Dianne B NDE

Experience Description

I was 2-3 months old. I remember finding myself up against the ceiling and looking down at a baby. The baby was lying on its stomach and very unwell. As I looked at the baby I said (unconsciously) “that poor baby is so sick”. I felt so much remorse and sadness because the baby felt terrible, it was roasting with fever and couldn’t breathe. I looked across the room and saw a glass humidifier emitting steam. I realized the baby had pneumonia. I then had a panoramic vision of the room. The baby wasn’t in a nursery, but a dining room with the table and chairs pushed across the room so the crib could fit. The room had wallpaper with ships on it and olive drab full length curtains. The room looked out to the front of the house with two big windows with bushes in front of them. It was dark and the house was quiet.

I realized (years later) that the baby was me and when I was about 4 years old I walked into the kitchen of our “new” house and recanted this story to my mother. Everything I had told her was true. I had pneumonia when I was 3 or so months old. They had moved my crib downstairs because the master bedroom was downstairs and they knew I was seriously Ill. I described the room to a tee including the vaporizer that I can still describe. It had a rick-rack pattern around it, like Charlie Brown's shirt. My mother asked me several times “who told you this?” because we had moved from that house when I was still very young . I remember it now like I remembered it then. It’s just a vivid 56 years later. What I remember most was the empathy I had. I was so sad and felt almost guilty that the baby was so sick. As I grew up, febrile seizures “were a way of life” for me. I would spike a fever in a 1/2 hour sometimes and have seizures. Each time I got sick (and I was sick a lot) that same guilt would spread over me. So odd.

Background Information:

Gender: Female

Date NDE Occurred: Oct/Nov 1966

NDE Elements:

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

How do you consider the content of your experience? Both pleasant AND distressing

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes See my story above. 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? More consciousness and alertness than normal I remember everything in minute detail during this event. Pictures on the walls, wallpaper pattern, vapor from The vaporizer. Everything was stored in my memory and nothing has become an amalgam

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? Floating above myself. The room was dark but I could see everything perfectly.

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 There was no sense of time at all. I could have been floating for 10 seconds…or an hour…I have no idea

Were your senses More vivid than usual? Incredibly more vivid

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. See above.

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I didn’t hear much. A hum from the vaporizer but that’s it.

Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere? Yes, and the facts have been checked out

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? No

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Empathy, sadness and real deep guilt.

Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness? No

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? Everything about myself or others Just that I realized the baby was myself and I was very sick

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? Unaffiliated- Agnostic None

Have your religious practices changed since your experience? No

What is your religion now? Christian- Protestant Non-practicing Lutheran

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 was only 2-3 months old so I hadn’t lived long enough to form any beliefs.

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Uncertain

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? No

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

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

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

During your experience, did you gain information about an afterlife? Yes Just that I was floating above myself and was no longer sick.

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? No

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

What life changes occurred in your life after your experience? The only thing I can report is my level of empathy growing up and as an adult are nothing like what I felt then. I would call myself largely flat on the empathy scale. I worry and feel guilty but I work hard at trying to feel how others feel and I make a conscious effort to be empathetic. It doesn’t come naturally. I have lived with tremendous guilt my entire life for no real reason. As a child, when I got sick, I wouldn’t tell my mother. The guilt of being sick (again) would make me hide the illness from her. The guilt is real. It’s a terrible way to grow up. I’m writing this and feeling guilty! :/

Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? No

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 remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience This was far more vivid; the recollection is still vivid and the deep feeling of guilt and empathy are just as fresh today as it was then.

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes I was an infant when this happened but the day my mother died. I felt her floating above us in the hospital waiting room. I knew she had died during surgery but didn’t share it with my brothers who were with me. She had died and a nurse came down and told us she rallied and was in recovery. I dismissed my feelings about my mother floating as an odd feeling. About 10 minutes later they came back to tell us there was a mix up with patients and my mom had died a half hour before. I felt her energy and I knew she was with us. Another event was years before - I was married to my first husband who was particularly cruel to me. It had been years of emotional beatings and one night he was more cruel than usual and said something that crushed my soul. I walked out of the room because I didn’t want him to see that he had hurt me. I went down stairs and composed myself. When I came upstairs, I could see above a kitchen cabinet, a grey floating, undulating vaporish thing. I could see through it somewhat. I knew instinctively that it was my guardian angel. It was there because I was in an emotional well so deep I didn’t think I’d be whole again. It made me feel instantly “less broken” and I was so grateful

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes My mom about the first occasion. The other with the guardian angel-no one knows about this

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

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

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