Presentation 11- Danny's "A Spiritual Song"

I mentioned in one of the presentations that I had a near death and out of body experience and then in Presentation 11 Danny mentioned how we should review that year while I was in the Middle East.

Most people don’t know that a near death and out of body experience often come at the same time. Whatever the similarities might be, I would like to believe that mine was very special, as it was the beginning of a spiritual change in me that I have been working on for many years.
This experience happened in the early ’80s, while I was on tour with the United Nations. I was located between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights buffer zone. I was one of the communication specialists that worked in an outpost with about 3 other individuals in a town that was almost totally decimated by war, however, most of the violence had passed and it was fairly quiet while I was there. Being isolated most of the time, we had an abundance of spare time on our hands which led to a lot of drinking. Several years prior, I went through a divorce with my first wife and asked for a posting to the Middle East to try and forget about the mistakes I had made. I was definitely doing some soul searching.
During winter, the evenings at the outpost would get quite cool so we had to use propane heaters by our beds to keep us warm at night. Since I’d arrived, I was experiencing sleeping problems which was quite terrifying at times. As it went, when I was in a deep sleep, I would have the same dream in which I was paralyzed and could not breathe. During the experience, I knew I was dreaming and if I woke up I would be able to breathe properly again. So, I would try to move to wake up or even scream out to someone so they would wake me up. Sometimes it seemed like it went on for at least 10 minutes at a time. Finally, I would muster all the strength and courage I had left in me to jerk my arm or move my leg and then I would awake often gasping for air. My willpower seemed to be diminishing though and seemed like each time I experienced it, it would go on longer.
After a bad night, the next day, I would sit out on the veranda of the outpost and drink beer and Jägermeister until I was ready to pass out. We had a pop can hanging from the roof joist and I had a pellet gun revolver which we used for target practice. Sometimes I would sit there for hours pumping holes in the can until it split in half. This particular day, I was in a higher state of inebriation, and with the pellet gun in hand, a small bird caught my attention as it started singing its song while sitting at the end of the balcony. Without thinking or barely aiming, I popped off a shot in its direction. The memory of what happened next will stay in my mind forever. After the shot was fired, the small sparrow-like bird just stood there for a few seconds with a look of shock in its eyes. As it looked in my direction, I could clearly hear the bird say quite loudly in my mind, “why did you do that?” It then fell to the ground on the other side of the handrail. Almost immediately I felt terrible about what I had just done and rushed over to where the bird was. I picked it up and it was dead limp. I felt tremendous guilt for hurting this little bird who had done nothing except sing to me. I could see where the pellet had grazed the top of its head. Suddenly a wave of compassion came over me, and standing facing Mount Hermon, I held up the little bird and told God I was sorry and ask Him to let the bird live. To my amazement, the bird immediately woke up and flew away like nothing had happened.
So, you are probably wondering what the heck does that have to do with an out of body experience? Well, that’s just the prelude to what happened next.
That night again, I had another episode where I was paralyzed during my sleep and it seemed to be getting worse, so I decided the next time it happened, I wasn’t going to fight it and just let it happen, not trying to wake myself up. So, the next day when I went to sleep, I didn’t try to wake up or fight it. After a few breathless minutes, I began to feel an overwhelming sensation of peace and tranquility. It seemed like my essence was breaking up into a billion pieces and my consciousness filled the entire room. I could see every detail in the room and saw myself lying on the bed below. As my consciousness rose, I could see the clock on the way up saying 9:00 am. It seemed like there was unlimited space between where I laid and the ceiling as my soul floated upwards. The higher I got, the more peace and joy I felt. It was a wonderful feeling and as quickly as it began, my consciousness began to be absorbed back into my body and I awoke, gasping for air again. I looked at the clock and it said 9:01 am. When I sat up, I noticed that the heater that was within a few feet of my head was not working. The flame had gone out but the gas was still coming out, so I quickly turned it off, in awe thinking about the experience and not about the close call I just had.
That same day I picked up the Bible for the first time in many years and began reading it from cover to cover. Instead of drinking like I had done every day for several months, I read the Bible instead. Parts of it seemed very confusing to me. Especially the parts about how God was a vengeful and jealous God at times. It seemed, the God who had just revealed himself to me, was one that would care about even the life of a small bird and not one that would destroy most of humanity by flooding the world.
So that is the story of my out-of-body and near death experience. Since then, I have seldom had that same dream. However, once in a while it does come back and it is usually when my breathing is obstructed by a pillow because I sleep on my stomach. When it does happen, it is nowhere near as bad as it was back then.

Note: According to the controversial research by Professor Israel Knohl of the Hebrew University, in his book "Hashem", Mount Hermon is actually the Mount Sinai mentioned in the Bible, where Moses got his 10 commandments.

Hi everyone, I updated this version because after viewing it again there were some parts that were not clear enough. Plus I updated that narrative as well. I will be posting another presentation on Sunday as I am still working on it.