An NDE (Near Death Experience) or Divine Intervention?

This real event happened about thirty years ago. Although I have only shared it a couple of times, the strange experience is still very clear in my mind. The only thing missing was a logical explanation.

A couple of years ago, out of nowhere I found myself telling my story to a group of business people. I ended my brief but powerful story by leaving you all wondering. To my surprise, one man eagerly suggested that I had what is known as an NDE: a near-death experience.

I have read and heard of several near death experiences. In each case, the people found themselves leaving their body and being transcended into another life realm for a period of time before returning to their body. In many cases their life from that moment changed considerably. In my case, I did not experience leaving my body or any kind of transcendence, but simply the loss of a fragment of time. It’s as if that little part of the event had been edited out of my memory and that ‘clipping’ lay among the rubble on that bathroom floor.

Let me explain:

I was in my early twenties and had not yet consciously awakened to any kind of spirituality. Or, maybe I was actually doing a great job of ignoring what was constantly knocking on the door of my closed mind. I must point out at this stage that it took her many more years and even harder beatings to finally wake me up.

I was on a business trip in 1976 and staying at a very old but once luxurious hotel in Melbourne. The small bathroom consisted of a porcelain tub, sink, and toilet. The shower head was over the tub, and a plastic curtain slid on a stainless steel rail attached to the ceiling.

This particular morning I was standing in the bathtub taking a shower. Suddenly, a strong surge of hot water rushed in. As I tried to step around the hot water jets to adjust the temperature, my feet slipped out from under me and I fell backwards over the side of the tub. It was as if it happened in slow motion. Instinctively I grabbed the curtain to stop the fall. However, all I managed to do was completely remove the fixtures from the ceiling. The next few seconds or minutes remain a mystery. I don’t remember hitting the ground. My next memory is of me standing in the bathroom looking at the debris on the floor. The shower screen and fixtures lay on the floor with the shattered pieces of the porcelain toilet. There was no mark on me.

When my colleague came to pick me up for our first date, I shared my experience with him and showed him the mess. He checked to see if he was okay, laughed and didn’t give it another thought. But I did it for many years to come and still do.

So was it a near death experience? Is it possible that in that lost time I have left my body and come back? Or was it divine intervention? Or are they the same thing?

Now, thirty years later, with the help of hindsight and having ‘awakened’ to all the possibilities and miracles that lie within, I will opt for the miracle of Divine intervention.