Anthony N NDE

Experience Description

I had just gone into my bedroom at 9:15 in the evening; I had turned my alarm on for the next morning and sat on the bed when I had a massive asthma attack. I fell back on the bed and tried to call out to my parents but didn't have the breath. As the attack increased in severity, I found that I couldn't move. This part was entirely conscious.

As I blacked out (I guess through lack of oxygen) I heard a voice by my ear. The tone and cadence of the voice was one of absolute caring, and totally calm, which was in stark contrast to the panic I was feeling at not being able to breath. The voice was not mine, and it told me not to worry, it was going to look after me and I was to follow it. At this point, I left my body and was looking down on myself lying on the bed with my eyes open. I was now totally calm and unafraid. The voice told me it wanted to show me something and I felt myself traveling very fast toward a light, as I went through the light I found myself flying in another world.

Everything in this other world was made of what I can only describe as liquid light. Everything was alive, the ground, the mountains even the sky. The voice was still with me and during this experience never left me. It told me that where I was the 'real' world and that I had a job to do whilst I was there. I alighted on the side of a bare earth mountain; there were no trees grass or rivers etc. There was light everywhere but no sun, the light seemed to come within everything, even the air.

On this mountain about halfway up was a large boulder. On the boulder was a glowing golden brick (I know how this must sound). The voice told me that I was to build a garden on the mountain and that every year a brick would appear on the top of the boulder and with the bricks, I was meant to build a path up the mountain from the base to the boulder. I was told to plant trees that appeared as acorns etc. at the top of the mountain.

I was there for a VERY long time, in which time the voice was always present, I never felt alone and I never questioned why I was there, I was totally at peace, and feelings of absolute joy and unconditional love pervaded me the entire time. I knew that the voice was the most trustworthy person/thing in the universe. As the years passed I watched the trees grow, the flowers and grass I planted also grew, the color of the flowers weren't of any color I have ever seen, like there was twenty different colors in the rainbow there, I couldn't describe them as there's just no frame of reference to what they looked like.

I was taught a lot of things, and was able to, for want of a better phrase, 'see into people's souls' and understood in an instant all the ramifications of all our actions on each other, that anger is borne of pain or fear, and many other teachings about what I now think of as the human condition. Then I saw everyone on the planet interconnected on these lines, and a feeling of such overwhelming love and empathy went through me I felt like my heart was going to explode.

The last brick appeared on the boulder some two thousand and five hundred years after I had first arrived. I was aware of every year, this was not dreamlike, it was 'real time' if that makes any sense. The path now stretched form the base to the boulder but over the years, the boulder had gradually changed shape and now looked square like some sort of alter. The trees I had initially planted had grown, the bows and braches had arched, and the trunks thicken to form what I can only describe as a temple at the top of the mountain. The voice told me that the first part of my job was finished and I now had to set foot upon the path. I went to the bottom of the mountain and put a foot onto the path.

At this point, the most searing, unbearable pain tore through me but the voice told me not to step off the path. I asked what the pain was as it wasn't physical, it felt like (and this again sounds bizarre) but it felt like a spiritual pain. The voice told me that it was the pain of the least sin I would commit against my own soul. It was conveyed to me that this didn't mean sin in any religious sense, but specifically it was the pain of the wound to my own soul that I myself would commit in my lifetime. I continued up the path and each time I stepped onto another brick, the pain was worse than the one before until nearing the top I told the voice I couldn't finish.

The voice was kind and patient and said that it was with me and that I would finish but I needed to learn the lessons it was teaching. I got extremely angry at this point and asked why I had been brought here for all this time in order to experience such terrible pain. I continued to the end of the path with the encouragement and presence of what was now I understood to be some higher spiritual being. I reached the entrance to the tree temple, went inside, and saw the only other being I saw the entire time I was there. It had its back to me and was kneeling as though in prayer.

I was angry again and I rushed up to this figure saying that I now knew that everything was real so why did I have to experience all the pain. The figure stood up and turned around, and it was indescribable, a being of perfection and what I can only be described as made out of pure love. I knew that this was the source of the voice. I was dumbstruck after all that had happened and could only say, 'I can see you.' The being touched me on my cheek gently, and said simply, 'And now you know. It is time to go back now.' I was also told that the garden I had created would exist there forever, and I would return there one day.

As I walked with the being back out of the tree temple I saw for the first time other people coming to the garden and sitting on the grass, looking at the flowers, talking and laughing. The being smiled and said, 'See what you've accomplished here.' I felt completely overwhelmed, but I was then immediately transported back into my body, which I immediately felt as being incredibly heavy and cloying and almost unnatural. The asthma attack had totally passed, and I checked the clock, which said 9:23 pm. The entire experience had taken about eight minutes from my initial attack to being 'back'. I've never reported this before as I guess most people would say it was an hallucination. I can only say that it was more 'real' than anything I have experienced in this world.

Background Information:

Gender: Male

Date NDE Occurred: 9/12/1987

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Uncertain Illness Life threatening event, but not clinical death Asthma attack.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Positive

The experience included: Out of body experience

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes When looking down on myself, I was just pure consciousness with no body, in the 'other' place I had physical form, but my body like everything else there was like it was made of liquid light.

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? Completely conscious and alert.

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning I was there for over two thousand and five hundred years in my experience.

Did your hearing differ in any way from normal? One voice I conversed with over a considerable number of years.

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? Yes It was extremely brief and fast.

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? Yes The voice always and eventually meeting the owner of the voice at the end and then seeing other people coming into the garden when it was finished.

The experience included: Light

Did you see an unearthly light? Yes The light was alive.

The experience included: A landscape or city

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm A definite other 'world'.

The experience included: Strong emotional tone

The experience included: Special Knowledge

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? Everything about the universe Everything is of one; everything is part of everything else. On a more practical level whilst I was there any knowledge I wanted I immediately knew. When I came back a lot of this knowledge stayed with me, I knew the answers to things intuitively without having to study; I ended up taking Philosophy at Oxford University.

The experience included: Life review

Did scenes from your past come back to you? My past flashed before me, out of my control The effects that everything I had ever said or done had on those around me.

The experience included: Vision of the future

Did scenes from the future come to you? No

Did you come to a border or point of no return? I came to a barrier that I was not permitted to cross; or was sent back against my will I was told it was time to come back. I had reached an understanding that I had completed what I had been brought there to do.

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What was your religion prior to your experience? Liberal

What is your religion now? Liberal

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes I'm certainly not afraid of death, nor do I regard it as the end. I am very aware of my own actions and how I relate to others and the world in general.

The experience included: Presence of unearthly beings

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? No

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes I have been visited by people as they died or just after they have died, including family member and friends of my family. This has happened both in experiences whilst asleep that are very different from dreams, and consciously whilst awake. I know what that sounds like; I don't regard myself as being especially religious or indeed spiritual. Bizarre as this must sound after everything I've written above, I regard myself as being a rational, down to earth and practical person. I don't buy into any new stuff etc. But the experiences I have had and continue to have are (sometime annoyingly) real in my experience. I make no claims as to their provability but I have passed on messages for various people in the last fifteen or so years, it doesn't happen often and I certainly do not make any personal gain from it, quite the opposite in some cases as I have been ridiculed (understandably I guess) on some occasions.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? I was so young when it happened that for a number of years afterwards I looked on the future as being something to have to get through in order to get back there; I have come to an understanding and a peace with this in the last few years. The best thing is that I know that this is not all there is.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? No

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? No

Is there anything else that you would like to add about your experience? I know it sounds insane!