Episode 28: Cherie Aimée, near-death survivor and heart transplant recipient

Intro Voices [00:00:05] Where do I go? It only happened once. I think I was singled out. The phone calls began about one month ago. What is hazing? Something happened to me when I was younger. I'm worried about my safety. He said he was sorry. Can someone help me? Where can I get help? Can someone help me?

 

Intro Voices [00:00:31] This is “You Matter”, a podcast for the NYU community developed by the Department of Public Safety.

 

Karen Ortman [00:00:36] Hi, everyone, and welcome back to “You Matter”, a podcast created to teach, inspire and motivate members of the NYU community who have been victimized in some form or fashion and to identify resources both on and off campus that can help. I am your host, Karen Ortman, Assistant Vice President of Field Operations at the Department of Public Safety and a retired law enforcement professional.

 

Oatile Ramsey [00:00:59] And I am your co-host Oatile Ramsey, an NYU Stern Alum and a current graduate student at Gallatin studying inclusive economic development. If any information presented today is triggering or disturbing, please feel free to contact the Wellness Exchange at 212-443-9999 or NYU’s Department of Public Safety and the Victim Services Unit at 212-998-2222.

 

Karen Ortman [00:01:28] Today we introduce Cherie Aimée, a near-death survivor and heart transplant recipient who has been featured in major media outlets such as the Dr. Oz Show, NBC News, Megan Kelly Today, ABC News, Fox, Forbes, Thrive Global and other major media outlets. Cherie is an ambassador to Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital. And she will share her story of crossing over to another realm after going into cardiac arrest. Cherie, thank you so much for joining us today on “You Matter”.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:02:07] Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you inviting me on. It's a pleasure to be here, and I hope to deliver as much value as I can for your audience. So thank you.

 

Karen Ortman [00:02:20] I am certain that you will. I'm very excited to talk to you today. I understand that prior to your near-death experience, you received a scary diagnosis of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. You went through four intensive rounds of chemotherapy and you were in remission and cancer-free. A year later, I understand you went into cardiac arrest. What do you recall from that experience?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:02:51] I mean, there's not much that I remember from the actual day that I went into cardiac arrest. And so what I last remember was actually just a few minutes right before I crossed over and that was that I was kind of reaching out for my husband to lift me up because the nurse had asked me to lie down on the gurney and I was having trouble breathing. So the last I remember was just reaching out my hands to my husband and saying, “Help me. Help me. Help me up. I can't breathe.” And at that moment, from what I recall from my parents and my husband's recounts, that's when, you know, everything just turned into pandemonium in the ICU - in the emergency room, I should say. And all the doctors came rushing in and they implemented CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and they were actually unsuccessful. And so within the first five to 10 minutes, you know, they were ready to call my time of death. Thankfully, there was one

 

doctor in that emergency room that refused to give up and he just happened to be my long term heart doctor, cardiologist. And he just happened to be on call that Saturday. And basically when they were ready to call my time of death, he said, “Nope, we're not stopping. We're going to continue.” And he ordered everybody like a drill sergeant. My dad described it as that, like a drill sergeant, because everybody in that emergency room was kind of in shock. They actually had never seen a case like this before. And they, in a way, didn't quite know what to do. And so by him kind of turning into that drill sergeant, telling people what to do. He was able to allow them to continue CPR long enough for him to install what's known as an ecmo, which is, you know, to help continue put blood and oxygenated blood into the different organs and to kind of keep the rest my organs thriving, even though I no longer had a heartbeat.

 

Karen Ortman [00:05:23] Right. Can I interrupt you and ask a question? So you were in the hospital when this happened. Did the onset of cardiac arrest happen elsewhere and you were taken to the hospital or were you already in the hospital?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:05:41] Yeah. So actually, it was a miracle. I had arrived in the hospital literally five to ten minutes before I flatlined. So my husband had just come home and my stepdaughter was there. And on her way out, she said, I think you need to check on Cherie, she doesn’t look so good. And there was a buildup. So I was having difficulty breathing for a few weeks, was kind of unsuccessful when I first went to the emergency room, you know, I was still in my early 30s. So even though I had had a previous history of some other medical complications, it's still when you walk in and you're young and you look okay, I really didn't have the right test. So there was about three weeks prior to everything that we knew I was having trouble breathing. We were getting the help that I needed. And so, you know, my husband just knew when he walked in to check on me. And it was at that point that I said that both my arms felt very heavy. And so it was him that kind of threw me in the car, even though I was kicking and screaming and didn't want to go. He threw me in the car and literally rushed me to the hospital, I would say it’s about 10 to 12 minutes away. And like I said, five to 10 minutes after walking and is when I flatlined, so suddenly -

