I was skydiving and relatively inexperienced. I was landing off-dropzone and didn't know about rotor winds. (When wind encounters objects, it swirls like water hitting rocks in a stream.) As I descended into the open space between rows of tall pine trees on each side, the parachute became unstable and I panicked and over-corrected pulling my brakes until the parachute collapsed and then reopened accelerating me into the ground.

As the instability was happening and I was plummeting to the ground, this incredible, external peace like nothing I had ever experienced descended upon me. It felt like an external force. At the same time, an audible "thought" that was me, but different from my day-to-day mind, said very calmly, "Huh, so this is how I am going to die. I always wondered."

I passed out after I hit the ground. I came to, with paramedics working on me. They seemed concerned and I was hospitalized with a broken pelvis.

I wonder if I had a more extensive NDE while I was unconscious that I don't remember. I wonder about this because about a dozen years later when I discovered NDE stories something in me KNEW they were real. I couldn't get enough of reading other people's experiences for many years.

I felt that external peace descending upon me two times later in my life. Both related to a life-threatening illness for my son. One of those experiences included an audible "thought," like my skydiving experience, but that was not my own thought. It provided information about my son's illness and told me he would survive.