Near death situations often have that effect on people. And so can some other extraordinary situations. My own feeling about it is that those situations shock the human ego out of the little "room" (of consciousness) that it normally resides in and force it to look beyond itself and beyond that room, and then perceptions can change radically.

My Mother had a near death experience. Interestingly enough, in her case it didn't give her any perceptions about "God"....but she did have a very clear sense of operating independently of her body (which she could see lying in the hospital bed below her), moving up and away from there, and going down a tunnel toward some light. Before she got to that light, she felt something pulling her back toward her body. She was reluctant to re-enter the body, since she felt much better outside of it, but she did presently sink back into the body whereupon she felt very ill and weak, but with confidence that she would recover.

This experience gave her no beliefs about God at all....but did give her confidence that she will not "die" when physical death comes, but will continue to exist in some other way as a spirit being.

Interesting, isn't it? ;-) My Mother has never been interested in God or in religions (she belongs to no religion and is kind of hostile toward the whole idea of religion), but she is interested in the possibilities of life beyond death quite regardless.

In my case, I had a different kind of experience which I'm not going to go into. I will only say this: It showed me nothing about any "God", but it did show me much about strong spiritual friends and companions beyond the realm of this physical existence as we know it. And it assured me (as much as anything can) that I will not die when I "die", although my physical body most certainly will. I'll drop it like an old worn-out coat, and move on to the next thing, whatever the next thing turns out to be.