Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to Untethered Consciousness, hosted by Rod Bland, where we share stories and insights to help you answer the most fundamental of questions: Who am I?
Through the conversations that we have with our guests, we aim to help you reach your own conclusions about the nature of our existence.
Jacob Cooper: We're
all bio neurochemical.
And when I was disembodied
on the other side, there
was no beginning, middle,
or end with how good I felt.
There was no time.
It's like taking air and
trying to chop air up.
You couldn't even
if you tried.
It would be so ridiculous.
And so the way I could
describe it was euphoric,
unconditional love, in
dwelling in that place
where there was no end
to this endless euphoric
sensation that I was having,
there was no cap on it.
Rod Bland: My guest today
is Jacob Cooper who had a
near death experience at
the tender age of three
and he's here to talk about
that experience today.
Jacob, welcome and
thank you so much for
coming on the show.
Jacob Cooper: Oh,
my pleasure, Rod.
Thank you for having
me on your channel.
A big honor, and I've been a
follower of your work, and I
thank you for the good work
that you're doing today.
Rod Bland: I imagine that
your NDE is one of your first
childhood memories, so how
about we just start there?
Jacob Cooper: Yeah,
this is actually my...
30th anniversary this
month of September of my
near death experience.
It happened in
September of 1993.
At the time I, obviously
didn't know it I was just an
infant, but I was diagnosed
with whooping cough,
otherwise known as pertussis.
And, I suffocated as a
result of whooping cough.
There wasn't a
capacity to breathe.
I went to a playground
just as an innocent child,
climbed a ladder onto a
slide, completely suffocated
due to whooping cough.
I wasn't able to hold on
to everything, my brain, my
body, everything shut down.
And once I surrendered, I was
able to really go on a journey
to the other side where I
completely crossed over.
My soul completely
crossed over and it was
that experience where I
encountered, my own guardian
angels and spirit guides.
I was aware of God,
all that there ever
is, ever was, will be.
I became aware of my
own soul family members.
I was aware of past lives.
I was aware of angels that
were surrounding my body,
which was on the ground and
people were calling to me.
So this was a profound,
fascinating experience,
but most importantly,
was the decision factor.
I know plenty of near death
experiencers will speak on
how they were told, hey, it's
not your time, you have more
work to do, stuff like that.
But for myself, there
was all autonomy as to
what I would be doing.
And I just asked, if I were
to stay on the other side
what would my life look like?
Why should I stay?
And I was given imagery
of premonitions of what I
would be doing in this life.
And I saw myself helping
a lot of different people.
And it was from, that reason
of helping others is why
I decided, to really stay.
In that point from the
decision of agreeing to
helping people after that,
everything dissipated.
And I was, I woke up on a
hospital bed, but without the
complexity of this near death
experience at such young age
with memories that last with
me, I know to this day and
with within my whole lifetime.
So it's it's fascinating.
I'm sure there's a
lot to unpack, unfold.
Within my NDE, but I'm
forever grateful for it.
I'll never forget, my
crossing over experience.
And more importantly
that, you could take and
bury the body, but you
can never bury the soul.
The soul goes on,
beyond the body.
And I, and thousands
of others throughout
the world are living
testaments of that reality.
Rod Bland: I'll just take
you back so we can flesh
out the details of your NDE.
So you're at the playground
and I guess you began to
notice that your breathing
was labored and I know you're
recalling things that were
when you were three years
old, so it's probably some of
the details may not be there.
But at what point did you
realize that your existing
reality was changing or
had disappeared and a
new reality had appeared?
Jacob Cooper: Yeah I want
to preface that, the details
are just as clear as any
other near death experience,
and that will blow the
viewer's mind but, why I think
that is, is the component of
trauma that happened within
my near death experience, and
when you're having something
traumatic, you either have
disassociative components to
it where you push it away to
protect yourself from that
trauma, or there's clarity
beyond any experience you
compare it to your lifetime.
So this isn't an
ordinary memory.
And I was not an
ordinary three year
old when I had this.
I was none of us are, we
are experiencing ourselves
in chronological age
throughout this lifetime.
But beyond that, we're
all infinite souls that
are timeless and ageless.
And so this was a full
experience of my soul.
Beyond, the developmental
trajectory of myself, as
a young three year old.
But the details were fully
there and, I do credit
trauma, but yes, suffocation
was what led to it.
What allowed me to cross
over was the capacity to
let go of my suffering.
