there may have been significant effort to stay there. That it's a blessing to have seen and felt what I felt, even if I didn't fully understand where I was.

Welcome to Prioritize Your Life and PrioritizeYourLife.com. I'm excited today to be meeting with Travis Shree.

Excited to be here. I know that you've had an experience, but I know honestly nothing about it. That's what I know is that you've had an experience, so that's kind of how I like to keep it.

So, awesome. My experience started. It was tax season.

I'm an accountant. I was very overweight at the time, and it was an extended tax season because of COVID.

And so it extended into May, and I had just been sitting there working, eating, working, eating. Uh, you know, no really nothing physical.

And it was, it, yeah, it was peak COVID. Hospitals were kind of overrun, and I was a little detached from maybe my health status.

I didn't, I didn't realize I was as unhealthy as I was at the moment. I never had real problems. I have asthma, but it's never been, not really a problem at all.

So, um, but anyway, so I had COVID. Um, I knew I had COVID and it got pretty bad, and my wife took me to the emergency room.

Everything was okay. Uh, they, they gave me oxygen. I, you know, slept and had oxygen and had a, had a really kind of a weird weekend.

Uh, I don't remember much. I watched a lot of TV, watched movies, and slept a lot, a lot more than I ever have in my life.

Um, but I started to feel a little bit better on Sunday evening.

My wife was getting a little impatient with me. She had been, you know, really taking care of me a lot and she had kind of expressed that frustration, and I thought I was doing better.

So when I said this, it wasn't—it wasn't totally honest—but I just—I kind of gave her a guilt trip.

I said, "What if, you know, what if this really is bad? What if I don't make it?" And it was true, but I didn't think it was true when I was saying it, sure, but I just said, "I need you to be patient with me.

What, you know, what if this was terrible? What if—what if this gets really bad?" And she—she felt a little bad, and that day I was feeling better.

I started feeling better and better, but we still knew that it was serious enough that we had an appointment scheduled the next morning, and my—my wife had called my mom.

She was going to—going to come and get the kids, and we were just going to go.

It was Monday morning, it was May 17th, on an extended tax deadline, and I—I walked downstairs, and it—it was a lot of effort to get down the stairs, and I said to my wife, "How far away is my mom?

" And she said, "She just left Sandy," which was about 25 minutes away, and I said, you know, just—I was really struggling to breathe, and I said, "Call—call an ambulance." There was kind of a—a piece of furniture in our hallway.

We had—my wife had just camped out with the kids in our living room the night before, and so we had some furniture in the hallway, and I just kind of positioned myself above the couch and just—just kind of fell—fell into the couch.

I remember little bits of the ambulance ride, but but really not not much of that.

My my mother did arrive eventually, so my wife left the kids with her.

She came to the hospital. The the thing I had told her the night before was this dumb guilt trip that I maybe didn't mean at the time, but I left her with this guilt trip, but I almost left her with something worse because when she arrived at the hospital, now I don't remember this in my defense.

I don't remember this, but um she came up to me and I had things on my chest, you know, I had a bare chest and they had sensors all over me.

Uh and I I don't remember this, but I said I, you know, I pulled the oxygen off my my mouth and said something and she came closer and she said, what was that?

And I said, did you come to see my nipples? And at that time, because of the seriousness, my wife thought that those were going to be my last words.

Uh obviously, they're not. I'm here. Yeah, um but she thought those were my last words and she was she was a little bit furious.

Um but immediately after that, they uh they put a a tube down into my lungs to to give me air and I I really violently reacted to that.

I don't I don't remember any of that, but I violently reacted to that and this was about the time where people were really becoming aware of intubation and and the seriousness of that.

And um the word was moving around the neighborhood quick.

Uh you know, frankly, moving around the world quick. I I have a lot of friends even in the Philippines that that kind of knew my situation and the the word was moving around and the consensus was mostly he's he's going to die.

There were not a lot of people that were coming out of intubation at that time. Um, but uh, you know, I'm I'm religious. My my next-door neighbor came over.

Uh, he's the bishop of our faith, and he he gave me a blessing and he felt inspired to say um, to bless that I would I would survive this if I would fight.

But he he felt there was a big if there. It just felt really he went back home and and just told his wife like, "I said if there was if in there." Um, and just he didn't understand why, but he just felt um, like that was so contingent and and and really really worried.

