These NDE accounts were submitted to our website and are published here anonymously. Minor edits have been made to protect the identity of the experiencer and others who may have been involved with the experience. Note to researchers and authors: IANDS cannot grant permission to publish quotations from these NDE accounts because we have not received permission from the NDE authors to do so. However, we advise authors who wish to use quotations from these accounts to follow the Fair Use Doctrine. See our Copyright Policy for more information. We recommend adopting this practice for quotations from our web site before you have written your book or article.
I was born in Illinois. My father was a flight instructor and my mother was a housewife. Like most people in the midwest we had a basement. And like so many others it was converted into a room to have guests. We had the wood paneled walls and bar and my parents would have parties entertaining neighbors and friends. This was very much the in thing to do during the 60s.
The experience happened as a result of a weightlifting accident. Prior to the event, I had just finished with the football season where I was fortunate enough to win a national championship; the accident happened during the post season. At that time, I was the strongest football player on the team without question. Having 405 pounds of real weight on the bench press quite frankly didn't take much effort, and it was a weight that I was able to control easily. On the end of the bar I had bands that helped to suspend the weight in the air so it was easier to lift alone. As I was resting underneath the bar in between sets, an individual passed by my bar carrying dumbbells and lost his footing causing him to fall into my bar. The bar then disracked and fell on my forehead breaking my sinus cavity. Because of the bands, the bar then bounced back up and came down again on my nose and the side of my face, resulting in my nose being fractured in four places, and me breaking my orbitial socket. With one arm, I threw the weight off of my face, and stood up as blood began pouring out of my nose. The staff called the ambulance, and I was then taken to the hospital.
In December 1979 I awoke and found a male assailant beside my bed, and unfortunately I did not have my glasses on. When I sat up, the assailant put his hands around my throat and as I struggled, his grip became harder until I passed out.
I drowned when I was five years old. I choked on water at first, then stopped fighting it and felt fine. I marveled at the beauty of the green water and colors of the fish, and watched calmly as their mouths opened and shut as they swam by or bumped into me. Then I rose to the top of the water. I could either look beneath or over it, or go up. I went up in the sky and hovered over the pond. I saw my mom and sister on a blanket sunbathing and talking. I saw my brother at the edge of the pond; he was on my board that I had been floating on. That’s what caused me to drown. I could only dog paddle, and I used the board to get out in the middle of the pond, when he took it I sunk. As I hovered and watched them, I was angry that I had died and no one even noticed.
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