 

Karen Ortman [00:07:17] Can we go back to the three week precursor to this? And can you speak to the kind of symptoms that you had that, you know, sort of were ongoing that culminated into this event?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:07:35] Sure. Absolutely. So three weeks prior, so the medical complications that I had, which is very important in this story, is that a year prior I was diagnosed, actually about a year and a half prior, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, and so Hodgkin's lymphoma is a very curable type of cancer. They always call it the good cancer. You know, mostly because it's so curable, it’s about ninety nine point eight or ninety eight point nine percent curable. And that just means that there's a set regimen that works for most people that take it. And so I was successful in that regimen. And I finished my chemo within six months. And I probably had another 10 months of saying, “Oh, I'm finished,” we're all celebrating. Now is my time to get back to eating the healthy foods that I loved. Getting back to exercising and really building up my body. But there was one thing that happened when I was on chemo and that was there was a drug that I had already been on to help an arrhythmia that I had since I was younger and the chemotherapy mixed with that drug. And so while I had chemotherapy, I actually had to stop all heart medicines. And this part of my story often gets missed in my story. But it's so critical because when you have a condition from childhood and because you're on

 

chemotherapy, it starts messing with it, to be taken off of it, it's like you're in this fight to save yourself from the cancer. But then the other thing is not being taken care of. So that's really important to know. But I was on four different types of chemo. One of them, called Agio Meissen, which is more known for breast cancer treatment, that one is known to cause heart failure. Now, they do check you for it and they check you for it in follow ups.

But what was unusual, according to the doctors, was how fast and how close to finishing the chemotherapy, that my heart failure, which is what I was in, and nobody knew it. So when you asked what was going on those last three weeks, well, I was in heart failure. And because I looked so healthy-

 

Karen Ortman [00:10:20] And you were young.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:10:22] And I was young, nobody really tested for it. Yeah, exactly. And so what just happened was, I was just running low or lower on oxygen as the weeks went by and I really couldn't get anybody to understand what I knew. And I did know by the end of those three weeks, right before I had cardiac arrest, I did know I was dying. So I will say that. Though, that last week I started mentally preparing myself that this was it.

 

Karen Ortman [00:11:03] Really?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:11:04] Absolutely.

 

Karen Ortman [00:11:05] And did you talk to people about this or was it just something that you came to terms with in your own mind?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:11:11] You know, I think there was this, especially after going through cancer and that kind of scare, and by scare, I don't just mean myself. I mean all the people around me. There's this thing that happens when you finish chemotherapy. And it sounds crazy. But you become so comfortable being on chemotherapy and knowing that this medicine is saving your life and it almost in a way can become a crutch, right. And so what happens is when you finish it, then you get scared because now you're off of it. And what happens is, any kind of weird feeling in your body can also make you go into an emotional panic that maybe the cancer's back. So you kind of go through almost like a PTSD. Right. And so what happened was, a lot of people around you, you know, and I don't know if this is even discussed enough, but a lot of people around you will try to calm your fears and say “It's just because you just finished chemotherapy, you're fine.”

 

Karen Ortman [00:12:25] Because they're so uncomfortable, they don't know what to say.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:12:27] Right, exactly. So I got a lot of that for those three weeks. So the reason in the last week to answer your question, I really didn't talk about it. I went into - and I don't know if this is a survival response, but I almost went into pure surrender and acceptance. And it was actually, really calming, I have to say. I learned a lot from that, which, you know, will probably come up later in the conversation. I learned a lot from that. I learned a lot about doing what you can do to help yourself with a balance of surrender.

Right. So it's knowing, number one, I'm doing the baby steps. I'm attempting to go to the doctors office. I'm attempting to let people know the severity, but also falling back into a surrender, knowing that I am doing all that I can and that I can't control everything.

