Rev. Peter Panagore, M.Div (Yale) has had two near-death experiences, the first while ice climbing in 1980 and the second in 2015 due to a heart attack. He recounts these in his book Heaven Is Beautiful: How Dying Taught Me That Death Is Just the Beginning, an Audible Best Seller available globally in nine editions. His best-selling second book, Two Minutes for God: Quick Fixes for the Spirit, is a collection of original inspirational devotional stories, many of which he told for 15 years on a daily TV show reaching 30 million viewers annually in Maine and New Hampshire. Previously, he served as a United Church of Christ minister and pastor in Maine and Connecticut. He published 150 sermons and many prayers in Homiletics, a leading clergy journal. He now runs a global spiritual counseling service for "closet mystics" and travels nationally as a public and inspirational speaker and teacher. He has been practicing Zazen/Centering Prayer and Kundalini/KriyaYoga for forty years.

Website: peterpanagore.love

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Summary and transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded April 6, 2019.

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump

00:04:31 - Communicating with Deceased Loved Ones

00:09:07 - Meeting the Telepathic Elephant

00:13:54 - Meeting the Little Elephant and Journeying through the Night Sky

00:18:40 - Born with a Mystic Talent

00:23:21 - A Spiritual Experience on the Appalachian Trail

00:28:38 - Near-death experiences and the monastery's fire vision

00:33:00 - Angels, Elephants, and Divine Experiences

00:37:48 - Connecting to the Divine and Mysticism

00:42:22 - Ice Climbing Mishap

00:46:34 - A Desperate Descent

00:51:04 - The Ascenders Hitch and a Close Call

00:55:16 - Facing Death on the Edge

01:00:02 - The Infinite Darkness and Consciousness

01:04:47 - A Glimpse of the Infinite

01:09:37 - The Shame and Love in My Experience

01:14:24 - A Moment of Oneness and Absorption

01:19:43 - Coming Back to Life

01:24:17 - A Near-Death Experience and Its Aftermath

01:29:01 - Discovering Kindness

01:34:09 - Living in a Duality

01:39:03 - Seeking the Oneness Inside Myself

01:44:20 - Divine Experiences and the Oneness of Being

01:49:01 - The Perfection and Imperfection of Existence

01:54:16 - Seeing the Divine Presence in Everyday Life

01:58:42 - The Journey Within Multiple Levels of Heaven

02:03:10 - The Choice to Incarnate on Earth

02:08:17 - The Treasure of Love as the Reason

02:12:33 - The Role of Love in the Divine Experience

02:17:12 - Love as a Path to the Divine

02:21:12 - The Global Movement of Spiritually Transformed People