in love. We'd been married for 10 years. It was not a new relationship. And, gosh, we dated for three years before that. And so, you know, but we were a young couple. It was me, my wife, and two young boys, and we were pursuing our careers. She was a high school teacher, and she loved her students, and she loved making a difference in their life. And I was, I was running my own ad agency. I was a creative director, and still am, I mean, that was, you know, it was marketing and it was clients, and it was deadlines, and it was, we were working very hard in our careers, but finding that balance between work and family and raising to raising two boys. And, you know, I was probably it changed me. The near, the near death experience changed me a bit. I was a very red personality, you know, I was gonna, I was competitive. I was gonna beat the other guy. I was gonna get the client. I was gonna, you know, make the team, get the grade, get the girl and buy the house, buy the car, I mean, and it's not that I was motivated necessarily by money, but I was driven to be successful, and in our society, sometimes that equals possessions and money and and that shifted for me too in the near death experience.

Jannecke Øinæs 4:12

Would you like to share what happened to you?

Jeffery Olsen 4:15

I will. I will. I go back 27 years ago and it was this time of year. It was, you know, it was, it was at the end of March, but it was spring was coming on. We had just celebrated Easter and Easter weekend, and I'd taken the whole family on a road trip, and we went to visit my wife's family, her folks and her grandparents, and we had a lovely visit. And it was on the way home. It was that Monday morning, and it was time for me to get back to work, and we had about a five hour drive, and you know, so it was a good half day drive, and I got the kids all loaded up, and everybody buckled in there, and car seats and the cases loaded, and we were in the car just ready to pull away. And this is, this is an interesting thing that is engraven into my heart as I was pulling away from the curb. I mean, I put the car in drive, and I was pulling away, Tamara stopped me. She said, Stop, wait. And, and I thought she had forgotten something, you know, I thought, Oh, she's left her handbag in the house. But I stopped, and she looked at me, and she said, I just want to say goodbye to mom and dad one more time. And, you know, in that moment, I thought, Well, gosh, women, you know, let's get on the road. We've said goodbye, let's get moving. But, but I watched, and in hindsight, it was so beautiful to notice as she ran up to the porch, and her mom and dad were there waiting goodbye like grandma and grandpa do, and I noticed how she not only hugged them, but she kissed them both, which was not uncommon, but I watched it, and I saw this hug and this kiss, and then she came Running back to the car, and she jumped in and buckled up. And I bring that up because she must have felt a whisper. She must have had an intuition. And I mean, not that she knew what was going to transpire that day, but just that that feeling, and I think those feelings come, I'm just going to go say goodbye to mom and dad one more time. And she did it. She acted upon that. And so the reason to bring that up is, gosh, we all get whispers. We all get impressions, and her courage and her intuition to follow it, you know, to run up and to hug mom and dad and kiss them, and then she came back in the car and, you know? And I got up on the interstate, and I put the cruise control on, 75 miles an hour, which is fast as I could legally go, and we're racing up the road, and I'm thinking about all the things I've got to do, you know, I'm missing a day of work, and there's this going on and this going on. And I just glanced in the rear view mirror for a moment just to see you know what traffic was doing and what was going on. And this was an interesting insight as well, because as I glanced I saw my youngest son, Griffin, just a toddler, and I noticed that he was sleeping soundly in his car seat. He had fallen asleep, and I thought, what a beautiful boy, you know? I mean, the miracle child. I mean, we were told after our first son that we might not have more children. There was complications and things had happened, but there I saw him, and I noticed details. It's like, wow. And it was a moment, you know, it was just a glance, but in that glance, it's like time stood still. And I I noticed how long his eyelashes, you know, how long his eyelashes were, and how his hands were folded on the little car seat thing. And then I heard Spencer, my oldest son, who was seven at the time, and he was playing with action figures. He was making all the delightful noise of a boy having, you know, a lightsaber battle. And I, I thought, wow, what. What a what a blessing to have these boys. And then I glanced over at Tamara, who had, she had also reclined her seat back and had fallen sound asleep, but she was still holding on to my hand, you know. And I thought, wow, you know, 10 years into the marriage and busy with careers, and she's still holding on to my hand like she did, you know, when we went on our first date. And I it was this moment of gratitude. It was this absolute moment of gratitude. Look what I'm surrounded with. Look, look how lucky I am. And of course, then my attention was back to the road, and it was about it was about an hour after that, and there was reports of crosswinds, there was reports of a truck that was driving erratically on the interstate.

