This is for you.

I've shared this story before on another site, I wouldn't be surprised if you may have already read it there, but I feel that I should share it here as well, seeing as how there seem to be many people who are interested in this forum. Since I imagine that I can preserve some of my anonymity on the web if that is at all possible, I will not be linking to the story that I shared elsewhere.
Please forgive me my ignorance, enlighten me even, but if it is not legal for me to share my story here, I suppose it shall have to be removed and well, so be it. I had originally posted this online in 2010, the site it is posted on allows people to share my story on their facebook pages and so I hardly see a reason that I can't share it here.

I have taken time to ponder my own sanity and sanity in general which does nothing to quell the mysterious aspect of life. I'm inclined to believe that what most people would consider impossible, is possible, depending on the subject matter and details therein, NDEs are one of those things which I consider possible.
I don't recall the exact year, I know that I was in the 9-12 age range....this is one of the reasons I've been so hesitant to share my story, because I don't remember exactly which summer it was that I drowned. I was at a summer bible camp when this happened, I didn't know how to swim but thought I could dog paddle myself afloat to hang with the kids in the water and generally enjoy myself by blending in with the kids contenting themselves in the water with eachother's company. I've always been something of a loner, so I didn't feel left out not having anyone specific to splash around with in the creek. I wanted to go to the deep part to be like the older kids, I wanted to get over my fear of not being able to touch the bottom with my toes. As a young girl I didn't think about death, I didn't know anyone who had died and so the idea of death being all pervasive didn't occur to me until I was under the water, pulled down by the current, completely unable to flap my arms and legs any longer trying to reach the surface. That was the time I came to terms with my own death, you just have to let go when you know that death is imminent, it's the only logical thing to do. It's just the same with being alive, I'm alive..so, I'll just have to accept that fact, come to terms with it, and keep moving forward no matter how unmotivated or unappreciated I feel. Cause and effect.
Anyway, when I knew that I could do nothing more, that no matter how hard I flailed around underwater that I wasn't going to surface, I heard an inner voice, gently yet authoritatively tell me to breathe...which I assumed was God, so I got my hopes revitalized and I attempted even more to get to the surface, but the current made sure that I made no progress, I heard the voice again, telling me to breathe. In my mind I retorted, "I'm trying!" Which meant that I was trying to get to the surface to breathe. And then it came again, that's when I knew that I wasn't going to take a breath of air but of water...I thought, I can't do this! At that point I wasn't so sure if it was God talking to me..to willfully breathe underwater seemed like suicide to me. Yet another prompting from the inner voice, a voice that commanded obedience, in my mind, I yelled "OKAY!!" and with nothing else I could do, I complied.
Immediately my lungs stung with the weight of murky brown creek water that put me into shock. I couldn't move and I could feel the weight of the water bringing me down as I saw my lifeless arms in front of me I could do nothing while my body sunk to the bottom with my left side closest to the silt. That's when I had my out of body experience. Immediately I was up I'm guessing about 60 feet above the creek, looking down at everyone, the kids were playing and splashing and I figured they didn't know about me yet, I thought about how aweful it would feel if I were to find a peer drowned by way of accidentally bumping into their dead corpse while playing. My mind was reeling, how could this be possible? I felt a breeze come from my left, and thought, "How could I be feeling breeze from the wind while I'm underwater?! How is it that I'm here AND there at the same time?! Right after the breeze I felt a strong presence to my right and thought, "UH oh! Who is THIS?! I was almost scared to look but what else could I do right? It was an angel, he explained that I could choose to either live or die and be born somewhere else. I asked where I would go if I died and he pointed in the general direction, I looked in the direction he was pointing in and somehow I immediately knew that there would be a lot of people there, a lot more populated than where I grew up, and a LOT more crime and general darkness and I replied, "I don't want to go there! Those people are evil!" I basically based my choice off the fact that I thought life there would be more painful because of the lack of morality I percieved in that direction. I thought about my parents and asked the angel if we could check on them while I was out of my body but he said no. So my official response was, "I don't want my parents to cry for me." I imagined them being sad over my death and didn't like the idea that I would cause them pain through my death by choosing to die. After I'd made up my mind I said, "I just wish someone would LOOK at me!" in desperation for some normality I wanted human contact, I didn't want to be cut off from life and the living. Right after that I saw a girl's face looking up at me from the ground, I got so excited and happy when I saw her looking straight at me, the next thing I knew I was back in my body under water still unable to move but able to see a pair of arms grab my lifeless outstretched arms, it was that same girl who saw me, I don't know how but she got to where I was and pulled me up out of the water. As soon as she grabbed my arms it was like a big jolt of electricity passed through her to me and I could move again and was able to utilize my legs to help her help myself out of the water. As soon as my mouth came up over the surface my mouth involentarily opened wide and the dirty water came out like a pressured hose. Neither of us knew what to say or how to react, we were shocked and compensated by acting as normally as possible under such bizarre circumstances. I gave her a quiet and sincere, "Thank You." She said an equally quiet, "You're welcome." and we just stood there up to our shins in water staring at eachother while our minds tried to come to some sense. I think she was confused at how I responded..because after a moment of standing and pondering I was grossed out, I took an assessment of the water's clarity and thought, "THIS water was in my lungs.." so in my own way of showing her that I didn't know what else to say or how to react I said, "Eww this water.." and clutched my shirt below my collar to show that I still had some sense of normality, that I still thought that having dirty brown water having been in my lungs wasn't something to be happy about. When we got completely out of the water and after the councilor asked me why I was so pale and after I assured the councilor that I was okay and my explaination for being pale was, "The water was cold." That girl came up to me and quietly told me that she saw me "Up there." as she pointed up to where I was, I couldn't explain it myself so I just did what I could do, agree with her that I was up there and that I saw her see me while I was up there. I was just glad to be alive, she must have been relieved that I hadn't died.

