Mark W NDEs

Experience Description

Some months after the car wreck I had been in, I encountered another brush with death and another trip out of my body. At the time, I was taking medication for a potential ulcer condition. Ulcers ran in my family. I used to hang around with a guy that also took medication for some other reason. Anyway, I was in the bathroom after my friend had just left after a visit. It was time for my medication and I reached down, grabbed my pills and took them. The problem was that they were not my pillsûthey were my friend's pills. He had left a few on the bathroom counter. They looked so much like my own that I did not pay enough attention to the fact that they were not. Not knowing yet what I had done, I left the bathroom and proceeded down the hall.

I began to feel strange. After a bit, I felt my heart start to pound. I went toward the couch to sit down, but even before I could get there, I broke out into a drenching sweat. It was like perspiration just exploded from my pores and I was soaking wet. As I sat on the edge of the couch, my heart started to beat even more strongly and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. I noticed my chest bulging from the force of my heartbeat. I slumped back onto the couch and relaxed in hopes of slowing my heartbeat down. As I lay there on my back, I looked downward across my chest where my rib cage was continuing to bulge with each heartbeat. Then my heart gave one giant push and my rib cage seemed to rise three inches and froze. That was it. I was gone. I was no longer in my body in California.

I was now hovering at ceiling level in the living room of the house I grew up in, in Washington. I could not believe the magnitude of the peace I felt, just being out of my body! The clarity of everything around me was like the difference you feel when you wake up from a dream into reality. I had 360-degree vision. The calm, the peace, the joy I felt were indescribable. It wasn't that I was in Heaven. I wasn't. It was that there was so much peace and joy just being out of a body that's continually warring to have its way. It is amazing how much we endure just having to live in a body, which is subjected to the curse of sin.

The colors I saw were so bright! My senses were so keen and sharp! I looked out the front door, across the street, and over to the neighbors' house. The sunlight shimmered in glorious splendor, like liquid gold. I was soaking up this wonderful experience without even thinking about how I had gotten there. Then I started to contemplate how I did get there. 'Let's see, the last thing I remember is that I was in my house in California. And, hmm, I had been lying on the couch and there had been something wrong with my heart. O my gosh! I remember now! My heart had given one last heave and had stopped. And now I'm here'. As I turned this over in my mind, my overwhelming wonderment began to give way to a sense of grief.

I had figured I was dead, yes, but my grief was not about my dying. It was about the fact that soon my mother, my sister, or my brother were going to come home and find my body. I wanted desperately for them not be subjected to the shock of that. This thought was interrupted by observing two beings off in the distance conversing together, and the subject of their conversation was me, what was to become of me now?

Suddenly I was aware of a spiritual realm opening up below me. I was shocked to see what appeared to be an entryway into Hell. Peripherally I could see the flames of Hell far below me, but I avoided looking directly at them. 'Where am I? What is going on?' I wondered. I seemed to be suspended between Heaven and Hell, still aware of Earth and knowing that my eternal fate was being weighed in the balance. Looking upward, I saw before me a sort of highway made of pure, transparent gold. I knew that it led up to the very throne of God. But even the prospect of Hell below me versus the promise of Heaven above me did not take my mind off the fear that was consuming me that my family might soon find me dead. I felt so responsible. I wanted to make it right. I absolutely did not want them to suffer that.

I had no idea how to get back to my body, or, if I did get back to it, how would l get back in it, and then how would I jump-start it back to life? So there I was, once again standing before God, stripped of my earthly body, crying out 'O, God!' for the second time. That was all I could do again. I was in a situation I could do nothing about and I just fell down before God calling out, 'Oh, God!' And whoosh! I went flying through the air and right away, I was back in California, hovering above the roof of our apartment building. I could see right down through the roof and to where my body was lying face up on the couch.

And, just as one goes down a playground slide, I slid down through the ceiling, and into my body. I entered through the top of my head and my eyes popped open! I lay there, totally astonished, recalling the peace and joy I had felt, but more strongly than that, feeling fervently thankful that my family was not going to find me lying dead on the couch! I started wondering about the two beings who had been discussing my fate. I figured they had to be angels or saints of some kind, beings that had been sent by the Lord.

