CB Possible NDE

Experience Description

I was helping my Dad paint window exteriors at home, and jumped off of a high chair. My sneaker caught on a small tab sticking up on the chair edge. I fell and twisted my left knee, tearing the anterior collateral ligament. Three days of suffering later, my parents decided to take me to my Aunt's orthopedic specialist. The doctor examined my swollen knee, and drew three bowls of blood from it, relieving a lot of pain and pressure. He did the surgery the following morning.

While I was deep asleep, all of a sudden, I was floating above and behind the doctor's left shoulder, observing as he carefully sutured up my knee. I could hear classical music playing. I could see the nurse, the anesthesiologist, and myself. I remember feeling no pain, no temperature, nothing but interest in the work the doctor was doing with those stitches. If I recall correctly, there were over 50 of them.

Then, I recall waking up in recovery. I was very sleepy, fell to sleep again, and woke up in my room. My Mom and my sister came in to see me. They had a newspaper, and on the front page my buddy, who went to vocational technical school with me, had died in a car accident. I was really traumatized by that. The details of his death were just gruesome.

Background Information:

Gender: Female

Date NDE Occurred: August 1975

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? No Surgery-related. While under general anesthesia Illness, trauma or other condition not considered life threatening

How do you consider the content of your experience? Neither pleasant NOR distressing

The experience included: Out of body experience

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes There may have been two or three others behind me, but I am really not sure, I felt a presence of them, as observers. I clearly left my body and existed outside it

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? Normal consciousness and alertness

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? While the surgeon was closing my knee with many stitches.

Were your thoughts speeded up? No

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning

Were your senses more vivid than usual? No

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I am very near-sighted. During this experience my vision was crystal clear.

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. Normal hearing

Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere? No

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? No

Did you see any beings in your experience? No

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? Uncertain Those I felt behind and with me; a sense of knowing they were there for me, that I knew them, that it was normal for them to be there, like they always were there or something, it's hard to explain.

Did you see, or feel surrounded by, a brilliant light? No

Did you see an unearthly light? Uncertain I can only describe that the two or three individuals behind me may have emitted a pale white glow, but I'm not really sure.

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? No

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Normal, inquisitive, paying attention

Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness? Relief or calmness

Did you have a feeling of joy? No

Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe? No

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? No

Did scenes from your past come back to you? No

Did scenes from the future come to you? No

Did you come to a border or point of no return? No

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What importance did you place on your religious/spiritual life prior to your experience? Slightly important to me

What was your religion prior to your experience? Christian- Other Christian

Have your religious practices changed since your experience? No I think it was simply good confirmation that we are not simply stuck in these physical bodies.

What importance do you place on your religious/spiritual life after your experience? Greatly important to me

What is your religion now? Christian- Other Christian

Did your experience include features consistent with your earthly beliefs? Content that was entirely not consistent with the beliefs you had at the time of your experience I recalled this after really totally becoming awake and aware in my room after the recovery room. I was amazed and this experience was simply one unusual thing that happened with me, and there were other very strange experiences in my life, especially with dreams that were like a blueprint of an event that would occur a month after the dreams. This was definitely an out of body experience, for me.

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes I became so much more open, social, and happier than I had been for a long time.

Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice? No

Did you see deceased or religious spirits? No

Did you encounter or become aware of any beings who previously lived on earth who are described by name in religions (for example: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.)? No

During your experience, did you gain information about premortal existence? No

During your experience, did you gain information about universal connection or oneness? No

Did you believe in the existence of God prior to your experience? God definitely exists

During your experience, did you gain information about the existence of God? Yes I have to answer Yes here, simply because I have always known that God and Jesus do exist and are, I have always been aware of this, since I can remember being a small child. It is not a belief for me. It is a knowing.

Do you believe in the existence of God after your experience? God definitely exists

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? No

Did you believe that our earthly lives are meaningful and significant prior to your experience? Are meaningful and significant

During your experience, did you gain information about the meaning of life? No

Did you believe in an afterlife prior to your experience? Unknown

Do you believe in an afterlife after your experience? An afterlife definitely exists Yes I was me, even outside of my physical body, I had simply detached from the physical me, if that makes any sense at all.

Did you fear death prior to your experience? I greatly feared death

Do you fear death after your experience? I do not fear death

Were you fearful living your life prior to your experience? Not fearful in living my earthly life

Were you fearful living your life after your experience? Not fearful in living my earthly life

Did you believe that our earthly lives are meaningful and significant prior to your experience? Are meaningful and significant

Did you believe that our earthly lives are meaningful and significant after your experience? Are meaningful and significant

Did you gain information about how to live our lives? No

During your experience, did you gain information about life's difficulties, challenges and hardships? Yes I had a knowing, I do not know how else to describe it, but I could 'see' the Dr, Nurse, Anesthesiologist in a way that I knew that they knew exactly what they were doing, as if I experienced their experience during my surgery, at the time I was observing

Were you compassionate prior to your experience? Greatly compassionate toward others

During your experience, did you gain information about love? Yes I could feel the love, of all the people in the room, but that is normal for me.

Were you compassionate after your experience? Greatly compassionate toward others

What life changes occurred in your life after your experience? Large changes in my life Large changes in my life. It has been almost forty years. I have been through the trenches, let me tell you. I have lost so many loved ones, including my soul mate of 22 years, who died from a surgical mistake and sepsis, after a long and debilitating illness, which was a roller coaster ride for both of us. He died 11/3/2012. He appeared to me when he died, just before I received the call to come back to the hospital, which I had left in order to get rest after eighteen hours of hell. He was not a saint, and did not believe in anything but himself, until a year before he died, when he finally told me he did believe, and I was so thankful. Well, in my waking dream, he was young, beautiful, and jumping up and down happy, saying, CB, 'you were right, it is all true!!! I'm free, I'm free!!!' That was when the phone rang. He died, they put him on life support, and when I arrived at the hospital with my best friend, and saw the state my friend was in, I could see by his eyes, that he was gone. They were fixed and dilated. It was very hard, for me, and if I had not had that dream experience, that was so real, I do not think I could have kept going. Not to say the loss of my best friend in life, and my soul mate was easy: I felt exactly like one-half of me was GONE. There have been many unusual events in my life that simply defy normal explanation.

Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? Yes Yes I was devastated by the loss of my friend who died in the horrific car accident, but having this experience helped me to sense he was only dead physically.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? No

How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience? I do not know how my remembrance of the experience compares to my remembrance of other life events at time

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes I must write, that I have had what I know to be psychic experiences throughout my life and before this event.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? Being able to feel what each person in the operating room was feeling about the importance of the work they were doing, was very meaningful to me.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes It has been so long, I am certain I shared it with family but I don't know if my sister remembers. Others I conveyed this to, are already gone.

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience? No

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was definitely real I had an out of body experience during knee surgery.

What do you believe about the reality of your experience now? Experience was definitely real Reality is what it is, as far as I know. This happened, and it happened with me.

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? No