When falling asleep feels "tether holding my soul"

I was having oral surgery and had a reaction the medication to put me asleep. I was flat lined for over three minutes until the medical people showed up. I remember the whole event. I was with my deceased father in-law in an area that was so peaceful I didn't want to leave. When he died, he could not speak English, but when I was with him, I could understand him perfectly.

As they tried to revive me and get my heart started again I could feel them using the paddles to get my heart started. I could feel my body moving up and down, but knew I was not moving. I was laying there in darkness with my arms crossed and could feel my body moving.

Ever since that event I have this strange thing happen to me when I'm about to fall asleep. I can almost control my soul and have out of body experiences when I want to. Sometimes it feels like there is a tether holding my soul to my body and it snaps me back in.

NDERF.org #20726

Free will and choices shape our lives

In April of 1995, I was a newly divorced mother of two boys, ages seven and two. I'd been working two jobs to support us, and fell ill with what I believed was the flu. Each day I worked, and each day I felt a greater weight on my chest. As I was only in Georgia for four years at this time, I had no family, only friends. Neighbors often rallied to my side with help in a crisis, I felt blessed. As I grew weaker, the Lynch family stopped by and offered to take my sons for the night, and would drop them at school/daycare the next day. Another neighbor was instructed by the Lynch's to check up on me the next morning. With my children cared for, I crawled into the bottom bunk of my sons' bed. Excruciating pain grew stronger across my chest and shoulders. In a fraction of a moment, everything around me melted away.

I was surrounded by a mass of solid glowing white. My eyes caught a girl to my right side. She was probably nineteen or twenty. Shorter than my five feet eight inches stature she starred up at me. She asked where we were. I had no clue. She proceeded to tell me she'd been driving home from work and didn't understand how she was now standing beside me. I revealed likewise, that I had been in my sons' bunk bed and had no recollection of moving.

In front of us, a man appeared and approached us. The best I can describe his face/features is brown curly hair to the nape of his neck, liquid brown eyes, capable of illuminating the most unbelievable compassion, and a delicate mustache under a pronounced nose. His face literally glowed. His eyes kept mine to his. I asked him where we were. He smiled, nodded, and said, 'The best way to describe this is, you are in a form of limbo.' My mind desperately tried to grasp what he was implying. Unfortunately, whenever I am stressed, excited, antsy etc. my bladder turns into a waterlogged tsetse fly. Embarrassed, I moved forward and asked where the restrooms were. This part is where I get emotional in repeating my NDE. This man simply smiled at me. Not a smirk. Not a condescending gesture. He smiled with every ounce of unconditional love and compassion that I will never properly explain. His smile covered my body like a blanket and made me feel so at peace. Asking me to move with him, I assumed he was taking me to the facilities.

Gesturing he told me to walk forward and I would see what I would call 'a mirror'. Once in front of it, I would understand why I didn't need a bathroom. Moving into the direction, before me was a liquid pool of white, yet, it also appeared to be a mirror. I was completely mesmerized. There were colors - brilliant colors everywhere. I was an array of beautiful moving, shimmering, vibrating, and colors. He came closer and said, 'Do you understand now?' I realized I was pure energy, spirit, and part of a flowing consciousness; while still remaining 'Denise'. At that moment, he shared his name, 'John'. As we moved, he also shared with me what was happening.

The following is a reiteration of his words. 'Everyone has choices. Everyone has free will. How this interacts in your life, and death, and with others, is all by choice. For instance, look at the girl who came here at the same time as you. If the ambulance driver takes a different road to the scene, if someone decides to move her and doesn't know what they are doing and cause more damage, if her internal organs are too crushed by the accident by speed and timing, she will stay here. You are laying in your sons' bedroom. Your one neighbor was given the responsibility to check on you. It is her choice, her free will. Will she find you? Will she decide to take a shower first and be too late? Each of us always hangs in a balance, by decisions, Not only by our own actions, but by the free will and actions of others.' He finished, 'I need to tell you, your neighbor is entering your home. She will find you. You will be going back.'

