In a harrowing incident that transformed her understanding of reality, a young woman survived a catastrophic fall only to return with a message from the brink of death. Erica Tait, then just 22 years old, faced a life-altering ordeal during a solo hiking trip in 2015.
The Fateful Fall and Grueling Wait
While attempting to climb down the Palisades Cliffs in New Jersey without safety gear, Tait lost her footing. She plummeted 60 feet, suffering devastating injuries. The impact shattered her spinal cord, pelvis, arms, and ribs, and punctured both her lungs. Miraculously conscious, she managed to use her phone to call for help but was unable to convey her precise location. This began an agonizing seven-hour wait for rescue, during which she believes she began to die.
A Journey Beyond the Body: The Near-Death Experience
In a December 2 interview with the YouTube channel NDE Journey, Tait detailed the profound spiritual journey that unfolded as she lay helpless. She described leaving her physical body, instantly realizing her true self was eternal and separate from its broken vessel. A deep peace replaced the overwhelming pain.
She then experienced a comprehensive life review. "The only person judging it was the most objective version of me. So, there was no outside being telling me you're going to hell or you're going to heaven. It wasn't really that experience," Tait explained. Her entire life played out like a movie, granting her clarity on how her past actions and traumas affected herself and others.
The Universal Consciousness and the Illusion of Separation
Following the review, Tait was drawn into a brilliant, living light she interprets as God or a universal consciousness. Notably, she did not encounter angels or deceased relatives. The light itself communicated with her as a presence of pure, unconditional love.
'It was almost like information was being downloaded into my cells, and that was where I learned a lot about our inherent oneness, about how we are actually just this one thing,' she shared. The core revelation was that the separation we perceive on Earth is an illusion. We are all interconnected, and harming another is ultimately harming oneself.
Tait concluded that our fundamental purpose is to awaken to this truth. 'To remember why we're actually here, what we actually are. That's been my sole focus ever since,' she added, emphasizing living with love and awareness to help the collective remember.
Echoes of a Common Experience
Tait's account joins numerous other documented near-death experiences (NDEs). For instance, scientist Nanci Danison previously described meeting a 'source' energy that told her human life was an illusion designed for learning. While details vary, a common thread among NDE survivors is a transformed outlook—a renewed passion for life and a deepened kindness towards others, a lesson Erica Tait brought back from her 60-foot fall.