You see why I mentioned
trauma as I was suffocating,
and that was the scariest
moment of my life to this day.
But once I was able to let go
of this period of suffocating
that felt like an eternity
and just surrender to a
breath beyond this body,
which, in my language, I
grew up Jewish, the breath
for spirit is called Ruach,
which translates as the
wind or the breath of God.
And I let go of the
suffocation and lack of
breath in my own body and
surrendered to the eternal
breath of source that
we all are connected to.
It's through surrender that
really was a saving grace of
my life and my experience.
Rod Bland: So when you can't
breathe, there's panic, right?
There's all this Oh,
I can't breathe, I
can't draw a breath.
This is the one
thing that you need.
Yeah.
So was there some thought
process where you go,
this is not working?
Were you able to think
rationally or was it
just the letting go just
sort of overcome you?
Jacob Cooper: The letting go.
There, I tried as much as
I could to be in denial
of it or tried to breathe,
but there was nothing, you
ever imagine like drowning
and trying to like grasp
onto something to hold onto,
but you're drowning and
you just have to like, just
surrender to the process.
And that's just what I did.
I surrendered it and I
just felt myself shifting
and elevating beyond My
body, it's try to go into
a car and rev your engine.
The car's not working.
What the heck is the point
of staying in the car?
You're not going to stay
in the driver's seat.
You're going to go into
the hood, check the engine,
see what's going on.
And for myself, that's what
happened is I just let go of
something that wasn't working.
There's no point
in being there.
It's not operating, but
really, fully was my brain
that I felt that snapped in
half due to the deprivation
of oxygen, and once really
my brain, feeling my brain
snapped in half was when
I fully really let go and
surrender to the other side.
And so there's a saying that,
my brain cracked open and
that's when God came in and
for myself, that literally
happened to me, where I felt
an incredibly large, loud
crack within my own brain.
And that's when God in the
spirit realm came in full
force and full throttle.
So I know, hopefully we could
talk a little bit about the
brain and mind dichotomy
because I could talk ad
nauseum about that too.
Rod Bland: And what
did you witness?
So once you'd let go of
the panic, associated with
not being able to breathe
and what did you witness
after that period of time?
Jacob Cooper: I felt myself
going into a familiar tunnel,
which when we cross over,
we all go into a tunnel
and we go into a journey
within, a journey to the
other side, but I really
felt my soul ascending.
Once I entered this
light at the tunnel,
I felt my soul elevating
and ascending to this
sensation of euphoria
where, in our world, we're
used to like a limitation
with how good we can feel.
We're all bio neurochemical.
And when I was disembodied
on the other side, there
was no beginning, middle,
or end with how good I felt.
There was no time.
It's like taking air and
trying to chop air up.
You couldn't even
if you tried.
It would be so ridiculous.
And so the way I could
describe it was euphoric,
unconditional love, in
dwelling in that place
where there was no end
to this endless euphoric
sensation that I was having,
there was no cap on it.
And, this endless cap of
love, this endless source
of euphoric love, was
my understanding of God.
God is in euphoric,
unconditional love.
Where there is no
beginning, there's no
middle, there's no end.
And all of life itself flows
through that source, that
we are all divine sparks of
this euphoric, endless love.
And that's the source of
all of creation itself.
And, you could imagine
when I was looking at and
feeling this euphoric love,
there was no like end to
it, it was just, eternal.
And that's not something
that we're used to.
In our minds, we're used to
operating on a linear level.
There's Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, and that's
it, and there's the month
and there's structure.
On the other side
there's no box.
There's no structure.
It's a totally different
dichotomy than this reality.
It's just so different,
in, in every possible way.
Rod Bland: And how did your
experience, so you're a
three year old, and a three
year old's experience of
oneself is fairly limited,
fairly small, right?
How did your experience
of yourself and who you
were alter as you went
down that tunnel once you
got to the other side?
Jacob Cooper: Yeah, it's just
experiencing myself and I
wasn't limited by the body.
I wasn't limited with how
people perceived or saw me.
I wasn't limited by
a particular age.
I was, my soul.
And, for all of us,
we sometimes associate
this current lifetime
with our soul,
and it's really just
an experience of our
soul, but not the full
totality of who we are.
It's like picking up a
book and identifying
one page of that book.
As the entire book itself,
and that's an aspect of it,
but it's not the entirety.
And so we identified
this lifetime with
all that there is.
