關於愛，我是個小學生。

The article in the newspaper was no more than four paragraphs, but it did change Danny’s life as the lightning bolt. It said that a Dr. Raymond Moody would be speaking at the University of South Carolina on ‘What Happens to Some People Who Have Been Declared Clinically Dead but Survive’. Moody, once a Georgia psychiatrist, has been analyzing case studies of people who have almost died, only to return from their brush with death to talk about seeing dead relatives, Beings of Light and having their life pass before them in review, which was called ‘the near-death experience’ and happened to thousands of people.

Danny was excited because he was no longer alone. In the year of 1975, such experience was still of Dark Age period. People knew little about ‘near-death’ and even clergymen could do little help, usually considering it as the work of the devil.

In the speech, Danny heard many stories like his. One of them was very impressive to Danny: It was about a soldier in Korean War, whose head suffered concussion by an enemy artillery barrage. He once left his body and had a journey to a place full of bright light. After the soldier experienced being ‘soaked in good feelings’, he got a message from a special voice which uttered ‘Just love everybody’. Then he came back to life. In fact, there were also several episodes in the Bible which were considered such experiences; Paul once was stoned nearly dead at the gates of Damascus.

It was not until 1960’s did Dr. Moody began gathering the near-death cases in full force into medical realm. He found that the experience was common and general, which could be obtained by many, if not most, people who survived a brush with death. He found 15 common elements in the cases, but no single person who reported all of the them, although a few reported as many as 12. Since the book Dr. Moody published ‘Life After Life’ these elements have been combined and reduced to 9 common traits:

1. A sense of being dead, that is, a person knows he or she is dead.
2. Feeling of peace and painlessness
3. An out-of-body experience
4. A tunnel experience, in which a dead person has the sensation that he is traveling rapidly up a tunnel, like Danny did while he was wheeled in the ambulance.
5. Seeing people of light, who were used to relatives and seemed to be composed of light.
6. Being greeted by a particular being of light who led and guided the dead from at the end of the tunnel.
7. Having a life review, in which people are able to see their entire life and evaluate all of the pleasant and sorrowful aspects.
8. Feeling a reluctance to return. The afterlife is a wonderful world, which is, simply too good to be true.
9. Having a personality transformation, in which people would no longer take their families and the nature for granted. They appreciate what they have and the people they knew. They cherish what God has created all this and the Good Intention He was supposed to grant His children. The heaven is actually supposed to be here, this planet, our environment, the familiar neighborhood where we grew up and live.

According to Moody, Danny was the first one who experienced the whole 9 traits of a near-death experience. He was energized by Moody’s talk. He had lost everything, like a praying mantis, been cracking from the strain, yet been saved by Dr. Moody’s research and encouragement. He was so happy that Moody would interview him. He had been lonely after being struck by lightning. Fewer and fewer people would talk to him, at least for those crazy words about building some centers in a almost disabled torso and under a broken financial circumstance. He laughed happily, so intense that he soon found himself hooting.

Danny was not alone any more.

To be continued...