When Dr. Bob Magrisso was 48-years-old, he had an out of body experience that he still thinks of frequently.
"It's hard to put it exactly in words, but it's an extraordinary state," explained Dr. Magrisso.
The day in question started like any other, with a light workout at the gym. As he headed home, he noticed he was sweating a lot and feeling pain in his chest and arms. He remembers trying to brush it off, until his son insisted on calling 911 and he ended up in the hospital where he worked, confident he knew what would happen next.
What came next was the strange sound of cicadas, and an incredible sense of well being and lightness.
“It’s not like a dream. It’s like the world we’re living in is a dream and we’re waking up from that.”
Dr. Magrisso says it all happened in the fifteen minutes he lay unconscious in the ER, as his co- workers tried to save his life. He had gone into an abnormal life threatening heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation
As the minutes ticked by in the ER., Dr. Magrisso says he was in a place with no time. He remembers three illuminated figures he later identified as his father, a close friend and a young man, a sort of welcoming crew. All three had died less than four years earlier.
“You’re not really in control of the state,” he said. “It’s kind of like you’re just taken by it and there’s a strong sense of leaving the normal plane of existence," said Dr. Magrisso.
Dr. Magrisso says he’s come to no conclusions about what happened, but he feels it left him changed for the better.
“The sense that you’re part of something bigger is really a gift that I received from that [experience]. If I could say there’s one thing that I would like to be, it’s to get out of the self-centered state of mind. It’s not always easy, but that’s the direction I feel like my life’s gone.”
