My family moved to a remote beach in Alaska when I was two years old. We lived in a two-room cabin with no electricity or television, and we never went to town. I was a normal, happy child who liked to play outside on the beach, look at Superman comics, and play with dolls. One day, when I was five or six, I had a swollen red spot on my hand. My mother said it looked like a spider bite. She took me to the window and using a needle picked at the bump. I was nervous, but I knew she wouldn't hurt me.

When she started picking at the bump, I felt everything get dark. I told her that the window was getting dark then I felt faint and passed out on the floor. Immediately, I felt myself coming out of my body headfirst and I hovered near the ceiling watching my mother standing over my body. I saw her reach for a metal pail on the counter. She took a dipper of water from the pail and put some water on my face. Then I felt myself slipping back into my body, feet first. I got up and told my mother what I saw, and she verified what had happened. It wasn't a bad or good experience at the time. I had never heard of anything like this happening and I didn't understand it, but this event didn't seem really odd to me. It did make me never question whether we have both a spirit and a body.