Deb Nelson, an Associate Producer with Bill Brummel Productions in Los Angeles, CA, is gathering testimonials for an upcoming 2-hour documentary entitled "The History of Hell" to be televised on the History Channel later this year. If you have had a hellish NDE, please contact Deb Nelson at debnbbp@earthlink.net for a possible interview. She is requesting the following information: your name, your testimony, and your contact information.

"It started to shut down my lungs, which then caused me to go into cardiac arrest and that's when I was gone." Foster said she went "somewhere else." "I was on the other side -- on a staircase that went up very high into the sky ... It's indescribable, the color of the sky. It's the deepest, purest blue you will ever see. It was the perfect moment," Foster said. She was pronounced clinically dead.

He flat-lined twice more on the operating table. "I saw most of it," he said, admitting that "sounds crazy." He said he saw the scene, and his own body, from the corner of the room. Lee was tempted not to "go back," he said. "I felt so good, and I felt so safe, and I really didn't want to come back," he said. Lee said no one thought he was going to live, and when he came out of a coma days later, he was angry - not at his attacker, but at his helpless state.

Pat Summerall isn't sure if what he experienced four months ago was a stream of consciousness or just an anesthetized moment. But he imagined himself, slowly and systematically, slipping into death. "I remember feeling myself shrinking, getting smaller and smaller, until I got down to where I was only the end of my backbone ... the coccyx, I think it's called," said Summerall, forever the perfectionist when it comes to commentary. He held his thumb and index finger less than an inch apart. "That's all the bigger I was."

From heavenly choirs to the circles of hell, from sitting shiva to waiting for resurrection, the peoples of the book have evolved their ideas of the afterlife as they traveled through history. Join NPR's Neal Conan for a look at the social history of life after death.

In her teens and 20s, she believed she was an atheist. But during a near-death experience, she found herself bargaining with God, promising to return to church if she survived. Rather than go back to Catholicism, though, "I joined a fundamentalist Christian community," she said. The community was almost cult-like, she said. Tactics such as sleep deprivation were employed on members, and rules, such as those forbidding men to take care of their children, were common. "My first marriage was an arranged marriage," Warwick-Sabino said.

As a "Thank You" to all the wonderful people who visit this website, I am giving away the ebook version of my paperback book entitled "Nothing Better Than Death." The paperback version is still available for purchase online. More ebooks are on the way. I also plan on having a follow-up book published hopefully by the end of this year.

"As we progressed, I could feel the weight of the world and its density rapidly diminish. Darkness began falling away and, gradually, we entered a realm which seemed to reside in the deep reaches of an illuminated space. I could simultaneously see in all directions at once and, in the distance, saw that our destination was a Citadel of Light."

"Jesus spoke to me of Charlie Manson at this point. His loving tenderness in speaking of him quite shocked me. Jesus knew also that I had close relatives who were intimate with someone who arrived on the Tate crime scene; therefore, we heard the unpublished gruesome details within hours. I could not imagine anyone doing such atrocities to another and "have a chance in hell," of escaping hell. Now, hearing Jesus speaking of "My, Charlie"???? With such tenderness??? He said this to me, "You wonder at my love for him at how dear he is to me. It is because I know why he did what he did. I knew Charlie from the beginning. I was there when he was a child. I know the pain that his sin is rooted in. I know his pain.""

Returning to Earth after feeling the love and peace that pervades heaven caused him to spend his teenage years filled with angst and disgust over the ugliness in the world. He turned to drugs and alcohol to escape the pain of being separated abruptly from paradise and the Lord. Matthew spent 10 years addicted to drugs and alcohol. Like many recovering addicts, he had to hit bottom before deciding to quit using addictive substances. Dovel's unusual �bottom� was a three-day trip to hell -- literally. Dovel eventually attempted suicide to spur his reentry into heaven. To his shock, he spent three days in hell, but returned to tell about the experience.

"They told me they were Escort Angels and had come to take me Home. But before we could go, I had to look at the body I was leaving behind. She was twenty-five years old and in perfect health, except for the loss of blood and spirit. I determined that the situation was not serious enough, and in less than an instant I reentered my physical body through the navel. I was back on Earth and suffering from Homesickness."

