The Near – Death Story of Mellen-Thomas Benedict   In 1982, I died from terminal cancer. My condition was non-operable. I chose not to have chemotherapy. I was given six to eight months to live. Before this time, I had become increasingly despondent over the nuclear crisis, the ecology crisis, and so forth. I came to believe that nature had made a mistake-that we were probably a cancerous organism on the planet. And that is what eventually killed me. Before my near-death experience, I tried all sort of alternative healing methods. None helped. So, I determined that this was between me and God. I had never really considered God. Neither was I into any kind of spiritually and alternative healing. I read various religions and philosophies. They gave hope that there was something on the other side. I had no medical insurance, so my life savings went overnight on tests. Unwilling to drag my family into this, I determined to handle this myself. I ended up in hospice care and was blessed with an angel for my hospice caretaker, whom I will call “Anne”. She stayed with me through all that was to follow.   Why did he choose to stay in a hospice care?