Odell H NDE

Integration Experience - Shared 1/2011 & 7/21/12

EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTION 7/21/12:

My dad was on vacation during the summer of 1952.  After doing things around the house for a few days, he decided to go fishing in the Brazos River, which was only a few miles from us.  I asked to go along so I could go swimming.  With mom and dad’s approval in hand, I then asked if my four neighbor friends could go with me.  Again, with their approval, we all put our swim trunks on and piled into the car.

Upon arriving at the river, we all ran into the water and started having the time of our lives.  Dad took his fishing gear and went about thirty or forty yards away and started fishing.  About a half hour later he decided to move to another location, since the fish weren’t biting at all where he had been fishing.

He came over to where we were and announced “I’m going upstream to Red Bluff, you guys come and go with me.”

We said “OK, we’ll wade up there.”

As we were wading upstream, the other guys got about 15 yards ahead of me and I was following in their path in the water whose depth was up to my chest.  At this time I did not know how to swim. As I was wading along, I suddenly went under water, way over my head.  I had stepped into a hole in the river bottom that was too deep for me.  It happened so fast and suddenly that I did not get a breath of air before going under.

I began struggling to reach the surface and was swallowing water at the same time.  When I finally broke the surface, I began spitting out water, but before I could get a breath of air, I sank underneath again.  I continued struggling to get above the surface and was swallowing more water because I had no air in my lungs.  I continued this cycle of struggling to the surface, spitting out water, and going back under without getting a breath of air.

Finally my muscles became too tired to struggle any more and I gave up trying.  Immediately my movements seemed to go into extreme slow motion and I could see my hands and arms moving agonizingly slow.  At this point I did not feel any more pain or tiredness from the struggle.  I seemed to be an impartial observer watching the event play out.

I then started rising up until I was about 10 or 12 feet above the water and watched my body in the water continue struggling, in slow motion.  I had no mental attachment to the body nor was I concerned that it was drowning.  I was completely aloof from it.

As I turned my attention away from my body in the water, a bright penetrating light appeared before me.  It was the brightest light I had ever seen, yet it did not hurt my eyes.  I looked down at my new body and saw that I was clothed in white garments just like people wore in the days of the Roman Empire, except that the garment hung low enough that my feet were not visible unless I extended my foot and leg forward enough to reach beyond the hem on my garment.  The light seemed to penetrate me and my garments such that my body and clothes became the purest white ever.  The light was about the size of a basketball and the outer surface seemed to be crystal clear, all the more reason that the light within was so bright.  Also, the light seemed to be churning, just like smoke churns as it rises, yet the churning was contained within the confines of the sphere as the rays of light radiated outward.

As I was studying the sphere of light, I suddenly saw a very black speck in the center of it.  For some reason I knew this tiny speck was very important, and so I concentrated on it very intensely.  As I concentrated on it, it suddenly zoomed out toward me, and there standing before me was Jesus in all His glory, bigger than life itself.  He wore the same clothes as I did, and He radiated a powerful golden light in every direction from His body.  Light travels at 360,000 feet per second, yet with my spiritual eyes, I could easily see the rays of golden light emanating outward from Him toward infinity.  The color of this golden light coming from Him was so beautiful that the English language is incapable of describing its’ purity.

I immediately held up my hands and arms in front of my face to shield myself from His brightness and told Him to get away from me.  I almost fell all over myself trying to get away from Him.  He was so pure and clean that I was not worthy of being in His presence, nor anywhere close to Him.  I was too adulterated and contaminated with the impurities of this world.  I was contaminated with the impure deeds of the things that I had done: lying, stealing, fighting, all of the negative things that a little 11 year old boy had done.  I was contaminated with all the mental impurities that I had done:  hatred, distrust, sarcasm, resentment, fear, narcissism, and anger. Even though I wanted to stay there in His presence, I couldn’t, because God’s law forbids everything evil from heaven.

Jesus stretched His hand toward me and immediately, all my guilt fell away and I received the most overpowering feeling of love from Him.  Although His lips did not move, He said “Fear not. Peace.” He seemed to communicate to me through Extra Sensory Perception rather than a physical spoken word by mouth.  He seemed to sense my question of why we could talk to each other without physically speaking.  He told me that we communicate this way to eliminate errors in speech and understanding that is common with all spoken languages.  In effect, while I was thinking something, it was magically transposed to Him immediately and he knew what I thought.  I only had to think of something to say, and it immediately became word.

