ADC during a Near-death episode

In 1988 I was involved in an unfortunate mishap that caused a serious internal injury (Tension pneumothorax.) I was with a large group of guys and we were sort of playing around. One of them lost control of his temper and his actions led to me tripping over my feet. When I landed on the ground, I was laughing extremely hard at his actions. He was proving my point and didn't realize it. Anger makes us do and act in a way that takes over and makes us look very ugly. 

Something happened while I was laughing and I found myself unable to breathe correctly. To make a very long story short. I suffocated to death on an internal organ that blocked the passageway in my windpipe. When the call for help went out to 911, -- I had lost consciousness. Every one else said I had died. I was without the physical signs of life. No pulse and no breath. By the time the ambulance arrived, I had been in that state for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

I liked the idea of looking back now and saying, "I laughed myself to death."  What a way to go. 

The Paramedics checked my vital signs and asked questions about how long I had been in that state. They evaluated the time which had passed. They witnessed signs of lividity. They assumed I was "dead" and beyond medical treatment. They didn't give any type of medical treatment at that time. They called the medical examiner and the Police. Homicide was called because of the horseplay prior to the injury. The medical examiner was called to pronounce me DOA. The paramedics could not officially list me as DOA at that time.

When I first lost consciousness, (or died,) it was a mess. I will just say that I coughed up a massive amount of blood from the injury. The sight of it brought two guys to their knees in tears. All of them had tears in their eyes when they realized I had been telling them the truth. (They thought I was joking about my complications.) 

One of the guys was hysterical and I (as a ghost) was trying to calm him down. He just kept ignoring me. It was a sight and took me by surprise when I looked over and saw my body lying on the ground in the state it was in. That is when I heard my named being called. Not my physical name, but what I always referred to as my secret and silent name. 

It is within a tone that a child recognizes its parent. I looked up to see the figure of a form of light standing beyond a something like a transparent veil. This veil had an illusionary effect. I instantly recognized all of it and comprehension just flooded into place. I knew what was taking place and why. I had to step beyond the veil for a short trip. I turned to the guy who was now crying in prayer. (He had been an atheist before and I had been trying to teach him about prayer. I promised this former atheist that I would be back.) I then stepped though the veil and traveled to the form of the figure of Light. (I say traveled because it was like flight. I floated toward this figure in a flash.) The reality of the physical world just evaporated behind me. I was aware of its presence but my focus was on other matters.

I tried to express in a sentence what that state of existence was like. It is an awareness of 360 degrees all at once. You see up, down, left, and right all at once. And it never ends. To compare that to my normal physical state ... it is a comparison of 360 degrees to .00001% of a degree. There is no comparison. We have nothing to compare it to in this physical and finite world. There spiritual existence was to grasp infinity with total comprehension of it all.

After I crossed though the veil -- there where many things which took place. That is a very very long story. But I did come back though the veil again. When I crossed over -- it was vibrations. The things which happened on the other side of the veil where of a higher frequency of thought. I slowly lowered my vibration level back down to where I was and had been before the travel though the veil. I had to focus my attention back on the moment I had been in before the travel. That is when I found myself outside of my body trying to get back in. 

The one guy was still praying. The paramedic later told (me that 26 minutes passed between their arrival and my revival. That is approximately 40 to 45 minutes that I was out of my physical body.) I have no idea how much time passed between my coming back from the veil and being able to get back in the body. 

There were two transcendental beings there with the body. I had to have the airway cleared before the body would be able to breathe on its own again. (The impression I get in hindsight is that the transcendental beings where there partly because of the strength of the new-found faith of the former atheist. They were there guarding the body until my return from the veil.) I wanted to reach in and clear the blocked passage way but the transcendental beings informed me I did not have the authority to go against the physical nature of that one law. I had to have someone else in the physical realm clear the passage. My vibrations of thought were down to the level of physical comprehension and I argued with these transcendental beings. I tried to talk them into clearing the passageway. While I was doing this -- the form of the figure of light appeared again from the veil and pointed toward one to the paramedics. I was guided toward him. I was told to focus my attention on him because his vibrations where such that he could help me in this situation. 

I still had the same personality that I have now and had then. I was laughing at the whole situation and trying to get my way. I said to the transcendental beings, 

"Why you all want to make this harder than it has to be. Always -- Always -- want to make it harder than it has to be. It would be so easy for me, OR you to reach in there and just move that over a tiny little bit. No one is going to see that happen. BUT NO! I got to go and talk to some deaf and blind guy and try to get him to do it. You know how hard that is going to be? Of course you do. That is still my question. Why you always want things to be so hard? Yeah, yeah -- I know. You told me already." 

That is when I zoomed over to my friend and tried to get him to talk to the paramedic. My friend didn't hear me. (He later told me that he did have a strange thought to grab the oxygen himself, but thought that he was suffering some sort of trauma side effect from all that was going on. He talked himself out of it.) I looked over my shoulder to see the figure of the form of light pointing toward the paramedic again. I said some more of my usual personal statements. Most of it was a joke between me and the figure of Light. It would be hard to explain here. 

