Holiday Season Is Here!
- Sandra Fleming, MD, IFMCP
- Dec 23, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 10
Dear Valued Patients and Friends,
As we approach the wonderful time of the year, we wish you a December filled with warmth, vitality, and meaningful moments with your loved ones.
Our mission here at Coastal Functional Medicine is to empower you with practical solutions and personalized care to support your health and well-being during the holidays and beyond.
This month, we’re thrilled to share updates, tips, and insights to help you stay energized, prevent seasonal health challenges, and embrace longevity with confidence.
Wishing you a cozy Holiday Season!
A New Season: Bridging Medicine With Spirituality
Why Are More Health Care Practitioners and Scientists Talking About Energetic Entities, Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and the Afterlife?
When Andrew Huberman, PhD, a Stanford associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology, interviewed Dr. Martha Beck, a Harvard-trained sociologist, in August of this year, it became clear that our world is shifting. Scientists are beginning to “come out of the mystical closet,” openly discussing topics such as energetic entities and telepathic experiences (Huberman Lab Podcast, August 2024). Similarly, Dr. Peter Attia, MD, a world-renowned expert in preventive medicine, hosted Sebastian Junger, a prominent journalist and author, who shared his Near-Death Experience (NDE) and reflections on the afterlife (Petter Attia Drive Podcast, August 2024).
These conversations indicate an expanding intersection of science, medicine and spirituality.
My own experience with an energetic deceased entity occurred when my 24-year-old nephew died of an overdose during the pandemic and then weeks later visited me in a dream so vivid and real that even today I can recall every detail. This triggered an existential crisis, and I began to question what was real and my soul’s purpose. A quest to find answers beyond what modern science offered, I started researching physician stories of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), including Dr. Eben Alexander III and Dr. Mary Neal.
Dr. Alexander, a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon, recounted his journey to a mystical realm during a coma caused by bacterial meningitis. In his book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, he describes encounters with several energetic entities including his deceased sister, his journey through different “realms of heaven”, and when he learned about the true nature of space, time, as well as other concepts. He also describes these realms as places of peace, love, kindness, mercy, and acceptance.
Similarly, Dr. Mary Neal, an orthopedic spine surgeon, also had a transformative NDE following a kayaking accident in 1999. Trapped under her kayak for 30 minutes, she described encounters with angels and a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, which she chronicled in her books To Heaven and Back and 7 Lessons from Heaven, and also in the Netflix series "Surviving Death". She was also given specific details and a heart-breaking message about her future that later came to pass.
What's peculiar is that these highly respected physicians, along with thousands more individuals of various backgrounds and religions, shared similar experiences. Descriptions of meetings with deceased entities, spirit beings, and a loving presence that some call God; encountering deceased friends and relatives; recalling scenes from one’s life; feeling a sense of oneness to all creation; as well as a sense of overwhelming, transcendent love were commonly recalled experiences. Both Dr. Alexander’s and Dr. Neal’s experiences led them to believe that consciousness continues after death and that love is the ultimate healing force
My own experience was a visitation from my deceased nephew, who showed up in a dream as a loving, luminous, joyful entity and similarly opened my eyes to a collective consciousness and a Universe that is innately good and unconditionally loving.
This holiday season, spend some introspective moments and connect with your true Self. Practice self-love and self-compassion as often as you can, and let joy and laughter be a daily part of your life.
“To say that there is still a chasm between our current scientific understanding of the universe and the truth as I saw it is a considerable understatement. I still love physics and cosmology, still love studying our vast and wonderful universe. Only I now have a greatly enlarged conception of what ‘vast’ and ‘wonderful’ really mean. The physical side of the universe is as a speck of dust compared to the invisible and spiritual part. In my past view, spiritual wasn’t a word that I would have employed during a scientific conversation. Now I believe it is a word that we cannot afford to leave out.” ― Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife
