I know there’s life after death – I’ve been there
GIGI STREHLER is one of thousands of people in the UK who has had a near-death experience. She tells us her story
AS I jerked awake I was filled with panic. Pain came flooding back into my body and as I tried to open my eyes the overhead lights seemed unbearably bright. As I tried to piece together what had happened I realised I was in a hospital. But I also had a sense of having been somewhere else. Somewhere peaceful.
I was later told that I’d suffered a massive heart attack and had been clinically dead for a couple of minutes.
By some miracle doctors had managed to revive me and I was brought back to life.
But in that time I experienced something that changed me for ever.
Just days earlier I had been going about my normal life as a drama teacher at a secondary school in St Albans.
It was the middle of exam season and I’d been feeling weak and light-headed but I put it down to stress.
Then one evening I stumbled into the bathroom and started coughing up blood before collapsing on the floor.
Thankfully the headteacher found me and called an ambulance.
When I arrived at hospital, doctors discovered I had massive internal bleeding. The blood loss was so extensive they couldn’t work out where it was coming from and I was given transfusion after transfusion.
THEN disaster struck. During the handover between the day and night shift nurses there was a mix-up and I wasn’t given any blood overnight.
The next morning I got up to use the bathroom. I collapsed and had a massive heart attack.
My vision faded to black as life slipped away from me. I could hear the voices of the doctors and nurses who were trying to save my life. Then my heart stopped and I was dead.
I’d expected death to be painful but it felt soothing, like sinking back into a hammock.
All the pain in my body drained away and I could see time, only it didn’t seem to stretch out in front of me like a long road any more. Instead it swirled and curled around me.
In that moment I was suddenly aware of everything I’d done in my life, good and bad.
I’d always thought of myself as a moral person but every moment that I’d ever been mean or impatient seemed to replay itself and I felt an intense emotional pain. Then as the junior doctor on call restarted my heart I came back to life with a jerk.
My mum had been at my bedside and when she rushed into the room I started speaking French to her, although I hadn’t spoken a word of it since learning the language at school.
“J’etais pres de Dieu,” I said, meaning I felt close to God. I was rushed into surgery and put under general anaesthetic. The surgeons discovered I had a burst ulcer in my small intestine and were able to repair it.
When I woke up the first thing I said was: “I came back for you, mummy.”
After a week in hospital I was discharged but I felt like I’d changed for ever.
I started having extremely vivid dreams which felt very real and significant. In one dream I met two people who said they were my guardian angels.
They didn’t have light shining out of them like they do in films, it was an ordinary-looking man and woman.
But they gave me an overwhelming feeling of love and protection and I woke up crying with gratitude.
I was desperate to understand what had happened to me and I started speaking to priests and other religious leaders to see if they could explain it.
However instead of listening to my story with interest everyone I approached seemed scared of what I told them.
I couldn’t get the answers I craved and started having counselling.
IN JUNE 2014, 18 months after I collapsed, I started a support group for other people who have had near-death experiences (NDE)and hundreds of people signed up.
Although research shows around four per cent of people have NDEs, very little is known about them and they’re seldom spoken about.
When they are discussed people talk about them as if they’re spooky or something to be afraid of but I don’t think that’s the case.
Since starting the group I’ve spoken to lots of people who have been through similar experiences.
I’ve met former CEOs who were so moved by what happened that they quit their jobs because they couldn’t be as ruthless as they used to be.
Although no religion can fully explain the way I feel my experience has made me believe that our consciousness lives on in some way after death.
It has encouraged me to try to be a positive influence on people in my current life and I’m definitely less afraid of what’s on the other side now.
The Transformative Power Of Near-Death Experiences: How The Messages Of NDEs Positively Impact The World by Dr Penny Sartori and Kelly Walsh (Watkins, £10.99) call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562 310 or visit expressbookshop.co.uk