By his own admission, Dannion Brinkley was not a nice person as a youth and young adult. Some of the words used by acquaintances to describe the Aiken, South Carolina, man were egotistical, self-centered, and manipulative. Dannion says they were being kind; he described his young self as a bully and an asshole who enjoyed hurting others.

Today, however, Dannion Brinkley enjoys helping others. For over forty years, he has made it his mission to assist people, particularly the elderly and handicapped, by volunteering at hospices and nursing homes across America.

Dannion Brinkley’s transformation from bully to buddy is amazing and inspiring. The means which he says led to his about-face attitude is remarkable.

Dannion says his drastic change in personality resulted from a strike with mortality; specifically, a lightning strike.

Dannion Brinkley

A rainstorm struck Aiken, South Carolina, on the evening of September 17, 1975, producing intense thunder and lightning. While on the phone with his friend, Tom Hall, twenty-five-year-old Dannion was struck by a jolt of lightning as he stepped in front of his window. He was knocked unconscious as 180,000 volts of electricity surged through his body. The powerful force welded his shoes to the floor.

Dannion said he then had an out-of-body experience as he remembered floating in the air while watching his wife, Sandy, and Tom try to resuscitate him. The next thing he remembered was seeing a bright blue light emanate from the darkness of a tunnel. Dannion says, “[I] felt everything I’d ever done and saw everything I’d ever done, I became every person that I’d ever encountered.”

For the less-than-humanitarian Dannion, this was not a pleasant experience; he says he felt the hurt and anger he had inflicted on people over the years.

Young Dannion

Paramedics quickly arrived at Dannion’s home and rushed him to the hospital. Within minutes of arrival, his breathing stopped, and he was pronounced dead.

As Sandy and Tom were mourning, they were in for a shock. In a scene frequently depicted in the movies, they say they saw a dead man wiggling his fingers and toes.

Twenty-eight minutes after doctors declared Dannion Brinkley deceased, he was breathing and moving. He was partially paralyzed and barley able to walk or talk, but he was alive. The man who was declared dead was released from the hospital one week later.

Following a couple of years of therapy, all of Dannion’s bodily functions returned. His recovery was remarkable, but, according to friends, his subsequent visions were astounding.

Back From the Dead?

After recovering from the lighting strike, Dannion said he had visions of the future, not only his own, but also that of the world.

He claims he “witnessed” one-hundred-seventeen major world events over the following two decades including the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the first Persian Gulf War.

Dannion’s friends verify he told them of the historic events before they occurred.

History Before It Happened?

Dannion believed his newfound psychic abilities were the result of his near death experience. In several “readings” conducted by parapsychologists, he described details of people he had never previously met.

His track record was successful and his reputation spread, so much so that he caught the attention of police, who asked him to assist with an unsolved murder.

Psychic Abilities

John and Nancy Bosco had been shot to death while sleeping in their rural Bigfork, Montana, home on August 12, 1993. After their investigation into the murders stalled, the desperate police turned to the now nationally-known Dannion Brinkley.

In his visions Dannion described the Bosco killer as a slender young black-haired man who knew John and the layout of the house. Dannion said the man was a college student somewhere in the western United States and predicted he would be arrested in early December 1993.

John and Nancy Bosco

Bigfork police said Dannion was correct on all counts.

In December 1993, eighteen-year-old Joseph “Shadow” Clark was arrested after police received information linking him to the Bosco murders. Clark had previously lived in the Bosco home, had known the couple, and was George Fox College, a Christian college on the west coast.

Joseph Clark was convicted of the murders of John and Nancy Bosco and was sentenced to one-hundred-fifty years in prison.

Joseph Clark

In 1994, Dannion Brinkley wrote the book Saved by the Light, about his life before and after being struck by lightning. The book was on the New York Times Best Sellers List for twenty-five weeks and was adapted into a FOX TV film starring Eric Roberts as Dannion.

The film continues to be shown frequently on Lifetime.

Dannion’s Book

Skeptics doubt Dannion Brinkley’s claims of being clinically dead and contend that a near-death experience is a manufactured concept and a figment of the human imagination.

It perhaps does not matter if Dannion’s change in personality resulted from a brush with mortality. He became a better person and used his “awakening” to better the lives of others. For them, Dannion’s charity certainly mattered.

From Bully to Buddy

Today, Dannion Brinkley is an author and gives speeches on what he believes was his near-death experience.

The quotation below demonstrates someone who is a far cry from the bitter person he was for the first twenty-five years of his life.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81501068/john-dominic-bosco

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113464858/nancy-renae-bosco

SOURCES:

• “Saved by the Light” by Dannion Brinkley.
• Unsolved Mysteries