1. Diane G's NDE.
A woman was thrown out of a raft on a fast-flowing river and was pulled  under water.

The raft was trapped in a hydraulic, a white-water phenomena, which held the raft against the rocks. I was thrown out and got caught between the raft and the rocks, with the force of the river pouring down on my head and the suction of the hydraulic motion pulling me under. A man inside the raft held my arm and tried to pull me back into the raft, but the most he could do was enable me to catch an occasional quick breath before the water sucked me back down. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place!

Very consciously and calmly, no panic at all, I knew I was going to die, it was just a matter of how. Being smashed into the rocks was painful, so I decided drowning was the better choice. The next time my head popped out of the water, with my last breath, I told him to let go and he did. I felt the water pull me under and I relaxed into it. I knew there was no point in struggling as I breathed in the water, and everything went black. For a moment...

The next thing I knew I was a hundred feet above the river, looking down at the raft stuck against the rocks below. I saw the two men in the raft looking for me to come out from underneath. I saw the other woman, who had been in our raft, downstream, clinging to a rock. I watched my husband and my teenage sister, who had rafted, without incident, down the rapids ahead of us, come running back up the hill to find out why all the debris was floating down the river. We had taken everything out of their raft and put it into ours in case they flipped over, but they went down so easily, we just jumped in to follow them down.

From above, I watched my husband climb onto a rock in the river. He couldn't hear what the two men still in the raft were shouting to him over the roar of the water. He had no idea where I was or what had happened, but he knew I was missing. He looked as if he wanted to jump in to try to find me and I suddenly found myself at his side, trying to stop him because he wasn't much of a swimmer and I knew there was no point. When I reached out to stop him, my hand went right through him. I looked at my hand and thought... oh, my god, I'm dead!

In that instant, total knowledge of reality appeared to me and I saw the multi-dimensionality of the universe. My consciousness expanded so far beyond the physical plane that I was no longer aware of it, nor of my self. I was so much a part of it all, there was no distinction. It was a brilliant flash of light and I was allowed to see into it for a brief moment and experience a feeling of love so profound, powerful and overwhelming that I can only describe it as pure Bliss (even though that doesn't begin to describe it).

And, suddenly, I was whisked away and found myself traveling rapidly through a vortex toward a beautiful white light in the far, far distance. I continued to experience an overwhelming feeling of love within me and around me. There was no fear, no anxiety, no worry. I even felt as if I'd done this before and was remembering that I was going home. I was filled with joy. I had no sense of a body, no feeling of limitations or boundaries. Yet, I was still me and aware that I was having this experience.

Before long, I realized I wasn't alone. There was someone, whom I can only describe as a Loving Being of Light, traveling beside me... at the speed of light! We communicated mentally. This was someone I have always known and I knew that as soon as I sensed the presence of this being. Yet I cannot now tell you now who it was. I didn't have the sense that it was any familiar religious figure or deceased relative, but rather a special friend who is always with me wherever I am; perhaps, my guardian angel. This Being told me telepathically that I had a choice about going back. I thought, no, no, no, I want this to go on forever!

Suddenly, we burst into the light and a whole new reality was revealed to me, similar to the physical world, but, in this higher vibration, more colorful, more beautiful, more amazing. I saw plants, trees, mountains, lakes, animals, and shimmering crystal-like buildings, some very large and ornate. I saw beings moving about, light beings, going about their daily lives. They don't have physical bodies, but they are distinct fields of energy. They don't walk, they float. They have lives much like ours, but without the struggles and sorrows. They are artists, musicians, dancers, singers, inventors, builders, healers, creators of magical things... things they will manifest in their next lifetime in the physical universe.

Again, the Being of Light told me it was my choice to stay or go, but that there was more for me to do in that life and it wasn't quite time for me to leave. Still hesitating, I was told that if I chose to go back, I would be given certain knowledge to take back with me to share with others. After much discussion, I agreed to go back and suddenly found myself in front of a tall cone-shaped building; so tall, it seemed to go on forever. I was told this was the Hall of Knowledge. I entered the building and flew, spiraling upwards, through what appeared to be shelves of books, like in a library, many millions of books, and I flew through them all. When I reached the top, I burst through it into a kaleidoscope of colors and, at the same time, my head popped out of the water. I was down river about 10 yards from the raft.

I immediately became aware of where I was and grabbed for the nearest rock. I was able to pull myself up and I coughed up a lot of water. I was in a state of shock, but needed no medical attention. I don't know how long I was under the raft, no one was looking at their watch at the time. It could have been 3 or 4 minutes, it could have been ten. There was no time where I had been.

