I have had four near death experiences but they aren't like some I have heard and read about. No doctors, well an ambulance, EMTs, Doctors, a Hospital in two cases.
The first was when I was 11 years old. My best friend and I worked for his father who owned Parkers Peony Farm in Fayetteville, NY. The farm was a nursery when I worked there from 1959 to until 1968. We did every thing form growing plants, selling them to people that wanted us to plant them, landscape their homes, trimming, cutting down trees, cutting and delivering maple fire wood in the winter and on and on what ever Larry Parker (the owner) could get paid in his fields of expertise to do.
Well, one day in April or there abuts of 1962 we decided to take one of Larry's tree climbing ropes, one that was well worn and not used for supporting anyone anymore, just used for fastening or holding in place, to the limestone outcropping about a mile back and a little further down the trail past the east turn off to the new spring house and to the east of the original spring house behind my home and north of Limestone Creek. We had a plan to repel (what ever that meant) down the limestone, below the cave entrance, to the bottom of the limestone outcrop. I was chosen to go first. While John tied the rope to a tree I got hold of the rope and was getting ready to descend to the bottom. John said go ahead. I pull out all of the slack then went back to about 60 degrees, I did learn something that day. Always make sure the process is done correctly before counting on it to achieve the outcome you are expecting. Don't leave someone else to carry the weight on their shoulders. Also never depend on some thing that has died to do the job you are counting on. I did get something correct. I held on to the rope, all the way to the bottom. I didn't land as softly as I had planned. Well, shit, I was just a kid. I kind of remember John being there pretty fast. It wasn't that far of a fall only 30 or 40 feet but that far a fall definitely has the chance to do some damage.
The next thing I remember was my mother being there and John saying she ran past him about half way home and said,"What were you boys thinking". I could always depend on mom, never a problem there. I didn't think about it back then but I do now. How did she know to come help me? This has been the case with all of my out of body and near death experiences do to injuries.
The next time was in 1969. I had bought a new 250c.c. Bultaco Matador from Fred's on Erie Boulevard. I'd been riding bikes since 1960 and I had been at least keeping up with my peers so I felt good going to the practice track on my own. I had been there for at least an hour practicing on a 90 degree turn to the left and then up a hill. The approach to the turn was a bumpy striate that went into a dry wash about 10 feet deep and 35 degrees down. I would go in at about 50-55mph and come up the other side at 65 mph. Then into the air where I would turn side ways to he track and tilt to 45 degrees then hit the ground and slide into the 90 degree while hitting full throttle by the time I got to the corner and fly up the hill as fast as it could go. No one would be able to keep up with me until they learned to do it also. Then there is Pinky Stone and Jay Gienfortie that would learn to fast and I would have to do something else to beat them but it was always like that. On my next lap I saw three guys on motorcycles on the slope at the North end of the track but they didn't know in the U.S. on American tracks you go around in the counter-clockwise direction. So I went into the wash, came shooting out the other side and was just starting to make the move when I looked up to see the bottom of a motorcycle. I made a motion away form the bottom of the bike, the next thing I remember was flying down to tell Pinky to go up into the house and call an ambulance then come up to the track and help us. He did and the next thing I remember is looking down at myself and watching as my physical body picked up the motorcycle and put it on it's kick stand. I thought, he's still alive I'm going back. I got there just in time to see the EMT cutting the left leg my newest pair of brown bell bottom pants. I said hey stop, those are my new pants it is an old cut that is bleeding and you don't need to ruin them. I was right and he was wrong but they got cut off anyway. Just doing his job. I was still pissed. Then I was taken to the hospital, don't know which one, while I was in the emergency room waiting for my turn to be worked on a guy was brought screaming and bitching and moaning about how much it hurt. I was blind couldn't see anything but heard a nurse talking and I turn toward the voice and said what happened to him, she said he broke his heal. I said that must hurt. She went over to him and said look at the guy next to you. I guess he did because he stopped yelling and screaming. That is the last thing I remember until I got home. There was a lot of people there like every night. I walked in and there was a girl that sucked in her breath like she was scared then I was looking at myself right in the face. Man I was ugly. Head swollen up like a basket ball, eyes all swollen shut, stitches every where, man ugly. I was directed upstairs to bed. My nose felt stuffed up for a couple of weeks and I was always snorting and then something came out of my nose into my throat. I spit it out into the kitchen sink it was a blood clot from my sinuses.
