In May 2010, I suffered a heart attack as a result of a blood clot which broke loose following an accident where the bones on my left foot were crushed after being run over by an errant SUV the month before. 

I'll never forget the day of the accident because earlier I'd given $20 to a homeless woman, and she'd tried to give me her Bible, telling me I was going to need it more than she would. While in the hospital, I contracted a severe bout of double-pneumonia, which I fought on and off until my condition worsened severely that November. I had just come in to work on Monday, 29 November when I got into a very serious coughing frenzy. I couldn't breathe and remember panicking before losing consciousness - apparently sprawling across my desk.

Instantly, I was surrounded by this immense, loving light. I could "hear" what sounded like a low, steady buzz, but was now completely devoid of any pain or physical sensation. It was like falling through the floor and suddenly landing in God's hand. The light was too bright for me to look at directly, though there was no pain and I have the impression I was on my knees. The light was all around me while directly in front of me was a courtroom setting. There were four judges on four separate, tall benches - they were in grey robes with hoods and I couldn't see their faces, but they were all writing. In front of them was a low courtroom bar and I immediately "knew" that if I crossed it, I would never be coming back.

I sensed that the light was God and when I turned my attention away from the judges toward Him/Her, EVERYTHING instantly made sense. I wanted to stay but had to come back. It was communicated in pure thought that I was supposed to become a "writer" - something I thought was just so odd and even ludicrous because I've always been more of an artist or cartoonist, in addition to being trained as an engineer. (I also have a physics degree.)

I desperately wanted to stay and so when I heard these voices calling, "Rudy, Rudy!" I kept thinking/trying to shout, "Leave me ALONE! I want to STAY!!!" I remember the final thought from God: "I will heal thee." Next thing I know, I regained consciousness by abruptly falling so hard on the floor that my forehead started bleeding. My coworkers had walked in and thought I was playing "dead" until I flopped on the floor as dead weight. My coworkers quickly surrounded me and later told me that I just kept saying, "WOW!" over and over again, as if "WOW!" could even begin to convey what I experienced. 

I remember being so frustrated - I am even now - that I couldn't bring all the "knowledge" I'd learned back...my brain was just so pitifully small! I remember telling my coworkers later on about what happened....the part about the Light and the message "I will heal thee..." I blurted out my interpretation that "I knew then that God had painted his own portrait"...People looked at me both seriously and also suspiciously. 

My boss, however, was very upset by all this and took a sterner view saying, "These things don't happen to people like you." Yet within 18 months, he took early retirement, sold everything he owned and went off to Concordia Seminary to become a Lutheran minister - but not before transferring me out of his organization here within the DOD.  I tell people that I was the one who had the religious experience and he was the one who went off to become a minister!

Since then, I've still been assimilating my experience. I don't have any message for the world...but, yes, I admit to psychic incidents, incidents with electronics, my watch is out being fixed again, etc. Probably the most profound thing that happened is when my Mother passed away in January 2017, I was able to tell her even though she was in a coma "to go into the light." I was at the hospital when she died at 4:45 am. I intuitively knew she would pass, and had woken up about 4:00 am on the cot in her room. The nurses, who had tremendous experience with oncology patients passing away, thought she'd go on into the weekend, but I "knew" her time was near. She passed on my birthday, but it was so peaceful and I can't help but believe that my own experience was partly to help her when her time came. I also believe she held on for me because she'd gone into a coma the week before in an abrupt cardiac arrest having been brought in with kidney failure. She had been in the beginnings of third stage Alzheimer's, and I can only surmise that when she had her own near-death the week before, that at that moment she achieved full clarity again and wanted to come back for me...so that I could make the final decision to let her go. A few things happened after her passing...but that's probably appropriate for another account.