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Going Home – Colm Keane

Jeremy o’Neill from County Kerry.

In the evening, after work, I often go home and lie down in the bedroom and just relax for a while. One evening, in early 2009, at a quarter past six, I was lying in the bed  and I sort of dozed off.  All of a sudden I was out in what seemed like Muckross Abbey in Killarney. It's an old stone ruin in the National park- There is an old church there and I was inside in a room which was down at the back of the church. You can imagine it - empty, with old stone walls.

I was looking through a stone window, up through the church. There were two Americans next to me and I was telling them  ‘Right at the very back, at the opposite end, that's where the altar used to be’  That was the last I saw of the Americans.

All of a sudden I saw this massive, blinding light right at the very back of the church, where the altar would normally be. It was like a circular light. You can imagine a very strong beam coming straight into your, eyes. I kept staring and staring at this light. It got brighter and brighter. It  enveloped my whole self.

I was lifted off the ground. I couldn’t control myself. I was being lifted right up in the air, with my body horizontal to the ground. The next thing it was like I was flying down this street. I was looking at all the houses. It was like as if you were driving down a street in a car, looking at all the houses and the shops which were back in the time of maybe the 1960s or the ‘70s.  You could compare it to driving up a street, with a camera on your car, and you kept seeing the shots of the buildings one after another.  It was like passing through time.

I felt calm and at  peace although I was moving fairly rapidly. I could see all the buildings as I was passing by. I passed a church and after that there was a pub. I could see my father's face, just his side face, looking sideways. He is dead now since 1971.  I saw his side face exactly as it was, as if he was walking into a pub, as he would have done back at that time. I saw the side locks he used to have. It was so vivid, so real.  He was the last thing I saw.

After that I was back again in this room at the back of the church and I knew I had to get out of there. I was weak and everything was dark. It was empty. I had to find a door. I got up and went over to the corner and reached this door. I opened it. Then I woke up. I sat up in the bed. It was 25-past-six. I remember the time because I looked at my watch. It was ten minutes exactly since I had got into the bed.

I called my daughter straight away. I said, 'Jesus Christ! I'm after having this strange experience!'  I told her about it then I felt a little bit frightened and wondered, ''What is this thing?' I also told my girlfriend later on.  At the start I wondered was it some sort of sign or some sort of near-death experience. It wasn't that I was ill. I wasn't unwell although I am on tablets for blood pressure - but half the country is on them. I wasn't well back in the '80s, when I had an operation, but that's a long time ago.

It hasn't changed my life at all although it certainly was something significant. It also wasn't a dream. I am positive of that. It's hard to explain why but it just wasn't. It was so real.  I'm not the kind of person that believes in that kind of stuff.  I'm not into that kind of thing. And I don't think there was  any religious significance to it. But it definitely was the most unusual experience I ever had in my life.