And I could tell you firsthand
that there's not there's
other chapters and it's
eternal book that we have.
And so I think it's important
for viewers is to say that,
yes, this lifetime is what
we have, it's all there is
in front of us, but in the
big picture it's not that
they're all there ever is,
never was, it's just a small
stop of the soul, and it's
a one way journey back home.
For near death experiencers
it's a little different, we
have a little stop over on
that one way journey back
home, and then we continue
life, and then we come back
when it's our time again.
Rod Bland: And at what point
did you realize, I know
I'm talking about things
in a linear fashion here
because it's the only way
that we can at what point
did you realize that who
you thought you were was
actually just a little portion
of the totality of you?
Jacob Cooper: I think The
whole thing just was, I
think two things could be
true at the same time, and
my near death experience
had that, where on one hand,
I still had attachment to
my life as a three year
old, my parents, and there
was an adjustment phase.
It wasn't just I went
over there and poof I
wasn't, How do I put it?
I wasn't congruent
with my surroundings.
It took me some time to
adapt to how vast, expansive,
euphoric all this was.
That took some time,
but it was still my
soul's experience.
But I think it was really
seeing a lot of past lives
that I lived that just
reminded me that, wow, I'm
not just this one lifetime.
I have infinite amount
of journeys and so this
isn't all that there is.
And so seeing a couple
different past lifetimes that
I lived that just reminded
me that this is just one
stop in this infinite journey
and I'm not that three year
old kid, I'm beyond that.
And, I just felt very old, my
soul just felt just very old.
Like it was just ironic and
funny how people looked at
me as this like little kid
looking, at my, in my NDE,
I just felt it was a weird
feeling, it was weird because
sometimes there's, I say the
young people are very old
and the old people are very
young in this world because
the young people remember who
they are and they're still
connected and the old people
forget who they really are.
So from a spiritual
perspective, those who
connect to me are young in
a way, are old in a way,
and those who forget are
just younger, spiritually.
And so it just was, weird
to just think that I was
playing this role as a
three year old and that's
how the world saw me.
But the truth was
that was such a small
picture of who I was.
It was just a short experience
on the journey of my soul.
Rod Bland: And what did the
environment look like once
you went through the tunnel
and did you meet any other
entities, spirits, angels, et
cetera, while you were there?
Jacob Cooper: Yeah the
first real angels that I
experienced are my guardian
angels or spirit guides.
Depending on what culture
you're in, there's different
ways of expressing it, but I
experienced my spirit guides
who were with me on the other
side and they helped my body.
I felt them pushing my
body down to the ground.
But when I saw my spirit
guides, they were a
male and female guide.
The one component of
my NDE, you asked me if
I remember everything.
The only component that
I struggle to remember
is the exact names
of my spirit guides.
I have had like strong
inklings after this, of
their exact names, but
it's not like a conviction.
I just call them the guides.
But in the moment, to be
frank, I knew it was a
male and female guide and
I knew their exact names.
And it's like that one
thing that I want to get
back in my NDE was just to
remember their exact names.
And at times it comes to
me, but I can't say it's
as ever as strong when I
connect to them as it was
in my NDE, but they were
to the right side and left
side of me, and they were
right there, to my sides as
if I'm looking right at you.
They were right there, with
me but they were the most
beautiful, immaculate, beings
you could possibly imagine.
They had human characteristics
but they were the closest
extension of my soul that
you could have, and I knew
they were with me before I
was born and they're going
to be with me after I die.
They're, my, my
guardian angels.
And it was a reunion with
them and it was also a sense
of, Oh my God, how the heck
could I forget that they were
with me this entire time?
So there was some, even
amnesia as a three year old
where, I had a little bit of
forgetfulness of my guides and
then I saw them right with me.
It was just so beautiful,
the reunion that I had
with them and recognizing
that they never left me.
They were there with me
each step of my journey, my
short chronological journey,
but I always say it's never
the amount of years of
your life, but rather the
life within their years.
And, you could live a short,
chronological life, but that
life could feel like millions
of years with the experiences
you have and the love that
you create and experience.
So the other side looks at
chronological age and time
so differently than we do.
But also to your question, I
also, when my body was on the
ground and people surrounded
me and were calling my name,
I was able to see them and
hear them, but they weren't
really able to see me.
So I felt myself.
My body was on the
ground, but I felt my
form next to my body.