'What in the world happened to me?' I thought as I lay there. When I felt it was safe to get up and walk around, I arose from the couch and went into the bathroom to try to piece things together. Was it my medication that had done this to me? Why had it happened this time and never before? There on the bathroom counter lay a couple of the pills left over from the ones I had taken just before my heart started pounding. When I examined them more closely, I saw that they were not my pills after all. They were my friend's pills.

Sometime later, I did find out from a doctor what had occurred. It had been a chemically induced cardiac arrest. And, thank the Lord again, due to the kind of medication it was, it had not damaged my heart. It had just stopped it. So for a bit, I was a dead person with a perfectly good heart. All it needed was someone knowledgeable about jump-starting hearts God.á Now I was really starting to wonder about death and the hereafter. I had received Christ at twelve years old at Camp Cedar Crest in the San Bernardino Mountains. But now I was about 18 and had wandered quite a ways from God and from doing what he wanted me to do. These experiences were definitely suggesting to me reasons for me to get back to God. The car wreck, my life passing before my eyes, and now this including being suspended between Heaven and Hell! Was I even saved any more?

FACE TO FACE WITH JESUS That question, 'Am I saved?' became more and more prominent in my thoughts. I had had two encounters with death and in both situations the issue seemed to concern whether I was saved or not. When I was twelve, I had asked for and accepted the Lord into my life. However, at this point, around age 18, my life did not seem to contain any evidence that God was still present within me. In fact, I had even grown to hate Christians. I pondered and pondered. In my mind, I went over and over the car wreck, to the point where I began to think maybe I really had actually died and was really in Hell now. That's right, I really began to think that maybe what seemed like 'reality' to me was just an illusion. My concern and fear about not being saved was becoming so strong that I was starting to lose touch with reality. I became so anxious that sometimes I felt that if I heard so much as a pin drop, it would put me over the edge.

I was directing theater at a college in California while I was approaching the worst of my condition. I just barely made it through directing the play, 'Revolt at the Portholes' when I received a job offer in North Dakota in the area where I had grown up. I thought that maybe taking a new job which would entail getting out of L.A. and away from everything might help me. I haphazardly threw some clothes and a few of my books into a suitcase and off I went. I did not know what inspiring little book I had thrown into my suitcase until I had been North Dakota for a while. I stayed with my aunt and uncle.

My aunt worked at the hospital where the job prospect was, so she set up the interview. I went but I did not get the job. (I had thought the job was all arranged.) So there I was with nothing to do in North Dakota but to sit there with my thoughts and my thoughts were killing me. I looked in my suitcase and there was that little book called 'The ABC of Fasting.' I had no idea what 'fasting' was. I was brought up going to a Baptist church with my mother and to a Lutheran church with my grandmother. So what was 'fasting?' I had never heard it mentioned. Well, I read in the book that fasting is the best way to get in touch with God. 'And that is what I have to do,' I thought to myself. I had to get in touch with God or else one of two things was going to happen.

I would either go insane from the fears I was having or the fears would just kill me outright and I did not feel that this was an exaggeration. So it was not a matter of a choice for me. It was a matter of survival. I started my fast. I took in nothing but water. I decided that while l was on my fast, I would read my whole Bible all the way through. I started with Genesis, right at the beginning. Now, I had been to church all my life, but I did not know the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. So when I got to the part in Exodus about having to sacrifice bulls and stuff to atone for my sins, I got very discouraged. I did not know how in the world I was going to get a bull to offer for my sins or even what I would do with a bull once I got one. That added to my depression and my confusion.

