by Barry Stevens
Here are two similar experiences that happened to me some years ago now, In Hook Hampshire UK, that I believe was some type of angelic encounter or "divine" intervention if you like, its something that haunts me because I think of it a lot and about how lucky I am, and how close I came to a horrific end. Its hard for me to talk about as I used to have nightmares about falling on electric rails, but here goes...
Now I am not some type of religious nut, or delusional person that will think that just because something might appear a little strange that it must be something supernatural. I always try and rationalize things, but I have had so much unexplained things happen to me that it's hard not to come up with a spiritual solution as to what they might have been. I have posted a few of my experiences here on this site, but have been reluctant to tell these ones as I would sympathize with people that would think, "Why do all these things happen to him? He must be a liar or lunatic." If people want to think that, I have no problem with it...as I understand. I would think the same, if I had not experienced what I have in my life; but I can put my hand on my heart and say that I am honest and that I don't lie. So it's all good -- no matter what people think about me.
The first time anything like this happened was when I was a teenager about 18 years old; and a rebellious one at that. I was into drink, drugs, fighting and all sorts of criminal activity. I was not a bad person as such; just someone frightened by life and becoming an adult. So, a tough and bad ass attitude gave me a false sense of security. I am now thirty, and a lot more grown up; but here is something that helped me to grow up.
It was a Friday or Saturday night, and I got drunk with a group of friends. And me being me, I had to go one drink too far...anyway, I was drunk (not to the point where I did not know what was going on, but on my way home when I was at the train station I jumped down onto the train tracks thinking I could walk home along the tracks as they went right behind my house). Being drunk, I also did not see a train hurtling towards me on the same track. The first I knew about it was when I heard some girls that were standing on the platform shouting, "Someone please do something." It was then I looked up and saw the train coming towards me (let me tell you that I sobered up faster than I blinked). The next thing I knew, some man also standing on the platform had jumped down onto the tracks to drag me up onto the platform. He grabbed me; and I stumbled forward and put my leg out to save myself from falling.
Now from the very point I had seen the train coming, things had gotten very weird. The only way I can describe it to you is everything went deathly silent; and things seemed to slow down, as if time itself had slowed down allowing me more time to think and to react. Anyway as I stumbled, my foot went forward and in between the second rail and the third live rail (you would have to see the size of the gap in between the two rails to get how "lucky" that was. I also had on baggy jeans). Not only did I now have the pressure of an inner-city train speeding towards me; I also had the added pressure that if I moved my leg just one inch to the left or right, me and the man that tried to save me would be toast (quite literally). I have no idea what happened next, because the next thing I remember is being on the platform and the train speeding by us. The man and I were shaking, and I had nothing else to do but cry like a baby. At that point, I was no longer some cocky tough-minded teenager. I think it is safe to say that whatever happened in those missing few seconds, had made me grow up a lot.
I would also like to add that I did believe in the paranormal before this happened, as I had seen something when I was a child. But I never thought about supernatural intervention or anything like that. It was not until days after the event...after I had more time to think about what had happened, that I could get it straight in my head.I look back at the small space that was in between the rails often whenever I am at that train station. And still I can't believe my leg guided to the place where a 1000 other instances my leg would have hit the live rail; it was a one in a 1000 chance. One of the most oddest things about this was not just the missing memory, but the way everything went in slow motion...and the strange, deathly silence that seemed to creep upon me when I first saw that I was in fatal danger. It was so eerie, just thinking about it now makes me feel strange. I will never forget my stupidity on that night; not only did I nearly kill myself, but I nearly killed a complete stranger that risked his own life to help mine.
This is only half of the story...
After the event with the train I learned to fly right and be a better person. Although I did not become an angel, I was no longer getting into trouble with the law; and I did not drink no way near as much.
One afternoon (about eight years later when I was 26 years old), I was annoyed that I could not go to a night club with my friends, because it was my friends birthday. I only had about 10 £ on me, and I needed more than that to go. So, I went into a shop and bought a lottery scratch card and managed to win 25 £, which made me able to go to the night club that night. I went to the night club which finished at 4 am. It was in London and was expensive, so I could not drink much; so I had about two or three beers. My friend Mark had driven us there (and was going to drive us back), so he was not drinking and stayed sober. On the drive back, Mark (the driver) kept drifting off...like nodding his head, as he had also been to work all that day and was tired. I was sitting in the front passenger seat; two of my other friends where sitting in the back asleep or nodding off. I kept talking to Mark ,because I was scared he would fall asleep at the wheel. I turned the radio up full blast to stop him from doing this, and I kept a sharp eye on him. A number of times, he swerved a little which made me more concerned; then for a split moment, I looked away and out the window to my left. I must have only been looking away for a few seconds when I looked back and saw Mark's head slumped over. I looked up to see us on the other side of the road, heading straight towards an oncoming truck. We were doing about 50 miles per hour; and the truck probably the same. Now the impact would have been a total of 100 miles per hour...it would crumble the little Fiesta car we were in, for sure. At the point I saw the truck heading towards me, I got that same strange silence that I had in my train experience. All my senses seemed to shut down. The radio that was blaring out load, was now silent. Everything went into slow motion; the silence was deafening (if that makes any sense). There was no missing time in this event, but time seemed to slow down again; and I grabbed the steering wheel, and the next I know we were on the right side of the road. Mark jumped up out of his sleep and asked me, "What the f*** were you doing...were you trying to kill us all?" I told him he had fallen asleep, and that I had just saved all of our lives. He refused to admit that he had fallen asleep at the wheel, and to this day he still doesn’t believe me. My friends do, because one of them woke up just in time to see the car driving back over onto the correct side of the road.
What adds to the strangeness of this experience is if I had not won money on the lottery scratch card, I would not have been in that car to pull the car over to the right side of the road.
I often think about these two experiences, and think how odd they were; and that they could very possibly have been divine intervention. I am pretty convinced that it was not my time to go; nor was it my friend's time to go. So something (or someone) stepped in to stop a disaster.
I have also wondered if it could have been some "karmic debt," in some way. Because of the train event (when I nearly killed a stranger, and myself because of my stupidity), could I have been filling some sort of karmic debt (caused by my stupidity on those tracks) by saving my friends and myself that morning in the car? Could it have levelled out something? Whatever they were, they have changed me for the better. And they have caused me to search for spiritual answers, which I still do to this day.
I think whoever or whatever gave me the help that I needed on those two days, is something or someone that we all have. Call it God; call it angels; call it spirit guides; call it passed over loved ones...I think it has shown me that life is bigger and more important than what most of us realize.
In my opinion, all of us are here to learn and to walk paths for reasons unknown; and sometimes those paths can be threatened. So, things unknown can avert whatever it is threatening your path, and will protect you from that threat in order that we can continue on our path, and continue our learning.