Patti LL NDE

Experience Description

The Circumstances:

In June 1973, I was a student in mu early 20s. I had been hitch-hiking across Canada, from Winnipeg to Newfoundland, for a few weeks until my summer job started. I had hitchiked quite a bit down to California the year before, but I never hitch-hiked in the dark. Unfortunately, a particular situation made me break my one safety rule. I found myself in a situation where I knew the person had 'other plans' for me other than just giving me a ride. When I realized this, I tried to jump out of his moving car. I figured a broken leg and bruised body was better than what he had in mind. He grabbed my arm, pulled the car off a dark highway, and when I started to run, he caught me. I turned into a screamer despite nobody being around. He then started to strangle me. I lost consciousness.

I don't know how long I was out, I think it was only 2 to 3 minutes at most. Amazingly, when I awoke he had let go of his grip of me. I ran into the forest. He tried to find me, and when he couldn't he drove off. I stayed in the forest for what felt like hours. Then, when I felt like he had really left, I walked back to the highway. The police picked me up when they saw me dropping into a ditch. I was afraid my assailant was coming back. It turned out that the few details I used to describe the man, matched the description of a man responsible for at least two serious rapes in the area. One woman was still in hospital. To this day, I believe I came very close to being strangled. Everyday, I feel very thankful that I have lived. I will be age 70 in August of this year, so this happened nearly 47 years ago. My memory is still very vivid about the day it happened.

My Experience:

The stranger had tried to stop me from screaming by putting his hands firmly around my neck. I knew I was being strangled and I could feel myself drifting away.

Suddenly, I saw a type of Kaleidoscope and I was in the middle of it. It was like I was watching several large TV or film screens at a time. I viewed different times in my life. It was a Kaleidoscope of my hitch hiking experiences. I saw different experiences going round and round. I saw my mom pulling at me not to go hitchhiking. I saw a girlfriend telling me how concerned she was for me about my hitchhiking. I saw a TV news program talking about a girl that had been hitchhiking and had been murdered. I also saw other situations of myself hitchhiking. All of these experiences I had had, but some, like the TV news show, I had forgotten until this situation brought it back to my memory.

I then felt myself going through a very light, bright area. It was not really a defined tunnel, but rather an area of light and extreme peace. I was somewhat aware of the world below, but it felt so peaceful and so loving in this space that I was drawn with and towards this light. I then became aware of a voice, but I don't think it was a real voice. I was aware of someone saying, 'Have you learned your lesson yet?' That struck me as such a profound, sad question, being in the situation I was in. I could only respond or at least thought, 'Yes, but unfortunately, it's too late now.' After a pause of reflection, the response to me was, 'It's not your time yet. You still have work to do.' Part of me wanted to just keep going up with the light because it was so peaceful and so loving.

Suddenly, I was back to the ground on earth. The man had let go of strangling me, and I ran off as described above. I know I was in shock, but I totally remembered what I had just experienced. All that happened must have just been for a minute or two, but it seemed like a lifetime had gone by. I considered it a miracle that I was alive.

The Aftermath:

This experience has been with me for the rest of my life. I have read stories of people in books that have said that they have had 'Near Death Experiences', but I never really knew anyone else. I spoke to a few friends, but because they hadn’t experienced this, they really didn't understand it. I also worked in psychiatry in the 1970’s and 1980’s, after I received my nursing degree. I was reluctant to discuss it in that environment, for fear I would be judged 'crazy'. But I knew I wasn’t.

A few months ago one of my Female friends was dying. We were talking about a number of things. It turns out that she had a near death experience as a child, around 8 years old. She nearly drowned at a lake. Her older brother did drown at the time. She had not shared this with anyone, so it was amazing that both of us had a similar experience with the light, and a voice telling us to go back and do our 'work'. It was wonderful to share something so close with someone who had been through such a similar experience. We were both glad to share this with each other, but sadly, she died just a few weeks later. Strangely, a couple of months ago, I was talking to a Toastmasters friend who I have know for 20+ years and we got on the topic of 'out of body experiences.' He related a similar experience where he was also told to return to earth 'because he still had work to do'. I find this so amazing, that after all these years of not sharing this experience with anyone, that I find out that two of my best friends have gone through this experience too with all of us returning to earth after having been given a similar message of 'having work to do' back on earth.

I know this experience has affected me all my life. I always think about what 'work' I have to do, and I try to make it my 'highest' purposeful work to contribute to society. Although it doesn't always happen that way, I try to have that as my goal. In life, I have been a nurse, a counsellor, a mother of two beautiful children and now my first 'real' grandchild, although my second husband and I have five wonderful 'step-grandkids'. Personally, I have always been an ‘explorer’ of life, exploring poetry, writing, singing and painting. One thing that is quite interesting, is that after ‘my near death experience’ I have never really been scared of dying because I know there is something very special happening after death. I have studied Buddhism, and other philosophies that explore the meaning of life, but I really don't believe (although I was raised Catholic), that we are doomed to something as sinister as hell. I also believe that for the most part, organized religion is not doing a good job of things. For that reason, I have not been associated with any particular religion since my younger years with my parents.

I have retired a few years ago, and have done a lot of travelling, but it isn't until this past couple of months, that I seem to have gravitated towards doing a lot of spiritual reading. My friend, Lydia who had been through a similar NDE, recently died. She was very spiritual and started talking to me about exploring spirituality more. Every book I read now, seems to be following that path. In fact, it was when I was looking for a particular book, that I found out about the Near Death Experience Forum, and here I am filling out this questionnaire.