Posted on 11/09/2006 4:41:54 AM PST by KarinG1
"I was putting pebbles in a bucket and I was having a really good time."
Linda Jacquin was just four years old. Playing in the water though she was so young, she says she remembers everything. Including when her foot slipped off a rock and she was caught under the surface.
"I was underwater and I started breathing underwater because at four and a half years old, you didn't know you can't breathe underwater," she says.
What happened next isn't completely clear. But Linda says she began to leave her body -- floating away.
"With a vantage point of being in the corner of the room, I didn't have a body, but it wasn't frightening," says Dr. Pam Kircher, who says she too left her body while gripped in the pain of meningitis. She was six years old. There wasn't the medical equipment to say whether she really died or not. But the experience, she says, was from another place.
"I felt absolute peace and the feeling of being surrounded by God. It was perfect."
But for just a moment.
"As soon as I realized it was me, I was back in my body. So mine was a brief near-death experience, but it was profoundly influential in my life," Kircher says.
Linda recalls the view from above her body: "I saw blond hair floating on water, which was my blond hair. I was perfectly happy where I was. I felt safe, I felt loved, and I didn't want to go back in my body -- back in the place where I was."
Linda spent moments, she says, with her grandmother. Also with Jesus amid colors she says were more beautiful than any rainbow.
"The closest thing that I could say is that it looked like is when light hits an icecicle and it refracts for that brief second, and you see all colors at one time, but they're crystal clear," Jacquin says.
"I can remember how sad my mom and dad were and I could tell how panicky they were and then my gaze went to my brother Bobby. And I said I have to go back for Bobby -- he's going to be in a lot of trouble if I don't go back," she says.
She chose to go back. Others who have a near-death experience say they're powerless to go where they's heading -- only following or being carried. Most also say that they're bathed in warmth and love.
Debbie James has been a nurse her entire career, and is no less fascinated she says than when she first started noticing the phenomenon.
"Some people who had been in chronic pain say I am finally at peace -- it didn't hurt for the first time. So when you hear adults and children say those things, once again you've got to pay attention," she says.
"I don't know exactly what i believe about that in terms of where we go from here and if there's an afterlife and those kinds of things, but I can tell you I'm moved and encouraged by what they tell me."
Kircher says it is true, that she did leave her body all those years ago.
"Those people who have a near-death experience become very spirtual. What I mean by that is that there is something more than this material world."
Those who come back -- they call themselves "experiencers" -- unanimously say those who are allowed to come back from death have a profound responsibility. Many say it is given by God -- and it's to teach and to love.
"The only thing that exists on the other side is love. And if people just did that and had compassion for other people the world would be a lot better place," Jacquin says.
"I really do believe that we're here to learn about compassion and love, and anytime we're not doing that, we're not doing our job," says Kircher.
Morgan Palmer, reporting morganpalmer@kltv.com
bump
I believe this - I have 2 friends that have experienced "the light" and both explained it in similar terms. One experienced it as a child - one as an 45 year old. I find the whole thing fascinating.
They are probably no more than lucid dreams.
"I really do believe that we're here to learn about compassion and love, and anytime we're not doing that, we're not doing our job,"
Seems so easy but such a difficult thing to do...I believe the better you can aspire to these true virtues, the better person you are. Unfortunately, it is the flaw of the human character to stray from such ideals. We are fortunate we have a forgiving God.
I had a near-death experience late Tuesday night watching the returns come in. Wasn't that great.
I read a book about such. Good book:
My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life
by Howard Storm
"Paris, the City of Light..."
This happened to my sister. She was drowning in a river. Her husband "saved" her. She described a similar experience. Did not want to "come back." Yes, there is more to life than this. My thoughts, "Behave yourself and God, our true father, will teach you His love for others." What is this experience for those who worship a god of hate?
If so, they must be caused by archetypes buried somewhere deeply. Usually people's dreams are pretty individualized and do not follow somene else's script.
People want to believe in this, so they believe in it. The mind is a very powerful force and can come up with all kinds of visions and experiences that aren't real.
"I had a near-death experience late Tuesday night watching the returns come in."
LOL!
You should have turned the rooms lights off and put the TV on a blank channel and pretend it was "the light".
Before reading comments on your post I know what I am going to find. Just a trick of the mind, just the oxygen leaving the brain causes such events.
I bet you will get some rather disturbing remarks from your post.
People have strayed so for away from God they hold no belief in life after death.
While I have never experienced this near death event in my life I do carry a peace as you describe. It is a peace I have everyday because I love the Lord Jesus Christ and only he gives such peace.
"They are probably no more than lucid dreams."
Wouldn't a 4 year old hallucinate something more fitting for a 4 year old mind then? Why not being carried away on a pretty pink pony, or running in a sunny field with a fluffy puppy? Or, if the young 4 year old was raised in a bad home, like a crack whore's house, mean cussing men monsters dragging them into a fiery darkness? For those who claim out of body experiences, it seems that none of the various life styles they may have been influenced by changes this hallucination, it always seems to be one of intense warm light, a sense of a powerful peace and love.
Thanks for clearing that up for me ...
I remember reading a near-death experience of a man who actually experienced it very negatively - it appeared he was on his way to hell. It also changed his life tremendously, he eventually joined the clergy.
it is my earliest memory - and i never spoke of it to anyone except my wife, well before Ive become a Christian. I didnt understand it until my mother explained my birth when I was a teen. I apparently strangled on the cord and was purple and essentially dead when I was delivered. I experienced nothing more than a figure I would later understand as Christ telling me "it's not your time".
I have an older freind that actually argued with the emt's for repeatedly bringing him back from a heart attack. He explained a serene peace.
could be nothing more than neurons firing, or endorphines being released....but its always reminded me that Christ is with me
Im a pastor today
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.