3 years ago this week, I died and came back.  This obviously has been one of the most significant events in my life...
I wanted to share a few pieces that I have written about this, because I believe that when we go through these kinds of things in our life it is extremely important to tell our story. When we tell our story, we bring people together. When we tell our story we allow ourselves to better grasp the lessons of the story. When we tell our story, we heal...
Below you will find what I have written about the 2 days before my NDE and what happened during my NDE. After that I have included the first past of the introduction of my book, which speaks to one of the main lessons that I take away from the experience. Finally, you can watch me tell my story in a video where I related most of the story.
I know that we all have a varety of stories that have shaped us and that can help others. Hopefully, something in my story my inspire you or help you approach your life just a little bit differently.....

June 3rd 2013:

Today is my second day of being admitted to the hospital.
Today is the day when my body really begins to shut down.
Today is the day when my systems start to show signs of failing.
Today is the day when I lose primary consciousness.
Today is the day when I begin my inward journey of the consciousness realms.
Today is the day that starts my dear sister, Jeannine's 5 week vigil of never leaving my side and using all her medical knowledge to become the liaison between me and the doctors.
Today is the day that my sister calls my best friends and family to let them know that something is very wrong with me.
Today is the day when two of my lifelong soul mates, Kathy and Arnold rush to my side to BE with me for hours while I go in and out of my body and consciousness. One moment laughing and talking to next going away... all of which I am totally unaware of as I am in a state of consciousness slumber not aware when I am there and when I am gone...
Today is the day when my beautiful soul brother Arnold senses all the angels and spirit in the room with us.
Today is the day when the doctors really begin trying to figure out the mystery of what's happening to my body.
Today is the day before my body needs to be intubated to survive...

Tomorrow June 4th the journey continues...

June 4, 2013

Toady is my third day of being admitted to the hospital.
Today is the day I am moved to ICU
Today my body has pneumonia
Today my body is hit with massive antibiotics for the pneumonia
Today my breathing is becoming almost impossible and I am working so hard.
Today my body is put on a machine to force oxygen into my system because my levels are so low.
Today I want that machine off my face!
'Today my body can't lay flat because if I do I REALLY can't breath
Today my body is starting to swell up so that you wouldn't recognize me.
Today my kidneys are shutting down.
Today I am told I am conscious, but then again I am on propofol (the Michael Jackson cocktail)
Today my body is exhausted from trying to stay alive and breath.
Today my sister tells the doctors that I am being given too much fluids.
Today they decide they must run more tests to figure out what exactly is causing it all.
Today an infectious disease specialist is called in.
Today my body is tested for everything, including HIV, Hepatitis and even cancer
Today they test for Staph...
Today my sister continues to call friends, clients and family to cancel appointments and tell them what is happening.
Today my life long friend Richard Patrick Gillespie decides he must come out from Tennessee to be by my side.
Today they need to do a CT Scan, but they are not sure how since my body cannot tolerate laying flat without my oxygen plummeting to dangerously low levels.
Today my body shows signs of congestive heart failure
Today my sister suggests to intubate and sedate my body so that I can rest, stop struggling to breath and be able to lay flat for the CT scan...
Today my body is intubated...

Tomorrow June 5 2013, the journey continues...

June 5, 2013

Today is my first full day of being intubated
Today my body is being kept alive by a respirator
Today my body is totally unconscious
Today they still do not know what is happening to my body
Today is a critical day
Today my body may not make it
Today my sister makes her usual update calls to friends and family telling them that they need to pray...
Today my body is put into a semi coma state to keep me laying flat
Today my body gets ready for a Needle Aspiration CT Scan
Today the doctors want to see my lungs because of the pneumonia
Today my body continues to swell beyond recognition
Today they decide to lower my fluids because of the swelling and because of the kidney failure that is happening (not to mention my sisters demand that they reduce the fluids)
Today my friend flies to California from Tennessee
Today my body is tested for Fungus's
Today my body is tested for more infections
Today my body gets the CT Scan
Today my body CT Scan results shows as they look at my lungs that there is an abnormality on my liver...
Today they determine that my body has an abscess of unknown origin on my liver of significant size.
Today they surgically insert a drain into my liver to drain the abscess
Today my body has a drainage bag on the right side under my rib cage
Today my body begins to expel what is being drained by the abscess
Today my body continues to be flooded with massive antibiotics
Today my body lays in the balance...

