Erich A's Experience
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Experience description:

I had been inducing OBEs through meditation techniques (focus on solar plexus lying flat on back).  I had been able to gain a fair level of control over the experiences which I had been having maybe twice a week for a period of about 8 months - which had initially been terrifying (e.g. what seemed to be racing heart beat, inability to breath, and a rushing wind that would rock me out of my body) - I was seeking to verify that the experiences were "real"; especially what appeared to be precognitive information obtained during the OBEs.  There was much in this regard that unverifiable, much that I could not accept on the grounds that it could be coincidence or could have been received through normal subconscious cues, etc.  Yet some precognitive information that I received seemed to defy normal explanations.  I was seeking more "proof" in June 1987. The information pertaining to future events had all been of a rather trivial nature up that point (with one slightly more significant event). 

I laid back and went into my usual mode of meditation and allowed the feeling of floating out away to overcome me.  I found myself walking across the mall on the University of Arizona campus (a few blocks away and where I was enrolled).  I heard the noise of a straining jet engine getting louder and I looked up to the sky.  There, coming from the North West was a commercial jet airliner crashing towards the ground.  I knew it would crash and that there would be great loss of life.  I knew this because I - this is hard to explain - "saw" the people on board as "lights" and then they blew around a blackened scene of wreckage as "dead autumn leaves".  Also, as this was occurring, my mother was providing a kind of voice over. The content is very personal and I can't share the details.  It was her voice and she was telling me some important things, among which was that she had to go away (as in die) very soon. 

I snapped out the OBE state quickly and was very upset.  It was around midnight and I woke up to tell my girlfriend that there was going to be an airplane crash and mother would die as a result. 

For two months I tried to talk to mother out of flying or even being in a commercial flight route while on the ground.  She appreciated my concern for her, but she also thought I was nuts (too much weird esoteric practices or something). She made several trips by air that summer - safely - despite my fears and I was beginning to agree with her assessment that I was buying into a delusional belief system. 

Then, on August 16th, 1987, she was killed when Northwest Airline flight 255 crashed in Detroit, Michigan.  She was flying down to Tucson to see my brother and myself.

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?          Uncertain            Apparently, in the near (months) future.

What was your level of consciousness and alertness during the experience?           more intensely alert than normal.  Things were hyper-real.

            Was the experience dream like in any way?   yes.  Some dreamlike shifting of images and time sequences.

Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body?     Yes    

What emotions did you feel during the experience?            fear and anxiety due to the content of the experience.  However, there was also an intense sense of "knowing" beyond faith and beyond rational deduction.

Did you hear any unusual sounds or noises?           rushing of wind in my body(?) at the beginning of the experience.

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?           Yes     my mother, by her voice.

Did you experiment while out of the body or in another, altered state? Yes    

experimentation with verifiable information was what I sought; though I did not seek information specifically related to my mother.  It was a general quest; sort of in the interest of science.

Did you observe or hear anything regarding people or events during your experience that could be verified later?          Yes     plane crash and death of mother in the crash.

Did you notice how your 5 senses were working, and if so, how were they different?          Uncertain            vision was super-acute as was hearing. no sense of smell or touch recalled. also, a sixth sense (?) was operative.

Did you have any sense of altered space or time?   Yes     I knew future events were being described throughout the experience.

Did you have a sense of knowing, special knowledge, universal order and/or purpose?    Yes            but it hard to describe the certainty I had in the information - that there would be a commercial airline crash and that my mother would die as a result of it - and this was the way it would be.  Somehow it was pre-determined by some choices that had been made at the level of her soul and also by some calculus of the powers that be.

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure?             No      

Did you become aware of future events?       Yes     100% accurate

Were you involved in or aware of a decision regarding your return to the body?       Yes     I was shocked by what I observed and wanted to get out of it; to end the experience.

