Betty Eadie

Betty (Jean) Eadie (born 1942) is a prominent American author of several books on near-death experiences (NDEs). Her best-known book is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book Embraced by the Light (1992). It describes her near-death experience. It is arguably the most detailed near-death account on record. It was followed by The Awakening Heart (1996), which was also a best-seller. The Ripple Effect (1999) and Embraced by the Light: Prayers and Devotions for Daily Living (2001) were both published independently.

Eadie, who is part Native American, was born in Valentine, Nebraska and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When she was four, Betty's parents separated and she was placed in St. Francis Indian School, one of the American Indian boarding schools at the time along with six of her siblings. While in high school she dropped out to care for a younger sister, then later returned to receive her diploma, eventually pursuing a college degree. She also converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in which she says she was largely inactive until her NDE, after which she became active and served church callings in her ward in Seattle.

After her NDE, Betty began volunteering her time at a cancer research center comforting dying patients and their families. She then studied hypnotherapy, graduating at the top of her class, and later opened her own clinic. After "Embraced" was published, Betty gave up her hypnotherapy practice and began traveling extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland, speaking on death and the afterlife. Today, after more than 37 years of NDE studies, Betty J. Eadie continues to collect and evaluate near-death accounts, as well as giving speeches and lectures.

In her NDE account, Eadie reports many phenomena similar to other NDE accounts, such as going through a dark tunnel, seeing a bright light and experiencing a Life review, as well as features unique to her story. In 1973, while recovering from a surgical operation at age 31, Eadie reported she first felt herself fading to lifelessness, then felt a surge of energy followed by a "pop" and feeling of release, a sense of freedom and movement unhindered by inertia or gravity. She was met by three angelic beings who spoke with her about her prior existence and hitherto suppressed memories in order to participate in earthly experience. She traveled to terrestrial locations such as her home merely by thinking about them, returned to her hospital, and then passed on through a dark tunnel-like medium in which she reported sensing other beings in a transitory preparatory stage.

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