She was an atheist until a crash took her to the edge of death — what she saw changed everything
Beverly Brodsky’s near-death experience after a motorcycle accident gave her a vision of God she never expected — and turned an atheist into a believer.
After a horrific motorcycle crash in 1970, Beverly Brodsky says she left her body, met a radiant being, and came face-to-face with a divine presence she now calls God. The experience completely changed her life and beliefs.
Beverly Brodsky grew up in a traditional Jewish home in Philadelphia. But at just eight years old, her faith was shaken. She learned about the Holocaust and couldn’t understand how such suffering could exist in a world created by a loving God. By 1958, she considered herself an atheist.
Her spiritual journey seemed to end there — until a tragic accident more than a decade later sent her down a path she never imagined.
In 1970, Beverly was 20 years old and living in Los Angeles. One day, she climbed onto the back of a motorcycle. Moments later, her life changed forever.
The crash left her with a fractured skull and serious facial injuries. Doctors said they’d only seen wounds like hers in war zones. Beverly spent weeks in the hospital in agonizing pain, wrapped in salt-soaked bandages — and sent home without pain medication.
Broken physically and emotionally, she finally cried out, “God, if you’re out there, you can have me now, because I’m finished.”
“I was me, but not in my body”
That’s when everything shifted. Beverly says her pain vanished. She looked down and saw her body lying below, while she floated above it.
She described seeing a glowing, angelic presence near the ceiling. Though the being had no wings, it felt male in energy and full of light. He took her hand, and together they drifted out of the hospital room, floating toward the Pacific Ocean.
“I was me, but not in my body,” she later told author Kenneth Ring.
Meeting the light she calls God
As they moved together through a small, dark tunnel, Beverly said she saw something that changed her forever: a powerful, loving presence made of light.
“It… contained everything, as white light contains all the colors of a rainbow,” she recalled. “And deep within me came an instant and wondrous recognition: I, even I, was facing God.”
The presence wasn’t male or female. It was pure and infinite. Beverly felt completely known, as if her thoughts and questions were understood instantly without words.
She asked everything she had ever wondered — especially the painful questions about human suffering.
“All knowledge unfolded to me”
In response, Beverly says she experienced a flood of understanding. It wasn’t just answers — it was a deep, total awareness.
“I was given more than just the answers to my questions; all knowledge unfolded to me, like the instant blossoming of an infinite number of flowers all at once,” she said.
Before the experience faded, she saw a brilliant fire, like the heart of a star — a final vision she believes was a spiritual blessing.
When Beverly returned to her body, everything had changed. Once a firm atheist, she became a Christian. Her story has since been featured in McCall’s magazine, a BBC documentary, Israeli radio, and the book Lessons From the Light by Kenneth Ring, who called her account “possibly the most moving in my entire collection.”
Today, Beverly is a devoted church member and continues to speak about the moment she says she met God — not in the way she expected, but in a way that gave her peace, purpose, and a new path forward.
Beverly’s journey reminds us that even in our darkest moments, something unexpected can shine through — offering not just answers, but a deeper sense of meaning, hope, and transformation.