 

Karen Ortman [00:13:37] Now, you mentioned your cardiologist who you had had a relationship with because of the preexisting condition, with the cancer. And had you been going to this doctor three weeks prior to this event?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:13:55] Yes. So he had also been overseeing me through the cancer. He had been in my life for several years. So we did thankfully, again, have that relationship, which is why I always say to people, I don't think I'd still be alive if it wasn't for him, because he was the one that said, no, we're not calling the time of death. I'm not losing her. And when I asked him later after I'd survived and I said, what made you be the only one in that room, knowing I was clinically dead, what made you continue and keep going?

 

Karen Ortman [00:14:36] And fight.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:14:38] Exactly. Because he fought for me, right? And that's why I'm still alive. And he just said to me, “I just knew I could bring you back”. And how incredibly empowering is that? You know, and I love to tell that to leaders, too, because sometimes in life we're the only ones taking a stand for something, even when everybody else around us is, you know, thinking we’re crazy. And that, to me, has empowered me so much since everything has happened, because even telling a story like this, as we dive deeper in, it's a wild story.

 

Karen Ortman [00:15:24] It is. It's fascinating. And it's motivational. It's uplifting because you're sitting right here to talk about it. And it's inspiring. It's a lot of things. So you flatline on the table and you have your cardiologist who's fighting for you and with you to bring you back. At what point are you going to this other realm that you have spoken of?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:15:59] Pretty much immediately. I mean, for me, it felt like that.

 

Karen Ortman [00:16:03] When you talk about that, can you describe what you recall from this other realm?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:16:12] Sure. I remember, like I said, those last minutes, when I asked for my husband to lift me up and the next minute I was floating in this white space, light as a feather. And the very first thought they came to me was, wow, that was so easy.

Because for so many years, I was just - If you've never been through that. You have no idea what it is like. And it's like the one question all of us have in our minds that you'll just never know until that day comes.

 

Karen Ortman [00:16:53] And so when you say so easy, are you talking about the process of leaving your body?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:16:59] Yeah. I felt like that process was so easy. I mean, clearly, I was forced out of my body. But even in a traumatic incident like that, it was a smooth transition, which I was just shocked. You know, I really had this image in my head that death was so hard and so difficult and so violent. Right. Because we're so used to looking at it through our physical eyes and our physical understanding of the world. And it wasn't like that.

 

Karen Ortman [00:17:39] Yeah. So what did you see? Could you see your body in the hospital? Were you completely gone from that space, in this other realm? Were you confronted by deceased family members?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:17:58] I will tell you that throughout the experience - it was a very long journey. I would say in our physical understanding of time, my time in the other realm felt like years. When I got back, I was exhausted. But when I first crossed over, I went through this series of events. So I guess, when I first crossed over, I was in this white light, felt so free, so light. And the reason I felt so light was, I felt like somebody had taken off this heavy jacket filled with a boulder and just taken it off me. And I was just free, you know.

And what it was, was all the burdens, all the weight of the world and my own feelings of being a burden on other people's lives because I had all these medical issues going on and then this incident. So I kind of was aware that I had just had a big trauma, although I didn't know what it was. I knew that there was a big trauma. And my initial thoughts were that I really, truly understood that I was going to be okay and that I fully understood that my family and anybody attached to me emotionally, physically, spiritually, I understood fully that they were going to completely be okay, like there was nothing wrong with what had happened. And just that, I mean, that was the beginning of my journey and just that alone -

 

Karen Ortman [00:19:53] So peaceful.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:19:54] It was so peaceful and so comforting. And to this day, it still gets me through any crisis. Because I was able to fully understand it is impossible for you to not be okay.

 

Karen Ortman [00:20:13] For your survivors, you mean, or for you in the other room?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:20:18] For anybody in any situation, that's a load to take on. But I will tell you, that's what I understood. And it would be confirmed later on in my journey throughout the other realm. But those first few moments were complete confirmation that it is impossible for any of us to not be okay. So even through death, even the ones that are still alive, we are all perfectly okay.

