In death's vicinity

Mr Gajaraj, an old man from a village in Uttar Pradesh in India, had chronic ill health. On 10 October 2005 his condition deteriorated. The next morning at 5 am his heart stopped beating and he was declared dead. The family members and villagers were preparing to cremate his body. To everyone's surprise, he was alive again three hours later. The same day he spoke to Aaj Tak, an Indian television channel and said that he had been taken away by five men to an unknown place. There he saw a man in black, whom he referred to as Yama Raj, the Hindu god of death. Yama Raj looked at Gajaraj and scolded his men for bringing Gajaraj in place of his uncle. Yama Raj ordered them to take him back and bring Gajaraj's uncle. Gajaraj's uncle, who was apparently healthy, died at 10 am the next morning.

Gajraj is not the first person to have this sort of experience, which is known as a near death or out of body experience. People all around the world, from Uttar Pradesh to Hollywood, have their own accounts of these experiences.