And so I was also able to see
their guides that they had,
the people that were with me
in the playground that day,
I saw their auric fields, and
then all of a sudden I look
up and there were, I couldn't
tell you like how many,
there was just an infinite
amount of angels that were
floating right in front of me.
And they were just
overlaying the playground.
And these angels
were different than
the spirit guides.
They were very young and
youthful, but they were
like a gold and bronze
color, and I could hear
their sound and their songs,
emanating from them different
than the spirit guides.
Those spirit guides
were very focused, they
were micro focused.
The angels, they
were very uniformal.
They weren't distinct in their
presentation that I saw they
were just almost identical.
And what they were
connected to, which is
unconditional love and
just sending healing, love.
And they were just almost like
God's minions, if you will.
They were just there
to just send healing.
And so I was looking at
them, but they weren't
really looking at me.
They were just looking in
the distance and there was
no individual characteristics
other than just to give and
send unconditional love.
And to be honest with you,
Rod, I almost just had to
pinch myself because they're
just right in front of me.
This thin veil separating
this reality and the other
side is so gossamer thin.
I can't describe how thin
the separation is, but
angels are among us and
around us at all times.
We just sometimes don't
see them, but they are here
right now around all of us
overlaying this reality.
Rod Bland: Interesting.
So I guess when you're
three, there's not much of
a life to review, right?
Which is a fairly
common component of
near death experiences.
But it sounds like you
spent more time on your past
lives, your past experiences.
And how did that come about?
Was that something that
you wanted to see or was it
something that you were shown?
Was there some purpose
Jacob Cooper: To be
clear, I was still able
to really feel the depth
and vastness of my life.
Like I said before,
I know it's, yeah,
there's really, there's.
It's still a great deal
of depth of life that I
even had, even as a young
three year old but the
past lives just came to me.
I just remembered, one
particular lifetime that
really, was in parallel with
my near death experience,
and that was a life in
which I crossed over due
to a death by suicide.
I remembered in that lifetime,
my back was against the wall.
There was no hope.
I just didn't see anything
possibly working out.
And I just felt that
same suffocating feeling
that I had in my NDE,
and I made that decision.
And I just remember
looking back in it, how
clearly my NDE is related
to that last lifetime.
And how those similar
sensations that I was
feeling of suffocation,
deprivation of life, lack
of hope, I was experiencing
that again in my NDE, and
then it was different.
I was able to have a different
move on the chessboard
where I was able to let go.
And from looking at the depths
of darkness of the abyss
of the human experience, I
was able to transcend that
by simply surrendering to
the light within myself
that was always within me.
And, that has informed
the work that I do as a
psychotherapist and author
and public speaker is just
to remind people the value
of surrendering and letting
go to the light of eternity
when darkness comes to you
and how pivotal it is to
really surrender to all
that's around you inside of
you, and that could help to
transcend moments where you
feel suffocated by life.
And I am living proof of that.
But I just remember just
getting very emotional about
seeing, students that I
taught in that lifetime and
reconnecting with them but
I saw myself also spanning
the globe and having all
kinds of different past life
memories that I have, but
this lifetime was the one
that most stuck with me.
Now people could say, oh, this
is just a trauma response,
you're making this up, stuff
like that, but before I ever
became public in my near
death experience, I went
to an intuitive in my later
teens, and the intuitive
Picked up exactly what I saw
verbatim in my past life in
which I took my own life.
And, she was able to
really deliver a lot
of evidential readings.
And she didn't know
a thing about me.
I was a complete stranger.
There was no public profile.
I didn't have a
single interview at
the time, nothing.
And so it was just
validation that I needed
that this was real.
And since that point, as
a kid, I kept on getting
a lot of nightmares,
from that past life.
But, my life was really
about healing that and
really remembering that
I moved on and, I'm okay.
And from completion, we begin,
and I'm really completing a
lot of that karma from that
lifetime in this lifetime.
Rod Bland: So was there a
process or was there some sort
of interaction that occurred?
For some people there's a
point of going forward and
there's a point of going back.
How did that work out?
Jacob Cooper: There's a
point of going forward
or I'm just I'm trying
Rod Bland: I'll
ask that again.
So in other guests that
I've interviewed during
their NDE there's a
point that they reach
where they have a choice.
They can either stay where
they are or they can go back
Jacob Cooper: Oh, I see.
Yes.
Yes.
Rod Bland: Talk
about that for us.