After the third day of my fast, my mind became unbelievably clear. It was like having a super-mind. My mind became so aware that I could remember things that had happened throughout my whole life with extreme clarity. The trouble was that I could remember my sins with increased clarity, too. I was becoming plagued more and more, not by the spirit of conviction, which is from God, but by the spirit of condemnation and accusation, which is from the enemy. At times, it was an incredibly wonderful experience, as my spirit would soar with hope! But then it would become a living nightmare, as, for example, while I was lying in bed, faces would appear before me and accuse me of every sin I had ever done and even sins I hadn't done as long as I would believe them, it seemed. That is when I learned that one of Satan's axioms is: 'If it works, use it.' Satan started telling me I was really the re-incarnated Judas Iscariot and that God had allowed me to be re-incarnated as 'me' only as part of his mercy, because I had been suffering in Hell ever since I had betrayed Christ in my former life as Judas. And now I was headed back to Hell for my current sins. Mind you, I did not have a real solid Christian foundation to know whether 'reincarnation' was garbage or not. I started mixing every idea I had ever heard with Christianity, assuming they were supposed to fit not knowing that a lot of it was not supposed to fit at all. Satan used all these bizarre thoughts to really rattle my cage. He said World War I and World War II and Vietnam were all my fault. (Like I said, if he thinks it will work he'll use it. He has no scruples in such things.) I must confess, I had a harder time fighting for my salvation than some people might have because our family had, for many years, been involved with the occult. As part of what was going on in my family, I had made a pact with Satan at about age 14 or 15. And what I had asked for in that pact, I had gotten. That made this battle harder for me. Satan was telling me that I belonged to him and there was no hope of my going to Heaven or receiving Jesus, and that all this fasting crap was not going to do me any good.

About the eighth day of my fast, I had a phone conversation with my mother and I mentioned how concerned I was that I could not find, or afford to get, a bull to sacrifice for my sins. She asked me what in the world I had been reading. I told her I had started at the beginning of the Bible and had gotten upset when I found I needed to sacrifice a bull. Well, I found out that this was 'bull!' She tried to explain to me about being in a different dispensation and to read the New Testament first because that is the part of the Bible that had to do with me. 'O.K.,' I thought, 'I'll do that.' In my mind I was still wondering, 'What's a dispensation?' It could have been some kind of a duck for all I knew. Anyway, I started reading the New Testament. I started to read how I didn't need a bull or a lamb and that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God.

Boy, was that ever a joyful moment when I read that I did not have to find my own bull (and besides I didn't need any more 'bull' in my life! I was dealing with all I could handle at the time thinking I had caused World War II and all.) Then I started reading about something called a 'Holy Spirit.' 'What in the world is a Holy Spirit!?' And also the Bible said that when Jesus departed, he told us that he was sending back the Comforter. 'Man! What is a Comforter! I want to know! I sure do need something to comfort me!' I thought to myself. Now I was getting to about the twelfth day of my fast. I was still walking on pins and needles about my salvation. I felt condemned to Hell most of the time, but I kept pursuing God. Sitting in the kitchen at my aunt's place, with my uncle sitting there having lunch on break from work, I began to share what I had been reading about the Holy Spirit. I was thinking we would have a wonderful conversation and maybe, since my aunt always seemed so involved with church, she could shed some light on the matter for me.

So I opened up and told them how I was reading in the Bible about something called the Holy Spirit and how it says God gives us that when we become Christians, and that we receive power to do things I had never heard about before in church. I mean, it said that sick people would get healed and all kinds of stuff. So there I sat at the kitchen table waiting for some piece of wonderful advice and edification to issue forth from the mouth of my seemingly seasoned Christian aunt. She began to scream at me. 'You leave that Holy Spirit stuff alone. That stuff is of the Devil! You'll go crazy and go to Hell if you mess with that. That Holy Spirit crap is straight out of Hell.' Would you believe me if I told you I sat there in shock not minor shock major shock. Boy was I confused! This was my aunt who was always doing things with ladies groups at church and who always carried her Bible around. Here was a Bible in my hands that talked about a Holy Spirit and receiving power from God. It said that this was good and part of our heritage.

I began to wonder if we had the same Bible. However, she was in such an uncontrollable rage that I thought I'd just better sit there and be quiet. Over the next few days, the air was thick as tar. I was continuing my fast, which had already been worrying both my aunt and my uncle. And now that I was getting hung up in this Holy Spirit stuff, they were getting real agitated. About the 16th day of my fast, my aunt gave me an ultimatum. She said that I had to get off the fast and 'leave all that Holy Spirit crap alone' or I had to go back to California. To me this was not a choice. I was still fighting for my life and my sanity. So I just told her I would start packing. So there I was again, back in California still battling for my salvation. My fast moved into its 18th day, then 19th day, and then it was the 20th day of my fast. I wanted to go 40 days, like they seem to do in the Bible.

