60. From NDEs (Near Death Experiences) to Joy: A Deep Dive into Spiritual Healing

Hi, we're Cynthia Vargaviser and Michelle Walters, co-hosts of Mind Power Meets Mystic.

Our weekly show is here to expand your mind to what's possible, to uplift your spirits,

to move forward with confidence and joy, and to create a space for your collaboration with

the invisible.

Welcome to Mind Power Meets Mystic!

Welcome everyone. You are listening to our episode of Mind Power Meets Mystic. This is

me, Michelle Walters, and I am here solo without Cynthia today. I have the honor of speaking

to Fawny Russell. Fawny is a great personal friend, and she is also a happiness specialist.

After three near-death experiences and a lifelong fascination with the mechanics of healing,

Dr. Bonnie M. Russell bridges the gap between science and spirit and boils it all down to

one super simple root, joy.

In her practice, Bonnie provides practical methods to obtain the kind of real joy and

wellness that restores wellness to body and soul.

Welcome Bonnie.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

I'm thrilled to be here.

I am so happy you could come.

You are kicking off our October of Halloweeny,

death, veil, ghosts, all kinds of things

that we are gonna cover this year on our October podcast.

And for those of you who haven't yet met Bonnie,

I met Bonnie a little over a year ago.

I met her in an online group.

And then I was delighted as I was looking across a circle

of people at a lovely event that's held locally

called Woo Woo in the Redwoods.

And there was this face.

There was this face that I thought,

oh my gosh, I think that's Bonnie.

And it turned out it was Bonnie.

And so it's just lovely to find people who are both online

and local and who have as many talents to bring

to their communities as you do, Bonnie.

- Well, we definitely have resonance between us,

that's for sure.

Yes, yes. Well, another one of the reasons why I wanted to bring Bonnie on Mind Power Meets Mystic

is that I heard Bonnie speak a couple of months ago about near-death experiences.

And it's not a topic we've talked about yet on Mind Power Meets Mystic, and I think it is the

perfect topic to be thinking about and talking about as Halloween approaches. And so I thought,

I would start off with the simple first question. I hope it's not too hard.

Bonnie, how would you define a near-death experience or what some people call NDE?

Okay, well, a near-death experience is any time that you have almost crossed the veil.

So it could be due to an illness, it could be due to an accident, any myriad of things can bring you

close to that exit point. And in my training, I've learned that

when we before we decide to incarnate, we write into our

personal blueprint several different exit points. And

sometimes you'll know you've had a horrible car accident, and you

wake up and you walk away from it. Well, that could have

possibly been an exit point for you. And you just decided, No,

I'm not ready to go yet. I think I'll stay for a little

while. Well, some of us when we hit those exit points, and we

decide to stay, we make that decision a minute or two after

we've actually left the body. That's when we decide to come

back. Does that make sense? I think that's probably the

simplest way to explain it.

Yeah, yeah, no, that does make sense to me. And it fits with

kind of, I don't know the way I think about things. But I think

for for those of us like me, who have never had a near death

experience. They're rather fascinating. And so I was hoping you could share with our listeners,

I know you said you had three of them, one or two or whichever of them you feel like

and fit with fit with October: 2023

I brought back different gifts every time I went across. And trust me, as this is coming out of my

mouth. I know how crazy this all sounds because people tell these stories all the time, but that

just goes to show that this is actually really real. Every time I made that decision to come back,

I brought back with me some wisdom, some clarity, some knowledge that, oh my gosh, that is home.

It is peace. There's nothing waiting for us but love. There's no judgment. There's nobody standing

there with a list that they're going to make you check off. Did you do this, this, this, and this?

It doesn't exist. It's not like that at all. So because I was able to have those experiences,

I found that I'm pretty gifted at being at the bedside of someone who is making their final

transition. And a part of my training was as a chaplain in home health care, hospice,

home health care. So I did that for a number of years. But your question was about the near-death

experience itself. So I'm going to just tell you about the very first one. That was when I was

actually a toddler. I was probably close to two years old, not quite two years old. And I fell and

hit my head hard enough that I lost consciousness. I was rushed to the hospital and I remember regaining

y machine. And gosh, that was: 1968

So it was very loud bang, bang, bang. And it was, you know,

scary for a little baby. And I remember seeing my mother, I

remember seeing her crying. And I remember her big pregnant

belly, she was carrying my brother at the time. And years

later when I was recounting my experience to her, I told her I remember seeing you crying,

I remember your belly, and she said that's not possible because they wouldn't let me in the room.

