Bobby H NDE

EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTION:

It was a boring Saturday night just after a city celebration called "Crazy Water Festival", where it had rained all day.  The festival was held in the city park and everyone had gone home as it was late at night.  I was riding around town with a friend of mine and we were cruising through the park where we found one booth where someone had taken a large hot pink parachute and hung it over their booth to protect them from the rain.  My friend and I were avid water skiers and had been wanting a parachute so we could try to para-ski behind his boat and saw this as our opportunity.  Either of us were thieves and both rationalized that if someone wanted it they wouldn't have left it out in the rain so we decided to make it ours. 

The first problem was that the chute was tide off at the top of a large Post Oak tree and one of us had to climb up and cut a string which was looped over a very small limb about 25 to 30 feet from the ground.  I volunteered and with Bowie knife in back pocket ascended up the large tree. 

Once I reached near the top of the tree I shimmied out upon a very small limb feeling very vulnerable and a bit scared.  I reached out with the knife and cut the nylon cord setting the chute free and watched it blossom out as it fell to the ground then witnessed my buddy quickly picking it up.  I then found that I couldn't quite get back to the trunk of the tree and felt very uneasy so I slightly turned to catch a limb and swung my arm back but there was no limb.  I lost my balance and began to fall back.  In an instant I was terrified because I was aware that I was falling and was very doubtful that the distance would be survivable. 

Everything stopped as I awaited the impact of my body to the ground, yet it never came.  I was instantly, and I mean instantly removed and found myself in a dark space or a void of some kind.  My mind reeling with uncertainty trying to assess where I was.  That is when I began to see my young life suddenly displayed in my mind as if on a picture screen.  Then it faded away and I was in the dark again when I began to be aware of a light...in the distance.  It was small at first but began to come closer...the closer it got, the more radiant it became and the less fear and dread I felt.  The light embraced me, it is as if it consumed me...It was then that I realized that I no longer had the stress of a body, my lungs no longer had to work my intercostal muscles to breath, my heart no longer had to work to pump life sustaining blood to my organs.  I was free of the body...free of the daily stress of a physical existence.  I no longer felt fear or loneliness, or emotional pain.  There are no human words available to describe this.  It was a total immersion in God's love, in his light...as if I was in the presence of Christ himself...immersed in the Holy Spirit.  I could see, but not with my eyes, hear but not with my ears and so on.  It was the most beautiful thing that I have ever experienced in my life, before or since...it was not physical.  It was 100% spiritual. 

As this was going on I had no sadness or did I miss anyone or anything I was leaving behind.  It was as if I was also immersed in total understanding and knowledge of all things...there was no concept of time and space...only pure love and infinite wisdom, untold forgiveness and acceptance. 

But somehow I knew, though no words were spoken, that I had to return.  I did not want to but was not given a choice.  Then the light began to separate and fade.  That is when the feelings of dread and the stress of life began to re-enter my mind as I re-entered my earthly body.  I began to come too.  I was setting in a car at my house.  I wasn't sure where I was at first but then things began to make sense.  I looked at my friend and then at a pack of cigarettes on the dashboard.  I then distinctly remember saying. "I don't know who you are or who I am but I do remember I need a cigarette and with that I reached up, got a smoke and lit it up.  Then I looked at him again and asked, "What happened".  He looked at me with frustration as said, "for the fiftieth time, you fell out of a tree".   

I did not go to a Doctor until the following day because of a severe headache and body aches.  I felt very, very bad.  The Dr. told me I had a concussion and proceeded to chew on me for not calling an ambulance.  My buddy told me that he had taken the parachute and stuffed it into the trunk of his car located about 30 feet from the tree.  He said he heard a "thud" and found me lying on my back with one knee in the air.  He then said my eyes were slightly opened but I was not breathing.  He said he tried to wake me but couldn't and he thought I was dead, given the height of the fall.  He then didn't know what to do as we were nowhere near a phone.  This was 1979, mind you.  CPR was virtually unknown but my buddy had seen doctors on TV take their fists and pound someone on the chest to get their heart beating again, so...with the crudeness of an idiot that is exactly what he did.  On the third one I began to cough and roll over.  He said that is when I started to breath heavily and cough more.   

