Have you had a near-death experience?

Question

Have you ever had an out-of-body or near-death experience? Did you see/hear anything that proved to you this experience was real? What was it like? Any noise? Do you believe you saw a vision of heaven, hell or was your experience neutral? Just curious.

Answer 1

Yes, I have.

To begin, let me explain "spells." They are instances when everything goes blurry--much like interference on a television screen--before I lose my vision completely to whiteness, everything sounds distant, I break into a cold sweat, feel ill, and as if I haven't eaten. They can happen anywhere at anytime.
Mother's Day 2004, is a day I'll always remember, for it is the day I died. I wasn't being a hero, and nor was I being stupid, at fifteen years of age I simply dropped dead. I awoke early that morning to ready for the special service my church was having for mothers, and told my dad, "Good morning," before heading to the bathroom to shower. As I started to undress, I began to have a spell, but I fought it off impatiently, and thought I had won. Then everything went black. I remember thinking, "This isn't right, it never goes black." Then I was in nothingness, no thought, no sight, no sound. It was as if I didn't exist. Then I was walking down a shadowed path, a valley I knew, because I could see the mountains looming on either side of me, and the foliage of the trees was barely visible. I wasn't frightened for I had one circular thought, "I'm going home! I'm finally going home!" I had perfect peace that no imagining could ever describe. Not even the sound of my parents screaming for me to come back penetrated the peace and the joy that I felt. I continued on the path until a voice that I can only describe as shout and whisper combined, said, "Kaitlin, it isn't your time. Turn back." I so badly wanted to disobey this voice, but the next thing I knew I was watching myself--all shadow--walk back into the light. Then I could see my parents below me, shaking my body, crying, and pleading. My sisters stood, pale and wide-eyed in the doorway. With a jolt, I was back in my body. It took me several minutes for me to have the strength to open my eyes, and even longer to speak. My parents rushed me to the ER, where test after test was run on me. The ones for cancer frightened me most. There I learned the other side of the story. Nearly fifteen minutes passed between my greeting my dad, and heading to the bathroom. When my dad hadn't heard the water running, he went to check and see if I had crawled back into bed, and saw me lying on the bathroom floor. I was pale, blue- lipped, no breathing, no pulse, no heartbeat, and was cold to the touch. The doctor, and his colleagues, could only say, "It isn't normal for a healthy, active teenage girl drop dead." I didn't need a medical license to know that. It was months of doctors--wrong diagnoses, and over medication--before a specialist was found who discovered the reason for my spells, and death. I have extremely low blood pressure--something that should have been caught years ago--and my heart doesn't pump enough blood, causing the spells. The day I died, my heart was pumping nearly no blood at all. He said it was a miracle for me to have returned, for many with my condition die without explanation. With his help, I have been spell-free for a little over a year.

Answer 2

I have had two, actually. Once on a suicide attempt, and once on an acid trip that it turns out had strychnine in the acid. Let's leave out the acid one, because that would be too hard to separate from the chemical effects.

Perhaps the suicide attempt would also be construed as the effects of the overdose of sleeping pills I took, but I did not believe so at the time. I was in a very white space, which I took to be a sort of waiting room or transportation station. There was an entity somewhat like an angel, but with no visible wings, dressed in white and also bathed in light. This entity, which I took to be more-or-less male, guided me through a review of my life, about what I had learned and failed to learn, and what I still needed to learn. [Note: NOT about what I had done wrong and right, but what I had learned or not.] So far I was assuming I was either dead or expected to be momentarily. But then the guide pointed out that I also had the option to go back and face the mess I had made of my current lifetime and try to do better. As soon as I realized that was a possibility, I chose that option. I had already realized that if I died so young (early 20s), I would basically have wasted this lifetime altogether, and could not expect to choose my next parents very wisely. The answer to "what had I learned" was mostly negative and cynical. So I went back.

Since that time, I have never been afraid of death, because I am convinced I will get another chance. However, I also note that modern neurobiology explains these sorts of experiences as basically "seeing what you want to see" or expect to see. So I figure it's either like I saw, or it's out like a candle flame, non-existence. What does not frighten me is the myth of hell. And heaven as described by the Christians never seemed all that enticing to me.

Answer 3

Well, I've had somewhat similar experiences, however the only difference is I'm always asleep. You see it's like a dream, except you can't wake up easily. You cannot move so much as your pinky. It feels like you're dead or in a coma. Then someone tries to choke you to death, you cannot see that person for it is dark inside your head. But in the end that someone was only trying to bring an end to your suffering. You won't imagine what it feels like to be alive but cannot move or speak. Can barely breathe...

Answer 4

I believe I saw Heaven twice. BUt it wasnt a near death experience.

Answer 5

I had one from a slightly different perspective that most you hear about.

Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 6

I did. I was just 14 when during my sleep, there was some kind of cerebral accident. I was paralised for several hours. During this time, I found myself out of my body. I know this because I was floating over my body. I remember praying asking God to spare me. I floated toward the window, and was about to leave this earth, when I found myself back in my body. I remember returning to my body in pitch black darkness. Today, I am on Dilantin. Whatever happened that night was real.

Answer 7

Yes I have been near death all my life. I keep one step ahead of death and I have never been outside my body. or experienced Heaven or Hell yet. Believe me if you ever get outside your body you wont get back in. That isn't near death that is complete death.
Kisses. BB

Answer 8

Yes, and a voice told me to return because there is nothing on this side but darkness. There was no pearly gates, trumpets or family there to meet me. What I received from this experience is, I better enjoy this life because there is nothing on the other side at lease not as taught in Christianity.

Answer 9

Yup.

As soon as I developed a concept of time I realized that life was short and I was near death - from the moment I was born.

Answer 10

No one can tell this becos they will die if they are really in that situation. Perhaps many of us will say that I was about to die but in reality no one know when we will die. If someone says some stories about this issue, they really cant prove it. It is only a way of expression to say "near death.