You were in, you know, in an x-ray, they don't allow pregnant women to be near the x-ray,

but I can see her clear as day in my mind's eye. She said, no, it just wasn't possible.

So I know that that was my first one. And another reason I know that is because shortly after that

I have a memory of being in my crib and I was wide awake. It was after dark but there was light

coming in the bedroom door and I saw a line of spirits walking in through the door making their

way around the room and up onto the foot of my crib walking right through the bars and then

and into the wall behind my head.

And I wasn't scared, I wasn't concerned,

but there was one specific entity

who made himself very clear to me.

He came right to my face,

and I don't think he said anything,

but he made it pretty clear to me in his own way

that they were my posse,

that they were gonna be with me for my life

and that everything was okay.

And that's really the last memory that I have.

I just fell asleep and that was that.

- Wow, Bonnie, what a great memory.

That's just crazy.

And to imagine you as this little tiny toddler

in your crib, watching all of this go down.

How nuts is that?

I mean, it's nuts and beautiful all at the same time.

- And shortly after that experience,

I started to tell, well, I started to tell my parents

about things that were going to happen.

I didn't have a word for that precognition.

I would just say things like, "Andy's dead."

And I would be told, "That's not nice."

And then the phone rang.

My mother's cousin, Andy, his body was just found.

He had drowned in the lake.

I could just see these things and tell them.

One time we were at a birthday party

and I must have been five years old, tops.

And we were at the party behind a big apartment complex.

So all the units looked exactly the same.

I went into the one that I knew was my cousin's apartment

and I was reaching into the playpen to get a toy.

There was a playpen in the corner of the kitchen.

And as I was doing that, I saw a woman behind me

in a rocking chair, an old woman, Afghan on her lap.

And she started to yell at me,

to get out of this house, you don't belong here.

This is how I went outside to my mother.

And I said, some lady just yelled at me in the kitchen.

And my aunt said, there's nobody in the kitchen, honey.

There's nobody in there.

But yet I saw her and she yelled at me.

- Yeah, you saw her.

You saw her.

She might not have a body the rest of you can see,

but Bonnie saw it.

- Body size. (laughs)

- I am wondering if your experience in the X-ray

as a two-year-old, if you were having

an out of body experience, and that's why you were able

to see your mother in another room.

Was that- - I believe so.

- Maybe?

- I believe so, yes.

- Did you have out of body experiences

in either of your other NDEs?

- Not like that, no.

- Not the same way, okay. - No.

In the second one, I was 17 years old and I was in the backseat of a 74 firebird man.

We thought we were so cool. Well, you were so cool.

And we were just cruising down the highway. Somebody cut us off in traffic and we hit a

telephone call in the backseat. I flew over my friends who were in the front seats and I hit

my head on the dashboard and then fell on just across the body of my girlfriend. So yeah, my head

was on her feet. Okay. And my scalp was ripped back. So I was rushing to a trauma center. I know,

terrible. In the hospital in the recovery room, when I made my, when I returned to consciousness,

The doctor asked me three questions. He said, "Do you know where you are?"

And I said, "Yeah, I think I'm in the hospital." And he said, "Do you know what happened?"

And I said, "I'm pretty sure we hit that telephone pole because I could remember seeing us at a

for it." And then the third question he asked was, "How long have you been here?" And I said,

about three weeks. And he said, No, it's only been about four or

five hours. When he said that, right, right, my mind was blown.

And I just started the tears just started to run down my face.

