What if you had a second chance to live?

In 1995, my life would have been considered generally lucky and quite ordinary. I had worked as an accountant, for such large companies as Price Waterhouse and Pete Marwick, before leaving the business world to become a high school teacher. The most interesting thing that I had achieved in my life, to date, was getting out of eyeglasses in 1995 after wearing them for some seventeen years.

It was in July of that it all started. Having managed to just obtain my driver’s licence with twenty-twenty vision, the optometrist put me on a machine to test my peripheral vision. I didn’t have any. Hurriedly I was sent off for tests and didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about.

The next day, I received a phone call from a neurosurgeon saying that I had better come and see him immediately. When I asked why, he said that I had a pituitary tumour in the middle of my brain and that I could possibly die within weeks if I didn’t see him straight away. At that moment, my life changed. Within days, I survived a six hour operation and sent home after 6 days, due to my health insurance refusing any further stay in hospital.  After the operation, I conveyed to the doctors and nurses, that during the procedure, I was aware of hovering above my body and was able to view where they were standing from my elevated position.  How I communicated with people would now be very different. It was the first of a number near death experiences that made me realise that how we communicate is actually why we are here on this planet.

When the student is ready

Having survived the surgery, I found myself on a path that was very foreign to me. I found myself no longer being able to find the worst possible scenario an option, because each time it was death that was staring at me.  No longer would my life resemble anything like it had been.

However, with the tumour came a sense of freedom. I could try all sorts of new things and people around would just give me a wide berth and allow me to do whatever I wanted. I tried and eventually learnt massage, Reiki, Chiron and Kinesiology.  Part of it, was the excitement of learning something new, part of it was looking for something to heal me as they found more tumours further on the pituitary gland and wanted to reoperate.

Having started to meditate and read self-help books, I took back my power and said no to the doctors. I convinced them to allow me to wait six months to see if there was any growth. Over the next thirteen years, despite numerous MRIs, I managed to stay away from any more major surgery. By the time I was reoperated, the medical technology had improved immensely.

In the period between 1985 and 2011, I created more challenges for myself that constantly tested my spirit and my willingness to persevere.

What am I meant to do with my life?

By November, 2001, I had asked that question as I went to bed. I had left teaching and had set up a Vision Improvement business that was struggling. I was swamped in paper work with a new tax system and was also trying to cope with the pressures of a family and three early teen children.

Having worked with my personal dreams over the past few years, it was not unusual for me to take pen and paper to bed so I could write down my dreams in the morning. I had gone from not even remembering my dreams to having wonderful guidance on a regular basis. For example, one night I asked why don't my insights just get written down for me so that it is clear. That night, I dreamt of a blackboard with the following written on it: “Red meat can kill some people… Red meat will kill you.” Needless to say, I went vegetarian for several years after that.

So in the morning when I asked what I should be doing with my life, how amazed was I when I was given an answer I least expected. I had expected some sign as to how to support my family or my business. Instead I was given a game.

In this dream, people were communicating on a soul level to one another based on a selection of three types of cards. Each set of these cards progressed in level of awareness and continued until all participants were completed. There were no individual winners and indeed the game was one of collaboration and understanding of each other.

The amazing thing was that the initial prototype was completed over the next three days as I put the game together in an almost trance state. The interesting part to this was that somehow all the other urgent tasks seem to get completed even though I cannot remember how that occurred to this day. I just simply trusted the process and was grateful for what showed up.

Barry can be contacted +61 7 5641 1000 or at barry@BarryAuchettl.com

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