And She Came Back

And She Came Back

Joe Waldron

During this whole interaction I was aware of someone else in another corner of the room where Rene and I met. A man who seemed to be there to help Rene do what she wanted to do (see me) and make sure that everything went as it should. He never spoke or communicated in any way but I sensed he was there to help her in some way unknown to me. In thinking about the presence of this other person I have the idea that his function was to insure that I did not remember some of the things that Rene and I discussed. I know we talked about the kids and loving each other. I am also sure that I would have had a million questions about what it was like to be dead. However, I do not remember any of the content of our discussion and that is not like me. In some way, completely unknown to me, this other person had the ability to make sure that Rene and I could get together and that I would take away from that meeting only the information presented here.

All this could be a hallucination, or a dream and indeed if I were to hear it in my clinical practice I would place much emphasis on the hypnogogic state on both occasions. However, it happened to me and I know it was real as well as I can know anything. The ramifications have been long acting, for now all of my non-teaching time is spent in studying after-death experiences. In the last seven years I have read and studied more about parapsychology, after-death, near-death and dying than I ever read for a PhD in developmental psychology.

And that little agnostic side of me creeps in and says, “Even if you are deluded, the positive affects of after-death experiences are too therapeutic to ignore.” They sure can be life-changing.

Thanks for sharing. I've come across this account before, but it's worth re-reading.

One comment I'd make:

All this could be a hallucination, or a dream and indeed if I were to hear it in my clinical practice I would place much emphasis on the hypnogogic state on both occasions.

It's probably worth considering this from an opposite stance. That is, rather than using the "hypnogogic state" as a reason to devalue or dismiss such experiences, instead we could regard this hypnogogic state as a valuable resource or tool and pay more attention to it. In my own life I've found it a valuable tool in problem-solving as well as acquiring information inaccessible in any other way. It should be elevated in importance, in my view.

Thanks for sharing. I've come across this account before, but it's worth re-reading.

One comment I'd make:

It's probably worth considering this from an opposite stance. That is, rather than using the "hypnogogic state" as a reason to devalue or dismiss such experiences, instead we could regard this hypnogogic state as a valuable resource or tool and pay more attention to it. In my own life I've found it a valuable tool in problem-solving as well as acquiring information inaccessible in any other way. It should be elevated in importance, in my view.

"There seems no reason to assume that our active consciousness is neces­sarily altogether superior to the consciousnesses [or processes] which are at present secondary, or potential only. We may rather hold that super­conscious may be quite as legitimate a term as sub-conscious, and instead of regarding our consciousness (as is commonly done) as a threshold in our being, above which ideas and sensations must rise if we wish to cognize them, we may prefer to regard it as a segment of our being, into which ideas and sensations may enter either from below or from above. "
 -Frederic Myers, author of Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death

"There seems no reason to assume that our active consciousness is neces­sarily altogether superior to the consciousnesses [or processes] which are at present secondary, or potential only. We may rather hold that super­conscious may be quite as legitimate a term as sub-conscious, and instead of regarding our consciousness (as is commonly done) as a threshold in our being, above which ideas and sensations must rise if we wish to cognize them, we may prefer to regard it as a segment of our being, into which ideas and sensations may enter either from below or from above. "
 -Frederic Myers, author of Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death

That’s a very interesting idea. It hadn’t occurred to me before.