Shared Death Experiences

It was on my husband Johnny's fifty-fifth birthday when the doctor told us that Johnny had lung cancer and had maybe about six months to live. I felt like somebody had hit me with a baseball bat. Honestly, I don't even remember the doctor saying the words ; it was like I just gradually figured out what he was saying.

The next day I just walked into the bank and quit my job then and there. From that day until Johnny died, we weren't separated from each other more than a few hours. I was b beside him the whole time in the hospital and was holding onto him when he died. When he did, he went right through my body. It felt like an electric sensation, like when you get your fingers in the electrical socket, only much more gentle.

There was light all around: a bright, white light that I immediately knew—and Johnny knew—was Christ.

Everything we ever did was there in that light. Plus I saw thing about Johnny. . .I saw him doing things before we were married. You might think that some of it might be embarrassing or personal, and it was. But there was no need for privacy, as strange as that might seem. These were things that Johnny did before we were married. Still, I saw him with girls when he was very young. Later I searched for them in his high school yearbook and was able to find them, just based on what I saw during the life review during his death.

In the middle of this life review, I saw myself there holding onto his dead body, which didn't make me feel bad because he was also completely alive, right beside me, viewing our life together.

By the way, the life review was like a “wraparound”. I don't know how else to describe t. It was a wraparound scene of everything Johnny and I experienced together or apart. There is not way I could even put it into words other than to say that all of this was in a flash, right there at the bedside where my husband died.

Then, right in the middle of this review, the child that we lost to a miscarriage when I was still a teenager stepped forth and embraces is. She was not a figure of a person exactly as you would see a human being, b ut more the outline or sweet, living presence of a little girl. The upshot of her being there was that any issues we ever had regarding her loss were made whole and resolved. I was reminded of the verse from the Bible about “the peace that passeth all understanding”. that's how I felt when she was there.

One of the funny things about this wraparound view of our life was that we had gone to Atlanta in the seventh grade, to the stat capitol, where there was a diorama. S at one point we were watching this wraparound and watching ourselves in another wraparound—a diorama—where we stood side by side as kids. I burst out laughing and Johnny laughed too, right there beside me.

Another thing that was strange about this wraparound was that in certain parts of it there were panels or dividers that kept us from seeing all of it. I don't have the words for this, but these screens or panels kept particular parts of both our lives invisible. I don't; know what was behind them but I do know that these were thoughts from Christ, who said that someday we would be able to see behind those panels too.  -- Glimpses of Eternity pg 10

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The day my mother died, my two brothers, my sister, my sister-in-law and I were all in the room. My mothers hadn't spoken a word in several hours, and she was breathing in and irregular pattern. None of us were really upset because mother had been on a long downhill course and we knew this was the end.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the room. My first thought was tha a reflection was shining through the window from a vehicle passing by outside. Even as I thought that, however, I knew it wasn't true, because this was not any kind of light on this earth. I nudged my sister to see if she saw it too, and when I looked at her, her eyes were as big as saucers. At the same time I saw my brother literally gasp. Everyone saw it together and for a little while we were frightened.

Then my mother just expired and we all kind of breathed a big sigh of relief. At that moment, we saw vivid bright lights that seemed to gather around and shape up into . . . I don't know what to call it except an entranceway. The lights looked a bit like clouds, but that is only a comparison. We saw my mother lift out of her body and go through the entranceway. Being by the entranceway, incidentally, was a feeling of complete joy. My brother called it a chorus of joyful feelings, and my sister heard beautiful music, although none of the rest of us did.

I am originally from Virginia and my sister, brother and I agreed that the entranceway was shaped something like the Natural Bridge in the Shenandoah Valley. The lights were so vivid we had no choice but to tell our story to the hospice nurse.

She listened and then told us that she knew of similar things happening and that it was not uncommon for the dying process to encompass people nearby.

Glimpses of Eternity pg 13

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The first thing that happened when my mother passed was the light changed intensity and grew much brighter real fast. All kinds of things started happening at once, such as a kind of rocking motion that went through my whole body. It was like my whole body rocked forward one time real quick and then instantly I was seeing thr room from a different angle from above and to the left side of the bed instead of the right side. It was like I was viewing my mother's body from the wrong side according to where I was standing in the room.

This rocking forward motion was very comfortable, and not at all like a shudder and especially not like when a car you are riding in lurches to the side and you get nauseous. I did not feel uncomfortable but in fact the opposite; I felt far more comfortable and peaceful than I ever felt in my life.

