Upon impact, I was immediately out of my body and observing the accident from about 30 feet above and traveling along with it. Just as quickly, I was back in my body for the last 20 or 30 feet or so. The ground of the wheat field was passing by my left shoulder until the car rolled upside down and came to a stop. I immediately started to get out of the care, when I realized the engine was still running. So, I got back into the seat to find the key to turn off the engine. Then I kicked out the back window and climbed out without a scratch, or so I thought.
I caught a ride back to town from a passerby who had seen the crash. I remember them being amazed that I was not hurt. They kept asking me if I was hurt and if they needed to take me to the hospital. I had been at a party. The next day, all the kids and myself went to see the car at the wrecker service. The wrecker driver came out and asked if we knew the driver. They all turned to me and said, ‘He was!’ The man laughed and said, ‘No way! The person driving this car is either in the hospital in serious condition or dead!’ He then pointed out how the steering wheel was totally bent around the steering post on both sides. The steering post was bent up and against the dash. It was then that I felt my chest, and discovered that it was sore, but that is all.
I know that this does not sound like some big, long after-death experience. But after reliving it over and over, I came to realize that that is exactly what it was. Even if just for a few seconds, the experience seemed more like minutes to me. My spirit body literally had to be removed from my body for a time so my broken body could be restored so I could return and live. That is my only explanation for what really happened.
I had a good friend who years later was in a serious head-on collision while he and his wife were on vacation in their motor home. He, though, had the option to leave. He wanted to go, but he then saw his wife lying unconscious and knew he must return to take care of her. She ended up taking care of him as a quadriplegic. His out-of-body experience was identical to mine.
This thing about mortal bodies and spirit bodies is true fact. My second experience proved it to me:
When I was 27 years old, my wife and I lost our 3-month old baby son to lung disease. We were travelling in the winter, with his crated casket in the back of our new station wagon. We were in a blinding, below-zero snowstorm going through Utah. It was so cold that the heater could not keep our feet warm despite being turned all the way up. After some time, I asked my wife if her feet were cold. She replied, ‘Yes. Do you feel it too?’ I said, ‘Your back? ‘ She said, ‘Yes.’ For our backs were warm when they should have been the coldest part of our bodies. All those years ago, and I still tear up as I write about it. She just cuddled up to me and we said nothing more, until we got to our motel. Our backs stayed warm all the way into Idaho where we stopped. We got a two bedroom unit and put his crated casket on the extra bed.
We set out for Washington the next morning to drop off his casket at the funeral home. The funeral was to take place the next day with family in attendance. We traveled on to my mother’s house, with plans to go back for the graveside service with my mom, step-dad, Uncle, Aunt, and some close cousins. We viewed our baby, then left the funeral home and noticed the warmth was gone. The day of the graveside service, it was bitter cold and windy. Everyone else was wrapped in heavy coats, except for myself and my wife. We were so much in grief that my wife and I did not notice the cold; we were just in our shirt sleeves, while everyone else was shivering in their heavy coats. Immediately after I dedicated the grave, it was as if my wife and I were immersed into a deep freeze, and we held each other shivering uncontrollably until we got back to the warmth of the car.
I know we are more that just flesh and bone, but it is our spirit bodies that animate the weak mortal flesh and keep us alive. I know from my out-of-body feelings, that all is well after we leave this mortal body.
I had an earlier experience when I was ten. In 1952, I underwent successful brain surgery to remove a tumor. It took eight hours to do back then, but only 2-hours to do today. I remember watching my surgery from above for a short time and then back again. It was no big deal as I calmly watched from above. I’ve forgotten the details of what they were doing, but seemed to be trying to get my heart going again.