0:00

is in full bloom at the Home Depot, so

0:02

what are you working on? How

0:04

about a quick and stylish patio furniture

0:06

update? Check out a variety of on

0:08

-trend dining sets with plenty of space

0:10

for entertaining. And what's outdoor dining

0:12

without a shiny new grill? Find

0:14

a wide selection of grills under $300,

0:17

like the next grill for burner gas

0:19

grill for only $229. Then

0:22

add a little ambiance with string

0:24

lights. Transform your space this spring

0:26

with everything you need from the Home

0:28

Depot. Hi, my

0:30

name is Kevin Milsom. I

0:32

live in the west of England, close

0:35

to the border with Wales, in the

0:37

county of Gloucestershire. And

0:39

back in 2018, I had an

0:41

experience which kind of changed my

0:44

life in many ways. I was

0:46

very ill with sepsis. I didn't

0:48

quite realise how ill I was. I'd

0:51

never stayed in a hospital before. I'd

0:53

always been ridiculously healthy. I was 55

0:55

years of age and suddenly I was

0:57

in hospital with sepsis. which I'd had

0:59

for about a week. It had

1:01

been undiagnosed. And by the time

1:03

they got me to hospital, I was in a

1:05

very poor state of health. I had immediate surgery. My

1:08

right foot was full of

1:10

sepsis to the point where it

1:12

had gone deep into my

1:14

bones. I had immediate surgery and

1:17

they were able to remove part of

1:19

my foot and to get rid

1:21

of some of the sepsis. But the

1:23

next day it was decided that

1:25

I would need my right leg amputated

1:27

because It wasn't going to happen. And

1:29

if it went above my knee, it was

1:31

game over. So I

1:34

came to accept the fact that

1:36

I was going to have one leg or die. Not

1:38

really an option, is

1:40

it really, I suppose? And on

1:43

the morning before the operation to

1:45

remove my leg, they

1:47

wake you up every hour in hospital. And

1:49

I didn't realize that they do that because

1:51

they want to make sure that you're not

1:53

dead. So again, I

1:55

didn't realize how ill I was. and I

1:57

woke up about five o 'clock in the morning or I was woken

1:59

up by five o 'clock in the morning. I couldn't

2:01

go back to sleep and I didn't

2:03

feel very well. I had heart issues on

2:05

the operating table where my heart had

2:07

stopped and they had to bring me back.

2:10

I was accepting of the fact that

2:12

I was going to lose my leg, I

2:14

had no problem at all. I didn't

2:16

feel very well and I went to eventually

2:18

reach for the button by the side

2:20

of the bed to alert a nurse to

2:22

say look I'm not very well and

2:24

the next thing I'm I must have fallen

2:26

back on the bed because I'm flying

2:28

down a tunnel feet first. I've got both

2:31

feet intact. I'm flying down

2:33

a tunnel in like walk three. I'm

2:35

aware of a light at the

2:37

end of the tunnel. I'm aware that

2:39

the inside is lit as well.

2:42

And I emerge from the tunnel after

2:44

I guess a few seconds. I

2:46

emerge into this white room. This beautiful,

2:48

powerful white room. A white

2:50

like I've never experienced before in

2:52

my life. It felt like the room

2:54

was alive. Everything glowed, white, the

2:56

floor, the ceiling, the walls. And

2:58

in front of me were some people. I

3:01

recognized my mother, who had died, this

3:03

and that, nine years before. And

3:05

my stepfather, who

3:07

had died 13

3:09

years previously. And

3:12

my mother came running towards me, which was

3:14

very old, because when my mother died, she

3:16

was immobile, she was in a very poor

3:18

state of health, couldn't walk, was never going

3:20

to walk again, had dementia. She

3:22

came banding towards me like a teenager. as

3:24

I said she'd been gone for nine years and

3:26

she started talking to me and telling me

3:28

about heaven and I guess I was I was

3:31

still in a state of shock I hadn't

3:33

really taken it in I was kind of oh

3:35

that's nice well this is nice I wasn't

3:37

aware that I had died I wasn't aware that

3:39

this was a spiritual place I saw my

3:41

mother and I kind of excelled there's mum and

3:43

didn't really question it and she was telling

3:45

me about heaven and saw the spirit world or

3:48

whatever you want to call it it's just

3:50

a name And she was telling me how wonderful

3:52

it was and the animals and the plants

3:54

and I was going to love it there. And

3:56

as I say, I was still in a

3:58

state of shock, Phil, because I

4:00

couldn't take it in. It was

4:02

too much. At the same time, I

4:04

was also heightened mentally. I felt

4:07

like I was data for Star Trek.

