The Other Side Blog

A JOURNEY INTO SHAMANISM,
COMA AND JOY

What happens when we die? How are some people able to see or communicate with spiritual worlds beyond our own? Can they offer answers to some of our most burning questions about life and death?

Sarah Bullen delves into the mysteries of life after death through her own near-death experience and riveting interviews with individuals from South Africa and beyond. The blog features stories of people who have crossed to the ‘other side’ or can communicate with it.

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Clinical death, NDE or OBE?

Since the 1960s, research has been carried out on the experiences of people who have been declared clinically dead – most often on the operating table – and have then come back to life. Nearly all of these people reported similar experiences, which form the basis of the experience of modern NDEs. Researchers have generally agreed that NDEs have universal core features, many of which have been documented and categorised by physician and psychology professor Dr Raymond Moody. H

Oct 254 min read

Wild rapture and dance in Botswana

It is closing in on three in the morning and sleep is the furthest thing from my mind. I am in Botswana again. This is the third trip I have taken up here in the two years in which we’ve been on these parallel treatment and healing journeys. Life is slowly returning to a level of relative normality. The well-wishers have tailed off, MRIs are less terrifying and have all come back clear. Llewelyn is now very firmly on the path to becoming a koma doctor – a doctor of rite

May 13, 20258 min read

From 'Hey Baby' to 'The Other Side'

It’s been 20 years since my first book was published, and I wanted to reflect on the long journey of being an author, as well as working in the world of stories. My first book, Hey Baby, was a runaway riot of fun. I was 28 and the book was commissioned. I was a working journalist, and I just loved the process of writing it. In retrospect, I think I had my first psychiatric breakdown meeting that deadline. It could also have been too much coffee. But the book came out and I

Apr 26, 20254 min read

Proof of Heaven?

When I woke up from the coma in late 2012, the topic of near death was on everybody’s lips. This was due to an American neuroscientist...

Mar 5, 20254 min read

A meeting with the devil in a NDE

Mohau Malope believes that some of the things he did in high school saved him from staying in hell during his NDE. We are sitting in the...

Sep 23, 20244 min read

An epiphany and a change of tack

Niall Campbell is also known by his traditional name Phokojwe (The Jackal) and is traditional doctor nyanga (medicine man) and a Ngaka...

Sep 23, 20243 min read

African spirituality, trance and dance

In many cultures, the line is not as clear as in others, so we turn to some parts of Africa to look at its rich traditions that retain a...

Sep 23, 20243 min read

Deep Research into Near Death Experiences

I’ve done my own deep research into near death. It was just that the research was unexpected, unwanted and supremely badly timed. It...

Sep 23, 20245 min read

Clinical death, NDE or OBE?

Since the 1960s, research has been carried out on the experiences of people who have been declared clinically dead – most often on the...

Sep 17, 20244 min read

The summer of sex, Osho and sannyasins

This is an extract from the book Love and Above: A journey through shamanism, coma and joy. The book is available on Amazon, in stores in...

Jun 30, 20248 min read

The sangoma madness begins

What am I doing here? It’s an easy Sunday morning and I am sitting on a cold concrete floor with my legs stretched out in front of me and a six-kilogram black hen on the top my head. I really should not be here. I am a frazzled, but reasonably mature, hip and working mother of two small kids at age 34. And Sundays are rest and wine days. I should be at my parents’ house by the beach in Simonstown looking out over the yachts sailing. Soon I should be sitting down for a Sund

Apr 27, 20246 min read