Near Death Experience Reports Excerpted

I drifted up and into a long tunnel. At first, I felt pain and sorrow. I felt, from the perspective of all those affected by me, any hurt I had caused them. It was horrible but I was forced to understand my negative influence on them. It was incredibly enlightening. I would call it purgatory and I'm glad I didn't have to stay long! Then I floated along some more. The tunnel walls seemed to be made up of moving images. I was floating as in a warm salt bath and I was very comfortable. I found I could think clearly with no distractions. →	There was no music in my head as there usually was. A calming voice told me that everything would be explained when I arrived. I trusted this voice. Arriving at the end of the tunnel I was greeted by a man who looks pretty much like I do today. He brought me to the edge of whatever I was standing on and when I looked into the inky blackness, all sense of time vanished. There was no past, present or future. Only everything all at once.	I felt a tremendous understanding of the nature of the universe and my place in it. He showed me what looked like a huge white obelisk floating in the blackness. As I looked at it more closely, I saw that the surface was moving. It was a giant puzzle and it looked like it was being solved. He showed me my place and how the puzzle was re-arranged with each action by anyone on earth.	Some of the puzzle had already fallen into place and I knew that something wonderful was going to happen when it was complete. Of course, I don't remember what it is but I still look forward to it! I was then sent back to my body. 1f/Puppet [This report was the first drawn in sample f. Puppet is name of original report.]
In shock, I was lying on my bedroom floor when I distinctly heard a male voice say, "Get into bed and whatever happens, do not move, even slightly." I used the last of my strength to get into bed and did not move, couldn't have anyway. At this point, the voice, no longer audible but what I'd call telepathic, instructed me to concentrate on a fuzzy red line in a black void. As long as I concentrated on this flickering red line I'd maintain a foothold to life. I was at this point bodiless, formless, floating in a black warm void.	I had no emotions whatsoever, I felt very neutral yet curious about everything, and completely at ease and liberated. I felt I was in a "waiting room" of sorts, neither in life nor death, or maybe in between. I was aware that it was my choice to go to one side or the other, and could instantly will myself to "touch" various people whose lives connected with mine to see what would happen and how they'd feel at soul level if I left or if I stayed.	It sounds strange but everything seemed simultaneous and timeless and my mind could travel wherever it chose instantly. After "touching" family members, friends, and people I later could not recognize (although since then I've met some of them) I realized that I had many agreements for working with people, and that leaving my life would force me to do the whole thing over later.	It would selfishly harm a good number of people if I died at that point, and doing the work I needed to do would be much more difficult in another life. In other words, though I had no desire to return to my desiccated, disease-wracked body, I really had no choice in the practical sense--it was the only sensible option to return.	The voice accepted my choice and helped me throughout the experience, as needed. I woke up 42 hours later. 2f/Masha
I distinctly remember starting to feel my body leaving my body and floating up to the top of the room as I looked down there were five doctors, three nurses, IV's being put in both arms, and a heart machine trying to bring me back! I just looked down on them and it felt so good to be up there that it was really quite beautiful and I really didn't care to go back.	The next thing I recall was floating way up to a place in a bright luminous light that I have never seen in this world. Words could not describe the warmth, love, and peaceful feeling that was in this light. I was 17 then, and I saw a huge three-dimensional screen come up bigger then any movie screen I had ever seen in life!	I just stood there watching my whole entire life pass before my eyes on this screen. Everyone who I ever encountered in my 17 years of life was on this screen. Every emotion and feeling was also played too! It was surreal! After that I started floating toward a tunnel. It was very long but the light on the other side was unbelievable.	I was in so much bliss going toward the light the feelings I felt were so loving and peaceful, nothing like I ever felt on earth I really wanted to go and never come back here! It was pure joy, peace and bliss, but I was told I had to come back, my purpose was not filled here.	I started floating back. Next thing I remember looking down at my body with all those doctors trying to bring me back and fighting for them not too!!
I could not move a muscle in my body yet as my spirit body was moving back into my physical body I kept saying, "No! No! Don't do this to me, let me go, don't save me." I was really hoping they wouldn't bring me back! 3f/Donna
I vividly recall floating/hovering above myself and thinking: "What am I doing up here?" I remember the room being dark as I hovered at the ceiling, looking down on myself, as I apparently slept. My question is whether there are "stages" of the death process, as I do not recall going through a tunnel, seeing any bright light, or having a life review.	Do these occur in a specified order or sequence? I do not recall the process of how I got to the state of hovering above myself, nor do I know what circumstance lead to my supposed dying. Was it that my heart simply stopped beating which then triggered this experience, for I've never been diagnosed with a heart deficiency such as a murmur or other cardiac dysfunction.	I've confided this to only a few close friends and they felt that I was not clinically dead, given that I was not declared such in a medical environment, i.e., hospital or emergency room.	Yet, I know that I most certainly was not dreaming, as for many years since that experience I have dreamt of flying, and I am with absolute certainty able to distinguish the two! 4f/Wayne
I knew I was near death and felt that if I went to sleep, I would not awaken. I soon felt the presence of my father, who had been dead for about ten years, in my condo. I did not see him, but I knew he was there in the dining room. This was quite unusual because I had not been particularly close to him while he was alive, and since his death I had never felt his presence before.	I knew he was there to help me. He was not there to be judgmental. I did not hear anything audible from him, but, basically telepathically, he held out a choice for me. I understood that if I joined him in the dining room, I would be dead and he would help me with the transition.	There was no fear on my part. He was not influencing me to make a decision one way or the other. He was just there to help me if I needed it. I was very tempted to walk into the dining room and join him. I thought about it and decided it would be far too selfish on my part to leave my two young sons, whom I loved very much.	So I decided not to go into the dining room. I soon became aware that I no longer felt his presence. After several hours I was fine. 5f/Tim
The last thing I heard was the radio saying it was 2:34 PM. I immediately found myself standing in a vertical tunnel. It was dark or gray but there was a rush of brilliant white fog rushing upward through the tunnel as if it was vacuum. Henry was on the other side of the upward rushing fog. It was not Henry's body, it was a presence. He communicated with me that he wanted to go up the tunnel, but I held him back. I told him I didn't want him to go that I needed him here with me.	He said, "NO, Mara, I have to go. Let me go." "Fine, then I will go with you," I responded. I felt for an instant that Henry's hand reached out towards me across the rushing fog. Then quickly I changed my mind. "Henry I have to stay and raise my children. Go, but I will see you again." In seconds his presence moved into the rushing fog and upward he went through the tunnel. I stood there and cried. It felt like for hours.	Then the tunnel disappeared. I was standing on air. It was beautiful clouds. Lot's of bright light around me. Henry's form was brilliant gold laying in a see-though pearl box. His heart was glowing red. He was alive and at peace. He would not communicate with me anymore. I was content that Henry was in heaven.	I said goodbye, then the pearl box disappeared as his form moved upward toward the clouds. It was beautiful. I opened my eyes and the clock said 2:34 PM. 6f/Henry
The longer I was under the ice, the less significant time became. It was as if time had no meaning. Everything happened sequentially but simultaneously. I became very tired. I noticed that I could no longer feel the cold. My hearing was heightened. I could hear the movement of the water. I could hear the traffic on the bridge overhead and behind me. I could see clearly, even though it was dark and I was under the ice and moving downstream.	Then, a complete calm and serenity overtook me. I was at total peace. I began to come into an awareness that all was not over. I could sense a light. It was brilliant, but caused no discomfort when looking at it. In fact, I gained strength by looking into the light. I then sensed a presence. I had the knowledge that this was Jesus, and he was assuring me that everything was fine. I felt total love from this presence. I was home.	I felt total love from this presence. I was home. More so than I was ever home before. I was presented with a sense that all questions were to be answered if I stayed. He then presented me with an option. I could continue toward the light. It was becoming a part of me, and I was becoming a part of it. While the light seemed to be a single entity, there were also noticeable individuals within it.	The second choice I had was to return. I wanted to stay. All was calm; all was love. I knew that whichever route I chose, it would be the right one; there was no wrong choice. At that moment, my brother and friend broke through the ice, precisely where I was. The odds of this seemed staggering to me; I was under the ice--they couldn't see me.	I was moving downstream. How could they find me? I felt resentment at them for coming for me. But I still grabbed the large stick they placed in front of me. 7f/Rob
In my dream, my mother was draped in a white light so bright and white, I can hardly describe it, yet I still feel it today. On each side of her were her mother and my father. They smiled or I felt it and turned and walked into the light. Not long after that the nurse and doctor came in and I woke with tears in my eyes. I said to my sister, I just had the strangest dream about mom, she said so did I.	She then proceeded to describe the same dream I had had at the same time. We started crying, the doctor checked my mom and said although her body had not completely shut down there was no longer any life in her eyes. She had left us. She officially died on Saturday, but we know in our hearts it was that Thursday night. 8f/Jo
"We're losing her" and lots of commotion. Then I slipped away completely. When I woke up again I had a ventilator tube in my lungs. One of my doctors told me I had a near fatal asthma attack, they had almost lost me, one of the other doctors told me my heart had actually stopped.	When I had totally slipped away, I felt bathed in a wonderful light, as though I was being hugged by it. I felt totally safe, that all was forgiven, and I was very, very loved. 9f/Cheryl
It was night time, and I couldn't sleep. Sitting up in a recliner, I thought about what had happened that day, dad's worsening condition with his kidney failure. Suddenly, I was blinded by bright, pulsating light. It was shimmery and very bright, but it didn't hurt my eyes. I didn't know what to make of it. I thought I was losing my vision.	I got up and groped along the wall to reach the door so I could go into the room where my husband and infant son were peacefully sleeping. When I got to the door, the shimmering light faded away and I could see again. I was terrified. I thought I was having a medical problem with my eyes. This had never happened before.	When the shimmering went away, it was 12:46 a.m. Ten minutes later, my sister called to say that dad had died. The coincidence didn't really hit me until we were in the car driving to the hospice to pay our respects to dad. Then I realized that there might be a connection.	My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the time of death on the actual death certificate. 12:45 a.m. It was then that I realized that he came by to say goodbye, or for one split second I was drawn into a place between this life and the next.	I think it was so that I could know that dad had actually gone somewhere good. This is when I truly, truly knew there was another place...heaven. 10f/Lillian
I recall that I suddenly felt light as a feather and totally free of discomfort. I noticed that I was looking down at myself: I was laying on my left side, my hair tangled on the pillow, and by the shape of the blanket over me, my knees were drawn up to my abdomen and my hands curled up under my chin. I can recall every detail of that view from the pattern in the blanket, the light blue pillow case, to every tiny detail of myself and the room.	Then I noticed that my eyes were closed and it dawned on me that I was seeing myself from above--seeing myself and my eyes were closed! I felt no troubling emotions, just the awareness that I was not inside myself any longer. I remember thinking, "I wonder if I've died?" A cloudy gray mist formed around me that had sparkling white pinpoints of light within it.	I seemed to float higher and higher when I saw a bright white light in the distance. It grew in brilliance as though I were approaching a star in a night sky, yet it didn't cause any discomfort to my eyes. At the same time I felt a pulling sensation from the light from my navel and also simultaneously I was overcome with the most wondrous emotions of love and joy and acceptance.	It was so fantastically joyful, like a long awaited homecoming. I desperately wanted to get into that incredible light. I could not, however, get past the gray mist which had accompanied and surrounded me. It held me back.	The next thing I remember is I'm back in myself, in bed, feeling emotionally uplifted but disappointed to discover I was not dead! I felt a longing for that incredible Light. 11f/MJ
