Halil T.

I was picking up my daughter from school. While I was walking there, I dropped to the floor. I was having a heart attack! I was walking in a pretty populous area, so there were many people around. However, no one seemed to do anything. A few younger boys walked by, and just watched as I was lying on the ground. A young girl, who was maybe five years old, noticed me since I had collapsed right outside of her apartment complex. She asked me if I was alright, but I couldn’t say anything anymore. She went back inside.

Everything went black. I will never be able to remember how long it was that I could not see anything, but all of a sudden, I realized my eyes were open. There was one thing that didn’t make sense; why was I floating? I was in the same spot that I had collapsed, but I was slightly higher up. Suddenly, I heard sirens and looked down. I could see an ambulance with people coming out. They were putting me on a stretcher. I heard one man say, ‘This man has no chance of survival. He has been here without any help for nearly an hour!’ The other man said, ‘I’m sure he is already dead. I didn’t realize it was this bad.’ I could see everything so clearly.

I wasn’t feeling any pain and actually felt very comfortable. However, I was a bit stressed at the thought of my daughter and my wife, who would be stressed to find out that I had died. I didn’t know where my daughter was, but I knew that my wife’s work was not too far, so I went to her workplace. I went to her office, but she wasn’t there. I saw that her computer screen was on, and that she had been looking at an Istanbul real estate page with apartments and houses for sale. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but this did have significance later on in my story.

I became curious. What would happen if I continued to float up? I began to go up, up, and up. Finally, I could see the entire city of Samsun. As I started to rise, I could see the Black Sea and the Southern tip of Ukraine, which is geographically close to Samsun. Eventually, I could see all of Turkey and Ukraine. Then all of Eurasia. I kept going up so high that I was eventually able to view the whole earth from outer space.

Suddenly, I saw total black. I couldn’t see anything. I started to panic, and yelled, “Hello!” I didn’t get a response. Then, I called out to a higher power, and suddenly, I saw immense light. I was able to float towards that light. As I entered, I realized that I was getting sucked into some vortex. Then, I was in a cave or a tunnel. I could see the same light, but it was at the end of this tunnel. I started to float towards that light, and I came closer, and closer. As I got to the end, with a door. This door had typical Islamic ornamentation on it. The door opened, and it looked absolutely dark. However, this was only for a few seconds.

Afterwards, I had an entire life review; from when I was in my mother’s womb to the present day. I was shown many life events that I had forgotten about. Some of them made me feel happy, while others filled me with guilt, sadness, sorrow, and so on.

Next, I saw a nice meadow with green grass that was greener than I could have ever imagined or seen. It had flowers that had a color that I cannot describe. I went inside a house and saw a young man who was was sitting. As soon as he saw me, he stood up and ran to me. He looked similar to my father, but I could tell it was not him as I had seen photos of him when he was in his early twenties. This man was visually younger than I was. I asked him who he was. He told me that he was my grandfather. Ever since I had known him, he was in a wheelchair. I was very surprised. He asked me to say hi to my grandmother, his wife. Then he asked me if I wanted to meet my deceased father. We walked for about 5 minutes. In the distance, I saw my father. When we got closer, he welcomed me with open arms. He told me that I had been a good person, but that I needed to make sure my daughter would never lose her religion. My grandfather, father, and myself were walking along a field, and we saw a beautiful Mosque in the distance. As we got closer, I could feel my walking became more and more difficult. It felt as though I gained all this extra weight. They entered, but I could not.

I could feel myself being pulled back. I heard an authoritative voice say, ‘You shall not enter. You have not finished your life. When you have completed your life and continued to be a good person, you will earn your place here.’

Suddenly, I saw complete darkness. Then, I opened my eyes and realized I was in a hospital bed, with my wife and daughter around me, crying. Apparently, I was out for longer than most cardiac arrest patients and it was a miracle that I had survived. I felt pain, but I was not tired or drowsy. Visiting hours had been over and my wife and daughter had to go home. After I had recovered, I revealed exactly what happened. My wife had a hard time believing it at first, but I told her about the fact that I went to her office and saw the Istanbul real estate apartment and house website on at her desk. She was shocked. She said that day, her boss had offered her a job in Istanbul and she was wondering what kinds of apartments and houses exist there if she planned to relocate for her job. She said she never looked at that site before and thought that there was no way I could have known that information unless I had been there. I hadn’t been to her office in over 2 months.

The experience was timeless and vivid.