The Place of the Dead

A sharp clap of thunder woke me from a dead sleep and I saw a startling figure at the foot of the bed. Piercing thunder careened across the night sky, rumbling heavily, shaking the bed like the aftershock of an earthquake. The large figure, resembling an extremely deformed man, appeared for only an instant then simply vanished.

Scrambling from what I thought was my own bed, my bare feet touched down on a dirt floor. I'm dreaming, I told myself, lying back down, trying to force myself to wake up. But each time I opened my eyes, I was still there. I sat up. This is no dream. Where am I?

There were rafters in the ceiling so it was definitely some kind of small cellar. I searched around the bed with each lightning flash for my slippers, but there was nothing in the cellar but the bed, the covers, a pillow and me. My heart began to race as overwhelming fear surrounded me. A strong flash of lightning came through the window and there he was again!

He wore a hood so I couldn't see his face but his body, under a floor-length dark tunic, was off centered. As he stood at the foot of the bed, I noticed that his shoulders appeared crooked and one side was larger than the other. His hip on the other side of his body was huge, protruding extensively and the sleeves of his tunic hung over short, stumpy arms.

I shouted, "Who are you?" He remained still and silent.

"Answer me! Who are you? Where is this place? What am I doing, here?" Bright lightning flashed as piercing thunder again raced across the sky, and he was gone.

I was afraid to leave the bed. The dirt floor felt moist beneath my feet and I had no shoes. My mind raced, trying to remember what happened the night before. The last thing I remembered was driving home from work in a thunderstorm.

Trembling with fear, I began to cry. A surge of panic swept over me and I screamed, "Where am I? Who are you? What am I doing here?"

The savage storm raged outside the little window as I cried for what seemed like hours. Then, just as before, after a bright flash of lightning, he appeared again, followed by piercing thunder. And I again demanded to know where I was and how I got there, but he vanished again, without response.

He appeared on and off to me several times until I finally just sat on the bed, glaring silently at him. Lightning flashed through the window and all I could see through the hood of his tunic was the faint impression of a man's face.

Ultimately, he spoke to me in a deep and surprisingly soothing voice. "You must not struggle if you want to leave this place." Then he vanished.

I was dumbfounded. Struggle . . . This place? . . . Leave? I called out, "What does that mean?"

I had no watch, or any way of telling time, but I knew I had been there for more than twenty four hours, yet it remained dark and the storm still raged above. The figure hadn't appeared since he spoke to me.

Sitting alone in the darkness, my mind seemed to be slowing to a crawl as if drifting into unconsciousness when he appeared again. I was barely aware of his presence when he said, "You are nearing the crossover. Do not struggle."

Instinctively, I knew I was dying and had no desire to struggle, becoming weaker with each passing moment. His words echoed around in my mind. The crossover . . . approaching . . . Do not struggle.

Forcing my eyes open, I began to stir, and he was still there. "I don't want to die," I said weakly. "I am dying, aren't I?"

There was no response.

My limbs were heavy and I could barely move but I began to struggle, despite his warning, and managed to get the covers off and sit up.

He vanished.

Slowly, I lowered my bare feet to the cold dirt floor and stood. My legs trembled fiercely and I knew I couldn't walk. I sat back down, remembering his words, "You must not struggle if you want to leave this place."

I knew a moment prior that I was drifting into death. I knew it as a fact. Somehow I knew the place where I was, wasn't what it appeared to be.

Struggling once more to stand, I swayed, and was about to sit again. Weak and so very tired, I somehow knew I had to fight. Drawing every ounce of strength I had left, I took a very shaky step away from the bed. In slow motion, I began falling, face first, toward the floor.

However, even though I fell forward, I landed on my back on the dirt floor- but it wasn't dirt. Lying on my back, I reached to the side and squeezed a handful of it. "What is it?" I pulled on it. A sheet!

"She's coming around," I heard a woman say. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," I said, opening my eyes, focusing on a nurse. "Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital. You were in an automobile accident and have been in a coma for nearly two days."

"I think I was in the place of the dead! There was a dark angel and he-"

"You need to settle down," the nurse said, urging me to lie back on the pillow."

"But he was getting ready to send me someplace when I died. He said I was at the crossover- the life and death crossover!"

The nurse smiled and said, "You should have called on the Lord. If you HAD died, the Lord's angels would have carried you into the Lord's presence. All others, the souls who don't belong to Him, go to the place of the dead. What you described sounds like purgatory."

"I felt so alone! I was so scared! Then I felt my life force leaving me! The dark angel told me not to struggle if I wanted to leave, but somehow I knew I had to fight!"

"God is more powerful than the dark forces. Why didn't you call on Him?"

"I don't KNOW Him."

"Jesus Christ, the Son of God said, 'If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.' and 'Before Abraham was, I am.', which is what God told Moses. He told Moses to say that I AM had sent Him. And in the old testament, God said that one day every knee will bow to Him and the same is said about Jesus Christ."

"So Jesus is God?"

The nurse hesitated, and then her countenance began to change. Her face seemed to glow with radiance as she said, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

I stared at her for a moment and was about to say something, but my eye lids became so heavy that I couldn't keep them open and I guess I either fell asleep or went unconscious.

When I opened my eyes, I looked around and realized that I was in another room, which was lighted only by the flashing monitors and machines that were there. As I was trying to sit up, a doctor entered the room with a clipboard.

"I see you finally decided to come around, "He said, scribbling something on the clip board. "You've been in a coma for nearly a week."

"But I came out of the coma. I spoke with a nurse. She said that I had been-"

"That's not possible. If you had regained consciousness, it would have registered."

"But I DID speak to a nurse! Ask her!"

"Her? You're in the ICU which has six staff members working twelve hour shifts. They're all male. There are no female nurses working in this ICU. Perhaps you were hallucinating?"

For the next several weeks as I recovered, I never saw the nurse who spoke with me about God. As soon as I was able to read, I asked for a bible and began studying the word of God.

I have learned from my experience and my studies that there is another world which we cannot see. Anyone who finds themselves in that world without God should be very afraid. Call on Him now while He can be found.