Real Near Death Experiences

Kathleen Gardner

Kathleen Gardner's near-death experience would have been remarkable even if nothing had happened afterwards. She had a severe haemorrhage after the birth of her second baby, found herself unable to breathe and, as she puts it, 'popped out' of her body. Kathleen Gardner's near-death experience would have been remarkable even if nothing had happened afterwards. She had a severe haemorrhage after the birth of her second baby, found herself unable to breathe and, as she puts it, 'popped out' of her body. Suddenly, all her pain had gone and she seemed to be half-way towards the ceiling, looking down on the doctors and nurses trying to revive her.

'The midwife was crying,' she said. 'I could see all the panic going on round the bed and I thought what a shame it was that they were paying so little attention to my new baby in its cot on the other side of the room.

'It didn't upset me though,' she added with a laugh, 'I wasn't at all caring about it!' Then she found herself going along a dark tunnel - 'sloping slightly upwards' - towards a circle of light. As she moved towards it, she began to feel 'lovely, happy, peaceful, so wonderful it's hard to describe'. Although she couldn't see a hand, she sensed that somebody within the light was trying to reach out to her.

She thought: 'What am I doing here? My husband will never cope,' and immediately, to her disgust, shot back into her body, 'like a train going backwards at 200 miles an hour.' She felt agonising pain again and asked herself bitterly: 'What the hell did I do that for?'

That was in 1965 but to Kathleen, now 50 and an office administrator in Worcester, the episode is as sharp and crystal-clear as the day it happened. Never a day goes by without her thinking about it. What is even more remarkable, however, is that although the experience may only have lasted for a few seconds it fundamentally changed her life.

'I'm totally different now,' she said. 'For a start, I can't bear to kill anything. I don't even use a fly-spray. I just feel a total respect for all living things. Now I appreciate everything.

'In the old days, I used to say: 'My neighbour's had new curtains, why can't I?' Now, I'll have them if I need them, but never to keep up with other people. That experience made me realise that the things I used to think important - 'I must have a new car, I've got to have terracotta tiles in the kitchen' - just don't matter.

'And, of course, it's totally taken away my fear of dying. I don't want to die, but if that's all there is to it - the click over from being here to being there - it's nothing. I now believe that this life is only a practice run. The real living is after death. Death is life to me.'

Yet Kathleen is very far from being a religious zealot. Indeed, she is one of the most down-to-earth people I have ever met. Nor has she any time for mediums 'who sit around in circles summoning up the dead'.

She was always, she said, the black sheep of her Catholic family because she didn't go to church. Now, quite sure that there is 'something above' and that, after we die, 'we shall go to where I was at', she does occasionally drop into church. She feels she ought at least to light a candle, out of gratitude and 'just to keep you covered'.

Nor has the effect of the experience worn off. Five years ago, she became a vegetarian. 'The animals come by in wagons on their way to the slaughterhouse,' she said, 'and I could scream. Why should they die for me? I felt so bad about it, I had to stop.' She has also given up drinking.

Even the fact that her husband Maurice, who is a lorry-driver, is unemployed doesn't bother her too much. 'I've got this laid-back thing now. If we lost our home because we couldn't keep up with the mortgage, so what? We'd find a little place somewhere. It takes an awful lot to get me down these days.'

She has become so different that her husband, who has also never been religious, has changed too. 'I was always saying I must have a new car,' he said. 'Now, if I had an old banger out there for ten years, it wouldn't worry me.

'I'm 49 but I still play football and, in the old days, I used to have one or even two new pairs of boots every season. Now, I just play with the old ones. And, when I'm digging in the garden, I find myself watching to make sure I don't hurt the worms.' - See more at: http://celestial.kuriakon00.com/nde/kathleen_gardner.html#sthash.KNY46M1V.dpuf

'The midwife was crying,' she said. 'I could see all the panic going on round the bed and I thought what a shame it was that they were paying so little attention to my new baby in its cot on the other side of the room.

'It didn't upset me though,' she added with a laugh, 'I wasn't at all caring about it!' Then she found herself going along a dark tunnel - 'sloping slightly upwards' - towards a circle of light. As she moved towards it, she began to feel 'lovely, happy, peaceful, so wonderful it's hard to describe'. Although she couldn't see a hand, she sensed that somebody within the light was trying to reach out to her.

She thought: 'What am I doing here? My husband will never cope,' and immediately, to her disgust, shot back into her body, 'like a train going backwards at 200 miles an hour.' She felt agonising pain again and asked herself bitterly: 'What the hell did I do that for?'

That was in 1965 but to Kathleen, now 50 and an office administrator in Worcester, the episode is as sharp and crystal-clear as the day it happened. Never a day goes by without her thinking about it. What is even more remarkable, however, is that although the experience may only have lasted for a few seconds it fundamentally changed her life.

'I'm totally different now,' she said. 'For a start, I can't bear to kill anything. I don't even use a fly-spray. I just feel a total respect for all living things. Now I appreciate everything.

'In the old days, I used to say: 'My neighbour's had new curtains, why can't I?' Now, I'll have them if I need them, but never to keep up with other people. That experience made me realise that the things I used to think important - 'I must have a new car, I've got to have terracotta tiles in the kitchen' - just don't matter.

'And, of course, it's totally taken away my fear of dying. I don't want to die, but if that's all there is to it - the click over from being here to being there - it's nothing. I now believe that this life is only a practice run. The real living is after death. Death is life to me.'

Yet Kathleen is very far from being a religious zealot. Indeed, she is one of the most down-to-earth people I have ever met. Nor has she any time for mediums 'who sit around in circles summoning up the dead'.

She was always, she said, the black sheep of her Catholic family because she didn't go to church. Now, quite sure that there is 'something above' and that, after we die, 'we shall go to where I was at', she does occasionally drop into church. She feels she ought at least to light a candle, out of gratitude and 'just to keep you covered'.

Nor has the effect of the experience worn off. Five years ago, she became a vegetarian. 'The animals come by in wagons on their way to the slaughterhouse,' she said, 'and I could scream. Why should they die for me? I felt so bad about it, I had to stop.' She has also given up drinking.

Even the fact that her husband Maurice, who is a lorry-driver, is unemployed doesn't bother her too much. 'I've got this laid-back thing now. If we lost our home because we couldn't keep up with the mortgage, so what? We'd find a little place somewhere. It takes an awful lot to get me down these days.'

She has become so different that her husband, who has also never been religious, has changed too. 'I was always saying I must have a new car,' he said. 'Now, if I had an old banger out there for ten years, it wouldn't worry me.

'I'm 49 but I still play football and, in the old days, I used to have one or even two new pairs of boots every season. Now, I just play with the old ones. And, when I'm digging in the garden, I find myself watching to make sure I don't hurt the worms.' - See more at: http://celestial.kuriakon00.com/nde/kathleen_gardner.html#sthash.KNY46M1V.dpuf