I went into a dark place with nothing around me, but I wasn't scared. It was really peaceful there. I then began to see my whole life unfolding before me like a film being projected on a screen, from babyhood to adult life. It was so real! I was looking at myself, but better than a 3D movie as I was also capable of sensing the feelings of the persons I had interacted with through the years. I could feel the good and bad emotions I made them go through. I was also capable of seeing that the better I made them feel and the better the emotions they had because of me would give me some credits (Karma) and that the bad ones would take some of it back... just like in a bank account, but here it was like a Karma account to my knowledge. The more points (karma) I got would give me permission to access a better area or a better place somewhere. It was the knowledge I had then.

At the end of the film (life presentation) everything went black for a while, almost like in a real movie before they turn on the light. I then understood through this knowledge that I deserved a place in what we call heaven without knowing what it would be like or what is heaven! I felt a wonderful feeling of peace which became stronger and stronger, such a nice feeling.

In the darkness, I began to see a light in the distance ahead of me. I was attracted to it, but I remember thinking that I could also go away from it or even go back! "NO WAY"! I said to myself. I came closer and closer to it, the feeling of great peace became so strong, so good! In real life I am the type of person who likes to go into details to see how things work. I didn't want to go too fast and wanted to understand what was going on here. I then got into orbit (that's the best terms to describe it) around the light.

It was like a cone of light. I heard the words (Peace, Joy, Happiness, Love, Eternity) while I was in orbit around this great really HUGE cone of LIGHT! I remember that those five words (as a whole) became the only important thing in the universe for me, and I had to get rid of everything else in order to enter into the light. Here I'll skip some details (too long).

The feeling of peace was replaced with a feeling of love. I remembered that something was preventing me from entering the light at that moment and after having analysed it, I realised that it was grudges I kept towards a few persons. I had to forgive them in order to purify myself from all negative thoughts I could have had toward them. Now that I had the permission to enter the light, I could almost touch it, wanted to enter it, but I was holding back in order to see more details before actually entering the light. I remember also that I was at the bottom of the light cone. After a certain time I let myself go and BANG! Just like an explosion of love!

The feeling I had before getting into the light was GREAT, but still a feeling I could explain with human words... But inside, NO WAY. No words can explain that feeling except I thought I would die because these feelings of love were so strong! I was amazed I could still think like I did on earth and at that point I started to laugh as I thought, how can I die as I am already dead! So bring on all the love you can, I said! Because I knew the Light or Intelligence in it could understand me.

I thought at that point, there was nothing better and it might be dangerous to increase the love sensation! As it was already far better and stronger than any expectation of heaven I ever had! So, as I mentioned, YES more love please. The sensation of great love grew even stronger and I noticed there were different levels in the light... I've noticed at that point I had the complete knowledge of the universe available to me and I simply had to ask to know! HOW GREAT, I THOUGHT!

I had a million thoughts as I went. Having time for so many thoughts made it seem like it should have been a longer time. That I had thoughts confused me. I tried to define what was happening to me. "I", an aware self, was still "me" and, apparently alive. I could not see myself. I could not raise my hand to look at it, but I was something - I still felt like "myself". I was still thinking and feeling - but not in a body, not with a physical brain. I was moving without legs. At least, I couldn't see any part of myself. I assumed I had no legs, no hands, no arms, no feet or anything you would normally look at to see if it was there. I felt surprise and wonder. I knew the meaning of those concepts, too. How can I know anything? I'm dead!

I floated "higher" or further. I lack a better word for the sensation or the direction. Still, I knew movement was happening to me. I was no longer in my body. I knew I was not on this planet. I knew that "I" was not dead, not the way we mean the word. Dead means dead; No power, no lights on, party's over, no thinking. no feeling. I was dead but I was not un-alive, not unaware. I knew I lived. I didn't know why or how. I couldn't figure it out.

For one moment I was so sad my children and my mother would be grieved by my death. I regretted the pain my death would cause my family. Then something changed in me. That sad thought faded away and I was overcome by a deeply peaceful joy. It was like I let all the cares and concerns that are so much a part of us leave with my body.

As this feeling passed through me I saw, off to my right, a golden glow, a light in the darkness, like a city's lights on the night sky. It lit the way for me. It was not dark anymore. The light was shining, just over there from me. I say "I saw" but I had no eyes. It's another confusion with words and concepts I can't say well here. But I could see the golden light. It was like a candle behind a curtain. Shaded, but enhanced by the darkness to a brighter brightness.

What I learned next amazed me. I discovered that the glowing, golden globe of light was alive. It was a "self". It was a living being. We were the same! We were both living beings. This felt like a huge revelation; "Hey, it's another soul!" It was huge, loving and powerful, strong and gentle all at the same time. I felt small and confused but I knew it was alive. It knew "self and other" the same way I did still. I wasn't dead, it wasn't dead, but it didn't look like a human. It just felt like a human to me. I was aware of its "self-ness". It was aware of my "aliveness". It was strange to look at something I thought of as so different from me and find out it was not different. I couldn't say it was "human" and had been living on "earth", but it was another living, aware self. We were alike!

