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The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences – Dr Penny Sartori

The following NDE is interesting because it left Julie, from Llanelli, with quite a few after effects:

It happened in 1996 after I had a haemorrhage following a tonsillectomy. I’d gone home then had to go back to hospital because I had started bleeding. I was admitted to a ward then I started haemorrhaging really badly. Blood was gushing from my mouth like a waterfall. I pressed the buzzer and a nurse came in, then there were nurses and doctors from everywhere. One of them held my hand while the others rushed around. They put me on a heart monitor.

Then I got weaker and I heard the nurses and doctors say, 'Quick, we're losing her.'

The next thing I knew I was in some kind of . . . all I can describe it as is . . . like a big kaleidoscope. It was as if I was conscious but in this big kaleidoscope with white, silver and purple circles. It was weird. Then I saw a slide show of the whole of my life played before my eyes. Everything that had happened in my life from childhood to present was just played before my eyes. It wasn't fast but very slow and once one image was shown then another one would appear. The last image I saw was one of my mother’s face (she's still alive). But it was all as if I was very much awake; it's hard to describe.

Then after the image of my mother's face I just saw like orbs of light - purple and silver orbs of light floating in front of me. Then a bright light appeared, it was a very bright light that got brighter and brighter. Then it started to dim as if it was like a dimmer switch and then it got really dim. I was just surrounded by this dim light for the next ten minutes or so, I would think. I can't really put a time on it. It was as if I was just suspended there in this dim light and then I started to hear the nurses calling my name and I woke up in the recovery room.

The funny thing is that I wasn't scared; in fact it was a fabulous experience. I was really comfortable and I was enjoying it.

Since the experience I've had some weird things happen. It was as if I was picking up on everyone's feelings. I seemed to know what people around me were feeling and thinking. Even complete strangers I’d never met before. Once I was on holiday in Spain and I was sitting by the pool reading a book. I glanced over and saw a man and woman also reading. Then all of a sudden it was as if I engaged with his thoughts, I knew what he was thinking. The words 'I hope she will be happy with this, I miss her. Why did she have to die? . . .cancer . . .' then that was it. I thought I was going mad.

When I went to bed that night I said to my partner, 'I feel really sorry for that man by the pool, he's lost someone close to cancer.' Then we went off to sleep. The next day my partner went down to the pool before me and got talking to the lady who I’d seen with the man. She told my partner that they’d just got married and his previous wife was her best friend and she’d died of cancer. I arrived at the pool about an hour later and my partner told me - then teased me that I was a freak!

I used to get that quite a lot. I would be in board meetings at work and I could just look up and tap into people's thoughts. It was like an empathy . . . I knew what they were thinking . . . that’s all I can describe it as. It lasted for about five years or so and was very powerful at first but then gradually got less and less and it’s gone now. I'm still empathetic and pick up on people's feeling but I can't read their thoughts any more. It used to freak me out and I thought I was going mad.

Another thing is that I couldn't wear a watch for about three years after the NDE. I've got a nice expensive watch but it would just go haywire. I bought new watches but they would just not work for me; it was really frustrating and used to really annoy me. I can wear one again now but it will lose time now and again but only ten to fifteen minutes, nothing like it used to be.

Then, whenever I was around electrical items, things just went haywire too. I would walk into a room and the TV would switch itself off. I could walk into a room and the hi-fi would switch itself on.

The most noticeable was when I went to the dentist - every time I sat in the chair the equipment stopped working. The dentist had to take me into the other room; it was only with me that it happened!

These things used to happen but they've stopped now and I'm glad - I didn't want those abilities! One thing that has stayed with me since the experience is that I'm not afraid of dying any more, Whenever I talk about it with friends and they say they are afraid of it, I'm not. I'm definitely not afraid of dying.