I was 17 years old.  It was 1977.  It was just a few months before I heard the message of Jesus Christ preached in such a way that I would accept Him as my Lord and Savior.  I was lying in bed on a Saturday morning.  I was not asleep.  I was laying there lazily not wanting to get out of bed.  I didn't have any particular plans for the day and knew my mom would want me to clean when I got up that morning.

I had my arms crossed under my head, under my pillow.  The sun was shining through the window into my bedroom.  My eyes were wide open.  Suddenly, I slipped out of my body.  I went down towards the foot of my bed and slid off the bed.  Probably the first thing I noticed was that my knees bent backwards as I slid off the bed.. 

I started going down fast.  Faster than what was comfortable for me.  And after a few seconds it was dark.  Black.  The darkness was thick.  It seemed to suffocate me.  It penetrated me.  It consumed me.  And the further I went the thicker it became.  It was like darkness I had never experienced before.  It was evil.  I was descending so quickly that it scared me.  I didn't know what was happening but I knew that there was not one thing I could do to stop it.  I was completely out of control over what was happening to me.

I was raised Catholic.  I had gone to church regularly with my mother.  But I can't say that I had ever  accepted Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for my sins.  I can't say that I had accepted the plan of God's righteousness His way.  I had never thought of such things.  I was just a teenager wanting to sleep in on a Saturday morning.

I was going down, fast, faster.  The darkness was consuming me.  It was thick, suffocating.  I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.  Then, a voice spoke.  It was a male voice.  I couldn't understand what He said.  I could tell that it was a very powerful voice and it came from above me.  I didn't know what He said but whatever it was, it made whatever was happening stop.  I began to ascend.  I rose back up into my bed.  I slipped back into my body.  My arms were still crossed under my pillow.  I asked myself, What the heck just happened.  As if it would help, I grabbed onto my pillow.  I must have known that it was going to happen again.

Before I had a chance to react or think about what had just happened, I slipped out of my body again.  Down, off the edge of the bed, knees bending backwards.  Down.  Black, thick, dark, suffocating, fast.  The kind of darkness that consumed you.  Penetrated you.  Scared you.  And once again, the voice spoke.  Once again, I couldn't understand it.  Once again, I rose back up into my bed.  Once again, I re-entered my body while my arms were crossed under my pillow.  But this time I quickly got up and ran downstairs.  I was going to do all that I could to make sure it didn't happen to me again.  And, thank God, it didn't. 

I know that I was on my way to Hell.  Even though I never arrived there, the short trip I experienced is enough to convince me it's a place I never, ever want to go.  The darkness was beyond words, it smothers you from the inside out.  It wasn't long after this experience that I had the opportunity to invite Jesus Christ into my life, which I did.  A few months later, He gave me  a glimpse of a place which is opposite of that darkness--a place of pure light.

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It was October 8, 1977.  I had been a Christian for about 5 months.  My husband and I were in our van driving up north to visit my sister.  I was resting and had my eyes closed.  I had just started praying.  I remember listening to the radio.  A football game was on and it was starting to rain at the football game.

Before I knew it, I was out of my body.  I didn't realize it a first, I was just there.  But I looked down and to my left and I could see my body sitting there in the van with my husband.  It felt like I went through God to come to this place.  Maybe not that I went through Him but He seemed  so close.  Even though I couldn't see Him, I could feel His presence around me. 

Everything was white.  It was like light was reflecting off everything around me. If I hadn't seen my body sitting there I wouldn't have known whether I was in the body or out of the body.  I felt completely comfortable and "normal".  I felt at peace. I felt home. 

Next I went up higher to a place where I knew God was.  He was there but I wasn't allowed to see Him.  He was on His throne. There was a strong light coming from His throne and it was so strong that I couldn't see Him.  But yet I knew He was there.

Then I saw a window.  It had a gold frame.  The thing I noticed first about it was that there were no screens on it.  There was no need to keep bugs out because there was no bugs there.  I was going to open the window.  In fact, I got a little excited because I was going to open it.  But then, I realized I couldn't open it.  God was going to open it.   Nobody said anything but I became aware of the fact that God was going to open the window.  In Malachi 3:10 it says that God will open the windows of Heaven and pour us out a blessing.  I guess He was trying to let me know that I can't open that window myself.  I can't bless myself.  It has to be Him that does it.

As soon as I realized that He was going to open the window, I immediately  found myself on the other side of the window.  The window just obeyed Him.  Somehow it opened.  Then He stretched out His hand towards my body.  I could see my body on my left and God was up on my right.  He stretched out His hand through the window and said, "My blessings be upon you Rose."  But I didn't hear those exact words.  I more sensed the words. It wasn't so much the words He spoke it was the power and love of what He said.  Each word meant so much.  Almost like He spoke in pictures instead of words--like thoughts. 

Everything obeyed Him.  After He spoke, I saw little things coming from His hand.  I saw them but they were invisible. I knew they were His blessings.  They were obeying Him and coming to me.  My body and my husband were sitting in the car seats.  I didn't really see the van we were driving in.  It wasn't important that I saw the van.  When I looked at my body I knew it was my body but it wasn't the real me. 

While outside of my body I understood everything.  I understood that we have a purpose here on earth.  I wasn't limited by my bodies' mind.  I had no questions.  I had no doubts.  Everything made sense.  I don't know how long I was there.  I had no sense of time.  But it felt so natural, so normal to be there.  It seemed like God was surrounding me.  Almost like a baby would be in a mother's womb.  Completely surrounded by her mother.  The place where God was seemed to be right above us.  He's not far away.  He's very close.

I knew I was going to go back into my body.  But before I did, I could see that the amount of time I would be in my body on earth was very short compared to eternity.  I saw the edge of a razor blade compared to a huge and never-ending whiteness.  For some reason, God wanted me to see that our time here on earth is very, very short compared to eternity.

When I moved, I didn't move my arms or legs but my whole body seemed to move freely.  I wasn't self conscious.  I was drawn back to my body.  I slipped back down into my body from the head down.  It was a perfect fit.  But as soon as I re-entered my body I had a zillion questions.  All of the doubts that I was free from while out of my body began to hit me.  My mind began racing with questions.  I thought to myself, "Can I believe that these blessings are really coming to me?"  Just then the man on the radio said, "Believe me, it's coming down now."  He was talking about the rain at the football game.  But it was perfect timing for me. 

I kept the whole experience to myself for about a week.  Even though my husband was sitting right there next to me while it happened I didn't say a word to him.  I needed time to contemplate what had happened.  During that week I began to understand a little bit about what had happened.  Imagine that you had lived your whole life under water. And then, you spent a few seconds outside of the water.  You would learn a lot about that environment and how different it is.  I learned a lot too.  I learned that God is not far away and that He's involved in our lives constantly.  He's in complete control.  He's everywhere.  And He cares about every little thing you do.

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