At this point, as we were conversing by ESP, a giant screen appeared next to us.  It was so  gigantic that I can naturally compare it to the large screens that used to be in the old drive-in theaters of the 40s, 50s, 60s, and early 70s.  On this screen, in random order, different scenes of incidents that had happened in my life, while here on earth, were being played out.  Jesus would select one scene, and it would expand to the point that it encompassed almost the whole screen.  I could still see other scenes playing in the background around the edges of the main scene that we were reviewing.  The scene we were reviewing was a most accurate depiction of an incident that I was involved in at that point in my life, and He questioned me as to why I did the things that I had done. 

At first, most of the scenes that we discussed were ones in which I had done something wrong or bad.  However, He also pointed out scenes where I had done something outstanding.  In the bad scenes, He chastised me severely and used it as a teaching moment to ingrain into me that I must always be truthful, loving, or good in all of my actions and words.  While reviewing a scene in which I had done something bad or wrong, I could see that I had acted inappropriately and wanted to slant my answer to make the action seem less evil to Him.  As soon as I started giving a slanted reason for my action , He would authoritatively stop me and correct me.  When He corrected me, I had to acknowledge His truth and correct my slanted reason.  Did you know Jesus has a great sense of humor?  In some of the scenes where something funny happened or was said, He laughed with me, and with gusto. 

After reviewing many scenes of my past, I was very worried and scared that I was not going to be able to go any further into heaven with Him.  Almost all of my past actions had been negative, rather than positive or helpful.  I had truly been a spoiled child, only concerned about the things that were Important to a young child, e.g., toys, candy, food, etc.  I was only concerned about me, and no one else.  Now I was desperately worried that I was going to be condemned forever.

Next, the large screen went away and Jesus took my hand and we began moving through a long tunnel at a very high rate of speed.  What is strange about this is that we were not in a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed.  We were actually just standing still and holding each other’s hand, but our bodies seemed to be levitating forward.  We were just standing there motionless, yet we were zooming through the tunnel at an extreme rate of speed.  While zooming through the tunnel, the sides of it did not zoom by like here on earth.  As you drive at a high speed down a road, all of the trees, signs, and any other objects that are close to the road will zoom by you and fade away in the rear as you continue down the road.  In this tunnel the walls, ceiling and floor did not zoom by and fade away to the rear.  Instead, they seemed to stay right there as if they were still or motionless.  I know that’s hard to fathom, but that’s how I have to explain it.

After what seemed an extremely long time moving through the tunnel, I began to wonder how much longer we were going to stay there and continue moving.  I looked ahead and saw a small light that seemed to be moving closer to us.  I thought to myself, “At last, we’re finally getting somewhere.” 

Suddenly, back in the water in the river, something hit my right foot.  Instantly, I was back inside my body fighting for a breath of air and struggling against the water.  Next I felt someone come up between my legs and raised me up to the surface of the water so I could begin breathing again.  As I began regaining my ability to breath again, I noticed that the person I was sitting on was swimming underwater toward shore and beginning to struggle also.  I thought to myself that he needed to come up for air, and I knew that I might cause him to drown if I didn’t get off and let him come up.  I swung one leg over and slid off of his back and he came up gasping for air. 

We waded to shore and I started vomiting up all the river water that I had swallowed.  I vomited up water again and again.  After vomiting several times, there was no longer any water in my stomach to vomit up.  I continued dry heaving in an effort to expunge more water.  Now my stomach started cramping from the over-exertion of heaving.  Slowly my heaving subsided and I began to recover.  For the rest of the day I was wary about venturing very far into the river again.  I was in a state of shock for a day or two over this and did not remember anything that I saw while in the water.  I was in pain from all of the exertion of fighting the water and heaving up the water I had swallowed.  Every muscle in my body was sore for almost a week.

In later years while a freshman in high school I remembered my whole life flashing before my eyes.  Many people have reported seeing their whole life flash before their eyes when they were involved in an accident and they came close to death.  I don’t know when I first became aware of the fact that at some point in my life my whole life had flashed before my eyes, but when I did, I associated it with the near drowning experience, but did not remember any of the other things like seeing Jesus, or talking to him.

Many years later, about 1978 or 1980, I read an article about a book written by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross titled “Life After Life.”  The article told of a few incidents mentioned in the book where persons had been involved in a life threatening accident or had a heart attack, and experienced some of the same scenes of meeting Jesus and traveling in a tunnel.  This one article seemed to open the floodgate of memories in my mind of everything that happened that day when I nearly drowned.  Everything came to me as clear as the day it happened.  I have attributed this to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). 

Now, when someone asks me if I believe in Jesus, I tell them YES!  I tell them I believe in Him because I know He is real.  I know He is real because I have SEEN Him.  I have touched Him. I have talked to Him. I have held His hand. I have felt His love.  I have heard His voice.  Yes, I know He is real!

