Changed in a Flash One Woman's Near-Death Experience and Why a Scholar Thinks It Empowers Us All

When Elizabeth Greenfield Krohn got out of her car on a late afternoon in September 1988, she couldn't have anticipated that within seconds, she'd be struck by lightning. What happened next would upend her most fundamental understandings of what the world is, how it works—and what lies beyond the veil.

Supplemented with commentary from renowned religious scholar Jeffrey Kripal, Changed in a Flash is a fascinating first-hand account of one near-death experience and awakening into psychic consciousness.

When Elizabeth Greenfield Krohn got out of her car with her two young sons in the parking lot of her synagogue on a late afternoon in September 1988, she was struck by lightning. Transported to a garden, she engaged in a revelatory conversation with a spiritual being. When she recovered from her near-death experience (NDE), her most fundamental understandings of what the world is—and how it works—had been completely transformed. She was “changed in a flash,” suddenly able to interact with those who had died and have prescient dreams predicting news events.
 
The first half of this book details the story of Krohn’s journey. The second is an interpretation and analysis by renowned scholar of religion Jeffrey J. Kripal. He places Krohn's experience in the context of religious traditions and proposes the groundbreaking idea that we're actively shaping our own future experiences by how we engage with near-death experiences in the present. Changed in a Flash is not about proving a story, but about carving out space for serious discussion of NDEs and what we can learn and how we can transform—if we dare to look beyond what we thought was possible.

ELIZABETH GREENFIELD KROHN was a wife and mother of two young boys when she was struck by lightning in the parking lot of her Houston synagogue, and her most fundamental understandings of what the world is and how it works were completely transformed. She is now a grandmother living in Houston.

JEFFREY J. KRIPAL is a well-known professor of religion at Rice University and the codirector of Esalen's Center for Theory and Research. He is the author of many books on religion and unexplained phenomena, including, with Whitley Streiber, The Super Natural. He is a key figure in consciousness studies within academia and beyond.