I think the hardest part of the story is that I may have dozed off at the will. I may have just nodded off for a second. And there's no excuse for that, you know. But in hindsight, as I processed it, wow, I was this young father. I was driven to be successful, to provide for my family, you know, doing those 14 and 16 hour days at work. And although we'd had a weekend, I believe I dozed off. I think I just nodded off. And in doing so, I had swerved to the right, and I overcorrected to the left, and I lost control of the car, and the car then began to roll, not off the road, but down the road at 75 miles per hour, and it was a horrific automobile accident. I I I blacked out for the actual crash, but when the car came to a stop, I was completely conscious. I was completely conscious, and the first thing I was aware of was Spencer, my seven year old in the back seat, crying hysterically. I mean, he was hysterical, and I, I might my my inclination was, I've got to get to my son. I've got to get to my boy. But that's when I realized that I could not move. I was pinned, and I couldn't tell if it was the floorboard or the seat. I noticed the rancid smell of gasoline, all the all the broken glass, and I was unaware of my injuries. What had actually happened is that both of my legs had been crushed. In fact, my left leg was eventually amputated above the knee. It had been damaged so badly my back had been broken in two places, but ironically, not damaging the spinal column. It had cracked the vertebrae, but not not damaged. My my spinal cord, my rib cage was damaged. My lungs were collapsing. My right arm had almost been completely torn out, and then the seat belt had cut through and ruptured all my insides. I was unaware of any of that. All I knew is my son's crying. I can't get to him. And that's when the brutal reality hit that no one, no one else, was crying, and I became acutely aware, and I won't go into the details of all of that, but I knew. I saw. I knew that both my youngest son, Griffin and that Tamara, my wife, were, they were they were gone. They were killed instantly in the accident. And that's, that's the darkest hell I think a man could ever be in. You know, I'm, I'm losing consciousness. I've got a hysterical seven year old. Half the family has passed, and I was driving the car. I mean, the guilt, the regret, the Panic of, can't I get those three seconds back? And I don't share that to be graphic or morbid, but that was the situation, and I begin to lose consciousness.

