Is Heaven for Real? 2 Personal Stories of Visiting Heaven

By Patrick Doucette

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Published by Kindle

Is Heaven for Real? 2 Personal Stories of Visiting Heaven

By Patrick Doucette

©2013 Patrick Doucette

All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – A Fateful Flight

Chapter 2 – Gunned Down to Glory

Chapter 3 – A Crash at Christmas

Chapter 4 – Over an Hour in Heaven

Chapter 5 – A Young Boy meets His Grandma at the Gate

Chapter 6 – An Early Trip to Eternity

Chapter 7 – A Sojourn in Her Sleep

Chapter 8 - A Scary Surgery

Chapter 9 - A Surfer’s Story - Revisited

Chapter 10 - Bonus Addendum - John Bunyon’s Rare Vision of Heaven

Afterword – A Note from the Author

Introduction

In 1999 Mark Bowden wrote a book entitled “Black Hawk Down”. It was the story of American soldiers attempting to rescue the crew from a downed MH-60 helicopter in the midst of hostile forces in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Later the book was also made into a popular motion picture; the movie however omitted some key details that were included in the book. Mark Bowden is an award winning reporter and writer so you can be sure that he attempted to portray the historical events with a high degree of accuracy.

There is a tense and emotional scene described in the book when one of the soldiers is dying; he asks the medic to tell his parents and family that he was thinking of them as he died, and that he loved them. Then the medic and the soldier prayed together.[1] This small detail of praying together at deaths doorstep changes the entire portrayal of the situation and adds an element of realism that resonates with the reader.

Another scene from the book that stood out in my mind was when helicopter pilot Mike Durant was captured by the enemy combatants. He was dragged from the crash site by an angry mob and at that time, he felt himself leaving his body and watching the scene from outside of himself.

Mike Durant

What would have caused this out of body experience? Obviously the injuries suffered in the crash itself had left him close to death. He had a broken leg and crushed vertebrae in his back. Also the added beating from the encroaching mob together with the crash trauma had caused his spirit to leave his body temporarily.

One may wonder why these elements were excluded from the film. It is likely that these topics of praying on the edge of death and the spirit leaving the body were simply too difficult for the general public to accept. The audience is naturally interested to see the glorification of war, action, explosions and heroes. The more somber and sobering question of what happens to us at the very edge of death is not going to sell more movie tickets these days.

Many people have had similar out-of-body experiences as that experienced by Mike Durant; often as the result of trauma. Hospital patients relate how they can see themselves laying on a hospital bed and watching as the medical personnel work to resuscitate them. These occurrences tell us that our spirits are separate or at least can separate from our bodies. What of those whose spirits have travelled farther to experience more details of the afterlife? Have some person’s spirits ‘travelled’ to heaven and back? That is the subject of this book and as you will see, there are indeed those who have had remarkable afterlife experiences. Read on to hear powerful and touching firsthand accounts of life after life!

This book has been compiled from a wide variety of transcripts and interviews with people who have experienced the afterlife. In some instances the narratives have been slightly edited for the sake of brevity, conversational grammar or to maintain the flow and readability of the testimony for the reader.

The following accounts are from different people at different times and in different places. They are all sincere; they had a story to tell and they attempted to share their experience to the best of their ability. Some of these stories will likely resonate and encourage and inspire you. Some may be difficult to relate to or to understand; if that is the case, I would suggest you skip that particular story for the time being and move on to the next one. From researching this topic, it appears that those who have had these types of experiences; they are usually unique in many ways; even though there may be some general similarities.

Perhaps the afterlife is revealed to us in such a way that allows each of us to understand and comprehend the process of passing in a gentle way. The uniqueness of each experience may be in part due to the individual; their ability to take in the awesomeness of such an event may be reflected in their memory of the event. In any case, the following testimonials are presented to the reader in the hopes that they will encourage and inspire; my hope is that you will find, as I did, a common theme within these experiences which seem to reflect the powerful love of God towards humanity, towards us.

~ Patrick Doucette

Chapter 1 – A Fateful Flight

Captain Dale Black is an airline pilot with over 40 years of flying experience. He is also a very respected aviation safety expert and is also the owner of a real estate company. He waited thirty-eight years before telling his story. There are all kinds of people out there trying to make headlines with their stories of ‘revelation’. Dale Black kept his story very much to himself until recently.

Dale Black: When this accident occurred I was nineteen.

Interviewer: You had always wanted to fly and then finally you get flying and are working on your pilot’s license. Tell us the story, what happened?

Dale Black: Well, I had actually received my private pilot’s license. I got my private license and then I went working towards my multi-engine which was the next; and I had actually finished the training and had a check ride set up for my multi-engine rating.

It was July 18th, 1969; you may remember that was the era when the moon was about to be conquered. Astronauts had already taken off and would be touching down on the moon surface in just two days.

I was at the airport early that day, 5:30 AM. I was there all ready to go and the airplane had already been pre-flighted. I had loaded the airplane, secured the cargo as I had been instructed to do and I actually started the engines up that day and warmed them up with what’s called an ‘engine run-up’ where you are testing the systems.

Now I wasn’t really experienced but I did know what I was doing. The other two pilots showed up that day and they asked me, “Have you done the pre-light?” And I said, “Yes sir, I‘ve done the pre-light.”

“Have you loaded the aircraft?”

“Absolutely, it’s all loaded and secured.”

“Okay, have you done an engine run-up?”

Even though I had, I said, “No, not really, I warmed up the engines.” Because at age nineteen I felt like I was a little too inexperienced to take that much responsibility.

So they came in and strapped themselves in; Gene was in the left seat, I was in the right seat. Chuck the experienced command pilot was actually in the third temporary seat. We taxied out to take off. This is, by the way, the Hollywood –Burbank Airport in Southern California; runway 1-5.

Just as we were getting ready to take the runway; and I mean thirty seconds before we took the runway, I noticed that Gene seemed a little abrupt on the flight controls that day. I’ve kind of kept this quiet for a lot of years but that’s clearly what I noticed; something was unusual. Chuck noticed it too; he tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me without saying a word to flip-flop seats. So we’re actually taxiing onto the runway and I’m getting out of the co-pilots seat and getting in the temporary third seat and Chuck is now strapping himself in.

Everything seemed normal. The weather was clear, no winds to speak of, the sun just coming up on the Eastern horizon and we start rolling down the runway lightly bouncing. Everything seemed normal; I could look at all the instruments and tell what was happening. But we rotated the aircraft that day, we went off pitching the nose up a little earlier than normal. I remember thinking, “Why are we rotating this aircraft at such a slow speed?” I think Chuck noticed it too, because I could tell that even though he was not the flying pilot that day, he was the one in charge of everything.

He allowed the aircraft to climb up to about a hundred feet above the airport runway and then we began this pitching. I remember hearing the noise; the last thing I do remember was Chuck pointing with his left hand and kind of barking into the cockpit, “Let’s land in that clear area over there.”

I looked, I kind of got up and looked and noticed there was this green area that looked like a park. What I didn’t know but found out later was that it was a cemetery. It looked like we were going to crash into some green grass, hopefully missing some trees that were looming ahead of us. And I actually thought, “Oh my word, we’re gonna be in the newspaper headlines tomorrow.” And that was almost my last thought.

But then I noticed Chuck, who was not flying the aircraft, but now he took over the controls. He grabbed the flight controls, my eyes went down to looking at his hands; he turned the flight controls all the way left and all the way back against his chest; and strange as it seems, I was looking at his fingers. I knew this man well, he was like my older brother; I noticed that he grabbed the flight controls so hard that the pink of his hands just turned completely white and I was looking at that thinking, “My gosh, we’re going to crash.” And that was my last thought.

Interviewer: You did crash but it was an unusual crash in that you slammed right into a major monument called ‘The Portal of the Folded Wings’. You hit right near the top and free fell seventy-five feet, you hit it at 135 miles per hour.

Dale Black: That’s right, 135 miles per hour, all that was left was just the tail of the aircraft. Two thirds of the aircraft was in little pieces, you could barely tell it was a plane. They found me in the base of the cockpit. I was lying there for eleven minutes and then finally I stumbled out of it. For a number of minutes, they thought all three of us were dead.

There were some bystanders that came by and saw all three pilots laying there motionless. One was clearly dead, the other two appeared dead. There was fuel and toxic fumes everywhere; we were all drenched in fuel and why there was no fire, it makes no sense except for the hand of God.

Interviewer: You were severely injured; they rushed you to the hospital and they didn’t figure you were going to live. Your left shoulder had exploded; your left ankle was destroyed but no internal bleeding which was amazing.

Dale Black: It was incredible, of course they didn’t know that at the time. They figured my brain had hemorrhaged, that’s what killed the other pilots, the blunt trauma primarily to the brain.

Interviewer: You got quite a blunt trauma to your brain.

Dale Black: Oh yeah, big time.

Interviewer: One eye was pierced, your face was all cut up and you were in the hospital for about a year.

Dale Black: Yes, since then I have had five plastic surgeries which have helped a lot. But yes, I was a mess, both legs broken, both knees, the ankle, the back in multiple places, the shoulder as you mentioned; cuts and lacerations but huge trauma to the skull. We had hit this monument at 135 miles per hour and we didn’t glance off of it, we slammed into it.

Interviewer: I can imagine someone going 135 miles per hour and slamming into a cement wall, that’s basically what happened to you.

Dale Black: Exactly.

Interviewer: The fact that you are alive is amazing. Now I wish I could get into all the details of your experience in the hospital, the people visiting you, the multitude of operations and your strong determination. On the anniversary of the accident, you were going to fly over the monument; that in itself is worth a movie! Maybe someday a movie will be made of your story.

Then you struggled to regain your health, this awareness you had after the accident; an unexpected love and compassion for people. The thing that really got to me, I don’t know how many times you went back to the college, back and forth.

Dale Black: Pasadena College.

Interviewer: Going out in the middle of the night lying on your back at the college on the football field going over this vision or this experience that you had?

Dale Black: I was quite convinced it was not a vision. I’d go back to the monument during the day time, in the middle of the night with friends or alone asking God to piece everything back together. It’s weird; it was hard for me to have so much that I did not understand. But then I remembered a lot of things; it was just strange. It took about eight months of consistent prayer. I don’t know why it took eight months, I have no clue; but I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would wake up drenched in sweat and I would have a little piece of the puzzle about the day of the crash. And then I would wake up the next night and get another piece of the puzzle.

Then I started to remember people that came to the hospital that I couldn’t remember before. All of this was like a jigsaw puzzle and it was almost like God was giving me a piece of the memory at a time.

Then over the period of about a week; all of a sudden I began to disengage my mental capability, my mind. I was still asking God, “Why am I so changed, why am I so different?” Nothing in my world looked the same. It was like; this is weird I know – I’m kind of a guy of science and business so talking about this is a bit uncomfortable on multiple levels but it’s still the truth – I felt like, what it would be like to go into a three dimensional movie with no glasses; and you were watching the movie and trying to get the best out of it; there’s images and motion and action but there is just this lack of clarity; and that was my life before the crash.

After the crash, when I woke up in the hospital, it was as if someone had placed these glasses on my eyes and now I could see in 3-D. It’s funny but the doctor told me; he and I became very close for years – but the doctor told me my first words upon waking were, “What happened to my eyes?” They didn’t think anything of it at the time because my right eye had been cut pretty bad and was stitched closed and there was bandaging all over my right eye, but I didn’t know that. I thought I was looking out, out of two very healthy strong eyes; but I was seeing more dimensions. And this has been a leftover effect of what happened during those three days.

Interviewer: So this was not a vision; it is incorrect to refer to it as a vision? This was something that – you’re convinced – not only changed your life but actually happened; what you saw is as real to you as anything else you have seen in your life; describe what you saw. You mentioned you were aware of being above your body in the hospital and seeing the doctor working on you and hearing them talk. And then you talk about this journey; tell me about it.

Dale Black: Well, it started at the crash scene where I was overlooking the crash scene; my lifeless body in the cockpit. Also it happened when my body was put in the ambulance. I was put in the same ambulance with Chuck and rushed to the hospital. When I got to the emergency room, I am literally away from my body if that makes any sense. Looking down, I am near the acoustical ceiling, looking straight down, I can see three nurses and a doctor working on me. They’re taking parts of the airplane out of my body; they’re cutting the clothing off. The doctor is on my left side looking primarily at my head and I’m wondering, ‘That’s clearly me, but I’m obviously not dead because I’ve never felt more alive; but why am I here? This looks like a hospital but what has put me here?; I have no clue as to why I am there.’

While I’m there looking down at my body, feeling no discomfort and no pain whatsoever, only questions – an image flashes back. It’s hard to describe but I’m looking back for some reason to when I am about a ten or eleven year old kid in the fifth grade and had listened to a sermon at a summer church camp at some denomination in Southern California somewhere and I had accepted this call to come down to an alter; it was some place where preachers knew how to use the word of God and put words together and move people. This preacher had impacted me and I walked forward and I prayed and I asked Jesus to come into my heart and at that time I was as sincere as I could possibly be – but images of that experience came to me while I was in that emergency room.

Then I realized that the decision I had made in the fifth grade was a key part as to why I was even alive; and why I am alive today – but I realized at the time I was a tender-hearted young kid who really wanted Jesus to be his savior. And He was – I really believed He was the Son of God and I had a little bit of basic understanding; but somehow when I saw the image of who I was then and who I was today – I was no longer that tender-hearted young kid.

Interviewer: You made some kind of a connection there. Now, you said you later had a sense of being transported at break-neck speed by two angelic escorts. You saw this far away city with light emanating from it, you remarked about the grass, the flowers, the fragrance, the beautiful walls around the city which you described as being stepped; how tall again you mentioned?

Dale Black: Around two hundred feet; as thick as they were tall; three outer layers and three inner layers.

Interviewer: You said they were made of multi-colored stones, some of them almost translucent. You talk about this beautiful gate with this gatekeeper and an assembly of people who you know that they know you, but you don’t recognize them. You said they had a total acceptance and love for you.

Dale Black: That has stayed with me every day since. I long for this and I believe this is like the body of Christ at work today; the same love, the same unity, we are one faith, one baptism. There’s one God and I’m looking forward to my time in heaven but there’s this wonderful time with brothers and sisters on the Earth now and so much work to be done.

You’re a believer; you’re going to be in heaven. We’re going to have some time together to get to know each other better but there are a lot of things to be done between now and then and I feel like I have a mission.

Interviewer: You have a mission and that’s probably a lot of the reason you’ve been a missionary pilot for so many years. Something that really fascinated me about your description of heaven was the houses. Tell me about that.

