About thirty years ago when I was in my twenties, I wasn't feeling very well at work. So I came home and laid down for awhile.
After I drifted off to sleep, all of a sudden I heard the sweetest voice you could ever imagine in my right ear. Somehow I knew it was an angel. I cannot explain the sound of the voice, except to say it was like no voice I had ever heard - like the most beautiful music you can ever imagine.
Anyway, the voice kept telling me to come with it. I instinctively knew what it meant; it wanted me to die. I kept saying no, because I was so afraid of the pain of dying. I grew up in church and believed in God, so I always believed in another life after this one; but the thought of actually dying, to me, meant there had to be a lot of pain. The voice kept telling me there was no need to be afraid and that there was no pain.
I finally remember my spirit being taken from my body like a vacuum. It actually felt like my spirit was being pulled up; and just at the top of my stomach, I was being gently yanked out. There was absolutely no pain - just kind of a pull.
The next thing I remember was looking down on my body and seeing it lying on its side. I knew it was me, or where I had been; but I was not afraid. All I can remember is thinking how can anyone think that that thing (body) lying there was me. It wasn't. It was just a shell. I was not there anymore but was completely away from it; and I felt so free, like I had been released from a prison. I could go or do anything I wanted. There were absolutely no restraints anymore.
I kept thinking of just how wonderful I felt and how much pain a person is in, and not really knowing just how MUCH pain until it is gone. I felt like a part of a cool breeze, and I kept thinking how can anyone grieve for me. It was like I wanted to shout it to the world. Then I realized, all of a sudden, that the grieving is really for ourselves because of who we are losing and how we are left behind to struggle; and how important just one person is to another and just the impact one has on another person. And that is when it made sense: It dawned on me just how much we owe others - how this life, or spirit, isn't just about you. Don't get me wrong; I still grieve just as much as I ever did when I lose someone close. I know they are in a better place; but for me, missing them is the really hard part and the feeling of an empty place left behind where they once occupied. How much is another person's life changed when loved ones are gone. Why I was given this gift, I will never know. I have told my story to people, when they are grieving badly for someone they have lost, and it seems to help.
The next thing I remember was thinking that I had to go back and raise my children. I had an overwhelming feeling of not being finished. That is when reality came back, and then, the next memory I had was waking up. I had no memory of coming back into my body but of just waking up. I never heard the voice again after I left my body, but it was like I knew without a doubt that it was an angel.
I still have all the problems, pain and depression that comes with this life, but I do know without a doubt that there is another life after this one. I do know there is a higher being that we have to answer to, and I also believe that what you do in this life, and how you treat others, is what it is all about. We are all one part of a whole, and I believe that every person you hurt or help, once you really die, you will have to experience everything and every emotion you ever put that person through, good or bad. So if you are a Ted Bundy, then God have mercy on your soul; but if you are a Mother Teresa, then God bless you. Be good to each other, and you will experience their joy that you gave them in the end.