Our Story

A Heart Stopping Wake Up Call to Life

It’s amazing how a close brush with death can quickly wake you up to life!

Jeff Janssen

At the relatively young age of 42, I unexpectedly found myself experiencing crushing chest pains, shortness of breath, and pain radiating down my left arm. After nearly suffering a massive and likely fatal heart attack, my doctors discovered a 99% blockage in my coronary artery, ominously and appropriately called the Widowmaker. Fortunately they caught it just in the nick of time!

My way too close brush with death suddenly forced me to face Life’s Biggest Questions head on like:

• What actually happens to us when we die?
• Why are we here?
• What is the meaning of life?
• Had I fulfilled my life’s purpose?
• Would I have gone to some kind of heaven or hell?

Like many of us, I had somehow largely ignored these critical questions until it was almost too late. Having nearly died, I felt compelled to find solid and soul-satisfying answers to these age-old questions.

My research soon led me to the stories of people who said they had died, visited heaven, and came back for a second chance at life after having a so-called “Near-Death Experience.”

Like some, I was naturally skeptical at first given my questioning, practical mind and need for verifiable proof. But after reading and listening to hundreds of their accounts of the Afterlife and the life-changing lessons they learned while there, I discovered striking similarities between their stories, numerous nuggets of undeniable truth and wisdom, and realized these people did indeed have an otherworldly experience and returned totally transformed.

Doing Life Differently

These millions of Near-Death Experiencers came back and did life differently – much differently than most. They lived in such a way that most of us would LOVE to live, with much:

• less stress and feeling overwhelmed and more peace and enjoyment of life
• less fear of what others think of them and more courage to live an authentic life
• less focus on materialism and more focus on living a life of meaning and contribution
• less hatred and jealousy of others and much more unconditional love
• less passivity and victimhood and more passion and purpose to live life fully

Discovering the Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions

By getting a special glimpse behind the veil, these people discovered and revealed the elusive answers to Life’s Biggest Questions that I and numerous others desperately searched for!

I heeded their heavenly advice and I too found solid, sacred, and truly transformational answers that I could use to significantly improve my life. After studying over 2,500 Near-Death Experience stories, I organized the most common lessons into a manageable framework calling them the 10 Life-Changing Lessons from Heaven.

I applied the profound, powerful, and practical principles to my own life and soon found myself becoming much more of the positive, purposeful, and peaceful person I aspired to be and less of the selfish, scared, and stressed out person I had been before my near full-blown heart attack. Something deep inside me compelled me to write a manuscript describing each of the 10 Life-Changing Lessons.

Soul-Satisfying Answers that Transform Lives

I shared the 10 Life-Changing Lessons from Heaven with a small group of close friends, unsure how they would take them, but saw their lives significantly change for the better as well. People:

• found the courage to leave soul-sucking jobs to start new careers that truly aligned with their passion and purpose
• connected with their family and friends on a much deeper level
• stopped freaking out over life’s challenges and actually saw them as opportunities to learn and grow
• stopped judging and gossiping about others and instead attempted to understand and accept them
• found comfort and assurance that loved ones who had died lived on and they would see them again
• truly began living their lives differently; with greater love, peace, passion, joy, compassion, forgiveness, and meaning

Based on the powerful changes they witnessed in their lives, my friends convinced me these 10 Life-Changing Lessons from Heaven were truly a positively life-altering godsend for them and urged me to overcome my initial fear and reluctance to share them with the world. Thus, the Soul Peeps Discussion Groups were born.

Since then, we’ve now shared these 10 Life-Changing Lessons with numerous groups including parents who have had children pass away, formerly incarcerated women, members of the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS), and people from a multitude of religious backgrounds and faiths. The positive feedback and powerful results have been humbling and gratifying to see.

We now share these lessons with a much wider audience through the 10 Life-Changing Lessons from Heaven book and online Soul Peeps Discussion Groups. Along with myself, so many people have learned this critical lesson:

You don’t have to die to learn how to live!

Continuing to be inspired by the numerous lessons of NDEs, I then delved deeply into the unforgettable Life Review and wrote the book Your Life’s Ripple Effect. This book shows people how their thoughts, words, and actions powerfully and profoundly impact their family, friends, and even complete strangers. It also reveals how we will see and feel the impact of our loving and unloving actions have on others and realize the tremendous Ripple Effect we have on the world around us. Your Life’s Ripple Effect encourages us all to apply the lessons of the Life Review to our lives NOW.

Hearing from numerous parents who said they would love for their children to learn these valuable life lessons at an early age, especially when they grieve the loss of a loved one, I also wrote an illustrated children’s book called What You’ll Learn in Heaven. The beautifully illustrated children’s book provides hope and healing to people of all ages who have lost a family member, friend, and/or pet based on what millions of NDErs share from their comforting visits to Heaven.

Finally, I included this last picture because I think it epitomizes my current approach to life. While you see a professional picture of me in a sport coat at the top of the page, at my heart and soul I am the casual, real, “Average Jeff” kind of guy pictured here in my shorts and slides (it was a hot day after all). For me, spirituality must be real, authentic, practical, and vulnerable – not feeling like we have to always be perfect by putting on a professional facade or a plastered smile because we think we have to be perfect for others or God. Thank you for checking out this site and if this kind of “Practical Spiritual Path” fits with where you are or want to be on your life’s journey, we look forward to learning from and serving you…