Dale Black: I call them little townships. I focused on three of them. I am sure there was a lot more. They were bright multi-colored buildings that were built just beautifully but orchestrated in a way that was balanced and harmonious to each other. No two homes were the same; three or four stories and taller; very customized but everything working towards complete and utter balance, order and harmony. Of course there were other things to see and notice but that was tremendous, awesome. He said that He would build mansions for us and I assumed that’s what they were.

Interviewer: You had impressions about the music and colors and the feeling of total energy, no tiredness. You said this is what existence is like without sin.

Dale Black: Yes, I noticed on Earth; it’s like air, we don’t even notice the air that we breathe until something happens where you can’t breathe anymore, then you think about nothing but air. When I was in heaven for a while, it took a while; I started realizing, ‘Oh my gosh, not only is this a place of utter completeness and love and beautiful perfection but it’s also the absence of everything terrible.

No strife, no sin, no envy, no competition, no hatred; nothing but just the opposite; that was part of what was so attractive about it.

Interviewer: Why do you suppose, you were brought back?

Dale Black: I believe there is a series of things; of course I’ve had a lifetime to ask that question. I believe that because of the fact that I was a Christian from my fifth grade decision; I believe the prayers of my parents and grandparents. My grandparents in particular prayed for their grandchildren daily by name. I believe that had a lot to do with it.

I do not feel like I earned nor deserved to have my life spared but I do feel like – every illustration has its weaknesses – but I feel like in a sense I have been sent back in time on board the Titanic on the night it was to sink. You know, I could get into the lifeboat and save myself but I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in waking everybody up and shaking them and telling them, “Get into that boat! Save yourself, get your spouse and your kids and your neighbors; get the people you love into the lifeboat, this ship is going down! Save yourself!”

I just feel like, in a sense, on this Earth, we are on the Titanic and we’re sinking but there’s this free gift of salvation; eternal life is available, no price could be paid that was greater than the blood of Jesus and what we need to do is simple; just simply believe and receive and get saved; so that’s my mission.

Interviewer: You may be one of the few people I’ve met who’s not afraid to die. It’s quite a story. Now you describe a ‘flight to heaven’ that began at the crash site, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and even in the operating room and then afterwards being transported at breakneck speed to this beautiful city. Can you give more details on this; first can you describe these two Angelic escorts you mentioned who were with you; what were they like?

Dale Black: If it were not for my publisher, this information would never have been released but I insisted they make this accurate and sacred; it must stay sacred so I can now share this …

Interviewer: I should say, if I may interrupt, that your grandfather advised you not to tell this story, but to live the story. And even though you kept the story for so many years, you now feel it is time to tell the story.

Dale Black: I was travelling through what looked like deep space moving past light that was blurring by as you had described at break-neck speed. And in the distance I was seeing a giant light. But about that time, I recognized I was not travelling alone. It seemed like it was coming from my body, a light beam in a sense, illuminating from me, illuminating my pathway. And the pathway that I was in was not a tunnel. It was a narrow beam of light illuminated by something coming from within me about twice the width of my body.

This story has not evolved, it is the same story that I had in 1970 when my memory came back; it hasn’t changed a bit. I noticed behind me, to my left and right, two Angelic beings that were masculine but not clearly male. They wore white seamless robes that were woven with silver threads. This is hard for me to talk about. It’s impossible to prove but one thing I can say is I’ve never been the same. My life has always been on a beat to a different drum and it’s because of this experience I’m talking out.

Anyway these are masculine, golden toned skin, beings that were clearly delighted to be escorting me into this wonderland. Their hair was almost white or it was from the light. I didn’t even have to look behind me to see them. My vision had been extremely enhanced and I could literally see their faces without moving my head. And yet, I couldn’t see completely behind me until I just moved a tad, just a little bit and then my vision could pick up everything.

It didn’t take long to start recognizing in the distance, as I’m moving at an extremely fast speed, this huge ball of light. It looked only white at first but as I’m moving towards it, it’s getting larger and larger, bigger and bigger. I was playing around on the computer trying to duplicate the light that I saw and one day I did see it! I was on YouTube and I found, ‘Tsar Bomb’. T-S-A-R Bomb; I pushed that play button and just wept when I saw it. The first millisecond after the bomb detonates, there’s this bright light flash, but there’s no sound, there’s no mushroom cloud, in fact it’s before there’s even any destruction.

Author’s note: one version is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwlNPhn64TA

Interviewer: This is a hydrogen bomb?

Dale Black: Yes, a hydrogen bomb. This was the biggest bomb ever detonated on Earth, I think it was fifty megaton. But I saw that and froze it. And I thought okay, wow; that’s as close as being able to describe it as possible.

Anyway I saw that but the light was not painful to look at; it should have been because it was brighter than the sun but something had changed in my eyes or something had changed in the light because I could look at this and all it did was invite me in. It was warm and inviting and everything was sort of changing but I could see in front of this light, where it went upward and outward in every direction, millions upon millions of people and angelic beings.

This was all happening pretty quick; my eyes were able to move from that sea or ocean of people. Now I don’t know how to describe color to someone that has been blind from birth, how would I describe red to that person or blue? It’s really hard to describe this experience because it’s in dimensions that I don’t think exist on Earth. There are colors there that for sure don’t exist on Earth and a unity and a harmony in music that is completely unheard of on the Earth.

Interviewer: What surrounded the city? You mentioned beautiful grass, mountains and flowers.

Dale Black: I’m not really a feminine person; I’m not good at talking about grass and flowers, I grew up in a macho family. There were mountains that I can describe very easily because these mountains didn’t remind me of anything different than the most beautiful mountains that I saw in Switzerland. The Alps in Switzerland, snow covered; now mountains you want to conquer but ones you wanted to revere. They were quite a ways in the distance.

Everything was happening quickly but my heart was memorizing what I was seeing and experiencing and it was burned into my heart like a computer chip. This memory didn’t come through my mind; it came into my heart and was there immediately as I woke up in the hospital but it has taken me a while to articulate it a little bit.

Interviewer: You were quite fascinated with the grass and the flowers; and I was thinking about C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce, he describes it almost the same way you do. He had this dream of heaven and I really wonder if maybe he had an experience like yours and like you decided not to tell about it. Nevertheless, it was pristine and beautiful.

Dale Black: I grew up playing golf, my family was a golfing family and I loved grass. I also must say that I have not read other heaven books. I have not read them. Many people say, “Hey wait a minute, why wouldn’t you want to learn about someone else’s experience?” But I have been averse to trying to hear about anyone else’s experience especially when writing mine. My experience had been permanently embedded in me and I didn’t want anything to taint that. So that’s why I have not read others, now maybe I can but I am careful to protect even my memory of these experiences.

But yes, the grass was breathtaking, the green. I’m not the same today, when I see a certain green it just grabs me and shakes me. There’s no one particular color of green; it’s like a peacock I guess, when you look at one with its tail tucked in it looks nice but when it spreads its feathers then you realize all of the dimensions of color. Maybe that’s a lousy illustration but each color had all of these dimensions which basically are indescribable.

I’m not one on music. I don’t have a natural talent for it, I’m not gifted in music, I don’t have any training in music but I have never been the same. I love music but only certain kinds of music. When I hear music, I hear it more than with my ears; I hear it with my heart.

Interviewer: As you approached the city, it was lit by an unusual supernatural light. You saw walls; describe the walls of the city.

Dale Black: The walls were pretty spectacular. I never seen a wall or thought about a wall like this before. Nor had I ever remember hearing about heaven as a kid. I was not one, - maybe your family would be different – but I did not grow up in a family where I remembered that or ever hearing a sermon on heaven. So I had no pre-conceived concept of what to expect but when I saw this wall, I noticed the wall was hugely thick and it was translucent stones. It was made of stones that you could see through. The light was coming from that same source that I had seen at a distance. I try and use aviation distances because I kind of think that way, but I am guessing that when first saw the light and got close to the city it was about forty to fifty miles away; but now that I’m near the wall, it’s about half that distance roughly, I’m guessing.

The walls were made out of three outer layers of walls, literally stair-stepping up to the center top wall and then stair-stepping back and it was about as thick as it was tall; around two hundred feet, maybe a little more. So it was a very thick wall and it was greenish in color with little hints of blue and black but primarily a green wall. Through the base of the wall especially you could see this extremely powerful light that illuminated through the stones and almost every color of the rainbow you could see especially in the bottom.

Interviewer: You mention an extremely powerful light, it was extremely bright but you didn’t have to squint.

Dale Black: Yes, it makes no sense. I can’t understand how light can do that. I don’t understand how my eyes can do what they did. It’s completely unscientific and illogical and yet that’s the story that’s been burned into my heart for thirty eight years. I finally put it into print, originally for family only; then two years after that into a published book.

Well one thing you can say is to ask those closest to me have I been impacted by this event and even my wife who knows all my faults, she knows that I’ve been completely turned upside down by this and it’s affected her too. Finally I was able to tell her and that was really helpful because I felt like I was carrying a burden.

Interviewer: Holding onto this for all those years, it must have been a great relief for you; in fact your wife said it just spilled out of you. It must have been a great relief to finally tell your story.

Dale Black: Yes, in the early part of our marriage, I thought I was living such a great life that she could tell I had seen heaven. I was quite certain in my young mental state that I was a great reflection of what I had seen, heard and learned in heaven but in reality my wife was only suspect and was never sure.

Interviewer: Can you describe the gate again and the people that were there to meet you.

Dale Black: Well the gate is spectacular but the people changed me forever. The gate is thick and it’s an entrance, a gate; my wife thought I meant a swinging gate but it’s just an entrance, there’s no door but it was manned, it was guarded. The substance on the entrance looked like opaque white; as if pearls had been liquefied and pasted on this entrance and all the way down through the entrance and then solidified in this mesmerizing substance. Every time you would change just a tad, it would change its color of white. It was still white but it changed its hue of white.

There were letters above the archway of the gate but I could not determine what it was by any stretch of the imagination; what the words or letters meant. I believe they were as important as any words could be; they were in gold. The letters in front of the gate, there were three rows of letters and these were like a honey color and I couldn’t understand what the words meant. There was an angelic being to the right of the gate.

What really impacted me and impacted me to this day it still does; was to my left all of a sudden it was time to focus on this gathering group of people that had arrived and were just arriving. It was clear that they had come to meet me, come to greet me and they were just getting there; it was as if the timing was perfect. Not that they had been waiting there for a long time but almost like they had been orchestrated to meet there with the music.

When I focused where the people were, I looked around and I never felt so loved, so accepted with such a feeling of oneness. When I looked in their faces, no one was immediately recognizable as family or ancestors. There seemed to be nobody that I knew but there was a oneness there that we shared.

In heaven there was life and love and light and it was all connected, all interrelated. I felt like I could accomplish anything there, I had so much strength and so much power. It seemed it wasn’t needed but it was there. There was such vibrancy and energy but what really knocked my socks off was that with these other persons that were there, we were one in spirit.

It seemed everything was immersed in love and everything led to the light and everything led to God.

Interviewer: I am reminded of the words of Paul from Romans Chapter 8:

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. … For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Dale, you’ve seen some of this glory, what would you say to someone who may be sitting on the fence about this?

Dale Black: Heaven, as important as it is and as wonderful as it is; I think a lot of believers can’t wait to get there; I think it is still a minor thing compared to eternal life. It is wonderful to know a little bit more about heaven but I would recommend to anyone to learn all you can about Jesus; you owe it to yourself. Find out if He was the Son of God; either He was or He wasn’t, find out for yourself. I found out for myself that He is; make your own decision. I think that if you look closely at what He said, at what He taught, you’ll realize that no mere man could have done those things and nobody could have come up with those words. I believe that when people examine His words, it will be easy for them to surrender their heart to Jesus.

Interviewer: Thank you Dale Black.

Chapter 2 – Gunned Down to Glory

Tony Davis was struck down by gunfire in Los Angeles. This is his testimony:

Tony Davis: I’ve never held a gun, never been in a gang, never been to jail; I’m just a clean cut guy. I was born in the south in Mississippi so our mom raised us on values, you know; so I tried to live that way.

Interviewer: So you’re just going along, trying to pick your wife up from work and what happened to you?

Tony Davis: I was attacked by gang members out of nowhere. They shot me five times leaving ten bullet holes through my body. It was terrible.

Interviewer: Take us through what you told me; let’s go through it because it’s a pretty amazing thing.

Tony Davis: Alright, okay. Well again, I was on my way to pick my wife up from work as I usually do Monday through Fridays and that particular night in 2003, July 1st, I turned the corner towards where she works and pulled up to the house where she works and all of a sudden bullets start to hit my vehicle and I’m like ‘Whoa, somebody is shooting at somebody else’ you know, so I hit the gas to get out of there. Thank God my wife was still in the house; and I pulled off and went as fast as I could around the corner.

All of a sudden I realized the back tire was flat and the front radiator had been shot so the steam started coming up from the radiator so I couldn’t see any further so I had to completely stop the vehicle. I got out and I thought about my wife and said, “God I pray she’s not hurt or shot.”

So I ran back over there.

Interviewer: You were not shot at the time?

Tony Davis: I was not shot, only the vehicle. Only the vehicle was shot.

Interviewer: So you ran back around?

Tony Davis: Yes, I ran up to the house where she was and I went inside. I said, “Are you alright?” She said, “I’m fine but I can’t believe it happened!”

I said, “I can’t neither.”

The police came and they said, “What happened?” And we told them what happened. They said, “Let us go over to the area where it happened at.” We went back over there, they looked at the vehicle and they said, “Oh, a 9mm did this hole.” And they said, “You know what, we have some activity in this area that’s been going on and we’re going to do an investigation on the other end of this area and we’ll be back later.”

They called Triple-A for me and they left me there. About fifteen minutes later the Triple-A truck came down the street and I began to wave, “Right here, right here!” And out of nowhere, those guys had came from behind me and they begin to shoot. And the bullets; the first bullet hit my leg and went straight through. Two more bullets followed and hit me again and I turned to run; and the Triple-A truck, he got out of there; he hit some cars and he just got out.

I began to run and I ran as far as I could and fell down beside my jeep and when I thought the nightmare was over another young man came from the other side and he began to shoot me all over again. He shot me in the right thigh; another bullet came up from the ground and came up through my leg, another across my face and chest. I said, “Enough, in the name of Jesus!”

