A Danish victim, known only as Begitte, believes she drifted into the afterlife while her attacker strangled her into unconsciousness.
She had only just met the man when he struck, and she was only saved when he decided to stop the brutal attack.
Writing on the website NDERF – a site which collects people’s near death experiences (NDEs) –Begitte wrote: “I only remember that I was lying on the bed while he was strangling me.
“I tried to push him away. At last, I could not fight anymore because he was pushing so hard. I remember that I was angry.
“But when I became relaxed, I was completely calm.
“It was as if I was not present in my own body. After that I floated above the two of us and looked down.
“It was a quiet and serene feeling, but I remember that I was then pulled back again. It was difficult and unpleasant to return; the other was a better feeling.”
During her time in ‘the afterlife’, Begitte says her thoughts were travelling faster than usual, but time had come to a standstill.
She wrote: “Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning. Time slowed down and everything stopped.
“I do not think I experienced a sense of time.
“At first I felt fear. After that, I felt peace and calm, as if I was a cloud.”
Some researchers state these are norman phenomenon and not necessarily a sign of heaven or an afterlife.
Dr Sam Parnia, director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City, told a recent Oz Talk: “People describe a sensation of a bright, warm, welcoming light that draws people towards it.
“They describe a sensation of experiencing their deceased relatives, almost as if they have come to welcome them. They often say that they didn’t want to come back in many cases, it is so comfortable and it is like a magnet that draws them that they don’t want to come back.
“A lot of people describe a sensation of separating from themselves and watching doctors and nurses working on them.”
Dr Parnia says there are scientific explanations for the reaction, and says seeing people is not evidence of the afterlife, but more likely the brain just scanning itself as a survival technique.
He said thanks to modern technology and science “death does not have to be limited to philosophy and religion, but it can be explored through science.
“They can hear things and record all conversations that are going on around them.”