My “Near Death Experience” (for SWC)
Where to begin. I had been living in the East Bay Area for almost a year. I had relocated there from Augusta, Georgia in an attempt at a “geographical cure” for a mounting drug problem, which was not working too well. My father had remained in California after my folks split at age ten; us kids followed Mom to Georgia. Now it was Dad's turn to try and get me back on the “straight and narrow.” But now his wits were quickly coming to an end as well.
By this point, I had already commandeered a local “friend” to escort me into The City (San Francisco; we called it The City) to score on a few occasions; an activity my father had grown wise to: “Whatever you do, Son,” he said “do not go to The City;” this was before leaving on a trip with his second wife, leaving his wayward nineteen year old son with a couple hundred bucks and the keys for a week.
Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened next. But this trip to town didn't end with my friend driving home, me practically passed out in the passenger's seat—no—this time I'd be waking up in a hospital, not knowing how I got there, with a headache the size of Texas, and a missing wallet to boot.
So what happened? Well, to be honest, I'm still not sure, exactly. Why? Because I was passed the f*** out, in a coma, or who knows “where,” exactly... All I can tell you is what I remember.
As I said, we were in SF. Late October. Around 8:00 PM. Cold as hell. Parked like usual, then went down the block to where we'd score. I remember getting the dope and vaguely what happened next—though, honestly, it's hard to know for sure what I actually remember, and what has just been “appended” to my memory, if that makes sense. In other words, what “actually” happened, and what others told me happened.
The only thing I can say with certainty that I do remember happening was that next thing I knew, I was “looking down at my body.”
I will tell you this now. Much of this experience was exactly as the cliches sound: “white lights,” “floating outside of body,” “dark tunnels...” believe it or not, that's what happened lol. But I digress.
So, I'm “looking down at my body,” and, I see people crowding around it; looming over me. I recall this feeling being interspersed with moments of “reality” where I would be interacting with those around me. At one point I asked, “what's happened?” That's when someone said “you've been hit by a car.” I remember thinking, “That's ridiculous--” but then touching my head and it being warm with blood. So I laid down on the concrete.
Next thing I remember I was back, again, “above” my body; this time it “felt” (sounded? It's hard to describe) like the “sound” that occurs when you place your ear up to a seashell: kind of like a “whoooshing” vacuum, is how I always described it. I was in this vacuum, and it was very peaceful. But it also felt lonely.
I could still see people below, and they were messing with my body (later come to find out, the scoundrels had robbed me while my friend ran to call 911. Druggies. Lol).
I then remember feeling like I had a choice; the choice to either “stay where I was (wherever that was), or “return” to my(self) down below. I remember sort of aimlessly contemplating these possibilities for what seemed only to be a few seconds when, all of the sudden, “loud as day,” I heard (silently) a booming voice “say” something to the effect of “GO BACK. Now is not your time.” (But I “felt” this rather than “heard” it--but it was a (male) voice.)
SO: I—rather reluctantly—did return to my body down below. The next thing I remember, I was waking up in the SF General Hospital!!! The nurses said I had been hit by a car, and was “lucky to be alive.”
I still sort of “drifted in and out” of consciousness for the next couple of days, which is when the experience of “traveling through a dark tunnel with a light at the end” occurred. As silly and cliche as it sounds, that's exactly what I saw! So that's all I can say!.
To be honest, I didn't believe the people when they told me I had been hit by a car. I thought, for some reason, I had been mugged because my money was gone and everything. Luckily (or, maybe unluckily, my friend did, ironically, retrieve the drugs and my car keys, thank god lol).
Oh, also, it's important to mention, I was completely sober when this occurred. I had not used any of the drugs I bought before the incident, so, for anyone wondering if that may have been the contributing factor to the strange occurrence... I doubt it (shoot... I wish I had used them—my head probably wouldn't have hurt so bad when I woke up!!)
Regardless of my contentions, my buddy insisted what had happened, was we were walking across the street when a “white Taurus started careering down the road.” Apparently my buddy ran back the way we came, while I opted to cut across—that's when the car clipped my left side, my head smashed into the windshield, I did a flip mid-air, while an oncoming SUV caught my left leg. I flew, twenty feet, landed on a metal grate in the middle of Mission Street. That's when the folks nearby decided to pick me clean... Little did they know, I was “up above” watching the entire time! :))
But yeah... that's what happened!! It doesn't seem nearly as crazy as it did when it occurred, geez, almost fifteen years ago... (woulda been October 2002?), but, that's my story!! Unfortunately, even getting hit by a car and almost dying (and having this “spiritual experience”) wasn't quite enough to get me clean. But about three years later, in 2005, I would finally straighten-up; but that's a tale for another time and a whole different kind of “spiritual experience!!”
Thanks for reading, and I hope this is of some use to someone--if not “educationally,” then at least maybe entertainiorially. (Yes, that is a word. That I just made up.)
