Date of accident: 4-20-1980

Back story: Working at Forest Service, on a survey crew at the time.

Religious thoughts at the time: I would have told you I was an atheist the day before the accident, as a result of my step-father trying to force me into Catholicism; I had come to the conclusion that religion was nothing but a control mechanism - still think so today.

The event:

I was riding my motorcycle, a Honda 750K, in the hills, near La Luz (near Alamogordo) NM, with another biker I knew. We were riding on a 2-lane road, coming down from the mountain. I was ahead of him. I was, as usual, riding too fast for the road (but that's how I lived at the time).

I came around a tight curve, and the bike high-sided (center of balance lost, throwing all weight opposite of where it should have gone). My buddy, Perry, later told me he saw me hit a car, and both the bike and I went flying. He told me an ambulance took me to the hospital at Holloman AFB. At Holloman they put me in the Medevac to send me to WBAMC at Ft. Bliss (El Paso, Tx). All this time, I was unconscious.

I became aware I was sitting up, looking out the window, watching rotor blades go by, then became aware of all the sounds of the helicopter. It seemed sort of slow motion, but I did not perceive any other sensation. I thought:

"Why am I in a helicopter?" And looked around the aircraft, to finally see that I was sitting next to my body on a gurney.

My only thought was: "Wow. I'm dead." No fear, or excitement, just matter of fact.

Then boom. I was in the presence of Consciousness. That is all I could call It. (There was no one else there, no entities, nobody. Just an endless sort of pale blue Light. At this point, I did not perceive myself to have a body.)

"It" said: "No, you are not dead. All is not as you've been told. You've been here before; you'll be here again."

A very one-sided dialog. Then, it was like "a wave of information was poured into me," is the only way I can describe it. (There was nothing memorable, or tangibly useful about it, but it seemed to be the source of insights as the years went by.)

I then woke up in traction 4 days later in an ICU, with a broken Left Femur, and a few other nasty injuries.

As the years went by, I had a few spontaneous OBE's, and precognitive dreams, one of which was life-saving. I also got a pretty good BS-detector out of the deal, too good, almost. In meditation, can occasionally get useful insights.

After the event, nothing was the same. So much of the way I used to live, the things I found entertaining, the things other people find entertaining seem so frivolous, mind numbing. I noticed I also lost my fear of death, but also my zest for life.

I began reading all the esoteric information I could get my hands on, to try and figure out what happened. I never told a soul about this event until I went to an NDE group in the late 1990's. The event seemed to have affected the other experiencers in similar, yet individually different ways; listening to how it affected some of them let me know it could have affected me much worse.

I have heard all the explanations from various sources: Endorphin based delusion, due to lack of oxygen to the brain, all the way to “You were deceived by the devil!” Um....No.

The NDE is as vivid today as the day it occurred.

I can only say 3 things for certain:

There is some kind of Ultimate Creator.

We are some kind of Soul beings in a physical experience.

We do survive this physical reality.