Getting knocked back into the burning plane, John says he believed he was going to die. He says he saw a man run through the cabin who was "fully aflame, and I could see all his features and there was a look of wonder on his face—like he didn't even know he was dead and burning. And I figured, 'Well, I must be the same.' I really thought, at that point, I was dead."

But then the people in John's life flashed through his mind. "My family, my dad, my wife, my friends. You know, they all started popping up and I took motion at that point and kind of ran out of the plane." Even though John's lungs were damaged from smoke and his entire back was singed, he proceeded to aid the other more injured, escaped passengers until medical help arrived.

Why John's story of escape haunted Oprah.

John's dramatic escape occurred in a blink. Investigators estimate that there were fewer than 12 seconds between when Flight 006 came to a stop on the runway and when fire completely engulfed the plane.

John says that one image from the experience on Flight 006 has both haunted him and given him a new spiritual sense. "As I got knocked back into the plane, it looked like a Dante's Inferno with people strapped into their seats and … just burning," he says. "It seemed like an aura was leaving their bodies—some brighter than others.

"To me it just kind of said that life continues on. I thought the brightness and dimness of the auras were how one lives one's life, so to speak. … I want to live my life so my aura, when it leaves, is very bright."

Live your life to its fullest potential.