Thoughtful viewers, welcome to Science and Spirituality for the first in a two-part series examining near death experiences or NDEs, which occur when a person comes close to physical death and has an experience such as a sense of detachment from the body accompanied by the vision of a bright light or tunnel.

Subjects may also undergo what’s known as a “panoramic life review” or flashback of past life events. Even though the subjects’ hearts and brains may completely cease to function during the incident, they can still recall everything that occurred. Today we’ll speak with Dr. Anthony D. Cicoria, who after his own near death experience discovered a passion for playing the piano and subsequently uncovered a talent not only to play but also to compose beautiful music.

In 2008 he released a CD of his musical works entitled “Notes from An Accidental Pianist & Composer.” Dr. Cicoria is chief of the medical staff and of orthopedics at Chenango Memorial Hospital, Norwich, New York, USA and Clinical Assistant Professor of Orthopedics at State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, USA.

Dr. Cicoria holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the Citadel, South Carolina, USA a Ph.D. in physiology and cellular biophysics from the Medical University of South Carolina, USA and an MD from the same school. Now let’s hear from Dr. Cicoria about an utterly life-transforming event that occurred in 1994 near Albany, New York, USA while using a public phone during an outdoor family gathering.

I was standing at the phone, the building got hit by lightning and I remember hearing this loud crack and I saw this big flash of light come out of the phone and it hit me right in the face. And I remember seeing every bit of that and when it hit me in the face it just sent me flying backwards like a rag doll.

And suddenly, as I was going backwards, suddenly something changed and I was moving forwards, and I remember standing there thinking, “This is really strange. I know that I got hit. I know that something bad happened and I went flying backwards, but now I’m not going backwards anymore and I’m just kind of standing here.”

And I remember looking down at my feet and I look at the wall and the phone is dangling, and I still am mystified as to what had happened, but yet I had complete recall of every millisecond of that time. And right about that moment, my mother-in-law who was at the top of the stairs, starts screaming and she starts running right at me and I felt like a deer in the headlights, I am looking at her, going, “Oh, what’s going on?” and she ran right by me.

And I turned to see where she was and I looked over on the ground and I’m on the ground! And I thought… I mean this is exactly what I thought, I said, “I’m dead!” And as I was standing there, I’m watching what’s happening and there was somebody waiting to use the phone and it turns out it was a nurse… in the middle of nowhere, waiting to use the phone.

And so, she drops down to the ground to start doing CPR and my mother-in-law was standing there and all these other people were there by then, and I’m still standing here and I’m looking at them, I hear everything they’re saying, but they can’t hear me and they can’t see me because I’m calling out to them. And at that point it was interesting because the first realization that I made was, “Gee, there’s not been a break in conscious thought at all.

So, whoever I am, is not in the body, it’s…whatever form I’m in, spiritual form, is who I am because the consciousness is with me, all of my thoughts are with me, all of my memories are with me” and I thought, “Well, I guess there’s no point in hanging around here!” The second thing that was very interesting to me was that it was very dispassionate. There was no emotion associated with the fact that I was dead! It was very matter of fact: “Oh well, I am!” And so I thought, “Oh, there’s no point in staying here.”

So I turned and I started to walk up the stairs and I don’t know where I was going, but that just seemed to be what I was going to do and as I’m looking down at my legs, I see my legs dissolve and so, suddenly I’m not in a solid form anymore. I can see that I’m becoming a floating energy ball of some sort.

I float up the stairs and I passed through the wall into the room where all the family is and I saw my kids and the rest of my family and my wife and they were all having fun and painting faces and I thought, “They’ll be fine!” And there was no emotion associated with the fact that I wasn’t going to see them again. It was just very matter of fact, “They’ll be fine and I’m going someplace else!”

And I floated out of the building and when I got out of the building is when things really started to happen. As I got out of the building, all of a sudden I was wrapped in this bluish, white light. At first I was like, “Okay, what is this?” and I’m analyzing it as it’s happening. And if you could imagine absolute, pure love and peace, that’s what it felt like being in this light.

After we return we’ll hear more from Dr. Anthony Cicoria about his near death experience and how it profoundly changed his life. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Wonderful viewers, welcome back to Science and Spirituality where we’ve been exploring near death experiences, particularly that of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Anthony Cicoria. After suffering from a lightning strike, Dr. Cicoria had amazing other worldly experiences as his consciousness seamlessly went from an in-body to an out-of-body state. Let’s find out more about the event and especially his “life review.”

