Читать книгу An Angel Set Me Free: And other incredible true stories of the afterlife - Dorothy Chitty - Страница 9

We all have a time at which we are ordained to die, according to a blueprint that was set down before we came into this life. So, for example, one person might be ordained to die of cancer at the age of eighty-three while another might be supposed to go in a car accident at the age of twenty.

It’s a strange concept to get your head around that the time of your death is pre-ordained. All of us have lived many different lifetimes and with each one, we have to learn specific lessons in order for our souls to evolve. You will come back into a circumstance that enables you to learn the specific lesson you need to learn next, and your life will be as long as it needs to be for that purpose. Maybe you need to learn compassion for others, or not to place such a high value on material possessions, or how to express your creativity. There are all sorts of lessons to learn.

Guardian angels might intervene if you are straying away from your purpose, or having difficulty overcoming a problem that you need to overcome—or if your life is about to be cut short unexpectedly. Their warnings can help us to avoid dying early—if we only listen to them.

A man I knew received a warning while trekking in Australia’s Blue Mountains, just north of Sydney.

Two friends and I set off on a bush walk well armed with information from the tourist authority about the route we were taking and hazards to avoid on the way. There was even a little leaflet with pictures of dangerous creatures, such as snakes and spiders, we might encounter, but we were reassured by the advice that snakes will do their best to avoid contact with humans. If they hear footsteps approaching, they will slither off down a hole or into the nearest brush. For this reason, you are advised to make as much noise as you can when walking into an overgrown area.

The sandstone mountains have a blueish tinge when viewed from a distance and the walk we were on was quite spectacular. It was a clear, sunny day and we covered about twenty miles before we decided to stop and set up camp for the night in a flattish, sheltered area. We collected some firewood and built a fire then balanced a pot of water on top to make tea. We had brought bread and cheese, cold meat and fruit, but as the light began to fade, the air grew cooler and I was glad of the fire.

We sat drinking our tea, eating our food and chatting about our day. I was about to stand up to walk off behind a tree and relieve myself when I heard my dad’s voice in my head, clear as a bell, saying, ‘Be still!’

I froze, shocked to hear him, because my father had died of cancer the previous year. We’d been very close and, in fact, he’d been the one who introduced me to the joys of trekking in the bush.

At that moment my eye was caught by a slight movement in the grass just inches from my outstretched leg. A brown snake was slithering towards me, so well camouflaged by the dry vegetation that I hadn’t noticed it till that moment. It was too late to jump up and run away because it was within striking distance.

My heart was pounding as I tried to remember the pictures in that tourist leaflet. Was a plain brown snake poisonous? I could feel beads of sweat springing out on my face. My friends were facing in the opposite direction, watching the sunset on the hills and oblivious to my situation. I didn’t dare shout to them, didn’t dare breathe, as the snake lifted its head and started to slither over my bare leg. I suppose it thought it was a log.

My father’s words—‘Be still!’—echoed in my head and I felt amazingly calm, feeling the cool roughness of the snake’s skin against my own.

It was about a metre long, and had probably crossed my leg within thirty seconds but those seconds felt much longer than normal seconds, as though time was suspended. Once past, the snake headed off into the undergrowth without a backward glance.

As soon as I was sure it was well out of the way, I reached into my rucksack to look for the tourist authority leaflet on snakes, and straight away I saw a picture looking exactly like the creature I had just encountered. The text underneath read: ‘The Eastern Brown Snake is the second most venomous snake in the world. They are reluctant to bite but if they do, their venom is highly toxic and can be fatal within two hours. They react to movement so if you come close to one, stay completely still and it will ignore you.’

My father’s advice to be still had possibly saved my life. My mouth was so dry and my throat so tight that it was some time before I could speak to tell my friends what had just happened. But I felt a warm comfort in the knowledge that my dad was still protecting me just as he used to in the past when I was a kid. It was a very spiritual experience.