Near Death Experience Changes Womans Life

I guess a lot of us have ideas about an afterlife, so this story of Iris Lemov's Near Death Experience (NDE) will hopefully be of interest. It was sufficient to change Iris's whole outlook on life.

Mrs. Lemov was in hospital for an operation - nothing major but something which had to be carried out. Everything appeared to go well until, that is, she was returned to her hospital room. In Iris's words:

"I was brought back to my room after surgery and was speaking to my nurse, when a strange separated feeling between my body and my brain occurred. High above my body I floated wondering why so many doctors were around the bed."

Her heart actually stopped beating, she looked down on her pale face and then everything went black.

The next thing she recalled was being in a black tunnel, there was a light at the end of it - sound familiar? She continued:

"I felt frightened and excited as I neared the end of the tunnel. I felt peace, without pain and free. The light at the end of the tunnel was bright but easy on my eyes."

Once through the light, "It was a sight to behold. There was velvety green grass and calmness. Music coming from nowhere made me feel comfortable and I began to feel as if I belonged. I saw figures coming towards me who called my name. This man with a white beard told me to go back and said, 'Your family needs you, enjoy your life.' This beautiful man was my grandfather who died two years before I was born."

Iris added, "If we could all have the opportunity of seeing my valley during the course of our lifetime, how much more purposeful our lives would be."

Though Iris Lemov had been technically dead she survived and returned to full health. There does appear to be a right time for life and for death.

There are countless similar stories of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) on record. Many in the medical profession, however, put these down to some sort of psychological, chemical or biological action (see here). The mind or brain, they reckon, simply plays a trick on us - but why would this happen? For what purpose?

I remember reading somewhere of a medical nurse who sometimes saw apparitions at the time prior to her patients dying. She saw figures and in one instance the patient, who was clinging to life, smiled and said that she had just been visited by her dead sister. This tied in exactly with what the nurse had witnessed.

Like so many things about our lives it is up to us to decide what we wish to believe.

The Meeting That Led To Her Soul Mate

Another reader's coincidence story today from Evanna and it's certainly an interesting one. I guess it raises the question: Are we linked to certain people and is it part of our destiny to meet up with them?

The greatest coincidence that happened to me so far I experienced in February 2002.

I am originally from Austria, and for half a year now I’ve been working in Frankfurt, Germany. On the particular weekend, my boyfriend had come to visit. We were sitting on a train talking to each other, when a girl who had been sitting nearby spoke to us.

She had recognized our Austrian accent and was happy to tell us she originated from the same area as we did. Before we could exchange names, addresses or anything, however, she had to get off the train. As the train left her station, she waved to us and that was the last thing we saw of her. I felt very sorry for having 'lost' her, as it is always great to meet people from home and I would have loved to stay in touch with her.

My boyfriend returned home, I stayed in Frankfurt. About a week later, he told me he had received a strange email. A woman was searching for an old school mate whom she had not seen for years. His name was the same as my boyfriend. The woman wrote that she came from our home area but had moved to Frankfurt some years ago.

Although my boyfriend was not the man she was searching for, he wrote a reply, telling her about his personal connection to Frankfurt. In the correspondence that followed he mentioned the girl we had met on the train. The short encounter had for some reason stayed on our minds. When the reply email came, we were stunned: It had been her whom we had met on the train!

In addition to the small coincidence of the likeness of my boyfriend’s (very common) name and that of the missing school mate, there is the big coincidence of her writing to my boyfriend of all people carrying that name, thus triggering off the 'retrieval' of people who would otherwise hardly have met each other again.

And I’m glad we did. When the girl and I met again, we immediately realized that there was a special, soul mate like relationship between us. She’s become my best friend in a foreign city. I’m starting to feel at home now.

If you have an interesting or unusual coincidence or synchronicity story, and would like us to consider publishing it, please use the Contact Button at the top of the page. Thanks, Mike.

The Mystery Of Statues And Paintings Which Move

I was reading recently about how children in Asdee, Ireland claimed to have seen the statue of the Virgin Mary open its eyes and move its hands. An eighty year old farmer also stated that he saw the Madonna blink three times.

Following this, a few weeks later, children at Ballydesmond, County Cork, claimed that they saw a statue move in the local church. This went on to cause a chain reaction of such incidents.

I didn't think too much about this and put it down to imagination or tricks of the light. Optical illusions are quite easy to perfect. I've now found out, however, that statues and paintings have been accredited with movement throughout the ages. Such stories go back to the days of Plato and Aristotle in Greece and also the Ancient Egyptians.

So could there possibly be any truth in these sort of happenings?

By chance / coincidence I read about how the English playwright and novelist Somerset Maugham had reported his experience of seeing a moving head on a statue of Christ - in a newspaper article back in the late 50's.

