Changed in a Flash: One Woman's Near-Death Experience and Why a Scholar Thinks It Empowers Us All

by Elizabeth G. Krohn, Jeffrey J. Kripal

Overview

When Elizabeth Greenfield Krohn got out of her car on a late afternoon in September 1988, she couldn't have anticipated that within seconds, she'd be struck by lightning. What happened next would upend her most fundamental understandings of what the world is, how it works—and what lies beyond the veil.

Supplemented with commentary from renowned religious scholar Jeffrey Kripal, Changed in a Flash is a fascinating first-hand account of one near-death experience and awakening into psychic consciousness.

When Elizabeth Greenfield Krohn got out of her car with her two young sons in the parking lot of her synagogue on a late afternoon in September 1988, she was struck by lightning. Transported to a garden, she engaged in a revelatory conversation with a spiritual being. When she recovered from her near-death experience (NDE), her most fundamental understandings of what the world is—and how it works—had been completely transformed. She was “changed in a flash,” suddenly able to interact with those who had died and have prescient dreams predicting news events.
 
The first half of this book details the story of Krohn’s journey. The second is an interpretation and analysis by renowned scholar of religion Jeffrey J. Kripal. He places Krohn's experience in the context of religious traditions and proposes the groundbreaking idea that we're actively shaping our own future experiences by how we engage with near-death experiences in the present. Changed in a Flash is not about proving a story, but about carving out space for serious discussion of NDEs and what we can learn and how we can transform—if we dare to look beyond what we thought was possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623173036
Publisher:	North Atlantic Books
Publication date:	10/23/2018
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

ELIZABETH GREENFIELD KROHN was a wife and mother of two young boys when she was struck by lightning in the parking lot of her Houston synagogue, and her most fundamental understandings of what the world is and how it works were completely transformed. She is now a grandmother living in Houston.

JEFFREY J. KRIPAL is a well-known professor of religion at Rice University and the codirector of Esalen's Center for Theory and Research. He is the author of many books on religion and unexplained phenomena, including, with Whitley Streiber, The Super Natural. He is a key figure in consciousness studies within academia and beyond.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Lightning in a Book 1

Part 1 Elizabeth's Story

1 Changed in a Flash 13

2 The Glow and the Garden 23

3 The Portfolio of Strange Things 35

4 The Haunted Necklace and the Rainbow World 51

5 Trying on the New Age 67

6 The Layer Cake of Time 81

7 The Lessons of the Garden 95

8 On God, Religion, and Spirituality 107

Looking Back: Everyday Applications for What I Know to Be True 119

Part 2 How We Are Changing the Afterlife

Reading as Empowerment 125

9 "That's Not Fiction": Science, Religion, and Science Fiction 133

10 "Nothing Is Black and White": The Double Nature of the Paranormal and Its Evolutionary Function 157

11 "I Just Knew": The Alien Translator, Gnosis, and the Secret Powers of Interpretation 177

12 "I Can See All of Your Auras Right Now": Electro magnetism, Conscious Energy, and Spiritual Illumination 209

13 "I See Time in Layers": How to Think about Precognition and Elizabeth's Dreams 231

14 "They Were All Paired Up": The Evolution of the Double Soul and Its Angelic Destiny 255

Postscript: "You Were There Too": How Elizabeth Finally Dreamed This Book 285

Appendix: The Emails 295

Origins and Gratitude 305

Endnotes 309

Index 321

About the Authors 341

Editorial Reviews

“Changed in a Flash is a captivating collaboration between a remarkable woman who survived a lightning strike, only to discover inexplicable new—but not always welcomed—abilities and insights, and an acclaimed scholar of religious studies. Elizabeth Krohn’s spellbinding account of her experience and its striking after effects will astound you, and Jeffrey Kripal’s examination of their potentially revolutionary implications will inspire you to rethink how you understand humanity, death, and an afterlife.”
—Bruce Greyson, MD, Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences, Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia School of Medicine

“Near-Death Experiences are often recalled as shockingly vivid events with unexpected consequences, including newfound psychic abilities. Such a case is covered in the first part of the book. But it’s the second part that explores how to interpret the meaning of NDEs. Are they literally true reports of the afterlife, or hallucinatory dreams of a dying brain, or something much stranger? Changed in a Flash explores each of these interpretations, and it ends with a stunning conclusion. A thoughtful, fresh look at NDEs that threatens to exceed your boggle threshold. Highly recommended.”
—Dean Radin PhD, chief scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences, author, Real Magic

From the Publisher