That other self was "human" or "like me" in feeling but powerful beyond description. I was fascinated by it. I felt the power the Being appeared to generate and that was sent out from it. It was like standing in the sunlight but, instead of sunshine, LOVE warmed you through to your center. It was like nothing and no one I have ever seen or met but I knew it only loved.. I could feel Love radiating off that Being and flowing into and through everything around it. It knew me in all I was, in all my life, in all my truth. I could not hide anything from it. I had no desire to hide anything. I felt no fear or shame that it "saw" all of me.

That being knew all of everything I ever was and loved me. Not just loved me but every thing that defined me as my self, unique from any other bit of creation, was wonderful to it. It loved the way I was made, it loved that we were meeting, it loved me with all the love it had in it and I knew that I was precious to it and treasured by it. I was perfectly what I was supposed to be and it loved me just that way.

If I had been a diamond I was flawless, perfectly cut and beautiful beyond needing any other change. I could not be more loved by it if I changed even one thing in myself. I was perfect - as I was made. I feel it may have thought, "as I made you. I did you perfectly!" That Being loved me so deeply that it would never hurt me. It only wanted my complete, loving self to be all the me I am. I didn't have to be anything but my real self. Truth lies there. Unconditional love sees only the beauty of the truth in each living spirit.

We began to communicate when I understood it was "speaking" to me. I "heard" it address me. Then I knew it could "hear" what I wanted to share with it. It was not with spoken words but more like with complete thoughts with no possibility of misunderstanding. It was a true communication of perfect understanding between two spirits. I would "ask" then would "know".

I did not need to change one thing to be perfect. I was perfect to it. I knew it felt a true joy in being with me. I felt like it was just bursting with happiness because I was there. It was beyond glad to see me, it loved me. It thought I was just perfectly made and was thrilled that we were together. I repeat this because it amazed me.

I was seeing myself out of it's own vision. It saw me as a beautiful, perfect, shining, living being, full of love and peace, filled with joy. I saw myself, but I saw me as it did, a being of golden light and love. I loved being me for the first time I could remember.

I saw the truth of what I was. I was filled with the joy in the knowledge that I was a loving self and I loved the being who showed me the love in my self. It showed me we are alike, we are both living, we are both of Love and you are beautiful and made of love, as am I.I knew all of me the way that being knew me and I saw that each experience and person here was a part of me still. Each each part of my life was needed to make me completely what I was; Perfect in it's eyes. I would appear to be perfect again today if I stood there, even though I have changed from the woman I was then.

That is the meaning of the grace. You are loved as you are - not as you wish to be, not as you should have been, not as someone else says you have to be - but for exactly what you are. The truth of what you are is only good. There is no shame or guilt because you understand what life here and the love in you experienced is just that - being alive as a human. There is no way to feel ashamed for you are exactly what you were created to be. Your life and you are showed to so you understand you did everything from love. There is nothing to regret or be sorry for any more when you see that we are all moved by love and trying to express it or move by the percieved lack of love and trying to share it.

As I saw myself from the eyes of that being, I knew I was good. I was goodness. I was not just, "okay". I was perfect and I was loving and I was good. I saw, in my own judgement, that I was love, loving - good. To see my self as good again, like I knew I was when I was a child - oh, my heart, how I wish to keep that feeling with me here. How I wish I could give that feeling to you.. D.S. Weiler

I experienced a NDE in February. 2009. Llet me start by informing you that I am diabetic, I have psoriasis and my overall general health is a bit below par. My fault mostly, as I am not diligent monitoring blood sugar levels , going to doctor and well ....etc....

I was visiting my mother who had just come out of hip surgery when I began feeling sharp pangs in my abdominal area/ lower back region. they became severe so I left the hospital for my mothers house where I was staying while visiting. By the time I arrived the pangs were very intense and as a result I called an ambulance. Upon arriving at the hospital I had become unconscious. Shortly thereafter my kidneys shut down and I went into cardiac arrest.

At some point my heart stopped and I found myself sitting Indian style at the bottom of a beautiful tropical lagoon. The water was a beautiful crystal clear turquoise type of color. The sand was a pure and bright white, the visibility seemed infinite. There were numerous tropical fish swimming all around that were so vivid in color it seemed as if they were plugged into an electrical outlet and covered in neon lights (difficult to actually describe). I had never seen anything like this before) there was no plant life...coral ...rocks...reefs...etc...just white sand, beautiful water, the fish and myself. I remember thinking ..."well this is kind of weird"... "how am I breathing underwater on my own ?"....better yet...."where am I and how did I get her" ... it was then that something above me caught my eye. I looked up and could see the waters surface about 10 feet above me and beyond that a ball of light. very bright and descending in my direction.. I watched and as it broke the waters surface it dispersed and engulfed the lagoon and beyond. Thinking it was blinding (but not sure if that was an instinctive reaction or not because I do not recall being blinded or even sensitive to any of the brightness of the entire experience ) I looked downward at the ocean floor.