And I stood up; it’s amazing you know I felt in my spirit God saying, ‘Stand up and face your enemy.’ I stood up and there was a young man standing behind a tree and he had this gun pointed towards my head and I said, “What have I done? Why? What have I done to make you shoot me like this, but in the name of Jesus you’re not going to shoot me anymore; you don’t even know me.” And his hand began to tremble and he lowered the gun; at the name of Jesus.

At that point I knew there was just so much blood, there was blood in my face, my hands; I knew I was going to die. So I walked forwards. He was standing behind a tree hiding and I didn’t care anymore because I was so hurt. I couldn’t believe what had happened to me. With the lifestyle that I live, I just; you know, like going to skid row visiting people, ministering in juvenile homes for years; and for this to come my way, it was so hard. So I walked past him as far as I could and I fell down to the ground. I couldn’t go any further.

In the midst of my blood I lay there and I began to cry and to worship God, I began to worship Him in my hurt, in my disgust and in my pain. I said, “God, I love you; I trust you Jesus, if I die tonight, as long as I can join you in paradise so let it be.”

And you know, it’s amazing, when you’re in the worst part of your life; at the lowest point – you’re hurting, you’re disgusted, all kinds of bad news has come your way; all kinds of bad things, the devil has a way of adding things to that. What I heard was as if demons were laughing. - ‘You’ve been worshiping that God, you’ve been praising that God, look what He allowed me to do to you.’

But in the midst of that, I said regardless of what happened to me, I’m gonna trust my Jesus; I’m going to hold onto my faith and my love and everything that I believe and that I’m living for; I said, “God, I trust you with everything; Jesus just hold me, I believe in you.” And you know, it was like the devil was laughing. I lifted my hands for the last time and I felt my heart begin to stop and I died.

All of a sudden, I felt my spirit come out of my body. It was like a floating sensation and I looked down, the body was there and I floated towards these clouds and the closer I got to the clouds, the more peace and love and joy I felt. And all of a sudden they opened, and through this window of clouds I saw this huge beautiful city; I felt love like I never felt before, I felt joy, I felt peace.

I heard people talking, kids were playing, I heard a waterfall, I saw these colors, colors I’ve never seen before in my life; beautiful radiant colors and I felt like rays of love pouring out of this window and it was like the arms of God reached out to me and held me in mid air. I began to feel so much love and compassion that I felt myself forgiving, letting everything go. It was beyond the imagination.

I saw speckles of light going through the city and I felt the Spirit of God tell me that those are Archangels; all they do is praise God all the time. I was trying to move my way through and forward but then I heard a voice that said, “It is not yet your time, go back.” And I said, “No, no, I’m not going back. No.” And I was trying to pull my way through. He said again, “It’s not yet your time.”

And I said, “Please don’t do this to me.” If I could have got my arms around a pole you know… But a third time I heard, “Tony, your work is not yet done, I need you to go back.” And then I heard like a breath…a low whoosh like an exhale and then I went backwards through clouds, I was trying to resist but I kept going backwards; then I drew a breathe and when I breathed, I opened my eyes and there was a doctor in front of my eyes about to put a sheet over my head. He dropped the sheet and ran out of the room. The breath of life had come back into my shell, my body.

Interviewer: So they had left you in a room in a hospital. Do you know how long this had been?

Tony Davis: I was told later that a two hour operation had turned into a four and a half hour operation or something like that. I can’t recall exactly since it’s been a few years back but it was supposed to have been a two hour operation.

Interviewer: So it was hours later?

Tony Davis: Yes, it was hours later that all these things happened.

Interviewer: So now, since you were already living your life trying to serve God, how did that change your life?

Tony Davis: Well you know, when I was in the hospital, the doctors had cut a hole in my throat to try and get air into my lungs and they mistakenly cut a piece of my vocal chords so they were going to put a plastic device in the side of my throat; I was told this later by the doctors. I wasn’t going to be able to talk normally anymore.

They knew I was a singer and that I had put out gospel records and things and they said they were sorry but that they had to get air in because I was basically dead for over thirty minutes. Usually people have brain damage from such things.

One of the bullets had shot into my artery in the left leg and that’s how I bled to death. So they put a stent in there but it wasn’t working properly so they were going to cut off my leg. So they pushed me into a room and I don’t know what happened as far as time; maybe it was a day or two later, but it was twelve o’clock midnight and I was laying there. I was trying to worship God and thank Him for his goodness and mercy even in the condition I was in and even I was not happy to be back in my body. I was just trying to let any bad feelings go and then I felt a warmth come into the room.

This warmth came and touched my leg where I had been shot and it went up into my leg and I could feel like things being mingled together in the area where the artery was. Then it went up into my throat and I could feel something mingling up in my throat area and I began to thank God so much. I said, “Lord, you said you would never leave me or forsake me, Jesus I thank you…” I fell into a deep sleep.

Then I remember it was about five or six in the morning, I felt something touch this leg and my leg jumped at the touch. I opened my eyes and there were doctors all around that were shocked – they rushed me to x-rays to try and figure how in the world I was able to feel in a leg that was dead, that was not working! They couldn’t believe it, so they pushed me into a room for x-rays and they said, ‘we don’t know what’s going on here’.

So then one doctor said, ‘what about the throat, let’s check the throat’. They had a thing on my throat and they pulled the thing off and the doctor told me to say something and I said, “JESUS!” I said, “Jesus, my healer and deliverer.”

Well, a doctor took a suture and he sewed that hole up and I’ve been talking ever since.

Interviewer: That is awesome! Well, your story is very different, you were going along as upright as possible and you visited heaven can you tell what was the most vivid part of your experience? Or what you most remember?

Tony Davis: Well, what I love the most about my experience was to know that death cannot separate us from the love of God. When I think about this shell, my body was laying there dead and how God breathed the breath of life back into my body and then to heal me, it increased my faith even more. There is nothing too impossible for Jesus. There is nothing too impossible for God, and I truly believe that with all of my heart.

Interviewer: So heaven is real, you saw it and you’re not crazy?

Tony Davis: Yes, heaven is real, I’ve seen it and I’m not crazy. I can speak, I can talk!

Interviewer: For someone that just doesn’t buy it; what would you say to them? If you could talk to the whole world, what would you say to them?

Tony Davis: You know, the devil has a way of throwing the worst things into your life that he can. He wants to make you think that God does not care; that God will not do anything for you; but I am a living witness that no matter what has come your way, no matter what the devil has thrown your way; God will make a way out of no-way just for you.

Regardless of how hurt you may be right now; no matter if you want to give up. God is able to visit you right now; His Holy Spirit is able to visit you even where you are right now as you are reading this. You can make it through the pain and through the hurt regardless of what you’ve been through, He still loves you. I can imagine that there are healing situations happening right now as people hear this testimony and that chains are falling off people in many places around the world.

Trust the Lord and doors can open up in your life; trust the Lord and He can make a way for you. He can reach into your room where you are now; just trust Him and receive Him; He loves you, Jesus loves you, Amen.

The bible says it rains on the just and on the unjust so you’re going to have some rainy days; some days are worse than others. But just hold on to Jesus; things come and go but just hold on, trust Jesus with all your heart. You know, when the devil laughed at me, I still held onto my faith in Jesus. When no one was there for me, even when it seemed that God was not around, I held on and you should hold on too. He will make a way, just trust, just hold on a little longer and it’s going to be all right.

Heaven is real. It‘s a place of peace, love and joy. You know in the bible Jesus said, “I’m going to prepare a place for you.” There’s no more crying there, there’s no more dying there, no more disease; a place of wholeness. Don’t you want to go there? You shall be made whole in Jesus name; Amen.

Chapter 3 – A Crash at Christmas

On December 23rd, 1966 Gary Wood was involved in an automobile accident at the age of eighteen years old. He tells what he experienced as follows:

Gary Wood: Well I was driving home and my little sister was in the car with me and we were just anticipating spending Christmas with our family and she was singing ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’. I was just listening to her beautiful soprano voice when all of a sudden she let out a blood-curdling scream. I turned to see what the matter was and we crashed into the back of a ten ton wrecker truck that was illegally parked on the edge of the highway that evening.

The town we were in was in the midst of an oil boom; it was saturated in oil, she saw it and attempted to warn me but it was too late. It was like crashing into a brick wall and our car just crushed like an accordion.

I remember just rising up out of my body, dying was just very timeless. At first I experienced pain, there was like an explosion in my nose, a sharp searing pair across the front portion of my facial anatomy but then I was really relieved of all pain, it was like taking your clothes off and just laying them aside; I was caught up in a massive swirling funnel shaped cloud and a real bright light.

Not as bright as the studio lights here but a very tranquil light that engulfed me and I began to rise upward. I began to walk up a pathway much like one of those modern airports where you walk and the walkway moves quickly. And suddenly I heard singing. Now I was a music major at the time of the accident in college. When I was in high school I won several awards for singing.

Interviewer: So, unlike me, you know the difference between good singing and average singing.

Gary Wood: Absolutely! Yes, and this was the most stupendous singing I had ever heard in my life. The Angels of heaven were singing, you’ve never heard anything until you’ve heard millions of angelic beings as they begin to worship and praise God.

Interviewer: Had you heard anything on Earth close to that?

Gary Wood: Absolutely not. Sometimes we’ll get into an atmosphere in some areas of churches that I go to where people worship but never at the magnitude that I heard when I was there in glory.

I remember then that this cloud just opened up and I saw this gigantic golden satellite suspended in space. You know the most important thought that can occupy the mind is heaven and how to get there? And thank God that we are not left to grope in darkness but God has given us His word as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

And so I remember looking at the foundation of this city, it was solid Jasper, that’s diamonds. I remember each foundation; twelve of them were different foundational stones. I remember looking at the names of the twelve apostles inscribed on those twelve stones.

Interviewer: That sounds like scripture to me.

Gary Wood: Exactly, it’s in the book of Revelation. And then I saw the gates of solid pearl. The bible gives us the dimensions of the city and I worked with a fellow from Florida and here’s the dimensions: it’s 2.7 billion cubic miles, it’s 780,000 stories high and there’s enough room to comfortably accommodate 100,000 million people; that’s more than all the people that have ever lived on planet Earth. Jesus said it like this, “In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you so, I go to prepare a place for you.”

Interviewer: Did you see your mansion?

Gary Wood: I saw my mansion.

Interviewer: What does it look like?

Gary Wood: Well it looked like a wonderful home; I saw the fence and I saw it had marble columns; I walked into my mansion. I was taken on a tour of heaven literally by a friend of mine who had died previously. I remember him exactly as he was from the Earth.

Interviewer: That was nice for God to send him to welcome you.

Gary Wood: Exactly, I learned when you go to heaven during this transition, God has a special person assigned to you. It might be your mother; it might be a loved one, the point is, God has someone to acclimatize you so to speak.

He told me there is many things I need to share with you and he began to take me on this tour; I went to my mansion. I went in and there were three buckets of paint sitting in what looked like a living room area. Well, my friend dipped his hand in one, threw it against the wall and a beautiful floral arrangement appeared.

Now if you really get to know me, my nature; I picked up the whole bucket and flung it against the wall. And the whole room was saturated with this smell; it was like roses, the fragrance.

Then he told me, it’s not ready for you to occupy. He said you’ve got to go; so that’s when I went out. I walked on a street that was pure solid gold. It was transparent, you could see all the way through it.

Interviewer: Gold is transparent?

Gary Wood: Gold is transparent. If you go to a jeweler they will tell you, there is an impurity in gold and when that impurity is removed, gold is not yellow, it’s transparent.

Interviewer: Now Gary, you said you went to the library, tell me about that.

Gary Wood: Yes, there are all kinds of volumes of books in there. When someone accepts Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior here upon the Earth, an Angel will take a cloth and just wipe out all the transgressions and all the deeds that a person had done in their life and then their name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Interviewer: Did you actually see this happen?

Gary Wood: I actually saw it happen, I saw a man on the Earth receive Jesus, I saw the Angel receive the report, they wiped out the transgressions of his life.

Interviewer: That’s gotta be so real to you.

Gary Wood: It was very real because I saw my name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

And I saw all kinds of volumes of books because in heaven we are going to be continually learning. You’re not going to stop your learning experience; we are going to keep on learning.

I came out of that experience, I saw seven golden lamps that represent the Holy Spirit, I saw God’s throne, the twenty-four elders seated around God’s throne.

Interviewer: You heard specific songs in heaven before they came to Earth, explain that.

Gary Wood: I heard the hallelujah, I heard, ‘He is Lord’ and all these people were worshipping and magnifying the Lord, singing ‘All Hail King Jesus’. They were singing songs because all songs of the Spirit originate in Heaven.

Interviewer: Then how do we get them on Earth?

Gary Wood: Then they are dropped down into the heart of someone who will receive it and then sing it forth and give it for the glory of God.

Interviewer: Is worship important to God? Does it really matter to him? What if you’re like me and you can’t even carry a tune?

Gary Wood: You’re going to be able to. Here’s what I saw, I saw notes floating through the air and I saw notes – that’s the only way I know how to describe it – musical notes and they were going to people and they spontaneously began to worship and magnify and praise the Lord. Trees were clapping and flowers had faces and they were singing, everything was magnifying and praising the Lord.

There’ll be no imperfection there, you’ll have perfect pitch.

Interviewer: Now Jesus gave you instructions when you left heaven, what were they?

Gary Wood: He told me to make Him real to people on this Earth. He sent me back with a message and He gave me three specific areas that I sum up in the book I wrote, “A Place Called Heaven”. One is that there would be a spirit of restoration that would prevail throughout the land. Get ready for prodigals to come back and return.

Number two, He said there would be a spirit of prayer, then He showed me how to pray. He said to say, “It is written” and I could claim it is finished. He showed me demonic spirits over cities and how to bombard heaven and get the prayers released and get the answer.

Number three, He said there would be miracles. Unprecedented in time and eternity such as mankind has never seen before. And all those three things simultaneously taking place would begin to be a dramatic sign of His imminent return.

Interviewer: Did you want to return?

Gary Wood: No. When you are over there in that realm, that is far more real than this Earth. My precious wife, Dina, often looks at me and she says, “Earth to Gary, Earth to Gary.”

Interviewer: Now why did you return?

Gary Wood: I returned because my little sister began to pray the name of Jesus. That is the most powerful name on the face of the Earth.

Interviewer: What happened? When she was praying the name of Jesus, what happened to you in Heaven?

Gary Wood: Every Angel stands at alert, they stop immediately and they draw their swords, they are ready to be summoned and beckoned to go and to hearken unto the voice of the child of God that uses the precious name of Jesus.