I guess I had the thought that it had to be 40 days to be a real fast. I thought it had to be 40 days in order to get the answers you were looking for but lying there on the 20th day, I began to get little twinges of desire for something to eat. I had not been at all hungry in all those days. (Hunger leaves you after the second or third day.) I felt that it might be time to end the fast. So, after much contemplation on whether to end it or not, I decided I would do so by following the suggestions in my 'ABC of Fasting' book on how to break a fast. Do it slow and easy. All I was supposed to have after that length of time was about an ounce or two of orange juice. So I poured myself a small glass and took a sip. My Gosh! That was the strongest tasting stuff! Fasting and cleaning out my body for so long had sharpened my sense of taste, and I could not handle how strong that orange juice tasted.

So I mixed it about ten to one with water. I sipped it again and it was plenty tasty, even diluted that much. Then, as I stood there in the kitchen taking little sips of orange juice, I noticed in the cupboard a bag of marshmallows. I thought I would nibble on one marshmallow with my orange juice. That seemed safe to me. Pretty tasty stuff! Not exactly a great combination, orange juice and marshmallows, but very tasty. After I had finished I lay on the couch and thought, 'OK, God, I have done what I can. I am leaving my soul and salvation in your hands.' I closed my eyes and just sort of began to 'twilight.' That's where you are not really asleep and you are not really awake, but you are aware. You are conscious of the fact that you are just 'twilighting.' Then, poof, I was gone again out of my body. I found myself sitting in a chair as solid as anything on earth. It seemed to be suspended in midair above what seemed to be Hell - just as had happened previously. The flames were closer now and I could see the flames lashing upwards towards me.

There in front of my face was Satan cursing me and reminding me of everything I had done wrong and what an idiot I was to expect to be saved. And he stuck his face in mine and unceasingly and mercilessly went on and on with his accusations. I was so stricken with the fear of the truth of what he was saying; I did not know what to do. I could not defend myself. I was guilty. I was a sinner and not a small one. My mind groped for what to do. I was unable to speak. My hands were limp at my sides. And then one single thought came to me, like a beam of light. It was the memory of how my mother had taught me to fold my hands in prayer when I was just three years old. I thought, 'That's what I'll do. I'll just put my hands together to pray.' As I began to raise my hands, Satan jumped back as though I had shocked him somehow.

Then in the same moment I felt an unseen force between my hands pushing them apart. It seemed as if Satan did not want my hands to come together in prayer. I had not realized he would be so affected by the mere thought of someone deciding to pray. It was an incredibly powerful force that was pushing my hands apart. I devoted everything I had into just putting my hands together because it felt like a battle for my life. I felt myself breaking out in a sweat. (This was in itself interesting, since I was out of my body.) In desperation, I pushed and pushed and my hands slowly moved toward each other, and the closer they got, the more desperate the look on Satan's face became. After a period of struggle, my two hands finally came close enough for just my middle fingers to touch.

The moment they touched, I felt so totally drained of energy that I cried out in a loud voice that seemed to fill the universe: 'O, God!' That was the third time out of my body and the third, I cried 'O, God.' The very micro-second I cried out, Satan, the chair, the flames, and the whole room shot out forward and away from me like watching the starship Enterprise shift from pulse-drive into warp 10. As it went, I heard a funny high-pitched shrieking, whizzing sound. I paused, suspended in a void for just a moment, and then I saw something in the distance coming toward me. Again, there was a strange kind of sound a low pitched 'humming' sound. (It seemed to me at the time that this scene was coming towards me, but I have since reflected that maybe I was the one traveling to it.) Anyway, suddenly there was a flesh-and-bone person before me. And before I could even think to speak, I heard my own voice say, 'It's really you!'

I was surrounded by the Shekinah Glory of God and there, sitting on a very large pure-white boulder, was Jesus Christ. My attention spiraled in on him, at first noticing the peripheral things. I saw he was bare-footed, then my attention, working clockwise, noticed his robe and how absolutely unbelievably white it was. (It was so white there are no words on earth to describe it. Everything on earth is just ugly shades of gray in comparison.) My attention went up to his shoulders and I saw his hair, the color of ripe black olives, just brushing the tops of his shoulders. Coming around about waist level, I was reveling again in the brightness of his robe. Then up to his cheek. He was looking off to the side with his right side toward me. His cheeks were emaciated he looked like someone who had not eaten recently. He was, by our standards a homely looking guy, but I at this point I became quite confused by what I saw.

