The Colours of Freedom - Maryse Alen

In 1972, the term “near-death experience” was unheard of. When a six-year-old Belgian girl nearly drowned in a lake and attempted to explain where she had gone and what she had seen, the adults dismissed it as childish nonsense.
 
That might have an end to the story, but then Maryse came close to death again: and again, many times over. She had been born with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome which caused her heart to stop without warning. This occurred twice a week on average over a period of 25 years and each time, she would enter a magical, timeless world of living colours, where she soared and pulsated with their loving vibrations. And each time, her heart would kick back in at a terrifying speed and she would be back and breathing again.
 
It made her into an apprehensive, misunderstood child and a vulnerable adult until, at the age of 31, a surgeon finally diagnosed her condition and cured her heart. She was now physically well, but her secret world, the one that meant so much to her, was lost. A long, dark depression followed until she at last emerged through the medium of painting, had life-changing experiences with a dolphin and native people in Australia, and then discovered the practice of Vedic Art, which she now teaches in order to bring out the creative life force in others. She is also an accomplished artist in her own right.
 
Maryse has never made a fuss of her near-death experiences—a quick calculation tells you there were about 2,500 of them—partly out of modesty, mostly because she is focussed on the present and her work, but what she learned in these epiphanies and in dream visions underlies all her teaching and makes for a very interesting and readable autobiography.
 
The drama of Maryse Alen’s story is that much more effective for the simple, direct style in which it is written.
 
The Colours of Freedom is published as an ebook and illustrated with 21 reproductions of Maryse’s paintings, which she made at crucial life moments to accompany and help her make sense of them. Flemish/Dutch readers can also buy the physical book.