You are sitting with someone as they die, and the room fills with a light that is not from this earth. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli examine shared death experiences — the cases where a perfectly healthy bystander sees it too.

https://youtu.be/PzqqyTz9HfU

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Raymond Moody and Paul Perry, Glimpses of Eternity (Guideposts, 2010)
• William Peters, At Heaven’s Door (Simon and Schuster, 2022)
• Peter Fenwick and Elizabeth Fenwick, The Art of Dying (Continuum, 2008)
• Sir William F. Barrett, Death-Bed Visions (Methuen, 1926)
• Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, At the Hour of Death (Avon Books, 1977)
• Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore, Phantasms of the Living, vols. 1–2: vol. 1; vol. 2
• Daniel Bourke, Apparitions at the Moment of Death (2024)
• Shared Crossing Project
• Peters, Kinsella, and Williams, “Shared Death Experiences: A Little-Known Type of End-of-Life Phenomena Reported by Caregivers and Loved Ones,” American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 2021
• See also: Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues (especially Books 2 and 4)
• IANDS Fact Sheet on Shared Death Experiences

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00:12 – Intro
• 0:00:41 – Cold open: Have you ever sat at a deathbed?
• 0:01:33 – What is a shared death experience?
• 0:03:04 – What bystanders actually perceive
• 0:04:38 – SDEs vs. crisis apparitions and deathbed visions
• 0:06:18 – Raymond Moody coins the term
• 0:06:59 – The first case: Dr. Jameson and her mother
• 0:10:48 – Moody’s own shared death experience
• 0:13:16 – William Peters and the Shared Crossing Project
• 0:14:57 – Peters’ four modes of SDE
• 0:17:31 – Dana’s shared life review
• 0:20:37 – Veridical content: the yearbook photographs
• 0:21:34 – The mist and the soul leaving the body
• 0:24:46 – A whole family sees the light
• 0:26:59 – History: how far back do these go?
• 0:27:16 – Pope St. Gregory the Great’s Dialogues
• 0:28:16 – St. Benedict and St. Scholastica
• 0:29:56 – Benedict, Germanus of Capua, and Servandus
• 0:32:55 – Romula, Servulus, and Tarsilla
• 0:37:51 – The Society for Psychical Research
• 0:38:41 – Phantasms of the Living: little Isidore
• 0:40:40 – Fanny seen in Shanghai and in Wales
• 0:43:08 – Sir William Barrett’s Deathbed Visions
• 0:45:31 – Osis and Haraldsson: At the Hour of Death
• 0:47:11 – Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick
• 0:48:01 – Peters’ cases: the stairway of light
• 0:51:51 – Scott Taylor and Nolan
• 0:53:04 – Hospice nurse Julie McFadden
• 0:54:14 – Who has SDEs, and how common are they?
• 0:56:18 – Why SDEs matter for surviving death
• 1:00:13 – Thank you to Patrons
• 1:00:46 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:01:08 – Sponsorship opportunities
• 1:02:13 – Eight theories
• 1:03:43 – Reason Perspective: Fraud
• 1:05:48 – Coincidence
• 1:07:50 – Confabulation
• 1:09:32 – Bereavement hallucinations
• 1:11:30 – Chemical signaling from the dying body
• 1:13:12 – Expectation and cultural script
• 1:15:31 – Brain entrainment
• 1:18:50 – A genuine glimpse: the positive case
• 1:21:19 – The state of the evidence
• 1:23:07 – Faith Perspective
• 1:25:30 – Bottom Line
• 1:26:58 – Further Resources
• 1:27:43 – SpiderMail bumper
• 1:27:53 – Mysterious Feedback: #418 Skeleton Lake
• 1:28:03 – Feedback: “a historical” vs “an historical”
• 1:31:37 – Feedback: supercells, hail, and elevation
• 1:37:38 – Feedback: human sacrifice theory
• 1:39:35 – Feedback: bodies moved by freeze and thaw
• 1:41:05 – Feedback: why no animal skeletons?
• 1:41:36 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:42:13 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:42:24 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:43:09 – Next Time: Buck Nelson, the Ozark Spaceman
• 1:43:24 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:43:40 – Show notes
• 1:43:47 – Become a Patron
• 1:43:55 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 1:44:49 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroup.us.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

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Dozens of unrelated children said shining, winged figures stood over them as an EF5 tornado destroyed Joplin. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli weigh cryptids, trauma, folklore, and guardian angels behind the butterfly people.

https://youtu.be/k_6kqDpNXIQ

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Butterflies at the Window: A Story of Butterfly People and Miracles in the Storm by Sandi McReynolds
• 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado by Randy Turner and John Hacker
• “The Butterfly People” (2023 documentary), directed by Greg Fish
• “The Butterfly People of Joplin,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• The Butterfly People (Trailer)
• 2011 Joplin EF5 Tornado – Unedited broadcast beginning 9 minutes before historic disaster
• First Person video of Joplin MO tornado 5-22-11
• Joplin 2011 EF5 Tornado – Weather Channel On Air Coverage
• NWS Service Assessment, Joplin, Missouri, Tornado, May 22, 2011
• Butterfly Garden and Overlook (Nature Sacred)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church §§328–336
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 113
• “Inside the Mysterious ‘Butterfly People’” (All That’s Interesting)

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00:00 – MYS427
• 0:00:12 – Intro
• 0:00:47 – Cold open: The butterfly people of Joplin
• 0:01:39 – Joplin, Missouri — close to home for Jimmy
• 0:03:04 – The Enhanced Fujita scale
• 0:04:25 – The day of the storm
• 0:08:06 – The funnel touches down
• 0:09:06 – On the ground: six minutes across the city
• 0:12:35 – St. John’s Regional Medical Center
• 0:14:14 – The next morning and the death toll
• 0:16:16 – A wave of survival stories
• 0:17:09 – The children’s accounts
• 0:18:57 – Todd Frankel’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporting
• 0:21:52 – Firsthand accounts: the documentary and the trauma center
• 0:25:37 – Emily Huddleston
• 0:27:38 – The city responds: mural, memorial, and the soul as butterfly
• 0:29:43 – The stories keep circulating
• 0:30:35 – Where the account stands today: the documentary and the books
• 0:32:43 – Thank you to Patrons
• 0:33:15 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 0:33:36 – Sponsor Mysterious World
• 0:34:38 – The five theories
• 0:35:44 – Reason Perspective — Theory 1: A cryptid species
• 0:36:40 – Theory 2: The natural explanation
• 0:40:09 – Theory 3: Folklore
• 0:44:09 – Child witnesses and suggestibility
• 0:45:32 – Historical parallels and the third man factor
• 0:46:06 – Theory 4: Near-death experience
• 0:48:05 – Where reason lands
• 0:49:29 – Faith Perspective — Theory 5: Guardian angels
• 0:51:13 – Wings, light, and color: what angels look like
• 0:52:59 – The Catholic tradition and child witnesses
• 0:53:42 – The 2024 Vatican norms
• 0:55:02 – Were the butterfly people guardian angels?
• 0:56:36 – Bottom Line
• 0:58:24 – Further Resources
• 0:59:13 – Mysterious Feedback: #416 Jesus’ Most Misunderstood Prophecy
• 1:04:24 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:05:00 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:05:04 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:05:56 – Thank you to Melanie for voiceover work
• 1:05:59 – Next Time: Fifth Friday Weird Questions
• 1:07:08 – Follow the show
• 1:07:21 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:07:30 – Show notes
• 1:07:37 – Become a Patron
• 1:07:45 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:08:11 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroupInc.com.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download