I finally "zoomed" toward the paramedic and passed over my physical body. I stopped and went back and acted like I was going to reach in and clear the passageway. I got an immediate response from all the transcendental beings. Them telling me no and then a shared round of laughter from us all. (They knew I wasn't going to do it, and my only purpose was to get a laugh from them all. In hindsight, --- the reason none of us could clear the passageway is because of the tremendous amount of shock it would have caused everyone. It would have been too much for everyone to comprehend. But also, there was a need for the exchange between the paramedic and I. 

I don't know how long I followed that paramedic around trying to reach him. I kept telling him to place the oxygen mask on "me." He kept ignoring me. That got frustrating. Regardless of what form you are in -- when some one ignores your presence, you get frustrated. But I worked and worked trying to get my vibration and frequency level adjusted to break though. What finally did it for me was him deciding to take a cigarette break. 

I can not put into words the thought that went though my head. (I had experience as a supervisor of a large group of people. This touched on my work ethic. 

My thought was, 

"How dare him take a break when there is work to be done!" 

The boss in me jumped out and started barking commands.) There is a time for fun and games and that time was over. It was time to get the job done. He was walking toward a shade tree. He had his back to me. I was barking away at him in a different tone and level than I had before. He stopped and slowly turned around. He had a pack of cigarettes in his hand and one hanging from his mouth. He was slowly turning as I was barking out my commands in a "supervisor" type of tone. I was giving him a piece of my mind for sure. When he finally turned all the way around --- his eyes almost jumped out of his head. His cigarette dropped from his mouth as it fell open. He dropped his pack of cigarettes and took off running toward the oxygen. I looked over my shoulder to the white being and said, 

"I guess that is how it is every where huh? If you want to get a job done -- you got to let `em know you mean business." 

I watched that paramedic tear up the ground. He left a trail of dust behind trying to get to that canister of oxygen. He fell and slipped once he had it in his hand. I was laughing because he looked like some sort of cartoon character come to life. That guy was moving to get the job done. I decided, like a good boss, to cheer him on and let him know he was doing a good job. The other paramedic spoke up and said, 

"What are you doing Brother? You are wasting good oxygen on a dead man. You done lost your mind or what?" 

I shouted out, 

"Don't listen to that lazy bum. You go on and do what you're doing. I want to hurry up and get this over with and I haven't got any more time to play games. DO YOUR JOB and DO IT RIGHT! Satisfy your own mind now. You are never going to be satisfied that you did your job right unless you place that oxygen mask on the mouth. NOW DO YOUR JOB RIGHT!" 

The paramedic placed the mask on my mouth and I looked around at the transcendental beings as I prepared for what I call the funnel thing. That is what it felt like. Liquid being poured back into a container. There is that sound also. It does have a swooshing sound to it. My spirit came back into the body. 

Mind of spirit is totally different than mind of body. I was back in the mind of the body. It is very limited. I was not looking forward to the pain. I still had sight and connection of communication once I returned to the body. I asked the figure of the form of light to hold onto my hand while I made the transformation back into physical matter. I could see, and feel the hand in mine while I regained conciseness in the physical world of matter. I had many things I was trying to keep focused in my mind. I had to do several things before I allowed the paramedics to load me into the ambulance. 

When I got them all accomplished, I felt the pain. It was the worst pain you can imagine. (I had a collapsed lung and part of it was stuck in the windpipe. It was still blocking a large amount of air. I took all that pain out on the paramedic who was slow to respond to the call for help while I was outside of the body. (I brought back the memory of him trying to take a cigarette break before the job was finished.) I grabbed him by his collar and stated,

"By the way -- What the heck took you so long to get that dang oxygen mask on me? What made you think you could take a cigarette break?" 

He was confused. His mind was now in the middle of a medical emergency situation. He was trying his best to secure and stabilize my condition for the transport to the ER. He was strictly professional now. But I wanted to know what was on his mind when he walked away from me while I was calling out for help to smoke a cigarette. 

We spent the entire trip to the ER talking about that exchange that had taken place between us. 

His response was, 

"Brother -- was that you I heard talking? The reason I dropped everything and ran was because I heard you and didn't see you. I was not about to stand around and argue the point with an invisible voice. An invisible voice telling me to do something that simple, ---- you better believe I am going to do it. It was scaring the crap out of me to hear that invisible voice so clearly" 

He later told me, 

"Brother -- I didn't believe in ghosts before but now after what I experienced with you, I am totally convinced of an afterlife of some kind." 

I write about all this because of the sense of humor I had afterwards. The paramedic and me where the only ones that found a way to laugh about the situation after the fact. Everyone else did take the whole thing seriously. They wanted me to answer questions about the experience based on their knowledge and understanding. I couldn't. I just wanted to look back on the whole thing for what it was. I touch of joy, harmony, and love with a great sense of adventure and wonder. There was laughter on the other side of the veil in its purist sense.

The paramedic laughed with me afterwards. I laughed because of the sight of him running after he heard my voice. He laughed because.... Well, I don't know.... He just laughed. 

Out of the 25 people who came in contact with me during that time the laughter with the paramedic was the best. It brought us to tears of joy later in the recovery room.  I did share the same emotion with the other witnesses  but the paramedic was the central figure because he was the cartoon character during the whole scene. 

But at the same time,  a hero who brought me back to life. 

It is a good thing to take life and death seriously, but not to the point where we can't enjoy a good laugh about both, now and again

1988 Near-death stories