My Story
Why I am Here by Garry
Many times I have been asked as to what got me interested or involved with this forum so I have typed it out for people to read.
Disclaimer: I am not suicidal or have any thoughts about doing anything stupid to hurry up the journey:
Around 1973, I had a (what I think) was an OBE ( out of body experience ) when I was about 19 and I am finally going to write it out as to what has brought me to this spot in life.....
So I responded, and met a driver who was going to Ohio, so that meant we had a couple of hundred miles to chat.
We talked about anything and everything as we drove along, when out of the blue he said ...
“I’m not afraid of dying"
I said...
“OH how come”
and he proceeded to tell me about how he had died from Gangrene in a hospital where he was recovering from a broken leg that had been broken in 7 spots, so they couldn't put a cast on it but kept him in traction, where he developed Gangrene and eventually died from it.
It was the typical story about, about how he watched from the corner of the room as they revived him, and he told the nurse the next day everything that happened...................
I thought as he finished up his story “Oh Yea that was a good truck driver tale” and we continued on our way talking about whatever else there was to talk about until he turned off the Big Road to go to his destination...
I never thought about his story again for many years...........
As time passed, One day I called my sister at her friend’s house in Montreal, where she was visiting but she had gone out somewhere so I chatted with her friend for a while where she said she was an artist.
I asked her what she painted and she said she “Got all her inspiration from when she died, because of a heart attack"
Once again I heard the same storyline, Died went through the clouds, met her mother and was sent back.....
Ok, another story, which reminded me of the driver’s story..........
Ok, again I thought, another story...
And time marches on
Then one day my best friend from my teenage years had a heart attack, survived and got on with his life. When we finally got together and talked about it this is what he told me...
It was the typical pains in the chest, go to the hospital story and he is lying on the hospital bed talking to the Doctor when he said to the Doctor " I am going to faint " and he was gone...............
Then he told me was that the next real thought he could recall was the Doctor leaning over him saying " Dave are you there " at which time he was back in the land of the living...........
But then he said to me, “BUT there is one thought I had that I can't place, He said, “The thought was, this is weird " and that was the end of our talk about what happened
I was unemployed at this time with a lot of time on my hands so after we finished talking on the phone I Googled, " Near-Death Experiences ", which brought me to the main NDERF.ORG website, where I started reading the stories of other people and was amazed at the similarities to the 3 stories I had been told by 3 other people in my life about their experiences.
At some point, I read about someone who had had an OBE and that is when I remembered what had happened to me when I was about 19 or so.
A friend and I were very high on some type of drug and we were lying in a car on a deserted cottage road listening to the tunes on the radio and just being typical kids.
Ron was in the front seat and I was in the back seat of a 1962 Pontiac Strato Chief, which had a full seat in the front. After we had been there for a very long time (long enough that the radio still worked but there wasn't enough juice to crank the motor over), I was lying in the back seat with my eyes closed and I realized I could see Ron lying in the front seat.
As I was thinking, that this is strange, that I can see Ron laying in the front seat because I can see myself laying in the back seat with my eyes closed.
It was then, when it hit me about, "how the hell can I see myself lying in the back seat if I am here on this side of the car...
Once I realized this, and I had the "Holy Shit" reaction, and my physical body sat bolt upright, and I was then looking over the front seat to see Ron laying there exactly as I had seen him just seconds before .........
I thought to myself ( now in my physical body ) "ok that was weird", must be really good drugs I guess.
I proceeded to wake Ron up as I figured we had been here long enough and it was time to go home. It was at this time when we tried to start the car and found out the battery was too weak to crank the engine, so we started walking to get to a payphone to call a tow truck for a boost.
At some point, after reading many stories, over a period of time, my memory of my experience came back to me full force and I remembered it as if it happened right then and there. Once I remembered it, I could see and can still see to this day, exactly what I saw that night.
Any other memories and stuff that has happened in my life I can remember the details but the pictures in my brain of the actual events are always just fuzzy images that bend and twist to some extent as I recall them, but this experience is like watching a video that never changes except that the video is in my head.
It is as clear as if it happened 2 seconds ago............
Before I remembered what had happened to me, several other things have happened that I never put much thought into until after I found this website.
My aunt was up in her 90th or so, year and was in a nursing home for many years. She spent the last 7 years where she couldn't walk, could hardly hear unless you spoke into her good ear with her hearing aid, and could only see shadows of anything in the room. The nurses would get her up in the morning, put her in her wheelchair, and that is where she would sit for the entire day for 7 years until she finally passed over.
Yet her mind was a sharp as a tack, and when we went to visit her she told us several times about dreams she was having where she was in a helicopter flying over a park (she thought it was Algonquin park) here in Canada and also about going to a river where everybody she knew who had already died where on the other side beckoning her to come over to their side, but she wasn't allowed to go.
She never once thought or said anything about it being an NDE, as it was only a dream to her...........
I never thought anything more about it when she told us, as I was chalking it up to her just dreaming all this, as that is all she could do for the last 7 years, due to her physical condition.
The other thing that I experienced was one night when I was at my girlfriend’s apartment (now my wife) and I was in bed on a Saturday night waiting for her as she finished up what she was doing in the kitchen. As I was laying there I looked at the clock and it was 9:45 wondering how long she was going to be and all of a sudden it felt like my Dad was in the room with me. It was just a feeling of a presence in the room and it was gone as fast as it came.
I thought to myself, oh that was weird, and never thought about it again.I went home the next day and when I got home I called my Dad to chat but there was no answer which was nothing out of the ordinary as he was retired and always on the go somewhere.
The next day I called again with the same result, no answer so I called the police and asked them to check up on
him and call me back.
When I hadn't heard from them in 2 hours I drove to town to the house to find the police, hearse, and coroner at his house.
The coroner told me he died of an aneurysm in the brain and was probably dead before he hit the floor and that it was somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 o'clock.
I told him it was 9:45 when I felt his presence at my girlfriends and he looked at me really strangely.
So that is what has brought me to where I am in life today, totally fascinated by other people's experiences, and living my life, One Day At A Time.
I am in no Hurry to go Home, but I will welcome it with an open mind (so to speak) and looking forward to the new adventure.
Garry
I live my life each day with this as my guiding principle......
Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long, long trip that almost spans the continent. We're travelling by passenger train, and out the windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hills, of biting winter and blazing summer and cavorting spring and docile fall.
But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. There will be bands playing, and flags waving. And once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true. So many wishes will be fulfilled and so many pieces of our lives will finally be neatly fitted together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering...waiting, waiting, waiting, for the station.
However, sooner or later we must realize there is no one station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.
"When we reach the station, that will be it!" we cry. Translated it means,
"When I'm 18, that will be it! When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz, that will be it! When I put the last kid through college, that will be it! When I have paid off the mortgage, that will be it! When I win a promotion, that will be it! When I reach the age of retirement, that will be it! I shall live happily ever after!"
Unfortunately, once we get It, then It disappears. The station somehow hides at the end of an endless track.
"Relish the moment" is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24 "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad. Rather, it is regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who would rob us of today.
So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.
By Robert J. Hastings
I encourage you to not think so far ahead. I greatly believe in planning our future, but when we live for the future, we are in turn shortchanging the blessings that are bestowed upon us in this present time.
There's a great quote that says,
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift and that is why it is called the Present."
Don't allow yourself to only focus on things ahead, but slow down and take time to enjoy the journey that you're on today.
Garry