But then I felt light come. I mean I literally felt light, like tangible light, come and surround me. And it felt as if I was being raised up out of this horrible situation, like I was I was raising above the accident scene, and suddenly I could breathe. The pain was gone. And I was a little bit confused, like, well, what's happening? And as I was coming to terms of being in this light, suddenly, Tamara, my wife, who I knew, I knew she was deceased, suddenly, she's there in this bubble of light, if you will, with me. And she's gorgeous. She's radient. She's very much alive and and the contrast of what I witnessed at the accident, and here she is, and she's she's beautiful, but she's emphatic that I can't stay she's like, you gotta go back. You've got to go back. You can't stay and she was even emotional, and we literally had this conversation that if I stayed with her, Spencer, our seven year old would be orphaned. And we made a deal. We made a deal, and I I gave her my word, I'll come back, I'll go back, and for whatever reason, and her injuries were quite severe, she couldn't come back, but I could, and and, and we made the deal that I would come back and then I would care for our son. And it's the most profound goodbye I'll ever say. But we embraced, and I said goodbye, and knew I was going and it was the thought, it was the intention. I didn't have to figure out, how do I go back? You know it was, it was simply that thought of, I'm going back, and then shit just like I was whisked away and found myself wandering around a very busy level one emergency room Trauma Center hospital. Now I have no concept of time, you know, in this bubble of light, if you will. I later found out people had arrived at the scene. You know, emergency services were called. I was extricated from the car. I had to be airlifted, or life flighted to the closest level one trauma center. My seven year old, Spencer was banged up a little bit. He had bruised his ribs and he had cracked his wrist, but he basically walked away from the accident. But emotionally he thought he'd lost the whole family, very traumatic for a little boy. And anyway, I was unaware of any of that. All I knew was I had crashed the car. I had this profound goodbye, and here I am wondering about the hospital, and it's like I had 360 degree awareness. I was aware of everything. I was aware of the doctors, the nurses, the other patients, the families of the patients. I had an awareness and everyone I encountered, I knew them. I knew them like like I knew their soul. I saw them in a profound way. I mean, for instance, a nurse rushes by me in the hallway, unaware of me, and in that moment, I felt, I knew I almost experienced her, her childhood, her abuse, the abuse she had received as a child, the physical, emotional, sexual abuse, and it was very real and tangible, almost like I was her, but but same time I saw her magnificence, I'm like, wow. Look at her serving healing, you know, helping in this hospital. And this was true of everyone I saw, until I came upon a body or a man on a gurney. I didn't feel anything from which I thought was strange given the connection I was feeling, and I stepped forward to look, and that's when I realized, Oh, my goodness, that's me. Well, that's my body. I mean, me. I was having this profound, connected experience. But there was my skin suit, you know, the flesh. I mean, that was this, this body, and I had a profound experience there. I'm looking at my lifeless body. That's just a wreck. It's deranged, you know, but I had this whole new realization and appreciation for the body. I was like, Wow. I took it for granted. I mean, I had been a athlete. I my body had always been my, my biggest asset. And there it was so broken and and I realized the miracle that our bodies are like I didn't have to remind my heart to beat, you know, or think about my lungs breathing, or I didn't have to teach my eyes how to see or my feet how to run. I I was looking at this miracle machine, and yet I knew mine was so broken, and I had made a promise. I had to get back in. I had to get back in that body. And again, it's the thought was the intention. As soon as I'm like, Okay, I'm going back in, boom, then I'm back in to the body, to the the density, to the weight, to the guilt, to the grief, to the regret, to the trauma, to all of those emotions. And it was, I mean, it was horrible. You know, they had a vent of late. They had big tubed on my throat during the breathing from my lungs. My legs had been crushed and were mobile. My right arm was completely immobile. And then they, they tied down my left hand because I kept grabbing at all the medical equipment. And I um, gosh, I spent weeks in ICU. I spent almost six months in the hospital. There was 18 surgeries in all, putting me back together. I learned a lot. I experienced a lot. It's almost like I was in this halfway in between place. My family, my younger brother and his wife had taken in Spencer, my youngest son. They just brought him in as one of their own. And my, my family was so supportive. I I'm the middle son. I have an older brother and younger brother. And they, they showed up as my heroes. I mean, they, they practically lost their jobs. They wouldn't leave my side to make sure I was gonna live, to make sure I was going to make it. And the hospital was an interesting experience. The most profound experience may have been at the end of my hospital stay. I probably worth pointing out, you know, because I know all the skepticism people have said, well, you know you were injured. Your brain was shutting down. The oxygen wasn't getting to your brain. You were hallucinating, and that may well be true, but it's worth pointing out that it was very real to me, and I hadn't been given any narcotics at that point. And the most profound experience at the end of my hospital stay, I was off. The heavy narcotics. I was in the rehabilitation wing, almost ready to come home, so that most profound experiences were at the scene of the accident, where, yes, trauma could do that, but at the end of my hospital stay, when I wasn't traumatized, I was healing, I was getting better, I was ready to go home, and I had this profound vision, or dream or out of body experience. I finally was able to roll on my slot, on my side and sleep on my side. And I'd laid so long on my back that I'd rubbed all the hair off the back of my head. My brothers were giving me a bad time about, you know, being bald on the back of my head. And they were, they were so good to try to bring some light, you know, to a very heavy, dark situation. But this particular night, I fell asleep, and in that sleep, I became acutely aware, although my body was sleeping, and I felt the light come again, just just like at the scene of the accident, the light came, and I'd been grieving so miserably in the hospital at the loss of the family. I mean, the physical challenges were one thing, but it was the emotional challenge. And as that light came, I felt that same comfort, and it felt as if I was rising above the hospital bed. But this time, the light, like dispensed. It went away, and I was in the most beautiful, incredible place.

There really aren't words, and I was whole. I had both legs, I had both feet, I I began to run, and it it felt like a physical experience, like I could feel every smell, if you will, of my body, even though I was out of the body I was running, and I could feel the energy of the ground feet, and I could Taste the sky and feel the flowers and and I was joyfully running thinking, I'm whole. I'm whole. I could feel the intelligence in my feet and calves and thighs. And I'm running thinking I'm and, you know, people say heaven or the other side, or the spirit world, that the only word that comes close to what I was experiencing. I was home. I was home. It felt so no, you're so welcoming, so cosmically ancient yet current. I was and I'm running about just like celebrating I'm whole, I'm home and I'm whole. And then I got the message I wasn't there to stay. And at that time, this corridor appeared to my left, and I knew intuitively I'm to go that way. So I made my way down the corridor, and at the end of the corridor was a crib. Now Griffin, my little son, had been sleeping in a crib before the accident. He was only 14 months old, so he was just a toddler, and he was still in his crib, and he was learning how to climb out of it, you know, at that point. But I'd had so much trauma around Griffin in the car crash, his car seat broken apart, and he was he was ejected from the car, and that just haunted me. And I saw this crib, and I thought of Griffin, and I went to the crib, and I looked in the crib, and there he was, and he was sleeping beautifully, just like when I looked in the rear view mirror. There he was, and I noticed the details, and I looked at his eyelashes, and as a father, I swept him up in my arms. I picked him up, and it felt so physical. I mean, have you ever picked up a sleeping child? There's a weight, there's a heat, and I and I filled him, and he felt solid against me. And I was even wondering, How can this be such a physical,sensory experience? And I'm holding him, I'm feeling him breathe, and I can feel his breath in my neck, and I I leaned over and I smelled his hair. I smelled it, you know, like this is my boy, and I began to weep. And as I wept, there was this profound, powerful, cosmic presence coming up behind me, and it was coming closer and closer, and I'm holding my son in the guilt, the guilt, regret again to bubble up in me. I'm thinking, Well, no, he's here because I crashed, you know, his life was cut short because I over corrected, or I dozed off. And, I mean, and the presence is coming closer and closer. And given my, you know. I given my upbringing in the belief system. I thought that's that's God, and I am in so much trouble my little boy here because of my and I had the thought, as the presence became right behind me, I had the thought, I hope I can be forgiven. And that's when physical too. I felt these divine arms just wrap around and hold me and my little boy, and that the whole leg just came off was this download of love, of trust, of peace.