I was driving a small sports car which began careening across the 4-5 lanes of the one-way deck of the bridge that took (what seemed to me to be far too long to long for the vehicle to stop. The car felt as it was lifting up off the road as if it was going to "fly" into the SF Bay below. While waiting for the car to settle, my life literally flashed before me. At the time, I had a beautiful young 2-yr old daughter, who my mother was babysitting, and during that moment all I could think of was, "Oh, my God, my baby!" as I began thinking that I was going to die.	Then, as if I were two people, a voice inside said "Hillari will be fine. Mama will raise her. She's good mother, and she did a wonderful job with me." I seemed to be more relaxed then. Then the thought came to me that this was taking too long. Maybe I'm not going to die. I began praying, "If I'm not going to die, Lord, please don't let me be in too much pain." Once the vehicle stopped totally, I did not feel ANY pain--just disorientation.	The next thing I knew, a Calif. Hwy patrolman opened my door and asked if I was alright. Several post-trauma memories later came to me, such as: When I felt the car lift up, it was me. I was lifting up, possibly outside my body. Then, I began seeing myself floating through a tunnel of cloud-like fog, quite much like giant cotton balls. I saw images ahead, perhaps 7-10 individuals.	They were all wearing white. (If they were robes or jumpsuits they were wearing, I couldn't tell.) Nor could I see their faces, but I did know that I was heading for a beautiful, calm place. I felt as if I knew the people ahead, and I also felt as if they were there to greet me. It felt so comfortable where I was going and I wasn't frightened.	I felt a relief--then, all of a sudden, I felt and heard a kind-of big "WHOOOSH", like some great tidal wave, and the clouds were gone as abruptly as they came. 12f/Fran
Suddenly could not breathe. I seemed to rise up, as if to chase breath. And just then I felt myself "POP" out of my left side. I was ejected. (I can recall this, to this day, micro second by micro second). I felt as if "Oh shit what was that?" I felt like I was thrown out, and "Oh shit! I was weightless and seemed to bob about like a cork in a stream. I heard what sounded like a chug and a chug, and it kept getting louder and faster until it became OHMMMMMMMMMM (the chant).	I felt a force pulling me slightly. I felt curious and floated with it. The environment was not hot, not cold. I felt a part of it. It was most pleasant and peaceful. The lighting was not a white light but a grey light, and I could feel the vastness of it all. I remember thinking. It was more like knowing instead of thinking. I had crossed to another dimension. I was dead and I seemed to want to look around.	I was not frightened, nor in anyway doubtful or apprehensive. It was nice, and I was curious. Just then I felt vibrations of another sound, garbled, it was not language. I stopped and just floated and bobbed. the vibrations again, and again made me drift towards it with a "What's that?" thought.	It was then I heard words: "BENNY! I saw her suddenly and I asked, "What do you want?" I was back. 13f/Ben
Everything went black. I could feel myself swinging. I could hear this high-pitched laughter, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. Then I could sense that the demons of Hell were standing around me, laughing and enjoying it. They thought it was funny. They were saying stuff like, "All right! We got him! Yeah! Ha! Ha! Way to go!" I was scared shitless. I knew I was about to die and go to Hell.	I felt myself drop again, I hit heavily on the ground on my side, and then all the light came swimming back in. My next door neighbor was standing over me with a machete. He had cut the rope. 14f/Ralph
Now to the NDE. Well, I saw the white light, warm, bright but not blinding, and comforting. My deceased parents were there in high backed wooden chairs, my dad's chair was placed one step higher than my mother's on large flat steps similiar to church altar steps without the altar. My father smiled, stood up, extended his hand and said, "Come, you'll like it here."	I extended my right arm and hand with index finger pointed and stated, "Not now Dad, I have things I have to do," meaning children to be helped to maturity. He understood, nodded a knowing smile and said, "O.K. we'll see you in about thirty years." (I was 55 at the time.) He and my mother rose, knowingly smiled and began to turn and walk away.	My father looked down, I felt towards earth, and with a nod seemed to say, "I know you are all worried about bills, life's problems and all the other bothers of earthly life, but it's of little matter, there is better here." Curiously, upon leaving the hospital, the doctor, after medical precautions said to me, "Go on home, have some fun, you have another thirty years."	I also observed my family around my bed crying in deep sorrow. I wanted to reassure them but knew I couldn't. I somehow knew that this sorrow was a purge that their earthly existence demanded and that it was natural and necessary. Strangely I was content with this as I was when my parents turned and walked away.	There appears to be very little within us either physically or psychologically that did not or does not have a purpose. We are creatures by design and design implies purpose. →
Particularly a behavior, which is fairly common, i.e. if it happens so often it is highly likely that it is part of the design and therefore serves a purpose. This experience seems to be a transition easer; either to a state of nothingness which would be o.k. because when we get there there would be no cognizance of the fact or it eases a transition to an another state of being which is o.k. also.	Most accounts of this event seem to express feelings of comfort and contentment, and also indicate none to very little fear. Isn't that a nice design? 15f/BK
OK, here's the NDE. I remember at one point "dreaming" that I was on the bridge of a Star-Trek-like spaceship, just standing around watching the crew doing their stuff at their consoles. There were some doors along the wall, and I realized, in a very matter-of-fact way, that one of them led to an area of beautiful light.	I was drawn to it, but before I could go through it, I was distracted by my sister-in-law, whom I had not noticed was on the bridge, saying something very loud. I love her dearly, but she does irritate me sometimes by being really loud in public, and I said something to the effect of "Margy--hold it down a little, will you?"	In the process, I forgot about the door, and I guess the "dream" ended there. 16f/Bill
I was preparing a bath for my baby and I was not even thinking about God or the answers to life, when all of a sudden I felt something very powerful in the room with me. Then I began to have a life review--saw events in my life where I was hurting people yet I was unaware of this--it made me feel very sad. I wanted a chance to do something about this but I thought then that I was dying and this was it.	Then after the life review, I heard God say to me, "Do you understand what is happening to you?" I didn't fully understand but I understood that this was God showing me my life and so I said yes. Then He asked "Do you understand the consequences of your sins?" By this questions I felt that I had blown it somewhere in life and I was going to hell and so I answered yes.	Next question was, "Do you understand that you will be eternally separated from your children?" I was horrified when I heard this because I had never realized that I could have spent eternity with my children. I think of myself as an extremely caring and loving person towards others, yet I was getting the worse sentence that I could imagine, never seeing my children again.	Then I started to fall down a dark void. When I got to the bottom, the speed at which I was dropping decreased. Soon I was hovering over flames, suspended in the air. I heard the sound of a soul scream out in torment. I was scared beyond belief, knowing that soon I too would be where this person was. I called out for someone to help me.	I called for my mother, my husband and a neighbor but all there was was silence. I thought how much we all need each other and now I could no longer call upon anyone and how much I had taken others who had come to my aid for granted. →
Then I started to think about a sign I had seen a few months earlier which said, "Are You Saved, Only Jesus Saves." Being Catholic I had never heard this expression before and did not know what it was referring to. Then I started to see a pinpoint of light beginning to pierce though the darkness, it grew larger and larger and soon spelled out the words Jesus Christ.	I looked and thought, "Jesus. So what? He was just a man." Then I began to put words together Jesus - savior - I thought Savior from what, for what? Then - SAVIOR - OH MY-maybe Jesus can save me and I screamed out JESUS SAVE ME. All of a surdden I was pulled out of the the dark hole and was put in biblical times.	I saw all of biblical history in the twinkling of an eye. I then said - WOW - this stuff really happened - Jesus - the crucifiction - Jesus was God - He was really God. Get me out of hear I have to go tell the world.	Then boom I was right back in the room in the same spot with the towel in my hand and no time had passed. 17f/Carmie
She remembers having seen her body lying in the first-aid room, viewed from a high corner near the ceiling; the medical staff was working hard on her 'body'. Details from this were precisely given by her afterwards without ever having seen the room before or later. She felt quite neutral, even when she heard a doctor or nurse say: "Oh, there she goes again."	Then she had an experience like traveling through a dark tunnel, seeing to the right of the end of the tunnel a female person, dressed in white, with dark hair. Then she saw IT, the music and colors that were indescribably beautiful and a light with such an intense beauty and mildness as never before. She was not allowed to go through.	All of a sudden she found herself again at the entrance of the tunnel, where it was dark, there was no sound at all. She felt like being one of the many who were there, walking around and around, being doomed to do so eternally. It was the worst thing that a person can ever experience. There was suffering, pain, remorse, guilt.	The 'many who were there' were without any body-form like we know, they merely looked like little packets or little dull colored balls and were to her belief rapists and murderers. One of these 'packets' was sort of allowed to leave this place without her knowing exactly how and by whom.	She envied this 'entity' for it, the suffering was unbearable. She does not know how long she has been there, she awoke in the IC-unit of the hospital, tied to her bed. 18f/Cathy
As the shock progressed I came to a crossroads, one way was continuing to be a human animal and the other of being a much finer and higher vibrating energy. The next logical step, I felt. I really wanted to go into the peace and calm that had enveloped me, very much did I want to be a part of a higher energy form. In analyzing the pro and con of what I should do under these particular circumstances I came to the following conclusion: Go back to being a human.	I have the responsibility of six children and a wife. I am their only provider. I also knew that by taking this step, or any step for that matter, I would, once my human form became un-usable, go to that plane of faster vibrating energy. It's only logical because once we dump our flesh which is a hundred of so pounds of heavy mass then our energy will by nature and the laws of physics, vibrate faster.	So fast in fact that the lowly human, flesh tearing, cow milking animal will not be able to see that frequency. That's good because they'd try to screw that up too. (Just a little joke there.) I really wanted to go on to the next plane as I lay close to what most would call death. I dwelled there as long as I could because a good place is mighty hard to leave.	I saw that the root of all life in the universe was energy, that all energy was related and equal. There is no energy in the universe that would want or need worship and the possibilities of energy are unlimited.	The human species of animal is not by far the highest form life can attain. If it were the highest attainable form then we'd be in a world of hurt. 19f/Charles
When I stopped moving I was somewhere on the other side of that bulkhead, looking back at myself crumpled against the bulkhead. I could see the other tech standing over my body, and then others come running up the ladder from the galley below. I could hear them talking, but it had an echo as if heard from inside a steel drum. They were saying things like, "What happened?" and "Is he okay?" The other tech said, "Yeah, he's okay. Just took a little hit, is all."	Then I suddenly realized what had happened, and truthfully, didn't feel a bit "okay" about my situation. There were thoughts of, "Oh my God!!! I'm dead!!! I'm DEAD!!!! And there was nothing okay about that feeling at all. I felt a certain irrevocableness about turning to see what was behind me. In my mind it seemed that if I turned around to see what was there, then I would never be able to turn BACK around.	I did not know what was there. Maybe it was this beautiful light many speak of, but I didn't know. For all I knew, it could have been some kind of hideous demon or slimy soul sucking attack leach. Good or bad, whatever was there, I wanted no part of being dead. It was the most radical terror of my life. Pulling to get back into my body with all my might, I could hear them talking as they crowded around me.	One guy leaned over and shook my shoulder where I was crumpled on the deck and said, "Dude, you okay?" Of course, I didn't feel it. I watched it. A moment later, I was back in my body and trying to breathe. 20f/Dan
What I saw was the following: I was in complete blackness. There was an exact square visible in the blackness. The square was not a tunnel. There was no reflection off of tunnel walls. As for size, I could not judge distance because there were no other details but if it were a foot away it would look about three inches by three inches. At first I saw light streaming in the square, with bits of darkness.	The impression was of immense speed and three dimensions, not like a flat TV image. The light was brilliant. Then I saw a beautiful landscape. Two trees in a foreground, a large meadow, then a forest of trees in the background. Also, it was very brilliantly lit, brighter than anything imaginable. The trees were not evergreen.	Definitely leafed, with big trunks. Not a California tree. Not a Georgia straight pine. I can see that image in my mind very clearly, and I cannot identify the picture. Then that was it. I was back and awake and I felt much better. 21f/David
