Mysteriously, I had experienced a body without a person, while my mother claimed to have been a person without a body.  It was as if a flame could exist without a wick.  Didn't something have to enable the flame to burn?  Was it possible that what I had witnessed in her eyes as she returned to life was a divine spark?  I didn't know, but I had come close enough to know that something was there – and only the thinnest veil had kept it from my literal sight.  Years later, I would come to realize that in that miraculous, mystifying moment between life and death, I had ventured into a place unlike any other place.  That's because thin places are not only extraordinary places.  They are also ordinarily found just this side of the other side.

Excerpted from "So Close, I Can Feel God's Breath: Experiencing His Nearness in Thin Places." Copyright 2006 by Dr. Beverly Rose.  Used by permission of SaltRiver Books (an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers).

Dr. Beverly Rose earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and held an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School.  Author of "Mothers Never Die," Dr. Rose has appeared nationally on radio and television.  Raised in the Jewish faith, she is now a faithful follower of Jesus.  Despite the daily trials of living with a neuromuscular disease, Dr. Rose experiences great jog and hope in her walk with the Lord.  Dr. Rose currently resides in Colorado Springs with her beloved toy poodle, Nikki.