The first the first message, the first communication was, there's nothing to forgive. Everything's in divine order. And I thought, how can that be? I mean, half the family's gone, my little boy's here. You know, here I am arguing with God, if you will. Like, how can this be in divine order? But there was so much peace. And then I began to see my life, and I was looking at my life in the arms of the Divine, and I'm like, Well, that was a mistake. I didn't mean to do that. And the communication was, what did you learn? In other words, it was no judgment. What did you learn? I even saw things and I said, Well, that was wrong. I knew it was wrong. I did it anyway. But the beauty of being held in these divine arms communication was that's your judgment, not not, not honest. You are as beloved. You are as precious, you as perfect as the child you hold. And he was perfect to me. I mean, he's my little boy, right? And it was a very personal experience. I knew that that was true of every living soul, that that expanded and ruled out. And I was also taught about choice, you know, I was told you can be bad at God your whole life, because this was allowed to happen. And that's a choice. I was told that I could put myself up for the rest of my life because I was driving the car, and that's a choice. And I was given an interesting choice. I was told I could give my son back, that I could hand him over, that I could trust all that love, I mean, and all that peace i i made that choice, and I kiss my Little Boy and let go and hand him over. And I still grieved. I mean, I still grieved miserably. I don't want anyone to think that I had this accident and had these out of body experiences, and I was fine, I wasn't, and I grieved like anyone would. I mean, I still grieve lost. You know, I was in a wheelchair for a while. I was finally fit with a prosthetic. I had to learn to walk again. They were able to take down the colostomy. I mean, I was I was I was I was being put back together physically, and I suppose I was being put back together emotionally as well. But it took, it took some time, and that's one of the reasons I didn't tell the story immediately is I was healing. I was in the process.

Jannecke Øinæs 28:26

Yeah, every time you share that story, and I've heard it, heard it a couple of times, it just touches me so deeply. And I'm thinking, like, how is it possible to go on after something like that, and then you don't have a choice, right? You have to go on and you have a son and like the the magnitude of a sorrow like that is just overwhelming. And when I'm thinking about the small things I'm upset about in my life, that's like nothing when it comes to going through something that tragic. And I know today you're sharing this beautiful message, and I just want to commend you for that being so strong and yeah and brave to share it, because it's healing hearts all over the world. Knowing that, you know, those who pass it's a great possibility that they're so with us. There was, you know, that, and this was planned. It seemed like that on the other side that they said, you have to go back, and you made a choice also with your wife, you know, I have to go back to take care of my son, and it was a mutual decision between the two of you and and that makes us believe, for believe, that there's a higher order to things like even tragical things, and the wars going on and so many people are being killed, there's a deeper reason for it. And. That, to me, makes it easier to be here, to be honest. So I just, you know the impact you have with this story. Just, I just really want to thank you for sharing it.