He had no beard, as I had grown up to think of him as having, and he had these noticeable sort of pockmarks on his cheeks, as if his face had been disfigured by an extreme case of acne. That very much puzzled me. Then my attention moved up his face and there I caught him eye to eye. There are no earthly words to convey what I saw. His eyes were like flames of black fire and it was as though I were looking into another universe that was within him a universe that was without limits, that was endless in size and that was made of the pure substance of Love. I was looking into an endless universe of pure Love. What happened next was as if I had been holding a case of dynamite and it went off in my hands. The power I encountered in his eyes blew me backwards with such force that I felt propelled through the entire universe and maybe I was. As I slowed down, I could see a ceiling about an inch in front of my face. There I was again, hovering up near the ceiling in my apartment and I could see my body below me on the couch.

Slowly I began to float downward toward my body, like one of those gently falling dandelion seed 'puffs'. As I entered my body (through my chest this time,) I could feel my body grasp hold of me. It felt like two giant ugly claws coming up from both sides and grabbing me with a 'thud.' It was a sickening feeling, having just come from the glory of Jesus to re-entering that un-glorified chunk of sin-wracked flesh we call our bodies. I knew what I had seen. I knew, that I knew, that I knew I had just been face to face with Jesus Christ himself but I had a problem. I had never heard of this having happened to anyone else before. I wondered if I were the only one in the whole world. I didn't know what to do with this. I didn't know whether I should tell someone, or what. I decided I needed to find out. So this was my very first prayer, just moments after having returned. I prayed, 'Lord, if this has happened to anyone else, please show me and lead me to them to confirm what I have just gone through.

And over the next few weeks, God brought to me about sixty other people who had had similar experiences. It was about three and a half months later that the confusing puzzle was solved for me about why Jesus had not had a beard when I saw him. (In fact, it had become a pressing question in my mind whether I had seen the real Jesus or not, because he had not had a beard.) But then one glorious day, as I was reading my Bible, I found a prophecy that explained that as he was to be brought before Pilate, and also at the crucifixion, he was to be abused and beaten and one thing they would also do was to pull his beard out by the handfuls. That explained it! I had seen the real Jesus and the scars and pockmarks were where his beard had been ripped out by the roots. Jesus may have had an emaciated, scarred and homely face, but I can say from true experience that if Heaven had nothing else to offer, it would suffice just to sit and look into his face for all eternity.

Note: I had very much needed the confirmation of other people, as I mentioned, and I did meet many people who told me of their own encounters with Jesus. One of the first was my own mother, who had not told anyone the story for more than fifty years. Her mother warned her never to repeat it. After my own encounter, I had still not said a word to her about it when she brought up her experience. We were out to dinner together, and she looked across the table at me at said, 'I feel led to tell you of an encounter with Jesus I had that I have only told one person about since it happened.' And she described Jesus as looking just the way I had seen Him! Confirmations like this with a variety people went on for a number of months. One of the wildest encounters I had was while I was working the night shift at a 7-11 store. A very good-looking guy walked into the store, came right up to me and simply said, 'Aren't His eyes the most wonderful thing?' and then he stood there smiling at me. I said 'YES' And with that smile on his face, he blessed me and walked out the door without having bought a thing. I have a hard time not thinking he was an angel!

Background Information:

Gender: Male

Date NDE Occurred: 1969

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Uncertain Accident. Surgery-related. Allergic reaction. Drug or medication overdose. While under general anesthesia. Clinical death (cessation of breathing or heart function or brain function) I don't want to fill this whole questionnaire out for each one of my four experiences but just briefly: one was a car accident, one was accidental poisoning, another I was when I was over-anesthetized during surgery, and one was simply when I had fasted for too long.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Both pleasant AND distressing

The experience included: Out of body experience

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes During one operation, I left the operating room by moving through the closed door. I went down the hall to my surgeon's office, which he kept locked. I just passed right through the locked door and memorized some of the things on his desk so I could tell him what I saw when I came back. I did tell him and thus verified to him that my experience was real, but in spite of that, he could not grasp it. I clearly left my body and existed outside it

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? More consciousness and alertness than normal The difference is drastic. It is like being in a dream that we call 'life' here in the body, then 'waking up' to all that glory and reality that is on the other side. It is hardly comparable at all to earth life, and certainly cannot be conveyed adequately by words.