Because I had at least three weeks of memories of being in

paradise. I yeah, I was in that place where all the answers to

all the questions you could ever have were there. I visited with people who were no longer with us

on this plane and it just felt like so much time away. And the tears were partly because I couldn't

understand that dissonance and partly because I couldn't believe I was back. Like, oh my gosh,

I'm back. It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's really interesting. So I think you've done some

some training in hypnosis, I do a lot of work in hypnosis. And

one of the things that I do see with clients pretty regularly is

that their sense of time is completely mixed up in hypnosis

that, you know, they'll think that they've been under for 10

minutes, and I'll tell them it's been 45 minutes or something

like that, you know, or vice versa. I mean, that happens too,

right? So it is really interesting if I think about

sort of time and realizing that, you know, we all have sort of

this belief that time is very consistent, right?

Because that's just kind of the earthly experience.

But once you leave the earthly experience

and you're in another realm, you're in a state of trance,

time is different.

I don't know how else to say it's just,

it can be rapidly- - There's no such thing as time.

And this, the gift from that experience is that

I now understand how quantum healing works.

And in my office, when I see my clients

and I do hypnosis with them,

or just guided meditations, simple guided meditations,

I asked them to envision their perfect healed self

in five years from now.

And you have the ability to do that

because it feels so detached.

And so once you do that,

once you have that perfect picture of your healed self,

when you can see the clothes she's wearing,

you can smell the perfume,

you know what car she drives, what clothes she wears,

all of it, when you have that picture,

you can fold time, you can bring her to you,

and that is quantum healing.

It doesn't have to take five years.

Once you see it, you can have it.

- Beautiful.

I am now going to take a little quick moment

to remind all of our listeners

that they are here listening to me, Michelle Walters.

I'm the mind power of the Mind Power Meets Mystic podcast.

My co-host Cynthia Varkivisar has the day off.

I am talking to Reverend Dr. Bonnie Russell,

who is a happiness specialist and does shamanic work

and hypnosis work.

And we are talking about her NDE experiences

and I'm just having a great time.

So I hope the rest of you listening

are having a great time too.

Bonnie, I wanted to ask you also a little bit

about your time in the jungle, because you spent years, as I

understand it, in the jungle, learning shamanic practices and

that kind of a thing. And I, I'm sure those are, are

complementary, or intertwined with the NDE work, but share

with our listeners a little bit about what that chapter of your

life was all about.

Oh, my gosh, well, it all fits together neatly. For the longest

time I didn't see how it was going to fit together, but it

actually does. I was raised in a holistic household. So my

interest in herbs and herbal medicine was pretty natural. I

became a master herbalist and I had the opportunity to move to

Central America and study with Amaya shaman for five years.

So cool.

Right? Yes. So it turned out he his family really wasn't

interested in learning the old ways. They want a pill just like modern Americans pretty much

did for the longest time. So after I moved to Central America, this man came knocking on my gate,

had no idea who he was. But when I went out to greet him, he said that he had had a dream

about this shaman lady who lived in the neighborhood. And he asked people to help

him find me. And so he asked me, are you the shaman lady? And

first I giggled and I

jumped in looking for you. Right. Because that's my formal

training. I have my PhD in shamanistic theology. So that

married very well with the herbal medicine. And when he

asked me if I wanted to learn all of his secrets and all of

is spiritual and plant medicine. I wanted all of it. Absolutely. I said, sign me up. Let's go.

That is so cool. I think I don't know. I'm one of those crazy people who thinks that I don't know

if I could spend five years, but certainly going to the jungle to learn ancient secrets from

medicine, man, like sign me up. I would totally be down with that. That sounds really, really,

really cool. It was a lot of work. I mean, it was camping, basically, living in the jungle.

You have to make everything that you need. And I mean, clothes,

food, anything you need, you have to be able to manufacture on your own.

But it was a heck of an adventure. I'm thrilled that I was able to do it.

But it was during my time in the jungle that I had my third near death experience.

And if we have time, I can relay that for you.

Yeah, tell me about that one. We have a few more minutes.

So we're away from modern medicine and I developed a kidney infection. And it was

bad enough that I had 104 plus fever for about 10 days.

- Oh my gosh.

- And so, yes, it was very frightening,

scared my poor husband to death,

but I had the knowledge of all these herbs

and so I kept telling him what to bring to me.

But during that time, throughout those 10 days,

I felt like I had one foot in this world

and one foot on the other side.

I was visiting with people

and then I would come back and my body would hurt.