I saw demon forces tremble; I saw that down in the other portion of what I was seeing from that vantage point and they were trembling with fear whenever a believer would use the name of Jesus.

Interviewer: Okay, you got back in your body, then what happened?

Gary Wood: They rushed me to San Juan County Medical Hospital in New Mexico, did an evaluation, and discovered that the turn signal indicator had sliced my nose off, I had a hundred stitches in my face, my jaw was broken in three places, and my neck was broken in three places. My vocal chords were crushed, my larynx was crushed and doctors said I would never be able to speak let alone sing.

Interviewer: Now one day you were worshipping God and what happened?

Gary Wood: Well I was listening to a song, “He Touched Me” on the radio by Bill Gaither and I just said basically in my spirit, because I couldn’t speak, I just said, “God, you can touch me, you can do what this says.” And with God nothing is impossible. And Jesus walked into my hospital room; just came in. I saw Him just like I saw Him in Heaven and He touched me.

And then the nurse came walking in and she said, “Good morning Mr. Wood, how are you doing?” And she had been doing this for ten months as part of her job to encourage me and cheer me up and to keep me from being depressed. And when Jesus comes in the room, everything changes. So I put my hands up and I said, “Praise God, I’ve been healed.” And she dropped the tray and went running out and got the doctors.

The doctors came in and started examining me, they said, “You can’t speak, you can’t talk.” They said, you can’t do this and that but God has a second opinion and Doctor Jesus healed me! I’ve been going everywhere and telling everybody.

Interviewer: But you have a picture of an x-ray in your book and it shows that your larynx was not healed, it’s still crushed, how could you be talking?

Gary Wood: Well, just by the supernatural miracle working power of God, because God is a miracle worker and I believe in miracles. Job 37:14 says, “Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.” And He performed this miracle on my behalf. And He wants to perform miracles in people’s lives today.

Interviewer: Okay, I had a thought several times and I can’t dismiss it, I want you to sing a couple of lines of a song you heard in heaven.

Gary Wood: “Altogether Lovely, Altogether Worthy, Altogether Lovely is my Lord.”

Interviewer: You’re not supposed to be able to do that.

Gary Wood: I couldn’t sing and I couldn’t speak but Jesus touched me and I travel everywhere telling people this.

Interviewer: Can you tell people how they can have the same types of miracle as you had?

Gary Wood: I want people to know that God really loves them; that they are really special and that God wants to give them a miracle, all they have to do is by faith believe.

Chapter 4 – Over an Hour in Heaven

Medical records show that Dean Braxton had cardiac arrest for one hour and forty-five minutes. He died and went to heaven; here are excerpts from interviews he gave about that experience.

Interviewer: 85% of Americans believe in something after life, 15% don’t; according to Gallup, it says in this article from Time Magazine that there are even ‘Jesus People’ that don’t believe in heaven; or don’t believe it’s a different place, maybe God will just change, tweak the Earth or whatever. You claim to have been to heaven.

Dean Braxton: Yes, right.

Interviewer: Tell me about, first of all how did you die, how long were you dead?

Dean Braxton: Well, according to the medical records, because we have those, they said that my heart stopped for about an hour and forty-five minutes. So it’s not something I’m telling you because it sounds good; the reality of it is we have documentation that says that my heart stopped for about an hour and forty-five minutes. We also have the doctors, or the doctor that was there that said it happened for almost two hours but we go by the medical records that say about an hour and forty-five minutes.

Interviewer: I have a video in my office of the physician that was at the hospital. What hospital was it?

Dean Braxton: Well it happened at Feather Way here at Saint Francis but I was there when it happened but then they moved me over to Tacoma General.

Interviewer: Okay and so this is well documented.

Dean Braxton: Yes, very well documented.

Interviewer: And normally people who are dead that long have brain damage, let me ask your wife Marilyn, does he have brain damage? (laughs) Only when it comes to taking out the trash. Thank you for clarifying that Marilyn.

Dean Braxton: Well, there’s no trash in heaven so I ….(laughs)…

Interviewer: You never got a chance….I’m looking at a passage of Scripture here from Second Corinthians chapter twelve; I’ve had lots of people say to me this week, ‘where is that in the bible?’

Dean Braxton: Right.

Interviewer: You must get that a lot?

Dean Braxton: Yes.

Interviewer: Let me read this verse to you, this is Paul trying to convince the church in Corinth that he was qualified to teach and to preach. And that he had not only seen Jesus but that supernatural things had happened. He says in 2nd Corinthians Chapter 12 verse one and two:

“This boasting will do no good but I must go on, I will reluctantly tell about the visions and revelations from the Lord.” He says, “I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago, whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know, only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside of my body but I do know that I was ‘caught up’ to Paradise and I heard things so astonishing that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.”

When I read that to you, what goes through your mind?

Dean Braxton: Well what goes through my mind, there’s a few things. That’s what happens when we leave this body, we go to be where God is. And the main reason for that is what Jesus did in John, the fourteenth chapter one through six. You know, can I read that?

Interviewer: Please.

Dean Braxton: I’m reading out of the New King James Version here, but I have it here before me. It says this, or Jesus says this:

“Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also and where I go you know and the way you know.

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to Father except through me.”

And what I take this as I experienced it, Jesus is saying this, everyone on this planet will have to leave their body some day,…it’s not an option ….bottom line. Even the ones that came back in the Bible, Lazarus, the widow woman, Dorcas, which you know Peter raised from the dead; all of them still had to leave their body and Jesus is saying this, ‘…trust me, I prepared a place for you’.

‘Trust me, when that time comes in your life because you have a relationship with me, you will go where I am’… and that’s what happened to me, I went where He was when this heart stopped for an hour and forty-five minutes.

Interviewer: What does Paul mean when he says I went to the third heaven? Are there like, eighteen heavens? Talk about that…

Dean Braxton: Some people believe there is eighteen heavens but the bottom line is that the first heaven is the heaven we see around us, this planet, the sky and everything. The second heaven is the stars and the moons and everything we see in the universe and then the third heaven is where Jesus and the Father is.

Interviewer: So, this is a sensitive subject, there are people here. They have friends that are in heaven, some of them are sick and they are afraid to die. You and I talked about the fact that my mom went to heaven in January, my dad is here; this is fresh for us. I feel like I’ve got a little more invested in heaven than I did a few weeks ago. What was it like? Describe the sensation, I’ll use that word, describe the sensations; first of all did it take a while to get there?

Dean Braxton: No it doesn’t take a while to get there, that’s a good question; you know most of us don’t realize the Bible says in that same area you were reading, in Corinthians it says this, “to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord”. Faster than you can blink, you are there. And that’s quick! See I can’t say faster than the speed of light or faster than the speed of sound, I have to say what the bible says, ‘to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord’ and the way I like to describe it is this way; when that eyelid goes down and touches that bottom part of your eye, you’re already there.

Interviewer: Now there are people that are skeptical and I want to say when I present Dean and Marilyn to you, you can go on their website, you can check their book, and you ought to test this stuff, you ought to test it because there are lots of people making claims and not all of them are accurate and not all of them are from Jesus. I present Dean to you today, I’ve known Dean for years now and I believe him; I believe this story, I’ve checked his doctrine. We’ve sat in my office for hours, hours talking about Jesus and heaven.

We have mutual friends, I know his Pastor, so I present Dean to you admitting that I believe his story but I want you…don’t be a dumb Christian and just swallow everything that’s out there.

Dean Braxton: Can I say something about that?

Interviewer: No!...ha ha, yes, say whatever you want brother.

Dean Braxton: I just want to emphasize that because you’re right about that. I tell people this all the time, you can have an out of body experience, you can separate like I did, die and go to heaven but it must be filtered through the word of God. It must be filtered through the word of God.

I tell people this, I say my story does not prove the word of God; the word of God proves my story.

Interviewer: This is one of the reasons I love when you and I present this because you talk about scriptures.

Dean Braxton: Yes I do.

Interviewer: You say, remember in the word when it says ‘x’.

Okay so it just takes a second to get there, what do you see?

Dean Braxton: When you first get there? What you see, like I said what you really experience, you experience it with everything  that God created you to experience something with and most of us don’t realize, when we see something, we’re just not seeing it, we’re experiencing it, even on this planet.

When I came here to Tacoma, when I’m entering this area, I’m experiencing it, not just seeing the thing, I’m smelling it, you know…ha ha..

Interviewer: Don’t go aroma of Tacoma on me…

Dean Braxton: I haven’t smelt that in years. But I’m saying, you hear, you smell heaven, you see heaven, you feel heaven, you know all of the things that we literally down here in a sense of gathering information to really make a good picture of something; you do the same thing there.

Interviewer: Talk about the smell of heaven.

Dean Braxton: Oh, that is one of the hardest things to get across because we have death in our system all the time and what I mean by that is we have things that are dying. In our trees, in our forests, even though they are beautiful places, there are literally places where trees have fallen or the leaves have fallen and we don’t realize it but they’re dying and we are used to the smell of something dying; there’s nothing dying in heaven.

The closest I can come is you really taking yourself and pushing up against a flower and smelling that aroma and almost having it right up to your nose and that comes way short because there is no death there and here we filter out death, we get used to it. Does that make sense? So the smell there is more pure because there is nothing dying, nothing.

Interviewer: Talk about the color.

Dean Braxton: The color there, just like you have the colors back here, I’m really fascinated by these paintings back here because they literally show things that I experienced when I was there. But the color there because it comes off the Father and Jesus; it is alive.

Interviewer: Stop, colors alive?

Dean Braxton: Colors alive.

Interviewer: When you said it comes off the Father and Jesus, what does that mean?

Dean Braxton: That means that literally the color is coming out of them and it’s alive because nothing that comes from them is dead, everything that comes from them is life. God does not produce death, He produces life. And so the colors are coming off and they’re the original colors, they’re not a mixture of a color to make a color. A blue is a blue, a red is a red, a violet is a violet; God is not saying I gotta mix this color together to make this color, He is literally creating that color and it’s more colors than you could ever imagine, the spectrum is way out there. God is such a creative God. He is not a dull God at all.

Interviewer: Talk about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Dean Braxton: Okay, let’s start with the Holy Spirit; that’s the one I think that most of us don’t realize the power that’s inside of us that are born again. The day that you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit enters inside of you; Jesus said He literally comes inside of you; so they are all in the essence one, okay.

When I got there, the Holy Spirit didn’t jump out of me and say I gotta go back and get somebody else, you literally have the Holy Spirit with you for eternity; you will never not have God on the inside of you. Most people don’t even come to the understanding that God Almighty, He that created everything, lives on the inside of you.

Interviewer: Even when you are in heaven, you will be full of the Holy Spirit?

Dean Braxton: You will be full of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit will be inside of you. I tell people this a lot because people say to me, “I want to get closer to God” and I say this to them: God is on the inside of you, how much closer can you get? We don’t think that way.

So that’s where the Holy Spirit is, He’s on the inside of you, when you get there, everyone has the Holy Spirit, God Almighty living on the inside of them; and then there’s Jesus and He was there. I tell people Jesus was 10 o’clock or 11 o’clock to the left of me. I was on my hands and knees giving Him praise. You know what He was doing when I got there? He was strategizing.

Interviewer: What do you mean?

Dean Braxton: He was literally, literally coming up with plans on how to move certain areas literally on this planet and in heaven to get more people to know Him as Lord and Savior. It’s not a random – like oh it just might happen, and you know how He’s moved? He’s moved by our prayers, as we pray.

Interviewer: Talk about that, talk about prayers. When I’m praying earnestly, is it futility?

Dean Braxton: No it’s not. Prayers have substance. When I was leaving this body you know and I told you how fast it took me to get there; to be absent from the body it to be present with the Lord – the prayers that people were praying for me and others were passing me by; you could see them; they looked like shooting stars. They weren’t shooting stars but that’s the best way I could describe it and I say they looked like that because the streaks of light were going past me.

Your prayers have substance. Hebrews, the eleventh chapter says faith is what? The substance of things hoped for. Most people don’t realize, that’s when you have that prayer life going; literally it has substance and things move out of the way.

Interviewer: Faster than the blink of an eye.

Dean Braxton: Faster than that.

Interviewer: How did you know they were prayers?

Dean Braxton: You just knew. You knew what they were. And people say how could you know? The closest I can come to scripture is to say you will know things that you just know.

Interviewer: When you saw Jesus, you were on your hands and knees?

Dean Braxton: Correct.

Interviewer: Every knee shall bow…

Dean Braxton: Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

Interviewer: So that’s literal?

Dean Braxton: That’s literal. I always tell people, I already know what you’re gonna do when you get there cause the bible tells you what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. You know what else I say about that so that you can have an even greater understanding of that. You know when I read it here, it said that Jesus is the only way; there’s no other way to get to the Father except through Jesus Christ; the bottom line is everybody is going to find out.

Sooner or later they are going to find out. Cause that scripture says every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. It’s better you find out here than there.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about that, your sentence there, has in it a tone of the ominous?

Dean Braxton: Yes.

Interviewer: Not everybody is in heaven?

Dean Braxton: Yes.

Interviewer: You say you only get to heaven through Jesus – you’re aware of that when you are there?

Dean Braxton: Yes. You’re aware of this also; it’s not a belief system. That’s the way it is. You know, we think we believe this into existence but whether I believe it or not, that’s the way it is. Jesus is the only way, period.

Interviewer: It’s a truth, it’s not a doctrine?

Dean Braxton: It’s not a doctrine, it’s a truth.

Interviewer: Were you conscious of hell?

Dean Braxton: Yes, you are conscious of hell in the sense that you know that – the only time I was conscious of it was when I was going in and coming out. Okay, that’s the only time. When I’m there, that is not a motive or a known thought in your head. The reason for that is because Jesus is literally filling in, that spot where someone would be missing it. Even in your own life, with your mother gone on to be with the Lord Jesus; the only one that can fill that emptiness is Jesus Christ; He’s the one that helps you get through that time.

Interviewer: What is my mom doing, is she meeting people?

Dean Braxton: Well, when she first got there, she went to be where Jesus is, you know, she experienced what I experienced, you come to know the only one who gets you in is Jesus Christ, He’s the only one. There is no other way to get in, that’s not my belief system, you just know it. You know it that you know that you know it. And it’s what He did, not what you did. He died on the cross for you, He paid the price for your sins; He looks at you like you never sinned in your entire existence; because when He says He forgives you, He forgets it and He doesn’t bring it up. Is that good news or is that good news?

And you know what, like you were saying, even on this planet here. Number one, even on this planet here, most of us don’t let it go. Jesus has let it go so we need to let it go.