In science we talk about “absolute zero,” which is the temperature at which nothing moves, no molecules move. And that’s what this was like, but this was absolute love and peace. And it was like falling into a river of pure, positive energy. And I came to that realization that this is God. What I’m feeling is the presence of God. And I thought, “I can feel this energy, and maybe it’s measurable, maybe it’s not,”

but I knew that where I was going felt pretty good because I could sense that I was being taken some place. And I saw the really high points and low points of my life just kind of quickly go by; it’s my kids, and I did this, or I did that, but there was no in-depth review.

And in having read many other accounts of people that have had near death experiences, what happens depends on how long you’re out. So, if you’re only out for a short time, it’s a short review. If you’re out there for a long time, you come back to it and there’s an in-depth review.

After experiencing such bliss and love many people who have near death experiences are reluctant to come back to inhabit a human body and all that goes with it.

I don’t know if I was being guided, but when I describe, it was like falling into a river of pure, positive energy. It was taking me some place, but I didn’t know where. But I was really happy about it. And then, right about the time that I was so happy that I was going, all of a sudden, BAM! I was back in my body!

I was angry. I remember begging God, “Please don’t make me do this!” It hurt! I mean, I went from absolute bliss to feeling, like somebody who’d gotten punched in the mouth; and I had a burn on my face and I had a burn on my foot, and there’s this poor woman who’s doing CPR and I just wanted to tell her to stop, but I’m still unconscious. I’m in, I’m stuck back in this body, it’s unconscious, but my consciousness is still very aware of what’s going on.

And it seemed like several minutes after that, that she stopped and I managed to be able to open my eyes and everything was very fuzzy and I sat up and I just wanted to say that I was okay and I wanted to thank her.

Because of his profound experience and desire to understand what had happened to him, Dr. Cicoria contemplated deep within as well as researched near death experiences and now has a sense as to the purpose of his life and living.

Yes, what is “me”? I think “me” is spirit, and the spirit lives on; and that we have a memory of all the times we’ve come into this Earth plane. And in my reading that’s what I have found; we come… we cycle through. And the way I’ve looked at it is in our earthly existence we have a thing called “Maslow’s Pyramid.”

So we start out at the bottom of the pyramid, we try to build into a better and better self, so that at the peak of the pyramid we are what they call “self- actualized,” meaning that we are the highest form that we can be in an Earth form.

And the way I think it works is that the same thing applies in the spiritual world: we came from a source of all goodness, of all love and to get back to that, we have to go through a series of proving grounds where our spirit learns, it grows, it’s allowed to go to the next level of enlightenment so to speak. And we keep going through this process, until we’ve earned a good enough grade that we don’t have to keep coming here.

People who have near death experiences often no longer fear what will happen when life ends. This is similar to the courage that many yogis and spiritual practitioners acquire as they “die daily” through meditation and thus have a profound knowledge of what lies after physical existence.

I think one of the greatest gifts that I have been given is just to know that there is an afterlife, that there is something else, that it’s not what you see and hear now. And so I am absolutely certain that when we leave this physical form and we go to the spirit form that we live on.

We sincerely thank Dr. Cicoria for sharing his fascinating life story and spiritual experiences with us. Please join us again next week on Science and Spirituality for part two of our program when Dr. Anthony Cicoria will discuss how he developed his extraordinary musical abilities, the benefits of meditation and how near death experiences tie in with quantum mechanics.

Dr. Cicoria’s CD “Notes from An Accidental Pianist & Composer” is available at Benevolent viewers, thank you for your presence today on Science and Spirituality. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom after Noteworthy News. May we all recognize our original Divine self nature within.

Okay? And then talk. Say, “My name is Nathi.”

My name is Nathi.

Do you love your daddy?

I love my daddy.

On June 20 this year, millions celebrate Father’s Day.

He is admirable just because he is super simple.

We always feel that he can bring joy to everyone. I want very much to be like him.

Now he is at the forefront of saving not his country, but the whole planet. And I believe that that is the real demeanor of a hero.

And I just want to tell you Daddy, that I love you.

Please join us for “Dads’ Love Around the World – A Father’s Day Tribute,” Friday, June 18 on Supreme Master Television’s Enlightening Entertainment. Happy Father’s Day!