It was a beautiful day and I was lying out by the pool, getting a suntan. I was in great spirits and having a wonderful summer. I decided to get a little exercise, so I walked over to the work-out room. I lived in a large 5000 square ft. home and was living a life of which most people dream. The work-out room was on the far side of the house, in one of the single car garages. I walked across the backyard along the pool, then made a right turn, and proceeded along the north wall to the door of the garage. Inside was the equipment, all set up. I started to do a little lifting on the weights. I sat on the weight bench, laid back, and did a few bench presses of about 150 lbs. I am not a big weight lifter because I am a surfer; I do it to maintain my physique. After the bench presses, I decided to work on legs. I did about 10 reps [repetitions] and then rested while still in a sitting position. I felt a little light-headed.
I have passed out before when I was a young boy, getting out of the shower. I was standing in front of the mirror with the towel around my neck wondering how long it would take to pass-out. The next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor. That time I did not go anywhere, I just passed-out and woke up a little frightened that I passed -out, I never did that again.
Feeling light-headed, like I was going to pass-out, I put my arms back behind me and held onto the bench, so that if I did pass-out, I would fall directly back on to the bench.
The next thing I remember, I was in complete euphoria. I didn’t feel the weight of gravity anymore. I was completely aware of myself without my physical body. I was soaring through space in some galaxy with the whole universe in front of me. I could see in perfect clarity the stars and galaxies. I felt the earth was behind me on my right side: a small ball that was getting smaller. I had no desire to go back because I was in complete happiness traveling to somewhere wonderful. I could sense a host with me outside my peripheral vision. The host was there right along with me as we were traveling to some place. I could not tell what the host was or who it was, but it didn’t matter to me at the time. All that mattered was that I was in complete awareness of myself traveling across the universe, in the most wonderful, peaceful, and powerful state of existence. I knew I was going somewhere and was really getting in to my new experience. Then all of a sudden, like a lightning bolt, I was thrown back into my body hard and abrupt!
I was very upset because I was now back on the earth, in my body, in pain and struggling to stay conscious. I had fallen off the bench and now lay on the cement floor. My body was completely flat on the floor. I could feel every crack. It was all I could do to stay awake and breathe. I tried lifting my head up off the floor and it was very difficult. It took all of my strength to get myself up and crawl over to the carpet. At the same time, I was completely in awe of my recent experience. I was confused, thinking of my friends, and afraid of them coming in to see me lying there dead on the floor. I was also praying to Jesus, thinking of my life, and all of the things I still want to do, knowing that I did not want to go yet. As I sat there struggling to breathe, all by myself with no one around, I thought to myself that if I can just get up on the chair maybe I could catch my breath and start to breathe normally. With all my strength, I managed to get up on the chair and sit. A few moments later, I felt like I needed to cough. I went into this convulsion type of coughing, approximately ten loud, heavy coughs. Then all of a sudden my breathing started to become normal. I immediately broke out in a sweat. Every pore on my skin was sweating; I was completely wet. Then as I sat there in that chair, I could see outside, the beautiful blue sky. I thought to myself, ‘I made it! I’m back.’ So I stood up and walked out of that garage. As I was walking along the side of the house, I remember feeling the weight of gravity on me and just the simple feeling of my tongue inside my mouth. I walked over to the pool and noticed the beautiful clear water. I was still amazed about what just happened to me and jumped into the pool.