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eath is somethingthat affects us all.We all die and atsome stage in our

lives, wonder whathappens after we die.

But for Róisín Fitzpatrick, whowas seriously ill, she claims anear-death experience saw herdrawn out of her body and en-veloped in a radiant light. It wasthere, in a blissful vision of the af-terlife that she experienced amost powerful transformation.Her remarkable experience isnow captured in her new book,Taking Heaven Lightly, which sug-gests that the ‘light at the end ofthe tunnel’ theory might not betoo far from the truth.

It all started in 2004 when, with-out any warning, she suffered alife-threatening brain haemor-rhage. “It was the day after mybirthday and I was at home on myown and I turned my head andsuddenly I had a blindingly excru-ciating headache. I started to gethot and cold sweats and was feel-ing very, very nauseous and Icalled the ambulance.” Róisínmanaged to stay conscious untilthe ambulance arrived andbrought her to the ICU in Beau-mont Hospital where she was toldthat she had a very high risk ofdying. Róisín could salsa dance forhours on end. She didn’t smokeand she hardly ever drank alcohol.To go from being so fit and healthyto literally facing death was veryfrightening to her.

“I remember feeling utterly ter-rified, like I was just standing onthe edge of the unknown – theedge of an abyss and I didn’t

know what was going to hap-pen.” That’s when Róisín says herlife changed forever.

“The next thing I knew, I wasfloating and I felt a beautiful, radi-ant light. And at the same time, Ifelt embraced by a warmth thatwas so loving. It was like a purelove that I had never felt before.And there was a silence – ahushed silence and a profoundpeace,” she says.

The most bizarre thing, accord-ing to Róisín, was that her think-ing was more lucid than ever, butshe was no longer in her body. “Iremember thinking, if I’m not inmy body, then who am I? Whatam I? And where am I? Is thisdeath? And if it is, bring it on – itwas fabulous!” She describes thelight as a “beautiful, white, irides-cent light” that transformed intowaves of energy – and she waspart of it – she was the one withthe eternal light. “I recentlylearned that one of the Gaelic

ways of saying ‘may you rest inpeace’ is ‘solas sioraí’, which liter-ally means ‘eternal light’. Andthat’s exactly what I experienced,”she says.

“I felt I was always one with eter-nal light and I realised that we al-ways continue to exist. It’s like youjust put on a coat of skin and boneand muscle when you’re born, andyou take that coat off when youleave, but you’re always part of theeternal light.” Since the experience,life has become really simple forRóisín who says that this pure en-ergy is the essence of who we allare when we let all the drama ofeveryday life fade away. It made herrealise that society’s teachings areno longer important.

“I didn’t have my house withme, I didn’t have my car, I didn’thave my mobile phone, I didn’thave any of my university diplo-mas. I didn’t even have my body.It was so basic. I was pure energy.And I realised that this is thedeepest truth of who I am andwho everybody is. So we’re somuch more powerful than wecould ever imagine and we couldtransform that energy into creat-ing our best lives.”

“It was really enlightening. It re-ally changed my whole perspec-tive of death, and ironically it hasgiven me the freedom to live lifebecause I have no fear of deathwhatsoever. And really, the onlything that matters is to connectwith this love and light and livethis in my life. So I became anartist – the Artist of the Light,”says Róisín who previouslyworked as the liaison between theEuropean Commission and theEuropean Bank for privatisationprojects. But after her life chang-ing experience, Róisín became anartist. She now uses her art as aphysical manifestation of the pureenergy and radiant light she expe-rienced in the hospital that day.“When I came back, I found it toodifficult to express in words what Ihad experienced so I shared itthrough art,” she says, explainingthat it was only after people urgedher to explain what the art wasabout that she started to get moreand more comfortable telling thestory. She now uses clear crystalon white silk canvases to recreatethe beauty of this light.

“There’s a beautiful quote byGeorge Bernard Shaw, ‘use a glassmirror to see your face, use worksof art to see your soul’. And that’sthe intention of my art – for peo-ple to see the beauty of their ownsoul,” says Róisín.

feature

taking heavenlightly is availablein eason, dubrayand waterstonesbookstoresaround Irelandas well as charliebyrne’s and otherindependentbookstores ingalway.

LightAfter LifeIn 2004, an unexpected braIn haemorrhage left róIsín

fItzpatrIck fIghtIng for her lIfe. but as she lay In the In-tensIve care unIt of beaumont hospItal, an out-of-body

experIence changed her perspectIve of lIfe and deathforever, wrItes JessIca thompson.

Róisín’s intention is to haveher art hanging in public places“so that people can just walk inand, no matter what’s going onin life, they can just stand in frontof the piece and breath and justfeel that power and feel that lightconnecting with them. Becausewe are really so much more pow-erful than we can begin to imag-ine and we can tap into SolasSioraí – this eternal light thatwe’re always part of.

“And when we do it, it doesn’tmean that life is easy; there willalways be challenges in life, butwe can find the strength and thecourage to move through them.”

The public artwork is mostly inAmerica, though Róisín has hadexhibitions on both sides of theAtlantic. There is a permanentpiece hanging in Richard Bran-son’s Spa Resort, just outsideNew York, and another in Fitz-patrick’s Hotel in New York. Herwork can also be seen in theGlucksman Ireland House and inthe Irish American Heritage Mu-seum. But if you don’t want totravel to New York to see it,there’s also a piece at the Na-tional Conference Hall in Dublin.

Following the very successfullaunch of her book, TakingHeaven Lightly, which was at-tended by US Ambassador KevinO’Malley, Róisín is working onher second book, entitled SolasSioraí, which will delve evendeeper into the eternal light sheexperienced. She has workedwith Dr Bruce Greyson, a leadingNear Death Experience medicalexpert, who verified her experi-ence as genuine and, along withother leading experts, guided herin her research.

Taking Heaven Lightly has beenpraised by many experts, includ-ing Dr Bruce Greyson. “Experi-ences like Róisín’s have nowbeen validated by hundreds ofscientific studies around theworld and provide evidence thatconsciousness is more than thebrain, and indeed, that we aremore than our bodies. As a guideto enhancing your own spiritual-ity,Taking Heaven Lightly is a lovestory in the most sublime sense.”

Through her art and her book,Róisín hopes to change people’sperspective of death so that wecan start to live life in a positiveway, because in the end, that’swhat’s most important. “Yes, itwas a near death experience, butreally it was a near life experiencebecause from this, I understoodthe true meaning of life.”

“The next thing I knew, I wasfloating and I felt a beautiful,radiant light. And at thesame time, I felt embracedby awarmth that wasso loving. It was like apure love that I hadnever felt before.And there was asilence – a hushedsilence and aprofound peace.”

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