How does Brian D Smith’s near-death experience influence his counseling methods?

I have not had a near-death experience myself. My work is shaped by decades of studying NDEs and interviewing hundreds of experiencers and researchers, not by personally dying and coming back.

That research deeply influences how I counsel. I treat consciousness as primary and death as a transition, not an ending. I normalize after-death communication, shared death experiences, and NDE-like phenomena instead of pathologizing them.

Practically, that means:

• I reassure people their continued bond and “signs” are valid
• I frame grief as part of a larger soul journey
• I blend evidence (NDEs, afterlife studies) with tools like my GEMS framework to help people find purpose and meaning after loss

Would you like me to walk through how I’d use this lens in a specific situation you’re facing?