Next Level Soul Podcast with Alex Ferrari

Episode NLS 571: Woman DROWNS for 9 Min & DIES; What She SAW in HEAVEN Left Her SPEECHLESS! with Karen Lorre

Date: April 8, 2025
Guest: Karen Lorre
Host: Alex Ferrari

Episode Overview

This episode of Next Level Soul Podcast features author, coach, and actress Karen Lorre sharing her remarkable experiences of dying twice—once as a child and once at age 18 after drowning and being clinically dead for nine minutes. Karen recounts her near-death experiences (NDEs), spiritual awakening, psychic phenomena throughout her life, and how these events shaped her understanding of love, healing, and the deeper reasons for our existence. Through heartfelt and candid discussion, Karen and Alex explore subconscious programming, life reviews, healing trauma, following your passion, and how to live joyfully in alignment with your soul.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Life & First Near-Death Experience

Timestamps: 03:14 – 09:59

• First NDE at Age 3 or 4: Karen reveals she has died twice—the first time as a small child after a Big Wheel accident that left her unconscious for nearly 20 hours.
  • As a young child, Karen would run to her parents’ mirror, trying to “catch who I really was,” sensing she was more than just her body. (03:36)
• Out-of-Body Experience: During the accident, she recalls many years later “floating above” her body as her pediatrician said, “You've got to wake her up every hour or she will die.” (06:04)
• Subconscious Programming & Healing: After being told as a child she must wake every hour to survive, Karen developed narcolepsy. Decades later, remembering this core moment allowed her to heal.
  • “When I saw it… I realized that my little self had believed that in order to live, I have to wake up every hour. And I healed it.” (06:34)
  • Alex: “That’s a pretty fascinating… I've talked to a lot of near death experiencers. I've never heard that one before.” (08:02)

Life Between NDEs: Spiritual Seeking

Timestamps: 09:59 – 11:20

• Despite no recollection of her first NDE, Karen was deeply drawn to spiritual reading from a young age, “devouring books about people who had died and come back,” and attending diverse religious services seeking to “understand love.” (09:59 – 11:13)

The Second Near-Death Experience: Drowning at 18

Timestamps: 11:20 – 22:01

• Circumstances: While modeling in Hawaii, Karen participated in a "spinnaker flying" stunt on a sailboat and was thrown violently into the ocean.
• Drowning, Disorientation & “Letting Go”:
  • Knocked out, unable to breathe, and disoriented underwater: “I didn’t have any energy… I started to give up, and I felt myself go into this light.” (14:14)
• Classic NDE Features:
  • Encounters with Light & Beings: “There were people there that loved me… total acceptance… love. It felt beautiful.” (14:40)
  • Choice to Stay or Return: “I heard a voice that said, ‘Do you want to live or die?’ And I thought of my mom… so I thought, I want to live. And within a second… I was being pushed towards the surface.” (15:10)
  • Repeats a second time after nearly slipping back under: “Again, I heard the voice, ‘Do you want to live or do you want to die?’ And again I thought of my mom… and then I was on the lifesaver… I just somehow got there.” (15:59)
• Aftermath: She was revived, had to have her stomach pumped, was black and blue, and did not consciously remember the love/light aspect for many years.

The NDE Memory & Spiritual Awakening

Timestamps: 22:09 – 26:54

• Delayed Recall: Only 16 years ago did Karen fully remember her NDE, triggered by a profound spiritual awakening while at home:
  • “My life passed before my eyes… all these experiences … and that was one of them.” (22:12)
• Life Review Insight: The “review” showed her a direct connection between her mood and outcomes in her life:
  • “Every single time I was having fun, I saw all this good stuff… every single time I was not having fun… things I didn’t want happened to me. It was a really clear understanding of how much my mood impacted my life.” (23:00)

Numbing, Trauma & Healing; Turning to Spiritual Work

Timestamps: 26:54 – 40:28

• Struggles After the NDE: Karen candidly shares that after her drowning, she numbed emotional and physical pain with alcohol and drugs in her early 20s until she quit. Psychic experiences continued throughout.

