Near Death Experiences of the Rich and Famous

By the late 1970s, Tony Bennett and his career were ailing. He had no record label, no manager, and he was performing almost exclusively in Vegas. Living in Los Angeles, he had a drug habit, a disintegrating marriage, and mounting debts. When the IRS started proceedings to take away his home, he nearly overdosed, and had a near-death experience.

"A golden light enveloped me in a warm glow," he wrote in his autobiography. "I had the sense that I was about to embark on a very compelling journey. But suddenly I was jolted out of the vision ... I knew I had to make major changes in my life."

After this experience, Tony Bennett did make the changes he needed to make and his life and career turned around. With the help of his manager/son Danny, he decided to attempt to appeal to younger audiences with his music. Beginning with scheduled concerts at colleges and small theaters, he eventually got re-signed to Columbia Records in the mid-1980s although he hadn't recorded an album in 11 years. Bennett also appeared on hip shows like The Simpsons and MTV's Unplugged. His Unplugged disk won Tony Bennett a Grammy.

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William Petersen, the star of the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, had a near-death experience which he described in an interview for Playboy magazine (March 2004, page 139).

"Years ago, doing a play in Chicago, I cut my finger in half onstage. We obviously had to stop because, well, I didn't have a finger. By the time they got me to the ER I had lost a lot of blood and passed out. I could hear the doctors working on me, saying that they had lost my vital signs. I was on the "All That Jazz" escalator with a long tunnel and a lot of white light. Then I specifically remember a dominant male voice saying, "It's not your time. Get off the escalator. You've got shit to do." I came to, and got sewed up. Something in me changed, a sort of knowledge that somewhere on the other side, its good. For weeks, the more I talked about it, the more freaked out people got. Some of them were like, "Okay, whatever: You took too many drugs.

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Actress Sally Kirkland has impressive film credits which include Bruce Almighty, The Sting, JFK, and Anna for which she was nominated for an Oscar as best actress. In 1966, Sally was participating in legal psychedelic experiments with doctors whereby she would have experiences of cosmic consciousness. Unfortunately, these experiences were followed by her life spinning out of control. The pain of life had just become more than she could bear. This led to a nervous breakdown and several suicide attempts. Eventually, she overdosed on Nembutal and Seconal during a suicide attempt and was found with her heart and lungs stopped. Last rites were even administered. It was during this suicide attempt that Sally had a NDE. She states, "A miracle happened, I was given a second chance and this has been a way to stay on the straight and narrow for 30 years, with the exception of a period in 1975 where I went off the track prior to ordination. When people hear the hell I went through on drugs, they listen to how to get off them." Today, Sally is a yoga teacher and serves as an ordained minister in the Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness for the last decade, where she helps others to become drug free. When she is on stage, she uses the emotional recall of her own near-death experience as a source for bringing light to the roles she plays.

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