I have few recollections from my childhood. I had polio at nine months and had to undergo numerous orthopedic surgeries starting when I was about six years old. This is one of the few experiences I do remember, however. I was lying on a gurney with a white sheet over me, just waiting to be rolled into the OR.

 

I had been given the shot they always gave me before I was to be given the ether or gas, so I was quite relaxed. The strange thing is - and I only recognized this recently - the position from which I am viewing myself. My thought at this time was: How will I know when I wake up from surgery that I am not dreaming. How do I know that this is not a dream and I am still asleep from my last surgery? Now as I was thinking this, I am viewing myself on the gurney and my feet are pointed away from me (the viewer) and I (the viewer) am above and to the right of my body on the gurney, back far enough that it would have been almost impossible for me (on the gurney) to see the observer me - unless I really twisted around. Then I am right above myself on the gurney, looking at my face from just above my feet and then right in front of my face.

That's all. Nothing spiritual in the experience. In fact, I have read many NDEs and always thought those who experience them are fortunate. I don't know why it never registered with me that I was viewing my body from another position until now but it hit me. It was always the same, my recollection, me viewing myself on the gurney.

Other than this experience, I have had several spiritual experiences, which blew me away. I also have had several experiences where I was flying. In the last experience I became concerned because I was getting so far away from earth and I thought I might not be able to find my way back. I imagined a gold thread running from my right ankle to home. But, I never "flew" after that. I remember thinking on the second flight, that I wished I had studied astronomy because then I would know what these planets and stars were called and where they were.