With these last words still ringing in my ears, I was sucked like a vacuum back into my body. My physical pain took my breath away. My neighbor was crying, pounding on my chest, and screaming for me to breathe. I was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with pleurisy. My left lung muscle was so damaged the doctors informed me any future incidents with my lungs would kill me.

Jump ahead to 2003. On a trip with my mother and friend to Savannah Georgia, we decided to visit the Catholic Cathedral. Upon entering the church and looking around, a short elderly man, with twinkling grey eyes, came softly up to my right side. He took my hand and asked me to walk with him. I wasn't afraid or fearful (besides my mom and friend were directly in front of us). As they walked ahead and moved towards the altar, the little man guided me to the last stained-glass window on the left, closest to the alter. He asked if I saw anyone I knew in the stained glass. It was a side profile, but I recognized him immediately.

It was John, my John from my NDE. I whispered in awe, 'That's John.' 'Yes it is my dear. He was an apostle on earth and he was called smiling John. You needed to see this. You needed to remember and know that it happened.' I stood there shaking my head in a yes motion and turned to look at the little man. He was gone, nowhere in sight. My mother and her friend had turned to me and asked where he went. I told them I did not know - but I had a something to share with them. And I've been sharing my NDE with anyone who needs to hear it ever since.#5122

NDERF.org 5122

 

Speaks to the Lord and his deceased father

I was not physically aware for three days as I was unconscious from the accident. I am told that I was dead on the operating room table for three minutes during the brain surgery I was having to correct life-threatening damage to my head.

During this time, I wasn't aware of what had become of my physical body until I awoke to the real world again.

I saw the light. I followed it. People say, 'Don't follow the light,' but you really don't have a choice. It's either follow the light, or be stuck there until you wake up - if you do. So I followed. I emerged somewhere outside the Gates of Heaven. I walked up to the nearest Seraph and didn't even get past stating my full name, when the Seraph simply smiled and said, 'Follow me, He wishes to speak with you.' So I did. We walked in through the gates and I was led straight to the chamber where The Lord sat. I seated myself across a desk from Him, and we began conversing. The desk was completely clear.

To this day, I cannot completely remember all that I talked with Him about - but I get a sense that it was a long conversation, one as if between friends. I do remember some parts of it, however - mainly that He told me directly that I would not remember much of what we talked about.

What I do remember is from the middle of the conversation. Keep in mind that at this point, I did not know my father had passed on in the accident that we had just been in. We had been on our way to go out to eat, as we always did, and he had been driving.

I remember that the Lord said to me, 'Worry not, you will not be kept here. I do not wish to have you home yet, for you have much to live for!' This was in response to my question, 'Am I really 'dead' to my life down there?' The Lord then smiled and my dad walked in, grinning as he went to stand by the Lord's side. It was his usual mischievous 'surprise bearing' smile. It also had a large amount of pride in it.

My dad simply said, 'I'm home.' To which I replied, 'Daniel will miss you, and so will I.' Daniel, who was seventeen at the time of the accident, is my younger brother. My dad simply said, 'Take care of him while you still can.' I said that of course I would.

The Lord then spoke and said, 'Your father spoke to me earlier and did not wish you to die. I granted his wish.' I conversed more with the Lord and my father. This portion isn't something I can remember, but I get the hazy sense that it was just as if we were talking things over, and that they were both consoling me.

My memory picks back up at the point where I expressed my anxiety at returning to life. I think I said, 'Well, I'd like to get back down and check on Daniel.' and I gave my father and the Lord a parting hug. I still remember the hugs well, for when I gave the Lord a hug, he whispered into my ear as I was transported back, 'You will not remember everything we spoke about, but don't worry, and you'll remember what you need to know in life when the time is right. And you will remember it all when you cross Heaven's threshold once again.' 

NDERF.org #5251

Deceased grandfather persuades her to return

About an hour or two after I took some medications I knew something was not right. I now believe that an interaction between the medications was the problem. I felt like I was losing touch with reality in a way. I lay in bed and closed my eyes as I tried to get to sleep, and wished I would just feel better.

