Hi everybody,

If you’ve found your way here, I want to begin with gratitude. Your curiosity means more to me than you know, because this project has been on my heart for a very long time.

When I was nineteen years old, in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2012, my life changed forever. My home in Austin, Texas was broken into, and I was attacked in my own bed. I was strangled to death and sexually assaulted by a serial predator. And yet, in that darkest moment, something extraordinary happened: I experienced what I now understand as an afterlife — a place where love, forgiveness, and hope exist in magnitudes beyond anything words can hold. It was beautiful, perfect, and profoundly real.

Coming back into my body felt like slamming into the full weight of Earth. For over a decade, I struggled to speak publicly about what had happened. My throat felt blocked — as if the trauma itself had sealed it shut. But I never stopped thinking about it. Not a single day has gone by without remembering.

In the summer of 2025, something shifted. I had a dream from God stating, “Follow the yellow butterfly.” The very next day, after a 12-hour day working on set for a TV production in Nashville, I was riding a bus back to my car at two in the morning, exhausted and sleep-deprived. A man sat beside me, and in just a few minutes of conversation, my near-death experience came up. He mentioned he was writing a book, and when I asked the title, he said: “Follow the Yellow Butterfly.” I was stunned. As we gathered our things to leave, he turned back to me and said, “God wants me to tell you — you need to write your book.”

I never saw him again. But the very next day, I came across an announcement for the IANDS conference. Their post was emblazoned with a huge yellow butterfly. I knew it was no coincidence. I bought my ticket without hesitation.

Since then, I have begun writing my book. And with it, The NDE Archives was born.

I don’t yet know exactly what shape this will take. But I know it’s time. This is meant to be a space to preserve and honor the stories of NDE survivors — a place where voices can be heard, and the extraordinary perspectives that come from standing at the threshold of life and death can be shared. Because let’s face it: this is a bizarre and wild phenomenon. It can make you feel different, even a little “weird” in this world. But I know those who have had NDEs truly experienced something extraordinary, and those stories deserve to be heard.

I am shy by nature, and carrying this trauma has made it especially hard to speak publicly. The physical trauma to my throat — and the energetic weight that followed — kept me silent for many years. My voice felt sealed shut by what happened to me. And yet, my soul has never stopped urging me forward.

I don’t believe I’ve wasted any time in arriving here — I trust in divine timing. And right now, my soul is saying: let’s begin. I feel a deep calling to speak — to release this blocked energy from my body, to empower the soul within me, and to bring greater awareness to near-death experiences.

Thank you for being here, at the beginning of this journey. I am deeply grateful.

— Zuki