judylugg says:

Re: Study To Be Launched Into NDE’s
How I wish that I could ‘get over’ the following to everyone, having had what I would describe as two Near Death Experiences:

The most vivid and the one that has stayed with me all my life since I was four years old ( I am now sixty-five) happened when I had a severe bout of double pneumonia at that age – this would have been in about November 1948. It left me with no fear whatsoever of what we refer to as ‘ Death’ and the knowledge that this life we are in now is not the end, only a precursor to another time and place.

Apparently it was thought that I was going to die as I had been extremely ill for several days and antibiotics in those days were in their infancy – it was usual with very high fevers for the doctor to await the crisis ie. for the fever to break and you recovered, or it did not and you died.

During this time of very high fever, I was in a place which I can only describe as being ‘on the way to Heaven’ – bearing in mind that I was only four, I was not articulate enough to actually fully describe what I saw and felt but in later years, of course, I have related this to may people – it is as vivid as if it happened yesterday.

I was alone, but NOT alone – I had the feeling of a benign, greatly loving presence and was in the most indescribably beautiful place – I was walking along a shady path with a hedge and bank to the left and over-hanging trees to the right. The bank was covered in the most vividly coloured flowers of every hue, some I now know but others I have never seen elsewhere and under the trees were others equally as colourful and beautiful. This description goes no where near to describing what I actually saw.

The path sloped slightly upwards and in the distance I could see what, I suppose was the afternoon sun, with streaky pink clouds moving slowly across a cerulean blue sky. The feeling I had was that I was going towards something where I dearly wanted to be BUT for some reason I was being gently discouraged – I can only say that I seemed to be walking but getting nowhere.

During this time I was a also aware that my parents and grandparents seemed to be near but not in my sight – seems odd, I know, but that is how it felt.

Eventually I had the feeling that this was not where I was supposed to be yet and the beauty of place seemed to fade as if it were a dream. I do not know how long this experience lasted but on waking I found that my grandparents, parents and the doctor were all around my bed smiling at me, all pleased that I had survived a very bad bout of double pneumonia.

The second NDE was, strangely enough, when I suffered another bout of pneumonia, whilst living in the USA in 1997. (I have been very healthy apart from these two episodes throughout my life.)

I had been vaguely unwell for a few days, collapsed and was carted off to hospital, unconscious with a temperature of 105F – apparently almost dead. I was given very powerful antibiotics by drip as I had quite a rare form of a pneumococcal pneumonia. I was unconscious for three days.

During that time, I was in a place that I can only describe a ‘ the ante-room’ to dying – it was a lovely warm, cocooned place, all a beautiful shade of velvety blue. There did not appear to be anyone else there with me but I KNEW that there was – I seemed to feel that I was being told that I was going to be all right and it was not my time yet and I would have to ‘go back’ I really did not want to as I cannot describe the wonderful. peaceful, loving feeling that surrounded me. Eventually this feeling faded and I must have gone into a normal sleep, waking up three days later, weak but almost recovered from the pneumonia.

I was aware some of the time of hearing voices discussing me being taken for more X-rays and could see a nurse inserting a needle into the back of my right hand for an extra drip. I heard the doctor tell her it was a saline drip, needed because I was very dehydrated.and strangely during this experience I seemed to be aware of young children’s voices. At this time I seemed to be watching what was going on from somewhere above the bed. The explanation for the childrens’ voices was that I was in a room, just off the Childrens’ Ward as there was a shortage of beds in the Adult wards.

The nurse in charge of me told me that they thought that when I was brought in that they had lost me as my temperature was so high. They had had to pack me in ice. I had to see the Doctor for the next two weeks daily and he was totally surprised when I told him that I knew where the pneumonia was in my lungs ( right at the bottom of both lungs) and I told him that I had heard him say it when he looked at my X-rays – he said that that could not be correct as he had not discussed this fact in my room and anyway I was unconscious!

I can only say that I feel that I am lucky in that, as I have already said, I have no fear of ‘death’ – it’s just another part of living but in another place.

It’s a great old world we live in, isn’t it – just wish I could fathom out everything about it – some hopes, eh?