Suddenly, while still awake, not falling asleep, I was zapped out of my body through my feet! Imagine a vacuum sweeper on the soles of my feet. Looking down I saw my body still laying on the bed! I felt no fear and no emotions other than questioning why I was up here looking down there at my body. Two "beings" appeared whom I call angels. They had no emotions nor did they communicate to me. I just went with them.	We were traveling through a dark place. I noticed that we were not walking on feet. No other person was in this dark place. Then I noticed a bright light ahead of us. Nearer and nearer we drew closer. It was then that I felt like I was in a tunnel of see sort. At the end of this tunnel the light was unbearable at first. However, I soon adjusted to the light and it was then that my "escorts" disappeared.	Have you ever seen those huge culverts where water pours through draining another area? I was standing on the edge of the tunnel. I looked down and saw a beautiful blue-green river. Suddenly I heard a familiar voice, "Go back Debbie, it's not your time yet!" I immediately recognized this voice as being of my great-grandfather Cecil Collins!	He repeated this message several times. His voice came from across the river and when I looked in that direction I saw a shoreline. I never clearly saw him or others there however I knew he was there. Others who I cannot identify were also there waving and sending greetings. I knew they were my ancestors.	I never did listen to my elders well. So, wanting very much to be with them, I jumped into the river. The water felt warm and peaceful; almost like healing waters. My body began to sink deeper in the water. I realized that I did not have the body to swim. →
However, I did not experience death through drowning. It felt as if my body had returned to that of a fetus. I felt warm and secure. Now, how did I remember that? Suddenly I looked up and saw a brighter light hovering above the waters. This light drew me upwards right out of the water into the "sky." Face to face with this light was an experience I shall never forget.	This light was a person! I never saw a face however I had the knowledge or inner vision of a face. This face was smiling and very happy to see me. The peace was not to imagine. Then I knew what this person was saying: "I Love You."	I looked behind me to see who this person was speaking to and then realized the person was me. I begged to stay there; pleading like a child to one's father. The person of light began to weep and without seeing his face I knew that he too was telling me that I had to return.	Instantly I was back in the body I previously had seen laying on the bed. I did not "wake up" as if I had been asleep. I was just there again. 22f/Debbie
My experience was this: I realized I was in a very bright office with a man in white standing at my side and an administrative type, all in white, at a desk. This person began to ask me many questions about my life. I knew I was very ill and the minute I thought, "WHY is he wasting time asking me all these questions?" The other person began pushing me on a gurney down a long hallway. I got up & began to walk along beside the gurney & suddenly realized that half of my body was walking 'through' the wall.	This scared and disoriented me. I followed the person toward an ER room & watched the doctor & nurses begin to work on this very ill woman. I didn't recognize the body as mine. I asked, in a loud voice, "Should I go to the waiting room while you work on this woman?" At that point, a nurse rushed right through me on her way out the door. No one answered me.	Then it seemed as though I were standing on a diving board which projected out from the body's feet. I could sense many people around me, encouraging me to jump, to not be afraid. I looked down into a stream which was strewn with boulders. I looked up at the wall and could see a hand holding a reel of movie tape.	Another hand began to pull the film away from the reel and I could see it was my life. I thought very vehemently NO WAY, and then saw many particles of light in the corner of the room begin to gather together and form a person's shape.	A believer in Jesus and angels I immediately realized this might be "the end" for me and said NO!!! Immediately, I was thrown back into my body. I 'awoke' and began to reach for my purse. 23f/Dixie
In the ambulance along the way I died for a short while. I recall as what seemed to be a dream, floating in a distant corner of the ambulance watching my mother crying out, "Oh my god! He died!" I watched the attendant working on my body. Next thing I knew I was back in my own body and I heard my mom saying, "Oh look he's back!" She cried. In the hospital, after several tests, I had died a couple more times and was revived.	I recall leaving the hospital where I was and going to another hospital in another part of the city where a pregnant woman was giving birth after being critically injured. The doctor said she had just died and to get the baby out. I somehow became that baby. They pulled me out by my feet and just as they spanked my bottom, I left that baby's body and watched from a corner of the room as that baby cried out.	The mother was not revived. I left there and went back to the hospital where I was being worked on. My skull was opened, they were fixing a ruptured aneurysm in my brain. I recalled leaving this room again. This time I went into a room filled with what I thought was smoke. There was a gate it looked like shiny hole the room was bright beyond words.	I recall feeling peace. No fear and no pain, I was not happy nor was I sad. I felt tranquility. A man on the other side asked what I wanted. I told him I needed to pass through the gate. He said, "No Don, it isn't your time." I said "But I feel I have to go through!" He again said, "No Don it is not your time yet, go back to your family."	I left there and returned to the operating room where they were applying the paddles to my body. Just as they said "Clear!" and my body was shocked, I was back in my body. 24f/Don
Okay, now the NDE. I was surrounded by this water, just floating on my back in the water minding my own business. There was nothing but water as far as I could see but then it stared to funnel and eventually was swirling around me so quickly that it pulled me up on to my feet and then disappeared in a vapour. When the water was totally gone, there was nothing left but pure white. Pure whiteness everywhere, it had no variations as in light, or shadows, or depth or anything, it was all exactly the same to my eyes. Only I knew it had depth, and it felt very normal.	I had NO urge to question the contradiction between what my eyes saw and what my head interpreted. Also, my there was no temperature, it was exactly the same as my body so I could not feel any air, any cold, any hot, just pure comfort. In fact, I felt right about everything, I can not explain it exactly because I've never felt it while conscious, but it was just like everything about me, about my location, about everything, was just plain perfect.	There was no pain, no confusion, no angst, no discomfort of any kind. And it all made perfect sense. It was just, right, and it was the best feeling I have ever had in my entire existence. (As far as I remember. Emotions are easier to recognize than memories.) So I'm standing there, feeling awesome, with no urges to look around, I just felt safe, familiar, and I hear a voice. Not with my ears, but in my head.	I couldn't see a source, but I knew exactly what point in space the voice was coming from and I knew it was directed at me. In fact that point in space was watching me closely. I couldn't see it with my eyes, or hear it with my ears, I just knew. And it all made perfect sense.	This voice then invited me to walk forward. It said that if I took on step forward I would be able to feel that way indefinitely. It seemed like the right thing to do, I didn't even think about it, I just lifted my foot and started to step. →
Then the source of the voice looked away from me, at a dark haired female I had not seen her before, I don't even remember if I saw her with my eyes or only in my mind. All I really remember is that the voice was now looking at her and she had very dark hair. The voice then instructed her to go back, that she wasn't ready yet, and I stopped.	I told the voice that I wanted to go back with the female, and to help her. That I wanted to feel pain again, that I wanted to feel alive, and to laugh, and to cry, and to hurt if I had to.	Right at that moment, the I/C. guy used those shocker things on my chest and got my heart beating which in turn got my brain to function, and I was ripped back into my body. 25f/Dunning
I have memories of the police investigating the scene, making a pronouncement of death over the radio to the ambulance, and then going through a struggle trying to get my body to respond in any way. I could move, talk, breathe, anything. There was just the most horrible blackness, a void.	Trying to get myself to scream to the officers that I was alive in the wreck. I was then transported back in time to a point in the wreck where I had made a decision about saving myself or dying.	This time I made the decision to live and was impelled to take a different action, which proved to be what saved my life. 26f/Eagleman
I guess I was ill. At some point I opened my eyes and was surprised to see that the ceiling was only a few inches away from my face. It was yellow and cracked and somewhat unpleasant so I turned my head to the right. I noted that the view out the window from ceiling height was not much different from my usual view - same brick wall of the next building. I also realized that my left arm must be through the ceiling because of the way I had turned to look out the window. I did not turn my head back again to look because that seemed very strange and I did not want my face so close to the ceiling.	The next moment I felt myself hurtling through blackness. In some fashion I perceived that I was going very fast. It was not frightening but puzzling and interesting. I have subsequently read read others' references to a tunnel, and indeed it was like that because after a while I saw a tiny little pinprick of light which grew bigger as if I were fast approaching a faraway exit. This light was intriguing. I got plopped out into a very bright warm intense enveloping light.	This light was full of love and joy. I am not one to use terms like love and joy, but that is the closest I can come to describing it. You do not get that intensity of feeling in this life, that I know of. Certain intense moments of being in love are the closest I know about. But they are only close. Anyway, to my right was someone very awesome, a male. This big love seemed related to this being.	I didn't know who it was but I was very awestruck. I do not know how long I basked in this love, maybe not that long, when my attention was diverted to some other beings. Perhaps there were three or four and either I did not see them clearly or I just cannot remember.	(I couldn't remember right after the experience either). Anyway they wanted to show me something. Which they did. A big black screen pulled up and I saw the earth in the way that perhaps astronauts can see it. →
That is, the whole planet. The beings were happy and excited to show me this and I can tell you it was amazing. I knew it was amazing at the time. I kept thinking at every turn that this was wonderful and amazing. But I was even more surprised and overwhelmed with what happened next. I realize that this is hard to believe but it is true. I saw/felt all the people on the earth. (Actually I don't know if it was all, but it was millions and millions for sure). I couldn't believe it yet I knew it was true.	In my head I just kept saying that this was unbelievably fantastic and surprising. Then for more incredibleness, they 'said' (but it was not talking aloud) that I could continue to have this connection to everyone and also to help people on earth with their problems. This seemed to me to be a thrilling prospect and I wanted to get started right away. But they informed me that I could not do this and also live my regular life.	This did not strike me as a problem since the existence they offered me was clearly and vastly superior to my regular life and I was thrilled with the whole thing. They told me more than once that I would have to choose and I wrenched my mind back to remember the people who love me and who would have been sad if I had chosen to take them up on their offer.	But it took longer for me to understand that choosing meant dying. I was suddenly very afraid and mad at these beings because I felt they had tricked me, the realization of dying came as such a shock.	As soon as I felt afraid I knew I was being sent back fast. I also felt afraid that the major being (God?) would be mad at me. And voila, I was lying back in my bed. 27f/First.Last
I seemed to follow a particular person, followed his progress in heaven, immediately at and after he died! I was right by his side as IF I WERE that person in an "autobiography" of months of living there. So I will use the first person "I" here as if I WERE that person in order to simplify things! Vision begins. I awake, in a daze. There is confusion about me. A couple of attendant-type people are trying to hustle me from my bed and up onto the floor from the bed where I was evidently sleeping.	They throw my clothes over me and push me out into the hall and then out of the building which now appears to be an "old folks home"--a nursing home. They bring others out too, all in a daze also. We muddle in the front yard, only to see a approaching bus come up. It pulls up with people on it already, coming from some other place. It comes from somewhere? Five or six of us are pushed onto this bus. It starts up and moves on down the road. I get a window seat.	I sit there very dazed, for some reason, watching the scenery go by. However the bus begins a slow slow climb up a very steep hill. The air turns instantly to fog! All I see is fog, outside. Then I fall back to sleep. I awake with a vivid jolting start! The bus is at the top of the hill and the sky is a very very vivid blue, light-piercingly blue. And the grassy fields look as a very green golf course, lush and green. I see a fence and a gate across the fields and road; this gate opens up by itself, to let the bus through.	The bus goes on a bit, along a road lined with very "putting-green" green short grass. The whole scene looks like an English meadow, on a "best day of the summer"! The sky even seems more vivid then before. Everything looks like "the just after a cool refreshing rain, after a hot day!" I see a large, but low-slung building in the distance; the bus stops in front of it and we all are herded out onto the parking lot.	We are greeted, by some person. I recall someone taking me by the arm and directing me into the building and to a room--my room-to-be!--my room for the stay. I am then told "the rules." This place is called "THE YOUNGER CENTER." →