Jacob Cooper: Oh, that's
a great question, Rod.
Thank you for clarifying.
Yeah, I decided, to really
ask that question because
it was given to me and I was
not sure as to what to do.
It was the most difficult
question that I was faced
in my life to this day.
Spirit posed a question,
what will you do, Jacob?
And I'm just saying my
name, will you stay with
us on the other side
or will you continue?
And I just.
I didn't know what to do.
It was so beautiful
being there, in the
light realm on the other
side, and I had no clue.
And I just said, if I stayed,
what will this life be like?
What will I look like?
What would this
story look like if I
continued writing it?
I just didn't know
what I would look like.
What would I do in this life?
It just felt like an
unwritten story and
unfinished, business.
And it was just felt
incomplete to a degree, this
journey, and they showed
myself speaking in front of,
tons of people and just giving
over, this exact message and
seeing the transformation of
people right in front of me.
And I just remembered
thinking, wow, the other side
will always be there, but
this unique window to give
over, this information to
other people is really about
what we're all here to do,
which is to deliver a piece
of heaven here on earth, as
we are all literal fragments
of heaven here on earth.
And we're here to personify
that, to remember that.
And so that's what I think
near death experiencers are
here for, to remind people,
of the heaven on earth
experience, but also, A, we
don't die, but also heaven
could be experienced right
here through just connecting
to it, remembering it, and,
not waiting to lose our breath
to gain it back, that we
really could exhale and live
in that, heaven awareness in
this body, in this lifetime.
Rod Bland: It sounds like
you were given a picture of
what's available, like your
Jacob Cooper:
Premonition, yeah.
Rod Bland: And then, and
from there you then made
more of an informed decision,
which was, I like what you
said about how heaven will
always be here, but this
experience that that's
the one that you get and
that's, but that particular
one, that's really good.
So you decided, okay,
I'm going to, I'm
going to go back and,
Jacob Cooper: I made that
decision, but yeah, right
after I'm like, Oh my
God, what did I just do?
And, to turn down
heaven is a big deal.
It just, it looks very good
when you're over there.
It looks a lot easier.
And then all of a sudden you
come back to this reality.
And it's a lot different of
a viewpoint when you're here.
And I just really wasn't
certain about my decision.
I had regrets.
I've just felt my guides
with me and just seeing
the message of trust that
there's a divine plan in
each and every one of us.
The divine intelligence that
created us has a plan and the
value of trusting that, and
we all have a blueprint in
this life and just trusting
that and to really let go of
your doubts and to trust your
thoughts, of how when your
thoughts are in alignment
with spirit, you could go
through grace and ease and
really trust this plan, or
when you doubt it, you doubt
your power, you could live a
much, much smaller version of
yourself because you listen to
your doubts versus the faith
inside of you that forever is
connected to you, a God that
believes in your path and all
the angels that help to curate
this life that you're living.
Rod Bland: and who did
you talk to about your
experience after you
woke up in the hospital?
Did you try to talk to people
straight away and what was
the general reaction like?
Jacob Cooper: No.
I'm amazed that yeah.
Anyone after their near
death experience has the
capacity to talk about it.
I'm not downing
it, shunning it.
I just, as a therapist to
this day, I think you go
one of two ways, but at
least from my perspective,
it was so beyond the
confines of human language.
Combine that, the fact
that I was just three
years old, and I had a
limited English vocabulary.
Words do just not do justice.
But I'm learning to put the
pieces of the puzzle more so
together now more than ever.
And I come from a like
a religious background.
So my parents are more into
religion than they are this
kind of like spirituality.
But my father is also a
therapist, came to me within
the last year or two ago.
And he said, when you had
This experience, a couple
of years after it, you told
me, and I'm just using my
language right now, just,
it's hard to, quote directly.
But I'm paraphrasing
my own self.
I said, Hey dad, something
happened in that day.
One day it will make sense to
you, but right now it won't.
I don't have the words
to really describe it,
but something profound
happened on that day.
And one day it will
all make sense to you.
And so that really gave
me a lot of validation.
And my dad has never
wanted to stretch anything.
It's like what you see is
what you get and hearing that
gave me a lot of strength
and validation, but also
just put me back in that,
position where I had to
keep this close to my heart.
The world around me
was not ready for it.
I remembered after my near
death experience, I was back
in preschool and my whole life
changed from that day forward.
