Horizontal Ledge, Vertical Edge: My Life After Death Experience

By Hector Lugo

“Is there life after death?” is one of those questions that rarely get answered. I’m one of the fortunate ones to whom the answer have been revealed, but the answer also raised numerous other questions.

This book is not only about my life-after-death experience. It also talks about the numerous questions I now have because of that experience. I don’t believe that I would otherwise have thought of asking some of these questions without having had other previous paranormal experiences that lead up to these two main experiences. The search is ongoing, and my opinions on some of my questions are based solely on my inquisitiveness and are not meant to disrespect or to be negative about any other person’s religious or personal beliefs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796040968

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Warning Signs

I was forty-seven years old, married with three teenagers, and in charge of Emergency Management for 11 hospitals. Up to this point, I had no serious, or even minor, health problems. All of a sudden, I started having extreme lower back pain, I couldn’t walk up a hill or even amble 50 feet without being out of breath, sweaty, and exhausted. So, I went to my doctor and he started running all kinds of tests: checking my kidneys, bladder, and lungs trying to figure out what was going on.

In early November, I was scheduled for more tests and showed up at my doctor’s office. After about an hour of waiting, I finally asked the lady at the front desk if my doctor was busy at the hospital and should I reschedule my appointment? She assured me that he was on his way and was probably just running late. A few minutes later, a nurse came up to me and said she was sorry, but the doctor wouldn’t be seeing me anymore. My doctor died of a heart attack on his way to my appointment that morning.

So, they set me up with a female doctor who was going to run some more tests the following week. At 1:30 in the morning on Nov. 29, 2000, Pam’s birthday, I woke up from a dead sleep to an electrical tingling that radiates up and down my left arm almost as though it had fallen asleep. I kept opening and closing my fist thinking I could wake it up. Then I began to feel nauseated, real clammy and my chest started to hurt, I mean, really hurt! It felt like someone had grabbed ahold of my heart and was squeezing it as fast and as hard as they could. Pam woke up and asked me, What’s the matter? I told her, I think I’m having a heart attack. Pam immediately woke up our son Matthew and we all headed to the hospital. I don’t remember much of the ride there, but I recall Pam was flying down the road with the accelerator pressed flat to the floor of the car.

We pulled into the E.R., Pam and Matt jumped out of the car and ran into the hospital Emergency Room before me. I managed to get out of the car and walk up to the reception desk. I don’t recall saying a word or much of what happened after I got to the ER check-in… I know at some point they asked me to take off my shirt and the next thing I remember is coming around for a couple of seconds, just long enough to see a nurse with a large syringe getting ready to inject me in the chest. I do recall telling the nurse oh no you’re not! That’s the last I remember of being alive that day.

Next, from what seemed a surreal distance, I heard, his blood pressure is 54 over 11 followed by an urgent, Code Blue - Bed 1! Used to being in hospitals, I’m thinking, ‘man that guy is in bad shape’, not understanding it was me they were talking about.

In the next instant I was hovering way up in the corner of the ceiling looking down at the room. I could see someone in a long white scrub jacket, probably a doctor talking with Pam and Matt in a hall just outside where they were working on me, but here’s the strange part: I was watching three of me down on the floor. One was my body lying in the bed. The second was me standing at the foot of the bed observing my body lying on the bed. Then there was a third ‘me’ peeking around the second ‘me’ watching my body lying on the bed. Basically, there were four (4) of ‘me’ watching the nurses and doctors do chest compressions and give me oxygen with a handbag on my face.

To this day, I’m still confused about the four Hector Lugo’s that were in the room. I mean, why would there be four of me? I haven’t figured out if these Hector’s were reincarnations of myself or perhaps they were the manifestation of the Spirit, Soul and Mind. Based on the research I’ve done, I’m inclined to believe that they were reincarnations of my past lives observing my present life.

Even though I was observing from up in the corner of the ceiling, I felt a deep cold and continued to experience a great deal of pain mostly in my chest. It felt like someone was reaching inside my chest squeezing the crap out of my heart.

Later, Pam said they had wrapped me in a lot of heated blankets and I had been out cold at this point which didn’t make any kind of sense because I distinctly remember hearing a familiar voice say, quick, it’s Hector! when they were boarding me up in the helicopter to transport me to another facility. I recall flying over the Country Club Plaza Christmas lights closely followed by another voice saying Code Blue quickly followed by the helicopter landing with so much shaking that I remember thinking we’re going to crash. I later found out that the familiar voice that I heard say, hurry, it’s Hector was the helicopter pilot, Pete, who was a good friend and coworker of mine. From this point forward, none of my experience and memories are part of life on earth as we know it. I am as certain of these vivid events and experiences as I am of the color of the sky and my recollection of them is as clear as if it happened last night, which is saying something given I can’t remember what I did a week ago.

CHAPTER TWO

Horizontal Ledge – Vertical Edge!

T he first thing I recall is being aware of was how incredibly dark it was. I mean, an utter and complete, total darkness of which I had never experienced before. At the time, I thought to myself, I can’t be dead, or I wouldn’t be aware of this darkness? Then, it gradually started to get lighter and lighter. My vision was like sticking your head under muddy water and opening your eyes, but possibly a bit more blurry. Time was impossible to measure or conceive so I don’t know how long this extreme darkness giving way to gradually increasing light went on; I have since wondered if this was my time in The Tunnel that others have mentioned in their afterlife experiences.

The next thing I knew I was on the very edge of what I perceived to be a cliff; I was on the left edge of this cliff that curved back to my left and circled behind me. In front of me was an incredible scene with a large empty openness in front of me that appeared to be a bottomless pit of grayish-blue. Across from the bottomless pit was a river with the most incredible colors of bright white and a mixture of gold that flowed horizontally and vertically. High above this river, I saw golden dome tops.

Right about this point, I realized that I had no body! I was pure energy. But I felt like I had a body with arms and legs. I also had this sense that I was placed on this exact spot marked by an invisible X from which I could not move although at the same time I never felt like I was being held against my will; it’s just where I needed to be.

Next, I noticed that I could move my head or my vision to my left, even though I had no body. As I looked to my left I could only look as far as where my left shoulder would be. As I did this I saw incredible scenes and objects; every time I looked at one of these objects it seemed like a bolt of energy would be released by me at this object. Then, I