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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The convict who left his body to watch football

As told by Ajahn Brahm in The Nature of Your Mind | Ajahn Brahm | 8 May 2020

2 min read

Content note: paranormal claim (unverified); prison

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Oh, this one case was of this young man. There was a boy about five, six, seven years of age. He told me this story at length and he was having some operation. This was many years ago in Yugoslavia when Yugoslavia was this one country and he was having an operation and he died on the operating table and he described just how he was floating out of his body and he could see that the doctors who were operating on him were looking at the wrong place. They weren't seeing where the problem was. And so he said that's where he was like dying or was actually dead outside of his body. And then he said all he did a five or six year old boy that's how old he was. He just thought the doctors you know he couldn't speak outside of his body but just thought doctor don't look over here look over there. And immediately that's what the doctor did. And he shouted out hey here's a problem. And because they could see what the problem was that they um solved the problem and he was fine again. He he recovered. But he said to me and he told me this story. He was one of my students meditating in Caret Prison Farm many years ago. He was a a convict in the jail. And he said but he didn't really mind being a convict. He said because ever since that time he came back into his body but whenever he wanted to leave his body he could he could do the old astral traveling make up a mind-made body as we say in in Buddhism and he could leave his body. So he said whenever he wanted to watch a football match didn't matter what prison they put him in he just leave his body and go and watch. he wanted to if he wanted to go and see a a concert by someone in Perth, he didn't even need to to book tickets, he just go there in his astral body and just get, you know, front seat view. And the way he said it and all the other information he gave me, he said, "Yes, okay. I think that's pretty accurate what he was saying.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 28:26 (to 30:46)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A man at Karnet Prison Farm told Ajahn Brahm he went to football matches and concerts out of his body, front row, no ticket needed, so prison didn't bother him. Believe the details or not, the teaching is about where freedom lives. The body is only the car you drive; your mind is where the real action is.

In brief (our summary)

A meditation student at Karnet Prison Farm tells Ajahn Brahm that as a boy of five or six, having surgery in what was then Yugoslavia, he died on the table and floated out of his body. He saw the doctors looking in the wrong place and just thought, 'Don't look here, look there' — the doctor immediately did, found the problem, and he recovered. Ever since, he says, he can leave his body at will — so prison doesn't bother him: he goes to football matches and Perth concerts in his astral body, front-row, no tickets needed. Ajahn Brahm thinks his account is pretty accurate.

Teaching point

The mind is something apart from the physical body.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in The Nature of Your Mind | Ajahn Brahm | 8 May 2020 · 2020-05-08 · ▶ watch from 28:26 to 30:46 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

6 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Caret Prison Farm' = Karnet Prison Farm (not changed).

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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    professor John lber about the boy with no brain an honored student in mathematics at Sheffield University sorry an Honor Graduate who had a slightly misshaped skull the doctor gave him a a brain scan a CT scan and it was only 1% cortex was there everything else was missing basically as professor lber said he had no brain to speak of and there's no way that that small amount left could actually compensate for everything which was missing and at that time when I tell that story I also want to do research and I ask people CU his whole head was just filled with cranial fluid there's no brain there no gray matter so I asked people if you can do an experiment and help me can you move your head from back to forth cuz if you can hear any slushing inside that must be you as well you've got no brain it's just cranial fluid but that fellow was an honest student in mathematics brilliant normal had a girlfriend in every which way you wouldn't know he had no brain

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  • The tennis shoe on the window ledge

    In brief: A patient who floated out of her body during an operation later reports a tennis shoe on a high windowsill of the operating theatre. Staff…

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  • The woman who refused to go back

    In brief: A woman who dies on the operating table meets a spirit telling her it isn't her time; she refuses — she's having too good a time — until…

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    there's this one lady who died on the operating table and so she left her body looking at her body over there just a mess so off she went but apparently that she described it as meeting some Spirit and the spirit saying you know it's it's not your time you know you got to go back and she said no way I'm having too good a time I don't want to go back sorry and the spirit said but you have to go back I don't care about that I'm not going you know like people are pretty independent these days and you know you don't actually do what you're told by your parents or by the government or by God or anybody so Spirits you know go and get lost I'm having a good time so that degree of Independence know she didn't want to sort of go anywhere until eventually having this argument you you got to go back no way apparently she described because obviously she did go back that's why she could tell this story this Spirit sort of got hold of her and threw her back into her body and it just had all this aches and pains and heaviness again and she was really pissed off of that spirit I mean really big time so when she gave this interview said now when I die next time of course I would die eventually I'm going to find that guy and I you do know what I'm going to do to that guy what he did to me that's how you described it

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  • She came back to see what her husband was up to

    In brief: A retreat participant tells how, dying in hospital while her husband raced to reach her, she was out of her body having a blissful time —…

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    I just remember one lady saying, "Oh, it was just so blissful and beautiful being out of my body," she was in a hospital with some terrible sickness. Her husband was racing to the hospital to try and catch her before she died, but she had already died, she was away having a wonderful time, but then she came back when she was wondering what her husband was up to. [laughter] I mean in a good way, I'm not saying that he was playing around, but you know whether he was worrying about her, whether he was coming, that brought her back. She told us afterwards, "That was the most wonderful experience of my life." I said, "Yeah, probably you like everybody else who's had those experiences are no longer afraid of death." "Yes," she said "I'm not afraid of death. Why should you be afraid of death when you know it's gonna be nice?

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