Observations placeholder
Mrs Jane O'Neill of Cambridge
Identifier
010841
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
This is an interesting observation because it shows that even when involvement in an accident is not direct, the shock of seeing the effect on others can have its own effects. In this case it gave her perfect recall and the ability to tap in to other people's perceptions and see past lives.
The last part of her account shows symbolism in operation, she is told that something is stopping her fly - the armadillo is symbolically the same as a crab
A description of the experience
from Mysteries - Colin Wilson
Mrs Jane O'Neill of Cambridge supplied me with a lengthy account of her experience, which I condense here:
In October 1973, I was the first person to arrive at a serious accident; a car had driven head-on into a coach behind which I was travelling. I pulled the passengers from the wreck, waiting with them till the ambulances arrived. Afterwards, with my hands covered with blood, I drove to London Airport to pick up a friend.
Driving home later that night I began to 'see' all over again the dreadful injuries of the passengers. They continued for days; I am usually a very sound sleeper, but I now found that I could not sleep at all. The doctor said I was suffering from shock, and I was away from school for five weeks [Mrs O'Neill is a schoolteacher].
A fellow teacher [Shirley] invited me for the half-term holiday to her cottage in Norfolk, where several inexplicable things happened. I would be sitting in her sitting room and would quite suddenly see very clearly before me a vivid picture. It would last a couple of seconds, during which my riveted attention was apparently obvious [and] Shirley would ask me what the matter was. I don't remember the sequence of these sights, but I remember them very clearly.
After one I told Shirley: 'l have just seen you in the galleys.'
As I hardly knew her, I was astonished when she replied: 'That's not surprising. My ancestors were Huguenots and were punished by being sent to the galleys.'
While wide awake I also 'saw' two figures walking by trees beside a lake, and I knew, though I don't know why, that one of them was Margaret Roper [daughter of Sir Thomas More]. (My maiden name was Moore and I have wondered whether there is any connection with Thomas More.)
I also 'saw' two strange animals facing each other, one a horse, the other resembling an armadillo, but tied in what looked like string . . . After each of these I felt quite exhausted.