 

Karen Ortman [00:20:58] So you go through the light, the boulder’s off your back.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:21:02] The boulder’s off my back. I do see the white light and suddenly I am surrounded by what I believe to be my spiritual guides. And they all had a certain look to them. And they were all very similar.

 

Karen Ortman [00:21:21] Did they have faces like people in life have faces?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:21:25] They had a form similar to a human. Although this is gonna sound very bizarre, they mostly looked like scuba divers. Without the oxygen tank, with the fins, all in black. And imagine the mask completely covered over their face so you couldn't tell the gender. So everybody looked the same. And where they greeted me was the basement of the ocean floor. Which has so many meanings, but for a time, there's a lot that has to do with water, spirituality and all of that. But for the essence of time. What I discovered in terms of senses was that the way they communicated with me was telepathically. So I was trying to tell them that I was ready. That I understood completely where I was. I was happy. I understood my loved ones were going to be okay. And I was perfectly okay with moving on. Which is always a hard thing to have your loved ones now hear you say. But again, it was not because I wanted to leave them, but because I understood in those first few moments all of life and that we were never separated and that just because I had crossed this door, I mean, it literally felt like I just walked through a door and to another realm. And so I understood I was still with them.

 

Karen Ortman [00:23:19] Did you still feel - do you recall feeling a connection to your loved ones even when you crossed over?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:23:27] Absolutely.

 

Karen Ortman [00:23:28] So how did that manifest? Like, how can you describe how you felt that connection?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:23:35] The only way I can describe it is it's kind of a feeling you feel, probably, if you meditate for a long time and with your eyes closed and you start to kind of

- it's almost like the boundaries of where your skin ends just kind of melts away and you feel kind of connected to all the molecules. Your body may vibrate and you just kind of feel like you're floating. And that's if you've ever meditated long enough - I've been meditating for years - but if you meditate long enough, you'll start to almost at times feel connected to the cosmos or you'll just kind of feel like you're outside of the Earth. And, you know, oh, there's Mars and Saturn. It sounds crazy, but that's really, that's why meditation is so amazing.

 

Karen Ortman [00:24:32] And very powerful.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:24:34] Yeah, it's very powerful because it really does get you out of your body and out of your head. That is the closest I can share that because you just generally feel like that or I felt like that when I crossed over. I felt connected to everyone, everything. Everything that exists.

 

Karen Ortman [00:24:55] That's very comforting.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:24:57] Right. Yeah. So comforting. And that's why you're not - you don't feel separate from your loved ones. So, you know they're all gonna be okay because you're all one.

 

Karen Ortman [00:25:09] So you're on the ocean floor, somewhere.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:25:10] So I’m on the ocean floor, yeah.

 

Karen Ortman [00:25:12] And then what happens?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:25:15] So I tell them I'm ready to go. They're waiting, waiting, waiting.

 

Karen Ortman [00:25:20] Are they saying, come on, Cherie, come with us, or is it more of just like there’s sort of a pull?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:25:26] Yeah. Well they're just kind of, at this point they're just surrounding me like we're all waiting for something. And I'm sitting there kind of looking at my imaginary wrist, at my watch. Like I know where we are, okay. And what I heard back was, we want you - because I had said, I'm okay with this. Let's go. And what happened when I turned in, tuned in, quieted my mind, I was able to hear them again all telepathically. And what I heard was, “It's too early for you to make that decision.”

 

Karen Ortman [00:26:09] These are your spirit guides or these are people at home?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:26:14] Yes. So these are the spirit guides that are literally surrounding me. I'm in the center. They are surrounding me in a circle around me. At that moment I realized that there was more I needed to decide. It was like time and space just collapsed all at once, like a big whirlwind. And before I knew it, I was on this very, very long life review. That was a review of every lifetime that my soul, not just from this existing lifetime that I'm talking to you, but every single kind of lifetime. And that blew me away.

 

Karen Ortman [00:27:09] Was that in the form of pictures? How did you know this was a life review? What did you see, hear, feel?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:27:18] I knew because I could sense that there is this common theme. So what I was experiencing was not pictures. I was living it as real as I'm talking to you right now. So you have to imagine almost at a very fast speed, I was literally in the body reliving the experience of a whole bunch of lifetimes. And I remember many of them very, very quickly.