Suddenly a wooden post impaled itself into the sand about 3 or 4 feet away at somewhat of an angle ( a post similar I am guessing to the type JESUS may have been crucified upon). However there was no cross section,...just a post ) I began to look up and as I did I saw a pair of feet in sandals and a pair of incredibly pure, bright white pants. (also appearing to be neon for lack of a more accurate description ) as I continued further upward I was totally amazed to find that it was my deceased father who had passed two years earlier . He was diagnosed with a golf ball size brain tumor in the center of his brain stem and was inoperable . Two weeks after the diagnosis it began to bleed and he fell out while walking out of a restaurant and was transported via ambulance to the nearest hospital. No living will, no do not resuscitate , ...etc... we did not know for certain how to proceed . life support ? feeding tube? try to operate ? All we new was that our father was a good man and lived an exceptional life treating us and those around him well and did not deserve to suffer and prolong life as a vegetable nor would he want to. We chose intravenous pain relief and oxygen with no feeding tube. ( make him pain free and as comfortable as possible on his way out.) Three opinions ,all with the same ending. He would not live through surgery and if by some miracle he did he would be a vegetable. He passed three days later somewhat peacefully. His heart just stopped. Racing faster in the end in an effort to increase oxygen levels it just got tired and quit. Needless to say it was not an easy choice for us. ( lots of room for second guessing)

As I realized it was him I realized that I had left life as I knew it and somehow (I do not recall the journey to where I was) had come to this place of beauty and total tranquility. ( I don't know if it has anything to do with it or not but we buried my father at sea. we spread his ashes out of Newport Beach) My first reaction was to say "WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO DAD....I'M SORRY ." He just smiled down at me and said ..."IT'S OK SON, YOU DID JUST FINE. I AM IN A GOOD PLACE. ITS WONDERFUL BEYOND YOUR WILDEST IMAGINATION. IT WAS MY TIME "... He looked so perfect and so at peace. I can't really describe how awesome and calm and perfect he looked. When he passed he was all gray beard and mustache , 73 years old. As he appeared before me he was much younger (in his prime with thick wavy bright deep red hair as he had when he was younger, only much more vivid and intense. Any imperfection or flaw he had was sculptured, chiseled away to a smooth perfection. HE LOOKED PERFECT, BEAUTIFUL AND CONSUMED WITH PEACE AND JOY AND OVERFLOWING WITH UNDERSTANDING AND LOVE.. I COULD GO ON AND ON.... WE VISITED FOR WHAT SEEMED LIKE HOURS. (afterward I discovered I had been without a heartbeat for 1 min and 14 seconds ) WE LAUGHED AND HUGGED AND CRIED ( AND EVERYTHING WORKED...NO FREEZING OF LIMBS ,...NO INABILITY TO MOVE..) and then he hopped down off his post and turned on the ocean floor and started to walk away. I jumped up and said..."DAD... HEY,... WAIT A MINUTE " AND BEGAN TO FOLLOW HIM AND IT WAS AT THAT MOMENT HE STOPPED, TURNED AROUND SMILED THIS HUGE HEARTWARMING AND INDESCRIBABLE SMILE AND SAID..." NO SON , YOU GOTTA GO BACK . THEY'RE FIXING YOU, ITS NOT YOUR TIME." Then he reached out and touched my shoulder and I don't know how to describe what it felt like but I believe upon him touching me he placed my life back in me and I woke up in the hospital back to life as I knew it.

It ended up being caused by a blocked intestine , rendering me unable too empty my bowels , which in turn poisoned my blood which over worked my kidneys , which shut them down , putting me into cardiac arrest which took me to my NDE and when I awoke I aspirated in my lungs and passed back out waking up three days later with tubes coming out of everywhere, going who knew where and I would do it all over again and again just to see my POP and know that something absolutely incredible awaits us upon our departure from this human life . and I don't know exactly what it looks like but I know this.........".WHEREVER MY FATHER WENT IS ONE AWESOME AND WONDERFUL PLACE "...because..."HE NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD, NEVER LOOKED SO AT PEACE , SO COMPLETE. I really cannot find the right words to do justice in relating this whole experience. I believe without doubt "IT WAS REAL, LIKE NOTHING I HAD EVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE , NOT EVEN CLOSE. I don't think I gained any special powers nor do I have any more answers to the mysteries of the world , I do not know the future except that death is not an end, but a new and bountiful beginning.