4:10

I could absorb the information very, very

4:12

quickly. I was taking in lots of

4:14

stimuli, looking over here, looking over

4:16

there, looking at her, trying to work out

4:18

what she was saying, aware of my stepfather.

4:20

who was standing dutifully in the background, letting

4:22

his wife talk. That's

4:24

for usual. And I began

4:26

to kind of have an internal dialogue

4:28

while my mother was talking. I

4:31

began to kind of realise, I guess,

4:33

where I was. And I began to

4:35

get cross with myself, I

4:37

guess. And so it felt like I was

4:39

having a kind of life review. I

4:41

was having an internal dialogue with myself. I

4:43

was analysing my life, okay, I

4:45

got married, okay, I had kids,

4:47

okay, I had jobs, work. career.

4:50

I'd home educated the kids 12 years.

4:52

I'd done this, I'd done that. And

4:54

then I got to the have

4:57

I done enough, especially creatively, because I

4:59

do a lot of writing. I'm

5:01

a musician. I never done anything

5:03

with it. I'd always been fearful of,

5:05

I'm not sure what, and I'd backed away. I'd

5:08

had a chance to become a professional

5:10

musician. I'd walked away from that.

5:12

I'd had a chance to get several

5:14

books published. I'd walked away from those

5:16

opportunities. And it began to really

5:18

hit home with me. Had I done enough with

5:20

my life? I was 55. Had

5:22

I done enough? I guess

5:24

the short answer was no. I

5:26

hadn't. And it really began to

5:28

weigh on my mind. My mother was still talking.

5:31

Eventually she realized I wasn't really listening to

5:33

what she was saying. Probably again, as usual. And

5:36

she said, oh, you're not listening to me again. I'm

5:38

trying to tell you, you know, about this and that and

5:40

you're miles away. Which I was. And

5:42

she said, well, if you don't listen to me, listen to

5:44

him. She kind of indicated

5:46

to her right. And there

5:49

was a very faint door in the

5:51

wall. Again, white,

5:53

glowing white. And it

5:55

opened and this figure came through. Now

5:57

I'm not a religious person in

5:59

any such imagination. I studied

6:01

at university. I have a

6:03

fascination for people who have faith in why

6:05

people believe in things. I

6:07

studied psychology, parapsychology, and sociology.

6:10

I completely understand why

6:12

people Choose to have a

6:14

faith structure, but I don't

6:16

I kind of take bits from

6:18

all over the place I've

6:20

said my my part at that

6:22

point have been spiritual rather

6:25

than religious but But had I

6:27

been a stereotypical Christian I

6:29

guess I would have said that

6:31

this gentleman who came through

6:33

looked remarkably like Jesus Christ He

6:35

had the beard he had

6:37

the white this white shivering robe

6:39

his eyes were incredible But

6:42

most of all, it was his

6:44

energy. And his energy,

6:46

I really, and I say, I work

6:48

as a writer, I can't

6:50

get close to it. Just over

6:52

six years down the line, I can't

6:54

get close to describing that in vocabulary.

6:57

The energy and the power of this individual who

6:59

came through that door. And he

7:01

walked up to me and his eyes were, and

7:03

this is another odd thing. My mother had been

7:05

talking to people at her mouth. A

7:07

lot. And this

7:09

gentleman didn't. He spoke to me

7:12

with his mind. I could

7:14

hear his voice within my head. And he said

7:16

to me, why are you here? And

7:18

I literally said back to him, that's a very good

7:20

question. I've got no ideal. I've

7:22

got no ideal. I'm in hospital

7:24

one minute. I don't feel very well. Now I'm

7:26

here. And I'm taking all this in. And

7:29

again, it's slowly dawning on me. Hang

7:31

on a minute. This isn't

7:33

a usual Friday. Something's

7:36

off here. And I kind

7:38

of realized where I was. I think it's

7:40

set in. And he could sense

7:42

my anger at myself, not at

7:44

anybody else. And he was the

7:46

epitome of patience, compassion,

7:48

empathy, kindness, love,

7:50

light, whatever you want, whatever words,

7:52

and they won't be adequate. He

7:55

was just a phenomenal force of

7:57

nature, the spirit, spirituality.