Maugham said at the time that if he were under oath in a court of law and was asked whether this happened he would have to answer, "Yes." It impacted on him sufficiently for him to record the date of when he saw this: April 20, 1958.

I then read in Rosalind Heywood's The Infinite Hive of how she saw a figure in a picture move and talk.

Heywood was trying to get two people to connect: a doctor and 'a saintly old man' but somehow they weren't getting on as well as she had hoped. She was with them in the old man's house when he took the doctor upstairs to see his library. She stayed by the fire by herself pondering how these two people seemed to be from completely different worlds.

She then writes, "On the wall in front of me there hung a picture of some wise man of the past and suddenly he leant out of the frame and said, 'If those two were to meet in the sense you want them to on your level, they would lose their individuality. But they will be able to do so and yet retain it when they reach ours.'"

Heywood says she wasn't tired and can see no psychological reason for the 'illusion'. The picture purely answered a question she was intently thinking about.

I guess most of us are sceptical about such stories but could such illusions - if that is what they are - be actually caused by our own minds projecting onto religious icons? Sometimes we see what we want to see.

Most of the statues and paintings which move (or cry, talk or bleed) have a religious context. Is it us simply looking for answers? This in turn makes us see what we need/want to see to help us along the way.

Thought Of The Day

Everything that annoys us about others can help us to understand ourselves.
Anon

Photo: (c) Mike Perry 2010

Small Coincidences Between Two Friends

Today a story of several small coincidences between two friends - thanks to Angie for this.

These are coincidences about me and my mate Bec which I think are pretty funny.

We are 19 now and met when we were nine at the local swimming pool. Three years later we started at the same High School together. We weren't especially close but were friendly.

After completing High School I was interested in websites and heard about a course which interested me. I had an interview and was accepted. Who was also on the course? Bec! I bumped into her when we were put into the same class.

Two months later I sent her a text to say I had completed another milestone in my life by buying my first car. She sent a text back saying she had bought her first car that day as well!

A further month later I mentioned to her that I was nervous as I had booked my Hazards (the written part of the driving licence test) for the coming Friday. Low and behold, so had she!

After the test I phoned her to see how she had got on and, you've guessed, we had both got the same result - 67%!

Well I think it's funny or odd at least - Angie.

More Readers' Coincidence Stories:
A Coincidence Helps Him Buy A Discount Television
A Meeting In Far Away Places
A Wrong Righted By A Coincidence

Abraham Lincoln Describes His Own Doppelganger

Yesterday I wrote about seeing a doppelganger. I've also written several posts previously about Abraham Lincoln.

Today I'm following both of these themes with the story of how Abraham Lincoln saw a doppelganger of himself. I came across this on Wikipedia and it is a quote from the book Washington in Lincoln's Time by Noah Brooks*.

Noah Brooks claims that he heard this directly from Lincoln in 1864. The following is the quote from Brooks which is supposedly in Abraham Lincoln's own words.

"It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day and there had been a great "hurrah, boys," so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber.

Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it (and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other.

I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say five shades — than the other.

I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as if something uncomfortable had happened.

When I went home again that night I told my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough, the thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it. She thought it was a 'sign' that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term.

*Noah Brooks was a California journalist who arrived in Washington in 1862. He first met Lincoln in Illinois five years earlier, and they apparently renewed their friendship during the war years. Brooks, who claimed a close intimate relationship with Lincoln, first published these recollections of Lincoln in 1895.

Further Reading:
Famous Coincidences: Abraham Lincoln
Famous Precognitive Dreams: Abraham Lincoln
The Ghost Of Abraham Lincoln Walks The White House

Some people believe that seeing one's own doppelganger is an omen of death

A Double Or A Doppelganger Coincidence

I forgot to mention one strange experience while on my holiday to the Canary Islands. I saw a double of my best friend who died a couple of years back - a doppelgänger I suppose.

My wife and I were in our hotel about to have our evening meal when in walked the double of my friend - someone I had known for over 30 years.

My wife and I looked at each other and both said, "Doesn't he look like Colin."

To be honest it felt very unsettling when this man sat down on his own quite near our table. In a way I wanted to find an excuse to talk to him but then I felt I shouldn't. I couldn't, however, stop looking at him.

When the waiter came over to the man it was if I was dreaming. Colin had a habit of putting two fingers of his right hand in his top pocket when he was slightly nervy. This is exactly what this duplicate did as he placed his order for a drink.

After a few days the double went away. I almost felt relieved. Then, as we were at Tenerife airport to fly back to England, there he was waiting for the same flight as us. This particular flight was heading for Bristol where Colin was born - an airport we don't normally return to when returning home.

Very strange.

As I understand it seeing a doppelgänger is okay as long as it isn't of our self. If this should occur it is supposedly bad luck or even an omen of death.

Further Reading:
The Advantage Of Being Mistaken For Someone Else