I'd say, okay, bring me this tea and I would take the tea

and then I would go back to the other side.

And so I had this sweeping back and forth thing for 10 days.

On the 10th day, my father who was recently deceased

was sitting on my left side

and his father was sitting on my right side.

And each of them was just stroking my arm

like they used to do when I was a little girl

and letting me know that, okay, we've had enough now.

It's time for you to go back.

You have to go back and teach all of this,

what you've been learning to do with the Paulo,

the Mayan shaman.

You gotta go back now and fulfill your promise.

And the fever broke and I was back.

- Wow.

Tell us in a couple of minutes,

what's it like on the other side?

- Oh my God.

- That's what everybody wants to know, Bonnie.

Like for those of us who haven't been there,

I mean, I've heard it from you,

I've heard it from many people,

but I can't get enough of hearing about it,

and I'm sure our listeners are the same way.

- Well, the funny thing is it varies.

So for some of my moments there,

it's just like this beautiful blue nothingness

where everything is perfect,

and you just know that you have all the answers

to all the questions,

and everything is just great, and you're in paradise.

And then there are times we actually get to visit

with people who have gone before you.

And then there are times when you get to see

ascended masters and visit with angels or spirit guides.

That was kind of cool to be able to actually meet face

to face with my spirit guide.

And this is kind of silly,

but I asked him to show me my records.

Where's my book?

And he took me to the academy.

- A classical.

- Yeah, there's gotta be a book about me somewhere up here.

- Am I supposed to go?

Am I supposed to say I was very practical?

Where's the book?

And that's sort of where I got the idea too,

or he let me know that there is no checklist.

Nobody is ever going to judge you

once you get here, you're home.

And the way that I understand it is

we are here in these lives, in having these adventures,

And it's very much like going to summer camp.

So you go for a time, you have an experience,

and then you return home and you tell everybody

about what fun you had.

And that's why--

- That sounds pretty good to me.

- Oh my gosh.

- I like that point of view.

- So I feel like the entire point and purpose of life

is to have a good time.

We're supposed to be having fun.

If things are difficult,

It's only to help us to refine something that we need

to help us to enhance our fun.

Because really there are just a few things

that any of us really want out of this life.

We want to have plenty of money

so that we can have tons of fun.

We want to have great relationships with people

so that we can have tons of fun.

We want to have a great career that is tons of fun.

Everything comes together.

And so if you are in a place where you are not having fun,

That's when you seek out a therapist like me

or a hypnosis therapist like you

so that you can be reminded that this is supposed to be fun.

Drop all of the trauma.

Let me help you get through it

and get you back on your mission.

The reason that you came here.

- Have fun.

- Have fun.

- That seems like a really good message for October,

doesn't it?

Like the October should be a month of having fun

and playing with ideas and wearing crazy costumes

and being people that you only dream about being, right?

- Yes, it's fun.

- So Bonnie, tell our listeners

where they can get ahold of you,

what events you have coming up,

kind of how they can play with you.

- Great, well, it's super simple.

You can find all of my information,

my books and my courses and everything

is gonna be at my link tree,

just link tree, Bonnie M. Rossell.

That's all you have to remember and it's all there.

And coming up in January,

I am going to be putting together my annual holistic expo

and it's going to be again at the Moose Lodge

in Castro Valley.

This time I'm gonna do it a little bit different.

Past years, I've always had holistic and fitness experts.

This year I'm going to have holistic and psychic experts.

Excellent. You'll be able to ask all of these questions to all of those fun people. Yeah,

excellent. Well, I'm sure that's going to be a great event. I had a chance to stop by your

event last year at the Moose Lodge and it was it was great. It was great. So people have to go to

Linktree and find the info and join you. Yes. In person. In person. In person.

- You can come and get your vitamin H,

that's a healthy healing hug.

Everybody needs some vitamin H.

- Very good, very good.

Well, thank you so much for being on our show today.

This has been Michelle Walters interviewing Bonnie Russell.

Thank you so much, Bonnie, and I'll be seeing you around.

- My pleasure, Michelle.

This has been a blast.

See you next time.

- Thanks, bye-bye.

you've been listening to, My Power Me's Mystic.