At the time of your experience was there an associated life-threatening event?   Yes  Near drowning

Was the experience difficult to express in words?  Yes     The English language is not capable of describing the beauty of colors that I saw.  How can you describe a million beautiful colors when our language only knows a hundred shades of five basic colors?  How can you describe the sound of a melodious voice that has never been heard on earth?

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness?    At  the time I stepped into the hole in the water, I became physically very alert and conscious of my dangerous situation.  As I began rising from my body, I was spiritually alert and conscious of the events that were transpiring.

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness?      More consciousness and alertness than normal   After leaving my body I became spiritually conscious and alert to my surroundings.  I now had no pain from swallowing too much water, nor from the over-exertion  of trying to get to the surface to get some air.  I became aware that my eyesight was better than it had ever been and I could see details and colors that I had never seen before.  I have always been hard of hearing, but now my hearing was superior to anything it had ever been.  During the experience the voices I hear were very loud and clear, and sounded almost like music rather than speech.

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience.   Light travels at 360,000 feet per second, yet with my spiritual eyes, I could easily see the rays of golden light emanating outward from Him toward infinity

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience.   My hearing was better than it had ever been while I was in my body here on earth.  I have always been hard of hearing, but hearing in the spirit was much more melodious, clear and loud, mainly I think because we conversed by ESP.

Did you see or hear any earthly events that were occurring during a time that your consciousness / awareness was apart from your physical / earthly body?   Yes   My body was drowning, and continuing to struggle even after I floated out of it.

What emotions did you feel during the experience?   Before the separation I felt fear of drowning, not getting a breath of air, tiredness from the struggle.  After the separation, I felt peace of mind, extreme love from Jesus, and happiness to be with Him.  

Did you pass into or through a tunnel?   Yes   Jesus took my hand and we began moving through a long tunnel at a very high rate of speed.  What is strange about this is that we were not in a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed.  We were actually just standing still and holding each other’s hand, but our bodies seemed to be levitating forward.  We were just standing there motionless, yet we were zooming through the tunnel at an extreme rate of speed.  While zooming through the tunnel, the sides of it did not zoom by like here on earth.  As you drive at a high speed down a road, all of the trees, signs, and any other objects that are close to the road will zoom by you and fade away in the rear as you continue down the road.  In this tunnel the walls, ceiling and floor did not zoom by and fade away to the rear.  Instead, they seemed to stay right there as if they were still or motionless.  I know that’s hard to fathom, but that’s how I have to explain it.

After what seemed an extremely long time moving through the tunnel, I began to wonder how much longer we were going to stay there and continue moving.  I looked ahead and saw a small light that seemed to be moving closer to us.  I thought to myself, “At last, we’re finally getting somewhere.”

Did you see an unearthly light?   Yes   A bright penetrating light appeared before me.  It was the brightest light I had ever seen, yet it did not hurt my eyes.  I looked down at my new body and saw that I was clothed in white garments just like people wore in the days of the Roman Empire, except that the garment hung low enough that my feet were not visible unless I extended my foot and leg forward enough to reach beyond the hem on my garment.  The light seemed to penetrate me and my garments such that my body and clothes became the purest white ever.  The light was about the size of a basketball and the outer surface seemed to be crystal clear, all the more reason that the light within was so bright.  Also, the light seemed to be churning, just like smoke churns as it rises, yet the churning was contained within the confines of the sphere as the rays of light radiated outward.

Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice?   I encountered a definite being, or a voice clearly of mystical or unearthly origin
Standing before me was Jesus in all His glory, bigger than life itself.  He wore the same clothes as I did, and He radiated a powerful golden light in every direction from His body.  Light travels at 360,000 feet per second, yet with my spiritual eyes, I could easily see the rays of golden light emanating outward from Him toward infinity.  The color of this golden light coming from Him was so beautiful that the English language is incapable of describing its’ purity.

Did you encounter or become aware of any beings who previously lived on earth who are described by name in religions (for example: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.)?   Yes   Standing before me was Jesus in all His glory, bigger than life itself.  He wore the same clothes as I did, and He radiated a powerful golden light in every direction from His body.  Light travels at 360,000 feet per second, yet with my spiritual eyes, I could easily see the rays of golden light emanating outward from Him toward infinity.  The color of this golden light coming from Him was so beautiful that the English language is incapable of describing its’ purity.

