I looked to my right, and saw a tunnel going up at about a 30 degree angle. The tunnel was about 100 yards wide. It seemed to go up for miles.
I began to rise into the tunnel, as I heard the "music" of the "schizophrenic orchestra" retreating into the background.
As I rose, I flew "eyeballs first." That's about as well as I can describe it. I think that I was naked, but I couldn't have cared less. Though aware that I was dead, I was completely unafraid, and perfectly comfortable. I was only intent on what lay ahead, as I flew up at maybe 50 mph. I went up, up, up, until at a particular point I saw a brilliant light source in the distance. I thought, "Huh!" I stared hard at the light source, trying to discern detail.
As I came within 100 yards of it, my velocity upwards slowed. I was deeply shocked to see that the light source was brilliant background light behind an ordinary rectangular door-shaped opening. The shape of the doorway is what struck me. I thought, "Huh! They have that shape doorway up here ???"
I continued slowing to a few miles per hour.
Then, something happened. Something wiped-out my memory of what happened during the next few minutes. I believe that it was intentional. I deduce from where the memory picks-up next that I was told something. I have this vague, vague memory that "guys in cowls" -- monks ? -- talked to me, but I don't know for sure if that is my imagination being over-active.
My memory of the event picks-up where I am still floating in the tunnel, but I am very, very slowly starting to float back down, feet first. I am thinking to myself, "I have too much to DO !!! I have too much to DO !!! I have too much to DO !!! I have too much to DO !!! I have too much to DO !!! I have too much to DO !!! " I couldn't care less that I am rushing down the tunnel, faster and faster and faster, feet first, at what was maybe hundreds of miles per hour. I only want to get back to my body.
At the bottom of the tunnel, I zzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiipppppppppp back into my body with a kind of a "thump," which forces me to wake-up in my body, in my bed. From this point on, my Near Death Experience has ended. I could immediately tell that something had gone seriously wrong in my brain. I tried to think, with words, "What is wrong with my brain?" But the words got all jumbled-up. I tried to say something like, "Will my brain get better" outloud in the bedroom, but my tongue articulated the words all jumbled-up, with remarkable efficiency. The effect on me of being able to jumble-up words with my brain and my tongue with wonderful dexterity caught me so much by surprise that I was really amused. I tried to say other things out loud, and jumbled them up with the same amazing efficiency. I was pleased.
But then I got serious. I abandoned the use of words in my thinking, and I began to "apprehend" full ideas, without words. I apprehended that I probably had a stroke, that it was probably a small one, and that I might recover. I apprehended without words that the first thing I should do is finish my night's sleep. I laid down and went to sleep.
The following morning, when I awakened, I could immediately tell that I was still "struck dumb." I began thinking by that "apprehending" of things without words. Thinking without words was very interesting, and extremely efficient. My thoughts galloped like a race horse.
I went downstairs to the kitchen. In the presence of the rest of the family, I felt deep, deep shame at being struck dumb, I don't know why. When anyone asked me a question, I just answered "HRRRRMMMMPH !!!" They concluded that I was angry at something.
Later, when the family was out of the house, I took a trolley up to the offices of the family doctor on Castor Avenue just south of Cottman in Northeast Philadelphia. The doctor drove me to Nazareth Hospital, where they diagnosed my condition as "an ischemic attack." He sent me home with a prescription which I never filled.
I avoided everyone for two weeks, waiting for my ability to speak to come back. And come back it did.
Lest anyone think that I am implying here that I was "Heaven-bound" in 1978, I should add that in the case of the thousands of other people who have had similar experiences, but who went farther, they discover that on the other side of that doorway, one goes to judgment !!! The person is asked, "What did you do with the time I gave you on Earth?"
And, I should add, I am a sinner. My wife Rise` observed that during the blacked-out period I was told that I have more to do just to avoid being damned to Hell.
I think that she is right.
And I think that I still have more to do.
A final note: Law was the best experience of my life. I got to open the clock and see what makes it tick, so to speak. One of my friends in the course of that learning process was Medford, New Jersey attorney Ed Hogan. I told him about my near death experience. He responded with silence.
A few years ago, I tried to refer a case to him. Ed said, "Pete, I can't take it. I'm quitting law. I had a pretty bad stroke. I'm glad that it is you calling -- I had essentially the same experience you did. I went up the tunnel. I made it through the door. They told me that it wasn't time for me -- that I had to go back to Earth for a time. So, here I am."
To any skeptics who don't believe what I have written here, I can only say, God damn my soul to Hell fire forever if I am lying, here. I believe that telling the story is a sacred enterprise.
Anyway, friends, be good. Don't screw it up. Say a prayer for me.
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