Linda NDE

Experience Description

I was listening to the Art Bell show this a.m. (2-5-99) while delivering newspapers here in Tennessee. It felt so good to hear of others that have had NDEs. I have been told that I was totally crazy when I told of my experience some 40 years ago as a child of 5-6 years of age. I don't know if it is unusual or not for a child that young to have such an experience or not.

All I do know is that I did!!!! My experience happened during the summer. My father was trying to raise a kid the best way he could. I was a latch key kid way back then before it was talked about so publicly. He used to take me to a river where many other people were swimming to interact with other kids in my age bracket.

Unfortunately, the river had a drop off point in the middle of it. I didn't know how to swim. I remember going down for the third time, and realizing that I was not going to live. I was dying and I knew it. I didn't want to die. Next thing I knew was that I saw a tunnel with a bright light at the end of it. There were a bunch of people there. I knew they were relatives. I had a sense that my two grandfathers were there. Someone, I had a sense that one of the grandfathers was talking to me.

I was told that I HAD to go back, that I had some lessons to learn. I didn't want to go back, I wish at times that I didn't have to have come back but the grandfather was right, I did have lessons to learn. Next thing I knew, an arm was grabbing me. It was my father. He saved me!!!! I tried talking about my experiences, but no one ever believed me. EVER!!!!!!!! I have had 40 years to deal with this experience. I will be 46 years old in April. The ancestors (yes, I am convinced they were my grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and relatives that had passed on before) were right, There were lessons to be learned, oh so hard to learn. Overcoming drug addiction 13 years ago; learning to forgive the hurt and anger caused by circumstances above and beyond what I could control and other such things. The experience left me with a sense that death was not to be feared. That sometimes we are here to learn, grow and such.

It leaves me crying when I relive the experience. Totally devastated for a good 24 hours, as I didn't consciously ask to go through the lessons that I have had to learn. It has also left me a firm believer in reincarnation (had a series of dreams that were real, so don't know if that would be classified in the same category as NDE or not and some of the places of the dreams, I later found and saw to be real places). I guess it also left me with an enormous respect for life of all living things, of this earth.

I realize that I have had a long time of remembering and analyzing the experience I had but it did have such an impact on me. In a way, I count that as my birth, the start of my journey and also the feeling that I was different because of it. That I could really never be "normal" again. That I could never really be a part of what would be considered normal society ever again. I don't know if others have expressed that or not. I would be interested in knowing if others have expressed the same "feeling."

Thank you for listening.