Did you have any psychic, paranormal or other special gifts following the experience that you did not have prior to the experience?         No       actually, the opposite.  After the incident I seem to have lost (blocked?) the ability to have OBEs and premonitions (with a few notable exceptions over the years).

Did you have any changes of attitudes or beliefs following the experience?   Yes     There was a period of time after the events I described wherein new agers and other people who have had - or have at least thought about - mystical experiences were gaining much media coverage. So many of them present the message that every thing that happens is according to a higher plan and that it's all about God's love, etc, etc.  I was always suspicious of this perspective, though willing to entertain it, prior to my mother's death and the OBE/precognitive experiences I was having around that time.  After the experience I related to you, I do not buy into that philosophy at all.  I believe that we, each and every one of us, makes choices each and every minute of each and every day, and the spirit of those choices as much, if not more so, than the material substance, effects the fabric of reality to the point that we create our own fates.  I am not talking about simple physical cause and effect and probability. I mean at the level of creating our own reality and/or imprinting the greater fabric of Reality at large.

How has the experience affected your relationships? Daily life? Religious practices? Career choices?       I have become more introspective, frequently examining why I am doing what I am doing and thinking and what the feeling and intent behind it is.  I try to stay "strong" in my heart and soul and I have a bit of an obsession with demanding the same from those I care about.  This last bit can be annoying and detrimental, I know.

Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience?         Yes     I am unable (or afraid?) to have OBE or precognitive experiences as I used to on a fairly regular basis (again with a few noteworthy exceptions).  I self examine my "soul"; that is I take stock of what I am really doing and where I am really going.  Is it making me strong? or weak? I am spiritual, but I do not buy into the notion that we all move into a beautiful realm of light when we die.  I am also sensitive to the idea that all of our thoughts and actions are known to everyone and everything.  People may not pay attention, being distracted by the flash and glitz of the material and the necessities of daily survival.  Yet, it is all there for everyone to pick up on.  Maybe we do when we are asleep or in other lapses of normal attention.  So who are you?  What are putting out there?  These are questions I ask myself, at least.

Have you shared this experience with others?         Yes     At the time with my mother and girlfriend and my brother. 

My mother and girlfriend thought I was weird and that I should go get involved with something normal and healthy.  They ignored me.  My brother listened and believed me as he had had a similar  experience of similar content at approximately the same time.  More recently I recounted the events to my wife and to a good friend.  My wife cautiously believes my account and my friend accepts what I say as he is a Native American and is not unfamiliar, both culturally and personally, with such experiences.

 What emotions did you experience following your experience?  fear, anxiety, frustration

 What was the best and worst part of your experience?      worst part was that it was apparently real precognition - with horrible clarity - during an OBE regarding the death of a loved one in an accident that took many other lives well.  What was good about this?  I guess I obtained verification that the experiences I was having were real.  I will never doubt that sort of thing again.

 Is there anything else you would like to add concerning the experience?        Yes.  10 years later, on the anniversary of the crash, my wife, my daughter and I all had similar dreams concerning my mother.  She - her soul - was not in a good place.  She was suffering, confused and chaotic and still in shock and horror and denial about what had happened (and over a couple other things as well).  The dreams were vivid and disturbing and we all woke up in the middle of the night and sensed that we were about to share something unique and important.  So we wrote our dreams down first before speaking to each other.  The dreams were nearly identical with some nuances.  We enlisted the aid of some experts (Buddhists) and I think we helped her soul move on.

 Following the experience, have you had any other events in your life, medications or substances which reproduced any part of the experience?         Yes     Many years later I took a prescribed sleeping pill -ambien I think it was - that did not work as prescribed.  Instead I experienced a vivid OBE with precognitive content (which I had not in many years - see above).

 Did the questions asked and information you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience?               No       I think the questions would be adequate for single event reports.  In my case the event was - to my mind - intimately connected to what was occurring previously and then to an event ten years later.  The format was not completely ideal for making those links that I feel are important and integral.  Still, pretty good format.