Skye B ADC
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I had been sleeping for several hours and was in a deep sleep. It would have been in the early hours of the morning. I became aware of a presence in my room (I live alone) and opened my eyes – or at least I believed I opened my eyes because I was still asleep and this all happened in a dream. As my eyes adjusted, I could see an elderly woman standing by my bed looking at me. She was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her. In my mind I thought I was awake and seeing an apparition, and felt excited that I was having a ghost encounter. I thought it might be the old lady who used to live in the house before me who had passed away.
I reached out my hand and asked her to come closer so that I could hear her. She came forward, putting her hand in mine and I could feel with weight and warmth of it. Still holding my hand, she came over and sat down on the edge of the bed beside me.
She told me she once worked as a servant for one of my ancestors and I immediately knew she meant my paternal great grandparents (my great grandfather was a prominent Belgian politician and quite wealthy). She said they had asked her to pass on a message to me. She said they were concerned about me and that I needed slow down and take better care of myself.
She then got up and dissolved and I found myself in what looked like an empty shopping mall and had strangers coming up to me. There were so many and all talking at once, all eager to meet me, to touch me and for me to hear them. They all had messages for loved ones they wanted me to take back with me, and for a while I believed I must have died in my sleep and was now in the spirit realm. Someone came forward and moved them back telling them that I had to go and could not help them, and then ushered me on my way and I woke up. The dream felt incredibly real and I didn’t know what to make of it. I felt sad it was just a dream.
The next day, I was woken up at three in the morning by an intense squeezing pain in my chest. As I have several health conditions I’m used to strange aches and pains so I didn’t think too much of it. The pain continued to linger, so later in the morning I decided I better get checked out because the woman’s words in my dream were playing on my mind. I contacted my local medical centre and they urged me to go to hospital immediately. I honestly didn’t think it was anything serious, the dream was still on my mind, so I followed their instructions.
I was admitted to hospital and after a series of tests and a second cardiac event in hospital the doctors found I had actually had a heart attack. I’m now being a lot more careful not to push myself too hard and to pay attention to what my body is telling me. If it had not been for the dream I wouldn't have gone to see a doctor and would not be on the medication I'm on now to prevent another attack in the future.
Any associated medications or substances with the potential to affect the experience? No
Was the kind of experience difficult to express in words? No
At the time of this experience, was there an associated life threatening event? No
What was your level of consciousness and alertness during the experience? I was asleep at the time and dreaming but believed I was awake, and it felt like I was awake.
Was the experience dream like in any way? Though it was a dream it felt more like altered reality than a dream.
Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body? No Response
What emotions did you feel during the experience? Excitement, peace, sadness when I had to leave
Did you hear any unusual sounds or noises? Talking, many people speaking at once
LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Did you recognize any familiar locations or any locations from familiar religious teachings or encounter any locations inhabited by incredible or amazing creatures? No
Did you see a light? No
Did you meet or see any other beings? No Response
Did you experiment while out of the body or in another, altered state? No
Did you observe or hear anything regarding people or events during your experience that could be verified later? Yes The woman told me I needed to slow down and take better care of myself. Twenty-four hours later I suffered a heart attack but didn't recognise it as one. It was only because of the dream that I felt I should get my chest discomfort investigated.
Did you notice how your 5 senses were working, and if so, how were they different? Yes Considering I was in a dream, I was struck later by how I had felt the warmth of the woman's hand.
Did you have any sense of altered space or time? No
Did you have a sense of knowing, special knowledge, universal order and/or purpose? No
Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure? No
Did you become aware of future events? No
Were you involved in or aware of a decision regarding your return to the body? No
Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience that you did not have prior to the experience? No
Did you have any changes of attitudes or beliefs following the experience? No
How has the experience affected your relationships? Daily life? Religious practices? Career choices? I have invisible chronic illness/disability and I've always felt pressure to keep up with able-bodied people, to pretend to be well because I look healthy and able on the outside. Since this experience I feel like I've been given permission to make my health and care a priority and to stop feeling guilty when I need to rest.
Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience? No
Have you shared this experience with others? Yes Mostly I've been met with blank stares. Most don't know how to respond. Also, I've only told people about the first part of the dream - the woman's warning, not the people wanting to give me messages.
What emotions did you experience following your experience? Not sure
What was the best and worst part of your experience? The kindness of the old woman, she was so comforting.
Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience? No
Did the questions asked and information you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience? Yes I had expected a question to categorise the experience as NDE, OBE, Dream etc, but I take it you will file the story in the right category? It wasn't an NDE or similar, but a kind of lucid dream, so some of the questions were difficult to answer as I felt they didn't really apply to a dream.
Other than perhaps adding a way to categorise the experience of add specific questions for dreams, no.
Experience description 21005:
One morning I was in the shower getting ready to go to work when a random thought popped into my head: 'how will we know she's dead if he kills her'. It was so bizarre and weird. I had no idea where such a thought had come from or what it related to. My mind had been pretty blank, thinking the usual mundane thoughts about work etc, yet this thought interrupted those, like someone had shouted it at me.
I brushed it off as my mind going off on a strange, somewhat disturbing, tangent and carried on about my day as normal.
That night I was in bed asleep when I was woken by someone banging on my neighbour's door. I could hear it was a man and he sounded drunk. He kept shouting at her to let him in and when she refused he walked round to her bedroom window which was next to mine. He kept banging on it until it broke and then he climbed inside and they started arguing.
The fighting intensified and I could hear banging as if he was throwing her against the wall. It was at this point that I got up and called the police because I realised she had no way of doing so herself. The police arrived quickly and removed him.
She moved out the same day so I never found out more about the situation but I feel if I hadn't called the police when I did, he may very well have killed her. And if it hadn't have been for the 'voice' in my head that morning I might not have called the police but instead ignored the commotion preferring not to get involved.