Transcription
I was my ear. [music] I was the voice. I was everything. I was all of it. I was the trees. I was the mountains. I was the valley. Everything that I [music] thought was all one. It was just one ball of energy. Just pure pure love. But everything was known. I knew everything. I knew my life. [music] I knew my life moving forward. I knew my life going backwards. I everything is just known. It's just given to you.
Hi, my name is Ashley Schul and this is the first time I'm sharing my story about my near-death experience. So before I was [music] caught up in wanting fame and really only thinking about myself. Um but I was in the music industry or wanted to be and [music] met some people that could record with me [music] in the studio and that's where my story started.
So, me and a girlfriend um when I was about 20 years old, I went to a recording studio [music] and met with some people and um this guy that was the producer, he was so enticing or so enchanting and he um told me my voice was beautiful and that I could have anything in the world. And I noticed uh there was a girl there that um was spinning in a chair [music] and she was very silent. And I went back to the studio the next day and she was gone.
Well, this person that I was recording with after I got done with my music session, uh he went upstairs into a dark room or his bedroom, I'm assuming. and I waited downstairs for a long time and then I finally went upstairs and put my arm around him. I found him sitting at the edge of a bed and I put my arm around him and uh and [music] asked him if everything was okay and then I saw stars. My lights went out. Um meaning that he started punching me in the face um and and brutally just attacking me. Um, when it was over, I think it lasted probably like it felt like an eternity, but it lasted maybe like five or 5 minutes, um, give or take. And, um, when it was done, I I pleaded with him to let me go and he said that if I could make it to the door, he pointed. So, the room is like, you know, here's the bedroom. the the front door is through the kitchen and you can see it through the hallway. And he told me if I could make it to the door, I would live. Um I told him, "I don't want to try to leave. Um I don't want to try to make it to the door." And I hugged him and [music] pretended that he was my savior pretty much.
And um from that moment uh I was held captive with him for about 4 years. Um the US marshals were involved and once he finally got caught and I was safe, his family [music] um contacted me at a friend's house and they forced me to go with them to an unknown location. he had put a hit out on me in from jail or from prison because he thought that if he couldn't have me, nobody could type of thing. And so, um, so I went with the people that came and got me and they brought me to, um, a location that I still don't know to this day where where it is. And, um, I don't usually drink um, at this point. I I didn't, you know, I didn't consume alcohol mostly and but they had made me a drink and I knew in my heart that this was it. This was the end. I knew what they were going to do to me and I I accepted it. And so I let them make a drink in the freezer. I watched them put stuff in it. They handed me the drink and I I slammed it the whole thing like in one sitting cuz I knew that [music] was my fate. or I thought I knew that was my fate.
About an hour later, I was sitting on the couch and I could see the front door. It was locked and there was a guy sitting next to me watching me or waiting for this stuff to kick in. And a voice inside my head, it was [music] so powerful and so just sounded like a father. [music] It it sounded like God was speaking to me and in a very very strict [music] tone he said, "Run, go. You have to leave now. Um, you can like you can make it to the door." And I and and I turned [music] to my side and I looked at the person that uh was sitting next to me and I told them, "I'm going to I'm I'm leaving and I'm going to make it to that door." And [music] that's all I remember from that moment.
And the next thing that I saw, I was sitting outside of my vehicle and I was sitting against my back tire and to the right of me was this woman who was beautiful. I mean, she had just this beautiful curly brown hair and a blue and white striped shirt. Everything was so surreal. So, I look over at her and then I look around me and I saw wheat like golden fields as far as you could see and and the sun was so bright and I saw mountains beyond that. And I knew in my mind at that [music] time that I put together that where I was located, where [music] I lived, there was no mountains. So in a sense, I could understand that I was somewhere else. I was in a different place in time.
As soon as I saw myself sitting outside of my vehicle, um, everything was 360°. [music] So like I saw I could see myself but I was myself and I was everything else. And so my body didn't matter but my soul [music] did. Um but I could see my ears. So as I was listening to the woman next to me, I was my I was my ear. I was [music] the voice. I was everything. I was all of it. I was the trees. I was the mountains. I was the valley. Everything that I thought was all one. It was just one ball of energy. [music] Just pure pure love. But everything was known. I knew everything. I knew my life. I knew my life moving forward. I knew my life uh going backwards. I Everything is just known. It's just given to you.
you [music] you have all the knowledge that any questions that you have here on earth um you you know all of a sudden and the amount of love that I felt the amount of joy that I felt and confusion at the same time [music] were all wrapped into one. So there was no actual like distinct [music] emotion that we have here on on earth. Um, so once I looked at my surroundings, the [music] woman next to me, um, I looked at where I was and how good it felt and I look over and [music] I see that she's crying and she's sitting up against the tire as as I am. And she's telling me that everything's it's it's over. Everything's going to be okay. The the nightmare is done. And what she meant by that is that I wasn't in trouble anymore. I wasn't running anymore. [music] I was I was I was safe with her. Um those guys weren't going to come get me.
As I'm looking at her, her mouth isn't moving, but I can hear her speaking loud and clear from her from her from just our interaction together. [music] And although she was right next to me, I felt like [music] we were hugging, like we were combined. We were this one beautiful soul of energy. So, as this woman is crying, she's also tears are coming down her eyes. She's not crying as like you and I would look [music] at, you know, like balling her eyes out or anything. She's she's tears are coming down her face. and she is telling me to go to the mountains and I saw the mountains behind me and she said, "You [music] know, this is this is your return. You have to go back. Go to the mountains."