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? Any time being out of the body there is extreme clarity beyond what we know while in the body and then if we go higher into the presence of God, time is no more, and things are even more intense in how real and clear they are.

Were your thoughts speeded up? Incredibly fast

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning It was outside of time. It was eternity an eternal moment without ending.

Were your senses more vivid than usual? Incredibly more vivid

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I remember looking at a couple of beings about a couple hundred feet away, but I could count their every eyelash. I could see some things that were like hundreds of miles away. There just isn't much restriction of the senses there.

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I didn't hear much. I knew others were talking about me, but not to me. The clearest voice I heard was my own when I found myself standing before the Lord and I said, 'It's REALLY YOU!'

Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere? Yes, and the facts have been checked out

The experience included: Tunnel

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? Yes I did go through a tunnel when I left my body after I had finished fasting.

The experience included: Presence of deceased persons

Did you see any beings in your experience? I actually saw them

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? Yes had seen other beings discussing my future whether I would be sent back or not, but they did not talk to me just to each other. I sensed more beings around, but my focus was taken up with the beauty and peace of things.

The experience included: Void

The experience included: Darkness

The experience included: Unearthly light

Did you see, or feel surrounded by, a brilliant light? An unusually bright light

Did you see an unearthly light? Yes The Glory I saw within Jesus was endless, with no boundaries, and then looking into His eyes was like looking into another endless universe of pure fiery love - PURE LOVE, forever and without end

The experience included: A landscape or city

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? Some unfamiliar and strange place Like I say I have seen the Lake of Fire and I have seen the glories of Heaven and there are no words to describe either. No words to express the fearsomeness of Hell and no words to relate the beauties of Heaven. Rebecca Springer has the closest account of the many things I also saw and can relate to. Her book 'Within Heaven's Gates' is an excellent resource on the subject. And I will say I had never been exposed to such information BEFORE things like that happened to me so my experience wasn't the result of some information I had read forming visions in my brain.

The experience included: Hellish imagery

The experience included: Strong emotional tone

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Seeing Hell was terrifying and pretty much had me in shock, but the visions of Heaven were too wonderful to describe! Words fail again. The greatest of all was just looking into the face of Jesus. If that was all heaven had to offer, it would suffice for eternity.

Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness? Incredible peace or pleasantness

Did you have a feeling of joy? incredible joy

Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe? No

The experience included: Special knowledge or purpose

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? Everything about myself or others. Again, I certainly saw everything about my life and what a screw-up I had become. As for others, I don't recall getting information about anyone else. I did come to understand the endless Love in the fiery, pitch-black, fully LOVING eyes of Christ and I came to understand Him more. But I did not come to understand the universe or feel 'ONE WITH NATURE.'

The experience included: Life review

Did scenes from your past come back to you? My past flashed before me, out of my control

Did scenes from the future come to you? Scenes from the world's future After these events, I did begin to have insights into things coming in the future - called 'prophetic' insights.

The experience included: Boundary

Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure? Uncertain I'm not sure I understand the question, but there is a boundary point where, if you cross it, you can't come back here you just stay there.

Did you come to a border or point of no return? I came to a barrier that I was not permitted to cross; or was sent back against my will Once I understood I was dead, I felt an overwhelming grief when I realized that my mother would find me, lying on the couch, having passed on, so I pleaded to be sent back for the sake of my family.

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What importance did you place on your religious/spiritual life prior to your experience? Greatly important to me

What was your religion prior to your experience? Christian- Other Christian I had never heard of such stories until I had my own

Have your religious practices changed since your experience? Yes It changed a Baptist-raised guy into one who functions in the areas of visions and prophecy not your typical Baptist boy.

What importance do you place on your religious/spiritual life after your experience? Greatly important to me

What is your religion now? Christian- Other Christian My religious background is too extensive to try capture in this little box - You could read of it in my book "Casting Pearls" - which I have a PDF file of or can mail a copy - I am negotiating a publishing contract at the momment, but feel I need to find someone with a little more "get-up-and-go" in the marketing dept.