Once I got back to school
and I was discharged from
inpatient, the hospital due
to pertussis, I remember just
sitting in my classroom and
feeling this thin sliver of
light going into my brain.
And I knew from the trauma
of my brain that my brain
was cracked wide open and I
could connect to the spirit
realm on a regular basis.
And so I would just go
to the bathroom just to
really connect to the
other side and cross over.
And at hand I could go there
whenever I really wanted
to, to the higher realms.
And also I remember being
able to see things so clearly
from the spirit realm.
from having this near
death experience.
And I just remember one
example that I don't
remember too much from
my childhood other than
spiritual experiences,
because those seem to stick.
They're beyond this reality
and the confines of the
brain, because they're not
created from the brain.
They're, experienced from
a much higher dimension.
But I looked at a classmate
and I say, wow, do you see
this totem flying around the
room and I was connecting
to loved ones and the class,
the classmate looked at
me like I was like smoking
some type of crack pipe or
something like, he was like,
what is wrong with you?
I don't see what
you're going through.
And again, it just reminded
me it was a very isolating
feeling where I just felt
so alienated, so alone.
And so I kept it
close to my heart.
I kept it very close to my
chest, but I saw things.
New things hurt things,
throughout my childhood,
looking back in it, that,
just did not make sense.
And this intuition that I
had was more of a nuisance.
I was just like, I just
want to live my normal life,
but I would just see things
come to pass, before they
happened, that would happen.
I just I just wanted to
bury it away and just
fit in and be normal.
It wasn't until a lot of
different experiences that
happened in my teenage
years that really allowed
me to take ownership.
But one of the things that
really changed my life was
getting a book gifted by an
author named Betty Ady, who
wrote a book called Embraced
by the Light, which is about
her near death experience.
And when I was gifted that
book, it just blew my brain
because here I was thinking
I was the only one on the
planet that had this thing.
Then again, there was like
a term for it and there was
other people who had this
and it was on one hand very
cathartic, the other hand
frustrating because I thought
I was so special and so unique
and all these other people
are having these things.
So it was like a little
deflating in a way,
but also uplifting
at the same time too.
That got me on my quest
to really process this
with other people and
to feel more comfortable
and confident to do so.
Rod Bland: right, and did
you ever reach a stage
where you're like, okay,
I'm just, I just want
to be a normal person.
I don't want to remember
this and can we just turn
the switch off for a while?
Did you ever feel that way?
Jacob Cooper: I tried, but
you ever go to a pool and just
try to put a beach ball down
on the bottom of the pool.
It just eventually pops up.
So no matter what I tried
and do, my intuition
was always popping up.
And to this day, like I saw
things back as a kid that
are coming true, in crazy
ways, and not always good
things some difficult things.
I remembered, just being
teased by this one kid,
and then eventually right
when that happened, and
then I saw that this kid
is going to die, cross
over in a couple of years,
and I saw his whole death.
And I was driving my car
early in the morning and
that morning on the road
that I was driving to,
the whole road was closed.
And I was like, what
the heck is going on?
It's just like a random
road on my commute to work.
Then a couple of hours
later, I found out that I
was a kid who passed away
driving, through a ramp.
And I was right there a couple
hours after on this random
road right after he passed.
So it's just like things
like that, just I was
right there that morning
driving in the car.
And I saw him a decade before
that, just crossing over.
So stuff like
that would happen.
It's just, it freaked me
out because they didn't
have a term for it.
It's not like I said,
Oh, this is psychic.
This is intuition.
I said, this is annoying
and leave me alone.
Just, I want to
play basketball and
sports and be a kid.
But, once I was able
to really identify it.
As this kind of thing and take
away the stigma and understand
that other people had this was
really, liberating to myself.
But, in one sense it was just
annoying, but once I embraced
it as a gift and not a curse,
was then it was perceived
and embodied as such.
Rod Bland: And do you connect
with guides or the angels
that you saw when you first
crossed over as a part of your
everyday life now as well?
Jacob Cooper: They're there.
Not as full blown, right
directly in front of me in my
NDE that I had, to be honest,
like I, I wish I go back to
those moments in memory all
the time, and I'm there,
but there's a homesickness
that I have, like many near
death experiences have,
and there's a part of me
that just wants to go back.
back there, not so much
for what was there,
but just the feeling.
You could get high as anything
and I've tried marijuana
before and stuff like that,
but geez, nothing compares
to how high you can get
while you're over there.