"I remember that I saw three monks who guided me through a sort of a tunnel. I was a bit afraid but at the same time I also felt as if I was meant to be there. The tunnel seemed to be never-ending but finally I saw a beautiful golden light and I knew that I had reached the end of the tunnel. After that, I reached a place that was like no place on Earth."

"I was extremely frightened. I opened my eyes and all I saw was pure blackness. I was floating in this black void. It was as though I was just floating there and the noise did not stop. The only way I can really describe it is like being pulled by a vacuum. I was floating in this darkness for only a second and I was aware that I was dead.I remember just knowing I was dead."

"Then a huge wave of peace flew over me like right now as I write this. I feel the presence of angels as I felt it then. Peace, no wanting, no pain, no longing just bliss. Then I saw my past present and future like a continuous roll of film and then ... I saw Jesus on the cross taking his last breath. I saw my body in a heap on the ground. I was above. There seemed to be no differentiation of time. It was all one."

"And before I took that breath of water, I simply abandoned my life, psychologically, and in that letting go, was immediately embraced with the most profound sense of peace and calm. I always thought it must be like being in your mother's womb, the sense of weightlessness, floating in this perfect fluid that had no sense of temperature, it simply matched that of my whole being. And a comforting, quiet, dull white hum of a noise. Every sense felt this perfect comfort of an absolute love and belonging. I simply became this perfect white light."

"I knew I was going Home. Only then he turned to me and I saw his face which was - not beautiful - way beyond beautiful. It was way past perfect. It was - I don't really know, but I can still see him and it's WAY beyond. It was love, LOVE, not (I'm very frustrated, I can't explain it) worldly, but LOVE as it looks in the flesh. And he smiled at me and I smiled back and knew I was loved. I KNEW I was LOVED. I KNEW it. I can't explain that. It's more than thinking someone loves you. It's more than loving your children. It is LOVE. And I knew it."

"All of a sudden my body lifted up to the ceiling and my real body was lying in bed yet. I was up above and he met me there. Took my hands and merged with me. It was the most wonderful experience I have ever had. It is indescribable. I just know after we separated again he knew everything about me that would have took years to tell someone and this took like a minute. I also knew everything he ever wanted to tell me in seconds. It was so peaceful and relaxing, so wonderful."

Dr. PMH Atwater will answer questions submitted to her from subscribers to this newsletter. Her next question is:

"I saw a news article on the Internet recently about a monkey that had a NDE and afterward it would no longer walk like a monkey, but, instead, would walk like a human. It seems to me that this is a clear demonstration of how the NDE is a catalyst for evolutionary change. I know that you have written extensively about NDEs and their nature to produce evolutionary change. I was wondering what you believe are the ramifications of this news. Thanks a bunch, Mike."

David's research examined the meaning of the awareness of reports of NDEs for elderly individuals and whether such awareness may help reduce their fears of death. The participants of this research were 40 dementia-free elderly people between the ages of 67 and 95 (28 women and 12 men) who were living in 2 independent living facilities. The findings suggest that the sharing of accounts of NDEs may help the elderly cope with fears of death, and may provide counselors with an additional resource to use to help those elderly individuals who fear death. His website at www.lutz-sanfilippo.com is certainly worth checking out.

Barbara is a NDE researcher/experiencer and the author of the NDE books Full Circle, Spiritual Awakenings, and Final Passage. She was on the Board of Directors of IANDS and a faculty member with Rutgers University for twelve years. She has spent six years researching the aftereffects of the NDE at the University of Connecticut Medical School and is a consulting editor and contributor for the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Barbara and her husband Charles are well-known for their timely and helpful information on recovery from abuse, trauma, addiction, PTSD and other disabling core problems which they provide on their website at www.barbarawhitfield.com.

Coming soon to my website is a section devoted solely to book reviews of NDE and NDE-related books. My goal is to have reviews of every book on these topics that was ever published.

The following research conclusions topics are coming soon: Soul & Spirit, Told not ready, Spirit guides, Telepathy, Homecoming, Animals, Art, and Angels.