Near-Death-Experience
Xanthe, 60, was visiting her daughters overseas when she went to bed with a bad cold. Then she developed breathing trouble and became very ill, losing consciousness. Her daughters, alarmed, rang for an ambulance and she was taken to hospital. Later she remembered only vaguely being “put in the back of a van.”
Dream report: The Shining Light
I am going down a long black tube that seems to go into the ground. It is very long and dark at the bottom. As I descend I see on my left a passage radiating a strong calming light, very pretty and inviting. I want to go there. The closer I get the more beautiful this magnificent light gets, and I want to know what’s on the other side. I feel intrigued, happy and confident, and I start going in; it is so inviting and calming.
Suddenly I get sucked back, and start going back up the tube. I don’t want to go back. I want to go into the passage with the beautiful light, so I fight back, but still I keep on going up.
Then I woke up, not knowing where I was. My two daughters were there; one was crying and the other was holding her hands so tight her knuckles were white. There was a man next to me and a woman dressed in white, and another man standing at the end of the bed. I slowly realized that this was a hospital bed, and I had a mask covering my mouth and nose, and I could breathe, but I was far too tired to tell my daughters about my wonderful tunnel of light.
They told me the specialist said I had severe pneumonia, but they would do their best. They worked hard till I was breathing again, and now they were celebrating. I was happy too, and thanked them for their efforts, though I still didn’t understand what they were talking about. I still remembered the calming radiant light. I wished I had been able to get closer and see what was so promising at the other end.
Xanthe’s experience is similar to that of many others on the edge of death, moving through darkness towards a beautiful light, and then being pulled back into life against her will. She was of course glad to survive, but she cannot forget how strongly she felt the attraction of going into the light; and she has no fear about death any more.