Tony Cicoria
Man is struck by lightning and discovers God energy after dying
Tony is on the payphone trying to call his mom, but she doesn’t pick up
as he goes to hang the phone he hears a huge crack, and a huge flash of light comes out of the phone and hits him in the face
he gets thrown back like a ragdoll and as he was thrown back, he has the strange sensation of also moving forward at the same time
he knew he had been hit by lightning and thrown back, but he also perceived himself standing in place, none of what he was perceiving made sense to him
he hears his mother-in-law who was there with him scream, and sees her run toward him
she was up a flight of stairs while the payphone was at the bottom of the stairs
when she got down the stairs and in front of him, she looked off to her left and kept running by him as if he wasn’t there
he turns to go where she’s going and runs into himself on the ground
realizes he’s dead and is an extreme shock, expected that something would’ve signaled that he was dead when he died but there was nothing, it was a very natural progression and change of states
he was now in a spiritual form rather than a physical form
a lady who was waiting to use the phone does cpr on his body, he attempts to call out to people, but no one can see or hear him
realizes that he was still thinking exactly the same way as he normally would
realizes at the moment that whoever he was, he always was, and that there is no such thing as death
his spirit or whoever he was, was eternal
sees it as being essentially two people, the body which is a costume on top of us, and who we always are in our spirit form
as he looks at his body, he seemed to be dispassionate about it, it was him, but it wasn’t really, it was more like an empty shell
it was earthshaking but at the same time it wasn’t frightening, was a very matter of fact realization
he realizes that there wasn’t any point in standing there since no one was able to hear him or see him, so he decides to go up the stairs and check on his family that was in the building up the stairs
at about the third step he looks down at the ground and sees his legs beginning to dissolve
as he got to the top, he lost all form and became a ball of energy
he was able to go through the wall into the building and see his wife painting children’s faces
he takes a mental picture of who was there, how the furniture was arranged, and the order the kids were standing in
this became an important issue later on as he was comparing notes with others later that verified the fact that what he saw what was occurring at the time
he continued going through the room and went through the roof
he felt as if he had suddenly fallen into a river of pure positive energy
the energy emanated from a bluish-white light and was completely composed of love and peace, there were no other emotions or senses that he had except that
it came to him that this must be the God energy that makes everything, thought the greatest thing that could happen to someone was to have this realization and feeling, it was the only time he had experienced anything like that in his whole life
he realizes that he is going someplace, sees a collage of the high points and low points in his life in the form of pictures
at this point he was settling into flowing in the stream not knowing where he was going, felt a mix of excitement and ecstasy
Life after NDE
he feels as if a switch flicked and suddenly, he’s back in his body and in pain
he begins calling out in his head to whoever was listening to let him not go back
despite loving his life and having three kids and a wife, there was no comparison to what he had been experiencing outside his body
began to feel anger, went from absolute bliss to absolute pain from the lightning strike
he realizes it’s not his choice, so he stops trying to call out
the lady who was doing cpr on him stopped and was kneeling next to him
it took a few minutes until he was conscious enough to open his eyes, and he wanted to say something to thank her but what came out was “I’m a doctor, it’s ok”
he realizes at that point he isn’t thinking very clearly so he waits it out without talking
he goes home and has his cardiologist and neurologist friends check in on him
after his NDE he was afraid to say anything to anyone, in the early 90’s anyone could call the state and pull his license if what he was saying didn’t make sense to them
he decides not to embarrass himself, prior to his NDE he was on the road to academic orthopedics, was the chairman of a big spine meeting every year
none of these things seemed to be important to him anymore after his NDE, began feeling lost and wondered why he was going through this
he begins having an insatiable desire to listen to classical piano music, which was a big departure for him due to being a kid of the 60’s which was all about rock n roll
the feeling was so strong that he drove to Albany since it was the closest place with classical piano CD’s
when he went into the store, a CD of Vladimir Ashkenazi playing his favorite Chopin jumped off the shelf into his hands, decides that this is obviously something he was supposed to have
he starts listening to it and was absolutely captivated, couldn’t stop listening to it and listened all day long
eventually realizes it wouldn’t be enough to just listen to the music, he would have to learn how to play it
he had no piano and didn’t know how to play so he wondered what to do, the next day one of his family’s babysitters was moving and wanted to keep their piano so the babysitter asked him if they could keep their piano at his place, he thinks it’s kind of weird that he had a thought yesterday that he needed a piano and suddenly it was there
he starts learning and a couple of weeks into it, he has a dream where he’s walking out onto a stage, he sees himself on the stage playing piano for a concert hall, realizes eventually that it wasn’t somebody else’s music he was playing but his own, the music had a loud ending and woke him up from sleep
he goes out to his piano and starts trying to play what he heard, was unable to and went back to bed
from then on whenever he went back to his piano the music would begin to play in his head, and when he ignored the music, it would begin playing even when he didn’t want it to such as when doing surgery
he finds a program that teaches him how to write music and spent the next 6 months spending all his free time writing and playing the music
he says one thing he realized about music is that it takes him as close to the euphoria of being on the other side as he can get, as if it gives him some kind of access and has some connection