A Seattle IANDS Near-Death Experience Story

The Birth of My Son
by Alexa Hartung

I went into labor for my second child, sitting on the steps of a neighbor's house. I excused myself and waddled across the street to my own home, concerned because I'd been restless and tired all week.

My admission into Wilmington General Hospital in Delaware, however, was quite normal. I even called my church during their Wednesday night prayer meeting and asked for prayer. In my body, though, nothing seemed right. The timing of the contractions and their length were all "different."

Then it was decided that everything was go, and I was wheeled into the labor room. As the labor ended, my baby son appeared with the cord wrapped around his neck several times. He was a sickly blue when the staff wheeled him into prenatal emergency. I learned later that he had a lot of fluid in his lungs.

The doctor was still trying to get my uterus to contract. In the mirror I saw giant clots oozing out. A tremendous weariness swept over me; I have never been so bone-tired. A "catch" in my throat and an inability to cough! The doctor looked up startled; a nurse bent over me as I tried to get the strength to move my lips. Even breathing felt hard to do. "SSSomething...wro.." I couldn't even get it out that I felt an awful "wrongness" spreading through my body. I literally felt the life force oozing out. A panic, then, "God, please take care of my son." I yielded him up to God, along with my own spirit. "Oh, everything's going to be all right, honey,” the nurse tried to assure me. Her voice began to sound distant. The doctor asked her what was going on. She said that I was just tired. Sweat had broken out on the doctor's face, and I heard him say several times, "Come on, contract..." The other nurse was watching and calling out the blood pressure numbers as they went down..down..down...

The next thing I knew I had lifted out of my body and was looking at myself! A bit surprised, I said, "Gee, I don't look so bad!" All my life I had felt large and fat compared to my 5', 100 lb. sister. As I now saw myself, I looked different from what I thought I’d seen in the mirror.

I could hear and feel everyone's surprise, confusion, and caring. The staff looked stunned. The nurse yelled, "I can't find a pulse!" I could feel her nervousness; she was frantic. I realized that I wasn’t tired anymore. I was sad they were all upset.

A light had filled the room. It was pure, brilliant, white, yellow, shining and permeated every inch of the room. Also, even as I lifted out, there were spirit beings on both sides of me as I observed all this. POWERFUL. Forget little cherubim-type things. These were the real guys: HUGE angels with even HUGER wings. Oh-h-h, feathers, I thought. I remember wanting to touch their wings so much. Forget that. Their job was to escort me and keep me SAFE (From what? I remember thinking.) Why didn't the nurses see this light? My poor earthly body looked so pooped! But it was a shell...this spirit body was me! I was so glad not to feel tired anymore. For some reason, my new baby didn't come to mind. I think it was because I had perfect peace giving him to God. I wasn't worried a bit. I never even thought about him.

We went through a tunnel of sorts, incredibly black and dark. The angels next to me glowed in the darkness and knew they were to see that I got to the light at the end. There was a whooshing noise. The tunnel seemed to be composed of a lot of sectional pieces, each joined by a burning yellow energy ring that glued it to the next piece to make one big tunnel. Every time we passed through a ring (which I didn't see or know until after we had passed/flown through), a tone would sound. The soft tones interested me as I am musically oriented and they sounded pretty. The angels on either side of me had no interest in anything but their mission, though. I definitely felt surrounded by love, and I felt "whole" and in no pain or cold.

I couldn't wait to get to the end of the tunnel. Once there, I saw hundreds of people in white clothing, each with a gold sash. All this was joyous, not scary. The sense of being surrounded with love was just incredible! There were so many spiritual bodies ... thousands? I was part of the most beautiful family ever, a spiritual family. There was a faint sound, but I can't describe it. I knew I was accepted just as I was.

The next thing that happened was that I was on a stand in some sort of courtroom. I remember thinking, "How odd!" My life was reviewed in fast motion, like a film, and everyone in the cathedral-like place knew, felt, heard all the information at once. Everything I had ever thought, did, wanted, hated, helped, omitted helping or refused to do was recounted. It was devastating. I fell down flat on my face in shame. How cruel I had been to people, how I could have helped people, even animals. It was interesting that the animals had feelings, too. I saw how my acting, or not acting, rippled in effect to others and how other experiences resulted from that interaction. It wasn't until then that I understood how each little action affects this world. The sense of letting my Lord down was just too real. And yet during all this, I felt such understanding from the multitudes. Such acceptance of my humanity, my limitations, and my failures.

