The Invitation to Transformation
Life after Death
He then went on to describe what has now become a text book life after death experience except this was years before Kubler-Ross and Moody released their seminal work on the subject. He watched the medical team working on him from the ceiling of the O.R., heard them screaming, “We’re losing him, we’re losing him” and made the journey through the tunnel toward a white light calling him “home.” But just before he merged, the light reminded him of unfinished business and sent him back. He later learned he had died on the operating table, and that every detail he had witnessed from the O.R. ceiling had actually transpired.
Talk about shock and awe. I didn’t say a word. I don’t know whether I was more moved by his incredible story or by his remarkable transformation. In the course of a few minutes he had gone from a relaxed, affable, blue collar kind of guy to a burning bush enveloped in a fire that raged without consuming.
After his story he paced silently for a few more minutes. When he turned again his intense look of fixed purpose had been replaced by so much anguish that I was drawn and repelled at the same time.
“What am I supposed to do?” he screamed. “I don’t belong here. I don’t want to be here. If I could only tell you what it was like… nothing matters anymore… except God….”
And then as if amazed at what had popped from his mouth, his voice trailed off to a whisper “Except God…” and he sat down in a chair and wept.
I’d like to say I comforted him or tried to, but I didn’t. I just sat there stunned and horrified.
Finally he looked up and said, “The hardest part is I can’t tell anyone. Who’d believe me? They’d say I’m nuts. I can’t even tell my wife.”
I don’t remember anything else, but I didn’t think he was nuts. I believed every word. I couldn’t help myself. This incident shook me to my core. Despite his agony or because of it, I was overwhelmed with a sense of beauty and wonder. But most of all I was shaken by the fact that Jay had chosen me, a kid, a perfect stranger, someone he’d met only minutes before, for his terrible secret. I felt blessed, chosen somehow. This was not an accident. Jay had been sent. I was supposed to do something. But like him I didn’t know what. And though his brother and I remained friends for several years, I told no one and never saw Jay again.