Now is the part where it gets hard to describe. It's as if my awareness started expanding out of my body. I was still in my body but out of it at the same time. It's a feeling that's impossible to describe without experiencing it yourself. I was in a deep void of empty space. Suddenly a cold, stiff feeling poured over my body. My awareness kept expanding, but my body felt like a cold machine that was holding me back. It felt like my respirations were artificial, and at that moment I just stopped breathing. I heard, rather than felt, my lungs gasp for air, but I was so disconnected from my body by now that there was no possible way to keep breathing. I have no idea how long I stopped breathing for, but my heartbeat got louder and louder until it stopped along with my breathing.

The moment my heart stopped the void became deeper and deeper, until it felt like it expanded forever. I sensed that the darkness was about to part and reveal a marvelous light. Then I felt the presence of my deceased grandfather. I don't remember everything that was said, but basically it was revealed that I could move on if I wanted to, but once I reached the light I would not be able to return to my body. He did not want my life to end though, because I still had some important lessons to be learned in this lifetime. He said that after I learned what I needed to about love that it would be my time to go.

I have a chronic illness, and this last year I have narrowly avoided death five times. My illness almost claimed me three times; I was also crossing the street when I felt an unseen force push me backwards out of the path of an oncoming car, and last of all I nearly fell off a cliff. He said that it was no accident that my life I had been spared each one of those times, and what I needed to learn in this life is so vital that I really needed to go back. I felt a force pushing me back into my body, and I resumed breathing.

I tried to get out of bed, but still felt so disconnected with my body in a way that I could barely move. I have no idea how long this continued, but as I lay there motionless, I felt at times my body would start getting cold, and my awareness would start trying to expand outside my body again - only to be pushed back by an unseen force. At one moment during this time, I felt the presence of two other deceased spirits. One was more prominent than the other was. I received the knowledge from him that they were two young men in this lifetime who had recently passed on from a tragic car accident. I received other details such as his name, the location, and the circumstances revolving around the accident. He told me the same thing as my grandfather as far as the fact that I still had things to learn in this life. During this entire experience, I also felt the presence of my 'Higher Self'. I can't really put this part into words, except to say that I have felt connected to this same Higher Self during different times in my life when I have felt truly been loving and connecting with others.

The next thing I remember is waking up several hours later. I suffered no ill effects, except a horrible headache and temporary short-term memory loss, which I suspect may have been a result from the oxygen deprivation rather than the medications themselves. Needless to say, I was kind of in a daze the entire next day.

At first, I thought I just wanted to move on, but later I went on the internet and started looking up car accidents in the news. After just a few minutes of searching, I saw a picture of a young man who had recently died in a car crash with his friend. I felt chills go up and down my spine because his name, the location and circumstances around the accident, and his picture all corresponded with exactly what was revealed to me the previous night. I never met him in this life, but I feel like there is some deeper meaning to why he was there. I have continued to feel his presence after my experience, and feel like maybe he has become kind of like a spirit guide. This experience has deeply affected me and has made me even more determined to continue to manage my illness and live the rest of life to the very fullest. 

NDErF.org, 5288

Deceased relatives assisted her surgery

After my hysterectomy surgery, I was discharged from the hospital to home. However, six days later, I was back in the hospital again because of severe pain and a high fever. The admission exam revealed that my blood was infected and that I had peritonitis. A scan showed I had internal bleeding in two places. The infection rate had gone way up to 327CRP. [CRP is the measure of a pain-reactive protein in the blood that rises with inflammation.] The pain was incredible. I needed emergency surgery to drain and wash the infected areas inside my abdomen. Fifteen minutes before I was taken to the operating theater, I was lying in my hospital bed feeling overwhelmed with pain.

Suddenly my awareness changed and the room became filled with a bright light. There before me were my late grandmother and late mother-in-law floating toward me! They came to rest on either side of my bed. My grandmother was to the left of me and my mother-in-law to my right. Only my mother-in-law spoke. She said it wasn't my time to come with them but that they were here to help me with my pain. So, they 'pulled' me out of my body and I floated straight upward a short distance where I stopped and remained hovering there. As soon as I left my body, everything was tranquil and I felt no more pain.