8:00

He said again, why are you here? I said, I don't know. He

8:02

said, well, what do you want to do? I

8:05

said, I don't know. My mother had said,

8:07

you know, through that door, you'll find everything. And

8:09

I knew if I went through that, I knew the

8:11

door was a barrier. I knew if I went

8:13

through the door, I wasn't coming back. I

8:15

realised that very strongly for

8:17

some reason. And

8:20

I was tempted because my mother

8:22

had sold it to me. She'd sold

8:24

the idea of heaven to me

8:26

very, very well. And I was having

8:28

this internal dialogue with this gentleman

8:30

and he just knocked the ball, kept

8:33

knocking the ball back into my court. What do you

8:35

want to do, Kevin? You're

8:37

here now, this is your choice, what do you want

8:39

to do? You can go back, you

8:41

can come, you can stay, you're well here, all this.

8:44

I knew what was going on, I knew

8:46

the rules. I had, again,

8:48

a very strong internal dialogue with myself, as

8:51

tempted as I was to go and see

8:53

the wonderful animals and the singing flowers and all

8:55

this kind of stuff that my mother had

8:57

described. I knew I had to

8:59

go back, I knew I had a lot

9:01

more to do, I knew I had

9:03

things to accomplish that I hadn't done in

9:05

my 55 years of physical life. mortal

9:07

life and I said to the gentleman I

9:09

think I think I need to go

9:11

home just nodding and said are you sure

9:13

you made sure that I was positive

9:15

about my choice and decision and I said

9:18

yeah I need to go back my

9:20

next thing I woke up in the bed

9:22

I woke up in my hospital bed

9:24

about 15 minutes I think it passed but

9:26

it felt different my leg was a

9:28

mess I knew that, but

9:30

I also felt something in a

9:32

room. Now, I've worked within spiritual

9:34

healing at that point. I mean,

9:36

in 1985, I started doing spiritual

9:38

healing and training to be spiritual

9:40

healing. I've done various aspects of

9:42

that, and still do, to this

9:44

day. So I was aware of the power

9:46

of spiritual healing, but around me in the bed, there was

9:48

like a donut. was like I

9:50

was encased in this little large donut.

9:53

I could feel it, and something

9:55

felt different. The voice in my head

9:57

said, I think gonna be okay. I think

9:59

it's gonna be alright. And I believed

10:01

it, I knew. I didn't know at the time,

10:03

because I was a bit out of it with

10:05

the sepsis, so I'd been not well up very

10:07

well, obviously. My wife had gone on to social

10:09

media and on to Facebook. And

10:11

at the time I was working as a

10:13

distance healer, we would send healing out around the

10:16

world. And she'd gone to them and said,

10:18

could you send healing out for Kevin? So there

10:20

were about a thousand of those healers all around

10:22

the world, they were sending me. My

10:25

friends on Facebook, All together there were

10:27

probably 1 ,500 to 2 ,000 people praying for

10:29

me at that time. People of all Christians,

10:33

agnostics, atheists, spiritualists,

10:36

Wiccans, witches, they were

10:38

just sending me their love and their light and their

10:40

energy. And I could feel it. And

10:43

I knew, as I said, I knew everything was going

10:45

to be okay. Nine o 'clock came, my surgeon came

10:47

in, who was very blunt, as

10:49

was I, especially with his senses. And

10:53

he said, Are you

10:55

okay? For your leg to be chopped off? I said, yeah. No

10:58

problem. Do it. And he

11:00

said, well, you're first on the list because

11:02

we need to. Because the day before,

11:04

the black had gone up my leg and

11:06

was probably on my shin. And

11:08

obviously, as I said, if it goes

11:10

over the knee, then goodnight Vienna. And

11:13

a nurse came in who I'd not

11:15

seen before, a head nurse. And he said

11:17

to her, look at Kevin's injury, because

11:19

it was the worst injury to a foot

11:21

they'd ever had where the leg had

11:23

not immediately had to be amputated. It was

11:25

a mess. It was absolutely ripped to

11:27

pieces. And she did all the

11:29

bandages off and everything else. And

11:31

she looked at it, and she looked at it

11:33

very strangely. I was used to that because people looked

11:35

at it and go, oh, in fact, they would

11:37

send the student nurses around to look at it because

11:40

this kind of injury, you never saw, you saw

11:42

it in textbooks, you never saw it in real life.

11:44

It was so rare where the leg, as I

11:46

said, had not been immediately had

11:48

to be amputated and she said oh

11:50

my god this is amazing I thought

11:52

okay that's not the reaction that I

11:54

was expecting she called the doctor over

11:56

and he said oh I seen it

11:58

I was wearing this surgery and she

12:00

insisted and he came over begrudgingly and

12:03

he looked at it and he swore

12:05

and I thought well that can't be

12:07

good that can't be good So

12:09

I asked them to let me in on it,

12:11

really, because, you know, this is my blinking foot. My,

12:13

you know, I'd like to blink and we'll blink

12:15

and know what's blinking going on. Please, if you don't

12:18

mind. Because looking at your faces, I'm now worried.