Today I float
Today I begin to slip into another world
Today I even appear on stage with my friend Lisa Williams on stage while she is doing meduimship readings on stage in Australia
Today I show up at a wedding in Texas where my friend realizes that I am in Spirit and he tells me I shouldn't be there...
Today I float
Today I travel
Today I'm aware... but not aware
Today I float
Today I am in a dream
Today I float
Today I realize this is not a dream
Today I float
Today I have the consciousness that something is VERY WRONG with me
Today I float
Today I have the consciousness that it's just an interesting fact that something is VERY WRONG with me
Today I float
Today I have the consciousness that it's not ME that something is wrong with...
Today I float
Today I have the consciousness that it's my BODY that something is VERY WRONG with.
Today I float
Today I realize that I am OK.
Today I float
Today I realize that it is my BODY is NOT OK...
Today I float
Today I have the consciousness that it is ALL GOOD anyway...
Today I float
Today I have the consciousness that I am actually just fine
Today I float
Today I have the consciousness that there is nothing to worry about because it is JUST my BODY
Today I float
Today I know that I will be fine WITH or WITHOUT my BODY
Today I float
Today I have an overwhelming feeling of PEACE
Today I float
Today I have an overwhelming feeling of PURE LOVE
Today I float
Today I have an overwhelming feeling of BEINGNESS
Today I float
Today I feel and hear EVERYONE'S Positive Thoughts, Prayers, Pleads and mostly EVERYONE'S PURE LOVE for me.
Today I float
Today I KNOW and FEEL that all of these prayers, thoughts and pleas are coming from all over the planet, but they are right with me beyond any space and time.
Today I float
Today I KNOW that I am LOVED beyond anything.
Today I float
Today I know that I AM LOVE...

Today my consciousness goes blank again...

I almost died. This past June, about 3 months ago as I write this. I had a very slim chance of surviving a massive staph infection that invaded my body.  I thought that it was a flu and so did the doctors until after two trips to the emergency room, I was admitted into the hospital. Thank God. They had no idea what was happening with my body at first. All they knew was that very quickly after being admitted, I got massive pneumonia, my kidneys started to fail and then I went septic. They then had to put me into an induced coma to calm my body down and start to drain an abscess they found on my liver, which is where they believed the infection was coming from. Once I was in this coma state my chances of surviving this ordeal became extremely slim. The doctors worked around the clock as my body was ravaged and trying to fight off what was attacking me while I lay in ICU…

Meantime, on the inside, I was having a near death experience. This near death experience is hard to fully explain in words, but I will try. I had the consciousness that something was wrong with me. Then at that exact same time I realized that it wasn’t me, but it was my body.  Something was definitely wrong with my body, but nothing was wrong with me. I have always known that we are not our bodies, but this experience confirmed it for me to say the least! As this was dawning on me I had the most supreme and beautiful sense of peace and calmness.  You would think that a realization that my body was in major trouble would be something that would throw someone into fear and stress. Not me. I had an awareness that I was ok and all was good and all was LOVE, with or without my body. I knew that if I was to lose my body I would still be just fine and I had no worries about not having it anymore. It was a freeing feeling and one I had never experienced.

Then I had an awareness of all the love and support that was being directed towards me by so many people in my life. People close to my body and as far away as Australia and New Zealand were pouring out massive love directed squarely at me. This is hard to explain in words, but all I can say is that I just “knew” all these amazing beings were projecting love towards me. This made the experience of love I had before, even more intense and beautiful.  I do not remember making a choice to stay here in this body, but I must have. I believe that we choose to stay or go, just as we choose everything in our lives.  I believe it was the love that I felt from everyone that helped me to make the decision to come back and fight for my life. And thank God I did… I am alive, loving and appreciating life in ways I never have before. YES!