Interviewer: Let go of the guilt because a lot of people think when they get to heaven, they’re going to feel all guilty and you’re not.

Dean Braxton: If you’ve asked Him to forgive you and it doesn’t matter whether I believe that He’s forgiven you or you believe it, He’s forgiven you and it is gone. He doesn’t bring it up again.

A lot of time, people bring up old sins, it’s not Jesus that they’re getting it from. They’re getting that from the accuser of the brethren; that’s what the bible says.

Interviewer: It never comes up?

Dean Braxton: It never comes up; He looked at me like I never sinned in my entire existence.

Interviewer: For my mom, is there anybody there that she would have recognized?

Dean Braxton: Yes, on the other side of Jesus when I got there, there was a group of people than came to greet me in, the redeemed, those that accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The first group was my family, they came to greet me in, my grandmother Mary which I am the one that gives credit for praying me into the Kingdom of God. She was standing out front, she was shiny, she had a big smile and no worries, you know what I mean.

Interviewer: She knew you?

Dean Braxton: Oh yeah.

Interviewer: It might be troubling for people to know that they’re going to know their family in heaven!

Dean Braxton: Well, you know one of the things I say, everything is right in heaven. There’s no attitude, it’s past peace. It’s beyond peace. Even the Bible says we can have that here on this planet. In Philippians the fourth chapter it says you can have peace that passes understanding. It’s passed.

Interviewer: You said in heaven, there’s nothing to be peaceful from, it’s just what you are.

Dean Braxton: Yes, there’s no attitudes there, there’s no one causing any problems. There’s no bad weather there, there’s no earthquakes there, there’s no tornadoes there; I mean there’s nothing to be peaceful from; everything is right.

Interviewer: These people like your grandmother, you were conscious of what their contribution to you was?

Dean Braxton: Oh yeah. I came to understand, not just my grandmother came and greeted me in, other relatives that I’ve known on this planet before that time that went on to be with Jesus. And then there were relatives that I never ever came in contact with on this planet; generation after generation after generation of all those that have contributed to putting this DNA together on this planet and have accepted Jesus, they came to greet me in.

And you know before this time you gotta understand where I was standing, a lot of my boxes were blown apart. They were outside the word of God; a lot of the boxes I had built for heaven and even God were blown apart, okay, but they were in the word of God.

One of the things I had thought was, ‘maybe you recognize your family when you get there and it really doesn’t matter if you did because we are all the family of God’. And here I am getting there and here’s my family coming to greet me in and I’m thinking to myself, “Family is important to God”.

A lot of times we don’t understand that because we think, “oh yeah, you don’t know my family”. You don’t know my God; you came out of that family; most people don’t realize that.

Interviewer: I have a little secret prayer: that I would like to meet the people that my testimony has impacted. I don’t think I’ve ever asked you this question but when I get to heaven, will I get to see the lives I’ve impacted?

Dean Braxton: Well, that’s what I was gonna say; these groups that come to greet you, your family, all of your friends that were ever friends with, even the ones in kindergarten that accepted Jesus, you may never have known it, they come to greet you in and those you impacted somehow with the gospel. You may not have led them to the Lord, but something you did in your life was a key for them to come to know Jesus.

Interviewer: Were you surprised to see anyone; did you see my uncle Joe?

Dean Braxton: (laughs) No, but I was surprised to see my Aunt Barbara there.

Interviewer: But this is important because there are Jesus people and we’re sort of becoming famous for this, how judgmental we are. And you came back more humble.

Dean Braxton: I came to understand that only Jesus gets you in, no one else.

Interviewer: And nobody knows what Jesus is doing?

Dean Braxton: That’s right. My Aunt Barbara, I love to tell this story, because my Aunt Barbara was a person who up to this moment; if I had not had this experience; I would have told you that she didn’t go to heaven. I would have told you that. And there she was, she was shining, she had pure joy and you know and she was before me; and I came to understand somewhere in her life, she came to know Jesus. And Jesus didn’t have to come back and tell me, you know what I’m talking about? It didn’t matter whether I knew it, it only matters if He knows.

And a lot of times we don’t realize this. We pray for people, I’m gonna say this, a lot of times people don’t realize this; it’s awful hard for a person to go to hell that you’re praying for. They’re going against God Almighty. He’s doing everything He can to get them there. I’m not saying they don’t have their free will and their own choice but I’m saying He knows their mind, their thoughts, He knows the words; there’s many people hearing these words today and God has given us the words; you’re asking the questions and I’m answering them but He’s literally given us the words for them to get past all those barriers they put up.

Interviewer: When it says greater is He that is in you; that is in me, than the enemy that is in the world, you literally feel that.

Dean Braxton: That’s correct.

Interviewer: I want you to look at the audience and imagine there are two groups of people. Some of these people are devout Jesus people. By the way, let me ask about religion, one last question. Do the Baptists get preferential treatment in heaven? (laughs) You don’t really notice religion in heaven do you?

Dean Braxton: No, there’s none of that there. The bottom line is, like I said before they are sons and daughters.

Interviewer: So there are devout sons and daughters, I want you to speak to them for sixty seconds and tell them what it is, they need to know about heaven to make Earth more meaningful.

Dean Braxton: One of the things you need to know about heaven to make Earth more meaningful, you that know Jesus, you never die. The day that you accepted Jesus is the day that you got in. You will never die. I say to people, you can get used to this face, you will see it forever. We have to grasp that as brothers and sisters because sometimes we treat each other as though we are only temporal, we are not temporal; that is not a temporal relationship you have with your brother and sister; that’s an eternal relationship that you have with your brother or sister. We will know each other for eternity.

So I have to say to you; that should make it more meaningful here because literally you are an eternal being. I have to say this; act like it. You will never die. You will leave this body someday but you, the real you, will never die; it will always exist. And you that don’t know Jesus…

Interviewer: Yes, speak to them, there are Buddhists and Muslims and Agnostics and Atheists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses; speak to people that may not be in agreement about what the bible says and who Jesus is; speak to them.

Dean Braxton: Well this is what I would say to them. You know when I was in Peru not too many years ago, I got to go to one of their local prisons and they have one of the toughest systems in the world because of the drug cartel that’s there.

But one thing that I said to them is, ‘everyone in this prison, as tough as you are, you cannot beat death; one day you’re going to have to leave your body, where are you going to go? Because I know Jesus, because I am born again, I went to where the Father is, where Jesus said we are supposed to go.

Some of you say, ‘well I don’t know if I believe that.’ Well we have the hard documentation. We have the medical records that said my heart stopped for an hour and forty-five minutes; we have the doctor that came forth and said, ‘yes, this is what’s happened.’ During that time, I had to go somewhere. I’m telling you because I was an eyewitness to where I went; I went to where Jesus said I was supposed to go.

It is not unusual for Christians to go to heaven; that is the norm. That’s what is supposed to happen to us. I didn’t volunteer to come back, I would have stayed. I get to come back now and tell you this; I am on my way home. Don’t think I’m not going back. I am going back!

Chapter 5 – A Young Boy meets His Grandma at the Gate

A young German boy of only three years of age by the name of Paul Eicke was playing at his grandparent’s home which has a pond on the property. He accidentally fell into the water and it was several minutes before he was noticed by his grandfather and pulled out of the water. His father rushed to the scene and began performing CPR; including massaging his heart and attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Within ten minutes a rescue helicopter arrived and young Paul was airlifted out to the nearest available hospital called Helios Clinic. Doctors worked desperately to try and revive him but it seemed that he would not respond to their efforts. When all hope seemed lost, his heart finally started beating again 3 hours and 18 minutes after he had first been brought into the hospital.

Professor Lothar Schweigerer is the director of the Helios Clinic where Paul was taken, and he said: “I have never experienced anything like it. When children have been underwater for a few minutes they mostly don't make it. This is a most extraordinary case.”

The boy said that while unconscious he saw his great grandmother Emmi, who had turned him back from a gate and urged him to go back to his parents.

Paul said: “There was a lot of light and I was floating. I came to a gate and I saw Grandma Emmi on the other side. She said to me, ‘What are you doing here Paul? You must go back to mummy and daddy. I will wait for you here.’”

Paul continued: “I knew I was in heaven. But grandma said I had to come home. She said that I should go back very quickly. Heaven looked nice. But I am glad I am back with mummy and daddy now.”

Paul returned home to Lychen, north of Berlin in Germany, and there appears to be no sign of any permanent brain damage.

Statistics show the majority of children who survive drowning - 92 per cent - are discovered within two minutes following submersion. Nearly all who go beyond that time and require cardiopulmonary resuscitation die or are left with severe brain injury.

In Paul’s case the water in the pond was very cold and the boy's core temperature went down to just 28c, compared to the normal temperature of 37c. Cold temperatures slow the metabolism-which means the body can survive for a longer time without oxygen. If the temperature had been higher, the team would have stopped trying to resuscitate after 40 minutes because the boy would definitely have been brain dead.

Instead, they carried on with the chest compressions to stimulate Paul's organs, which had shut down after he breathed in the cold water.

Professor Schweigerer explained: “My doctors were close to saying, ‘we can do no more’ after two hours of thorax compression. This was because the chances of survival had gone and the little lad must have been brain dead. But then suddenly his heart started to beat again; it was a fantastic miracle. I've been doing this job for 30 years and have never seen anything like this. It goes to show the human body is very resilient and you should never give up.”

Chapter 6 – An Early Trip to Eternity

Marvin Besteman gives details of his story of visiting the gates of heaven before his time! After an accomplished career in the banking industry, he was also a veteran, a no-nonsense kind of guy that was used to the hard reality of the numbers. He was not expecting such an out-of-this world experience while in the hospital.

Marvin was in the hospital on April 28, 2006, undergoing treatment for insulinoma.

He was 72 years old and was scheduled to have surgery at the University of Michigan Medical Center to remove a pancreatic tumor. After the surgery was completed he was alone in his hospital room since it was after visiting hours, and his family had left for the day.

The surgery had left him in a lot of pain, so much so that he was having trouble sleeping. He was hoping to fall asleep to give him some relief from the pain. Marvin describes what happened next:

“Suddenly, two men I had never seen before in my life walked into my hospital room. I watched as these two Angels came into my room. Don’t ask me how, but immediately I had a sense that these men were angels, and that I had died,” he said. “A feeling of deep calm washed over me, and I felt not even the tiniest bit anxious over the fact that my life was over.”

“They came over to my bed and they picked me up and they carried me to heaven.” The Angels detached the hospital tubes from Marvin’s body and lifted him up in their arms and began to quickly ascend up into the sky. The travelling felt “light and smooth” through a brilliantly blue sky. “There was so much peace,” he said. “The wings of the Angels you could feel, flying back and forth, slight breezes, the bluest sky, the greenest grass I was standing on, the most beautiful scenery I had ever seen in my life.” He soon found himself standing in front of the gates of heaven.

Marvin waited in line and saw about 25 other people also waiting there, people of all nationalities and ages, dressed in the “native costume” of their lands. “One man carried a baby in his arms,” Besteman said. “Everybody there was happy, everybody there was smiling. I had reached my goal…I planned on being there forever and ever.” Each person in front of him waited their turn at the gate. When it was his turn, he was told that God still had work for him to do on Earth; that it was not his time yet.

Everyone has heard of the cliché of meeting Saint Peter at the pearly gates when here you have a journey that followed that stereotype!

While at the gate of heaven, Besteman says he heard a greeting: “Welcome to heaven. My name is Peter.”

Standing before Besteman was one of his favorite scriptural figures, the Apostle Peter, the “rock” upon which Christ built his church.

“Peter was scruffy looking,” Besteman said. “He was about 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, 165 pounds, with long, shaggy hair. His clothes looked as if he had been wearing them for 1,000 years.”

Peter leafed through the Book of Life, which Besteman said was actually multiple books, looking for his name. Upon not finding the former banker’s name, Peter left his post briefly. Though he left the door to heaven open, Besteman said he couldn’t follow him through. “It was as if an invisible force field prevented me from getting in,” he said.

Still, he saw plenty beyond the gate, including babies and children playing happily, his grandparents and mother, a couple of friends from the Grand Rapids area, and, most poignantly, his beloved son-in-law, who had died just two months earlier from a rare and horrible disease.

Everyone he saw was recognizable, strong and healthy versions of their earthly selves.

His body felt “fantastic,” he said. “The aches and pains and limitations of age were just gone. I had no idea living down here on this sinful Earth what a perfect place heaven is, I do now and I can’t wait to get back.”

The music there, he says, was incomparable. “There was a choir of a million people, thousands of organs, thousands of pianos. It was the most beautiful music I had ever heard.” He saw color bursts that lit up the sky like spectacular Northern lights.

A few minutes passed before Peter returned with an update. “He said, ‘Marve, I talked to God, and God told me to tell you that you had to go back, that he still had work for you to do on Earth. He still has things for you to finish there,’” Besteman said. “Next thing I knew, I was back in my hospital bed at the U of M.”

Back on Earth, Besteman became depressed (“Trust me, you don’t ever want to come back from heaven”), not to mention very reluctant to share his story with others. Who would believe such an outlandish story? Would he himself even believe it, if someone else were telling it?

He tried to keep his experience to himself but three months later, he finally told his wife Ruth, who not only believed him, but encouraged him to tell others.

About a year after his experience, Besteman began to share his incredible tale with various church groups, both in the West Michigan area and in Sun City, Arizona, where he and Ruth spend months each year. He always saves time for a question-and-answer period after his talks.

The top questions? “People want to know what the babies and children were doing, and then they want to know what the angels look like, and if they had wings,” he said. His account of heaven is often a tremendous comfort to those who have lost children.

No one has outright called him a liar, but a few people have wondered if perhaps Besteman was simply dreaming. A psychologist friend of the couple’s disagrees with such a theory, saying that dreams are so short and fragmented, it would be impossible to remember one in such vivid detail.

After his experience, Marvin decided to write a book. “I’m not out to make money,” he said. “I just want to share what happened to me, so that it can encourage and comfort others.”

Often listeners at his talks have re-evaluated their lives in light of his testimony.

“People have come up to me, after they’ve heard my talk, and said, ‘Now, after hearing about your experience, you will be seeing me at the gate,’” Besteman said, smiling. “That makes it all worthwhile.”

“The thing about the colors of heaven is that they are all shot through with a brightness, a luster that seems to incorporate the sun’s rays, the moon’s beams, a fire’s flicker and a star’s glitter, stirred together by a master lighting director and splashed out over the canopy we will spend eternity watching.

