Simile NDEs.
(There are so many claims that NDEs can be caused by drugs, or brain stimulation, that the issue has become confused. I am including these simile experiences to indicate like-NDEs happen without any drugs or brain stimulation. Real NDEs, where clinical death occurs, can not be reproduced by drugs or brain stimulation. Knowledgeable NDE researchers agree, drugs or brain stimulation can not cause NDEs.)I had an NDE (with a difference?) a fortnight ago, and since then have been scouring the Internet for info on anyone who has had a similar experience. I'm still shaken by it, and can do without anyone deriding it. Until it's happened to you, you might be sceptical, and I do appreciate that to some extent, but believe me I wouldn't go to the trouble of typing all this in if it wasn't genuine! I'm just hoping that maybe someone can draw a parallel -- or even just offer their opinion on what the experience is meant to signify. I've seen a few message boards, but thought I would post here first, although I don't know how widespread the newsgroup is.
By the way, I've never taken any mind-influencing substances of any description!
I'll try to condense it. I was asleep and suddenly felt a flashback of key events that had happened in my life, right from a very young age.
I remember "re-living" certain experiences (eg: starting school), even things I'd long forgotten. I remember feeling the same happiness, sadness, excitement, shock that I felt first time around. None of the incidents centered on family or relatives, strangely, but on how the events affected me (sporting achievements, receiving shocking news about certain things, moving home, etc.), thru adolesence, thru adulthood.
Then I was walking off a road near to where I live (nothing special about it -- don't know why that road) down into a bright valley. I was walking with a "faceless" woman at my side, who's presence felt just.... "right" (for want of a better word!) I started to feel the most unbelievable euphoria, happiness and contentment you cannot imagine. Honestly, it was totally indescribable.
The scenery was pleasant countryside, with a small village in the valley bottom, made of dozens of tiny hump-backed bridges and little houses and shops that looked "Dickensian" almost. My "guide" was leading me, hearing all my questions ("what's happening here? who are those people?" and so on) but always answering the same way -- that they had their business to do, I had mine, and I should not worry about them. They were pale, again, without faces I can picture, but bustling around and did not seem to be in distress or trouble. Yet nor did they seem to be as excited as me.
There was re-living of a couple of incidents which were intensely personal, and which I regret now, but I don't need to detail them here.
All of a sudden it was time to climb out of the valley with my guide, and though she was not touching me I nonethless felt many pairs of comforting arms around my back (though there was nobody there).
Comfort in addition to the supreme joy. I recall my saying over and over "I don't want to go yet. I want to stay here". Voices around me (not just from my guide) were saying "You have to go. Just be patient. Later. Later. Patience. One day".
I awoke suddenly, and for the next 30 seconds I could still feel the utter bliss and could hardly breathe, I was so happy. I was looking at my clock, evaluating what the time was and trying to work out if I should get up for work yet, but so happy that I didn't really care. Then the feeling faded in seconds and I caught my breath. The images were still right in my head though, (and the fact I can still picture certain aspects now, shows how strong they were).
No way did I think "That was a fantastic dream". Not for a second. It went far beyond a dream. The feeling had not been exciting in a sexual way or anything like that, just a feeling of "This is the whole point of existing", if that makes sense to anyone.
I had no-one at home to confide in, but after I'd managed to get dressed, I went around to my neighbour, still shaking. I could tell half of her thought "great dream", but later she started to open up and admit it must have been something out of the normal to get me in such a state. She is religious and wondered if I'd been given an insight into the afterlife -- and if so, I should be grateful, she said.
Re: my state of mind. I should mention that I had gone to bed as normal. I have not been recently thinking about life and death, or worrying about anything I assure you. I've never feared death (but just want it to be painless, when it comes!)
The voices saying it wasn't my time yet made me think "NDE?" hence my frantic research since. Nearly everyone else mentions being near death (medically). I wasn't. There was no "looking down on my body". There was no "white light", yet my guide had a glow around her. There was absolutely no "tunnel". There were no "relatives waiting to meet me". There was a flashback sequence though, and there was this joy unknown to everyone else, though, and that's why I am treating this as much more than a "dream".
My feelings now? More annoyance than trepidation. It hasn't "proved" anything for me about death. It's got me asking "What am I supposed to deduce from this? God (or whatever) shouldn't give me a sign of anything unless it's obvious what it is!" And anger that I want to feel that feeling again, too soon! --Anon
Makes perfect sense to me. You had a mystical experience, just like the ones you've probably read about in the Bible. I had one when I was 12- 14 and it changed my life. For a long time, NDE's were the only experience I could find that even approached what I'd experienced. As I got older, I eventually learned that I'd had a mystical experience, which can be a lot like a NDE, but not exactly the same. I also learned that they're a lot more common than you'd ever guess. Few people ever open up and talk about them, so it's like the question you hear kids ask when they hear the stories about God and angels, visions and voices, in the Bible -- which is why don't people today have those experiences?
Well, they do. They just don't talk about it. And because society doesn't accept that sort of thing, they have no way to assimilate them into their life. It confuses them more than inspires them.
In any case, when I was young and terribly unhappy (suicidal), I was lying on my bed asking God for the millionth time why my life was so painful. Suddenly the room disappeared, and while I knew I was still lying on my bed, my awareness was lifted up and expanded until I not only could experience all of existence, I became one with it. To say that it was breath taking would be a enormous understatement. Like you, I knew during the experience that "This is the whole point of existing".
The one thing that hit me so strongly afterwards that I kept repeating it for days was, "Everything is made out of Love, because everything is made out of God, and God "is" Love. But, if that's true, then why is the world so devoid of Love?" I've spent my life searching for the answer to that question, and as Robert Frost said in "The Road Less Taken," it's made all the difference!
Later...
dg - "Keep an open mind, not a blank one."
