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In 1828, first mate Robert Bruce’s ship was six weeks out of Liverpool, England, sailing westward. He thought he knew everyone on board. So who—or what—was this apparition in the captain’s cabin? The strange man was calmly writing on a slate. Shaken by the sight, Bruce hurried to tell the captain.
The captain rushed to his cabin. He found the slate, but the stranger was gone. Chalked on it were four words: Steer to the Nor’west.
Bruce swore he had not written the message. To prove it, he wrote the same words. His handwriting did not match. The puzzled captain tested his crew with the same results. Was there a stowaway on board? A search of the ship proved fruitless.
The captain studied the message. With the wind at his back, a course change would cost him little. He gave the order to steer to the northwest. Three hours later, a lookout spotted a ship wrecked on an iceberg. Quickly, the ship’s boats rescued the stranded crew. Bruce watched as the survivors climbed aboard. One man caught his eye. He felt sure it was the stranger he had seen in the captain’s cabin!
At the captain’s request, the man wrote Steer to the Nor’west on the slate. Bruce’s mouth fell open when the captain turned the slate over. The writing on both sides looked the same. “I only wrote one of these,” the man said. “Who wrote the other?”
The tale the man told was simple enough. He had fallen asleep on his stranded ship a few hours earlier. When he woke, he told his shipmates that help was on its way. He even described the rescue ship in exact detail.1
This story relates to an age-old mystery—the out-of-body experience, or OBE. The shipwrecked man seemingly left his body and traveled to the nearest ship. There, his body double had chalked a message that led to his rescue. Why didn’t he speak to Bruce? No one knows. OBEs do not obey the rules that govern daily life.
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are close cousins of the OBE. In a typical NDE, the Reverend J. L. Bertrand died … and then returned to life. Bertrand’s NDE took place back in the 1800s. He was climbing in the Swiss Alps. Feeling weary, he told the guide to take the other people in his group on to the top. As he lay in the snow, he found he could no longer move his arms and legs. His head ached with the cold. A thought popped into his mind: I am freezing to death!
All at once, Bertrand felt himself leave his body. Looking down, he saw himself lying in the snow. He felt as though he were floating, held to that distant body by a thin cord. Soon, he was high enough to see his fellow climbers. As he watched them, the guide sneaked a chicken leg from the lunch pack. Bertrand felt very sad that the cord still tied him to his old life.
Moments later he saw the returning climbers find his body. The guide rubbed Bertrand’s pale face and arms, trying to start the blood flowing again. Bertrand felt himself being pulled downward. With a silent scream, he passed back into his body. In that instant, he knew he was alive once more. He sat up suddenly and scolded the startled guide for stealing the chicken leg.2
History is full of stories of OBEs and NDEs. Perhaps one day we will solve the puzzle of what they mean and how they happen. For now, we can only say that the mind hides its secrets all too well.
The Reverend J. L. Bertrand looks down on his body, which he left lying in the snow during a near-death experience. As his NDE progressed, he felt sad to find that he was still tied to his earth-bound body.