Shelley R NDE

Experience Description

See answers below

Background Information:

Gender: Female

Date NDE Occurred: my experiences have been numerous. I had a near death experience at age 4 that I think has pre-disposed me to these kinds of experiences

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event?

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes This has happened a few times for me... once when I was four and had a shallow, brief near death experience. I was drowning in a pool; I felt a burst of panic, as I want under the water. I remember (like it was yesterday) sinking to the bottom, looking up at the surface above me, then everything got very bright and peaceful, and next thing I knew I was above the indoor pool near the roof, watching my uncle wade through the water to where I was. He had a look of almost panic on his face, and I watched as he picked me out of the water and put me on the side of the pool. I then went back into my body and choked and gasped as my parents stood over me arguing about who was supposed to be watching me.

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? Severe sadness and/or grief feelings

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? Fully 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 ‘out of time' time did not exist in that place/moment

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I have seen my deceased son and husband in two kinds of dreams. There are the kinds of dreams that I call ‘common’ dreams. These are the fragmented, disjointed, often bizarre dreams that we all have very often. I believe these ‘common’ dreams reflect the issues, fears, concerns, hopes etc. that we have in our wakeful periods, and are reflected in our dreams. The other kind of ‘dream’ is much more rare; it is the kind of ‘experience’ that feels real; it has a sequence of events that follow each other in a more logical way, even though what is experienced in the ‘dream’ can be otherworldly and fantastical if measured against our awake reality. These ‘dreams’ are (I believe) instructional and are real visits and messages, meant to help us, or inform us.

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I heard everything in my ‘mind's ear’ or it was communicated telepathically to me. Sometimes knowledge and understanding of something would descend on me and I would just ‘know’ something that was whole. Something it would have taken a long time to hear, learn and ‘know’ in the earthly way of learning and communicating.

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? Uncertain good, normal familial issues

Did you see an unearthly light? Yes Not a light at the end of a tunnel, as described in so many NDEs; but I was surrounded by light and peace.

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

What emotions did you feel during the experience? I had been talking about Jim and was being kind of maudlin. I got the impression that he was thinking, ’well, I've heard enough of this.’ He didn't seem mad, just matter of fact, laid back and sort of in his ‘here's Shelley being Shelley, but I love her anyway’ mode.

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? Everything about the universe I felt that all was well, I was feeling no emotion....only mildly interested in what was happening to the ‘me’ in the pool.

Did scenes from the future come to you? No

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 don't fear death.

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? Yes It confirmed what other of these experiences have shown me: that ‘life’ is eternal, that love and relationships transcend death, that the spirit plane/dimension is all around us.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? Yes The experiences are sometimes very difficult to explain, not because I can't find the words to tell in literal terms what has occurred, but because they are multilayered experiences that come with otherworldly means of communication and feelings that are not translatable. Part of what makes the experience authentic and ‘real’ is the overwhelming spiritual feeling that is not definable or expressible. My efforts to tell the experience results in the loss somehow of the beauty and singularity of it.

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 more intuitive, I have had many experiences of spirit, and have had some (a few) premonition type experiences.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? It was what it was. I can't think of a best or worst.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes People are polite, I don't know that they believe or take seriously my experiences when I've told them.

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was definitely real I was WIDE awake, I'm a normal, reasonably bright person. Fairly practical, even cynical about some things. I am not religious, though I do believe in the existence of another plane/dimension. Perhaps innumerable dimensions.

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