After a few minutes he said I rolled over and began to ask what happened.  After about thirty minutes he helped me up and to the car where I told him to just take me home.  I don't remember any of this to this day.  He said he got me in the car and drove around a bit to get some air and then drove out to my house about four miles south of town.  He said I kept asking what happened?  The hallmark of a concussion or subdural hematoma.  This is when I began to regain my conscience. 

I never told anyone of my experience but the height of the fall was between 25 and 30 feet.  I still don't remember any of it.  A few years had gone by and I was visiting my brother-in-law and told him of the experience one night.  He went to his library and brought back a book he had read that was published in the late 1800's in England with hundreds of documented cases that sounded just like mine.  I was amazed.  Since then I have played this all back in my mind a million times and have no explanation other than the possibility that I had died.

Was the kind of experience difficult to express in words? Yes    

At the time of this experience, was there an associated life threatening event?          Yes    

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness?    That is not known.  I apparently passed out as I was falling.

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal every day consciousness and alertness?    More consciousness and alertness than normal

If your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience was different from your normal every day consciousness and alertness, please explain:            That is not known.  I apparently passed out as I was falling.

Did your vision differ in any way from your normal, everyday vision (in any aspect, such as clarity, field of vision, colors, brightness, depth perception degree of solidness/transparency of objects, etc.)?  Yes     I could see but not with my eyes, I had no body that I was aware of...this is almost impossible to explain.

Did your hearing differ in any way from your normal, everyday hearing (in any aspect, such as clarity, ability to recognize source of sound, pitch, loudness, etc.)?            Uncertain     

Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body?     Yes

What emotions did you feel during the experience?            extreme peace, unlike I have ever felt.

Strangely, sometimes I could dream an event before it happened, nothing special as a matter-of-fact, very mundane events and it happened only once in a blue moon.  But one event took place that was extremely powerful.  We were having serious problems with our 18 year old son, who had become a heroin addict.  On the morning of January 12, 2008, I slept late.  Just before I awoke I had the most remarkable dream.  I dreamt that I was suddenly in a dimly lit room full of people who were sad, they were weeping as if at a funeral or wake.  I couldn't make out any faces but was clear of where I was.  I then found a door and opened it.  It opened to the outside and cold winter air rushed in all around me.  It was a cold, rainy/drizzly night and very hard to see through the fog when I saw an opening in he clouds just to my upper left.  Suddenly, I could see into the most beautiful night sky I had ever witnessed...the stars were so big and bright, then I saw a creature ascending up into the clearing...it was an angel, a big angel with huge feathered wings but it was not facing me, as a matter-of-fact it was facing 3/4 away from me.  What was clear to me was how large its wings were as it ascended, and I noticed that its wings were soiled and messy as if it had been in one heck of a fight.  I then realized this was a warrior angel, don't ask me how I knew that, it just came to me.  I also noticed it was carrying something in its arms and was apparently being very careful with it as if it had just rescued its cargo.  Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning it flashed away into the stars at the speed of light, just like that it was gone and I awoke,  it was 8:05 in the morning.  I then got up went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and my wife was there.  I told her about the most beautiful dream I had just had but also told her it made no sense.  We went on about our day.  At 8:30 that night a knock on the door brought us the news of the death of our son that day from a heroin overdose.  Suddenly the dream, or vision made all the sense in the world to me.  The coroner set the time of death at about 8:00 that morning.  It was as if God gave me another glimpse into his mercy because without it I do not think I could have survived the death of my only child.  I honestly believe he showed me the angel that fought for my son's soul, and won.

Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience you did not have prior to the experience?     No      

Have you shared this experience with others?         Yes     It was several years though I was very careful who I told,  those I told seemed to be amazed with it.

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience?    No      

How did you view the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened:            Experience was definitely real    I just couldn't shake it, it stayed on my mind constantly.

Were there one or several parts of the experience especially meaningful or significant to you?            yes, the sense and knowledge of forgiveness and acceptance.  This world does not respect either.

How do you currently view the reality of your experience:            Experience was definitely real            After studying the Bible for years since, it had become more and more clear to me that I got to experience a rare look into the afterlife.

Have your relationships changed specifically as a result of your experience?           No      

Have your religious beliefs/practices changed specifically as a result of your experience?            No            I was a Christian when this happened, it just helped to solidify my belief.

Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience?         No      

Is there anything else you would like to add concerning the experience?        No

Did the questions asked and information you provided so far accurately and comprehensively describe your experience?         Yes     you gave me the space needed to express my experience, thank you.