Jeffery Olsen 30:11

Oh, you're so kind, and it's interesting. I mean, when it came time to share it, it was almost a decade after the accident, I was approached by a publisher, and I said, No, no, no, no, I had shared this story at a little small group in my community. I had a neighbor who came to me and said, something happened to you, didn't it? And I said, Yes, but I don't talk about it. She said, Well, I want to talk about it. And I trusted her, and she was a good friend, and I shared what happened, and she said, You've got to come talk to this friend of mine. He's at the university. He studies his stuff. You're not alone. This has happened to others and and the the fellow she introduced me to was a researcher, you know, so he was researching, like, what does a Buddhist experience, as opposed to a Christian or, you know, an atheist, what? What is the experience, and is this driven by our beliefs, or is it something quite profound? And I sat down with him and shared my experience. And of course, I was crying. I still cry. I don't know that you get over these things. You get used to it, I suppose. But, but anyway, after I was done, he says, You've got to come speak to our group. And I'm like, No, I don't, I don't share this. But he, he said, Look, people are in late stage cancer. They're suffering. People have lost loved ones. We you know. He said, I think they could really benefit from what you have to share. So I agreed to come speak to the small group, and I barely got through, I mean, that was still quite fresh, even after a decade. But a fellow in the back of the room came up and said, You're gonna write a book. And I said, No, I'm not. And anyway, there was, gosh, he got my information, and there was a book contract in my email. This was a Friday. On Monday, there was a book contract, and I didn't want to do it, and yet I still, I pray. I went, I went to the Creator, I said, wow, there's a book contract, and I don't want to do this, and I don't want people to think I'm crazier than I'm think I'm special in some way. And then I also had this huge barrier of, how do I? What if the book sells? Am I that guy that could collect a royalty check based on the catastrophe that took half my family and I was driving the car? There was still things to work through, right? But I had a profound experience, and it was a whisper, you know, I didn't go out of my body or anything like that. I was there at the scene of the accident. I finally went back, and that's where I prayed and asked, What do I do with this? And the Whisper came. It was, it's that voice that speaks to the heart, and what it said was, and I can quote it. That's how powerfully it came. I was told, share your experience, and others will heal. And I'm like, Oh, so this is not about me, it's about others and and that's when I, you know, I agreed. I leaned in and wrote the book, and I thought, Well, gosh, my mom will buy a copy. Who cares? You know, but wow, the book, the book, it reached number three on Amazon in the category about 10 days in, and all of a sudden, it changed my life, and I found myself in all over the world, at Oslo Norway and other beautiful places. Oslo is one of my favorites, by the way, I just love, love the people and the beauty and the cleanliness it's and I'm Norwegian by by descent, my great great grandfather, great great great grandfather. I'm fourth generation, but he came right out of Oslo. And so it's home. It's in my bones. It's in my bones. Somehow.

Jannecke Øinæs 34:05

It was really nice to meet you in person, because that happens very seldom, that I meet my guest in person.

Jeffery Olsen 34:11

That was fun. It was beautiful, but, but, yeah, you know that's, that's, that's what happened. And

Jannecke Øinæs 34:19

since it's been so many years and you've shared it now for quite many years. How has the experience of it, the memories of it, have that sort of, not the memories, but the takeaway, like, what do you took from it? Has that changed? Like, has there been some late insights that have arrived like recently, because I feel like a near death experience from what my guest is saying. Guests are saying that it continuously affects them in a way that they get constantly new ahas and insights from it and. And it's a funny thing with time also, because many times they say it doesn't feel linear, like things life does not feel linear. So it's like it's the experience is almost still going on on a level.

Jeffery Olsen 35:15

Yeah, no, it is. I mean, our lives are. They're the most fantastic school. I mean, it's for the expansion of our soul. And yes, it was very traumatic, what happened in the accident and, and, you know, you said, Well, gosh, my little things, there are no little things. The little things are the big things. And when our lives crash, you know, when, when, when it did, didn't turn out the way we expected. The insight for me, and I'm still learning it, is, wow, I get to honor choice. I get to honor choice in the matter, and I get to be love. And the most deep thing is I get to love myself, the self love, I mean, the self forgiveness. My story, in many ways, is a love story, but it's a redemption story. It's like this self forgiveness and the learning to love myself is an ongoing process, but I think anything that happens in our lives, we can take a higher perspective. We can take a step back, and rather than saying, Why me? You know? Why now? Why this? Just saying, What? What am I learning? How is this expanding my soul and and for me, even when difficult things happen, it feels as if it when I take a step back or a step above and look at it from a higher perspective, it's like, oh, this is expanding further, my capacity to love, my capacity to forgive, my capacity for compassion and empathy and and therefore, you know, if life, and this is what I've come to, the conclusion life, the purpose of life is to learn. It's simply to learn, and every situation allows our soul to learn at a deeper level and expands our soul into a place where perhaps we're closer to the divine. You know, perhaps we have more compassion and more empathy and more love that can be unconditional. And

Jannecke Øinæs 37:25

Do you think that we plan our lives to great detail, that you actually plan this? And was that something you became aware of in the near death experience, like, Did you receive?

