Emily Graves spoke with Dr Mary Neal about why she wrote the book and how she got it published

Dr Mary Neal

Dr Mary Neal, an orthopaedic surgeon, was on a kayaking holiday in Chile. Sceptical of near death experiences, she was to have her life transformed when her kayak became wedged in rocks at the bottom of a waterfall and was underwater for so long that her heart stopped. Her book, To Heaven and Back, is a New York Times number one best seller and is her account of her experience of death, heaven and how she came back with a new understanding of her purpose on earth. Emily Graves spoke with her about the publishing of her book.

Emily: Was it that overwhelming feeling of God's love that made you know that it was like Jesus was with you and that you were in heaven?

Mary: When I was still on my boat and I was being held and comforted I believe it was Jesus who was holding me. That's something that only very recently was I willing to say out loud to other people, because it sounds so presumptuous out of context; because why me are you kidding? I mean I'm just a person, but again its part of this incredible truth of God's promises, which is, of course Jesus is holding me because Jesus will hold anyone who asks.

I will tell you absolutely that my experience was a Christian experience and I know what I know and I don't know what I don't know. There are near death experiences that are universal across faiths and cultures and there's no question that God is there for each one of us. Not just those of us who are in one particular church denomination and we think ok we have the real answer. It's very easy for us to say, 'Well, I'm in and you're out, but that's not the way God works. God knows our heart. God knows what we truly are.

Emily: How do you feel knowing that you've actually got to number one on the New York Times best sellers list?

Mary: I think it's first of all an incredible privilege that I happen to be the person physically doing it, but I don't really see it as my story. I really see it as God's story and the fact that it's getting publicity and that it's getting 'out there' is fantastic because what I've seen it do for people is really offer not only reassurance and comfort and hope, but it does really intend to inspire people to look at their own lives and say, 'Well, ok let me take a look and see if I can find God working in my own life' and that is an incredible privilege.

I'm really not surprised by it because I truly do believe that this is God's deal. I mean this entire process for me has been a lesson in not only obedience but looking at what God does in not only your life, but what God does in the world if we get out of the way. If we just obey. If we just say, 'Ok, let me try and figure out what I'm supposed to be doing' and then when we get an answer, to do it.

I'm a spine surgeon; my world and the world of publishing as an example does not overlap at all. That's one of the reasons of course why I didn't even want to write this book, because I don't know anything about it; but I knew that it was a job that I'd been given to do. I said, 'Well ok, if you want me to do it then you'd better help me do it'.

At each step in the way when I would face a road block, I would say, 'Ok, you know God you want this done, well you'd better figure out how to get to the next step' and that next step would happen. A person would come into my life, or something would happen to do that. I really do believe that if we get out of the way and we try to stop controlling the outcome of what we have in mind, that God does incredible things in our lives; not just this book, I mean in our lives in all kinds of ways. When we sincerely pray about something I absolutely believe that God answers those prayers and God's timing is perfect. It's just that often times those answers are different than what we have imagined.

With this whole process of trying to share my story, or what I believe is God's story with other people, I have tried very much to just get out of the way. It's not a passive thing; I've certainly done my part of it; but I have truly tried to get out of the way and say, 'God, I'm here and I am going to do the job that you are asking me to do'.

As one example when it came to publishing this book I had this idea that you write a book and you find a publisher and then that's that, you're done, because then I wanted to get back to my regular life. When I came to the point where I said fine the manuscript is done, now I need a publisher, I was waiting waiting waiting and of course that's not really the way it works; publisher's don't come knocking at your door. Then one day I was a little frustrated and I said, 'You know what, you want this thing published, well give me some help here'. I turned the radio on in the car and I don't know who had been driving the car, but the radio came on really loudly and it came on to this modern Christian music radio station and there was a song that came on and the refrain of the song came on really loudly and that refrain says, 'I refuse to wait for someone else to do what God has called me to do myself'.

Emily: Wow.

Mary: I heard that and I thought, 'Oh really, you must be kidding'. It would have been very easy for me for example to listen to that and turn the volume down and say, 'Well, whatever, I'm still waiting for a publisher', but in this walk of what I think is obedience, I listened to that and I said, 'You've got to be kidding me, that's the answer?' I said, 'Ok, well I will do it'. I figured out how to self publish and move forward, but I think we have to try and it's a struggle for most people, if not all. It's a struggle to give up trying to control the outcome. My outcome even at that point would have been the publisher's going to email me or call me and that's that, but that wasn't God's plan. It's been an interesting journey.

You can buy To Heaven and Back from Cross Rhythms Direct for only £8.99 + p&p.