About this episode
Rev. Peter Panagore, M.Div (Yale) has had two near-death experiences, the first while ice climbing in 1980 and the second in 2015 due to a heart attack. He recounts these in his book Heaven Is Beautiful: How Dying Taught Me That Death Is Just the Beginning, an Audible Best Seller available globally in nine editions. His best-selling second book, Two Minutes for God: Quick Fixes for the Spirit, is a collection of original inspirational devotional stories, many of which he told for 15 years on a daily TV show reaching 30 million viewers annually in Maine and New Hampshire. Previously, he served as a United Church of Christ minister and pastor in Maine and Connecticut. He published 150 sermons and many prayers in Homiletics, a leading clergy journal. He now runs a global spiritual counseling service for "closet mystics" and travels nationally as a public and inspirational speaker and teacher. He has been practicing Zazen/Centering Prayer and Kundalini/KriyaYoga for forty years. Website: peterpanagore.love Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Summary and transcript of this interview. Interview recorded April 6, 2019. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump 00:04:31 - Communicating with Deceased Loved Ones 00:09:07 - Meeting the Telepathic Elephant 00:13:54 - Meeting the Little Elephant and Journeying through the Night Sky 00:18:40 - Born with a Mystic Talent 00:23:21 - A Spiritual Experience on the Appalachian Trail 00:28:38 - Near-death experiences and the monastery's fire vision 00:33:00 - Angels, Elephants, and Divine Experiences 00:37:48 - Connecting to the Divine and Mysticism 00:42:22 - Ice Climbing Mishap 00:46:34 - A Desperate Descent 00:51:04 - The Ascenders Hitch and a Close Call 00:55:16 - Facing Death on the Edge 01:00:02 - The Infinite Darkness and Consciousness 01:04:47 - A Glimpse of the Infinite 01:09:37 - The Shame and Love in My Experience 01:14:24 - A Moment of Oneness and Absorption 01:19:43 - Coming Back to Life 01:24:17 - A Near-Death Experience and Its Aftermath 01:29:01 - Discovering Kindness 01:34:09 - Living in a Duality 01:39:03 - Seeking the Oneness Inside Myself 01:44:20 - Divine Experiences and the Oneness of Being 01:49:01 - The Perfection and Imperfection of Existence 01:54:16 - Seeing the Divine Presence in Everyday Life 01:58:42 - The Journey Within Multiple Levels of Heaven 02:03:10 - The Choice to Incarnate on Earth 02:08:17 - The Treasure of Love as the Reason 02:12:33 - The Role of Love in the Divine Experience 02:17:12 - Love as a Path to the Divine 02:21:12 - The Global Movement of Spiritually Transformed People