Wow, I was literally riveted to the couch when reading your description of what it's like to drown.

That is one of my top 3, "ways I absolutely DO NOT want to die."

I keep sucking in big gulps of air even now, because once you realize you are drowning, I can only imagine what horror and helplessness must be raging through someone's mind.

I believe you had this experience and I believe NDEs are a true phenomenon, however I have found that the only thing I'm certain of regarding NDEs is that they are all universally subjective to the person who experiences it.

I don't think there is much truth about the afterlife that can be gleaned from them other than:
-our soul does, in fact, leave our body upon the moment of physical death
-the soul is able to see what is going on around their corpse for at least a few minutes after separation
-"we", insomuch as something that could be described as a comprehensive representative essence, keep on "living" even after our physical body has ceased to function
-something makes contact with us shortly after our transition outside the body

Besides that, there is nothing I think anyone should claim certainty of. I know what I believe, but that should not be confused with me having factual knowledge of something I have never experienced and the certainties of which, can only be understood through experience.

There are only 2 other things I'm certain of, which is that ALL spirits should be tested to determine their purpose and intention, no matter who they proclaim to be or what appearance they choose to manifest themselves. The other is who they will verbally, specifically, by name, confirm they serve.

Thanks for sharing your story, Wonders, Star and Flag. I have always been apprehensive of bodies of water, and think I may have drowned in a previous life.

Drowning is actually pretty peaceful after you get past the freak out point. So is cold.

Fire - you don't want to go by fire.

Thank you all for reading. I agree that what happens when we leave our bodies are subjective. Before that experience I had no idea about reincarnation.
Later on the girl and I ended up standing alone together and it was as if we could read eachothers thoughts and of course she seemed as confused as I about it, I thought she thought "WIERD!", then I got a little flustered and in my mind I yelled to her, "I'M NOT WIERD!" after that thought I said to myself, "What am I thinking?! People can't read eachother's minds!" and that is when it stopped.
The experience didn't make friends of us, she lived in the next town over and was older than I and since neither of us understood the magnitude of the situation we didn't go around telling people.
When I got home I told my dad what happened, the next year he didn't want me going back, I put up my arguement as to why I ought to go, and asked him why he objected, he said, "You might get hurt....YOU MIGHT DROWN!", immediately I remembered what happened and shot back, "But..I WAS SAVED!", then he consented.
The angel was tall I'd say about nine or ten feet tall wearing white and gold with a sword at his side. His speach was susinct and to the point and I had a feeling he wasn't here for a friendly chat and that I was on a need to know basis. I don't know why I was given that opportunity, sometimes I think it happened because I 'might' have been better off if I had chosen to die, or that it was a test that I passed by choosing to stick with it. I really don't know, but considering my situation, I'm guessing it's the latter. To remind me that I had a choice and that I should stick with it, that no matter how hard life gets, I chose it.