When I looked over again after our conversation, she was gone [music] and the sky that was so beautiful and bright went dark gray and I could I felt this jolt of just pain and I heard ambulance in the background and then that's all I remember from then I woke up uh from a coma a week later. Uh, I had a neck brace on and I was never outside of my car, they had to pry me out. Um, I I hit a So, what happened was when I was on the highway or I was driving and I swerved over an embankment. So, if you imagine a highway that's going southbound, right, or say north, and then you've got one coming back going south or vice versa. I I [music] cut through both the highway lanes and there was a a a cliff like in Minnesota there's there's um embankments that are really really deep. So I hit a tree and then my car rolled [music] off an embankment. So I was upside down and stuck in my vehicle when they when they found me. Somebody had called in.
So I woke up in the hospital a week later. The nurses came in and I remember eating lasagna and they came in and had me count money. [music] And I had no idea how to count money or do anything. I was just a whole I was I was in a in a zone. All I could think about was the woman that was sitting [music] next to me. And I kept on saying that I'm I'm okay. The reason I'm okay is because this woman helped me the whole time. Like where is she? Who is she? Like she I want to know. I want to thank her. I want to know who that was. And um turns out so my a neighbor back at the place that I was before the crash, they found my ID or my purse in their yard and and um found out where I worked and who my family was. And so my family was able to locate me at the hospital. And I kept on telling my father that um this the woman that was with me, I [music] explained her in full detail and he brought my baby book to the hospital uh after I was located and opened the baby book and he said, "Is this who you're talking about?"
Well, it's a picture of a woman named Trish. And [music] my parents used to own a not own, they used to run a a Christian home for women that were struggling. And one of the ladies there, I was born into this house. It's called Park House. And [music] she was she was my nanny up until I was 3 years old. So she took care of me every single day while my parents worked tirelessly to with these w with other women and in within this church community. And um she ended up on her birthday going with a friend to a concert and got into an accident and she ended up uh losing her life in a rollover when I was 3 years of age. Um that was the same woman that was sitting next to me.
After that, I went to um a church home for 7 months for recovery and we were in a small town in Wisconsin of the United States. I'm not sure exactly where Wisconsin where in Wisconsin, but we had gone to a very small church in the middle of nowhere. And I was getting coffee and pastries and [music] all of a sudden this 90-year-old little old woman comes up to me said, "I heard that [music] you saw my daughter." Um, and she was referring to Trish. And she just thanked me for seeing her and knowing she was okay. It was it was surreal moment. um she told me that Trish made music and and wanted me to find songs that she made and and stuff like that. But um so that after that interaction with her, I truly believe that God had his [music] hand in and orchestrated uh this this scene to be played out in my life.
Um I also wasn't done with with the everything yet. I had a lot of fear still. I had I mean post-traumatic stress just a bunch of things uh that come with with experiences is if you whether it be like a car accident or some you see somebody that passes away or somebody close to you gets hurt. um that can cause emotional buildup. And the freedom came after um I I was guided within my heart to open the Bible and and really um lay into what God had for me and what what my journey was for. Why am I here? What's my purpose? Everybody has one. Um there's nobody's singled out at all. Um and and that's the allgiving. That is that is God. That is no matter what anyone's going through, you have a plan. You [music] are it's already orchestrated and it's orchestrated to be the perfect plan.
That same voice when I was before my car accident that when I was in the house with those people, that same voice told me one night me and my brother went out to dinner and [music] and dancing. And as soon as I walked in the door, he had [music] explained to me, "You're not ready to talk to anyone. Just, you know, be with me, be by my side." And [music] soon as we walked in the door of this establishment, um that same voice guided me to my now husband, said, "There he is." And [music] and this man has changed my life forever. I mean, in the best possible way. I never knew love could be like this. So, it's it turned out that I think that that is my purpose so far. and and I believe wholeheartedly that God guided that for me.
I didn't I didn't deserve to be in the situation I was and with those people. Um [music] I did I did hear and see though that as far as free will goes and as far as people that make bad decisions, that's exactly what it is. Um [music] all of us have good in inside of us in our heart. People will do things to you that may seem out of ordinary, may seem hurtful, and maybe you're in a situation where you're doubtful that there's no way out of it, but that's not it's [music] not true. You you have to trust the experience [music] and you have to trust what God has in store for you. No matter who you are or what you've done, [music] it that doesn't matter when we when we pass. Um, there's no, as far as judgment goes, I'm not I can't I can't [music] say that personally, but I do know that it's an internal love and that love is beyond what we can [music] even even realize in this life right now.
But the more you are, the more [music] you can be kind to others and show others that um work together and help each other, the more we can do that. And the more we can praise God [music] for for existing for our life is that's that's the gift. That is why we're here. That is it's the experience and the love and what we can do for others and loving ourselves as well. Yeah.
The [music] world spins weird, but I don't mind cuz I don't walk the line. They try to define. Move like the T [music] like you've been here before. There's a soul that you are in this crazy ass [music] world. [singing] Sorry for talking or I'm here, [singing] but my mind's moved on. [music] No, I'm not easy. Some days I'm too much. Your kind [music] of love [singing] is strong enough for me. Walk with me through fire and air [music] through [singing] stars. Don't need your [music] rules. We don't make plans. [singing] I just need the truth. I find in your hand. No one comes close. Nothing compared to the way you look while death [music and singing] is chaos we call time. I'm your [music] rhythm and you are mine [music] colors. You sleep in dreams. [singing] You read between all spaces [music] in me. Don't contain the places I own. We just make every place or land like home. Don't [music] play rules. We don't wear masks. [singing] Living moments. People rush [music] past. I swear this chaos we call time. You are the [music] rhythm that keeps me alive. Don't [music] make no [music and singing] truth. Finding your hands [music] nothing compared to the wheel [singing] of wild [music] we call time. I'm your [music] [singing] mine. [music] You are. [music]