Kendra NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08  Next thing I know, I'm floating up by the ceiling directly over my body to see it shaking and eight nurses holding me down. I was having a seizure and I heard one of the nurses yell for a staff member to get the doctor and that's all I saw. I was surrounded by a warm white light and I traveled upwards and I felt safe and such love, more then I've ever felt before and I felt myself trying to get to the end faster. At the end of the light I saw a beautiful golden gate with three figures. My mother, My grandfather whom I never new but at that moment I felt like I had known him all my life and a man dressed in white robes and medium brown hair radiating love in waves. For the first time in a long time, I felt accepted and at home and I didn't want to leave. My mother and grandfather told me to go back that I didn't belong here yet. I shook my head. I didn't want to leave the peace I felt there. The white robed man smiled lovingly at me and told me. that he loved me and that I had a choice to stay and finish my remaining years of my life reborn or to go back and finish the rest of my life with my family. I had chosen to go back.
NDE due to seizure. 

 Marlin C NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08  As soon as I died I was standing in total darkness and right in front of me was the brightest light you had ever seen in your life but it did not hurt your eyes to look at it. Then this voice came from the light saying to me "step into the light, step into the light."  At first I was scared because I had never been in a situation like that before. after the voice repeated the saying again I stepped into the light and when I did it hit me like a ton of bricks!!! The first thing I felt was overwhelming !!!LOVE!!! and the next thing I felt was true peace and contentment, it seemed like I was home! Unfortunately I was only dead for a couple of minutes. I was starting to get over how I felt and started to look around saw like a garden of sorts.     The colors were so brilliant and so rich, nothing like here on earth.
NDE due to heart attack.

 Jen C NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08  When the doctors found what I had taken they expressed no real concern saying that I could just sleep it off. I was wheeled into a hallway to wait for an empty room. I laid there staring at the ceiling when I stopped breathing. I then felt myself being pulled up out of my body and out of the hospital into this vast void that was both dark and light. It was silent and still, strange but peaceful. Then I felt myself yanked down and I was back in my body with two nurses looking over me. They didn't ever tell me that I had stopped breathing but I heard them discussing it with the doctor outside my room when I was evaluated. Since that day I have had a heightened awareness of things and during deep meditation I can go back to that void I experienced but stay in my body.
NDE due to breathing cessation from medication.

 Brian G NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08  What I remember is a person asking me (I can't recall seeing a face but I think it was a male) if I wanted to stay or come (with him). I knew exactly what he meant and why he was asking me. I was even looking at myself lying unconscious on either a stretcher or bed. I responded to him that I wanted to stay because my wife and children needed me. He let me know that my decision would be supported (strong sense of compassion), and that though it would be difficult, in the end everything would be ok. Also, there was a very strong sense of peace.
NDE due to head injury from car accident.  Interesting to note the unique NDE state of consciousness during amnesic period.

 Audie M NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08   From Australia  I had a very high temperature as a result of having Scarlet Fever.  I went above my body and could see through the walls.  I was in the hospital at the time, and could see the nurses in their canteen.  They were saying how sick I was and were eating my pears as I would not need them.  I love pears, and my mother could not normally afford them, but had bought them for a special treat.  I then went to my home and saw my mother and father getting ready to come to the hospital to see me.  I tried to tell them about the pears, but they couldn't see me.  I recall feeling very peaceful and quite interested in everything that was going on around my earthly body, but enjoyed floating and being able to go where I wished.  I didn't want to go back into my body.
NDE due to scarlet fever at age 12.  Experience is shared 48 years later.

 Tina R NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08  From Canada I was standing upright, but not on the ground, it was as if I was floating in a very silent, peaceful space. There was an oval shape of a cloud-like image surrounded in light that became larger and larger in size. I heard a voice saying; "Tina, it is not your time yet, so don't worry or panic. The voice repeated this statement two or three times and then told me to relax, calm my body and concentrate on opening my eyes." I then remember thinking (knowing) that it was my angel speaking and comforting me. I felt an extreme sense of peace and stillness. During the second experience I also remember thinking that it was really unfortunate that my life was over but if I were to go I wouldn't be alone and that I would be with my mom. But the voice answered my thought with words of comfort and peacefully suggested that it was not my time to go.
NDE due to complications of infection.