The reason that I am telling you this is that this experience has taught me many things, (that’s for another book!) but for our purposes I want to relate one of the most powerful lessons to you. I believe if you picked up this book, you need to hear this;
THE TIME IS NOW.

I come back into this life and this body knowing this in a way that I want to shout it off the rooftops.

THE TIME IS NOW.

The time you have here with this particular mix of people and energies is finite and it will NEVER be again. You will never have the exact circumstances, community, personality, relationships or anything EVER AGAIN. 

THE TIME IS NOW.

The time to do what you want to do is NOW.
The time to live your life the way you have only dreamed about is NOW.
The time to leave a situation that is not supporting you in your growth is NOW.
The time to tell THAT person THAT thing is NOW.
The time to leave that job you have hated for 10 years is NOW.
The time to finally treat yourself with love and respect is NOW.
The time to give to your fellow human being is NOW.
The time to start your transformation…is NOW.

From now on in my life I will always treasure this moment and at the same time doing the things and loving the people that bring me joy, peace and love. My prayer is that you will too.

Please listen to me when I tell you that if you have anything you want to do, be or experience in your life DO IT OR START IT NOW. There is no more time to waste. There are no more excuses. There is no more room in your life to wait until you may be randomly laying in an induced coma and possibly not making it…

THE TIME IS NOW.

Abundance & Prosperity 
Money, money, money… If there is anything in the world that we tend to have issues around or blockages about, it is with the idea of money. Now, if you're perceptive I said the idea of money. I didn't say that money itself was a block. Because, of itself money is really just energy. Well, actually it’s just paper or metal or a number on a computer which we are projecting energy upon. But like everything else in the universe it is energy. Like the seat that you might be sitting in right now. Or like the book that you are reading this from and the thoughts that you are thinking about the book that you are reading right now. It is all energy
Now get this…there is no “book” energy or “chair” energy or “box” energy or “money” energy. It is all pure potential energy. What makes it a book or a chair or money is the meaning that you (and as a human collective) have placed on it which creates what it actually is.

If you follow that line of reasoning you will see that we have placed so much emphasis on money in ways that doesn't serve us. We make money the determining factor in almost every decision in our lives.  We do things because we “have enough” for this or we don’t do something because we “can’t afford” it. I’m not endorsing being financially irresponsible here, BUT I am suggesting that you allow other options in the mix when it comes to money and making it the determining factor in everything that is important in your life.

Personally, when I really “got it” that I was using money or lack of it as a block to all I wanted to create, do or experience in my life and that I could change that, everything shifted for me. Just identifying that I did not have to buy into this mass illusion that money is the only way to accomplish what I wanted or live my dreams was huge for me. I hope that it is for you too.

Once I saw this illusion clearly I began to heal my dysfunctional relationship with money.  I opened up to abundance coming into my life in many ways other than just having the right amount of green stuff to pay for what I wanted. I realized that if I wanted something or experience in my life, I didn’t have to have the actual money to do or have it. I know this may be a tough concept for you to get, but just follow me here…I had the realization that if what I wanted to do or experience in my life was in alignment with my true self and at the same time I could open up my mind enough, it could come to me in many ways other than just by having the money to get it.

I could give you hundreds of examples from my life that show you how this change in perception about money vs. having what I want manifests in my life almost on a daily basis, but I will just give you one fun and powerful example:
A few years back, I had the realization that I really wanted to travel. I had traveled before and it had always been one of the things that made my heart sing and I just LOVED it. Travel helped me to expand myself. Travel helped me to learn. Travel helped me to see other perspectives on life. Travel gave me the opportunity to see the most amazingly beautiful places and learn about awesome cultures. Traveling was just plain FUN! The problem was I always held myself back from traveling as much as I really wanted to because of one thing…money or more specifically the lack of it! I KNOW that sounds familiar… I still had this burning desire to see more of the world and I didn’t know how that might happen without having money to do it. Keep in mind that I had been working on healing my relationship with money for quite a while at this point.

