by Barb Dyess

Created on: January 18, 2009

Usually an out-of-body experience is linked to a near-death one. Some in other religions induce experiences like this through drugs or deep meditation that alters consciousness, in a shaman-like act. I'm no Shaman, nor am I a drug user, nor do I use meditation on that level. I'm simply a Christian, a wife, mother, and writer with a view based on Biblical theology, living it to the best of my inadequate ability and in the greatest need of grace, faith, and hope in God.

In my case, I didn't die. But on a spring morning about eighteen years ago, I left my body and went traveling to a place I'd
never been. To a place I hadn't even the slightest curiosity about, nor its people, before this happened to me.

I had quite innocently gone to bed as usual, the night before. Nothing odd had occurred, that I could recall. The next thing I knew, it was morning. I was sitting up in bed, oddly disoriented and with these vivid pictures, and sounds, and experiences in my head. I was not sure where I was, nor even who I was for a time. I was breathing hard, as if I'd gone through a great exertion of some kind. So I rubbed my fuzzy eyes and stared, thinking about what I'd just dreamed. Or was it something other than a dream? I have an excellent imagination, so I tried to laugh off the experience, the images, the feelings as a by-product of that.

Brief scenarios flashed by, like a movie running in my head, but I was in the scene, not just observing it. I was riding in the back seat of a small car, jammed tight with other women. A youngish Caucasian man was driving the car. Looking out the windows, the day was misty and cool, and ahead were these odd but very beautiful, green mountains that looked like giant bumps rising almost straight from the land, a green countryside. I looked at the scenery awhile. Then the driver turned and said, "We are approaching Beijing now."

This seemed normal to me in the dream, though I had never traveled out of the country, nor did I have the slightest interest in China. I just seemed along for the ride.

Flash, another scene started. We were out of the car and going into a huge stone building like a castle, going down a stairway. We were told by our tour guide to be quiet and just watch. In one room where we stopped, Chinese children of varying ages were playing. They were doing puzzles, making animals and other things from geometric shapes. The children were happy, and I knew it was a classroom. A teacher, also Chinese, read them a Bible story.

Further along

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>