 

Karen Ortman [00:27:56] Can you give an example of one of the lifetimes that you experienced in this other realm?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:28:04] Yeah, I mean, one lifetime. Some are very traumatic, so they're kind of hard to get into details with. So I'll just give you a general idea. But one was, I was a wife in India who was in the bathroom looking at herself in the mirror. And I think pretty much she was in a relationship, an abusive relationship, and she was trying to figure out how to get out of it. And I remember other people around. It was like this party and she'd gone into the bathroom to kind of hide and figure out, like, this is my life. I don't see a way out. How am I gonna get out of this? And so that kind of played out for a bit.

 

Karen Ortman [00:28:58] And you were this woman in the bathroom?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:29:02] Yeah. So like, when she looked in the mirror, that was me. There were other lifetimes where, for example, one that I distinctly remember, I was a whale in the ocean in the middle of China. And there were whale ships that were, their sole responsibility was to capture and kill these whales for whatever reason and the lifetime played out where I was that whale. So it didn't really matter that I was human or a different species, like my soul kind of experienced all of it, which was wild. Those were some that felt more like they were from the past, very, very ancient past. Then there were those that were in the future. And then there were those that were kind of more present future, meaning I witnessed my own funeral. I remember feeling the pain and the crying of all the loved ones around me. And one of the biggest lessons I got out of that was, because remember, I told you that I knew everything was okay. So it hurt my soul, being in the afterlife, seeing so many people not celebrating my life, but crying and feeling the pain and the loss. I felt that.

 

Karen Ortman [00:30:53] You felt it.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:30:55] I felt it. And it has changed how I honor and celebrate people through the death process and after. I do not do the same things people do at a funeral, at the burial. I am in full love. No fear. And always talking to the spirit. You are going to be okay. We're all gonna be okay. I'm going to be okay. I love you and I miss you. But I know

 

you're always with me. So I'm very conscious now. And I just literally two weeks ago buried my dad.

 

Karen Ortman [00:31:42] Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:31:44] Thank you. It was very difficult. But, because I had this

near-death experience, I have to say, it feels so weird to say that it's because I miss my dad more than anything. But it was so beautiful because I got to be there for him. And because of my awareness of the transition and what a soul needs to make that transition when they're not jolted by something kind of a little bit more violent, I was able to literally talk his soul through the transition process. And then once he was done, celebrate and honor that he allowed me to help him transition to the other side. What a gift.

 

Karen Ortman [00:32:36] Absolutely. So Beautiful.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:32:38] So beautiful. And so, you know, again, these lifetime reviews, you're getting a little bit of a sense of what I learned. And they may seem kind of traumatic, but there were lessons in it. And these lessons have helped me open my heart, expand my heart and be the example for more people now, moving forward in life.

 

Karen Ortman [00:33:04] Absolutely, and share that message, too. I'm sure listeners who are going to enjoy this episode, who have experienced loss or will experience loss, will remember this conversation. I'm so honored that we even have the opportunity to talk to you about this, because I just think that you are amazing.

 

Oatile Ramsey [00:33:28] It's incredible. It's an incredible story. First and foremost, I like to send my condolences.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:33:34] Oh, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

 

Oatile Ramsey [00:33:38] It seems like this entire experience has changed your perspective in so many ways. And I'd like to look at the different kinds of ways it's done so, just dig even deeper into them. First, even before the entire situation leading up to your arrival at the hospital. Do you feel like since that moment, has it changed the way you think about care and the way that's received? Because even though you mentioned that you had this great doctor who pushed for you, there was an instance where maybe they failed to pick up on something because you looked so healthy, because you looked essentially more well than you were actually doing. Is that something that you've heard a lot of since then?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:34:25] One thing we have to understand is doctors are not perfect, and neither are we. In fact, nobody is perfect, and that's very, very hard. That's a very hard thing to grasp. And it took me a while after I came home, which was four months later.

