Suddenly, There I Was in a Bright Light I Did Not Understand

It was a dark and stormy evening.

Isn’t that how you expect stories about spiritual encounters or encounters with the other side to start?

In my case, it wasn’t, and it was a beautiful sunny day.

You also expect people to be scared about encounters with the other side or out-of-body experiences.

I wasn’t scared, just confused.

Confronted by a bright light.

I was attending a relative’s wedding in a beautiful part of Western Australia.

I remember going outside to talk to my wife’s stepfather. He was talking to several other people I did not know but guessed were family relatives. The conversation was light and entertaining. And then it happened!

All of a sudden, I felt like someone had pulled a plug, and I could feel myself being emptied of life fluid. I had no control as I felt myself falling backward.

Luckily, there were bushes behind me to break my fall. I emphasize there were bushes; I completely flattened them, so I was told.

In hindsight, had there not been bushes, it could have been a different story; I would have split my head open.

All I can remember were voices everywhere –

“Has someone called an ambulance?”

“He is not moving?”

And then the familiar voice of my wife — comforting and reassuring but concerned and shaky at the same time.

“Calvin, Calvin, can you hear me?”

I could, but I could not get the words out.

Paramedics appeared and took control. I could see their blue uniforms. I could hear the chatter.

“Squeeze his hand.”

“Calvin, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand.”

I could hear, but when I thought I was squeezing so hard, my wife later told me there was nothing. She could not feel any response.

If I close my eyes, I can still see it now.

Rising above the crowd toward a bright light.

I felt complete weightlessness. I looked down at the people gathered around a guy in a blue suit.

“Hell, that is me; I am in the blue suit!”

I could see everything, hear everything.

“Hey, it’s me. I am up here; no, wait, I am down there, but I am also up here.”

“Why can’t you hear me? Why don’t you listen?”

The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital the next day, unaware of the events that had taken place since my out-of-body adventure to the other side.

I had been rushed to one hospital only to be transferred to another hospital because the first one did not have the experience to deal with me. My wife was told to start making phone calls because there had been no response.

“He is alive but dead,” they had said.

I was discharged two days later with no side effects and, unfortunately, no explanation.

Explaining my encounter

I had not long returned from the United States, where I had been working. We returned to Australia after being caught up in the 9-11 fiasco.

We had decided to return to Australia. It was strange to be in a land labeled as a ‘resident alien’ with all these bad feelings floating around.

The company I was working for refused to accept my resignation, instead offering that I keep my current role and travel back and forth to the United States.

One hell of a commute!

It was a great company and a good job. I was getting paid in US dollars, about twice the Australian dollar then, so it was hard to refuse.

I was about four months into the new arrangement when I had my experience.

The company was based in New Jersey, USA. I would travel to the US (about a two-and-a-half-day trip, four connecting flights) and spend a few days attending the Board meetings and corporate business.

I would then fly down to one of their manufacturing plants in Louisiana, where I had reporting staff and responsibilities for 2- 3 days. After that, I would fly from Louisiana to their other manufacturing plant in Porcheville, about two and a half hours out of Paris, where I also had staff and responsibilities.

From there, I would return to Australia after 2–3 days. In essence, I traveled around the world every month, a round trip of 32,500 kilometers or 26,500 miles.

Good for frequent flyer miles but for little else, especially your body!

There was a funny side to this.

In the following weeks, I saw every specialist you could think of. No one had an answer. I remember a visit in particular to a neurologist. He got me to do all of these different expression tests. One of which was to snarl. I gave him my best snarl, loud and deep;

“Grrr-rrrr-rrr.”

On the way home, my wife asked me,

“What on earth were you thinking when he asked you to smile and gave him that awful snarl?”

We laughed our heads off and have done so on several occasions whenever we think about that fateful day.

The consensus was that my out-of-body experience was caused by a blood clot that formed from all that flying but disappeared for some unknown reason.

Apart from the incident, there was no permanent physical damage, although I am sure there are those who would question my ongoing sanity!

I guess it just wasn’t my time. I will know next time all about that bright light.

Till next time, thanks for reading my story,

Calvin

[Originally published in Writing Under the Moon]