Padma NDE

Experience Description

As I lay in bed, with doctors and nurses administering emergency help, all of a sudden I was on the ceiling looking down at my twisted and mangled body. I saw the doctors cutting my clothes off hurriedly. I saw them put traction on my waist. I saw what the traction looked like. It was a contraption made of thick heavy metal rods going down my sides from my waist. At the level of my feet heavy chains hung suspended by two big metal balls. Great compassion and sorrow arose from seeing myself in that terrible position.

Next thing I knew, I was pulled with a force like a hurricane or tornado and was trying to hang on to the ceiling with my nails of both my feet and hands. I was pulled towards the wall facing me, and when I came close to there, I saw this most beautiful, rotating light, like that of the universe, in fact, it moved like the universe. It had life and knowledge and it felt like a loving parent beckoning me. Coming close to it, gave me the most warm, loving feeling, and I came close to it numerous times, but somehow knew, that if I went through that light, there was no coming back. So even though the feeling was indescribably beautiful, I had too many things to accomplish and the desire to do that made me fight to get back into the body and that was no easy task.

Background Information:

Gender: Female

Date NDE Occurred: 'February 20, 1959'

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes Accident 'Life threatening event, but not clinical death' I had sustained a fall from the third floor and fell directly onto the concrete below. I sustained multiple fractures, rupture of the spinal cord resulting in a massive hematoma. With no ambulances back then, I was taken by taxi, which caused further damage to the injury. After being taken to the emergency, I was admitted to the general surgical ward, but the elevator wasn't working so I had to be taken by stretcher with the help of two orderlies, again causing further damage.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Positive

The experience included: Out of body experience

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? I was totally unconscious.

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning Since I was seeing something away from my body I guess you could say it was altered space. As far as time is concerned, it just did not seem to exist when I came close to the Light, but memory of my earthly obligations kept bringing me back to earth time.

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? No

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? No

The experience included: Light

Did you see an unearthly light? Yes Light that appeared like the universe, moving, alive, loving, compassionate, beckoning, and emitting superior knowledge.

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm I could see the Light, but I am not sure if this was with the sense faculty of eyes or not. I mean, my body was down below, so what sense faculty was experiencing this is hard for me to know.

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Seeing the Light was the most awesome experience I have ever had or will have. The words that come to mind are benevolence, love, compassion, and acceptance. These are some of the feelings I had gotten from the Light. In as far as the Light is concerned, I saw it was alive, moving, emitting some kind of superior knowledge.

The experience included: Special Knowledge

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? Everything about the universe The message I got was for me to be of service to my fellow mankind and since I was being given all this love, to share that with everyone, no matter how difficult the situation might be and to not give up hope. It taught me that being on this planet is a rare privilege and one must strive to rise above any adverse situation and strive to see good even in that. It taught me that nothing is impossible; that we are divine beings and can accomplish anything we desire, provided we did it with good intentions and that there is nothing really good or bad; it just is potential.

Did scenes from your past come back to you? My past flashed before me, out of my control

Did scenes from the future come to you? No

Did you come to a border or point of no return? I came to a barrier that I was not permitted to cross; or was sent back against my will Worldly obligations, like finishing school, particularly for the approval of my parents, was what made me return to my body. Little did I know that I would never be able to accomplish that, as the accident left me a paraplegic for a long time.

God, Spiritual and Religion:

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes I find I am more accommodating of other people's belief system, even though I myself might not be of that orientation and not agree entirely. I find people and all life forms are very important to me. I find that this world is a magical place with so many beautiful mysteries and that is what I enjoy most. The curiosity and finding of daily mysteries.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? Yes Firstly, at the time of this experience, people did not talk about such things, so it was unsaid to anyone for many years for fear of ridicule. The experience of the seeing the light was awesome but hard to explain then. Now I can verbally say something about it, but it does not do justice to experience.

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes I have developed the ability to know ahead of time of people's intentions and what they would do to accomplish them. Ever since then, I have had a few experiences during crisis situations, like other accidents, of seeing a golden light surrounding me. At other times of crisis, like emotional crisis, I seem to know the exact words someone is going to utter and usually am right on. There was one time that I heard a thunderous sound in my head for a whole month and rainbow colors around everything I looked at. After one month, it seemed to have dissipated. This experience was triggered by fear of the safety of my children. Yes, I had three children in twenty seven months, even though the doctors told me I never could. My husband had passed away prematurely, and my children were very young and a very dangerous element had entered our lives. This experience was caused by the need for me to protect my children. At another time, I was watching a religious movie and the scene where Lord Krishna is giving the sermon to Arjun on the battlefield about the Bhagavat Gita, I cried a lot. When I was trying to go to bed that night, the whole room was filled with a golden light and I saw Lord Krishna standing in my room. I had a roommate living with me at that time and she was Muslim and not used to Hindu knowledge. I asked her if she saw something and she replied 'yes, there was a golden light in the room'. It lasted fifteen minutes.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? The best part was the love I experienced; the worst part was the separation of it due to the choice I made.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes People in the medical profession think that my experience was triggered by a release of serotonin or something similar. Other people just laugh at me and yet others listen carefully and just say 'wow'. It doesn't matter. The thing is that for at least twenty years, I did not talk about it for fear of ridicule, but now I don't mind talking about it, since I know there are other people who have had this experience in varying degrees. I find people are not influenced by my experience, but somehow by the way they see me as a person.

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? Yes I have had five major car accidents and in at least one of them, I had a similar experience, not quite the same, but similar in its unworldly content. I was thrown out of my vehicle and received a big blow to my head. I was unconscious for a while, but when I came to; I realized I was hemorrhaging in my brain. I could not lift my head to let the blood out of my nose. I was asking people to lift my head, but the cops were pushing the crowds that had gathered back. Suddenly, out of nowhere someone was lifting my head, letting the blood out of my nose. All sound disappeared, and a beautiful golden colored glowing light was surrounding me. It was an unworldly experience. As soon as my head was put down again, all sound reappeared.

Are there any other questions that we could ask to help you communicate your experience? If there is any way to reduce the redundancy of the questionnaire, then one wouldn't have to get distracted by the repetition of the questions. It is frustrating, because these experiences are very emotionally charged and once one starts narrating their experience, the emotions pick up momentum during narration. The redundancy of the questions are like stalling or stopping the train in its track, compelling one to either abandon the questionnaire or get frustrated to keep going back to the same answer. Other than that it is an excellent questionnaire.