In the course of the years I forgot the promise.  In February 1986 I had to spend several nights with a sick aunt who was afraid of staying alone at night.  In the morning I went home about 10 o'clock en returned to my aunt in the evening. About the same time Denise M. was hospitalized in a clinic near Ghent, Maria Middelares (Maria Mediatress), where she died the 26th of February. 

Two days later I arrived about ten in the morning after spending the night at my aunt's. My wife let me in and told me that strange things had happened: about three o'clock in the morning she had heard two violent sounds as if window cracking; she first thought that the kitchen window was broken but couldn't find anything. She had spent the night on a chaise lounge in the living room. When she woke up she heard a whirling noise coming from upstairs, from our bedroom. It was like a little storm was going on there. She told me that she went upstairs - thinking that a window was blown open. But as soon as she opened the door the noise stopped. No window was open. There was even no wind outside. On the wall, near the window, was a red vertical stripe where a small oval frame with embroidery was fallen off the wall.  Back downstairs, she saw the glass in which she had taken an aspirin before going to sleep; it had a big crack. Coming in the kitchen she saw another glass - the one she had used to drink a whisky the evening before; it had a big crack too. Suddenly she realized that the cracks gave the explanation of the sounds she had heard that night. She saw the cracks but didn't look carefully at them as she was still confused.

When I arrived home she told the whole affair of the sounds, the whirling and the broken glasses. I got a strange feeling and thought that Denise could be involved in all this. The glasses still stood on the same place were she left them the evening before: one glass on the table in the living, the other stood seven meter further on the dresser in the kitchen. The crack in the one glass unmistakably showed a letter D, the other glass a letter M. There was no way of seeing anything else in the cracks than those two letter symbols.

I told several people about this affair and learned that they were not even impressed! I kept the glasses for five years in my cellar until I - in a bitter mood - throw them away (which I now deeply regret).  I have no explanation for the red stripe on the wall nor for the fallen frame and the whirling. But may we assume that Denise M. kept her promise by putting her initials on the glasses? She was a roguish lady; maybe it was also a kind of way to warn us: "you better watch out with that whisky !" In any case I have never known glasses been broken spontaneously, let be two glasses about the same time with a distance between them of seven meters !

The whole chain of events:  the promise, the spontaneous cracking of two glasses in, say, 10 minutes, at a distance of seven meters, the letters D en M appearing on them,  present such an overwhelming proof that hazard can never produce something of the like (or maybe, once in several billion years; let the statisticians figure it out ! - if they can).  One factor, however, cannot be ruled out completely: that I (or my wife) unconsciously should have provoked the events in a telekinetic way...  On the 26th of februar (on my way home from my aunt), I heard from  the son of D.M. that his mother had died that night; so I knew she was dead at the time the events happened. But I only remembered her "promise"  after they  had happened.

How do you currently view the reality of your experience?          

Experience was definitely real

            Please explain why you view the reality of your experience as real or not real:         

The physical evidence was kept during 5 years. I told a lot of people the whole affair and showed them the evidence.

            Was the experience dream like in any way?  

No

Was there any emotional healing in any way following the experience?          

No

What was the best and worst part of your experience?     


The best :  that it really happened !

The worst : that my own son - who also saw the evidence - smiled it away. He's a admirer of the theory of prof. Daniel C. Dennett...

Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience?        

No

What other attitudes and beliefs about your experience do you currently have?       Sacred

 

Did you have any changes of attitudes or beliefs following the experience?   No

Did the experience give you any spiritual understandings such as life, death, afterlife, God, etc.?           

Yes

The experience was an affirmation of what we already thought or hoped for.

Death Compacts are when two or more living people promise among themselves that whoever dies first will try to contact the other(s).  Have you ever made such a compact?       

Yes  see under #3

Did you observe or hear anything regarding people or events during your experience that could be verified later?         

No



What emotions did you feel during the experience?           

I and my wife talked a lot about these things. It became more and more evident that it really was D.M. that had provoked them. My wife was afraid that the vertical red stripe and the throwing on the floor of the oval frame (which was bought some years before in a shop in the presence of D.M. !) was some bad sign; so she threw the frame in the dust bin. But we spoke to almost every person we know about the whole affair, enthusiastic...  and yet, most of them showed little or no interest at all....  or the smiled it away.

Was the experience witnessed or experienced by others?          

Yes

My wife was the first to witness the experience.

Have you shared this experience with others?        

Yes

As I already said: most of them smiled... even if they had seen the evidence. Only two women took it seriously: one a simple housewife with little education, the other was a professor. I think they were already convinced about the reality of a life after death.

Have you shared this experience formally or informally with any other researcher or web site?  

Yes

A month ago, I have e-mailed the experience to a Dutch parapsychologist, Dr. Titus Rivas.

 Is there anything else you would like to add regarding your experience?      

I think that all has been said.

Were there any associated medications or substances with the potential to affect the experience?            No

Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience?        

No

 

Did you ever in your life have a near-death experience, out of body experience or other spiritual event?          

Yes

 

As already mentioned, my wife experienced a mystical experience at the Mediterranean. 

I myself have had what may be called a spiritual event, which I shall briefly describe :

About 1978 a had taken a deep interest in life and work of the composer Scriabin. I listened frequently to his music (e.g. The Poem of Extasy). About five or six times there were flashes of light in our living room, coming from the corner were the music had played. My wife and my son saw them too. I was highly intrigued by these lights, although I did not connect them with the music or figure of Scriabin (who died in 1915). A few months later, I lent a book about the life of Scriabin in the library of the Conservatory of Ghent, a book in two volumes written by Bowers. To my great astonishment I read that the American writer Henry Miller was also a great lover of that music, and that he too had witnessed these light-flashes !

Did the questions asked and information you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience?              

Yes

Please offer any suggestions you may have to improve this questionnaire.   

For now, I cannot offer any suggestion to improve your questionnaire. I think it is fairly complete.