“Anyone who thinks they are going to be bored in heaven, plopped down on a marshmallow cloud in a pastel world of harps and floating babies, is dead wrong, if you’ll pardon the pun. Even just the light show was utterly transfixing.”

Marvin Besteman has since passed away in 2011 at the age of 77, five years after experiencing his pre-emptive vision of heaven.

“When Marv was alive he said ‘You can think it was a dream. It wasn’t a dream. I know exactly what I saw,’” she said. “His whole account never varied. Everyone had a completely renewed body. He said there was nobody with crutches. There was nobody with a wheelchair. No one was without arms or legs.

Marv says: “That gives me a lot of peace to know just how perfect heaven is going to be.”

Chapter 7 – A Sojourn in Her Sleep

This next story is quite different due to the fact that the individual did not suffer any physical trauma. I thought it would be nice to include a story where a person has a heaven-journey experience in some way other than a misfortune or a deadly trauma or during a medical emergency. This person describes such a situation. Her story is quite whimsical and most would not consider it an out of body experience and certainly not a Near Death Experience (NDE) but the experience was no less real for her.

There are some people who dismiss anything that is not medically documented or even get angry if an experience does not meet their definition of a ‘NDE’ and yet dreams and visions can be just as powerful and life impacting for those who go through such things. When the Apostle Paul talked about someone he knew that experienced ‘third heaven’ he indicated, “whether he was in the body or out of the body, I do not know”. So one could conclude that experiences ‘in the body’ can still be important, vivid and genuine for the individual experiencing them.

So here, Allison tells her story of how she believes she visited heaven in her sleep:

My name is Allison and today I come before you to share my true testimony with the entire world about a miracle that happened to me in my life. In 2011, I was going through a time of depression and I could not understand where the spirit of depression was coming from but I would only find out later.

I found myself fasting, praying and fasting for several days and several nights. I did not realize that I had lost several pounds and I thought I was sick but I had no appetite. I was really going through a change in my life dealing with things. I was sick and tired of dealing with sin, sick and tired of being around things that I thought I had already dealt with in my past. Things of others, well I got tired and fell into a depression; and I prayed and prayed and prayed for several days; I was asking God to take me out of this world. I felt like the world would be a lot better off without me.

I could not face the world anymore; I didn’t want anything to do with the world. But to make my story short and sweet, I going to make it as swiftly as I know how.

So in September of 2011, I was reading the book of Revelation, over and over and over again. Every time I would begin at chapter one go through to the last chapter and then start all over again. I was looking for a miracle in my life; I needed a change in my life in order to be able to go on. So on this particular night in September, I’ll never forget it, September 7th. I fell down on my knees at the foot of my bed, I had closed the door to my bedroom. I was weeping and repenting in prayer. I felt like I was in a deep repentance the likes of which I had never experienced in my life.

I shed many tears to the point my face was swollen. I expressed to God my sorrow; I had a deep sorrow for the sin within my life of the past and present. I prayed and prayed and finally I asked God to kill me, to take me out of this world because I wanted nothing else to do with this world. I felt like the people that I loved, the people that I was closest to and even those I don’t know, would be a lot better off without me.

And so this particular night, when I got off my knees, I went over to my bed and picked up my bible and again went to the book of Revelation and this particular night I read the last eleven chapters. Afterwards I turned over in my bed into a fetal position and that was the last thing I remember besides looking at my clock; it was 7:30 PM.

After that I immediately left my body, I’ll never forget it; I ended up in a very, very pitch dark place. Some people would call this the tunnel; I heard voices and talking going on while I was in this tunnel. I was trying to listen to the conversation and I heard my own voice speaking. I did not know what I was saying or who I was speaking to.

I thought at first maybe I was dreaming, this was not a scary experience, I just thought at first I was dreaming of being in a dark tunnel. It was when my eyes opened when I came out of the tunnel I found myself in the sky surrounded by stars. At first it didn’t dawn on me where I was, I was looking around and all I could see was the sky and the stars.

When it hit me where I was; I asked myself, “How did I get here?” I wasn’t thinking about God or Jesus, I just was curious where I was. I just could not understand how I got there.

As I went through the sky, I could feel myself being moved upwards as if I was somehow going up increasing levels. I had a view of the galaxy and I remember seeing a planet that looked like Saturn except it was white and the rings around it looked like they were colored purple or burgundy.

Before you know it, I felt like I was continuing to go up until I came in front of what appeared to be the brightest white light I had ever seen in my life. I have never seen a light as bright and as brilliant as this was and it didn’t hurt my eyes. I was being drawn to this light and I wasn’t able to turn around or run away from it.

As I drew closer to this light I began to feel a strong love that I had never felt before, it was a scale of love that I never had in my life. I had no knowledge of what was going on but I was being drawn deeper into this bright, white light. I kept being drawn into it until I felt like I became a part of it. It seemed like at that point all my questions were being answered somehow. A voice told me that I would not remember parts of my experience so I may have heard things there that I have forgotten. I feel there may have been some type of celebration with loved ones that had passed on before me but the memory is not there.

Afterwards, I left the presence of the light and found myself in clouds again. I was surrounded by clouds all around me. If felt very comforting. Before you know it, I was looking up from the clouds and I could see the sky above me open up revealing a city. I felt at that point as if God was explaining things to me but that I could not and would not be able to remember that information.

The city I saw had huge impenetrable walls with sparkling colors like they were covered in glitter; it was just so beautiful. I felt like God was talking with me and that He was answering all my questions.

Afterwards the sky closed and I asked if I could see it again but I felt God saying, “No, I have more to show you.” Then I could see the sky and glittering which I thought was stars again but then I went up and my eyes focused on one particular star and I realized it was actually an angel! Then I realized that the glittering sparkles I was seeing were actually angels that were flying; it was so startling that I blurted out, “Those aren’t stars, they’re Angels!”

The Angels were pure white and they were like in human form and there were hundreds probably thousands of them; they had large wings that looked twice their size. I felt very peaceful and I thought maybe I am also flying like the Angels. I even felt back to see if I had wings but I could not feel my body.

Then I felt like God was asking me, “Do you remember what you prayed for before you went to sleep?” And I said, “No, I don’t remember.”

Then it seemed like God replied, “You prayed and asked to die.” So I thought, “Oh, I must be dead.” It was strange because I could not remember important things from my life. So then, I asked God if I could go back and when I did, I was instantly back into my body in the same position as when I fell asleep except that it was now 3:30 AM. I believe God answered my prayer; be careful what you ask for because you may get it! Thank you for allowing me to share my story with you.

Chapter 8 - A Scary Surgery

Here is the story of a woman who accidentally overdosed on an anesthetic during surgery.

Interviewer: After a basic hospital procedure went horribly wrong Crystal McVea woke up in heaven! She is here to share her story:

Crystal McVea: Nice to meet you.

Interviewer: Back in 2009 you go into the hospital, you were being treated for Pancreatitis; it’s not usually fatal, what happened?

Crystal McVea: My body couldn’t filter the pain medication that I was on quick enough so it took on too much and it stopped my breathing, stopped my heart.

Interviewer: You were technically dead for nine minutes. At that time, did you leave your body? Where did you go?

Crystal McVea: The moment I closed my eyes in that hospital room, I immediately opened them and was standing in heaven.

Interviewer: And what did it look like?

Crystal McVea: I fail to find human words that can describe what I experienced while I was there. I had Angels, I had God and I fell to my knees in front of Him. It was; I say perfect, beautiful, amazing but those words are nothing to really describe what I saw.

Interviewer: What does God look like?

Crystal McVea: I saw an immense brightness, a brightness that I could feel, taste, touch, hear, smell; that infused me. Not like I had five senses, but maybe that I had 500 senses. I didn’t see a human form or a face, I just saw His presence and felt Him and heard Him.

Interviewer: Did He speak to you?

Crystal McVea: Yes, the entire time I was there we communicated; no words just very effortlessly but when I came back I was only allowed to remember a few things.

Interviewer: So twice He gave you the choice to go back down to the Earth to your body and twice you chose to stay with Him?

Crystal McVea: Yes, Ma’am.

Interviewer: Why?

Crystal McVea: All my life I was a doubter. I’d gone to church all my life, I’d heard the stories and I wanted to believe he was real but deep in my heart I said no to who He was. So to close my eyes and open them and to be standing in front of the Creator of not only the universe but of me, I never wanted to leave that.

When I was younger, I remember riding a little bus that came through the neighborhood to pick up kids and take them to church. I was always searching for God, I wanted Him to be real; I really never stopped speaking to him throughout my entire life but because of the things that had happened to me as a child and the decisions that I made as a teenager; I could not see where God was.

I believed in my heart that I had two options; one He was real and didn’t love me because He didn’t protect me or two, He wasn’t real. And really, either one of those two options really stunk.

And He had even showed me my children. I had four children at the time; two of which were twins and only ten months old and you think as a mom there’s nothing I could love more. But when He showed me my children and told me to choose to come back to them or to stay with Him, I chose Him.

Interviewer: So He basically sent you back to Earth?

Crystal McVea: Yes, He did.

Interviewer: So here’s the thing, you basically said in your life prior to this, you’d broken nearly every one of the Ten Commandments.

Crystal McVea: Yup, probably.

Interviewer: We won’t go into the details but you said, He took away that shame from you and you were free to live your life honoring Him moving forward.

Crystal McVea: Yes, ma’am. I had lived my entire life from probably the age of three until the day I died with horrible secrets, shame; I call them chains, emotional chains, spiritual chains and standing in front of Him for those few minutes; He broke them all and He freed me from the shame that I had just felt my entire life.

I don’t know how else to say it, He just freed me.

Interviewer: And how are you living your life now?

Crystal McVea: For Him. I was a schoolteacher also a mom. I thought that was what I would do for the rest of my life was just teach school. I don’t like public speaking so this always makes me laugh that this is what He sent me back to do. But my message is simple; is that if He could free somebody like me and love somebody like me, then He loves us all.

And the fact that I was a doubter; I know what it feels like to doubt His existence and to doubt that there’s a place that we really go after we die. And now I just want to tell people that it’s real and that I experienced it.

What I would like people to take away from my story is that no matter how broken and beaten we are, that no matter how far we run or how fast we think we can run from Him, He is still in hot pursuit and that God is real and that you don’t have to die for Him to show Himself to you. There’s nothing that you can do in your life that will ever separate His love from you and I mean nothing that would ever separate Him from you.

Interviewer: It’s an amazing story, thank you.

Chapter 9 - A Surfer’s Story - Revisited

After receiving so much positive feedback from the first volume that contained a testimonial from Ian McCormick, I thought it would be only fitting to have a different one of the testimonials that he has given in the past, presented here.

Ian McCormick: In the late seventies I saw a movie called ‘Endless Summer’. It depicted some young California Kids with their surfboards travelling the world, looking for the endless summer, no winter and the perfect wave. It captured my heart and I thought, well that’s me. I travelled for two years through Australia, South East Asia, Bali, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

I ended up sailing down to a small island called Mauritius and this island had great surfing and great diving. I surfed and dived there, lived the life of a Creole fisherman in a place called Tamarind Bay.

One night we went diving and as we went down there you could see the fluorescence on the water, sparkling water just a beautiful night. We came down to Riviere Noir just on the outer reef and dropped in and we started getting crayfish. It was quite dark because the clouds were coming in and there was no real moonlight and there was a little bit of a chop on the water.

While I was diving on the island, they told me to night dive on the outer reef. While we were diving, we would look with our night torches, (flashlights) and the crabs and the crayfish would come out. With your torchlight you could blind them and then with your leather gloves just pick them up.

So I looked around the water and I started seeing these jellyfish, box shaped with finger-like tentacles and I thought, “Is that a jellyfish? It must be.” So I reached out my hand and it was a jelly. As I swam through I had no idea I had just reached out and touched the second deadliest, some say deadliest creature known to man; a box jellyfish. Called a box jellyfish obviously because it’s box shaped. It was transparent, bell shaped with like a cube underneath the bell with finger-like tentacles coming out. I thought it was like a transparent cuttlefish, it’s a very unusual looking jellyfish.

Something smacked into my arm and stung me. It felt like thousands of volts of electricity went through my arm; it literally shook me in the water. As I swam towards them, I started to get stung by more; I got hit three more than a fourth time. My right arm was just paralyzed trailing in the water and I got hit with a fifth one. As I felt that, I thought to myself, what on Earth have you done to deserve this kind of punishment or payback.

I had a flood of memories of stuff that I had done wrong in my life. And here I am thinking, ‘Well there’s no use thinking about that, whether I deserve it or not, I’m dying.’ I better keep my head together here. There’s a young boy calling me through the lagoon; I’m sitting there as calm as possible, but I feel the poison move into my kidneys like someone struck their fist into my back.

As I hit the beach, the young boy motions for me to get out; I take one step forward and my right leg crumples underneath me and I realize the poison has already paralyzed the right hand side of my body. This young kid carried me up across the sandy beach; that was really hard. I realized then that he was afraid for his brothers on the reef so he left.

I just lay down on the ground and started to feel very weak and tired. I feel my eyes beginning to shut and as my eyes begin to close I hear a voice speak to me, it said, “Son, if you close your eyes, you shall never awake again.” I thought, “What? – Who said that?”

I looked to my right expecting to see a man standing there next to me but there was no one there. That’s bizarre. So I stood up, fought off the death that was coming upon me as best as I could and found my left leg was still strong enough to support my weight. I use my right leg as a crutch and put weight on the left hand side of my body and hobbled down the road for help.

As I move down, I could see a small petrol station, I hobbled in there and amazingly enough I see three, the petrol station was closed, there are three East Indian men in their taxis. I lean up against one of these cabs and they say, “Oh you’re drunk.”

I said I’m not drunk, I’m dying. I’ve been stung by a poisonous jellyfish, I need to get to Cutmore Hospital. They said, “We already have clients, we don’t need other passengers, sorry, sorry white man, cannot help you”; and they walked away. I said, “I’m dying please help me”. They kept walking.

As they walked away ignoring me, I heard this voice speak to me again. It said, “Son, are you willing to beg for your life?”

“I’ll have the money, please help me” I begged. One walked over towards me, helped me to my feet without a word, put me in his taxi. I thought great.

As he took off towards the hospital, he turned to me and he said, “What hotel room you stay, I get my money from you?” What hotel room, money, the guy’s still thinking of money. I said, I don’t stay in a hotel, I stay in a bungalow, I stay on the beach with the fisherman. He said, “You lied to me, you’re a tourist, you stay in a hotel”. I said I’m not a tourist, I’m a traveler. I live not in a hotel, I live in Tamarind Bay with the fisherman in a bungalow. He said, “You stay in Tamarind Bay Hotel?” because there is a small hotel there in the village.