But I found, throughout my
life through doing a lot of
inner work and connection
through meditation, exercise,
taking pristine care of my
health as much as I can.
I could feel droplets of
that at times, and, in...
Hard to get into, but in
my early twenties, I had a
out of body experience that
lasted several weeks, again,
the month of September.
And that felt quite possibly
better than my near death
experience in many ways.
And it's very affirmative
in my adult years that this
wasn't just something, that
happened as a kid and I
could push it away because
I'm my own biggest skeptic,
but you know, what I was
tapping into was real.
And I think this is
all inside of us.
It's just really connecting to
that pure source energetically
and removing a lot of the
barriers that we could have
on the emotional level,
the psychological level and
physical level, to this.
But when you burn
away all those things.
That's that pure connection
that we all have.
We're all divine sparks.
I connect to my guides
on a regular basis.
They've helped me write
both of my books behind me,
Life After Breath and The
Wisdom of Jacob's Ladder.
But, in moments where my life
is like difficult, I feel
them very strongly and they
send powerful messages to me,
and they're there with me.
And I feel them,
throughout time.
I just remembered one
instance, particularly when
there was a principal who
was talking over a megaphone
and he said, whoever's
talking, this is in front
of the entire school, middle
school and high school,
we were out on a field, he
said, whoever's talking,
I'm going to call them out
and they're going to leave.
And I was not talking, but
he, I guess I had a baseball
mitt by my mouth and he
screamed my name to the top
of his lungs over a megaphone.
And I had to walk in front
of the whole school and I was
very overweight at the time.
It was embarrassing.
And everyone was
looking at me.
And that moment I felt both
of my guardian angels with
me and they were there very
strongly just telling me like,
this is just a blip in time.
It's going to pass.
Like everything passes, even
the most painful traumatic
moments of your life, just
trust us and it will be okay.
And that moment, the
principal Met with me.
He was expecting me to
probably curse him out
or stuff like that.
And I was just like,
smiling, like all good, dude.
And people are coming to me.
But again, it just reminds
you that pain is so temporary.
It comes and goes and just
trust in what outlasts
pain, which is love,
which is our eternity.
And that allowed me to
transcend that moment and many
other moments of my life where
I just remembered what was
real, what lasts, and what is
just a temporary experience
of this life, which is a
temporary experience itself.
Rod Bland: So I have one
final question for you.
You mentioned the out
of body experience.
I don't know if I heard
you correctly there.
Did you say for
two to three weeks?
Jacob Cooper: Yeah,
you could they, I am in
the works of talking to
producers about my NDE,
and including the OBE, but.
I literally woke up,
one day and I was
looking down on my body.
It was the craziest thing.
And that lasted for three
weeks, but I think really
what started it, I work in
the mental health field.
I could tell what a manic
experiences of a bipolar
experiences or a psychotic
experiences, but this.
Was it a psychic experience?
It wasn't a psychotic
experience, but essentially
I just remembered myself
just laughing hysterically
at how seriously we take all
these things in reality in
this life, and I just looked
at the illusion and just the
facade of the things that
we think that are real, that
are just a farce, they're not
real, but we identify them.
We take everything
so seriously.
And I was just laughing
hysterically to where every
part of my body was like a
wet towel and just wrung out
all the pain, all the stress,
all the sadness that I ever
held onto in this lifetime.
And I woke up the next day
completely out of my body.
And I just was.
like flabbergasted.
I was like, my body's
here and I'm over there.
And I just could feel myself
like using my vocal cords,
talking through my own gut.
Like I was over here, but
my body was here and that
lasted for several weeks.
And I just remembered
myself sitting in a temple,
at the time of September,
the Jewish high holiday,
and just felt myself,
flying outside my body.
And I could feel wings of
my animal totem with me.
And it was so profound.
And I saw myself looking
over all the congregants.
But I saw this one strand of
energy that connected every
single participant, but I
also saw how people were just
in their own minds, in their
own boxes, and they weren't
connected to their energy
and the energy of others.
And I've read before, we
are one, all this kind of
stuff, and it sounds great.
But when you see it directly
in front of you, the one
strand of energy that connects
all of humanity, and you
see it in front of you it's
undeniable that, yes, we are
all from the same source,
connected to the same source.
Despite, our forgetfulness,
we could think we are
what we are, but that does
not change the ultimate
reality of oneness that
we're connected to.
