My wife and I got a puppy recently. He stayed in the room with us, and naturally the room started to smell like dog. The day before writing this, I bought herbal incense from the local shop. I lit it and placed it behind a box fan in the room. The smoke blew directly in my face, causing me to constantly inhale it and making my stomach feel like I swallowed a fireball. I ran to the bathroom and began to vomit uncontrollably so much and for so long that I couldn't take a breath for several minutes. At that point, I could physically feel my heart slowing down; time itself seemed to slow down too. I had no strength in me. I felt as if I could do nothing but lay down. So, I did, and I closed my eyes. Instantly, as it seems, I was watching myself lay there on the floor, not moving, and everything that I knew existed, no longer did.

I felt, not so much in a physical sense, the most excrutiating pain ever from my right to left side; it was as if all my bones were breaking and muscles ripping apart almost instantly. Then came the "life movie" it wasn't like sitting at the movies, more like an organized, mental view of all my memories. I fought (not in a physical sense) what seemed to be all my inner demons, like I was fighting a serious internal battle with myself, but myself was all my bottled up rage and anger and hate I had in me. (It's hard to explain, my appologies.) After overcoming it, I felt emotionally exhausted--a feeling of acceptance came over me, then warmth, and an incredible sense of light, relief, and comfort swept over me. In all this, there was no sense of time, exactly.

At the moment I'm typing this, I dont have the mental capacity to put into words the knowledge I had during this experience. It's like I knew the reason for being, but I kept wondering about my wife and son...where they were. I realized at that "moment" what was really happening to me, and I again fought it. My acceptance seemed to turn to refusal of acceptance. The next thing I knew I was jumping up off the floor of the bathroom covered in vomit, and taking what seemed to be the first breath I've ever taken, long and deep. I realized everything around me--where I was and what was going on.

I never went to the hospital, but there is no doubt in my mind that I had died and experienced pure hell and pain, and complete euphoria. What I took from this experience is all the stress of life and all the day-to-day crap doesn't matter. What matters is to be a good person and have faith that God will handle everything.