I says, “No man, I stay with the fisherman, please, I have the money.”

He says, “You lie to me, I take you to tourist hotel, they look after you, why you lie to me, why you do this to me?”

He didn’t understand, no money, that’s it, no hotel room, forget it. He thinks I’ve scammed him. He pulls off the main road, down into the village where I live. As he stops across from the village, there’s a small Chinese hotel. He stops and says, “You get out now.”

I said, “Okay, okay, I’m getting out; don’t hassle me, I have the money.”

I tried to get out. As I try to get out, my left leg I found to my horror was now also paralyzed; the toxin had taken my entire lower trunk out.

I turned I said, my legs are gone man, please help me up, I have the money. He said, “You get out now”. I said, “I can’t, my legs are gone”. He took my safety belt off, opened the passenger door and just shoved me out.

As I flew out the door, I couldn’t believe what was happening. As I lay there, I could hear the familiar voice of a Creole fisherman from the village, Daniel.

Daniel says to me, “Ian, what’s happened?” He took me in his arms and carried me into the hotel. The owners of the hotel had closed the bar and were sitting next to the swimming pool playing Mahjong and drinking whiskey.

Daniel says he going to get an ambulance and leaves. One of the hotel owners says to me, “Hey white boy, what’s the matter with you? Are you drunk?”

I says, “No, please, a hospital, I need a hospital.” One of the owners comes up to me, looks at my arm and says, “What’s this? Stupid boy, why you put needles in your arm? I said, “I’m cold, I need a blanket.”

These guys think I’m a drug addict and I’m nearly dead. They brought me a blanket and a glass of milk. I asked one of them, “Please take me in your car to the hospital.” He refused, and said, “Wait for an ambulance.”

I looked away; I knew that if I looked at him, I would lose it. I thought to myself, ‘if I survive this, you’re history Jack!’ So I’m looking away contemplating what I’m going to do to him if I survive and then I see Daniel appear out of nowhere and he runs up to my side and to my amazement an ambulance comes flying into the hotel parking lot. They put me on a stretcher and load me into the ambulance and take off for the hospital.

As we raced towards the hospital, I started to see on the inside of the ambulance what appeared to be a small boy with white hair; I see sections of some kids’ life with snow white hair. I then realize as I’m looking at it, that this is me; this is sections of my own personal life. I thought, ‘Am I that close?’ With my mind I did a mental check. I checked my vital signs and my mind told me that I was very close to death. As I’m lying there in the ambulance, I’m thinking, I could be that close to death; I may not make it.

While I’m there having no idea what to do next, I then see a clear vision of my mother. She looks straight into my eyes and she said these words, she said, “Ian, no matter what you’ve done in your life son, no matter how far from God you may be, if you’ll call out to God from your heart, God will hear you and God will forgive you son.”

I thought, well if there is a God, which one?, I mean I’ve seen thousands; I’ve travelled through Sri Lanka, Bora Bora, I’ve been to so many different places and I’m lying there thinking, ‘Okay God if you’re real, show yourself, unless I see I won’t believe. Still my mother’s face appears and she says, “Pray, from your heart.”

I prayed, “God, if you’re real, if this is real, help me to pray, help me to pray the only prayer I’ve ever learnt; help me to remember the Lord’s Prayer.” As I prayed, words began to appear before my eyes – ‘Forgive us our trespasses and sins’. I thought, how on Earth could God forgive me? I thought it’s too late, I’ve done too many things wrong. I prayed, “God if you are real and you can hear me, please forgive me.”

More words appeared: ‘Forgive those who have trespassed and sinned against you.’ I thought, that means to forgive other people. I thought, I can do that, I’m not a vindictive person by nature. I said, “God I can forgive anyone, no matter what people have done to me, I forgive those that have sinned against me.” As I said that, the face of the taxi driver appeared in front of me. I thought, what on Earth is that man doing here? A voice said, “Will you forgive this man for pushing you out his taxi tonight and leaving you for dead at the side of the road?”

I thought, oh no, you must be joking! I’m not forgiving him; I was furious with that guy. And the next minute, the face of the hotel owner appeared in front of me. I thought, ‘what on Earth is he doing here?’ The voice said, “Will you forgive this man who wouldn’t let you use his car and for leaving you to die at the hotel?”

I thought, no. As I saw both of these men’s faces, I thought ‘What on Earth is going on?’ This isn’t just some mumbo-jumbo, I could actually be talking to someone who could be God. This voice is actually personalizing this prayer to me. I prayed, “God if you forgive me for my sins, I’ll forgive those men for what they did to me.” Once I did that, their faces instantly disappeared.

I saw more words, ‘Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.’ I thought, Thy will?, I’ve only had my own will; so I said, “God I need to know your will, if you help get through this I will seek out your will, I’ll find it and I’ll follow you all the days of my life. As I said that, the entire Lord’s Prayer appeared before me and for the first time in my life I had total revelation of what it meant. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; and as I lay there I felt an amazing peace settle upon me, I knew somehow deep in my heart that prayer had changed from something that I did like repetitious, stand up – sit down and kneel type of stuff; it had changed dramatically and I had actually prayed from my inner man.

As I arrived at the hospital, doctors came out and asked, “What’s wrong with him?” The attending paramedic from the ambulance replied, “Stung, by a jellyfish.” The doctor called to me, “Sir, can you hear me?” He called out, “Get the anti-toxins ready.” He said, “That’s all we can do for you right now; fight the poison, try to stay awake.”

I could feel myself going, it was really scary. I could hear everything. I lay there and doctors and nurses and orderlies milling around me but I found it so difficult to keep my eyes open, I just couldn’t seem to keep them open. I remember shutting them and giving a sigh of relief thinking well I’ll have a break for a few moments and then I’ll try again. As I did I felt a sensation like a release, the battle to stay alive had finished.

I suddenly found myself standing in an upright position wide awake, I knew I was awake. The trouble was it was pitch black. My first thought was, ‘Why on Earth did the doctors go and turn the lights out in here? Why kind of hospital is this?’ As I stood there wondering how long I had been asleep for and why the lights were out, I thought well, don’t freak out, let your eyes accustom to the dark; maybe I’ve woken up too quick.

So I kept looking, thinking my pupils were dilated from the night, but still couldn’t see a thing, it was pitch dark like a dark room. I thought, well okay, there must be a light in here somewhere so I turned around 360 degrees reaching out to see if there was a light but couldn’t find a thing. As I went out to my right, I couldn’t find the wall. I thought, that’s weird, did they move me?

So I started moving back to the left groping around for my bed and I couldn’t find it. I thought, great, now I’ve lost my bed. So as I’m groping around physically trying to find my bed, the next thought that comes into my head is that it’s so dark in here, you can’t seem to see your hand in front of your face.

So I brought my hand up to where my face should be and it seemed to pass right through! As if there was no physical form there. I thought well that’s impossible, you can’t miss you head. I mean my physical body was like absolutely nothing. I thought, what the heck is going on? It’s like I’m out of my physical form; like I’m transparent yet I have the sensation of being a total human being standing there. Ian, who I am, appears to be standing there but…what happened?

As I stood there I began to sense something off to my right looking at me. In front of me I felt like invisible eyes of something or someone checking me out. The darkness had an evil presence; a cold encroaching evil pervading the atmosphere. “Where am I?” I asked…. “SHUT UP, you deserve to be here,” a voice responded. What? Deserve to be where?... “Hell. Now shut up.”

As I stood there, realizing that I could actually be in hell, a radiant beam of light pierced through the darkness above me. As this light touched my face, I felt an awesome presence going through me and my entire body seemed to lift off the ground and be translated up into this light and radiance. As I’m being drawn up into it I can see that it’s coming from a circular shaped opening far above me; I feel like a speck of dust being drawn towards this light. As I’m being drawn up towards it, I thought, is this real? I look back over my shoulder and far beneath me I could see the darkness.

Still not understanding what this light was, I began to move up to the opening, enter it, as I was drawn into the opening, I could now see that it was a tunnel. As I looked along the length of it, I could see the source of the radiance. My first thought was, this must be the center of the universe. “Look at the light, look at the power coming from it!” I said to myself.

As I’m being moved towards it, I watch as a wave of radiance comes up. As this wave of light comes off the source, it touches me and I feel warmth and comfort. All that kind of fear and darkness just seems to go out of me and I feel a living light flow though me. Shafts of radiance came out from the central core like a white fire. Phenomenal radiance in the central core; from there I watched this brilliant light piercing out and I thought, even the stars in the universe, even the constellations must find their energy source from this focal point; what is that light? Is there someone in there, surrounded by this radiance?

As I questioned that in my own mind, a voice spoke to me from the center of the light. The moment I heard that voice, I recognized it to be the same voice that spoke to me in the ambulance telling me the Lord’s Prayer and asking me whether I forgive. And the voice asked, “Ian, do you wish to return? If you wish to return, you must see in a new light.”

Words appeared in front of my eyes, ‘God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.’ I thought, God is light; could that possibly be God? And in Him there is no darkness at all, I’ve just come from darkness; whoever this being is, He’s completely separate from darkness. I see no shadow, I see no evil, only pure white radiance and He knows my name! Could it possibly be God that I’m standing in the presence of, talking to? I thought, if it is, He must be able to see my spirit absolutely naked, He must see everything.

I began to pull back, as I began to pull back towards the darkness of the tunnel, I watched a wave of radiance come off Him. I expected it to touch me and lift me or catapult me back into the pit. But as this wave of light emanated forth off Him, it moved through me and all I felt was love. The love was causing me to literally blubber, just bawling my eyes out and I could feel an acceptance coming off Him. I said, “God, you can’t love me; I’ve cursed you.” More love came. I said, “Oh God, I’ve committed all kinds of sins. I’ve slept around, I’ve taken drugs.” More love came forth. As the love kept coming, I then literally divulged what I knew to be the most debauched things of my life.

As the light began to open up, I became aware that standing in the center, I began to make out a man’s bare feet. Around his ankles were dazzling white robes, garments; not garments of cloth but garments of light. As I looked out and saw that, I began to lift my face up to see the chest of a man and his arms outstretched with dazzling white robes as if to welcome me. As I looked, I knew that I was looking upon God. I was just awestruck. Nothing could have prepared me for that, no way I could be prepared to see that. I stood in absolute amazement.

As I looked towards His head, his hair was white radiance; out of his face appeared to be light billowing forth, literally permeating out like from His entire face. You couldn’t see the features of His face because the light was brighter than all else I could see and it was emanating forth from His face. I began walking closer towards him; I thought maybe if I can see His face, I’ll know who God is.

As I got within a few feet of His presence, I began to place my face into the light and it didn’t hurt my eyes. It was like I could move into it; as I placed my face in towards Him I was hoping I would break through that veil of light, but as I did He suddenly moved so I saw an opening, like a window into eternity or a door into eternity and as I looked through this, I could see an entire new Earth open up before me. It was like I was standing on the threshold of eternity and I was getting a glimpse into it.

As I’m looking I can see grass with the same light and life emanating forth from it. I could see flowers and fields. I knew if I stepped on the grass, it would not damage it; the color and the energy and the life emanated from it, it was amazing. I saw a river, like a crystal clear stream with trees along its banks and rolling hills. I could see mountains in the distance and sky, crystal clear. I’m standing there and I’m thinking, ‘This is paradise’. As I’m looking, I know that I belong here. It was like I knew I had been created by God to live here!

I thought, ‘Why wasn’t I born here in the first place? Why was I born on Earth?’ I knew I had come home. I knew I had travelled the world looking for that paradise and here it was! It was an incredible feeling, I felt, ‘here I’m home, I’m finally home.’

As I started to move in, His presence came right back in front of me and blocked the way. He asked me this question, he said, “Ian, now that you’ve seen, do you wish to go in or do you wish to return?”

I answered, “God, I’m not married, I’ve got no children; there’s nothing for me to return back for, I don’t want to go back.” As I looked back to my amazement God showed me one person that had loved me. I saw my mother. When I saw her, I wept. God showed me, there was someone who loved me and I thought if I’m dead and this is actually happening; when I step through into paradise my dear mother will have no idea that her hedonistic son prayed in that ambulance, that he repented of his sins, gave his life over to God and that God heard his prayer and caught him up into paradise.

I thought, my mother will think her son went to hell. All she will get is a telex or a telegram saying that her son died; would she like his body shipped home in a box or a jar of ashes. I thought if that happens, it could destroy her. She suffered so much already, she lost her family and I thought, how selfish would it be for me to step through and leave my mother to bury me while thinking I went to hell.

I turned and spoke to God, “I want to go back.”

I was instantaneously back in my physical form in a hospital with a doctor that had been working on me holding my right foot in the air with a sharp instrument like a scalpel or a knife prodding the base of my foot; prodding it like a dead piece of meat. He saw me open my eyes and ran out yelling for a nurse.

I heard the voice of God interrupt my thought and He said this, “Son, I’ve just given your life back.” I thought, ‘What, what’s happening here?’ I felt an amazing power go through me, it was like a low voltage of electricity; I felt my whole body starting to feel again. Within a few hours, I was completely healed. I said, “God, what have I become?’ He said, “You’re reborn, you came back because your sins have been forgiven and the blood of Jesus covered you. The sacrifice, the atonement of Christ Jesus covered your sins. You walked into His presence as if you were white as snow.”

God has created a new heaven and a new Earth for those who love Him. He said, this old Earth will pass away, this body will pass away, but God said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Death, where is your sting? Death is swallowed up through the power of the resurrection of Jesus. The sting of death is sin but the free gift of God is that those who repent of their sins, their sins will be forgiven and they will step through into eternity.

There are people that will argue theology with me, I don’t argue with them, because I know what took place. God told, “If they think it’s just a vision, that’s alright but I am the One who knows if you rose from the dead and whether I gave you your life back.” He said, “Let them talk to Me about it.”

He said, doctors can make mistakes, you could make a mistake; that’s right I could be wrong but He said, son, I don’t make mistakes. I have called you, I have chosen you, I have appointed you and anointed you to share the love of my Son; the Good News of the Gospel to thousands of people. Some of them will listen to what you share and say, Yes, I want to make peace with God, yes, I want to come out of darkness. I want to know the forgiveness of God and have a clean start. I want to walk in purity, I want to walk in the light of God and be one with Him. I want to know His love.