And yeah, no, that experience
stays with me to this day
and it was just a complete
energetic explosion where
I felt just those same
feelings that I had in my
NDE, 20 years later about.
And without having anything
traumatic or, it's that
to me blows me away more.
You can't say, Oh,
you're hallucinating.
You're, I wasn't on
any drugs, nothing.
It was just it was
perfectly clean.
I was a fit athlete
to this day.
And just by letting go much
like I had in my NDE and
looking past the illusion
of suffering, much like I
had in my NDE, I had that
in my OB, by looking at it
directly, the illusion of this
experience rising above it.
Was when I was able to
transcend this reality.
Remember that I was a
spiritual being having
this human experience.
Rod Bland: So it sounds almost
like you were bi located
because my first impression
was you're laid on a couch and
you were there for two weeks.
How's that possible?
But it's like you had your
you had your awareness of
your being your body, but also
you had this other awareness.
Is that, does that
describe that accurately?
Jacob Cooper: In a way, but
yes, I was felt my soul,
like outside of my body, for
several weeks where I was
just looking down on myself.
And I didn't have an NDE.
This was an OBE, so under
the umbrellas of NDEs are sTs
STs, Spiritual Transformative
Experiences, out of body
experience phenomena, which
I had, but you could have
an OBE without an NDE.
And I had that for a
prolonged period of time.
At times I felt more
grounded, at times when I
was really able to connect,
I felt myself just totally
elevated looking down at my
body, throughout the day.
So I somehow
managed to have a 4.
0 in college that year.
I don't know how that's
possible, it just
it all worked out,
Rod Bland: Amazing.
Jacob Cooper: but
people look at me.
They're like, you're
laughing hysterically.
And I lost 10 to 15
pounds during that time.
It's just I didn't have an
attachment to this reality.
Like nothing of this reality
brought me something that
I didn't already have.
And we use this things to get
to a certain destination, but.
The destination
was already there.
I didn't need the routes,
it was already there.
Rod Bland: All right.
How about you tell
us what you've got
going on there, Jacob.
So tell us about your books
and the other work that you
do and how people can get
in touch if they want to.
Jacob Cooper: Oh, sure.
I have my own
platform right now.
The Wisdom of Jacobs Ladder.
It's available on YouTube
and many other platforms.
So I have that, going on.
And I mentioned my two books,
Life After Breath and the
Wisdom of Jacobs Ladder, both
available through Amazon.
I have a website,
jacoblcooper.
com, and I speak
internationally, to
different groups.
I talk from a mental
health perspective
as also, a spiritual
perspective as well, too.
So I work with mental health
groups, I provide continuing
educational training as
well for, therapists.
So I have that coming
up in late October.
So all events and stuff
like that are on my
website at JacobLCooper.
com, as well as social
media links where you can
find my daily insights and
reflections, there too.
Rod Bland: Okay.
Terrific.
And have you got any last
positive message that you
want to leave people with
before we wrap it up?
Jacob Cooper: Yeah.
I hope people, took
something out of it.
It's important to be a
skeptic and not a cynic.
And I know my near death
experience poses a lot of
curiosity and hopefully
will allow people to look at
life a little differently.
Just the many facets of it.
It's unique.
I'll give it that.
But what I really want
for people to remember is,
first of all, we don't die.
We go on beyond this body.
What's important is
to live while we live.
Many people are just
focused on the end
game and the afterlife.
And certainly the viewpoints
of the afterlife can inform
this life in many ways, but
it's this life that will
influence our afterlife.
And so we carry many things
that we do here, our passions,
our interests, our hobbies,
Gifts that we experience is
all a part of our afterlife.
So don't look at the afterlife
as just after this life,
is connected to the life
that we will live when we
go on beyond this body.
And the important thing is to
remember the things that we
could take with us, we can't
take the house, the job, the
cars, but we take with us the
love that we give, the impact
that we have in the service
to humanity that we offer.
So just, I think people to
remember the macro focus of
this life and to not get so
micro focussed on things that
come and go, to not attach
to them, if that makes sense.
Rod Bland: Yeah,
that's a great message.
Live while we live.
I like that.
Thanks so much, Jacob.
Jacob Cooper: Death is
a given, but life is a
choice while we're here,
Rod Bland: Yeah, look,
I appreciate you coming
on the show today and
thank you for being my
Jacob Cooper: An honor.
Thank you, Rod.
Keep up the great work.
Thank you.