Uh, um, my father had just seen me violently react to that and while they were still in the hospital, my my dad said to to my wife, he said, "You need to tell tell the kids." And she said, "Tell them what?

" And he said, "You need to tell the kids he's not going to make it." He was he was that sure. I was I was in this coma state, but they all continued to pray for me.

While I was in this coma state, I was a little more aware than I would ever want to be.

And what that meant is that I was seeing the nurses come in. I was very aware of them.

They were coming in, they were looking at me, they wouldn't talk to me. I thought that because talking is so second nature, I thought that I was able to communicate with them, but I wasn't.

And and they were just ignoring me and I just felt that something was dangerously seriously wrong and that that, you know, basically that week and a half felt like 3 months.

I I as soon as I was able to speak, it it felt like I was there for three months and it was the most terrifying thing of my life, uh, you know, times 10.

If I had understood, I could have simply said, "This machine is breathing for me," but I fought and I fought and I fought to breathe.

And there was a point at which, I now, I really wasn't able to do things on my own, but there was a point where I felt such exhaustion that I just felt like, "This is my last breath.

This is my last breath." And I gave my last bit of effort and I was alive, and it was sad. It was terrifying to think that I was still alive, still a little bit aware, not able to communicate or anything like that, but I was still a little bit aware and I was in such a dark place, feeling like they didn't care about me.

Like they just wanted me to die, and I thought, "Why? Why can't they just let me die? Why can't they let me die now? Why are they extending this?

" And, you know, for moments there, I thought, "If I could get up out of this chair, I would find a way to die." And, you know, kind of at the last minute, now I don't I don't necessarily believe this way, but I thought, I thought if I were to not fight, I thought, "I'm going to go to hell if I don't fight." And I don't I don't believe that way, but at the time, I just was in such a crisis that I felt like I was facing hell, like that was the thing that was in front of me, and I felt this overwhelming guilt that I would be leaving my children, but but also just felt that there was no way that I could escape this situation.

Um, but I felt like I was there for months and I felt like it was so, so dark, and yet at at the brink, at the brink of just devastation, I I was just somewhere else.

I was somewhere else, and every moment in the hospital was was disastrous.

It was I just I couldn't understand what was why they would inhibit my breathing. It was a misunderstanding.

Uh, it wasn't the nurses were great, doctors were great, but I didn't understand that, and and so every moment was dark until it wasn't. And uh, until my body was so weak that I was elsewhere, and I was, um, I I did, I found myself elsewhere, and it was it was beautiful.

It was white and it was clean, and my first thoughts were, now, I don't think I was allowed to understand where I was at, but my first thoughts were, this must be, um, you know, this must be virtual reality because I've never seen a place that looks this clean and smells this nice and is this well-built.

I was in this building that it was as if it had been molded, 3D printed out of a pearl element, uh, and and light just kind of escaped from every surface.

There was no light bulbs, but there was light everywhere. But the the thing that that you know, told me that that this was not Earth, basically, was was that it was so clean.

Everything was just flawlessly clean. There there wasn't a a single problem, a single scratch, and anything.

Everything was so perfect in this other place, and and I had this strong feeling that it had been connected on my behalf.

It had been connected this way, it had been connected that I was there and but at this time I had totally forgotten that crisis, that what felt like a month-long crisis.

I had totally forgotten about that and I just sat in this place and admired the beauty.

And for a time there was, I knew there were two people. Uh, I don't know why I knew there was a second person 'cause I didn't I didn't see a shadow.

I didn't I didn't hear anything. I I just knew there were two people.

One of those people I could see and it was as if um, for a time it was as if there was kind of a separation between her and myself.

But I I saw her and felt no impatience. I just was in this this place and for the first time ever, time didn't matter.

I I didn't feel an urgency to do anything, to speak to anybody. I just was in this place and felt totally calm and eventually this this woman who was there, she approached and um, our our interactions were beautiful.

Um, and for a moment there I thought about asking her name and asking the name of this other person that I was aware of. And and real quickly I was kind of embarrassed, like, I know this woman.

How can I how can I ask her her name? And um, so I didn't ask the question.

I didn't ask the question. I just adored this woman. I just looked at this woman and and just could not get over her beauty.

