It wasn't actually during the NDE that this spiritual connection came about however.
It was maybe 2 years later.
It wasn't one of those inspiring NDEs, with the tunnel and the white light and the loved ones waiting on the other side.
I was in a very dark and scary and excruciatingly painful place, but some friends came to the hospital while I was in the ER and my vital signs were fading.
I could feel their love and light pulling me back into my body.
I didn't want to go back there, but staying in the dark, scary space wasn't a real option.
Perhaps I would have got to the tunnel if they hadn't shown up when they did, but I guess I will never know.
I had been hit by a speeding hit and run driver earlier that evening on a dark street in Noe Valley, San Francisco, just as I was stepping off the curb to cross the street.
The headlights of the car that hit me were not on, and I didn't see or hear it coming. There were two eye witnesses who said the car was going very fast.
It was a broad street, with trolley tracks down the middle, so essentially it was a 3 lane street.
The impact threw me tumbling high into the air and all the way across the street to the opposite side, where I landed on my back on the concrete. I had broken bones in both arms and both legs, broken ribs, concussion, internal bleeding, and a crushed socket in my left hip.
I was hospitalized in Intensive Care for several weeks and for 3 months in all at SF General, and 6 weeks at UCSF Medical Ctr after that.
When I finally got out, I was still in a great deal of pain, and was hobbling around on crutches. I refused the Total Hip Replacement surgery because the doctors had no idea if it would work in my case, and I did not want to be their guinea pig.
I had no health insurance, family to rely on, or other support system, so I ended up living alone on welfare in a region that was very new to me. ( I had moved from the East Coast to SF just 2 months before the accident, and was pretty much on my own, except for a few friends.)
It was no fun at all.
Skip forward to almost 2 years after the accident; I was living on the Peninsula, in San Mateo, a sort of suburb of SF.
One day I was hitchhiking on El Camino Real, a long and busy thoroughfare, on the way to the neighboring suburb of San Bruno to see a Legal Aid lawyer.
I was walking with a cane by then; as I had no car and there was no public transportation, hitching was the only way I could get to distant locations.
I wasn't too nervous about hitching on El Camino Real that day, because it was daylight and it was a busy highway, with lots of busy intersections.
I barely looked at the car that pulled over and couldn't really see the driver through the closed window. In any case, I was running late, so I just got in.
The driver took off as soon as I had closed the door, and I got a quick look at his profile, then noticed an ashtray full of stinky cigarette butts and a few crushed, empty beer cans on the floor.
I didn't feel any dangerous vibes coming from the driver, but when I took a closer look, I felt some revulsion.
Have you ever seen a comic strip where there is a fat, slovenly slob so seedy looking that there are little moths drawn, circling his head?
That was this guy.
He turned his head briefly and kind of leered at me (although in a not entirely unfriendly sort of way), asking me where I was headed.
As soon as I saw the frontal view of his face and looked into his eyes, I knew he was the hit and run driver who had struck me.
There is no way to explain this kind of KNOWING.
It was kind of like a psychic heart attack.
My pulse began to race, I felt dizzy, nauseous, and I began hyperventilating.
I was about to have a full fledged panic attack, and the only thing I wanted was to GET OUT OF THAT CAR!!
I managed to choke out in a croaking voice that I needed for him to stop the car...NOW!
He looked at me with alarm and immediately pulled over.
I was opening the door before the car had even come to a stop, and was out of there like a shot.
He pulled back out just as quickly, and as he pulled away, I managed to note that the car he was driving was an orange El Camino (a kind of abbreviated station wagon/pickup truck with an open bed—yes, he was driving an El Camino on the highway named El Camino Real).
Just the kind of car that had struck me, according to the two eye witnesses who saw it happen.
I could not have possibly taken note of the tag numbers in the state I was in.
Nor did I really care, because something much more important was happening to me at that moment.
I knew that it was no coincidence that I had been picked up that day by that man.
I stood leaning up against the nearest building at hand for some time, bent at the waist, my hands clenched in fists, gasping for breath, but slowly recovering from the panic attack...
And KNOWING in my very soul that some loving presence had engineered that meeting; indeed, had answered my prayers.
For a long time, I had been stuck emotionally, frozen in time, locked in unforgiving fury and a loss of faith in myself and in Life.
I wanted to know WHO had done that to me and WHY, and I felt that until I had an answer, I could not, would not, forgive and go on with my life.
But this was not what I had expected, and it took me by complete surprise.
Actually, I had not expected an answer at all, and certainly not THIS answer.
Now that I knew that the man who had hit me was not an evil person, but something of a hapless moron more than anything, I realized there was no reason for what had happened other than that he was most likely an alcoholic and a poor, oblivious soul who had probably not even been aware of what he had done.
I felt that there was no karma between us; it was just something that had happened to me by default, as it were, because I had not been able to find the strength to avoid that juncture in my life's path and create a more positive one. It wasn't his fault. The responsibility for my life was my own.
But as I stood there, dizzy and gasping-- blessing of all blessings-- I could feel the rage draining out of me, and that empty space was being filled instead with the knowledge that I was not alone, that I was loved and that there was meaning in Life, even in the midst of the pain, tragedy and shattered dreams.
And because I had received an answer to my prayer, I was able to let go at last and forgive the soul I had perceived as my enemy.
It took much longer for me to begin to forgive myself, and to pick up the threads of my life so that I could begin weaving it into a meaningful pattern again.
But it was a huge turning point for me, and I knew that I would be able to find life worthy of living again.
Though it would not be easy, it was made so much easier because I really knew that I was NOT ALONE!
Thanks to that loving spirit or spirits who knew me so well, and were able to provide for me the learning experience that I so needed.
Guardian Angels
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My kids tripped several times in proximity of walls, edgy tables and such. Every time it was a matter of half an inch or less a serious injury would resulted. Instead it all ended up with tumbling to the floor without any tears in the eyes. We always thank aloud to them angels for their wonderful service 
that it was ok now, that I could go.....so I left with my girlfriend and her best friend.
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