One grows physically, bodily younger here. I must have given my guide a startled look. He repeats that people, as they take full advantage of all the wonderful SOUL-GROWING programs here they grow younger in age! And in fact I am told that this center is where one fills out all those dimly awakened dreams-of-creative-longings for growth, but-were-not-done while one was still living upon earth (like a remedial school class for the classes missed).	I then followed my subject around this very large building. A man came up to me, saying that he was in his 80'swhen he died. But now he looked in his 30's! I could see that there were much activity, going on about me. Soon, I met with Counselors who showed me the great number of things to do, here. People here, searched out, in their lives-on-earth-before-they-died, each and every "seed" of some creative act or expression that they never got around to develop and grow into manifestation.	Thus I did some directed introspection of my life and found numerous places in it where I never got around to actually live out something--something of the soul--too busy, or too too wrapped up in what most "practical" people call "living"! I went to many classes. I cannot remember them, but they all helped to "flesh out" my Soul.	The very most important thing that I saw in this learning was the seeds of creativity had to be planted in the heart, whilst one was still on earth. Everything that one became INTERESTED IN, is such a seed while one is still living on earth! Thus I saw that I could have, while still living back there, followed up my every little idea and interests, upon anything which touched my Soul.	At least many things did touch my Soul, even if I did not have the time or the inclination to nurture and grow these seeds of Soul-creativity! But here at this "YOUNGER CENTER" (as they called it here) it is NOT TOO LATE! →
In fact they tell me here that I MUST sprout all these creativity-seeds before I can progress onward, into the further, higher, heavens. I took many many classes: poetry, art, ceramics, I remember not what, and I could actually SEE my face and body grow PHYSICALLY younger! My old-man-face grew to look 50. Then 40. Then even in my 20's! I was now feeling and looking like I was in my late 20's! (Maybe that is why creative old people look young for their years here on earth!)	One day the instructors took me on a "field trip." I was taken out into the parking lot and myself and several others got into a "golf cart." The driver took it off down the road, back toward the gate that the bus came originally through, but this cart suddenly took to the air--flying, six feet of the ground! And the gate opened by itself, and we went through. I could see a SEA of clouds, like as if I were on top of a high mountain cliff; the valley filled with clouds.	We flew down into the clouds. Soon the cart emerged from out of the bottom of the clouds much like a plane would fly down through a thin layer of clouds descending to earth, as we now were descending. However the sky was black with night when the cart emerged from the cloud underside! It was night time and way down below us I could see a rain-swept road. There was a accident I could see the wrecked cars, the red lights of police and ambulances.	The cart pulled right up to this messy scene. No one there apparently, could see us . I could see a sheet-draped body, lying on the ground--someone was killed in this accident. BUT beside the sheet there was a young lady standing. she stood there in a very dazed state. She was the soul-body of the killed girl under the sheet!	I even saw that this cart, and even ME, moved right through the police car, fire trucks, and crews as if they were GHOSTS, but the GIRL was as solid as the cart! →
We picked her up and put her into the back of it and we flew back up into the black cloud rain sky only to shortly emerge back into the very bright blue sky of heaven, and yes, back through the automatic gate, back to the parking lot where some attendants carried her inside. Yet another soul fetched to HEAVEN! She was brought to the Center much like I was; except by a different means. I recall other visions of these heavens, over the years.	I have seen/been shown a vast center of HEALING, of healing of the very soul, of incoming new arrivers who, on earth, could not live a spirit-filled life and thus DAMAGED their souls. From the roof of this healing center I saw a huge temple. They told me it is the (a) "temple of prayer" where prayers from earth are read by the angels and angelic spirits to be sent on to God.	NO PRAYER FALLS BETWEEN THE CRACKS AND GETS LOST OR IGNORED! A vast mile-sized building called, they told me, "The Veteran's reuniting Center" (I think) where the people who just arrived after dying can find and meet their relatives/friends, who died before them. But this building could also be a center for veteran's of earth's wars! I saw a whole group of spirits progress onto a higher heaven.	I saw a "town" constructed by Spirit, just to receive the new arrived dead so they could be made comfortable. Now very shortly after, someone came to my room to tell me that I and several others were now GRADUATES of this lower heavenly world and that the new assignment is now given to us to progress onward, the next level, of heaven (like "the next level of development).	A man came up to us and took us into the front yard. I could see he had all kinds of papers and forms! We are to be posted and sent to "BHRARTA LAND"!! (I recall that this is the name for the spiritual "lands-of-heaven" that is of ancient INDIA!--this is the heaven of India.). →
We are led to a place in front of a small hill, under a flawless blue sky. Other helpers gathered near this hill and began to sing some HYMNS! Nothing occurred, just the hymns, and the PEACEFUL countryside, the helpers, and maybe 3 or 5 of us-who-are-to-go. ALL OF A SUDDEN a small pinprick of light flashed just at the top, 6 feet above the top of the ten foot hill. This point began to grow--much like a TV set turned off, BUT IN REVERSE!	Soon the ball of light was several feet in diameter, and it grew into a BRIGHT-LIT CLOUD lit up from within, and then this cloud resolved into a ten-foot diameter wide, opening, in a SOMEWHERE! (a hole in space, this is a hole into a higher dimension!) Out of this door came several attendants--leaders and helpers.	These helpers I found to be shocking for they were dressed in very ancient garb so radically different from anything of this time and age that I can see, that in NO WAY could have I got this dream from material present in my own subconscious memory. This door looked to open into a very long tunnel of light, a corridor to India-land, a tunnel, like in the "2001" movie!	This amazing dream ended as I was pushed into this tunnel and pushed so that I was moving at a very high speed. BUT I could see, on my right, a forest of trees! I flew passed them. I tried to make sure that I did not touch even a single leaf! (I learned later that this forest is one's "FOREST OF MEMORY"	Each tree, each leaf even, is a PERSONAL memory-of-earth, a memory that HAS to be let go of in order for one to go on to the next higher realm of heaven. By this I mean "detach," not "forget"!) At that point the vision ended. →
I flew off at high speed to India-land, but there was a hint given me at the very last moment of the vision-awareness, that the "Younger Center" and the tunnel to India-land were CREATED and maintained by some VERY high spirits from the CELESTIAL level of the heavens, the GOD realms where LOVE is the way, and where ALL the progressive "heaven-ladders-to-ascend-to-higher-beingness are created and operated.	I actually SENSED a presence of a GREAT SPIRIT FORM over the top of this whole tunnel, directing it. I gather from this that all of the lower heavens are created and maintained by high spirits and Angels and Emissaries of the Lord himself--by INFERENCE our lives here on earth are likewise SUPPORTED and upheld by Guides--Angels--and other God-enfranchised beings.	The human race and YOU, READER OF THIS VISION, are in Very Good Hands!!!! 28f/Freestone
She very nonchalantly told me about her viewing her surgery room, her body, the number of people, watching them roll in a monitor, seeing them try and jumpstart her heart, watching two doctors switch places, and describing the operating room IN DETAIL which she never saw. During her coma, she also saw her body while sitting in a "chair" with a long tunnel above her. Needless to say, she didn't go in. She does not know why. 29/Friend
An unusual NDE occurred during my routine visit to a dentist some years ago. I was at that time a young married woman with school age children. The health professional in question used drugs and hypnosis unethically as a means to induce bizarre traumatic hypnotic scenarios which preceded a `clinical death' and subsequent experience of being deliberately sent to "hell" in an afterlife. This terrible "too real" aspect of the NDE ceased when I invoked the name of God as an appeal for help.	The classic NDE experience of rushing through a tunnel and moving towards a bright light surrounding an approaching "being" who urged me to return to my life and family since it was not my time to die, seemed to follow my deliverance from "hell." A conversation with the being of light was soothing, and enlightening, then forgotten.	Though prolonged amnesia blotted out the NDE and entire hypnotic experience for months, horrific memories returned along with temporarily increased psychic sensitivity. Also recurring mediumistic phenomena, experience of strange energies, dream interference, and a new tendency to allergies all combined to plague me for several years.	All told, the aftermath of the NDE and hypnosis proved disturbing to my peace of mind, seriously disrupting family life and relationships with others over the long term. 30f/Genevieve
My first awareness was a view of my body as a field of twinkling lights. I noticed that each nerve would flash brightly and then be seen no more. Soon, my body looked very sparsely defined. I felt at that time that I might be dying. Not much later, my hands and feet were gone altogether and my midsection was getting sparse. The feeling was very peaceful. More peaceful than I had ever known. I seemed to be shrinking to a ball shape centered near my throat. Would I lose consciousness as the ball of active nerves shrank past the boundaries of my cranial cavity?	As I pondered the idea, I fell through the surface of the operating table. "Oh no!" I thought. "If I re-materialize here, I'll be trapped in the mechanism. I have to get out of here!" With that thought, I felt motion, a sensation of immense speed. Before me was a field of bright points of light rushing by. As each point passed by, it reddened and went out. I quickly figured the speed required to make that happen--the speed of light. I was perceiving the matter passing by as light.	I spun about to look for it, but all was still darkness. I returned to my musings. Strange how logical I could be. I could determine if any proposition were correct or incorrect, or that I needed more information before it could be decided. I was absorbed in thought when a faint glimmer of light came again. It was gone as quickly as it came. I strained to see. No, it wasn't there. Perhaps it was a product of wishful thinking.	I had willed to stop most forcefully, and it became so. Maybe all it took was more will to move. I tried to summon more will. Then came another brief burst of dim light. Perhaps there was something out here after all. My eyes must be adjusting to darkness. While waiting for more light to appear, I returned to my musings. Soon there was another glimmer of light and it was noticeably stronger than before.	But very short-lived. I had hope. That was good, since I had lost track of which way was "back." The dim light became brighter and more steady. It seemed very distant. I wondered how I might go in that direction. Will seemed ineffective. I tried swimming motions, but that didn't work either. →
The light was getting stronger. I wondered how might I get its attention ... if it had any attention to be gotten. It seemed to be moving slightly. Maybe even coming my way? I watched and waited. Closer it came. Again I wondered about attracting its attention. Did I want its attention? Yes. It was the only other thing present in the darkness. It was coming my way and would probably pass near. I could observe it.	Would it see me? I couldn't see me, so not much cause to think it would either. Nearer it came, and brighter. In its light I could dimly see myself. Closer and brighter it came. It was headed right for me. I tried to get out of its way, but nothing changed. The light grew very bright and I tried to look away. A strange light, it shone into my eyes no matter which way I looked. I turned to face the oncoming light.	Now it was so bright that I feared its intensity. I raised my arm to shield my eyes. The light passed right through my arm, more intense than ever. "Stop!", I thought. "STOP, I'LL BE INJURED!" And the light replied, "I will not harm you." These were not words but thoughts which passed between us. Still closer and brighter the light came. I strained to detect its surface but could not. It was about the size of a beach ball, with no discernible surface.	I asked, "Who or What are you?" It replied, "That's not important right now. You are not where it is expected to find anyone." I gave my name and insisted upon reciprocity as a courtesy. And was rebuffed again. The being of light--I lack a better description--began to look through my life. It simply shone into me and scenes from my life projected around me as if I were seeing them again.	A lot like looking at a hologram, but full color 3D with sound and scent. We flitted from scene to scene. Sometimes on fast-forward, sometimes pausing to note some major or minor detail. When we paused at the first deed of which I was ashamed, I started to make an excuse. To no avail. My motives were as visible as my actions. →