Um, but but I felt this massive feeling of love that I've never felt on this Earth. And and even before she approached, I just felt that love.

I felt overcome with love and understood that this was a special place. We continued to interact, much of it she wasn't speaking.

Uh, you know, I didn't see her mouth move, but I almost always heard a voice. Um, and then some of it was it was like information was downloaded.

I immediately understood that this woman was very interested and very concerned about my children. It just it just meant  a lot to me and I understood that she was a very important person in my life.

Uh, to the point that when I was back in the hospital, I tried to explain it fruitlessly.

I really I really struggled, but I felt that closeness and I felt a love for her and I felt an absolute adoration of this woman.

There was a power that she was she was taking care, she was taking care of so much in my life, but she at one point she finally had to tell me, "Hey, you are in the hospital dying." She had to tell me that because where I was, that had no meaning, that had no importance to me.

The and and the really poignant thing about that is I had never experienced something so awful in my life.

You know, to be fighting to breathe and and not understand that the machine is breathing for me, but to fight and fight and fight and feel like, "I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying.

Why won't I die?" You know, to that point to where I just I was so devastated that I wasn't dying, but then to be somewhere where I had almost totally forgotten that that's the state I was just in, to to feel such love and such beauty that I had to be reminded, "Hey, your body is in the hospital, dying." That's how beautiful it was.

But we went on and we interacted and at some point, at some point, she laughed at me. But it wasn't it wasn't some offensive, you know, "I'm right, you're wrong" laugh or "You're an idiot" laugh.

It was, you know, I've got a six-year-old kid who, uh, he'll be turning six, and he says the silliest things.

And I just hear those things and I just love him. I laugh and I love him.

And it was that same feeling, just like, "I love you." You know, a little bit of, "Okay, you don't get it, but I love you." Um, that's that's what the laugh felt like.

And that's the one moment where I remember her mouth actually moving as, you know, as she was vocalizing anything.

But she laughed, and in that laughter, I just felt absolute love coming from her and just understood that she was such an important person in my life.

Well, soon enough, I found myself back in the hospital, and, um, you know, there may have been some signs that I was slightly aware in the hospital.

They started to turn the TVs on, and, uh, they just it was it was a little bit horrifying because once again, I'm back in the hospital and I'm I'm under the influence of whatever it is to keep me in this comatose state.

But I'm not totally there. And, um, you know, they've got Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which to me is kind of a horror movie now because because I was so helpless and, you know, even under misunderstanding the premise of the film and um, you know, there was even a point where, you know, I I think it's no, it was a different movie, but there's John Malkovich in a in a different movie, and I I wanted to tell everybody that I knew him, and then I realized like, I can't talk to anybody.

I can't talk. Uh, I wanted to send a secret message to John Malkovich, but I I struggled. I I was so once again, even even in such a silly atmosphere, just mindless movies.

Now that I'm back in the hospital, I'm in this state of just helplessness, and everything is a chore.

Everything is is I'm just struggling, and um, I'm I'm just terrified. The nurses are doing the same thing.

They're coming in and and they're leaving, and they're not acknowledging me. They're they're looking at my arms. They're looking at things in their hand.

They're looking at the equipment, um, writing down numbers, but they're not they're not looking at me. As far as they're concerned, you're just a vegetable at that point, really.

Yeah, yeah, but I I misunderstood it to the point that I thought that they wanted me dead. Yeah, um, just, you know, a misunderstanding.

But so it got it got really bad again, and once again, I found myself elsewhere, and it was a little bit more immediate at this time, where she just said, "Everything's going to be okay." Uh, and this wasn't spoken in words, but this was as if it was downloaded to me that she she did say that in words, "Everything's going to be okay." But then she had spoken to me almost through downloaded information to say that she somehow intervened in my behalf.

I don't know what that was, whether she, you know, pressed something upon a doctor's mind or or, you know, pled with God on my behalf.

I I don't know what that was, but I I came to understand that that, um, she did in fact intervene on my on my behalf.

And, uh, I just knew it. I knew that everything was going to be okay. I knew that she loved me. I knew that she had intervened on my behalf and that that was enough.

So, for that interaction, that was about it. And I soon found myself back in the hospital.

In A Coma For Days - What He Saw Will Blow Your Mind

Scripts