During this life review, a being who had watched this was allowed to accuse me! Off to the side, watching silently, was Jesus. This was not a wimpy Jesus. He was broad shouldered and taller than 3 ranch houses stacked. He emanated strength, and shone with light. His hair was thick, long, and white, and his eyes were a-blaze with joy and purpose and purity. The other "being," made use of every error and omission that I had ever done. He picked up on all my failures and enjoyed them immensely. He was an incredibly handsome man-being. High forehead, jet black hair, and intense eyes. The eyes were void and were only intent with the purpose to possess, control, own, manipulate, and hurt my very being and soul. I realized with horror that there was absolutely NO good in this entity, dressed in a brown/black robe and sash. No possible spark of kindness or good feeling! It blew my mind. It was almost incomprehensible to me that anything or anyone could be so void of good and filled with such evil intent. VERY EVIL.

I was prostrate. My poor, pitiful little good works didn’t hold a cent to the mountain of my sins or wrongdoings. I deserved anything I got. I was absolutely desolate.

Then a voice filled the universe. "IS SHE COVERED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB?" it boomed out. "YES!" came an equally loud response. The courtroom disappeared, the evil being was so angry and frustrated that he screamed and whirled away, and disappeared in a puff.

Jesus smiled and held out his nail-pierced hands in a welcome, forgiving gesture. His mouth opened and I saw and heard a loud sound of judgment that was rushing or roaring like. I knew I had nothing to fear from the sound that came out; I was His. He was fearsome and awesome, and yet completely tender toward me. I worshipped Him. I craved, like the woman of old, to just touch the edge of the hem of his gown. As Jesus smiled down at me a gigantic book with gold edged pages appeared. A huge, lightening bolt "finger" went skimming through/leafing over the pages as they turned themselves. In this Book of Life was written the name of every man, woman, and child who had ever been born. Also, their birth date and death date, parents, siblings ... the death date was there only if they had died. The Voice of Truth? God? said, "IS IT HER TIME?" There was a blank in my death date "space." "NO!" reverberated throughout, and in less than a millisecond, I was back in my body.

I was sweaty, tired, heavy and hot ... a woman who had given BIRTH. Ugh. Breathing was so difficult; forget about moving! I couldn't lift an arm or anything. Mumbling, with tears starting to fall down my cheeks, I said over and over, "I want to go back! I want to go back!" I hated this. Then the nurse’s shining and happy face appeared. "Welcome back," she said softly. She held my limp hand in hers, and said, "You can't go back; where would you go? OH, THERE! We've had this happen before! I can't wait 'til I see that place."

I fell asleep as they wheeled me back to my room. The next morning I got to nurse my son, and the doctor came to my bedside on his rounds. He said he had had a few hours sleep (3 1/2) and he wanted to know how I felt I was doing. This really surprised me: doctors just don't care how a new mother thinks. Period. Then, I told him I felt absolutely terrific.

He just stood there and took up my hand in his and held it. You have to understand my shock. This was a really good looking Latin doctor! Then he said, "You know we lost you for a moment or two ... really two times ... on the table." My mind hurt as the images of what happened flooded my head so fast they became a blur. In fact, that recalling made me dizzy and nauseous, and I "blanked" my mind on purpose. "Can you tell me what happened?" he asked. He must have seen the gamut of feelings run across my face because he backed away from the bed a little. He put my hand down, and when I finally looked up, he said very compassionately, "When you are ready to tell me, anything, just give me a call. I would like to hear whatever you wish to share." I felt a little bad about not sharing but it was so very PERSONAL. I think it was 8 & 1/2 weeks later that I finally called him. I couldn't hold it in any longer. He listened and had his calls held as I recounted everything.

When I was done, I said I guessed he thought I was nuts. Instead of laughing, he asked me what church I belonged to and did I pray regularly. I wondered what he was getting at. Then he said he had approximately 13 patients who had had experiences virtually identical to mine, and about half of them were from my church (a Baptist church). He said he believed me and wished me well. He stated that our faith in God was a beautiful thing and that it encouraged him, a Catholic.

Two months later I was in a prayer group that included those ladies. They said they could tell I was "different" after the birth, but hadn't wanted to pry. It was wonderful and we felt like true sisters.

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