April 20, 2001: Open Lines - Truth or Trash - Sarah's NDE
The program features a replay of Sarah's near-death experience from February 1999, widely considered one of the most detailed NDE accounts ever broadcast. After being struck by a pickup truck while bicycling home from church volunteer work, Sarah flatlined five times over three days. She describes passing through a black void where flaming demonic creatures charged through her body, then entering a cloud tunnel lined with doorways opening onto different realms, including a graphic depiction of hell and a world of isolated, depressed souls.
Sarah recounts discovering a luminous paradise she could not enter because she lacked "the information," then merging with a great light filled with overwhelming joy. Art plays the controversial recording allegedly captured from the deepest borehole in Siberia, and Sarah confirms it matched the sounds from the hellish realm she witnessed.
Key Moments
Cheney's UFO answer on Diane Rehm: A Canadian listener who got through as the first caller on Diane Rehm's show with Vice President Cheney reads back his exact question and Cheney's reply: if he had been briefed it would be classified and he could not talk about it.
The follow-up that contradicted Cheney: The caller documents that Cheney also told Diane Rehm he had not 'come across the subject since I've been back in government,' but a March 19, 2001 letter from Congressman Asa Hutchinson on the Charles Huffer incident had already been forwarded to the Vice President's office.
Sarah's setup: bike lane, 50 mph, roadkill: Sarah opens her account: bicycling home from a church volunteer position in Marin County, hit from behind by a pickup at 50 mph and catapulted 60 feet, with collapsed lungs, ruptured organs, and a broken pelvis.
The flaming demonic creature: After an unmeasured stretch in absolute blackness, Sarah hears a hum, sees a pinprick of light, and watches an eight-foot, draconic creature surrounded by flames advance on her with clear intent.
Five flatlines and learning to read again: Sarah describes her physical recovery: medical records show she flatlined five times across three days, lost the use of her right arm, suffered amnesia and a concussion, and had to relearn reading from children's books up through People magazine.