On went the movie. I must be dead, I thought. People say your life flashes before your eyes when that happens. I was snapped back to the task at hand -- the life review. It was judgment to be sure, but more like fact-finding than fault-finding. The only condemnation was me regretting some of my mistakes. Then the movie stopped abruptly. The end of my life had been reached. The being of light was surprised and I felt it.	There was something missing. The being of light said, "Come with me. We have to find out what went wrong." "But I can't make myself move," I complained. "I can handle that. Come," said the being of light. With no movement at all, we were now at a large library. The one who had been doing my life review was no longer a ball of light but now a hooded and robed figure. And still inscrutable.	"Look what I found out there," it said to the library staff. One of the clerks went to large bead rack much like an abacus and began calculating. One clerk wore a short robe with a classic Greek pattern decorating the lower edge. His robe had a hood, as did the robes of all the others. I concluded that his hood was not for warmth and asked my guide. The guide confirmed my observation, the hoods were not for warmth.	When I pushed to know the purpose of the hoods I was informed that I would know when it was time to have that information. I sensed that my guide disapproved of the non-traditional attire, but had no cause to criticize as the work done by that individual was always excellent. Another clerk observed the placement of the beads on the top row and thought, "Oh, no! The Old section."	That was clay tablets to be moved and sorted through. A moment later, two of the beads in the top row were moved again. It would be in the section written on hides stretched over wooden frames. Much easier to sort through. When the calculation finished, we set off through the stacks counting rows as we went. →
I observed stacked sheets of papyrus, then scrolls. Then came rows with stacked wooden frames. We passed these quickly and came to a row with hides stretched over sticks. A clerk was now counting bays, then shelves, then hides. One hide was selected and pulled from the stack. Another clerk carefully counted the entries until he found the right one. The writing was like none I'd seen before. It reminded me a bit of hebrew and runic writing.	I couldn't read it. But I could read the mind of my guide! Hah! Blocked. I tried to read it through one of the clerks. Frustrated again. I tried to memorize the shapes of the letters but was frustrated there as well. My guide informed me that I wasn't supposed to know what the entry said. I asked what was I allowed to know? I was informed that the entry described my life. It was hardly larger than a business card. "	That's all my life is?" I wanted to know. "Much more than that," I was told. "How so?" I asked. "People always do the best they can with the materials and information at hand. If an individual's resources are known, then the resulting choices can be anticipated." "So much for choice; everything is pre-determined," I thought. "Not so," my guide said. "Almost all of your choices are free.	It is the drive to do well which limits what you will choose. And it makes you predictable." "What, then, does the writing on the hide represent?," I asked. "A major choice which is not pre-determined by your resources." "What sort of choice is it?" "Knowledge of the choice would affect your decision."	"Then I'd get it right, so tell me." "That would interfere with your free will." Round we went. Free will was something they would apparently bend Heaven and Earth to protect. The decision I was to make must be my own free choice. "Will I know it is the one, once I've made it?" →
"Perhaps." I noticed that this was nothing like I had been taught in Sunday School. I wondered if they really didn't know. Certainly, they had done nothing to prepare me for this experience. Then they got into a hushed discussion of what to do about me. I caught snippets of the conversation.	- He has to reach a certain level of maturity in order to make the decision correctly. - If they put me into another body, it would be hard to get the right sort of parents. - Then, arranging the life experiences which would lead up to the decision would be very difficult to do in the remaining time. -	How about putting him back where he came from? - His body is badly damaged. - Can we fix it? - Yes, but we'll have to change his life's affliction. - But, they cure that in his time! - Yes, but not before it has done its job.	My next recollection was of feeling VERY sick. I thought I was still dying. Actually, I was beginning to recover. Ether can give one a truly vile hangover. 31f/Hal
I lost consciousness. Somehow the inner me became aware. The outer me was just a lump. I heard a distant sound and decided that it was a faint heart beat. Another one came, weaker and slower, then another, softer yet. Then I decided that they were my heart beats and they were about to stop altogether. I checked breathing and it had stopped. Note that I noticed these things. That's all, I just noticed them. I was dieing and really didn't care, was not afraid, and just sort of wondered what was next.	Next was the tunnel. It was a black tunnel through a blacker sky littered with stars off in the distance. The tunnel turned and twisted like a waterslide and we went for a long time. After a time, I just kind of plopped out at the other end with two really washed out watercolor images of me. Then I saw it. I had seen the luminescence (if you are going to bitch about spelling I will stop right now, alright then!) before I plopped out but now I really saw it.	The light was blue-white in color. It seemed to fluoresce rather than radiate, except from the bottom. I know you don't know the bottom of what, well the what is a doughnut. The top and bottom surfaces are mostly flat and the inside hole and outside surface are slanted wider at the bottom than the top. It has no real boundaries and is filled with souls, energy seeds, entities or any other pronoun you want to represent all the people who ever lived.	They were in the light that was the doughnut. GOD made the light not because he MADE it but he is IT! Think about a torus (doughnut), cut it and uncurl it and you have a cylinder. Suppose it is hollow. Slice it once end to end, flatten it out and you have a rectangle. Consider that each corner of the rectangle is exactly the same spot in space. (you may have to remember that when you put it back together it is a torus again to get that).	Now all the people from all time were in the torus and they all knew what every other one knew all at the same time. If one had a thought all had a thought. And believe me they thought a lot--all of them. True thoughts, good thoughts. I don't want to do it here but ... there was no evil there, therefore no good, but all was good. →
Just pretend it makes sense. I could see, taste, feel, hear, know that there was a purpose, that there is eternity, that you never get bored, and that after you really enter the light you NEVER come back. Never found out what the purpose was. I was near it. I could feel GOD. I was drawn to it. I wanted it.	A person or St. Peter-like thing said I couldn't go into the light until I decided if I wanted to stay. Bummer. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions and rest awhile. There was the most wondrous peace, the deepest unity, and the greatest serenity anyone ever knew just a few steps away and I could not go there until I decided.	The two really washed out watercolor images of me began to argue to stay or go back to earth. Hold in mind that some can never stay, some can't go back, and some like me have to choose. Well as you see I came back. "Why," you ask?	Well, one of the images of me, the one on the left, showed me some of the wonders that could be had on earth alive, like sex and key lime pie, and PROMISED that if I went back I would be guaranteed another chance to die...so get the D ticket ride and the E ticket for the price of one. I came back...today I don't know why I did not stay.	I do know that I cannot do anything to force myself to die or I may not get back to where I want to go. Since then, I have been in a car wreck that totaled a Chevy Bel Air with three end-over-end flips. I had a diving accident that fractured my first cervical vertebra and several other, strange things, and I am still here. →
I don't know why. Where is the enlightenment, the great deed to do, the great love? I just want to go back and give up all this crap with computers, credit cards, garbage dumps and all the shit. But guess what! You aint getting off this rock one second before GOD says you can go. 32f/Irate
I would like to relate my near death experience to you. To my knowledge I was not near death, in the classical sense, when this experience occurred. Instead it was a direct encounter with the light. A light beyond imagination. It happened this way. ... I don't know if the Revelation or the LIGHT hit me first. Perhaps it happened simultaneously. The Revelation was that this was real. This God thing was more real than all human perception rolled into one.	I had been an agnostic before this time but the revelatory answer to the age old question 'Is God Real?' was no longer debatable in my mind. I knew that I knew that I knew. At the same moment the room lit up with a light that was beyond belief. It was a light so bright that I should have been blinded. A light so warm and soothing that I thought I was in some kind of a dream state. My body felt weightless as if I were floating over the chair.	There was an immense feeling of love and peace that radiated from it and I never wanted to return to my previous state. I just wanted to stay in that light suspended for eternity. I felt young and old at the same time. I felt like the secrets of the universe had been unlocked for me and that everything was and always will be in order.	I knew that I was totally immersed in the universal force and that force was pure love. Not like we humans experience love but a love that cannot be put in words. Language cannot convey what I experienced and I feel impotent in even attempting to describe my experience with the light.	I am 55 years old and this experience happened in 1954. I have never forgotten that light; although the universal wisdom I gained in the light vanished when the light left. 33f/Jerry
I was injured quite badly and did not attempt to move. I was in no pain. The stars looked like heaven and at some point I thought I will not live. I knew I was going to meet God. It was just a matter of time before I die as I lay there and then I had a vision. It was like a ghost leaving my body through my eyes. It had the appearance of a cloud or vapor and was white and transparent. It had the images of people I had loved in my life from my earliest years up to the present time.	These were pictures of peoples faces. It was as if on 35mm film with one frame after another appearing in order from my youngest years to the present with the faces of people I had loved. I had a feeling of tremendous peace. Never had I felt peace like this before this time or since.	It is difficult to describe this kind of peace except to say that it was rapturous. ... A rescue team came and took me to the hospital. 34f/Jim
John Beals gave this remarkable account to a Friend shortly before his death in 1796. Recovering from a fit of sickness, a weak John Beals desired that his family retire for the evening sooner than was usual. The door to his room suddenly opened and a person, clothed in white raiment, drew to his bedside and bade him to arise and follow him. They went out of the room together and ascended up through the air.	John was brought to Heaven by his Guide and was placed before the Great Being who was seated on a bright throne of glory. The Divine Being looked upon him and asked how he came to be there. He replied that a person in white raiment had come to him and brought him to this glorious place. The Divine Being told the Guide to take John and show him the glory of the Saints.	What John saw caused his heart to be overcome with joy and he desired to remain there forever. He was informed that he must go back again to the world and remain for two and a half days. If he spent his time in faithfulness, he should return and have his inheritance among the Saints forever.	John then asked the Guide to take him where he might have a fragrant smell. He was taken to a place where a door opened and released the most delightful odor he had ever experienced. He was soon filled with the odor and then was brought back by his Guide to his chamber and the bed where he lay.	The fragrant smell remained in his nostrils for many days. He recovered very quickly from his sickness and believed that what he had seen would soon be fulfilled. 35f/John Beals
I could see myself lying on the bed. There was somebody beside me, but I couldn't see a face. I wasn't frightened of him. I saw the doctor who was stitching my head turn to the other doctor, say something, then I saw him put his hand in his top pocket. Then I was in another room, with the person still beside me. We were facing a door that was open where inside was a man, he turned towards me and I could see two small round red indentations either side of his head just above the temples.	"I know you are the devil, get your horns on and leave the human race alone," I said. He just turned away. Then I was in a most beautiful yellow light with a (fizz) haze around it. I went along to the end of the haze where there was a thing like an archway. Through this I could see a beautiful garden with flowers curving off to the left. I didn't go through the archway, I just looked through to the left by the flowers.	There was a man standing there who had a white garment that resembled a monk's habit without the hood. I knew him, but I didn't know him. In his left hand he had what looked like a lead with something on the end. I looked more to the left and saw a group of shadow people who were stood very tidily. It seemed that I knew them and I wasn't frightened of them.	The whole scene was very peaceful One of the group started towards me, as he did, the man in white turned and walked up to me. His lips moved but he didn't speak. I heard words in my head saying, "You can't come in, you have to go back, there is someone calling you."	I found myself back in the yellow light and there was one of the shadow people with me giving me a message, I couldn't understand the words, although I know I have to do something when I got back, but I don't yet know what it is. →
I don't remember waking up, But the next moment I was sitting on the front seat of a covered wagon, without the cover. I had the reins in my hand's and I was rushing as though my life depended on it. I turned round to see in the back and saw two children sitting there, they didn't seem to be afraid, so I think I must have been rushing to, not away from something.	We were all dressed in long dresses and had we bonnets on. We passed a hill on the left of us and the whole place looked like the American prairie with nobody anywhere in sight. Then there was nothing. 36f/Joyce
