About 26 years ago, my son, age 4years and 6 days old, had a series of open heart surgeries, 3 over a period of 20 days. The 1st surgery was the only one scheduled, the other 2 had to be done because the 1st did not work.

His vital signs were crashing on that Saturday morning, and the surgeon told us they had to operate now, or we will lose him.

During the surgery, a nurse, kept coming out to keep us informed. At one point she tells us they are having a difficult time getting him off the heart/lung machine, which is not a good thing.

Finally, he is off that machine and they bring him to ICU. As the days progress, and he gets better, we notice he has an imaginary playmate, named Alex. He tells us Alex is another little boy who had heart surgery, and Alex follows us home. We were in the hospital for 52 days.

3 months after we get home, Alex is still around by the way, and my son, who is playing Legos, looks up at his Mom and says, "Mommy, I know what it feels like to die". Stunned, she asks him about it, and he tells her the story of God kidnapping him, and walking down a hallway, with other people around. My wife asks him what does God look like, and he says 'Sunny'. He said that while he and God were walking, God stopped and told him 'it's time for you to go home. Tell your Mommy your not going to die'. And then he goes back to playing Legos, like nothing happened.

He brought it up one more time, about a month later, and never again. He is 30yo now, and doesn't remember anything of what he said.

At 4 years of age, he had the 'classic' NDE, floating over the operating table seeing himself being operated on, which is where Alex most likely came from, seeing other people in a bright tunnel and walking with God, the 'sunny' light.

I used to think that adult NDE's were influenced by reading of NDE's, thereby perpetuating them.

But, here I had a just turned 4yo who could not read, and nobody ever talked to him about dying, and he has an NDE.

I Believe.