Five Minutes In Heaven

In November of 1988 I was hit by car while crossing Francis Lewis Boulevard and the Sunrise Highway. The following story is a fictionalized account of the out of body experience that I had. Some may call this a Near Death Experience, I honestly don't know how to label it.

 *********************************

The last thing I remembered hearing was the screech of tires and then the crunch of metal. I felt lighter, like Jenny Craig was finally working. A distant siren was blaring in the background and getting closer. I looked down. I saw myself lying in the street, bits of windshield scattered around me. There were cuts and abrasions all over my hands and face. Blood was everywhere. Strange I didn’t feel any pain. In fact, as I stood looking down at my broken body, I felt a calm detachment.

The car was totaled. Crushed like a beer can in the hands of a redneck on a Friday night. The siren got louder and louder and then fell silent. I watched the paramedics surround me, one shaking her head. It looked like they were securing me to a rolling table. An oxygen mask was placed over my nose and mouth. IV drips were attached to each arm. I saw myself being shoved into the back of the ambulance. The doors closed, the sirens blasted the skies and the ambulance raced off.

I didn’t even have to chase after it. I just thought about the ambulance and POP! I was in the back watching people monitoring my life signs.

“He’s in bad shape.” It was the lady paramedic who was shaking her head earlier.

“Blood pressure is seventy over fifty. He still is conscious. But dropping fast. Get him more blood and fluid.”

I thought how could I be both conscious and watching myself? I was having an out of body experience and not dead. Interesting. I looked down at myself. My mouth was moving. Was I talking, incoherent? I concentrated on myself. The words and thoughts came almost magically.

“One time one is one. One times two is two. One times three is three.” Too easy, I’m drifting.

“A, B, C. D, E, F, G.” Automatic, I don’t need to think.

“Z, Y, X, W, V, U, T” Q, R, S, T, U. “S, R, Q” Don’t slip into oblivion. Keep concentrating.

The ambulance stopped and the back doors opened. People came rushing through swinging doors and grabbed the table I was secured to and the IVs. I watched myself get rushed back through the same doors. Someone was yelling, “Ready O.R. 3”

O.R. 3 I thought and suddenly I was watching the surgeons. As I watched, one cracked my chest open and reached in to massage my heart, I could feel myself rising. I remembered the stories my mother used to tell me of being able to feel the soul of a body leave just before they died. She would place her hands an inch above the patient right before they passed and feel the soul push against her. I wondered if any of them felt me as I heard the heart monitor emit a flat beep.

It felt like swimming. It felt like soaring. I was everywhere and nowhere all at once. I was flying loop de loops and smiled. Free and happy.

I was moving towards a warm, golden light. Below me, the operating room had grown distant, dark and small. I saw someone on the operating table and felt a familiar tug but didn’t know why.

As I approached the warm, golden light I saw flowers and trees and butterflies and sunshine. My Uncle Irv was smiling. Aunt Ida hugged me. Ben shook my hand.

“Where am I?” I asked already knowing the answer.

“Home,” said Uncle Ben.

“Isn’t there a Gate with St. Peter or something?” I looked around.

Uncle Charlie laughed, “Only if you want it. You see Gary,” he continued. “The Afterlife is whatever you make it to be.”

Aunt Ruth walked up and grabbed Charlie’s hand. “Blue skies or crystal oceans. It’s up to you dear.”

“Even who you want to be with,” Irv said. “We’re here because you wanted us to greet you. In fact life is the same way. You are the creator.”

“And speaking of life,” Uncle Charlie said. “You’re not done yet. You still have much to learn and teach.”

“But what? What am I to learn?”

Aunt Ruth smiled, “Blue skies or crystal oceans. It’s up to you dear. As above, so below.” She kissed my cheek.

Again I was tumbling. Only this time there were no loop de loops. I saw the operating room grow larger and saw myself on the table. Above me the golden light still shone and it was still warm. I started to become aware of my toes and my fingers. I became aware of time. I became aware of myself. I felt integrated.

The heart monitor beeped. And beeped. And beeped.