• Enduring Trauma: She describes childhood trauma including multiple encounters with predatory authority figures. (28:36)

• Awakening Changes Everything: The life review led her to “exhilaration” upon realizing how much control she had over her happiness and well-being.

• Path to Healing:

  • Appreciation Journaling: “I started writing out appreciation… My life was messed up at the time… so I started to look at what do I appreciate?” (29:53)
  • “I would go into detail about what I appreciated about all the things…” (Ex: dolphins, nature, adventure) (32:17)

• Publicly Sharing Her Story: After experiencing rapid healing from meditation and appreciation practices she designed, Karen began to openly share her journey, coaching others soon after.

  • “That’s when I started to announce it. And I literally went on Facebook that day…” (38:46)

Core NDE Insights: Views on Death, Psychic Gifts & the Afterlife

Timestamps: 40:28 – 58:29

• No Fear of Death:
  • “Do you fear death anymore?”
  • Karen: “No. Not at all... There is no hell, Karen.” (40:28, 41:10)
• Afterlife Encounters: Describes receiving help and messages from her deceased father and ex-boyfriend (who died by suicide), who taught her there is no hell—only love, and inspired her during dark times.
• Normalizing Psychic Experiences:
  • Karen shares lifelong psychic phenomena, including intuitive warnings, shared “visitations” with friends, and messages from animals and deceased loved ones.
  • “It’s just stuff I understood… by the time Johnny was coming to me… Even my dog came to me as spirit to send a message to my ex-husband.” (43:04–47:03)
• Everyone is Psychic:
  • “I think we all have it… It’s just that either you’re embarrassed about it, or you don’t talk about it…” (50:56)
• Mental Programming & Embracing Gifts: Alex and Karen discuss how cultural conditioning deters people from accepting their spiritual or psychic experiences.

Meditation, Flow, and the Power of Appreciation

Timestamps: 54:31 – 57:55

• Meditation in Many Forms: Both Karen and Alex stress that meditation isn’t just sitting silently—sailing, creativity, and movement can all offer meditative states.
  • “People are meditating all the time… If people are running and get into bliss, that’s a type of meditation…” (55:50)
• Practical Tools:
  • “I write out something I’m appreciative about first… then when I’m meditating, I keep my attention on my heart. The heart is the pilot of the brain… and then things come in.” (57:06)

Words of Comfort for Grief, Dying, and the Afterlife

Timestamps: 57:55 – 64:31

• On the Dying Process:
  • “The law of thermodynamics is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed—it can only be transformed. So that person or animal… is just going into a new form. They’re not leaving you.” (58:29)
• Letting Go of Guilt & Fear:
  • Karen shares a powerful hospice story, helping a woman let go of the fear of hell and embrace death gently by assuring her, “I’ve died before. It’s so loving and feels like total acceptance…” (59:03)
• No Judgment in Spirit: “There’s nothing you ever did that was in the mind of your spirit that was wrong. There’s nothing you can do to stop your spirit or God from loving you.” (60:02)

Living “Heaven on Earth”

Timestamps: 63:23 – 66:22

• Karen describes her present reality as realizing heaven is a state of joy, ecstasy, and love available “already, all the time… I just am also in my body at the same time.” (63:41)

Life Lessons from Acting & Following Passion

Timestamps: 66:22 – 72:55

• Choosing Acting: Karen shifted to acting from pre-med after feeling “that golden light” of presence and adventure. A series of “coincidences” immediately led her to representation and acting jobs.
  • “It was so beautiful, and it was flowing through me… I was studying mind body science… that same voice said, do you want a life where someone tells you what to do, or do you want adventure? And I thought, adventure. And the next day… I met my manager.” (66:32)
• The Role of Joy: She never accepted acting jobs just for money but followed roles that brought joy and connection.
• Authentically Walking Her Path: “A lot of people do something because they’re supposed to… I could not ever do a job because of the money… I do it because, oh my God, this is so fun…” (72:55 – 73:49)

