1982 NDE of a woman who'd never heard of NDEs

I saw and heard my husband cry and did not understand the reason. For me, everything was going to pass and I was well. I said to him: 'Manuel, I'm well! It’s over!' He didn’t hear me. I insisted. He went to grab the device to measure the blood pressure, put it on my arm and when it got the result he moaned. He tried it several times in vain because the device didn’t give any signal.

I continued to look at him and telling him that I was well. He didn’t hear me. I saw that he went to get a small mirror, which he put in front of my nose and my mouth but there was no vapor in the mirror. He tried it once and again. I continued with my attempts to speak to him, telling him that I was all right and that I didn’t feel any pain. I couldn’t explain why the mirror didn’t fog up but I worried more about calming my husband. I was well. He babbled, 'Please, Gracinia! Don’t leave me! Come back to me! I need you!'

Suddenly, I realized that I was looking at him from a more elevated point than would be possible if I were lying in bed. Finally, he stopped and bent over my body to cry: ‘Gracinia! (an affectionate version of my name) Don’t leave me, please! What is going to be of our son! Oh, my God!' (contrary to me, at that time my husband was a practicing Catholic in spite of some doubts, and he continued to be it for many years afterwards).

At that moment, I realized that something absurd was occurring. I was aware that I was watching the scene from close to the ceiling. I was not scared. I was intrigued. I tried to find an explanation but I couldn’t. I looked around stunned. I think that I stopped listening to my husband, although I saw him leaning over my body to cry.

I looked carefully around from the ceiling. I saw the ceiling lamp and the friezes of the closet doors. It was then that I saw a sheet of blue paper with twenty-five lines, covered with dust. It was a document that I had searched for and couldn’t find. I thought, 'It’s here. I looked around for it so much and it is here and covered in dust. I’ll have to clean more carefully.'

Below, my husband shook my body and I felt sorry for him. I did not think that I was dead, because I could watch the scene from a physically impossible point of view. I looked at the wall on my back and saw the clock. When I tried to see the time, I felt 'sucked' and left that space.

In the following instant, I was in a place and in total darkness. I felt a lot of fear and was disoriented. I remember I was going forward with my extended arms and rolling in all directions looking for a point of reference. There was Nothing and I was terrified.

I didn’t call God or the saints. To me, they did not exist. I didn’t call for anyone. It was then that I heard a voice: 'Don’t be afraid! We are here to help you!' I extended my arms in the direction of the voice but all I found a void. Another voice, and still another, said the same to me. I cannot tell how many of them there were. I felt their 'presence' but I couldn’t touch them.

At a certain point, I realized that I didn’t hear them with my ears but with my thoughts. How was that possible?

I realized that I didn’t have an option. I was in the darkness, not knowing where, and whatever it was that was there. I had no one to ask for help. These voices seemed like people to me because I could understand what they said to me. I mentally accepted their help. I was scared; I can even say that I was terrified. The total darkness disoriented me.

'Come! Follow us!'

Whoever it was that communicated with me was situated to the right. I felt something like an energy, like static electricity or magnetism, which I couldn’t define. I felt also that there were other 'energies' around me.

I asked 'Where are we going?' and they answered that I should be calm and to continue.

At a certain place, a point of minuscule light appeared in that darkness. They said to me, 'Look! That is where we are going!'  I had the sensation of 'traveling' in the projected cone of light, like when you use a lantern in the dark you project a cone of light. That is how I can describe that moment.I started to feel anxious. I wanted to be there, close to the light. To me, it was a star that would illuminate the landscape when we were closer to it.

We came to a point where the clarity illuminated everything and I saw a landscape. But I didn’t have time to look at its details because it seemed as if we were traveling at an unthinkable speed. I saw the Earth and the Moon in the distance. I saw the Sun moving away. I was amazed.

There were colors that I cannot define because they don’t fit in the palette of colors that we have on earth. There were tones that created layers like transparent, superimposed plaques. They were beautiful and I was ecstatic. Then more and more stars appeared that moved away as we advanced. I could see the light of the stars without any difficulty.

I remember understanding. It seemed to me that I saw the stars in parallel, infinite planes. I understood everything, so I no longer asked questions. I looked and marveled at the 'scenery'. The 'landscape' was formed by colors and the stars that we passed.

I looked at the light towards which we were heading. It was so powerful as the sun but its light did not hurt. I looked at it directly but did not feel discomfort. The same happened when we passed by any star. None of these lights hurt. As strange as it may seem, the more away I was from the planet Earth, the more the existence of my family ceased to matter to me. I didn’t think of my son and that was very strange.

I recall that I had a sentiment similar to one that we have when after a long absence and we come back home. I felt I was 'going back home'. I was at peace and as happy as I never had been before.

At a certain moment, the first light issued sounds which I cannot define. Sound came out in 'a wave', which I call so because it moved like the waves of the sea. It was a wave of light and energy that I don’t know how to define. I had fear but my invisible companion told me to remain calm and that nothing bad would happen to me. When the wave touched me, I felt it gave out love. It was a love so great that even if I added the love of my parents, my husband, my son, all the family and that which I felt for them, it could not be compared to this love more than a grain of sand to the desert. 

I wished to go to the source that emanated so much love. I changed focused from whatever surrounded me to center only on that strange star. I wanted to reach it soon and with each wave that touched me, I felt ever happier as if I always was part of that love.

I was close, so I thought, when the light said mentally to me: 'Stop. You have to go back! Your husband needs you and your son too!'

'But I want to stay! Please! I have never felt so much love in my life! Don’t send me back!'

'You have to go back! You have duties to fulfill! Your mission has not yet ended!'

In the following instant, everything vanished. The pain came back, I breathed and was on the bed, with my husband crying with joy. I was crying with sadness.

On the morning of the next day my husband took me to a doctor of good reputation. After a long examination, he informed us that I had had a cardiac and respiratory arrest due to an allergic reaction to the chemical composition of aspirin, and I was very lucky to have survived.

NDERF.org, 4332, translated from the Portuguese original report