Customer Reviews

Fast Lane to Heaven: A Life-After-Death Journey

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ned Dougherty's Fast Lane to Heaven, is an incredible tale of one man's transformation after his near death experience. Similar to Betty Eadie's and Dannion Brinkley's vivid recalls of their NDEs, Dougherty is also able to recall with vivid clarity his journey and all that was shown to him.

Dougherty was living the hedonistic, fast lane of life, with homes in both The Hamptons, and West Palm Beach, driving expensive cars, having many expensive toys, and operating two thriving nightclubs. Alcohol was his admitted drug of choice, and cocaine use was intermittently part of his lifestyle, as were meaningless relationships with meaningless beautiful women.

After suffering an apparent heart attack, Dougherty realized that he was no longer "in his body", and was met by a former friend who "died" in Vietnam. Dougherty recalls in stunning detail his life review, future life events, future world events, including the 9-11 attacks on New York and Washington, his meetings with The Lady of The Light, God, and other spiritual beings. Because Dougherty's life's mission is not yet completed on earth, he is told he must go back.

Needless to say, Dougherty's life is forever transformed after his heavenly encounters, and amazingly, the doctors could not find anything physically wrong with him - all of his medical tests were normal. Yet Dougherty knew that he had died, but all of the doctors could not find anything indicating a heart attack.

As foretold to Dougherty, he indeed turned his life around, and is no longer living a hedonistic, fast lifestyle, but a more spiritual, contemplative one, which includes hospice volunteering, as well as forming his Angels of Mercy organization which provides miracles to those in need. He is still visited by The Lady of The Light and his devotion and faith in God has deepened greatly.

I found this book truly amazing, and I have read all the NDE books that I can, and this account is one of the best. His honesty and admittances of his former lifestyle helped to portray him as he truly was/is. He was not portrayed as someone without any flaws, or perfect. I am sure that all readers can relate to his imperfections in one way or another. The reader can only "try" to relate to his struggles and difficulties in "trying" to live an earthly existence, after seeing and experiencing all that he had with his celestial encounters. Synchronistic encounters reaffirmed to Dougherty that all that happened did indeed happen. Events shown to him that would occur in his life happened not according to Dougherty's "trying" to make them happen, but instead they happened according to God's plan.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in NDEs. There is a most startling message in the book from Archangel Michael that was given to Dougherty, that is worth reading several times over. Indeed, a wake-up message for us all.

This book is just another confirmation to us all that there is nothing to fear in dying, that we all are constantly guided and loved, and that we only have to ask for help from above. There is so much more to life than "toys" or material possessions and Dougherty proves that point very well.

This book's message is incredibly timely for what we are living though now and thank you Ned Dougherty for sharing your wonderful incredible experiences for us all.

I wholehearted agree with the other earlier review shown here.
The author says about his account:
"I would usually awake before dawn and immediately begin to write. The writing seemed to come to me automatically--totally by inspiration."
"The financial and banking institutions will collapse due in large part to the failure of the insurance companies as a result of the natural disasters. The United States will be thrown into political, economic, and social chaos."

"The United States government will fail to meet its financial obligations as a result of its staggering national debt and will collapse. As a result of the destruction of U.S. military bases from natural disasters, the United States will lose its ability to wage war or defend itself, leaving the country vulnerable to invasion by foreign troops, particularly by China's 'army of two hundred million.'"
He also talks about a pole shift, earthquakes, eruptions, tidal waves that will bring geophysical and geopolitical changes.
He was also told, "None of these events in the future need to take place if mankind begins to recognize and work with God's plan."
The author left New York and now lives in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He encourages prayer and meditation.
"The future of the world rests in our hands. The right choice is obvious. If each and every individual aspires to lead a life of love of God, self, and neighbor, collectively mankind has the ability to determine the future of the world and to choose our destiny as a civilization."