All of a sudden I felt all the energy had been drained from my body. I was out of my body and looking at it from the ceiling. I looked at my body for a moment and thought: "I look so small in that bed." The next moment I was "sitting" at the foot of by bed. My grandmother, who had passed away several years before, was there to greet me. She looked beautiful and there was a light all around her, and also a light all around me.	Also, I saw revolving colors that were unlike any that I have ever seen on earth. I asked her: "Am I dead?" She said: "It is not your time, you must go back!" I argued with her and said that I did not want to go back. Then, from a distance, I saw a beautiful and very bright light. I was drawn to it. In this light, I could hear a voice: "You must go back, it is not yet your time.	You will recover--you have much work to do." As I protested that I did not want to go back, I shot back into my body faster than the speed of light. After I was back in my body, the pain returned, yet I knew that I would recover and was not afraid. KJ 37f/Karen
I closed my eyes and after a short while, I started to feel warm and a distant light appeared in my mind's eye. This light got slowly bigger and stronger and I began to feel really warm, almost hot. As the light advanced, I let it engulf me with its radiance and felt the feeling of upliftment. I felt no fear, pain or cold. It was very nice, safe and beautiful. At the split second that I was about to enter the white light, something inside me opened my eyes and shouted, "NO! not yet! You have things to do."	A few moments after the light had gone, a rescue helicopter with search light spotted and focused on me. A small dinghy with a father and son was nearby and urged me to keep shouting so they could pinpoint me. This they did. 38f/Kevin
The next thing I knew, I was Awake...Awake for the first time I ever remembered! Not dreaming! This world is a dream in comparison to where I was. I call it Heaven. First let me say that words cannot convey this experience because words are mere symbols of thoughts which are symbols of awareness. I noticed many things all at once: my awareness was superhuman...I seemed to know everything. It was all there in "front" of me...truth, knowledge, awareness--everything. I didn't have to work at it--it was just there.	I knew/experienced that there was nothing but Love. I was "in" Love. It was so intense that there was no room for any lesser thoughts, any non-thoughts. And I knew that Love and Peace and Joy and Truth and many other things are exactly the same thing and dwelt in the same place. And this was the place! I became aware that this place included ALL the dimensions. Unlimited, unnumbered.	Before this experience, I didn't have a clue as to the concept of dimensions. I had read about them in science fiction stories, but I always visualized alternate dimensions as different places that were a lot like out dimension, but had different things going on. But this experience of dimensions was more like this: if this world were two-dimensional then we would be living on a flat surface.	Pretend we are looking at this world in a drawing on a piece of paper. Then think about the person who is in the third dimension--like this world--who is looking at the paper drawing. Looking at this world was kind of like looking at a drawing on a piece of paper--only much more so, because instead of being three dimensions or four or five or any number, it was ALL dimensions. A place where numbers are meaningless.	The ultimate awareness of being in this place was that I was at that very moment right inside of God. God was "holding" me with all the Love there is. And God was in me, in every "pore" of my being. And God was a BEING, not just a concept or a principle or an accumulation or things or anything without consciousness.→
God was the ultimate consciousness, and "He" was completely aware of my presence. The way I was being held, I knew I was God's Creation, and just like Him. I use the word "Him" because it's familiar and it implies consciousness, but God was in no way a gender--we were way beyond the material realm here.	The closest description I can come up with in words and visualizations is that I was immersed in God, much as a drop of water is immersed in the ocean. But even that doesn't do justice to this experience, because I think of a drop of water as something seperate from the rest of the water, but cohabiting with it. And I was not separate from God in any way--God was in every "part" of me. I just wanted to stay there forever and ever and ever.	But that was not to be. Still, there was something else I needed to see. I was inside of God, and I just wanted to stay there forever and ever and ever. Then God said, "Do you want to see something more beautiful than anything else?" (I'm paraphrasing here. God didn't talk or use words, actually I just knew what he wanted me to know, so I call it talking for lack of better words.)	I knew that, to God, what He was going to show me was the most beautiful of all--His Treasure. Of course I said, "Yes!" Then we went to a "place." Before that, we were not really in a place, we were just "in" each other. There was nothing else, and yet everything was there. But now we went to a distinct place. I knew we were still in the realm of all-dimension, and yet we were "seeing" things. But we weren't using eyes to see, it was Vision.	There were many things there. But finally God brought my attention to an altar or stage of some sort. It reminded me of one of those platforms a doll would stand on and a glass jar would cover. It was surrounded by Light--Real Light, not physical light, Light that was all-dimensional, not limited like something in the physical realm. →
And the Light formed a oblong like a glass jar would over a doll stand. I knew that this was where God wanted me to look, that this was His Treasure. And then it began. I saw person after person. God showed me people through a higher perspective than I have ever known possible. I saw them, one after another, just as they appeared "down below" on earth--or at a place of lower awareness--with their egos, their life roles, their bodies, their beliefs, their convictions, their awareness.	I saw people that I would have been repulsed by or impressed by when looking at them from a lower awareness. But in that higher view I actually saw that they were made out of The Light. It wasn't physical light, which is limited to the physical dimensions, but Real Light, multidimensional, spiritual. The thought "spiritual" takes on a new meaning under that view; it's not a religious thing or a worship thing, it's more like clarity or Reality. I understood that we were in a place of unlimited dimensions, but more than that.	I saw that God was telling me that we are always in that place, we are always in Heaven, we are always in The Light. A place where we are made out of The Light, where we ARE The Light. And it didn't matter what role or body or belief system or job or intensions the person thought he had, what high state of office or power or prestige or what lowly state of poverty or self-reproach or ignorance or depravity the person was living in--The Light was the same for everyone.	And something else. Each person was sooooo lovely, so startlingly beautiful, that their egos, bodies, and roles were also beautiful. There was nothing that could change the reality of what they were--The Light. This was truly a most beautiful sight. Then I felt something pulling at me. I felt myself leaving this place.	"No! No! I don't want to go," I said. I was surprised. I had no idea that I was going to have to leave, and I didn't want to go. But God had other plans for me. 39f/Laurie
I was 3 yrs old. at the time. I remember being very, very cold and shaking. My body and mostly my head and legs felt on fire. Inside. I was trying to not feel anything. I remember thinking so hard in my head to make it go away and then all of a sudden I was warm. I opened my eyes and I was sitting on a shelf or something in the hospital room where I was. I saw a little girl in the bed. She was so still and frozen. SHE WAS IN A BED OF ICE.	My mother and father were standing above her and a man in a long jacket. A doctor? I listened to my mother and father talking to the doctor they were talking about my little brother Russell. My mother was upset because my brother was going to have to "learn to walk again." When I heard my mother say those words I got angry. It occurred to me at that moment that the little girl was me.	I got angry because I (the I in the bed) was so very cold and so still and needing help, and my mother was not helping me, and my father wasn't helping me, and they all seemed to not care that I was so very cold. As soon as I got angry I was back in the bed of ice and I screamed. It was then that my parents and the doctor turned their attention to me (the me in the bed that is).	It was many years later that I was old enough to put into words what had happened to me in the hospital. I remembered the feeling of being warm and looking down at myself in the bed. I was only 3 at the time and doubt that I could have imagined what things would look like from that angle.	Nor do I think I could have known that I was in danger of dying or have a concept about "learning to walk" again. 40f/Little Girl
It happened during the short 2.5 mile ride to the hospital. First, I remember looking around I could not hear the siren any more. My wife was sitting in the passenger side of the ambulance and the paramedics were working over me. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was watching this. I do not recall seeing me, not at first. Suddenly I am looking up at the roof of the ambulance and to my right is the wall. I see coming towards me a vision and I knew it was not real.	It was my wife wearing a blouse she once wore when we first met. Her hair is in the style she wore when we first met. All I see is from the top of her head to just below her shoulders. She moves down and kisses me on the cheek. Then the vision is gone. I recall very vividly looking towards the passenger seat. There is my wife; and then again I am out of my body looking at the paramedics who do not seem to be doing anything.	I see myself and it is blurry. Then I am back in my body, and at my feet is my younger brother who had died years before of cancer at the age of thirty. He is shaking his head as if to say, "No, no it is not your time." What I saw I knew was not a vision. I believe I saw the vision first to show me the difference. On my brother's shoulder is a bird. I look closer and it is my bird Doolittle the parakeet.	I recall not being able to take my eyes off of Doolittle and I want to ask someone why Doolittle is on my brother's shoulder. I suddenly feel a great sense of peace, of just pure peace, and I know I am not going to die. I actually hear the paramedic closest to me say, "He's back." 41f/Lloyd
The prayer was beautiful but during the prayer I felt the presence of an embodiment of love and light. It didn't seem like so much I felt it but rather I saw it spiritually. I felt my spiritual eyes had been opened. My encounter with this divine presence didn't last long but it made such a impression on me that I was filled with tears of joy and asked everybody else if they had experienced this. My chaplain comforted me and assured it was real although nobody could confirm it. 42f/Ray
I was in bed asleep. Suddenly I had the sensation of floating up through darkness to a bright light. When I reached the light I floated into a room that was large and sandstone colored. The windows were big open archways through which the bright light entered. Across the room, in front of one of the windows, three men stood. Two had their backs to me and the third was facing me. They were deep in conversation. I began to slowly float towards them.	As I was approaching them I heard voices over my left shoulder. They were saying terrible things about me and making fun of me. When I looked back there were three little dark-haired women in a bubble, and they were tumbling over each other and just laughing and chattering away. Before I could completely turn my head to them I reached the three men.	They were wearing robes of some sort, and the one facing me had no face. There was a bright light emanating from where his face should have been. As I neared the men the one facing me reached out and placed his hand on my left forearm and spoke to me, saying, "Don't pay any attention to them. Everything is fine, you are with me now."	I turned back to these men and my heart became so full of love and warmth and joy that words can't begin to describe how good I felt. Then I began floating back away from them, back to where I entered the room. I had the sensation of floating down into the darkness again, back to my body.	I didn't want to leave there because as I came back I was losing the feelings of love and joy in my heart. It actually felt like my heart was going to burst from the joy of it all. As I experienced the feeling of re-entering my body I woke up. 43f/Susan
I laid down on the couch. I was only there for a short period when I found myself walking down a long hallway which seemed never-ending. On either side of this in-ornate hallway were identical doors spaced about every five feet apart. I slowed as I arrived at what I KNEW was my door off to the left--even though it appeared indistinguishable from all the rest. The door opened and behind it was an average sized room that was lit the same as the hall.	I began to enter the room knowing this is where I should go. But, as I got in the doorway, I was gripped by the sense that I would never see my brother or other family members ever again. At that point, the light went dark in the hall, while the light in the room was now coming from around a corner--strange, since the room elbowed back into where the long hall should have been.	I did not want to go any further! I tried with all my might to resist what lured me helplessly further into the room. MY GOD...I did not want to see what was around that corner. Just as I knew that the door was mine, I screeched with the fear of meeting the being in the light.	I tried to no avail, then being a swearing boy that I was, I screamed JESUS--only this time it was out of sheer desperation and utter hopelessness.	Almost instantly I found myself back on the couch, in the same position that I had initially laid. 44f/Michael
While in the hospital, I had a visitation. I believe with all my heart that it was an angel because this "visitor" correctly predicted that I would live. And, he predicted on which days my "case would take a strange twist"...which it did. Had the 'strange twist' not occurred, I would be dead today! I was as near to death as a person could be, yet I did not "die."	Does this visitation count as a NDE? Believe me when I tell you, there was almost no hope at all of my surviving, especially when my large colon literally 'blew up'! The angelic visitor told me some other things as well...one of which was to pray for myself...and the weirdest thing is this: I sense I was allowed to live for a specific reason.	Although now a shut-in, I am in contact with people from all over the world via computer! I feel my purpose is to give joy and hope to those who are suffering. 45f/Marie S.