 Kristy C NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08  I remember being pulled backwards and when I turned I was in an earthy tunnel and a door was before me that opened into a spectacular light. The light was brilliant, but it did not hurt! As I passed into it, it glowed with warmth, love, knowledge, & understanding. Not just my own knowledge but knowledge of everything complete understanding, collective but separate. Everything made sense. Everything was more vivid the colors were brighter & deeper, everything was tranquil and at peace the moment I crossed into the light. I was now standing in a lush rolling meadow, covered with blooms & trees. I felt a presence strong and even more wonderful; I knew my family was with me. The presence had a deep resonating voice that touched the core of your soul. I don't remember what the voice told me, but the peace & calm seemed to magnify. I remember sitting in the meadow, I was cradling something in my arms, asking to cross a small free flowing stream, and not being allowed, I asked to stay. I did not want to go back.
NDE due to complications during gallbladder surgery.  Interesting in that she had awakening during surgery, then cardiac arrest, then NDE.

 Gordy K NDE. English expanded version  11/16/08  I wasn't directly over the gurney and could see the backs of the doctors/nurses on my side of the the gurney.  My view of the gurney was mostly blocked by their backs and the overhead light/fixture in the room blocked my view of the people on the other side of me. I was fully aware that was my body on the gurney, however there was a "lack of concern" on my part (not to mention a total lack of the pain and discomfort I was in before I began my experience) and soon lost interest on what was happening to my body.  I looked around behind me and saw the cupboards on the wall and read some of the labels on the doors describing the contents behind the doors.  They were Dymo labels popular back then.  The cupboards and room dissolved away to blackness with a bright light in what would have been the corner in the back of the cupboard.  It began to increase in size as though I was moving closer to it, however before the light took over I found myself back in my body.
NDE due to unspecified illness.

Ruben G NDE. English expanded version  11/15/08  From Mexico.  Original in Spanish, translated by Simon.  When I was 9, I went with my parents and some family members to the beach. Everything was just as usual, I went in the sea with my cousin and kept going until the waves were reaching up to my neck. My cousin had stayed behind me. At this point I felt that I was going under, I had fallen down a hollow and in my desperate state I dragged on my cousin and we were both starting to drown. In my instinct for survival I was climbing on his back to breathe, and he was doing the same thing. Exhausted from all my efforts to get out, I gave up and was swallowing water, when suddenly I saw something like a video of my life, every moment was seen. Just then it was a wonderful thing, and after seeing this video I regained consciousness, and my cousin, who had already managed to get out, said to me: "Crawl!" I crouched and crawled, which is how I was able to get out on to the sand. I felt heavy after swallowing a lot of water.  
Child near-drowning.

MB NDE. English expanded version  11/13/08  From Brazil.  Original in Portuguese, translated by Rio. Afterwards, the tunnel turned a light yellow and I saw a female "being" appear in order to accompany me.  We finally arrived at a light and then a room appeared--sort of a control room--where there were people behind one way mirrors.  I heard someone say that I had arrived at a parallel universe at a HIGHER LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS where it was possible to see other people living normally upon the earth.  That was a great revelation.  The secret to the universe was being presented to me.  The secret is: there is another world where things really are real, where truth, goodness and harmony exist.  Life is not limited to the earth experience.  Earth life is only a small part of the whole.  Those who earn the right are shown eternal life.  That was the essence.  
Childbirth NDE.

Benino NDE. English expanded version  11/10/08  From Italy.  Original in Italian, translated by Amy.  After an indefinable moment of time I found myself outside of my body, and I saw my body lying on the bed. I rose in the air always keeping my eye on my body.  Then everything turned black.  I found myself in a tunnel. The sides of the tunnel were brown, grey and black and the colors were all mixed up together. I didn't perceive sound, heat, hunger, feelings, weight, memories, anxiety, emotions. I was all sight.  The time I remained in the tunnel is hard to say, but I think several weeks.   At the end of the tunnel there was a small light.
NDE at age 4.  Atypical because he is now atheist (not because of the NDE) and considers the NDE as an hallucination.