Took me a while to really tap into these lessons I'm sharing today and to be able to say that strongly because we were pretty furious, as I'm sure you can imagine to realize - I mean, my hospital, three days after they realized they missed all the leading up warning signs. They had a top level executive meeting within the hospital because of what happened to me. When I came home on a bionic heart that I had to live on for five years, I was one hundred percent disabled. I had this incredibly empowering near-death experience. I was confused because the human me, the physical me, was very angry. Yet the love and compassion and the kindness and the understanding that we aren't all perfect

 

yet we are perfect, all in the same. Those two clashed for several years and I had to integrate these two experiences to be able to come out and actually say to you today that it is probably one of the hardest things to understand that our medical system, our health care system, in fact, a lot of systems here, and in all countries, are not perfect. But what my experience taught me out of everything is that everything really, truly is energy. And while that doesn't mean, you know, sometimes you'll hear people say, oh, well, you caused this to happen to you or “Law of Attraction”. You know, it gets so confusing for people, they don't know. One minute they believe in the law of attraction when good things happen. But then when bad things happen, you know, it's like, what are you gonna tell people? Oh, you caused that. So there's a lot of things we do here on Earth to justify when bad things happen to us. And I had to take my ego and literally move it aside. And say, what if whatever happens to me, ever, is solely an experience that me, within me, I’m meant to heal. I’m meant to heal in the way that I can find each day, a little of myself, a little bit more closer to inner peace. This is real deep trauma work that I had to do using my near-death experience, because I really found that unless I did that, I didn't see the lasting change. So a lot of times, you know, I've done even therapy to really go through and share, like this happened to me and it was really traumatic, and all that stuff's worked. But it also still ultimately takes me back to inside. And nobody can help you work on that void inside as a result of trauma or fear or panic.

 

Karen Ortman [00:38:53] So how did you get past this?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:38:57] Time, really. Time and really, really spending that quality time with myself and learning the different ways that I distract myself from facing my biggest fears. And that can't be done in a day. It can’t. I know what it's like to sometimes do a little bit of therapy and then you're like, “I feel great!” Because you reached a breakthrough. But sometimes what we forget is that breakthrough is to get you through maybe the next few months or few years until something else comes along that may open you up a little bit more.

 

Karen Ortman [00:39:55] Right.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:39:55] And by opening up a little bit more, something might trigger the fact that you just had a trauma, 2, 5, 10 years ago. So it's always about creating this - I always tell people to create a daily safe space for you, daily, where you can go within, get quiet and face those darkest demons. Because the truth is, they're not dark demons. What they really are is opening up you to the real you that the world has just been telling you to cover up. I have a brand new heart now, heart transplant. But for five years I lived on almost like a computer. It was a computer that was keeping me alive. And I'm thinking.

This is my life now? And then who is going to understand what I went through in the ICU and life support? Who's gonna understand my trauma? And what I really, truly understood was that actually nobody needs to understand my trauma but me. And in that diving deep and journaling and making use of that quiet container of space that you give yourself every day, if you have to start up for ten, 10 minutes. But for me, I've grown over the years where I love hours of my little container safe space, you know, to journal, to read, to meditate.

And, my God, would I have done that if this crisis hadn’t entered my life? I have gotten to know myself so well now that I am comfortable putting up boundaries when it comes to relationships. I am comfortable standing out in a crowd and being the one that's talking about the thing that nobody else wants to talk about. I was never that person.

 

Oatile Ramsey [00:42:12] Do you feel as though - it's been such a long, it sounds like such a long journey. And I wonder, at this point in your life, do you feel like you are where you want to be.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:42:25] I am because I learned, and I actually had to put this to the test because I'm still human. Even when I got back and I knew, I actually knew there was nothing else to do in the whole world. I'm like, I just died and came back, like I've done it, like if I want to, I can just spend the rest of my days just tuning into myself, knowing I'm always okay. But there was still the human side of me that had a mission and wanted to get this story out and wanted to impact all the people out there that can't be heard or aren't being heard, that've gone through, you know, trauma and maybe they don't have the support system around them or nobody's listening to them. I knew that I couldn't thank my heart donor, but I wanted to be able to say thank you to life. I know it sounds weird.

 

Karen Ortman [00:43:33] No, not at all. And I think you can thank your heart donor, because there's lots of family members associated with those who donate, you know, and I think they all deserve a shout out.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:43:45] Definitely. Yes, absolutely.

