A New Jersey woman who once distrusted the Catholic faith she was raised in said her life changed forever when she died while giving birth at age 18. 

Rebecca Boothroyd, now 38, recalled the moment everything shifted, from a growing numbness in her body to what she believes was an encounter with the voice of God. 

‘During labor, I had an epidural,’ she told Daily Mail. ‘But instead of numbing me from the waist down, it numbed me from my back all the way up to my brain. It nearly killed me.’ 

Boothroyd said she remained conscious and could feel something was seriously wrong. 

‘I told the nurse, “You should get a doctor, something’s wrong,” but they kept saying, “You’re fine”,’ she recalled.

As the medication took hold, everything began to blur. ‘I felt like I was drowning in sweat, but I wasn’t even sweating,’ she said.

Then everything faded away and turned white. At the time, Boothroyd didn’t realize it, but that moment would become a turning point in her life.

New Jersey woman Rebecca Boothroyd, 38, said that her experience began with numbness (Supplied: Rebecca Boothroyd)

It started in the hospital, in a haze of pain and beeping monitors, then came the light.

Not just any light, but a blinding, all-consuming brightness that seemed to erase everything else.

That moment changed everything for Boothroyd. Since then, she said, God speaks to her directly. The connection is clear, constant. And with it came something else: the power to heal.

But she doesn’t believe that hospital moment was random. There were other signs, brushes with death that now, in hindsight, feel like chapters of a bigger story in her life

‘My first experience happened while driving with her dad pickup truck down the highway,’ Boothroyd explained.

One moment she was fiddling with the door handle and accidentally swung the door open.

The next things she remembered was she was hanging on the door for dear life as her father was driving down the interstate.  

He swerved right, snapping the door shut and yanking her back to safety. She should have fallen. She didn’t.  

Previous to her hospital experience, she had had two run-ins with death (Supplied: Rebecca Boothroyd)

She said at first that she only saw whiteness – then the messages arrived

The second episode was just as surreal. 

A simple trip to the movie store with her dad and sister turned into chaos. They’d barely pulled into the parking lot when her father hopped out, leaving her in the car. 

Moments later, the vehicle burst into flames. She doesn’t remember exactly how he got her out, just that one minute she was inside, and the next, safe in his arms as the car exploded behind them. 

‘It always seems to be cars with me for some reason,’ said Boothroyd.

Boothroyd always had a sense there was something different about her, something deeper.

She believed she was born with healing gifts, though for most of her life, those feelings stayed buried.

Raised Catholic, she learned early that such ideas didn’t belong in polite conversation. 

‘I have three kids. I was never married. Born and raised Catholic,’ she explained. ‘I always felt like everything I did was never good enough. There was too much judgment.’

For years, she struggled under the weight of that pressure and the prescriptions. 

At one point, she was taking up to 25 pills a day. Her body was medicated. Her spirit was numb. 

But everything changed after what Boothroyd calls her ‘rebirth.’

It wasn’t just a near-death experience. It was a moment of contact, an awakening. ‘I realized it was a rebirth,’ she said. ‘I felt like I was in contact with the other side.’

‘It opened me up to connect even more. Some people when they have near-death experiences, they have a whole download and instant awareness. Mine is integrated.’

Now, Boothroyd said, her purpose is clear: to help others. 

She believes her gifts have finally surfaced because, for the first time, she’s living life on her own terms, not by her parents’ expectations, not by the rules of the church she grew up in, and not by the limitations of her past. 

‘I feel like that was a big reason why my gifts are coming out now, because I’m able to be my own person,’ Boothroyd said. 

‘Instead of having to follow what my parents wanted, what my family wanted, what my church wanted.’

God, she said, speaks to her directly now. And she no longer feels that meeting Him requires a steeple or pew.

‘I’m very big on God, the Bible, all that stuff,’ Boothroyd said. ‘But only as long as it’s being preached and taught the right way.’ She recently became a licensed reverend.

As for what lies beyond this life, she’s not convinced it’s as black-and-white as heaven or hell.

‘Are you going there to learn some more lessons, or are you there to try to be free?’ said Boothroyd.