Why do some of us stay stuck in crisis and others find ways to embrace
new opportunities---even entirely new ways of being in the world? What
factors work to transform post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) into
“post-traumatic growth”?

These are two of the questions that rehabilitation counselor and NDE
survivor Jim Macartney has long pondered. From his own personal and
professional experience, he observed that the answers have something to
do with our consciously, and with full intention, CHOOSING to move past
our stuckness, stepping past the edge of the known in order to open to
higher levels of life expressions. People growing through crisis exhibit
many of the same transformative changes as seen in typical NDE’s.

Although Jim experienced an NDE in 1997 which he calls ”The single most
profound event of my life,” he urges his story be used as a parable to
symbolize what may lie outside our conditioned capacity to think and
believe. Indeed it is within our power, Jim believes, to experience a
much deeper level of our Being Human, turning what seems as irresolvable
crises into powerful gifts of new creation.

Currently Jim Macartney is synthesizing his research and writing a book
which he hopes will help move individuals and our helping institutions
from an orientation of fighting disability and limitation to one of
fully engaging latent opportunity for growth.

Those who’ve heard him address the NDE community, most recently at the
IANDS 2008 conference in Durham, NC, Seattle and Salt Lake City, have
reported a profoundly moving experience.