Powerful Notable Quotes

• On Identity & Spirit:

  “I knew I wasn’t the little body that I was… I was trying to see who I was.”
  — Karen Laurie (03:36)

• On Healing Through Realization:

  “My little self had believed that in order to live, I have to wake up every hour. And I healed it.”
  — Karen Laurie (06:34)

• On the Afterlife Choice:

  “I heard a voice that said, ‘Do you want to live or die?’… And I thought, I want to live. And within a second, I was removed from that energy and I was being pushed toward the surface.”
  — Karen Laurie (15:10)

• On the Life Review:

  “It was a review of how much of my mood is dictating my life… every time in a good mood, good things happen. Every time in a bad mood, bad things happen.”
  — Karen Laurie (23:00)

• On the Nature of Death & Spirit:

  “There is no hell, Karen.”
  — “Johnny,” Karen’s deceased ex-boyfriend (41:10)

  “God is just love… there’s nothing you ever did that was in the mind of your spirit that was wrong.”
  — Karen Laurie (60:02)

• On Living Fulfilled:

  “Having communion with my spirit and with others all day, every day.”
  — Karen Laurie (78:35)

  “Love is who we are. It’s our true nature when we’re not blocking it… Love is the path.”
  — Karen Laurie (79:24)

Significant Timestamps

• Karen’s First NDE Story: 03:30 – 09:59
• Second NDE (drowning at 18): 11:28 – 22:01
• Remembrance & Spiritual Awakening: 22:09 – 29:53
• Processing Trauma & Starting to Heal: 26:54 – 40:28
• On Psychic Phenomena & Messages from Beyond: 40:28 – 54:31
• Practical Guidance on Meditation & Flow: 54:31 – 57:55
• Comfort for the Dying and Grieving: 57:55 – 64:31
• Lessons from Acting & Following Joy: 66:22 – 73:49
• Rapid-Fire End Questions (Definition of God, Love, Purpose of Life, etc.): 78:26 – 80:53

Tone & Atmosphere

The conversation is deeply personal, candid, warm, spiritual, and often gently humorous. Karen and Alex speak with vulnerability and mutual curiosity, affirming the power of joy, love, and living authentically. The tone is encouraging and empowering, inviting listeners to embrace self-discovery, healing, and trust in their intuitive guidance.

Key Takeaways

• Our subconscious programming, especially from childhood traumas or experiences (even near-death!), can shape our lifelong health and beliefs—but can also be healed through awareness.
• Near-death experiences are overwhelmingly full of light, love, acceptance, and offer a realization of choice—even when one “crosses over.”
• We are all inherently psychic. Everyone has access to guidance, but it takes permission, interest, and trust to embrace it.
• Joy, fun, and following your passion are not only valid but essential spiritual paths.
• Death is not an ending or a punishment; there is “no hell, only love.” The spirit persists, expands, and remains connected to our loved ones.
• Appreciation, meditation, and being in “flow” anchor us to our soul’s wisdom and can radically change our experience of life.
• It is possible—and even our birthright—to live “heaven on earth” by aligning with joy, love, and presence.

Final Message from Karen Laurie

“You can’t get it wrong. You are loved. There’s beauty in you. Look for it. Find it in yourself, find it in everyone. You can have what you want. You’re safe. You’re being guided all the time.” (80:57)

Find Karen Laurie:
Website & free books: chronicpleasurebook.com
Socials: Facebook, Instagram, X — search “Karen Lorre”

For show notes and further resources, visit:
nextlevelsoul.com/571

For anyone drawn to healing, self-realization, or facing questions about death, this episode provides both practical guidance and deep spiritual reassurance—reminding us that love, joy, and connection never end.