A turn-of-the-century near death experience

The Physician Who Watched Himself Die is an article containing a fascinating excerpt from a 1903 book on psychical phenomenon entitled Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death. It's remarkably consistent with what we know of the Near Death Experience: the velcro-like ripping sound a person hears as their awareness separates itself from the body, the discovery of a boundary one may not cross without losing the ability to return to the body, the notion of accomplishing a mission during one's life, etc. Amazing stuff.

If you are at all interested in Near Death Experience research, I highly recommend you visit the NDERF and www.near-death.com. There are many articles as well as reports written by experiencers themselves. You'll find that while some of the material is couched in religious terms, a lot of it is not, and is compellingly consistent in its overall description.