(While writing about this experience, I saw that I did not enter each incident in the proper order, and since I can not cut and paste here, I have numbered the paragraphs in the proper order.)
1. I don't really know if this was a NDE or an ADE AND BACK experience, but it did happen around 1969-70. I was coming home from a big night in the North Beach area of San Francisco, when I was involved in a harrow- ing automobile accident on the SF-Bay Bridge (eastbound).
2. I was driving a small sportscar which began careening across the 4-5 lanes of the one-way deck of the bridge that took (what seemed to me to be far too long to long for the vehicle to stop. The car felt as it was lifting up off the road as if it was going to "fly" into the SF Bay below. While waiting for the car to settle, my life literally flashed before me. At the time, I had a beautiful young 2-yr old daughter, who my mother was babysitting, and during that moment all I could think of was, "Oh, my God, my baby!", as I began thinking that I was going to die. Then, as if I were two people, a voice inside said "Hillari will be fine. Mama will raise her. She's good mother, and she did a wonderful job with me." I seemed to be more relaxed then. Then the thought came to me that this was taking too long. Maybe I'm not going to die. I began praying, "If I'm not going to die, Lord, please don't let me be in too much pain." Once the vehicle stopped totally, I did not feel ANY pain--just disorientation.
4. The next thing I knew, a Calif. Hwy patrolman opened my door and asked if I was alright. I was holding my head and because I felt conscious, I said "I think so". He helped me out of the car and told me to sit down on the curb of the bridge (just like a street curb) and put my hands on my knees and put my head between my legs. I said "I'm O.K. I just want to go home." Even though injured, I just wanted to go home. I was grown, but I was living with my mother, and she worried about me when I was out excessively late, and it was not about 4 a.m. Then, the patrol- man said, "We'd better have someone take a look at that head." My head (I thought)...what about my head. I took my hands from my knees and as I was reaching for my head, I saw both my hands were bloody. I was startled at seeing the blood from my knees, and I went into a mild hysteria. Then, when I felt for my head (the area that seemed to have a headache), the left eye area felt like spaghetti. At that point, I think I blacked out for a few minutes. I very vaguely remember being in an ambulance, and I heard someone say that they were taking me to the navy hospital at Treasure Island (halfway across the bridge). Once at the hospital, my recollection was that I was watching someone laying on a table and several medical personnel were attending.
5. My next recollection was that I was on the telephone, calling my mother to assure her that I was alright. The patrolman took me home to Richmond.
6. Several post-trauma memories later came to me, such as: When I felt the car lift up, it was me. I was lifting up, possibly outside my body.
3. Then, I began seeing myself floating through a tunnel of cloud-like fog, quite much like giant cotton balls. I saw images ahead, perhaps 7-10 individuals. They were all wearing white (if they were robes or jumpsuits they were wearing, I couldn't tell. Nor could I see their faces, but I did know that I was heading for a beautiful, calm place. I felt as if I knew the people ahead, and I also felt as if they were there to greet me. It felt so comfortable where I was going and I wasn't frightened. I felt a relief--then, all of a sudden, I felt and heard a kind-of big "WHOOOSH", like some great tidal wave, and the clouds were gone as abruptly as they came.
7. Another strange thing--when I had the accident, I was not alone. A male friend was with me, but I have no recollection of seeing him after the accident happened. I spoke with him by phone, days later, so I do know that he was there.
8. In approximately 1972 (73, 74??), I saw a movie entitled "Resurrection", wherein a woman was involved in an automobile accident with her husband (coincidentally in a similar, small sportscar. The husband died, and the woman's spirit left her body, and she experienced the same things I had, as described above. The reconstruction of her episode was almost identical to mine, and it gave me quite a start because I hadn't ever thought about it again. This woman became a faith healer, etc.
9. My lifestyle changed from that time. When I had the accident, the man I was with was being very generous with me. He had just bought me the car that day, and I was being the ultimate gold-digger--getting everything I wanted. I'm no longer the same person. My goal in life has been to be the best, kindest, most generous, pleasant I can possibly be, and to this day, I am the best person I personally know of.
11. Since that first experience, I have had several other paranormal experiences. I feel that the first one opened some sort of cornucopia of paranormal eposides. You may see my name associated with other such web sites, as I seem to be "chosen" to report my experiences.
CONCLUSION:
No matter what the skeptics say about brain electrical currentss triggering flashes of light, etc., mass hysteria, etc. No one can take my experiences and tell me what I was thinking, what I was seeing. I'm half a century old, and I know what I know, I know what I see--that is, if it's something I'm not sure of, I will say so. I have been blessed with a great gift of being not quite the average Jill on this planet. I have seen things that 100 people or more probably have not seen or experienced.
May God bless you for allowing me to share my life experience with you. You may feel free to e-mail me with other experiences. Only scientific responses, please!!
Fran
askfran@pacbell.net
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