My mother-in-law pointed to a whitish translucent cord attached at one end to the floating 'me', and at the other end to my body on the bed. She instructed me to be careful not to break that cord as I was going to need it to get back into my body. From above, I could clearly see my husband and the doctors and nurses gathered around my bed. The room was filled with a beautiful bright white light. Looking through this white light, I could see vivid colors, as well as the ordinary objects in the room. I remained floating serenely above my body until I was taken to the operating theater. Once there, my mother-in-law and grandmother vanished.

In their place, beside my bed, appeared my late grandfather clad in a white coat. He had been a general practitioner/doctor during his life. However, I had never met him as he had died when I was seven years old! He spoke to me about the details of my medical issues and pointed out, in terms of centimeters, exactly where in my abdomen the three main internal infections were located. He specified this medical information in Latin. I don't speak Latin but I understood him. Then he too disappeared. I immediately re-entered my body and so I was able to repeat everything my grandfather had just told me while the surgeon wrote down detailed notes and my husband listened.

A couple of days after the (successful) surgery, I talked with the surgeon. He said he had never spoken to anyone in my condition, (CRP327 – i.e. in such a lot of pain), who had been able to talk so clearly. He had never had access before to a surgery with such accurate information on where to find the main infected areas. He said that my grandfather's directions had told him to move certain internal organs aside to get to the third infected location. Without my grandfather's information, he could easily have missed it, especially since, at admission, they had diagnosed me with only two internal infections, not three. It was exactly as my grandfather had described it. He had said that there was an area of infected fluid in a 'hidden' part of my pelvis and had described, in terms of centimeters, exactly where to drain this infected fluid. It was beneath a bleeding point. 

NDERF.org, #5426

Prebirth memory of boy confirmed by his teacher

My friend and I met as schoolteachers at the same school several years ago. She was pregnant when we met and chose me to be present at the birth of her child because she was a single mother and afraid of being alone. It was a tremendous honor to be invited into the delivery room because, even though I have children of my own, it was a fascinating opportunity to see a birth without experiencing the pain myself!

My friend delivered a baby boy named Mich'l and it was an incredible experience. I joked to her that I saw her son before she did! (I saw his head poking out before he was born and she didn't have a mirror to see for herself!)

Tragically, my friend passed away suddenly just months after her son was born. He has been raised by her parents ever since. The boy now goes to the school where his mother and I taught and this year he is in my 4th Grade class. It is with a heavy heart that I teach him each day. I have never told him that I was there for his birth because I didn't want the other students to think that he had special treatment and I didn't want to upset him with thoughts of his mother. Perhaps his grandparents told him that I was there, but I'm not sure. He does know, however, that his mom and I were friends. (This makes sense because he knows that she used to teach at our school.)

Flash forward to last week; 9 and one half years after his birth and his mother passing. I was speaking with my class about our memories for a poetry writing assignment. I asked them to think back to the earliest memories they have. Most students talked about Kindergarten, or perhaps day care, or vague memories of old toys, etc. from when they were about 3-4 years old.

Mich'l put up his hand and said that he remembers watching everyone from up in the sky, and being in his mother's belly before he was born. He said that when he was waiting to be born, he was invisible and he was in my grey car with me on the way to the hospital while I listened to the song, 'Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall.' (This is what he called the song. He likely doesn't know the real name, and he probably hasn't heard it since but it was 'You've Got a Friend' by James Taylor. I used to have the cassette tape in that car!) This is bizarre because I did drive a grey car at that time and I haven't had one for the past 7 years (2 years after he was born). I can't imagine he even knows that song from today's radio music. My heart started to beat like crazy. How would he know that? Even his grandparents wouldn't know that and his mom wouldn't have known that before she died. Even if she did, somehow, he was only three months old when she passed. How would she tell him? I certainly never told her what song was on in my car on the way to the hospital so I can't explain this!