 

Oatile Ramsey [00:43:45] I wonder, it seemed like such a terrible moment of all this, where you were at the bottom of the ocean and you met the spirit guides. And it's unfortunate we don't have more time today because we could do this forever. But right now, I'm wondering, post all of this, as you move on to this place where you're very comfortable. Do you feel like they're present in your life to their guiding? What role do they play essentially right now?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:44:16] They're always with me. They are my go-to, they are my mentors. They are who I reach out to. If I fall into fear, which, you know, we all do -

 

Karen Ortman [00:44:34] Do they have names?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:44:36] No, they're more a collective because that's how they showed up, as the collective. So when I address them, I see them all in my mind. I remember the love and how they surrounded me. And I usually say to them, you know, “Thank you so much for allowing me to see and make the decision to actually come back, but I can't do this alone.” And let me tell you, just those words alone. And it's funny how whatever your faith is, it's funny how, sometimes we forget that we can actually ask for help, even if no one's physically around us.

 

Karen Ortman [00:45:24] I agree.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:45:25] Right? We can still ask for help. And for me, that's the first thing I always do, only because that's my memory of feeling safe and protected. So I first always say, like, Okay, come on, guys, I'm here. I'm not doing this alone. Like, you're asking me to do something really wild and crazy and uncomfortable. And I can't do this alone. So I need your help. Every single time, the following day, a massive miracle happens, every time.

Every single time.

 

Karen Ortman [00:46:03] Do you feel their physical presence around you?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:46:07] Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I also, you know, I didn't have time to get into it, but I did see my grandmother in the afterlife and I did see a family friend, a family father that I had also grown up with. And he was like a second father. I mean, he just was so amazing. He was like the pied piper, we would call him.

 

Karen Ortman [00:46:34] And you saw them in their physical form or you just knew they were there?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:46:39] I actually saw them in their physical form in the afterlife. And what was interesting that they had come to me

 

Karen Ortman [00:46:46] What did they say?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:46:47] Again, it was telepathic, but, you know, it's interesting. I still struggle with whether or not to share.

 

Karen Ortman [00:46:58] Well, if you're not comfortable, that's okay. I don't want to-

 

Cherie Aimée [00:47:04] Well, yeah, only because these are people that I know their families. But I will say it is very interesting that they had actually come for me, for my help. I've had people come up to me and say, do you think it would be okay if I spoke to my dad who passed over? I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Like, please do. You know, and reach out to your guides, to God, Buddha, Allah, whatever your name, please reach out, because there is so much more power that we each have within us, and we feel alone. And I get it. Like I get it. I feel like I've gone through the dark night of the soul five times. So I get it. But I will tell you in my darkest moments, I learned I was not alone. Ever.

 

Oatile Ramsey [00:48:00] Thank you so much, for everybody listening to this podcast. Are there any other thoughts you'd like them to take away from this, any kind of finalizing thoughts from this long, long, beautiful journey?

 

Karen Ortman [00:48:14] How about be your own advocate, too. For your health.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:48:18] Absolutely. Yes. When it comes to it, nobody knows your body more than you. So please always be your own advocate. Self-care is huge. And I don't necessarily mean self-care, like going to get your nails done, although that's great. And all pampering is always fun. I mean self-care, the real work for you to get silent and you get to know who you are at your soul level. That will take you through things you could never even imagine that you could go through. And last but not least, I do want to share that since my near-death experience, I do not fear death at all. I do not. I witnessed for myself that the soul never dies. So there is no reason for me to fear that death is the end of me, nor is it the end of my life or my soul or my expansion in the universe. It's just a transition onto bigger and more amazing things. And please, if anybody has any questions or would like to reach out to me, I'm actually updating my website very shortly in the next week or two. So there are lots of resources.

 

Karen Ortman [00:49:48] What is your web address or what is your website?

 

Cherie Aimée [00:49:52] So it's just my name, Cherie Aimée dot com, which is cherie.aimee.com.

 

Oatile Ramsey [00:50:00] Perfect. And so with that, thank you to our guest, Cherie, and to all of our listeners for joining us for today's episode of “You Matter”. Please share, like, and subscribe to “You Matter” on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher or Spotify. Thank you so much again.

 

Cherie Aimée [00:50:19] Thank you.