A Seattle IANDS Near-Death Experience Story

by Cougar

What happened: When I was eleven I discovered a neighbor's swing to be higher than mine. It was a new custom-made swing. Since no one was home this one quiet weekend, I felt free to take it up as high as it would go. I leaned back on the way forward for acceleration and exhilaration. I went so high the chain went slack and I fell through behind it. I landed flat on my back across a half-buried log on the centerline. It knocked the wind out of me. I disconnected with the world for a time, everything slowed down, but I didn't quite lose consciousness. Then, I discovered I couldn't breathe in. My diaphragm was in shock. It wouldn't function. I panicked and struggled to breathe. Nothing happened. I finally surrendered to the inevitable. I guess I died because I no longer needed air. My body stopped fighting.

What I saw: Everything suddenly went quiet in the outside world, as when a wind stops. My mind became calm as well. My body was frozen to the spot. All I could do was look straight up into the trees. Life became dear to me. "If this is it," I thought, "I may as well enjoy every little bit I can." I saw the green of the trees and the blue of the skies. The green jumped out of the trees at me in such beauty, such richness! The sky was indescribable! The world was so huge at my back! Up until this point in my life I had been used to the concept of "me" here and "the world" out there. Now, we had somehow merged. My back became part of the world. The world was now an extension of my back. The "I" and "Thou" was now "One" in several ways. I had never seen so many shades of green before in the trees. I had never seen such rich blues before in the sky, and somehow, now, they were part of me, living inside of me. Leaf by leaf, cloud by cloud. I took it all in, in my last quiet moment on Earth.

I saw the rich brown of the Earth all around me and with more than just my eyes. I could actually feel the distant curve of the Earth beyond our normally and perceived horizons. In fact, there were no horizons... just distances and depths to be explored...vast root systems and unexplored caverns. I could just begin to feel towns and touch people reaching out on the other side of this planet, when images started coming to me from my immediate surroundings. I saw into the past here. I could see and feel Native Americans enjoying the challenges of nature, enjoying the trees, squirrels and life in ways that I knew and in ways that I had not been familiar with. I could smell the rich old peat of the Earth that they were breathing into their own nostrils and the different scents of the tree bark. Then I saw them hide behind those same trees and reluctantly move out as hunters and trappers moved in. The adventure was exhilarating for a while, until I saw the harmony was being destroyed in the sometimes hurtful exchanges. What I once thought was heroic was now saddening.

I saw part of the Civil War being fought near here. All of the romanticized brave tales of history that television had brought into my youthful eyes, scenes like the last stand at the Alamo, the wild chases between Indians and Cowboys and the World War II soldiers shooting from behind their bunkers that I used to ceaselessly reenact with my brothers and the kids next door, over and over, time and again, all of these things changed for me this day as I died and become a part of what was really going on in the struggle for new lands and the strife between the North and the South. Instead of the excitement of play acting, I felt the fear, the sadness and the pain of the dying, starving world as they felt it. But they were dead and gone. And now, I was dead too. In dying I felt released from my pain, much as the earth had been temporarily released from its past tragedies in these moments so that I could witness them. Now I watched as those same scenes, having been observed and felt by me, returned back into the earth.

But as I was released from my pain, these woeful conflicts of the Earth's past no longer mattered to me. They were replaced and I was being filled by something else much bigger that was above me, something much more important that I found myself moving toward. I was floating freely upward through the different layers of the atmosphere like a dandelion seed-puff floating in a gentle breeze. I could see beyond the clouds. Then from all around and in every direction, I could feel a mature love beyond my age and beyond that of my parents' years and beyond even that of my grandparents. All of life seemed to be connected to this deep love that was far beyond anything any human could generate. I remember myself thinking, "This must be what people have been trying to describe as God for centuries without success," because I felt I was now going into God's presence and it was beyond anything I had ever been told in church or had ever imagined. This mature love permeated my entire being and defies description. It is beyond thought or words. It is a state of BEING. It IS and I was BECOMING just by virtue of moving into His presence.

I seemed to hear a voice that said, "Everything is O.K., you're in good hands,"...like Allstate, only better! This was a voice unlike any human voice I have ever heard. It was quiet, yet powerful, and it wasn't coming from any particular direction. It wasn't coming from inside my head either! The best way I can describe it is, if you have a stereo sound system and put one tone through one speaker and another tone through the other speaker, at just the right frequencies, you can create a third harmonic that doesn't come from any direction but does appear inside your head. It harmonizes with the body. The voice I heard was a healing voice resonating into my being. I felt safe and secure...I was finally going Home. I could feel God's presence but I couldn't quite see Him yet...Any time now!...No hurry!...It seemed to be a very familiar feeling now...Coming Home...Better than any homecoming before,...even better than coming home from school!

I could feel something of His awesome power animating all of the world. The Earth was all alive by virtue of His very existence. Even the rocks were as vibrantly alive as anything else on this planet. It all came from the same magic of Creation. I was spirit or soul now, but I was still of Creation myself.

Suddenly, there was an explosion of air shoved down my throat. I was back in my body instantly. The air filled my lungs with the refreshing, tingling of rejuvenation...How delicious and aromatic it was! "I am still alive!!...I am alive!" Funny, I didn't fully realize the significance until over 30 years later that this happened to me on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War...The first shot was fired, not far from here, at Ft. Sumter, S.C.

The Gifts Given: I was given an increase of awareness beyond my little backyard into the realization of how huge the world is and that everything is connected together in relationships. An invisible love from beyond holds it all together. I guess today you would say I was and am now thinking globally instead of locally.

A note from Cougar: There are two more companion NDE's to this one, most extensive and detailed. One is a journey into Heaven and the other a journey into Hell, including seven amazing angelic visitations. For further information or to correspond with me write to Aiken Technological College, Atten: Pam Gade re: Cougar, P.O. Drawer 696, Aiken S.C. 29803

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