Mich'l said that he remembers me stopping for gas and asking the attendant for directions to the hospital (true). He said that he wanted me for his mommy because he liked my voice when I was speaking to the attendant. (I did stop for gas and I was kind of lost going to a rural hospital, so I asked for directions.) Then he said that he remembers that the parking lot was partially closed for construction, so I had to park on a corner and run to the hospital. By this point my jaw was almost on the floor and the whole class was starting at me. I had never even told the class (or Mich'l) that I was at his birth. The class must have thought this was one crazy story.

Then Mich'l said the most incredible thing. He said that while his 'real mom' was in labor, he asked God if I could be his mom because he knew that his 'real mom' wouldn't survive very long, and he was afraid of being alone on Earth. Apparently, he was told that he couldn't have me for his 'real mom' but that everything would be OK and he would still get to be around me during his life.

Mich'l said that he kept begging me to be his mother. He watched me go down the hallway from the birthing suite to the waiting lounge to make a phone call from a pay phone (true; there was no cell signal in the hospital), and that while I was there I was very cold so I put on a sweater that someone else left on the waiting room chairs. By this point the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I hate to admit this, but I did find a nice warm cardigan in that waiting room and I put it on because I was so cold. I've never done anything like that before, but it was a small hospital and there were literally no other people in the labor ward and I waited to see if anyone would come to claim the sweater, and no one did. I was so cold! I put it on and ended up wearing it home (Shame on me, I know, I still feel guilty about that. I've felt so guilty that I never wore it again, especially because it reminds me of my friend who ended up passing away. Regardless, I have to mention it because I've never told anyone about taking someone else's sweater, and it's a huge part of this story!)

Mich'l concluded by saying that he watched me make the phone call and put on the other person's sweater, and that's the last thing he remembers. He was born about thirty minutes after I went to the lounge and made that phone call.

Later, I privately said to Mich'l, 'Yes, I was at your birth. How did you know all of that stuff?' His grandparents weren't at the birth and there was literally no way he would have known any of that. How could he make it up? He said that it's easy. He just had to think back to his earliest memories. He asked me why I don't remember being born too and he said, 'It's OK. My life did turn out OK; so don't worry about not being my mom.' WOW.

I write this in all sincerity as my evidence that there must be some kind of heaven up there; if he could have memories of watching his birth and waiting to be born. I considered the idea that his mom speaks to him from the afterlife, and maybe she told him herself but how would she even know this information?

NDERF.org, #32304

Prediction in childhood dream of near death

Prior to this experience: At age 6, 7 or 8, I was told in a dream that I would have an opportunity to live or die before I was 24 years old. The water skiing accident occurred 3 months and 12 days before my 24th birthday.

I saw the ski boat headed in my direction. I waved my arms and screamed. I knew I would be hit; I said the Our Father prayer as the shadow of the boat overcame me. I remember the impact forced the air from me.

Immediately I was without a body. The best way to describe the experience is that I knew who I was, however, I did not feel pain nor was I afraid. A tremendous white light surrounded me. I felt unbelievable peace, love, harmony, goodness. I knew I was floating, that I did not have a body; I sensed goodness around me then sensed a question asking if I was ready to die. I knew I had mixed feelings. Instantaneously, I saw my grave with my two little children crying standing apart from my husband, their dad. I sensed I could not leave my children; I saw the lake water parting as I was pushed to the surface of the lake.

I saw a clear blue sky and a single white bird then I felt the pain. I made my way to the boat that hit me. A nurse and a doctor were at lakeside. I later learned only a nurse was present when our boat docked; I will swear a doctor was also there; that the doctor applied a pressure bandage to my abdomen. I later learned no doctor was present. Paramedics arriving 15-20 minutes after the accident was called in applied the pressure bandage. I remember the premonition, the accident, and the experience as if each happened just yesterday though 37 years have passed. I experience a degree of premonition limited to events I need to be aware of, prepared for. May 17, 1977 changed my life, the lives of my children in ways too surreal to mention. I feel the accident was a blessing of significant degrees. 

NDERF.org, # 7303