Jeffery Olsen 37:35

Yes, yes. I'm so glad you asked that, because I, you know, I grew up believing that life was a test. You know, the angels were keeping score. I was probably failing, and God would judge me, right? No, I mean, in those beloved arms, and this is what I was. I was like, Why? Why the communication was, this is what your soul plan. This is what your soul desired, and we loved you enough to support it and to allow it. And Tamara loved you enough to leave, and Griffin agreed to break your heart in ways you could never comprehend. And Spencer chose to stay and walk with you, even if you limped and and, and I suppose everything in life is that way. Our soul creates it. We don't like it. When we're in it, it's like, well, there's no way. I didn't want this. However, I think at a higher level, we did. I I mean, having grown up in in a conservative Christian home, I still look at things that Jesus said, but I see them differently. You know? I mean, here he is being taken away to be crucified, and and he says, well, For this cause, came I into the world. And, you know, this is not a religious conversation. I'm like, gosh, that can apply to all of this. Something really challenging happens, and now I say to myself, well, For this cause, I came into the world to experience that I still have a choice. I can choose resentment and hate and fear, or I can step into love and choice and and have a different energy.

Jannecke Øinæs 39:21

Hey guys, I want to jump in here to give my thanks for being part of the wisdom from North community. Your support and engagement means the world to us. We put so much passion, so much love into these episodes, and my intention is really to be part of this great shift of consciousness, to do what I can do with this channel, to help people expand their consciousness, love themselves more, follow their purpose and shine their light. So if you haven't yet subscribed, I would love for you to do so. Thank you so much. You'll find the link somewhere here below, and now let's go back. Back to the episode,

And what I find interesting is that life, it seems like, for those who have experienced near death experiences, is not super easy afterwards, either. Because in my naive mind, I would think, Oh, you have the proof. You have felt the divine love. So why wouldn't life just be magical after that? But immediately it seems like, when we're back in our bodies, all the beliefs comes back, all like the conditioning comes back, and life is just as hard, actually, and sometimes we're it seems like you guys are challenged even more, but you have that profound knowing and the teaching, but it doesn't get any easier. It seems like.

Jeffery Olsen 40:49

No and it has been very challenging. I for a very long time, it was like, well, where's all that love, right? The love I experienced there? Where's that oneness? Where's that connection? Where's that unconditional love that I felt from the Divine, and yet maybe still I was looking for external validation in some way. But there's also a beautiful part of it. I mean, for me, I watch a sunset and it's like I'm right back in heaven, if you will. I mean, the little things become the big things. But also, I think I have been homesick, you know, for years, like, where's that divine peace, where's that profound acceptance? Where's that, you know.

Jannecke Øinæs 41:40

But but did you open up to, you know, extraordinary ability, psychic abilities. A lot of nde experiences do that like they have very many skills after such an experience. Or did you feel like, you know, it was just that prayer, and then it was sort of shut down again, that you are just like me.

Jeffery Olsen 42:04

We're all alike having the experience. And I, I don't claim to be psychic. There's just things that I know sometimes and every now and then, it's, it's like that veil lifts, and I will see people as I saw in the hospital.

Jannecke Øinæs 42:17

Oh, really,

Jeffery Olsen 42:18

yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll look on someone and I see their divinity. I see their magnificence of their soul. I had an experience with a homeless man. We have homeless people. You don't have homeless people in Oslo, at least. I didn't experience any of that, but we have people that are very down and out. They live on the street. And I had a homeless man come to me one day, and you know, he wanted money, and I was in a hurry, and I was kind of wanting to get around him, or get by him. And suddenly that whisper came and said, Look at him. Look at him. And and I did. I looked right in his eyes as he's telling me the story of how he's homeless and has nothing, and he's hungry and he wants something to eat, and and suddenly I it's, it's like before me, he turned into my brothers, you know, the ones that had loved me and supported me in the hospital and and then I saw myself, and I thought, wow, had I not had the family support? I could have been this guy strung out on the street with nothing. I mean, I could have been so emotionally broken that I had turned to drugs or alcohol or whatever the addiction would be to cover up the pain and and then suddenly, rather than seeing myself, I saw this divine, angelic being. And I thought, wow, I see God in you. And I began to, I began tears came, and I threw my arms around him. Suddenly, it's like, wow, and and he threw his arms around me, and he began to weep. It was probably strange, these two grown men holding each other in the street with tears. And I said to him, and I almost said it without thinking. It's like, I heard myself say, I I see you. I know who you are. And he said back to me, I know that, you know, at that point, I'd have given him all the money in my wallet. It didn't matter. But he no longer wanted that. He wanted to be seen. He wanted to be recognized and accepted. And we, we stood there in the streets for a moment. So I have had those moments, and I don't know if that's psychic, I don't know if that's profound. I don't know that I came back with any immense gifts, except maybe it is to love. Maybe, if I, I felt like, if I could, if I could, somehow portray that unconditional love to some body. Then that is maybe why I'm here. You know, maybe that, maybe that's the purpose it it might be a simple phone call, or it might be a smile to a stranger on the street, and that might be the biggest thing I do this week, is to, you know, change the world in that way.

