Death Becomes You
In the late 1960s, a young doctor named BRUCE GREYSON was eating spaghetti in a hospital cafeteria when his pager went off. Startled by the noise, Greyson dropped his fork, splashing tomato sauce everywhere, including on his tie. He cursed under his breath as he wiped the sauce off with a wet napkin. It would leave a stain that would change the course of his life.
As Greyson details in his book After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond, after dialling the number on the pager’s display, he learned that a woman called Holly was in the emergency room following a drug overdose. Greyson grabbed his lab coat, buttoning it up to hide the stain on his tie, before heading down to the ER.
He found Holly unconscious but in a stable state and after doing some routine checks, went to the family lounge at the far end of the hallway. There Holly’s roommate Susan was pacing back and forth. Feeling a little hot in the windowless room, Greyson undid his lab coat and moved a fan closer to him, before sitting down to talk to Susan.
He questioned Susan about her roommate, trying to establish if Holly may have been doing drugs or suffering from mental health problems. At one point he thought he saw Susan shudder slightly.
After concluding the chat, he returned to Holly’s room where she was still out cold, a ‘sitter’ confirming that she hadn’t stirred since he left the room. Greyson left for the night, quietly congratulating himself that no one had noticed his sauce stain.
When he returned to the hospital the next morning, Holly was now awake and able to talk. He introduced himself to Holly, who responded with a sentence that would dumbfound Greyson.
“I know who you are. I remember you from last night.”
“You looked like you were asleep in the ER last night,” Greyson replied. “I didn’t think you could see me.”
Holly’s reply: “Not in my room. I saw you talking with Susan, sitting on the couch. You were wearing a striped tie that had a red stain on it.”
Holly proceeded to “the hair rose on the back of my neck and I felt goosebumps. She couldn’t possibly have known all that”.
