Also a greatly discussed topic upon the philosophical realms… in munich a certain Prof. Dr. Godehard Brüntrup has experienced a near death experience himself and now talks about it.

but there is much more interesting literature in this kind of direction, or by people exploring consciousness in general. Robert/ Bob Monroe was one of the first people to actually exlore out of body experiences which probably are in some way linked to this kind of experience- also an interesting read even though it may be considered a little esoteric and hard to "accept" with our analytical minds.