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

Did you become aware of past events in your life during your experience?   Yes   A giant screen appeared next to us.  It was so  gigantic that I can naturally compare it to the large screens that used to be in the old drive-in theaters of the 40s, 50s, 60s, and early 70s.  On this screen, in random order, different scenes of incidents that had happened in my life, while here on earth, were being played out.  Jesus would select one scene, and it would expand to the point that it encompassed almost the whole screen.  I could still see other scenes playing in the background around the edges of the main scene that we were reviewing.  The scene we were reviewing was a most accurate depiction of an incident that I was involved in at that point in my life, and He questioned me as to why I did the things that I had done.

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world?   Some unfamiliar and strange place
I was in a place that was suspended in time and place.  Somewhere between earth and Heaven.

Did time seem to speed up or slow down?   Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning
Time seemed normal except when we were in the tunnel, then we traveled at tremendous speed.

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything?   Everything about the universe

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure?   No

Did you come to a border or point of no return?   No

Did scenes from the future come to you?  No 

During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness suggesting that there either is (or is not) continued existence after earthly life (“life after death”)?   Yes   Jesus took my hand and we began moving through a long tunnel at a very high rate of speed.  He didn't say "OK, let's go to Heaven."  It was more like an accepted fact that we were going "Home."

EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTION  1/2011:

On a summer day while my father was on vacation, he announced that he was going to go fishing on the Brazos River.  I begged to go along so I could play in the water while he fished.  I had four neighborhood friends and asked if they could go with us.   We all piled into the car and dad drove us to the river. 

Upon arriving at the river, we moved thirty or forty yards away from where dad was fishing and ran into the water.  After playing in the water for about an hour, Dad announced that he was going to move upstream, and told us to go with him.  We began wading upstream as he walked along the bank.  Only Carl and I did not know how to swim.  The other three boys did know how. 

As we were wading upstream, I was following about 10 yards behind everyone else.  Suddenly I stepped into a hole and went under.  It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to get a breath of air before going under. 

I started fighting to get up to the surface, and was swallowing water. When I broke through the surface, I began spitting out water, but didn't get a breath of air before going under again.  I again struggled to the surface and started spitting water, but went under before getting a breath of air.  This struggle repeated several times, and I was getting desperate for air.  I was also getting very tired from the struggle. 

As I struggled in the water, I became very angry at myself because I could not make myself take the necessary breaths of air during the many short times I was above water.  Finally I became so doggedly tired that I quit struggling and gave up.   

Immediately everything went into slow motion, and my movements seemed to be so agonizingly slow, just as we see on TV or in movies.  I became aware of my arms and legs moving at an agonizingly slow pace to the point of being insignificantly effective.   

At this point I was aware of rising up out of my body.  I looked at my body as it was struggling, and I was unconcerned that I was in two places at the same time.  Actually I wasn't in two places.  I was up here, and my body was down there.  I was looking at my body as it struggled in the water, but I was up here and didn't feel any struggle or water on me at all.   

I then began rising further and when I rose to about 10 feet above the water, I stopped and sort of hovered there.  I was amazed that I was here above the water, and also that I was no longer in pain from struggling and swallowing too much water, nor was I exhausted from the previous struggle below. 

As I pondered my situation, I became aware of a sphere of light about twenty feet away.  It was suspended at my height and was very, very bright.  It was about the size of a basketball and the light seemed to swirl around within its confines, similar to smoke swirling in air, yet it emitted very bright rays of light. 

Suddenly, in the very center of the light, I saw a small pure black speck.  For some reason, I was intensely concentrating on that speck.  As I stared at it, it moved toward me and zoomed out, and Jesus appeared from it and stood before me.  I immediately raised my hands as if to shield myself from Him, and told Him to get away from me.   

He was a pure, Holy being, and I was not worthy of being in His presence. I was a mere mortal person and contaminated with the sinful nature of this physical world.  He extended his hand toward me, and my sense of guilt or unworthiness evaporated.  

He stood before me in all His majestic glory.  He appeared to have a rich golden complexion and He radiated golden light in every direction.  Light travels at slightly more than 186,000 miles per second and we cannot see its' speed with our physical eyes, but I could see this glorious light radiating outward from Him in all its majestic glory.  My grasp of the English language cannot do justice to the beautiful radiance that emanated from Him.  Not only could I see this light, but I seemed to receive spiritual energy from it.  This light carried Jesus' love, wisdom, and grace, and radiated outward in every direction, and seemed to penetrate my soul.  I looked down at my body, and I was as purely white as the freshly driven snow. He stood before me with his long hair and beard, and wore the clothes that we see in paintings and drawings of Him, that was worn in His time here on earth 2000 years ago. 