Did your experience include features consistent with your earthly beliefs? Content that was entirely not consistent with the beliefs you had at the time of your experience Having never heard of such experiences before - having been raised a Baptist - you just never heard such stories - so I had to research them myself for peace of mind.

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes I was becoming a real jerk and God needed to get my attention.á He got it!

The experience included: Presence of unearthly beings

Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice? I encountered a definite being, or a voice clearly of mystical or unearthly origin I encountered Jesus in one, but He did not speak to me I just heard my own voice saying, 'It's really you!'

Did you see deceased or religious spirits? I actually saw them

Did you encounter or become aware of any beings who previously lived on earth who are described by name in religions (for example: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.)? Yes I saw Jesus. The offering I wrote above should be extensive enough to glean from that more of the answer

During your experience, did you gain information about premortal existence? No

During your experience, did you gain information about universal connection or oneness? Yes Everything in Heaven is in perfect harmony - and I say that about HEaven - not the earth or feeling one with nature or that kind of thing.

Did you believe in the existence of God prior to your experience? God definitely exists

During your experience, did you gain information about the existence of God? Yes First fought with and evil spirit - so know they exist - Then saw Jesus face ti face to I know He exists and is ALIVE and NOT dead.

Do you believe in the existence of God after your experience? God definitely exists

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? Yes That Christ is real and He has risen.

Did you believe that our earthly lives are meaningful and significant prior to your experience? Are possibly meaningful and significant

During your experience, did you gain information about the meaning of life? Yes The purpose it to find Christ and to try submit to Him is such a way as to take on His charcater and nature.

Did you believe in an afterlife prior to your experience? An afterlife definitely exists

Do you believe in an afterlife after your experience? An afterlife definitely exists Yes The fact that I was there and conscience is self evident of this issue - and it is NOT some chemical reaction that goes on in the brain. How would a chemical reaction in the brain show you what is happening hundreds of miles away that is verifiable?

Did you fear death prior to your experience? I greatly feared death

Do you fear death after your experience? I do not fear death

Were you fearful living your life prior to your experience? Moderately fearful in living my earthly life

Were you fearful living your life after your experience? Greatly fearful in living my earthly life

Did you believe that our earthly lives are meaningful and significant prior to your experience? Are possibly meaningful and significant

Did you believe that our earthly lives are meaningful and significant after your experience? Are meaningful and significant

Did you gain information about how to live our lives? Yes How incrediably MORE God is than we can every imagine here and His holiness is NOT obtainable exept by the miracle of redemption for which we wait and graon for.

During your experience, did you gain information about life's difficulties, challenges and hardships? No

Were you compassionate prior to your experience? Not compassionate toward others

During your experience, did you gain information about love? Yes Extreme love in the presence of Christ and especially looking into His eyes was the ultimate that it gets.

Were you compassionate after your experience? Greatly compassionate toward others

What life changes occurred in your life after your experience? Large changes in my life

Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? Yes Yes It drew me back into my faith and settled some issues for me.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? Yes There are simply no words in any human language that does adequate service to describe the many things I could see and sense. Sights, sounds, smells - all sharpened to total clarity. At one point, every moment of my life was laid bare before me.

How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience? I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience Please refer to the stories I put above as this is becoming repetitious in responses. And the wording of some of these questions are very confusing I think.

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes Visions, prophecy, discernment, wisdom.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? Looking into the eyes of Christ was simply the best thing in the universe for me.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes I did not share it for some weeks, because I was still trying to figure out if I had just gone insane or something. Then I started meeting others who had seen the same things. And me seeing him with His beard ripped out was a bigger validation to me than maybe anything else. Also, over many months, he kept sending more and more people to share their experiences with me.

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience? No

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was definitely real First, it was vivid beyond words. Then all the confirmations that came from so many people afterward it just totally validated it for me.

What do you believe about the reality of your experience now? Experience was definitely real Same as I believed shortly afterward.

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? No Each experience had its own certain and consistent details. Christ in glory. I have seen some things more than once and they don't change, whether they be the music I've heard, or heavenly smells.

Is there anything else that you would like to add about your experience? No not right now other than I wish everyone could have a taste of it.

Are there any other questions that we could ask to help you communicate your experience? I think you need to revise some of the questions, because the way they are asked was truly confusing to me.