Shit I felt a lot better, at least on that side of my head. A couple of days later I snorted out the other side. The Doctors in the hospital told my mother I didn't even have a concussion. I couldn't run that track ever again I would haul ass into the wash and let off the throttle before I came out the other side. Now I was on a 400 single cylinder Suzuki, really fast. I could still race, and play around doing wheelies as far as I could go but not at the practice track anymore. So I went to Barnsville, Maryland to play with horses at the largest Arabian Horse farm in the world.
A friend of mine, Patsy Larrance whose mother worked in a bookstore got me a book called Journeys Out of the Body by Robert Moore. It was good but I could never do it. So I forgot about it. The book said that to be able to Astral Project all you needed to do was that in the short time between being awake and falling sleep just roll over. There is a process to do this, think of a place that you want to go in your mind before getting into bed. Concentrate on rolling over before falling asleep. Now that is one hard thing to do. But when it happen to me the first time I was at Al-Marah, I was in bed falling asleep and I just happened to roll over. I opened my eyes and was staring into my own face. Sacred me so bad I went right back into my body. I woke up blown away. Over years of practice I have gotten pretty good at it. Don't believe any one that says when they astral project they travel at the speed of light. That's a bunch of donkey doo doo. Not the speed of light but the speed of thought. I would be dead and gone if I traveled around the universe at the speed of light.
It is now 1983. I have three horse in Wyoming at a ranch on Beaver Creek just West of where 287 crosses it. I put shoes on the horses, packs on two of the horses, Jigger and Kit and a riding saddle on the other horse, Kamas Mc Coy a bad outlaw, and off we went with a dog, Critter, about sixty miles later we ended up at Alpine Lake. Stayed there for a couple of days then started to go to Crow Heart. We were in the process as we crossed a granite outcrop that overlooked the lake. The horse at the end of the string, Jigger slipped on the granite, which was just like him, and fell about twenty-five feet into the lake, pulling the other pack horse, Kit, with him. Jigger's horse's head must have landed on a shelf of granite and Kit probably landed on his head because after I rode off the back of the of the granite, got off of my horse tied him to a tree, throw my hat on the shore, and dove in the water to swim out to the horses. The Jigger's body was pulling Kit under the water. By the time I swam out to them Kit was blowing water out of his nostrils so I grabbed the lead and pulled Jigger up to the top of the water to see what had happened and there was blood coming out of his nostrils. By pulling Jigger up I relieved the weight pulling Kit under the water and exposed the 1/8" pigging string that was tying them together. I pulled my knife out of my back pocket, cut the pigging string and put the knife back into my back pocket. I then started swimming to shore. Well, Kit must have thought I was a safe place for him to get out of the water so he swam onto me. By the time I reacted by diving under the water and getting away from him he had slammed his hooves with metal shoes on me from my heals to my butt. Now I found myself under water with water soaked cloths on. I swam as hard as I could and sank deeper. Then Kit swam over me, dragging the pigging string behind him. I tried for it once and missed then I lounged for it as hard as I could and got it. The next thing I remember was looking at the 8 to 10 inch pine plants that I had get through to get to the Gore's camp which I had just left but the first time I had ridden Kamas and lead Jigger and Kit as they bounced from the trail to the top of the lake. This time I was walking leading Kit and Kamas behind me. I didn't know how I could ever get through the brush and downfall so I left my body and floated above the ground directing my physical body on the way to go and where to step. As I floated backwards the pine tree branches went through my astral body. I was looking down at my physical body from thirty degrees. As I lead the horses one lead in each hand. Where did I lead my physical body? To some one that could help it. It was hypothermic and there are two cures get the body warm or get to a lower elevation. Meaning thousands of feet lower, the Gores are both seventy five years old so that won't happen. They did take my cloths off put me in a sleeping bag with Critter in a tent. I guess they even hung my cloths in the sun to dry and put them back on me to warm me even more because I was clothed in dry cloths when I woke up just before the sun went back down in the evening. I asked William if I could barrow his fishing pole and a fly. I fished up stream. I kept the fish that would fit in a billy can (12" * 6"dia) and let the big fish go. I took the fish back to camp where Virginia was boiling water. I cleaned the fish then gave to Virginia to put them into the Boiling water. She mixed the meat with flour and spices and fried them to make fish cakes that I could carry in a bag. I left in the morning.
The next time was when I was in a wheelchair (M.S.) being pulled down he street by my aid dog and we got run into by a drunk driver. Cops said in the air for 20' and pushed down the street 12' more. I left my physical body and went and got my wife to come help me. So, if you think I don't know what I am talking about. Your wrong. Later,
Jame