I don't know whether I was out of my body or not because all the other things that were going on held my attention. I was just glued to scenes from my mother's life that were flashing throughout the room or around the bed. I cannot even tell whether the room was there anymore or if it was, there was a whole section of it I hadn't noticed before. I would compare it to the surprise you would have if you had lived in the same house for may years, but one day you opened up a closet and found a big secret compartment you didn't know about. This thing seemed so strange and yet perfectly natural at the same time.

The scenes that were flashing around in midair contained things that had happened to my mother, some of which I remembered but others I didn't. I could see her looking at the scenes too, and she sure recognized all of them, as I could tell by her expression as she watched. This all happened at once so there is no way of telling it that matches the situation.

The scenes of my mother's life reminded me of old-fashioned flashbulbs going off. When they did, I saw scenes of her life like in one of the 3-D movies of the 1950's.

By the time the flashes of her life were going on, she was out of her body. I saw my father, who passed seven years before, standing there where the head of the bed would have been. By this point the bed was kind of irrelevant and my father was coaching my mother our of her body.

That was amusing because in life he had been a football coach at the high school I attended. Frankly, I felt a little disappointed that he still had that coaching mentality, as if he had not moved on to better things since death.

I looked right into his face and a recognition of love passed between us, but he went right back to focusing on my mother. He looked like a young man, although he was seventy-nine when he died. There was a glow about him or all through him – very vibrant. He was full of life.

One of his favorite expressions was “Look Alive!” and he sure did look alive when he was coaching my mother out of her body.

A part of her that was transparent just stood right up, going through her body, and she and my father glided off into the light and disappeared.

The room sort of rocked again, or my body did, but this time backward in the opposite direction and then everything went back to normal.

I felt great tenderness from my mother and father. This entire event overflowed with love and kindness. Since that day I wonder: Is the world we live in just a figment of our imagination?

Glimpses of Eternity pg 36

Since I didn't know how long he would last, I decided to stay in the room with him, sitting at his bedside.

After a day or so of waiting, his breathing became more labored and then he stopped breathing altogether. I held his hand and the nurse came in and stood by the bed. He had a Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR) order, butr she wanted to make sure his last moments were comfortable.

All of a sudden I felt the room change shape, almost like it filled with air and inflated. Then I felt myself lift our of my body and join my brother in midair! We literally swirled around the room as spirits and then I felt myself return to my body and the perspective I have always had. While we were flying around the room, I could see myself sitting next to my brother and I could see my brother in the air with me. When I returned to my body the room returned to its shape, which all right angles.

Glimpses of Eternity pg 81

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About 10 years ago, my very beloved sister was dying of cancer at home in her bedroom. I was present along with my other sister and my brother-in-law. About one week prior to my sister's actual passing, a bright white light engulfed the room. I felt an intense love and connection with everyone in the room, including other 'souls' that were not visible but that we felt the presence of.

For me, I saw nothing except this white light and my ill sister. For many years I thought that this light said to me, 'This house, these things, they are not real.' I was confused about why those thoughts had come to my mind, but I now realize I was experiencing what my dying sister was experiencing. What a revelation! Words cannot express what impact thas experience had on me. This was certainly not something I had ever thought before. The wisdom and peace of this light have not left me since.

Glimpses of Eternity pg 85

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The deathbed scene is not fully in this world. And although I am not religious, hospice work has awakened me to a spiritual dimension of life.

In my opinion, everyone who works with the dying long enough must have some awareness of these experiences. I believe the spiritual experiences of dying people somehow leak out and pervade the area around them. If you step into that area with the right temperament, you will receive, I feel, a sense of the sacred in the presence of the dying.

I have experienced the room taking on a different configuration a number of times. The only way that I can describe it is that moving energy pulses through the room. I often feel something I can't name.

The bedside of the dying offers a view into eternity. Like looking through a window into elsewhere, from time to time I see light and twice have had clear views of what appear to be structures. On both occasions I saw patients leave their bodies in a cloud form.

I would describe these clouds as a sort of mist that forms around the head or chest. There seems to be some kind of electricity to it, like an electrical disturbance. I don't know if I see if with my physical eyes, but it's there all the same.

There is not doubt in my mind that you can sometimes see people depart for the other side.

Glimpses of Eternity pg 100

The soul of man in immortal and imperishable. Plato 428/427 or 424/423 BC to 348/347 BC

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Death may be the greatest of all human blessings. Socrates 470/469 – 399 BC.