It is a good reading. I believe the account is sincere and not fabricated, although Ned himself has struggled for years between belief and doubt, even after his experience. It is curious how spiritual experiences always get to be explained and decodified according to one's own educational and religious upbringing. Heavenly things are ineffable to mortals. There is a far supperior and immensely more glorious reality outside this dying sphere where we currently live. Though sometimes they are somewhat lengthy and detailed, mortal man's encounters with that reality are no more than glimpses of an infinitely great reality. There isn't even a proper language to describe it here on earth. It is little suprise that every NDE or out-of-body experience gets interpreted according to the protagonist's own beliefs. Ned account's elaborations about "Virgin" Mary can be bothersome for non-Catholic Christians like me. The Catholic dogma of sinless birth and eternal viriginity, implying that sex is intrinsically sinful (no matter how or when it is performed) is insulting to the sensibilities of those who, instead, believe it is a godly gift created for sacred purposes and that man and woman are not complete without it. It is also bothersome that certain religions use, propagate and elaborate supernatural evidences to draw people to believe. It really doesn't work like that for other Christians and some other religions. Cautioned by Jesus Christ himself that "an evil and adulterous generation would ask for a sign", we don't look to be charmed by incredible miracles alone. We look for light and truth that enlightens, expands and inspires both our hearts AND minds.
I still recommend the book. Ned is very candid in sharing his personal struggles against his weaknesses and his encounter with his spiritual side. There is a lot to learn from him.

I myself had a profound spiritual experience where I had the opportunity to decide to live or die and find out my life mission, which was simple and unremarkable but challenging, and I like Ned do what I can to live up to it. That was long ago and I'm drawn now to reading others stories.

I believe Mr. Doughterty experienced everything he writes about and that he is living in servitude to the directives he received during his near death experience, which is very admirable. He was raised Catholic and so his experience is heavily informed by the teachings of his youth, which is natural.

Unfortunately the book is not honestly represented: the near death experience is there yes, but ultimately is an instrument to prosthelytize Christian End of Times dogma to the reader.

So if you're not a Christian or the type of Christian that believes God is going to destroy those that don't believe in Jesus, the one true God, etc. with cataclysmic events, this will probably end with a sad thud.

God apparently has as many faces and favored groups as a dodecahedron. And isn't that part of what makes God great, that he relates to and favors all of us? The fundamentalists won't allow that though, others apparently must be punished for not believing like they do with a terrible End.

The story is interesting. I was very impressed with his incredible natural ability to get things done and make things happen. I take my hat off to all that he has done and what he intends.

So if this is your cup of tea, you'll enjoy it deeply. Otherwise, it will be another testament to the fear mongering we're so prone to as a species and that I pray we are able to overcome.

In this autobiographical history centering around a near-death experience of Ned Dougherty's that occurred in 1984, he recounts details of the experience; its effects on him; and details of the messages that he received while on the Other Side and in the years since he has returned to life. Among his published list of prophecies was one that described in a general way the attack of 9/11 a few months before it actually occurred. Others of his prophecies, like the world-wide disturbances in the weather and seismic events, have also come true. If you're interested in his prophecies, see this book and his End-Times Daily web site.

Among Ned's many bits of Other-Side knowledge to impart is the fact that the best weapon against the wars and catastrophes on earth is not guns but prayer. A prayer group of 20 people, he asserts, can turn back these crises.

Ned was "called" to a spiritual mission on earth and has been living it out since his return, but he spent years trying to understand his NDE and trying to implement his newly-adopted Mission to do good. He discovered and chose to visit a Roman Catholic Community run by the Montfort Missionaries in New York. There he happened to meet other people who had experienced NDEs. He has returned to the Roman Catholic religion of his boyhood and is a devout daily communicant. He and a group of other persons who receive frequent messages from the Virgin Mary, the Heavenly Father, Jesus the Son, and the Archangel Michael now have a web site where they report every heavenly message they receive. The contents of these messages sound very much like those received by other seers over the course of the Twentieth Century, and before. These tend to be the same general messages about punishments that are coming to the earth because of the widespread presence of worldwide sin, how the catastrophes can be turned back by repentance and prayer, and some SPECIFIC prophecies about what lies ahead for the earth. Ned Dougherty is involved in various good works, including promoting the sanctity of Life. His organization, Mission of Angels, has a priest spiritual director.

In the years following upon his NDE, Ned received and gave information about his NDE to the one outstanding NDE group then known as IANDS, however, he seems now not to be strongly affiliated with that group.