Jannecke Øinæs 45:19

Yeah, it's like you said, it's in the small things. And I think that's what we forget. We think it's about those big things and those big gestures, and then we are busying our way through the day, and we forget about the small things. And it's like you're saying, just to see somebody else, just to be seen. How big of an impact we can make in a person's life just seeing them and acknowledging them like a consciousness serving another, consciousness that we're seeing each other, I mean children that they just long to be seen all the time, and we still have those inner children. So there's so much we can do, like we don't have to save the world and do these big things like we could, we could just see each other. And I think life also feels more magical and profound when we do that, when we take the time to stop and take in our environment and the nature and all that is around us and and just be, you know, but, but it's busy mind though. It's like we have to train ourselves to just be, which is such a paradox.

Jeffery Olsen 46:33

It really is. It really is. And, I mean, again, I'm going even to my upbringing, you know, apparently, Jesus sat on a rock out in a sermon and said, be perfect. And that messed with me. I mean, when I was in the arms of divine, I realized life is not a test, it's a gift, you know, it's an absolute gift, and there was no judgment. And here is, you know, one of the master teachers saying, be perfect. And I'm like, well, I'll never be perfect, and it's like, no embrace the perfection you are. Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They don't spin and toil. And yet we do. We we spin and toil up here, and we have a very hard time embracing ourselves. I mean, with with this homeless man, I saw the divinity in him. And yet the challenge is to look in the mirror and see the divinity within myself and realize, Wow, I am a manifestation of that, just like you are and you are and you are and you are and what we're all this, these beautiful, unique manifestations, and to honor that and embrace it is the is the challenge. For me, it's the challenge sometimes, yet it's also the beauty. It's also the gift.

Jannecke Øinæs 47:47

Yeah, I think it's interesting that almost the hardest thing is to love oneself, that that is such a difficult thing. And I think a lot of us have that purpose, actually, to have that as a theme in our lives, to meet it through different in different ways, to love ourselves. And I really believe that we're supposed to radically love ourselves, because that's the truth of who we are, is just love. And another thing is a lie, actually, because we are love, so not loving ourselves is, is the falseness in a way,

Jeffery Olsen 48:25

yeah, yeah. And there's another profound statement that I look took a deeper look at. It's like, okay, love your neighbor as yourself. And I always thought that was about being good to the neighbors, but it's like, wow, love them as I love myself. If I don't love myself, then what love Do I have to give so there's, you know, there's these deep, profound things, and

Jannecke Øinæs 48:47

Even you know that that's why I love shadow work, even though even those sides that we really want to hide for the public, the most shameful, the most disgusting, the most yucky signs of ourselves. It's about loving that like you experienced on the other side that you were loved for everything. And you and I, we were in Oslo, and we had this live evening with another Norwegian guy who's called you and scout, and I've interviewed him, and he had a profound near death experiences as well, and he had the same experience that he was on the other side, and he was shown that he was loved for what he hated in himself was what he was most loved for, which made a deep impact on me.