12:20

What's down there? A hoof? And

12:23

some kind of alien

12:25

probe. What's going on

12:27

here? And you said, well, look for

12:29

yourself. Which I didn't

12:31

like doing, because I'd seen it a couple of times, and

12:33

it was like something out of a horror film. I

12:35

looked at it, and it was as pink as a

12:37

baby's backside. And he said, where's it

12:40

gone from yesterday? And I said, I don't know.

12:42

I thought, well, I've got an idea, but

12:44

I'm not going to tell you because you're not

12:46

going to understand. And

12:48

I remember the words, it's going to be

12:50

OK. And all traces of sepsis have gone

12:52

from my leg and my foot. And

12:54

they couldn't understand why

12:56

or how. I spent over a

12:59

month in hospital recuperating. The only one who

13:01

kind of understood me was a hospital chaplain who

13:03

was also a trained medic and had seen

13:05

my notes and said, you shouldn't be here.

13:07

A, you shouldn't be here and B, you should

13:09

have one leg less than me. And

13:11

we talked about the healing power of God's

13:13

divine love. And we talked about that for an

13:16

hour and we prayed. And

13:18

she said, I completely get it. I completely

13:20

understand. And we talked about spiritual healing. And

13:23

some of the nurses understood it as well. They'd seen

13:25

it happen before. But it was

13:27

a phenomenal experience for me. And one

13:29

that, again, is very hard to put

13:31

into words. Even six years down the line, I

13:33

recall all of it. I know it wasn't a

13:35

dream. I don't remember my dreams.

13:37

I remember this one, six years on,

13:39

every second of it. It's very clear in

13:41

my mind, very, very clear in my

13:43

mind. And for me, it's given me

13:45

the knowledge, I mean, I already believed in

13:47

life after death. I'd been studying it since

13:49

I was a child growing up in haunted

13:51

houses. And I'd got into spiritualism in the

13:53

UK in the 1980s when I was in

13:56

my very early 20s. So I had that

13:58

belief structure and system there. And

14:00

this just reinforced it. And

14:02

the compassion, the love, in that

14:04

room, no trace of judgement,

14:07

no trace of anything like, oh you've been a

14:09

bad boy, you understand in the corner, you

14:11

know, you have to go over

14:13

here and do that, you know,

14:15

it was all about me, all

14:17

about my acceptance of where I

14:19

was, and my choice to go

14:21

through that door, and cease to

14:23

be, and its physical realm, or

14:26

go back and make a difference, and since

14:28

coming back I've watched hard to make a difference,

14:30

it's not been easy, I have to have

14:32

some further surgery next year,

14:34

the tiny part of the foot hasn't

14:36

healed as we would like and

14:38

it keeps getting affected so I have

14:40

to go and have a little

14:42

bit of further amputation done which I'm

14:44

not looking forward to but I'm

14:46

still here, I'm alive, I function very

14:48

very well and I've tried to

14:50

make a difference, I've tried to become

14:52

more interactive with society, with the

14:54

community, I've set up workshops in meditation,

14:57

healing, I do a lot of readings

14:59

for people which I did before but I'd tailed

15:01

away from it. I try to be more of

15:03

service, and every day is a gift, every day

15:05

is a blessing, and I think that's the major

15:07

lesson that's come through. Every day is a complete

15:09

blessing. Every day should

15:11

be taken seriously, not too seriously.

15:14

Always make room for singing and dancing, but at

15:17

the same time, every day is precious. And

15:19

it's not to be wasted, and even if you

15:21

do one thing a day, that's what I took from

15:23

it, to make the most of my life. And

15:25

in trying to help other people, in

15:28

as many ways as I can

15:30

find, possible to do that,

15:32

and that comes from that experience,

15:34

from that near -death experience. I watched

15:36

over the 11th 2018, which was

15:38

ironically my mother's birthday. So,

15:41

yeah, it's

15:43

a really good experience and I love

15:45

sharing it with people because I really

15:47

hope that it gives, well, hope that

15:49

any life goes on. B, we

15:51

will see our love once again. And everything

15:53

is love. Everything is compassion and empathy.

15:55

There is no judgment. There is no, you

15:57

know, it's just love. It's just pure

15:59

love. And really love

16:01

that, and that's what taken forward. And

16:04

that's the message that I like to try share,

16:06

and thank you for the opportunity for sharing it

16:08

today. It's been a real life

16:10

changer 2018, but as I say,

16:12

every day is precious. Make the most

16:14

of every day. Thank you for

16:16

listening.