I would like to know who I should contact to report/talk to someone about me 4 year old son's NDE. ... When he began to talk just about the first thing he talked about was The Light and his experience. He is always aware of tunnels, and if someone is sick he comforts them with the knowledge he has of the Light. He has had several surgeries and describes OBEs at all of them.	He says he goes into his head and then POPS out and flies around the room, etc. He can describe all of his open heart surgeries in unbelievable detail! He says sometimes he had to look away because it was like watching a nightmare. Well, anyway, that's the bulk of the stuff.	He also says a lady gave him The Gift in the Light. He is very psychic. The woman he describes is my Grandmother. 46f/Marie's Son
I have vague, very vague recollections of looking down on a body in a bed with tubes and machines, but I cannot honestly say that it was mine. I was, well, floating is not an adequate description, more like held up, contained, buoyed, sustained in a warm, dry, medium of some sort, suspended without pressure or any feeling of containment, just there. I felt safe, warm, calm, without pain or fogginess at all, completely aware. Then the "experience" began.	Suddenly dusk became full, blazing daylight, except with a brightness brighter than normally associated with daylight. Everything was bright as I was lifted (without any feeling or pressure) upwards to a high point (I assume, since I was unaware of standing on anything or for that matter aware of any "body" that I had.) I was pure intellect, absorbing information and knowledge through "sensors" or means that I have no concept of.	From this vantage point, I had to merely think of a place and time and I was there, experiencing everything about the place and time and people present. I have always, I don't know why, had a very strong "pull" toward Scotland. I have some Scottish ancestry, but no more so than English, Swedish, and Prussian, but I don't know why I have such a strong affinity for the land, its history, its culture, and the music.	(No sound in this world can stir the feelings that the sound of bagpipes arise in me!) Well, one of my first "trips" was to Scotland, on a high cliff overlooking a grey, crashing sea during a violent thunderstorm. I was there! I could feel the wind lashing at me and the driving force of the rain while I could see and hear the crashing of the thunder and the sea.	All I had done was have the merest fleeting thought of the land and I was there! As I've said, I have no idea why I have such a strong tie to that particular piece of space/time. I next thought of warm sunshine and I was in a place of bright warm light and comfort. →
I could discern nothing but a comforting brightness around me (such that "me" was. I still had no "body" that I remember, but had the "feeling" that I was an amorphous, glowing pure intellect... all sensors and no tangible gross physical body to drag me down or contain me. It was a truly wonderful feeling? state? being? Words just don't exist to describe this.)	This was very pleasant and comforting and went on for microseconds or billions of years, I have no idea since time just wasn't an operative construct and had no meaning or relevance to existence. I literally had the feeling that I was everywhere in the universe simultaneously. This brightness ceased and was replaced with a view of the earth rapidly receding "below" me.	I was still enveloped in a sense of warmth and comfort, but "moving" backwards at an ever increasing velocity; the view of the earth almost instantly gave way to an overall view of our solar system which as quickly gave way to a cluster of star systems that apparently was in one of the arms of our galaxy.	I was still absorbing all of this on so many different levels beyond merely what we think of as seeing as I raced outward. I could still sense the location of our planet even though at this distance that should have been impossible in the normal space/time continuum.	My overall feelings were of comfort, wonder, amazement, belonging, a sense of "rightness," and overlaying it all what I can only call an overwhelming love, although that word is woefully inadequate to describe those feelings. →
Still moving (backwards always for some reason) I suddenly just relaxed completely and allowed "myself" to dissolve (?) open up (?) merge (?) into the "oneness" that surrounded me. The explosion of emotion and (again words are almost useless) over- whelming "love" that I now felt made any previous feelings I had experienced even during this episode, however "long" it had/was/is going on, seem like nothing!	I cannot possibly put into words that any human language has that feeling. I was everything, I was nothing. I was everywhere, I was nowhere. I was everywhen, I wasn't. My intellect had expanded to contain every thing, time, place, and even being that was, is, or ever would be! I was unique yet I was the tiniest part of the whole.	I know this is sounding like gibberish. It even does to me at times when I read it on paper; but to have been it! Words don't exist to describe the joy and love and warmth. It truly is indescribable! And I was still accelerating outward, absorbing, observing, and becoming more!	Entire galaxies became the size of grains of sand. I saw immense galaxies colliding together. I saw "holes" in space that weren't holes at all, but were filled with something I couldn't comprehend even in my "enhanced" state--protogalaxies perhaps?	And there were so many galaxies to see and feel; but still I could sense where our planet was. I say sense because our tiny Milky Way galaxy had vanished; I could "feel" it there, but could no longer "see" it. →
And I kept going outward! I began to discern a curvature to the scene before me and realized that the universe was really a large sphere containing all the galaxies. It became more and more apparent as I moved (still backwards) into the "darkspace" beyond the sphere of galaxies. Still, the occasional galaxy whipped by as I continued moving outward. And then I "felt" a large something or presence behind me.	I seemed to slow slightly and hesitate, and then was through this barrier and looking down at the sphere that contained our universe. It seemed to be at once transparent and slightly opaque as if I were seeing the energy fields that contained it. The image of the electron shell of an atom seems to fit here.	I was still moving outward and could now make out around the shrinking curvature of our universe, other spheres which could only be other universes. These seemed to be arranged in some sort of order, a spherical shell of universes around a core that I could not see.	And beyond this shell, another, towards which I was now speeding. The overall impression I'm left with is of something like those little carved "spheres within spheres" of ivory that one used to see in import shops. I never made it to the next shell.	As I was moving outward to the next shell layer of universes, something started pulling at me and I was suddenly racing back forwards, inward toward our universe and then inside it. →
The other galaxies within our universe were gone and I had one last "sight" of our arm of the Milky Way galaxy and then I was back. Stunned, confused, sad, having a tremendous sense of loss, I guess at the loss of the knowledge and love and "oneness" that I had been. My NDE was over. 47f/Mark Horton
Highway Patrolman talking to me. He kept asking me my name and I thought I was answering him, but he couldn't hear me. Then I think I 'slept', for a while, until the paramedics came in. They stood close to me and were talking to me, and asking me questions, and I was answering them, but they could not hear me. They started to cut my clothing off, but I do remember that I could not feel this. I remember looking at my shoulder now in my chest from a weird perspective. As if my eyes were centered just above and to the left of my left ear.	As if I were looking over my own shoulder. This is where it gets weird. I remember concentrating very heavily on breathing. I wasn't getting oxygen, and could not breathe "enough." I remember looking at the paramedics eye to eye, and talking to them while looking at their face. The problem is that I knew that "I" was laying down, and they were standing and kneeling over me. As I realized this, I could still feel my body--I think.	Then I remember one breath in particular, I seemed to feel a "whoosh" as I exhaled, as if I were riding my own breath out of my body. I knew I had to look back, and I was not surprised to see my body lying on the sofa below me, in what seemed like about 10 ft. below. Then the color of the room or the air (??) seemed to look different, kind of fuzzy (purple fuzz).	The room seemed to distort in shape, as I seem to remember seeing the whole living room, the cop, the driver, the neighbor, and the paramedics and me, all far below, and getting farther. It seemed that as the scene below me faded, I must have been 40 feet above it. I seem to remember leaving the house (floated through the roof?) and a brief encounter with the blizzard, and then all sensation just vanished.	No sense of temperature, no sight, complete blank. I couldn't "feel" my limbs or flesh, and there was no sound now. I remember feeling as if a tremendous burden had been lifted from me, and remember a sense of another presence. →
There was something familiar about this "place," as if I had been there before, but more like I had returned from whence I came. Then there was an intense sense of well-being, a feeling like immersion in the emotions of love, surrounding from every point. And a sense of belonging, as in one in the same with some divine greatness which binds all matter in the universe. It is very difficult to try and describe the overwhelming feeling of this place.	It is vast. I can't find the words, but there is a message which seems to give me the impression that this place is always here, and is present in all things, and beings. This was the most tranquil and peaceful moment in all my life. Then the question, it was not a voice as such, but more a "thought" which was not mine. It seemed to ask many things at the same time, and I remember being quite overwhelmed.	But I know it asked also if I wanted to stay. I remember thinking about my mom, and parts of my life, and all in a flash, I was asking the "voice" if it would always be like this, and if I could return again, if I went back now. The answer was yes. I awoke. 48f/Mark J.
As soon as the car impacted us I entered another type or state of consciousness. I felt no pain, had no idea where or who I was. I felt a deep peace and the most beautiful aesthetic feeling that is hard to describe at all. There were no images, no sounds to be heard, no sensations at all. It was as if I had been knocked out but retained some type of awareness. Then I came to briefly ... . Then I was off again. During this time I saw a vision of a spiritual teacher whose books I was reading.	I was to meet him a couple of months later. Then I saw some lines converging on a center, kind of like an astrological wheel. I thought to myself or intuitively knew that if I projected myself through the center I would die. Then I came to again in the ambulance. 49f/Mark S.
