© 2013 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
“Death has washed me of all fear. Do not be afraid: life never ends.”
Following a cardiac arrest, Jean-Paul Duc collapses. He is declared dead at 2:06 p.m. However, more than an hour later, his heart starts beating again. The after-effects will be severe, but the man has “seen”. And he decides to speak. It is July 17, 2010. For entrepreneur Jean-Paul Duc, the morning has gone badly: he has been agitated for hours for no reason. Lunch comes, with his family. Suddenly, the man collapses, overcome by a heart attack. The reflex of his loved ones is adequate: they lay him on the lawn, cover him, call for help, who do everything they can. In vain: around 2:00 p.m., the encephalogram falls flat. It is while preparing to take the body away, more than an hour later, that we let out a cry: because the activity of the heart, and that of the brain, have just resumed. According to medical science, there is no explanation for this phenomenon (see box below). Not to mention the rest.
Forgive me, but… are you okay?
Rest assured! This is a question I am often asked, and it is quite legitimate. I am fine, but physically, I am suffering. I take seventeen pills a day. I will have to take them for life. I can think, speak, move a little. But reading for example, or writing, have become impossible for me.
What are your relationships like with those around you?
At first I didn’t want to see anyone. I couldn’t leave the house anymore, I suffered from agoraphobia. It was my wife Lina who taught me how to live again. I came back to life out of love for her. I owe her everything.
You have published a book. When did you decide to speak out?
The day I regained consciousness in the intensive care unit. My wife was there, I told her: I saw things, I have an impossible message. All this is impossible. I wanted to tell. Share.
Do you have a “message from beyond” to convey?
Oh! no, no… I am not a messenger or a fanatic. I am not on a mission. I only want to reveal. To reassure people. It is, from the beginning, as if I was being pushed to speak. As soon as I left the hospital, everything happened in quick succession. I met the writer Catherine Hermann, who agreed to work with me. And it is very curious; because she was born on July 17, and I died on July 17. Since this event, the number 17 has been following me all the time. “I don’t want to impress you, but to reassure you.”
If someone says to you: “I am afraid of death”, what do you answer?
Death does not exist. Only life exists. Before, I was a Cartesian. I had an abominable fear of death. Today, this fear has disappeared. Completely. Are you afraid of the blue sky? I may dread suffering, but death, not at all. I saw what it is. I describe it in my book. And since then, things have become even clearer. If someone is afraid of death, let them at least know that it is useless: there is no death. When you see it, you will understand.
It sounds like you’re talking about a character.
Death is actually something very simple. Just after dying, I found myself sitting on the other side of my inanimate body. I didn’t really see people, objects, but energies; everything material is pure energy. In the presence of humans, it’s like seeing changing shapes. I felt good and I saw them moving. I felt no fear, no panic. I was there as a spectator. When they started to apply electric shocks of several thousand volts to my body, my body started to swing like an inanimate puppet. I watched without feeling anything. I was sitting there and all of a sudden, this light. An angel… In front of me.
An angel?
Yes. A being, very luminous, born of light, who looked like a woman… but in truth, he was asexual. He let himself be seen in human form to better communicate with me. He gently held out his hand to me, a very beautiful hand, and I took it. I felt it in mine. He spoke to me without words. It was a flow of communication. He made me understand that he was going to take me away. He was reassuring. Then he lifted me up to take me into this… flow of light.
You refused?
Oh! quite the contrary! Suddenly, my wife Lina came back into the garden. I saw her run and throw herself on my body. Later, she confirmed to me that everything I had seen, while my physical body was clinically dead, corresponded exactly to what had happened. And for the first time, while she was in contact with my body, I felt an immense warmth. That’s where things suddenly changed: as I rose into this light, I felt cold. A great cold. Lina’s love, which I saw as an energy colored an intense red, held me back. Warmed me. And when they separated her from my dead body, I felt like a thermal shock. And the light went away. Gently.
They say that you see your life flash before your eyes?
You review absolutely everything, down to the smallest details. Since your childhood. In any case, that’s what happened to me.
You claim to have also seen your father and your brother Pascal again, even though they are both deceased.
Yes, I saw them again. I talked to them. I lost my father when I was 8 years old, and my brother committed suicide. They came to assist me during the passage, and my brother showed me his suffering. He showed me the hell of a person who commits suicide, he made me feel it. This hell cannot be described in words.
The Courageous Tale book
Unable to write himself, it was with the help of the writer Catherine Hermann that Jean-Paul Duc produced this work, published by the author. It is not only the story of a “near-death” experience, but also that of a man’s fight to recover his vital functions - and learn to live with “the indescribable”.
“Between life and death, my heart swings”, Jean-Paul Duc, 191p.
The Duc case escapes medical logic
Jean-Paul Duc’s experience is not unique. Thousands of people around the world have testified in the same way. The exceptional thing here is the duration of the death. We contacted a Swiss FMH doctor, in order to receive a rational explanation for Jean-Paul Duc’s return to life. The response from Dr. Daniel Loustalot is unequivocal: “I do not know this case, but as you describe it, the return to life after the clinical declaration of death is impossible. In the current state of our knowledge, there is no explanation.” On the advice of Dr. Loustalot, we consulted a document from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (ASSM), in order to learn the scientific description of a death. “A human being is dead,” the document states, “when all the functions of the brain (…) have undergone an irreversible shutdown. Through the irreversible failure of brain functions, a human being permanently loses the central organ of his organism. This is followed by the inevitable death of all the organs (…). ” However, the duration of Jean-Paul Duc’s death was exceptionally long: more than an hour. How is it that his brain was not completely damaged? The case is not unique: over the last fifty years, thousands of people have had a near-death experience (NDE). One of the most impressive recent cases being that of Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon in Boston, United States *.
* Dr Eben Alexander, The Proof of Heaven, Trédaniel Ed., 2013
Interview with Pablo Davila Cooperation 10/30/2013