I was a college sophomore. A former roommate had married and was pregnant, due anyday. Her husband needed to go out of state for an interview. They called me to see if I would stay the weekend with my former roommate. We always had so much fun together, I couldn't wait! They picked me and we drove to their small one bedroom apartment. Her husband left and we were alone in the apartment.

I noticed that the apartment was really cold. I asked about it and she said that a repairman was coming to fix the furnace later that evening. We bundled up and I did some hand sewing on a coat I was making. About three hours later a man came and 'fixed' the furnace. I smelled the gas come on and thought, "good, we will be warm now." Well, about 15 minutes later I got really sleepy and told my former roommate I was going to go to bed, I just couldn't stay awake. That was before 9 pm. She was shocked that I wouldn't be the fun she was hoping for for. About10:30 she woke me up saying we needed to converse and catch up on old times, but I just couldn't stay awake. We had earlier told each other scary stories. She finally went to bed. Then at 1 a.m. the door woke us up. Someone was pounding on the door and the front window. We both woke up very startled. My girlfriend grabbed my arm and said, "It's the rapist!" I could not have been more afraid. She went to the front door. She told me to look out the window and see who it was and then she would open the door. I looked and saw it was her next door neighbor who we had seen go to work around 5 pm. Before I could tell her, I blacked out. I fell backwards and knocked a stereo off a small table and then hit my head on the fireplace brick. The chaos and 'fright' of the moment had me in real turmoil. 

Then, as if a switch had been flipped I was in INSTANT PEACE. I looked down at my body lying there and was very amazed at the complete and thorough peace I was experiencing. I realized at that moment that just being in a body was extremely painful and the pain was gone. I began to ascend. I watched my body get further away and I went through the ceiling and into what appeared to be clouds of fog. I continued upward through the fog. My thoughts were very distinct: "No one had better be sad. This is wonderful. What a perfect time to come home. I feel no pain at all, I didn’t realize I had been in pain. I hope no one is sad. This is a perfect time…..”

Then I saw a marble entry way into a marble room. The entryway had tall large marble columns on both sides of it. The room was about 20 by 30 feet and didn’t seem to have a ceiling on it. There was a door to the room from the other side that a man walked through. He was wearing a white suit with a white tie, shirt, white shoes and socks. He had a white clip board in his hands along with a pen. He was about two inches shorter than I. I was 5’9”. He simply told me there had been a mistake and I was to go back. I told him there was no mistake and I’d like to stay. I could see that he was pretty sure I was to go back, so I resolved quickly to rest my case that it was good I was there. I told him that I was single, had no children, had no husband, was not in any relationship and that I had left home and this wouldn’t be that hard on my parents or friends. The timing was perfect! Then he told me that I just didn’t understand and that I needed to reconsider. I was certain it was perfect! I sensed that I had the choice of staying or going and it was his job to convince me to go back. He opened up a large view in front of me and what I began to see was taken from me. About 20 minutes later in comparative Earth time, I turned to the kind man and said, “oh, (very reluctantly) I guess I’d better go back.” In that very instant, I was in my body while it was being dragged on an icy sidewalk. The two men dragging me almost dropped me and in shock they said, “Oh, you are alive.” I was coughing so hard and crying that there wasn’t anything I could say. They put me in a car and got a blanket to put around my bare feet and then one for my shoulders. My girlfriend was then brought out of the neighbor's houses and put in the car. She suffered absolutely NO effects from the gas.

We were taken to my girlfriend's in-laws' home and stayed there the following two days. I told my girlfriend and her mother-in-law what had happened. My girlfriend said that she was certain I was dead...that when the neighbor saw me black out through the window, he became even more hysterical in trying to get her to open the door. When the door opened my girlfriend said the cold fresh air was so different from the air in the apartment, she knew we had been seriously gassed. She was taken to the next apartment and she said she watched the neighbor drag me outside to the snow and left me there for 15 to 20 minutes while he went for help. He came back and he and another man tried to pick me up and began to drag me to the car when I started coughing. They believed I had been dead.

On the funny side, I called home that next morning and my mother answered the phone and I said, “Mom, I almost died of gas last night.” she responded, “what did you eat?” Then I told her what had happened; it wasn’t about food poisoning or beans! 

My girlfriend was not harmed in anyway from the gas that had leaked or poured into the apartment neither was her baby. I told a friend from school who took me skiing the next weekend about what had happened. He laughed at me and wondered where my head was. I didn’t share my experience much after that. I knew it had happened; I knew I had been to the other side. I knew I only was able to remember just a small portion of what was there and that whatever I had been shown was big enough to convince me to return. 

I did share this with my grandmother who was always concerned of dying. I hope I helped her find some peace in it. I’ve never been afraid of dying since then, actually look forward to it and know I won’t be able to go until the time is right.