Elaine G's NDE

Experience description: 

age 4, summer morning, Glasgow, Scotland, not long after a garbage strike which saw an infestation of dock rats in my neighborhood, requiring the army to come out and kill them.  I was excited, as it was the first time in a while that we were allowed to go outside.  I was in the company of three other friends at the time.  an older boy had climbed atop a "dike", ( a wall between tenement buildings), and threw a large live rat at us.  the rat bit into my face, and my heart stopped.

my mother, on the 11th floor of the building, ran down the stairs to get me.  I was dead for about 3 or 4 minutes, I guess, but I don't really recall the time, it's an assumption about how long it took her to get down the stairs, and get my heart started again (she's a registered nurse). 

I felt weightless, and calm.  All around me was a green meadow, and it was still and quiet.  it was bright sunshine.  I felt no threat at all, and , in fact, have never to this day felt so at ease as I did at that moment.  There were figures, human, one was a woman, and I have the impression that she was a dead person related to me, although I have no idea who she was.  I was told that it simply was not time for me to go, and that I had to go back.  I didn't want to, but I didn't have a choice, I started to breathe again, and the panic, and pain set in.

I know that I feel perfectly calm about death to this day, and have spoken to many who are in fear of it.  thank you

Elaine G

Was the kind of experience difficult to express in words? No      

At the time of this experience, was there an associated life threatening event?          Yes     I had an older boy throw a huge live dock rat (the size of a cocker spaniel) at my head. At the age of four, this could be considered life threatening. That my heart stopped would tend to back that up

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness?    I would say about a few seconds into the experience

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:            I felt perfect clarity, like there were no other questions, and everything that existed , existed right there in that meadow. I rarely feel that calm now, as there is always some other question to ask.

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     everything was so clear, the green of the meadow was almost something you could feel, it was bright, but not glaring. There was no pain in any of it. It was just THERE.

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.)?
            Yes     it was still and quiet, but not without sound, just without jarring sound. Nothing was a distraction

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

What emotions did you feel during the experience?            peace, and calm, and warmth. I felt protected and safe

Did you see a light?           Yes     it wasn't a bright light, or a light from a tunnel.  it was all around me  like a beautiful sunny day, but without seeing the sun, the light was just there

Did you meet or see any other beings?           Yes     I'm not sure how many, they were in front of me. I had the feeling that I SHOULD have known them, and feel to this day that they were relatives, although I couldn't say for sure. I was told that I would be all right, but that it wasn't time for me to stay, and that I had to go back.

Did you see or visit any beautiful or otherwise distinctive locations, levels or dimensions?           Yes            I was in a beautiful green meadow, filled with light.  it was calm, still and quiet

Did you have any sense of altered space or time?   Uncertain      I couldn't have been out too long, maybe only 3 or 4 minutes, but it felt like a lot longer, like I was in that field all day.

I have never been in another meadow like it, so perhaps altered space?

Did you have a sense of knowing special knowledge, universal order and/or purpose?     Yes     I was left with the notion that death is nothing to fear, and that we don't stop being simply by dying.

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure? Uncertain      I don't truly understand, and I believe if I had been out longer, this may have been something I would understand.

Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience you did not have prior to the experience?     Uncertain      perhaps a gift would describe it best, an ability to put others at ease when they are frightened.

Have you shared this experience with others?         Yes     I have always accepted and spoke of what happened to me, save for a few years while in high school, when I didn't want to have it put out there for ridicule.  A lot of people don't accept it at all.  For some, however, it has given them a rope to hang on to, I hope.

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    as I was very young when it happened, I believe I simply accepted it as being a perfectly natural experience.  there are times when I believe that that meadow was what was real, and everything else has somehow skewed that perfection somehow.

Were there one or several parts of the experience especially meaningful or significant to you?    the meadow itself is so clear in my mind, and to this day, it's still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

seeing people at all, and knowing they were dead, and yet still there to talk to me and comfort me was an incredibly powerful thing---that it doesn't all end, that we continue.

I have, of course, been afraid of rats since then, but am seeking to get over that.

How do you currently view the reality of your experience:            Experience was definitely real    I understand some of the science of what may have happened, brain chemistry that makes you feel euphoric, etc.  Yet, this doesn't remove any of the experiences reality for me.  it may not be the reality for everyone, but for me, in that moment, it was, and continues to be, very real.  it's like I carry that meadow around with me, inside, and when stuff gets hairy, I can go back.  not anywhere close to the same intensity, but it's like a picture I have brought with me

Have your relationships changed specifically as a result of your experience?           Uncertain      as I was very young, I don't really have a clear way to tell, as I have nothing to compare it to.  I know that other people I know panic about death and dying, and I know that I don't, and so know that this makes me a little different from them, in that regard

Have your religious beliefs/practices changed specifically as a result of your experience?            Yes            I was baptized as a protestant, and, although our family was never a very religious one, I knew from a pretty early age (maybe 7 or 8) that what was described in the bible didn't come close to what I felt.  I became a pagan, worshipping nature

Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience?         Yes     as a teenager I dabbled in drug use, although nothing came close to recreating the force of that experience at 4. And so, disappointed, I gave that up.

I have had several episodes of déjà-vu.  at 26, while giving birth to my son, I was near death, and feared for my son's life.  I remember making a sort of a bargain , offering my life, if my son would be born safe and healthy.  I was again approached by someone, who I believe to be my maternal grandmother, deceased for some 30 years, who told me that my son would be okay, but that I was never, ever, to try to carry a child again, or the experience would kill me.