Originally posted by Wonders
Thank you all for reading. I agree that what happens when we leave our bodies are subjective. Before that experience I had no idea about reincarnation.
Later on the girl and I ended up standing alone together and it was as if we could read eachothers thoughts and of course she seemed as confused as I about it, I thought she thought "WIERD!", then I got a little flustered and in my mind I yelled to her, "I'M NOT WIERD!" after that thought I said to myself, "What am I thinking?! People can't read eachother's minds!" and that is when it stopped.
The experience didn't make friends of us, she lived in the next town over and was older than I and since neither of us understood the magnitude of the situation we didn't go around telling people.
When I got home I told my dad what happened, the next year he didn't want me going back, I put up my arguement as to why I ought to go, and asked him why he objected, he said, "You might get hurt....YOU MIGHT DROWN!", immediately I remembered what happened and shot back, "But..I WAS SAVED!", then he consented.
The angel was tall I'd say about nine or ten feet tall wearing white and gold with a sword at his side. His speach was susinct and to the point and I had a feeling he wasn't here for a friendly chat and that I was on a need to know basis. I don't know why I was given that opportunity, sometimes I think it happened because I 'might' have been better off if I had chosen to die, or that it was a test that I passed by choosing to stick with it. I really don't know, but considering my situation, I'm guessing it's the latter. To remind me that I had a choice and that I should stick with it, that no matter how hard life gets, I chose it.

I need to clarify a few things here. When I say that the experience didn't make friends of us, is because it didn't, whether we became friends or not was up to us, we didn't become enemies but we didn't get to know eachother either. I believe that Satan is very adamant about leading us to hell which is why it behooves us to digest the Word and buy oil for our lamps while there is still time.
And when I say that I had the feeling that the angel wasnt' here for a friendly chat and that I was on a need to know basis, the angel wasn't in any way mean or offensive, you could tell he took his work very very seriously, a life was at stake. The ax of God's judgement is at the root of EVERY tree.
I do not believe that I will reincarnate when I die, I have read the Word and have experienced the works of God, and am therefore without excuse if I die in sin.

reply to post by Wonders

. . . it behooves us to digest the Word and buy oil for our lamps while there is still time.

You are probably thinking of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.
Did you ever consider that the parable is really a no-win situation?
When the foolish virgins decided they should go out and get more oil, though they did find it and came back to the designated spot, it did them no good ultimately.
The virgins were locked into a destiny where they were either foolish or wise, a trait that became known in this scenario but was nothing they could somehow fix despite all their trying.
The point I am trying to get at is that the traditional view of this parable is probably completely wrong, and that it was a story (of Jesus giving a parable) that by hindsight of the reader, prophecy foretelling the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD by the Romans. That the bridegroom was the presence of Jesus right then, as he was speaking, that the people of Judea should have recognized as the fulfillment of the hoped for Messiah. At this point they were virtually doomed, but just did not know it yet.

Breaking news! Well for myself at least! I spoke to the girl's dad today at the clinic. I saw him and was itching to ask him, there weren't many people there so I felt it necessary, I had to know:

I approached him somewhat nervously and after greeting I asked him if (girl's name) told him about helping a girl out of the water at Camp AN (the shortened name of the summer camp), to my relief, he said, "Yes, she told me about it, she didn't know the name." I told him, "I was that girl."

I refrained from telling him the full story, he didn't ask, I didn't tell, he left, not upset, not surprised, I don't know how he felt about it, his face was pretty neutrally jovial if you understand what that looks like, he used to be a preacher fyi, I don't know if he is one anymore.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who told someone about it, that makes me feel better.
Anyway, just thought I'd share.

reply to post by Wonders


I really wish I was brave enough to ask him for the details of what she said to him, to get her full side of the story.
The next time I have the chance, I'll take it.

reply to post by Wonders


May the Lord bless you and your
endeavors and your close loved ones.