Not being intimidated, I'll add that I have had what I believe to be a "sort" of near death experience. I can't prove that is was real to anyone. I just know for myself what I saw and heard and I've accepted the experience.
I did not see heaven and my experience actually had two parts which occurred years apart (probably 20 years), but the two parts and the fact that they happened so far apart made the experience more meaningful and real to me. These were more like connected dreams than some sort of violent literal death experience.
Dream one:
I sat in the yard at my childhood home under a tree where I spent many hours playing. My mother was there with me.
A small toddler with dark curls in a pink dress was making baby steps toward me and I opened my arms, as a mother would, ready to receive her with a hug.
Before she even reached my arms, she suddenly disintegrated like one might see portrayed of the ancient dead in some recent old mummy movie. That was the end of my dream.
Yet, a year or so later, I had a early miscarriage ... and I always wondered whether God had let me know that I was going to lose a daughter before I could even hold her in my arms.
Fast forward 20 years dream two:
I was dreamless and sound asleep, when suddenly there was a flash of light that came from straight ahead in the center of my vision. It seemed to fly with purpose toward my right shoulder and remained positioned just in sight of my peripheral vision. At once I was aware of a young female directly in front of my vision. She was dressed in a beautiful red billowing dress with a white blouse. Her long thick wavy hair was dark brown or black. She was hovering at the very front of a gray billowy cloud. She just looked at me with an urgent expression, but didn't say anything. She had her arms opened wide ready to greet me.
Just as suddenly as my vision began I heard an audible voice say: "Not yet."
As soon as I heard these words I immediately felt the need to breath. It was like I had gone too far underwater and was deliberately holding my breath with great difficulty because I was not yet near the surface.
Then I had a thought. I was not in water, but in my bed. I could take a breath anytime I chose; so, I took a deep breath like someone who had just broken the blessed surface and air at last. I could feel my chest move as my lungs expanded; so, I took another and another until I had taken five full breaths and my deep breathing began to ease.
By the time my breathing eased I realized that the angelic girl had gone while I was concentrating on breathing. I never fully awoke, but the next morning I remembered the experience clearly and also recalled my first dream of so many years ago.
You see, I put the two dreams together. My arms had been open to receive my baby girl, but she never made it into this world into my arms. Later her heavenly arms were open wide to receive me, but I never made it into her world amd into her arms either.
Since these two dreams, I've given my daughter a name, and I look forward to seeing her one day in heaven... when God decides that it is time for me to cross over. I've decided that I had stopped breathing during the night and would have died if God had not intervened. I have not worried about this since, because I figure that dying in my sleep would not be such a bad way to go ... plus I'm not going to die until God said; "Now."
