Dr. Craig Brown                

By probing causality to its limit, it has been discovered that 'everything causes everything else' and that each event emerges out of an infinite web or network of causal relationships.
                                                                                      F. David Peat

"Being pushed brought everything to the fore."   That was the sentence that caught my attention amongst the flood of tears.  Sheila had been in a car accident one week before, and although she was not injured she had been very upset.  She had told me the whole story.  She was driving along the seafront when a car from an adjoining road crashed into the back of her car, damaging it irreperably.  There was a moment as she jerked forward when time stood still and "everything became clear".

       "Everything" was her mother's sudden death from a heart attack eight months previously.  Her father went to pieces and she had to take time off work to look after him.  After six months he met someone else and within two months had remarried.  Sheila at the age of 33 had to leave home and find a flat, as his new wife had two young children.  It was clear that she hadn't grieved for her mother.  It was clear that her father had started a new life.  It was clear that she had to decide what she was now going to do with her life.

      The accident brought all these conflicting and difficult feelings and thoughts into focus.  Sheila left her fifteen minute consultation knowing she had a lot of work to do on herself.

      The feelings of time standing still and of great clarity are familiar to me from two near accidents of my own.  The first was when I was driving down a steep hill as a student in my ancient Triumph Herald car.  The brakes failed.  At the foot of the hill were traffic lights on a busy crossroads.  Instead of feeling panic, I felt extremely calm, resolved and clear headed.  I tried the handbrake.  It didn't work.  No problem.  Now just change down gears.  This was something I had never considered doing before.  The car began to slow down, but I had to negotiate the lights as they were still at red.  So I tried to turn into a narrow one way side street.  For once there were no cars and I was able to pull in and drift to a stop several hundred yards along that street.  It was only then that my awareness focused on the possible consequences and how lucky I was and my heart began to race.

       The second occasion was more recent.  I was up a ladder with a chainsaw and I slipped.  It must have been about thirty feet up.  During the fall I was able to think about pushing the chainsaw away from my body and then to twist into a position like a parachutist that would make my fall safer.  I can remember doing all this in slow motion, and also being able to appreciate this is what it is like to fly.  There was no fear, but a kind of giving over to the moment and trusting that what must be, must be.  I got up unhurt and when I looked at the height I had fallen I couldn't really believe it.

       Since then I have spoken to others who have had similar experiences during an accident which would be life threatening.  The common features are calmness, lack of fear, a sense of timelessness, and a clarity of thought.  It may be something similar to the born again feeling people report after a Near Death Experience.

       I spoke with a 21 year old woman about her accident in which she sustained quite bad facial injuries.  She initially spoke with some anger and resentment that it had happened to her.  Then she spoke of that moment of clarity just before the car she was in hit the tree.  In a timeless way she could not only see her past and future but also her potential.  She realised that she was greater than the person that she thought herself to be.  Now, some months later, she is going to give up her job as a secretary and begin to study for university which she knew she was capable of doing.  The accident was an inspiring moment and something upon which she now looks back and draws strength from.  It was a transformative experience.  It was not the physical changes affecting her personal appearance or the social adaptation needed due to the loss of her job that had affected the change.  These were factors, but it was primarily the spiritual experience that had affected her most.  She had been challenged with her greater potential and responded positively.

       A transformative experience can be described as a sudden change, a positive spiritual experience.  One can actually have an experience but not respond to its challenge.  The experience may be repressed, neglected or forgotten.  It will not be forgotten by the unconscious mind, however, and this is when illness can follow.  Some people may talk about being shaken to the core, and I suspect what they are referring to is not the physical and emotional shock but the spiritual shake up.  This may be an opportunity to see oneself and one's problems clearly.

      This points us to the question of whether there is any purpose in accidents.  I think broadly speaking there is.   We ought not to dismiss accidents as merely adverse coincidences.  In an accident, as in an illness, we need to look not only for a cause but also for a meaning.  Often we can point to the accident occurring at a time of stress and crisis in our lives.  We ought to ask ourselves, "What gift has this situation brought?  Might there be a transformative experience within it?"

       I remember when I was fooling around with my ten year-old son.  He was on the garage roof and I was squirting water out of a hose at him.  He fell off the end onto a concrete road.  I heard him cry and rushed anxiously to help him.  I was relieved only to find a graze on his knee.  He told me later that as he slipped he fell head first, but felt something - someone gently correcting his fall so that he landed on his feet.  It was as though a hand was laying him down.  My daughter explained in a matter of fact way that she always knew that we each have a guardian angel.

      What a gift to all the family!

      Spiritual lessons are not learned in books or from other people's accounts but from our personal experiences.  There is a knowing feeling about them.  So with accidents we should look for this and be aware that in any accident there can be spiritual lessons and transformative experiences.
Dr Craig Brown is a General Practitioner in Rustington, West Sussex.  He has healers working in his surgery.  He is a member of the London/Rustington/Sevenoaks DHN group.
 

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Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1992 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099
www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com 

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