He HAS tried to collect as much information as possible about NDEs and he started his own publishing company by means of which he published his book and some other NDE books (advertised at the back of his book). One of these other books is by an author who promotes anthroposophy, an unorthodox religious view. Another is by an author who promotes the concept of spirit guides and a rather relativistic view of the afterlife in that he claims that people from various cultures or with various personal beliefs about the afterlife get the sort of afterlife they believe in when they die. Dougherty continues to be interested in collecting every sort of NDE information, but these books do not appear on Dougherty's web site, which seems to be devoted exclusively to disseminating End-Times messages and prophecies, devotion to the Catholic Church, and up-to-date Catholic News.

It seemed to me that Ned has made a valiant effort to understand the meaning of his NDE and his numerous supernatural and "coincidental" experiences and that he still does not have a perfectly comprehensive explanation of all the mixed elements of NDEs and his experiences. (He does seem to be sincere, practicing, and conservative within the context of his Roman Catholic religion that he has embraced very devoutly.) In this lack of a perfect doctrine of NDEs, he is pretty much like a lot of us who seek to know more about the meaning of this fascinating subject. Despite all the scientific studies and the great and inspiring books about them, it seems that there is not yet a very cohesive and acceptable explanation for all the questions and contradictions that they raise.

A true testmony of a life experience. Ned shares with us , with great sensibility, his learning experience on the after death. He gives us a good opportunity to rethink our lives and why we are here.

Fast Lane to Heaven is vague in its description of the Afterlife. The book is all about the author's life before and after the NDE. The NDE in itself is very brief and even his life review was vague. The author does not do a good job describing the light and the events he experienced. He is not to the point in his description. It might be because he is not a professional writer. I don't doubt the validity of his experience; I just wished he had the ability to describe it more clearly like Howard Storm did in his book "My descent into death" and Betty Eadie in "Embraced by the Light".
The book has a little religious bias, very oriented to the Catholic faith. This really does not disturb me even though I am not Catholic. I did like Sarah Lanelle Manet's book "There is no Death" and her book was bias and oriented to the Mormon faith; but still a great book and short to the point. Ned Dougherty could have written his entire NDE experience in about 75 pages as opposed to 264 pages of events in his life prior to or after to the NDE. Fast Lane to Heaven is more about the way he lived his life than the NDE experience. It would have been better if the author had stuck to the NDE like Sarah Manet anf Elaine Durham in their short book "I stand all Amazed" and "There is no Death"

This book was written before many of the events happened. Other events mentioned in this book are coming closer to happening. Many of the NDE books I have read Help us to better understand why we are and how we should live our lives. This book is no exception. Most of the people who have written books about their near death experiences have had drastic changes in their lives afterwards. Ned is no exception. I recommend this book to everyone. It can help us to become the person God wants us to be.

This is a very well written story of Ned D.'s Near-Death Experience. As you read it, you will feel as though you are going through that same experience he encountered and you will feel his emotions welling up inside as he struggled to make sense of his sanity. Meeting others with similar experiences brought him into his sense of peace and put him on his true mission in life to reach out to others. You will see a person who battled with alcoholism (the natural flesh versus spiritual mission) and find out how he overcomes the flesh. Although I have not met Ned personally, I feel proud of him because he is living the life that God has ordained for him. "You Go, Ned!" The only qualm I may have is that I never saw the name "Jesus Christ" in any of the writing. It is through Jesus that we commune to God the Father. I think Ned's book is a good reader for alcoholics who want to overcome. I've had SEER VISIONS from God that you can read about at http://shekinahgloryofgod.faithweb.com Bless you, Faith Shoemaker

In August, 2007, I was asked, telepathically through a spiritual connection, to write a fallen Vietnam War soldier's story (a novel). Several factors have come into play since this "request" was initially relayed to me: 1) I had to first "accept" his mission; 2) I needed to learn to "listen" faithfully to my spirit guides AND him; and 3) I had to cast off fears that this couldn't (or shouldn't) be done. In April, 2008, as I began to utilize the time, money, and resources that had been provided to me to complete this novel, I "stumbled(?)" onto this book by author, Ned Dougherty. Finding this book, which contained a factual and inspirational recollection of Ned Dougherty's friend's passing in South Vietnam in '69, was no fluke! Thank you Lieutenant McCampbell and Mr. Dougherty for sharing your experiences of the afterlife!!