Claudine NDE

Experience Description

The next thing I knew after saying 'I'm cold' is that I was in outer space. I didn't have an identity or body at all, I didn't know who or what I was, there wasn't even a sense of an 'I', just that Being is its own consciousness. There was no sound, no temperature, no emotion. Below me was the planet earth, far far away and surrounded by darkness. It looked about the size of a melon if you were seeing it on the floor as an above average person in height.

When I saw it I had the thought: 'Oh yes, in that place there are things call 'Identity' and 'Addresses''. What these words represented was completely alien to me when I thought them, but I knew that they were things that had to be if one was a being on that planet. When I focused more I could sort of see sand colored shapes as if these were houses viewed from above, but only enough to support the concept of an address--whatever that was. My mood was one of very mild interest and complete detachment.

That observation was later the most remarkable part of the experience because it indicated to me that the way human societies on earth are organized is a kind of game with its own rules--rules that don't necessarily apply elsewhere and that can be dramatically and fundamentally different.

After coming to and re-collecting myself, I felt very flat for a few hours, as if I had no height at all.

Since then, I am certain that death is nothing to be feared, and I have been increasingly interested in the nature of reality. Although my ex-friend betrayed me, I count this experience as one of the best things that have happened to me.


Background Information:

Gender: Female

Date NDE Occurred: 1976

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Uncertain Someone gave me an overdose of a supposedly recreational drug. Other: 12-hour unconsciousness Due to the betrayal of my 'best' friend I was given a substance that was supposedly a marijuana extract of some kind. Being curious, I tried it expecting a slight buzz, in part because we were only in this apartment to pick up another party goer. However, I soon was losing consciousness and body temperature. When I came too it was the next day (12 hours later~) and I felt as if I were literally 'pulling myself together' because each leg and arm seemed to be somewhere far away in its own corner. By an act of will I re-membered myself.

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

Did you feel separated from your body? Uncertain. I saw the earth the way astronauts do but I don't know if it was the earth at that moment or if it was a representation. I lost awareness of my body

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? Normal consciousness and alertness Consciousness was normal except for a feeling of complete relaxation and 'laissez faire'

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? level of consciousness was the same throughout; no high or low points

Were your thoughts speeded up? No

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? No

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. same

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. there was nothing to hear expect my own thoughts

Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere, as if by ESP? 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? No

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

Did you see an unearthly light? No

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? Some unfamiliar and strange place As described in narrative: outer space, without a feeling of cold and with a bird's eye view of the planet earth.

What emotions did you feel during the experience? none

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 was your religion prior to your experience? Other or several faiths Inclined towards nature; spiritual without specific religion. Puzzled at the time as to why so many different beliefs could coexist if they all were supposedly telling it like it is---so to speak.

Have your religious practices changed since your experience? Uncertain This experience was one piece of a larger picture that all funneled me into researching and experimenting with my own states of consciousness (NB: not by using drugs)

What is your religion now? Other or several faiths Spiritual without denomination; now see religions as prone to corruption and lacking actual spiritual purity.

Did your experience include features consistent with your earthly beliefs? Content that was both consistent and not consistent with the beliefs you had at the time of your experience I didn't have any beliefs at the time because I had grown in foster families and an orphanage before being adopted at the age of 6.5. During those years I went through 3 different foreign languages and so rarely understood what people were saying around me until I was about 8 (when I finally learned English well enough to understand my environment... sort of. It was only when I studied sociology in college (in my 40s) that I understood a lot of the social expectations that had routinely puzzled me). This somewhat feral early life, I think, left me with a blank slate when it came to thinking about life and religion.

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes Saw myself as a form of consciousness rather than as a person. Valued a relationship with the universe more than with society.

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

During your experience, did you gain information about the existence of God? Uncertain Didn't get the impression that there is *A* Being but rather Being itself.

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? Yes I actively sense that I am fundamentally a part of a universal oneness of being that is diversifying itself into individual rays of being. That we each have voluntarily shaped our lives the same as if it were a journey with a brochure that spoke to our reasons for traveling, but that we don't really know how it will be until we take that chosen journey of being a specific person.

During your experience, did you gain information about the meaning of life? Uncertain Got the information that life on earth has its own rules of the game, so to speak and that there are other ways of being that are completely different from what we think of as the basic requirements for life and identity.

During your experience, did you gain information about an afterlife? An afterlife definitely exists Uncertain The implications of the *idea* of identity and addresses as a requirement of being on earth were: that not all of being operates on the same basis or with the same limitations as on earth.

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 As stated above: Got the information that life on earth has its own rules of the game, so to speak and that there are other ways of being that are completely different from what we think of as the basic requirements for life and identity.

During your experience, did you gain information about love? No

What life changes occurred in your life after your experience? Large changes in my life I viewed society thereafter as a limited arena and human beings as very ignorant of the big picture. I determined that I wasn't going to be someone who ignored the fact of being alive or who forsook the chance to expand my consciousness into finding out what was really going on when one has a human life.

Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? Yes I view the world as a plastic dream, albeit one with rules for its seeming constancy. I go first to my thoughts and feelings and examine what they are in order to change my conditions, present or future. By smoothing them out I am convinced that my reality will change, and it does...often dramatically.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? Uncertain The ongoing vividness of the experience (as if it happened this morning) and the feeling of no-self and yet consciousness, plus that of the concept of identity and addresses as pieces in one variation on the theme of being are very hard to convey. You had to be there to really 'get it'.

How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience? I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience. It wasn't a dream or a hallucination; it was a travel into another kind of consciousness of being.

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Uncertain When I was young, I often had hunches about things, for example, when in high school the answer to something would just pop into my head and would be correct, even when I didn't understand the answer itself (algebra, sociology). Or else I would have flights of ideas that everything was a thought, or that if my thoughts were in another person's mind then I would be that person and not the person that I seemed to be. After the time of this experience I would have images pop into my head as to what is going on at a distance and find it to be correct when i arrive. Increasingly I can sense people's motives and degree of sincerity, even if I see them on television rather than in person. When I telephone someone, I can tell by the sound of the ring if anyone is at available, or if they are there and will answer, or if they are there but don't want to answer. Often after the first couple of rings I just know that I'm going to get the voicemail and prepare what I'm going to say.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? Not being anyone and just being

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes Shared it several years later; didn't get any particular engagement from those whom I told. Sometimes a person would tell me their own experience of premonition or near death experiences.

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience? Uncertain I was reading some so-called New Age books and psychology books, including Monroe's 'Journeys out of Body' (I think that's the title), but no NDE material per se.

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was definitely real You could have offered me a billion dollars afterwards to say that it wasn't real, but I'd have to turn it down because it would make me a liar. Why does anyone think anything is real except that the nervous system is so imprinted by an experience that one has to say 'it really happened.'

What do you believe about the reality of your experience now? Experience was definitely real See above

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? It made me a better person.

Are there any other questions that we could ask to help you communicate your experience? I'm often confused in reading other people's accounts whether or not their 'life flashed before me out of my control' when the rest of their information doesn't have any mention about their life review.