My Experience
In 2000, I had open heart surgery. About three days post op, they took me out of bed and placed me in a reclining chair. I tipped back. I had hoses coming out of my chest draining reddish fluid out of my chest.
I shut my eyes, and immediately found myself alone in another place, and I truly felt alone. I was in a narrow valley, and everything was in full technicolor. There was a feeling about the place, like no one had been there for hundreds of years. It was a forgotten place. I was a consciousness suspended in mid air. I could see everywhere, everywhere I sent my attention. All around were monuments that were all identical. Somehow they're purpose seemed long forgotten.
In front of me, just below me, on a flat terrace lay a giant birds wing. It seemed to be made of cast iron, and had a brown patina. I would judge it to be about 10ft. long. The wing tip was pointing in my diretion. I felt suspended like I couldn't move. As I looked around me, I could see other terraces with the same monument. I looked up the hill and saw them. I looked across the valley and saw others. What a forgotten alone feeling I, and the place I was in had.
Then way off in the distance I heard a voice, so faint I could hardly hear it. It seemed to be calling me. The monument below me began to break apart feather by feather, and as it did, the feathers each became like dark shadows and floated in a stream in the direction of the voice. Finally, my consciousness seemed able to move, and I followed after the stream. When I finally got back there was a nurse standing there with some medication for me to take.
I don't know what happened. Perhaps my heart stopped for a few seconds, I don't know. I do know that I was a consciousness, and I didn't have a body. I could think, I could feel, I could see. I was still me, and the place seemed real. I don't know what to make of it, and I have never considered it a near death experience. However, I remember it vividly to this very day. -- D.W.