I have no memory of the process of dying or leaving my body. I was moving head first through a dark maelstrom of what looked like black boiling clouds, feeling that I was being beckoned to the sides which frightened me. Ahead was a tiny dot of bright light which steadily grew and brightened as I drew nearer. I became aware that I must be dead and was concerned for Mum & Dad and my Sister, and somewhat upset with myself as I thought, "They will soon get over it," like it was in passing, just a fleeting thought as I rushed greedily forward towards this light. I arrived in an explosion of glorious light into a room with insubstantial walls.	I was standing before a man about in his 30's about 6 foot tall, reddish brown shoulder length hair, and an incredibly neat, short beard & mo. He wore a simple white robe. Light seemed to emanate from Him and I felt He had great age and wisdom. He welcomed me with great Love, tranquility, Peace (indescribable), no words. I felt, "I can sit at your feet forever and be content," which struck me as a strange thing to think/say/feel. I became fascinated by the fabric of His robe, trying to figure out how light could be woven!	He stood beside me and directed me to look to my left, where I was replaying my life's less complementary moments. I relived those moments and felt not only what I had done but also the hurt I had caused. Some of the things I would have never imagined could have caused pain. I was surprised that some things I may have worried about, like shoplifting a chocolate as a child, were not there whilst casual remarks which caused hurt unknown to me at the time were counted.	When I became burdened with guilt I was directed to other events which gave joy to others, although I felt unworthy it seemed the balance was in my favor. I received great Love. I was led further into the room which became a hall, and there coming towards me was my Grandfather. He looked younger than I remembered and was without his Hare lip or cleft pallet, but undoubtedly my grandfather.	We hugged, he spoke to me and welcomed me. I was moved to forgive him for dying when I was 14 and making me break my promise to become a Doctor and find a cure for his heart condition. Until that moment I had not realized I had been angry at him! →
Granddad told me that Grandma was coming soon and he was looking forward to her arrival. I enquired why she was coming soon as she had been traveling from her home in Manchester, to NZ, To Miami for continual summer for a number of years! Granddad told me she had Cancer of the Bowel and was coming soon, Granddad seemed to have no grasp of time when I pressed for how soon.	(Grandma was diagnosed 3 months later and died in August, I had upset my mother by telling her about it when I regained consciousness.) After Granddad and I had talked a while he took me further into the room which became a hall again. We approached a group of people whom I started to recognize.	The Person who first welcomed me came and placed his hand on my shoulder and turned me towards Him. He said, "You must return, you have a task to perform." I wanted to argue, I wanted to stay. I glanced back at Granddad and was propelled quickly towards the entrance, at the threshold all became blackness, nothing, no awareness.	After: I awoke from my coma slowly, over several days, half dreamed memories of familiar voices and glimpses of faces. 50f/Rene
I was no longer conscious. There was no tunnel, but one minute I was lying face down on my bed and the next I was in the sky! I don't recall actually leaving my body, but I knew I wasn't in it. I thought I was dreaming, and I kept wondering if I were dreaming, yet it was so real! There were big, puffy, white clouds surrounding me, and I caught glimpses of blue sky, and I'm still wondering, "What is happening to me"?	I was becoming very frightened because I could not understand, and then suddenly, there was singing all around me, voices, many, many, voices singing praises to God--the most beautiful music I'd ever heard! And then I joined in their song as if I knew that song always, and I really had never heard it before! I remember the joy and beauty of it all as if it happened yesterday!	I saw no one, and I didn't go anywhere else, I did not look down and see my body lying on the bed, but I did see part of a giant white wing, and then I knew! I became panic-stricken, and I began to fervently pray; I told the Being that I knew was there and had to be God, that I couldn't die, "Who would take care of my children"?!	And then a voice, not heard with my ears, but somehow within my head, said, "Don't be afraid, you will not die, you will live, and you will live to be with your children." Love, as I never experienced, and couldn't even imagine, was in that voice.	And then I was in my body, I did not experience the return, I was just--back!" 51f/Saundra
I could see another car coming toward me. I thought, "I'm going to die," and then I blacked out before hitting the street. I found myself waiting in front of something that I can only describe as a black curtain. I did not have any physical sensations, but I could think and communicate.	I wanted to go behind the curtain, but I had to wait for permission. There were three "people" behind the curtain and they seemed unsure about letting me in. I couldn't see what they looked like, just vague images behind the curtain. Then one of them told me, "It's not time yet, go back."	I felt a rushing sensation, then my consciousness changed from what I had just experienced to what I was used to. I heard a car door slam. The driver of the car that hit me got out and asked if I was alright. The oncoming car had stopped in time.	I felt a little shaky but otherwise was ok. I don't understand how I was able to hit the pavement without experiencing at least some scrapes or bruises, if not a lot worse. 52f/Tom
I had taken acid many times before and had never experienced leaving my body in this manner. I could clearly see myself sitting on the toilet for a short time, and then I rapidly "ascended" or expanded away from it. The term "expanded" is important to attempt to describe the feeling. It was as if I had been in a dark prison all my life, hobbled, and then suddenly released into the wide open sunlight. But even this is a woefully inadequate description.	As I ascended I began to "unfold." Time and space were attributes of the physical world that I left behind. There was no time or linearity where I was. Everything just was. There were no words. I was just "being." Primarily an emotional being. I was in ecstasy. I had escaped pain, work, loss, etc. I was free. Now as this occurred long ago, unfortunately some of the details have been obscured by time.	But I do remember being in the presence of a love like none I have ever known before or since. This love seemed to come from a group of beings. There seemed to be about 5 but I couldn't really be sure. All I knew was they were intelligent, they loved me, and they weren't human. They existed outside time, outside the physical world.	I felt a peace unlike any other, perhaps "The peace that passeth all understanding." It was indescribable unfortunately. The beings had no form, other than perhaps light. I felt like I was "home." This was where I had come from, this was where I belonged. At that point, all I wanted was to stay as I was forever.	I felt as if I was in the presence of God. There was some communication between us. The beings told me (but no words were used ) that they loved me. They also told me that it wasn't my time yet, that I would have to go back. →
And although this was the worst news that I could imagine, I remember being only mildly disappointed, which is outrageous if you think about it. They also told me that the reason I had to go back was that there was something that I was to be involved in that they wanted to happen, but I was not told what that was.	I was also told not to worry, that whatever happens, no matter what, is meant to happen. This has been a major source of confusion in my life. I know there was other communication but I'm unsure what it was, so rather than report something inaccurate, I'll just omit it.	As I was told I would have to come back, I began to recede back into my physical self. Someone else used the phrase "being poured into a funnel" and this is a very good description. I felt as if my formless self, which had no limits, no anything, was being "stuffed" back into my body.	My spirit was being hooked back into time and space and all the accompanying hobbles. 53f/Tommy
They worked on my body. It then occurred to me that I must be dead. Then I did the "Home again, home again! boogie." It was sublime. Got the old life review, checked on my adult daughters, went back to dissolve into the "Whatever." A voice like Roseanne Barr laughed heartily and slam I was back. 54f/Unknown
I awoke from a deep sleep with a feeling of fear and that something was watching me. The room was dark and out of the corner of the room appeared an Image of the Grim Reaper. The Image was blacker than the black of the room yet very clear, without a face or sound, just a feeling of total 'emptiness'.	The Image moved slowly across the room from one wall and then up through the ceiling it disappeared. I was not sick or on drugs and it scared me so bad that I couldn't fall back to sleep. For some reason I decided to take a drive in my car. It was about 2:00 a.m. and I got in my car and started driving to the exact spot of the accident.	It was as if I were magnetically drawn there. I got out of the car and stood there on the roadside just looking around with no reason why I was there or why death visited me in my bedroom. Understand that the crash site was not a normal place to stop a car and get out as it was on I-95 between exits.	I pulled the car to the left side of the road and stopped exactly were I hit the concrete pilling. The police found a phone book in my car with my parents' number. They told my parents that I would not live through the night and they should come immediately.	They lived 400 miles away. I was unconscious for 5 days before I woke up in the hospital. The five days seemed only like seconds to me. I was told I was not drinking or on drugs. →
In fact because of the swelling in my head due to the brain concussion I wasn't allowed any pain medication or other drugs. I remember floating above my body and seeing visions of my own funeral, my parents and girlfriend were all crying over my casket.	Then I was starting to leave the hospital room and ascend to another place. As if the walls of the hospital where fading away and this world was disappearing another world was simultaneously appearing to me. I felt no pain and noticed my body was not breathing or did it have a heart beat.	This was heaven for me because it felt good and loving. I wanted to stay there forever. Soon I was before an old man who reminded me of "Father Time." Anyway he had many books that were labeled by planets and by years. The old man looked down on me as he was very large.	Compared to my 5' 9" body he must have been 35'! He asked, "What is your name?" I told him my last name only and he opened up the Book called Earth. Another Book appeared from this one and he opened the years 1900-2000.	After gazing in the Book he looked down on me and said; "You must go back it's not your time." I remember the wonderfully beautiful feeling overcoming me and thought, "I don't want to go back." →
He must have heard my thoughts because he said to me, "You have something to do before you can come here." I asked, "What must I do?" as he said nothing and closed the Book. As soon as the Book closed I awoke in my body again in extreme pain. My chest was crushed from the accident as well as a brain concussion.	I was now back among the living but very confused. I do not fear death and know when we die we begin another life somewhere else. 55f/Underwood
I was laying on my back in the grass as the car pushed me down the hill. It felt like I was under a bulldozer. As I looked up, I saw the car as it was hovering above me, balanced on the back fender. I watched it as is fell upon me. An instant before the impact, I had a very lucid memory of a conversation between me and and my friend (who was riding with me) about convertibles. I had casually made the comment, "convertibles are nice, but if you rolled one, you'd be dead for sure!" Talk about irony.	As the car hit me, I heard a loud crunch, then everything changed instantly. It was like sitting in a movie theater watching a crash scene and then the film breaks. You suddenly realize that you are in a theater and the crash (and the associated stress, excitement, etc.) are just an illusion. There was no discontinuity of consciousness. My first thought was, "Well, I guess this is what it's like to be dead".	There was no fear or anxiety. I wondered what happened to my friend. Was he dead, too? I thought that I should look for him, but realized that I had no body. Actually, there was no physical reality whatsoever. Physical movement had no meaning. On the other hand, I knew that this new place had some type of dimension. I just didn't know what it was.	It seemed like I was in an area of "lesser concentration" surrounded an area of "greater concentration" located at a "distance." The "area of greater concentration" felt like it might be a "city" of some kind. I sensed that there were many entities there. I also had a feeling that I would also eventually go there as well.	I decided to wait for someone or something to make contact with me. I assumed that whoever or whatever entities existed in this new reality knew I had arrived. There was no worry whatsoever and I felt very comfortable just waiting. →
While I waited I become aware of how good I felt. I'd go so far as to say it was a feeling of peaceful bliss. That's an understatement, but it's hard to describe the actual feeling. It seemed that my efforts in life were like mowing the lawn on a very hot, very humid summer day. This place was like coming inside to air conditioning and drinking cold lemonade while sitting in big cushy chair.	I was thinking about these feelings when I felt something "move" near me. At that point, I realized the meaning of "movement" in this place. I was in an emotional space. The movement was the movement of emotions. I realize now that we all are aware of this type of movement and use related phrases in our everyday language.	For example, we say "I feel close to her", "He seems distant", or "We are drifting apart". Since my NDE, I realize that I exist in this "other place" at the same time as I exist in this physical space. This was true before the NDE as well, but I didn't realize it. (Yes, I know it sounds strange.) I recognized the "movement" as being the movement of an entity.	I "recognized" that this entity had been with me all my life. I don't know if it was what people call a guardian angel or if it was just another disassociated aspect of my psyche. However, I suddenly remembered that this entity had "spoken" to me many times earlier in my life.	I had always labeled the communication as "intuition". The "speaking" was clear, yet didn't really involve words (although I remember the conversation as words). →
The entity then asked me a series of questions. It asked, "Do you like where you are?" I said I thought it was fantastic -- I felt better than I ever had before. It then asked, "Do you want to stay here?" My first thought was that this was a silly question given my first answer, but I said, "Yeah, sure! I want to stay." The entity then "reminded" me that I had not fulfilled my purpose yet. Suddenly, I remembered events that had happened before I was conceived.	I had chosen to come to this physical existence for a particular reason. I wasn't supposed to know what that reason was until it was time to fulfill my purpose. I also knew that I could stay in this other place without fulfilling the purpose and it wouldn't be held against me. However, I felt it was better to go back ("to" Earth), fulfill my purpose, and then return.	As I had this thought, I started to have a spinning and falling sensation. It was like I was being poured through a funnel. As I spun, I slowly felt the sensation of weight and solidity. When the spinning stopped, I opened my eyes. I was standing next to the car at the bottom of a ravine. I observed, more with curiosity than terror, large amounts of blood flowing from my face.	I again wondered what had happened to my friend. I called his name and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him still rolling in the grass as the result of being thrown from the car. The whole experience had happened in a fraction of a second. 56f/Anonymous 2