Although I don't remember the exact words, He spoke to me.  He in effect said "Fear not. Be at peace."  His voice was moderately loud and very melodious.  I have been very hard of hearing since infant-hood, and have always struggled with hearing and speech.  I struggled to attend school and pass my classes.  My poor hearing affected my association with teachers and classmates, and I barely passed my exams and advancement to the next grade levels.  But when Jesus spoke to me, I heard Him very succinctly and clearly.  His voice was very melodious and sounded like music to my ears. 

When He spoke to me, His lips did not move.  When I spoke to Him, my lips did not move.  It's like we spoke through Extra Sensory Perception (ESP).  Another strange experience was that when I wanted to speak to Him, as soon as I thought of what I wanted to say, He heard me before I could even speak out to him.  It was as if He was reading my mind.  All of our communicating was done in this manner. 

At this point a large gigantic screen appeared before us.  This screen was so large that I compare it to the size of the old drive in theater screens that are no longer around these days.  He and I were situated close to the screen, so it was very large.  On  this screen were many scenes being played out, that were  experiences of what had happened during my short life here on earth.  There were so many scenes being played on the screen that it was as if my whole life was recorded there.  The scenes were in random order, and no two consecutive scenes were in any way related to each other.  It has been said many times that when we die, our whole life flashes before our eyes.  This was what was happening to me. 

When Jesus brought my attention to a scene, it zoomed out until it almost filled the screen, but I was aware of some other scenes still active around the fringes of the scene that was now the center of our conversation.  As we watched the main scene that was active before us, He asked me questions about what had happened.  He asked me why I had lied to my mother.  He asked me why I had pulled my sister's hair.  He asked me why I threw rocks at my dog.  He asked me why I pulled my neighbor's cats' tail.  We viewed many scenes where I had told someone a lie. Many scenes where I was bullying someone.  Many scenes where I had been at fault in insulting someone.  Scenes where I had torn someone's clothes just for the spite of it.  In every scene that we reviewed, He reiterated to me that I had seriously done something that was wrong, or in other cases, that I had done an extraordinarily good thing. 

As we discussed each scene, I had to answer to Him and explain why I had acted as I did at that time.  In explaining my actions in all the scenes, I was aware that I had done something very wrong, and when I tried to put a little spin in my answer to lessen the seriousness of my actions, He immediately stopped me and corrected me.  In scenes where I had done something good, he praised me profoundly.  Jesus has a great sense of humor.  In scenes where something funny happened, He laughed heartily and happily.  In totality, the number of scenes that involved good actions on my part were significantly smaller than the ones where I had done something wrong.  I knew I was in trouble with Him.  In fact, I was now really terrified that I would be condemned to hell. 

Suddenly the screen went away and He took my hand and we began gravitating at a tremendous speed through a tunnel.  The walls, ceiling and floor of this tunnel seemed to be actively churning, the same way you see smoke churning in the air above an open fire, except this was more dense.   

As one travels down a road at high speed, the trees, power line poles, and anything else that is stationary along the road, seem to flash by in a blur as you go past them.  In this tunnel, there was no sense of blur.   It was as if the walls, ceiling and floor was actually moving with me at high speed, yet I had no sense that the tunnel itself was moving.  I cannot describe the walls, ceiling and floor except to say that the word "Firmament" as used in the book of Genesis is the best description. 

As I took in these observations about the tunnel, I became aware that much time was elapsing as we sped along so quickly.  I then looked ahead and saw a light far ahead of me.  I thought "Ah! We're getting there finally!" 

But Suddenly, I wasn't there any more!   One of my friends had swam under me and in reaching for me, had brushed my foot with his hand.  At that instant, I was back in my body in the water.  I was again fighting for air and struggling desperately to the surface of the water.  My friend swam under me and came up between my legs and raised me to the surface and started swimming toward shore.  As I gasped for breaths of air, it was the sweetest tasting air I had ever breathed.  As he swam a short distance with me on his back, I realized that He was now starting to struggle too.  I realized that I was going to drown him if I continued to weigh him down, so I slid one leg over him and slid off into the water.  As my feet touched the river bottom, he came up gasping for air.

We both struggled to shore and I collapsed on the bank.  I immediately began vomiting up the river water I had swallowed in the struggle. I had swallowed so much water that my stomach was stretched to the limit, and it was causing me to vomit, over and over again.  I must have vomited water fifteen times or more, and then began dry heaving another ten or fifteen times.  I was in truly agonizing pain all over my body.  My muscles were dog-tired from the struggle, my stomach, from the stretching by the excess water, and the long bout of vomiting and heaving.  I remained sore for two weeks afterward. 

My father decided we had been through too much for the day and took us all home.