So, this rumbling of wanting to travel came to a head one year around New Year’s Eve. I was with friends and at midnight we decided that we would all share one of our intentions for the New Year. We would say out loud something that we wished for ourselves for the coming year.  Guess what intention I said…? Travel. I had no idea how it would happen, but I just put out the intention. I said it.  I committed to it. We all said them, had a wonderful night and then went back into our lives to start the New Year.

Then it happened.  About 2 weeks into the New Year a friend of mine said he wanted to talk to me. I called him up to see what was up?  My friend worked for United Airlines. He told me that United and Continental Airlines were merging into one company. He said that since that was happening there were lots of changes to his benefits and his work.  He was not happy about all of the changes, but there was one change that he was very happy about. It seems that one of the perks of the merger was that United employees were now allowed to add a non-family member to their list of people to fly standby and of all his friends, he knew that I was the one that would get the most out of this perk!!!  That’s right, I now can travel anywhere I want in the world virtually FREE!!! You also need to know that I had not told this friend anything about my New Years Eve intention or that I was even thinking about travel that much. Since this has happened I have traveled more than ever!  I have used it for my business and pleasure. I have flown all over the United States (it’s FREE in the United States) and all over the world (I just pay a small fee depending on where I go). Places like Singapore, Paris, Ireland, Hong Kong and it even helped me to go on a family vacation to Hawaii that I may not have been able to do if I had to have the actual money. I plan to keep traveling more and more! I am grateful and appreciative of this amazing gift I have been given.

That was one of the biggest manifestations of changing my mind around having to have money in order to do what I want.  In fact, it has bled into everything in my life where it concerns money. To my friends, family and clients I am now known as “The King of getting Free s%*t!” I get bills paid for me, free rental cars, free hotels etc. The point is that I have changed my perception about what is possible without money.  Now the sky is the limit baby!

My story proves that you have WEALTH and PROSPERITY within you. Prosperity and Wealth are an INSIDE job. Searching outside for it may work for a little while and in some forms, but TRUE Prosperity takes a mind shift.

There are many ways to you’re your relationship with money, but one powerful ways is by opening your mind and perceptions beyond what you categorize as "WEALTH or PROSPERITY". Just a small time spent being in a mind shifting energetic can affect your results around money immensely.

As I mentioned before one of, if not the most important aspects of healing your relationship with money and curing it once and for all, is realizing how much you are focusing on lack instead of abundance and prosperity. Even to the extent that you're reading this book shows you're focusing on the lack of what you want and somewhere within you might be saying this book will help fill what you lack. Of course this book is going to help you, but I'm using this as an example of how your mind will always look at what you're lacking instead of what you already have in abundance and what is prosperous in your life.

Today, I would like you to focus on abundance and prosperity. When you focus on how many abundant things you have in your life, you will naturally be opening yourself up to allowing it to come in, in all forms, including money!  I want you to focus on the things that are abundant in your life. For example:
An abundance of oxygen.
An abundance of steps you can take while you’re walking.
An abundance of love from friends.
An abundance of nature.
An abundance of hairs on your head.
An abundance of cells in your body.
An abundance of buildings in the city you live in.
An abundance of wood filling up the structure of your home.
This list could go on and on and on and on…

In my opinion, today is one of the most important days in the whole book. It is one of the most important because I believe lack or the feeling of lack, is one of the most detrimental and biggest blocks to attracting positive results and having peace and joy in your life. It also is one of the most important because once you realize you have abundance in many forms right now, your vibration around lack will start to shift. Once that starts to shift you will manifest much more abundance in many forms…quickly. Like the form of money... or plane tickets!
 
Say YES if you will make a conscious effort to focus on all the abundance that's in your life right now! XXX

~From Max's book "Say Yes if..."