Jeffery Olsen 49:37

Yeah, it is funny. Our judgments, you know, our judgments of things and and, you know, there's been other insights to my son, Spencer, who survived the accident. I mean, he was seven years old, and he didn't have a near death or out of body experience. He lost everything I lost, and I've watched him in his life. And there's been some struggle and challenge, you know, I mean, at one point when he was a young man, and you know, he was probably 20 or so, he came to me, he gone away to college. But he's like Dad, I don't get it, you you speak of this thing that happened, these out of body experiences, and he said, I, I had none of that I was a little boy. He said, I beat my knuckles bloody on this door you call God in prayer, and I got nothing, and, and, and, you know, he said, maybe you're deceived in some way. Maybe you're making it all up. I don't know you to lie, but he said, or if there is a greater power, it doesn't care about me. I was a little boy, and he said, I begged, I prayed, you know, please, I just want to feel my mom. And he said, I got, I got nothing. So I don't, you know it was, it was kind of a interesting conversation, and boy that disturbed me as a father. I'm like, Wow. You know, I went that night at home, and I said, Please, God, you know, I'll give it all away. Give him something. Give him anything. And that was an interesting night of perhaps an answer. I was told, why are you judging your son? Judge, Judge. Not. You know that you be not judged. Why do you think your experience is better than his? Why do you think that you would give yours away? Don't you know that the universe has got him? I've got him. He's having the perfect experience for the expansion of his soul, and you're having the perfect experience for the expansion of your soul. And they don't have to look alike. They don't have to be the same. And I've watched Spencer now as he's become a father and fell in love, and I'm now a grandfather. They've brought a child into the world. He and his wife, but Spencer recently wanted to, he wanted to write a book, and he said, Dad, I want to do a book for children. We embarked, and we co authored a children's book, but it's beautiful because it was written from that little, seven year old perspective. The book's called, where are you? And this was his. It's like, you know, it's like, I looked for you in the kitchen, I looked for you in the garden, I looked for you at the Chapel. I looked for you in the stars, where I'm finding you nowhere. You're just gone. And he's speaking of his mother or of his little brother. And yet the book wraps up. It's not a religious book. It's not like, Oh, they're in a better place. That used to make him so angry when people would say, Oh, your mother's in a better place. He'd say, No, she's not. You know, the best place for her is here with me and but it's a beautiful thing about how they live on within him, and because they're alive within him. Suddenly now he sees them in everything. He sees them in the scars in the garden. And it's beautiful little book. But what the point is, and this is an insight that has come after time, is that grief, no matter what that grief is, that could be in the death of someone, it could be in someone leaving and going away. It could be the loss of a limb. I mean, again, you know, but grief, the point is, grief is love. Grief may be the grandest manifestation of love. We leave because we love, and therefore grief is love, and it can be honored as such and not shamed, or run away from or tried to get through, we can experience it and allow that to expand our souls. And perhaps that's our soul plan. Maybe our souls wanted to expand so much that we would experience grief, so that we would truly understand the shadow of love. And that's, you know, so it's, there's beautiful insights that come and we're always learning. I mean, I I become gray and, you know, I've lived my life, and I'm still learning, and that's the beauty I'm still learning, and I love that

Jannecke Øinæs 54:04

That's beautiful. I never thought of a grief as love, but it so makes sense. I mean, you're so right. Well, thank you so much for sharing this Jeff and I have a few questions that I ask all my guests, and we, we've talked about it, but I'll ask you, nevertheless, what is self love to you?

Jeffery Olsen 54:24

Self love is the most profound love there is. Self Love is honoring the bliss and the grief and the journey and self love is seeing the divinity within myself, that beautiful little child. When I held my son in the Divine Realms, and I thought, He's perfect, he's absolutely perfect. And it's true of all of us, seeing the perfection within myself with all of it, the things I judge, the things I don't like, the things I you know, the secrets, the journey, and I don't have many secrets, but it's, it's, it's letting go of the judgment and embracing ourselves as that little child, embracing ourselves of the perfection that we are, and realizing that this was the beautiful thing. As I was in the arms of God, I was judging my life. Oh, that was wrong. Oops. I didn't mean to do that. And I felt the entire universe was literally saying, Look at my children. They're learning to walk, you know, as I'm holding my little toddler that was learning to walk, and it was, it was a profound experience. And so if only I could love myself as I'm loved by the Divine, that would be self love.

Jannecke Øinæs 55:53

And what is the deeper meaning of life from your perspective?

Jeffery Olsen 55:58

Well, I kind of touched on it. The meaning of life is to learn. It's to learn. It's to experience all of it, all of it. And that doesn't mean I'm going to run out and rob the bank, you know, maybe, but, but, but that's a choice. It's to the meaning of life is to embrace choice and to make the choices that work for me and to learn what works and doesn't work without judging others or myself.

Jannecke Øinæs 56:29

Now, Jeff, if people want to connect with you, could you share how and share a little bit about the work you're doing today?

Jeffery Olsen 56:35

Oh, awesome. I, you know I'm i They can find me. I have a Instagram account. It's Jeffrey, J, E, F, F, E R, Y, C, Olson, o, l, s, e n, and that's the only thing I've got. I've got a little Instagram account, and I take pictures from the mountains where I live, of the horses and the mountains and the rivers and the trees. And I've become somewhat of a recluse. I've gone off social media. You can find me on Instagram. I do have a website, envoy, publishing, E, N, V, O, Y, publishing.com, or you can find me at JeffreyColson.com, but that's really the only ways to connect. And yet, I do look at those emails, and I do address them so you can find me. But yeah, in my in my golden years here, I've gone to the mountains. I'm back on the ranch. I'm talking to the horses more than I'm doing anything else and and yet, I'm very much here. And if someone wants to reach out, particularly if they're suffering or if they've got an issue they're dealing with. I'm there. I look at those emails, and I'd be happy to answer those.

Jannecke Øinæs 57:50

Jeffery, thank you so much for coming back on Wisdom From North and sharing your story.

Jeffery Olsen 57:55

It's an honor. Thank you for having me.