And He said, son, you can pray with people and they will respond and give their life to Me. He said, people are going to come to Me and spend eternity with Me because they’ve heard what I’ve done in your life.

I said, God, could I do that with people? He said, that’s right; all they have to do is bow in prayer and say, “God, forgive me of my sins, cleanse me of all my sins and if that’s you; if you’re reading this now, you can give your life to God. He can forgive you no matter how evil or how messed up you are, no matter how much drugs or sexual sin you’ve done, no matter how much filth you’ve been involved in, He can forgive you. No matter how holy you might think you are, God says, all people have sinned and if you want to pray with me, you can give you life to Jesus.

I’d like you to bow your head and wherever you are just say: God, I ask you to forgive me of all my sins; I ask you to cleanse me and purify me. I believe that Jesus Christ died on that cross and His blood, the blood of His sacrifice, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse my spirit as white as snow; I humble myself in prayer and say God have mercy on me, forgive me and cleanse me this day and God as you forgive me, I forgive others that have sinned against me. As you did on the cross, you forgave those who crucified you; God I forgive those who have abused me and wounded me and I give my whole life over to the Lordship of Jesus; I make Him Lord of my life and Savior.

I choose to walk from this day on, in the light of His teaching, the light of His holiness, the light of His Spirit; His Holy Spirit, I invite His Holy Spirit to come in and make Jesus real to join with my spirit to be born again of the Spirit of the Living Christ, Jesus my Lord and Savior; I pray this sincerely from my heart, Amen.

Chapter 10 - Bonus Addendum - John Bunyon’s Rare Vision of Heaven

Many people are familiar that John Bunyon wrote the classic work of literature entitled ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. Very few people however are aware of his much lesser known work entitled, ‘Visions of Heaven and Hell’.

I thought it would be interesting to include excerpts of this rare first person account written by John Bunyon in the 1600’s. It is written as a first person narrative so one would wonder how much of this is based on his own personal experience or whether he wrote in that style to simply increase the impact of his message. In any event, his writing is insightful and powerful whether it is based on his life events or whether it is a fictional work.

Section 1: Planning Suicide

When evil persons have gone in a life of sin, and find that they have reason to fear the just judgment of God, they begin at first to wish there were no God to punish them. Then little by little they persuade themselves that there is no God, and look for arguments to back their opinion. I had the unhappiness to know someone like this, who would always be telling me there was neither God nor devil, and no heaven or hell.

It was with fear and trembling that I first heard him speak about these topics, but he spoke of them so often that I felt I must consider what he said. From this time I found my mind so confused that I could not remember the truths about God which had appeared so clear to me before. I could not think there was no God but with the greatest horror, yet I questioned the truth of His being. I would not have parted with my hope of heaven for all the riches of the world, yet now I was not sure whether there was any such place.

In my confusion I went to my false friend to see what comfort he could give me. He only laughed at my fears and pretended to pity my weakness. His talks only made me more confused, until life became a burden to me. It is impossible to tell you the agonies I felt, until I was pushed to the edge of desperation. I thought, “Why should I linger between despair and hope? Would it not be better to end my life and find out what is the truth?” So I decided to kill myself.

One morning I went out into a nearby woods, where I had planned to kill myself. But before I tried to use the knife I heard a secret whisper say, “Do not fall into everlasting misery to gratify the enemy of your soul. The fatal stroke you are about to give yourself will seal your own damnation. For if there is a God, as surely as there is, how can you hope for mercy from Him if you willfully destroy yourself who were made in His image?”

Where this secret whisper came from, I do not know, but I believe it came from God; for it came with so much power it made me throw away my knife, and it showed me the great evil of suicide. The horror of what I had almost done made me shake so much that I could hardly stand. I recognized my deliverance to have come from the Lord, and in gratitude I returned thanks.

I knelt down on the ground and worshipped Him, asking that He would take away the blackness in my soul so that I would never again question His being or great power which I had just experienced.

Suddenly I was surrounded with a glorious light, brighter than anything I had ever seen before. I saw coming toward me a glorious person like a man, but circled with beams of light and glory which shined from him as he came nearer. I tried to stand up, but had no strength left in me, so I fell flat on my face. As he lifted me up and I was given new strength, I said to him, “O my shining deliverer, how shall I acknowledge my thankfulness, and in what manner should I adore you?”

With majesty and mildness he replied, “Pay your adorations to God, and not to me who am your fellow-creature. I am sent from Him Whose being you have so lately denied, to stop you from falling into eternal ruin.”

This touched my heart with such a sense of my own unworthiness that I could only cry out, “Oh, how utterly unworthy I am of all this grace and mercy!” To this the heavenly messenger replied, “When God decided to show mercy He did not consult your unworthiness, but His own unbounded goodness and vast love. He saw how the grand enemy of souls desired your ruin, but He upheld you by His secret power. Through this, when Satan thought that you were destroyed, the snare was broken and you have escaped.” These words made me break forth into song, and I praised my Savior and declared that He is God alone.

Section 2: Beyond the Sun and Stars

The heavenly messenger then said, “That you may never doubt the reality of eternal things, I have come to show you the truth of them: not by faith only but also by sight. I will show you things never yet seen by mortal eye, and to that end your eyes shall be strengthened and made able to behold heavenly things.”

At these words of the angel I was very surprised, and doubted I would be able to bear it. I said to him, “Who is able to bear such a sight?”To this he replied, “The joy of the Lord shall be your strength.” When he had said this, he took hold of me and said, “Fear not, for I am sent to show the things you have not seen.”

Then before I was aware I found myself far above the earth, which seemed now to be very small. Then I said to my bright conductor, “Please let it not offend you if I ask a question or two.” To this he replied, “Speak on. It is my work to inform you of what you ask. For I am a ministering spirit, sent forth to minister to you and to those that will inherit salvation.”

Then I said, “Please inform me about that dark spot below, which has grown smaller and smaller as we have mounted higher, and which appears much darker since I have come into this region of light.”

My conductor replied, “That little spot that now looks so dark and despised is the world which you have lived on. To obtain one small part of that spot of earth so many men have risked and lost their immortal souls; which are so precious that the Prince of Peace has told us that though a man could gain the whole world, it would not equal so great a loss. As you have ascended higher towards heaven, the world has appeared still smaller and more insignificant; and it will appear the same to all who can by faith get their hearts above it. If the sons of men below could but see the world as it is, they would not covet it as they do now, but alas, they are in a state of darkness. And what is worse, they love to walk in this darkness. For although the prince of Light came down among them and showed them the true light of life, yet they go on in darkness and will not bring themselves to the light, because their deeds are evil.”

Then I asked him, “What are those multitudes of black and horrible forms that hover in the air above the world? I would have been much afraid of them, but I saw that as you passed by, they fled; perhaps not being able to abide your brightness.”

To this he answered me, “They are the fallen angels which for their pride and rebellion were cast down from heaven. They wander in the air by decree of the Almighty, being bound in chains of darkness and kept unto the judgment of the great day. They are permitted to descend into the world, both for the trial of the elect, and for the condemnation of the wicked. And although you see that they now have black and horrible forms, yet they were once the sons of Light. They once were clothed in robes of glorious brightness, like what you see me wear. But the loss of this, although it was the result of their own willful sin, fills them with anger and hatred against the ever blessed God Whose power and majesty they fear and hate.”

Tell me,” I said, “O blessed conductor, have they no hopes of being reconciled to God again, after some term of time, or at least some of them?”

“No, not at all. They are lost forever. They were the first that sinned, and had no tempter; and they were all at once cast down from heaven. Besides, the Son of God, the blessed Messiah by Whom alone salvation can be gained, did not take upon Himself the angelic nature. He left the apostate angels all to perish, and took upon Himself only the seed of Abraham. For this reason they have so much hatred against the sons of men, because it is a torment for them to see men made the heirs of heaven while they are doomed to hell.”

By this time we were above the sun. My conductor told me this mighty globe of fire was one of the great works of God. Yet all the stars were not less wonderful; whose great distance away makes them appear like candles in our sight. They hang in their appointed places without any support. Nothing but His word that first created them could keep them in their station.”These words are enough,” I said to my conductor, “To convince any one of the great power of their Creator, and to show the evil of that unbelief which questions the being of the God who has given so many evidences of His power and glory.

If men were not like beasts still looking downwards, they could not help but acknowledge His great power and wisdom.”“You speak what is true,” he replied. “But you will see far greater things than these. These are but the scaffolds and outworks to that glorious place that the blessed above inhabit. A view of it shall now be given to you, as far as you are able to comprehend it.”

In a few moments I found what my conductor had told me was true. For I found myself transferred into heaven, where I saw things that are impossible to describe, and heard beautiful songs that I could never sing. Whoever has not seen that glory can speak but very imperfectly of it, and they that have seen it cannot tell the thousandth part of what it is. Therefore the great apostle of the Gentiles, who tells us that he had been caught up into paradise where he had heard unspeakable words which are not possible for a man to utter, wrote that “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that God has prepared for those that love him.” I will give you the best account I can of what I saw and heard, as near as I can remember.

Section 3: Elijah Explains

When I was first brought near this glorious place I saw innumerable hosts of bright attendants, who welcomed me into this blessed place of happiness. And there I saw that perfect and unapproachable light, that changes all things into its own nature, for even the souls of the glorified saints are transparent. They are not illumined by the sun; but all that light, that flows with such transparent brightness throughout these heavenly mansions, is nothing else but the shining forth of the Divine glory.

Compared to this glory, the light of the sun is but darkness, and the fire of the most sparkling jewels are but dead coals. Therefore it is called The Throne of the Glory of God, where the radiance of the divine Majesty is revealed in the most illustrious manner. God was too bright for me to look upon as He was exalted on the high throne of His glory, while multitudes of angels and saints sang forth eternal hallelujahs and praises to Him.

Well may He be called the God of Glory, for by His presence He makes heaven what it is. Rivers of pleasure continually spring forth from the divine Presence, and radiate cheerfulness, joy, and splendor to all the blessed inhabitants of heaven, the seat of His eternal empire. For my own part, I was too weak to bear the least ray of glory that shot from that everlasting Spring of Light which sat upon the throne. I was forced to cry out to my conductor, “The sight of so much glory is too great for me to bear, yet it is so refreshing and delightful that I would desire to look, though I die.”

“No, no,” said my conductor, “death cannot enter this blessed place, nor sin nor sorrow can abide. It is the glory of this happy place to be forever freed from all that is evil; and without that freedom, our blessedness even here would be imperfect. Come along with me and I will bring you to one who is in the body, as you are. Talk with him for a while before I take you back again.”

“O rather,” I eagerly said, “let me stay here. There is no need of building tabernacles, for the heavenly mansions are already prepared.” My shining messenger replied to this, “Here in a while you shall forever be, but the divine will must first be obeyed.”Swift as thought he conveyed me past thousands of angels, and presented me to that great saint, the prophet Elijah. Though he had lived in the world many hundreds of years ago, I knew him at first sight.”Here is one,” said my conductor to Elijah, “who by the commission of the Imperial Throne has been permitted to visit these realms of light, and I have brought him to you, to learn from you.”“That,” said the prophet, “I shall gladly do. For it is our meat and drink in these blessed regions to do the will of God and the Lamb, to sing His praises, and serve Him with the humblest adoration, saying, 'Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne; and to the Lamb forever and ever: for He has redeemed us to God by His blood out of every kindred and tongue, and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests: even so, Amen.'“

And I likewise added my “Amen” to that of the holy prophet. The prophet then asked me why this great permission and privilege was given to me. (By which I understand the saints in heaven are ignorant of what is done on earth; so how can prayers be directed to them?) I then told him the events I have already written here, at which the holy prophet broke forth in praise, “Glory for ever be given to Him that sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, for His unbounded goodness and great condescension to the weakness of a poor and doubting sinner.”

After this he said, “Now give attention to what I shall speak. What you have already seen and heard I am sure you cannot make fully understood to those not yet translated to this glorious place, who have not yet been freed from their earthly bodies. Nor is my being here in the body any objection to what I say; for although it has not been subject to death, yet it has been equally changed. It has been made spiritual, and is no longer able to suffer. Yet in this full state of happiness I cannot utter all that I enjoy, nor do I know what shall yet be enjoyed, for here our happiness is always new.”I then asked the blessed prophet to explain himself. I did not understand how happiness could be complete, and yet still be added to.

The following was his reply: “When the soul and body are both happy, as mine now are, I count it a complete state of happiness. For throughout all the coming ages of eternity, it is the soul and body joined together in the blessed resurrection state that shall receive this happiness. But concerning the object of our happiness, which is the ever- adorable and blessed God, our vision of Him is forever new. For as the divine perfections are infinite, nothing less than eternity can be sufficient to display their glory. This makes our happiness eternally added to, as well as our knowledge of Him to be eternally progressive also.”Therefore the apostle Paul said, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for those who love him.'

Yet the human eye has seen many admirable things in nature. It has seen mountains of crystal, and rocks of diamonds, it has seen mines of gold, and coasts of pearls. Nevertheless, the eye that has seen so many wonders in the world below could never pry into the glories of this triumphant place. And though the ear of man has heard many delightful and harmonious sounds, even all that man and nature could supply him with, yet he has never heard the heavenly melody which both saints and angels make before the throne.

The heart of man is so fine and imaginative that it can conceive almost anything that is, or was, or ever shall be in the world below, and even what shall never be. Man can conceive that every stone on earth shall be turned into pearls, and every blade of grass into the brightest of shining jewels. He can conceive that the whole earth be turned into a mass of pure gold, and the air turned into crystal. He can conceive every star to become as bright as the sun, and the sun to be a thousand times larger and brighter. But all this is infinitely short of what the eternal Majesty has prepared for all His faithful followers.”

Section 4: The Happiness of Heaven

The prophet continued, “I will briefly tell you about our happiness here, for ages spent on this delightful theme would only begin to explain it. That you may have the best understanding, I will first explain about what the redeemed souls have been delivered from, and secondly about the happiness that they enjoy here.”Firstly, the souls of all the blessed are forever freed from everything that can make them miserable, which above all is sin. It was sin that brought misery into creation. The blessed God at first made all things happy, like Himself.

Had not sin defaced the beauty of His workmanship, angels and men would have never known what is meant by misery. It was sin that threw the apostate angels down into hell, and spoiled the beauty of the lower world. It was sin that defaced God's image in man's soul, and made the ones who were to be the lords of creation into slaves of their own lust. It is sin which can also plunge them into an ocean of eternal misery from which is no redemption. It is an invaluable mercy that in this happy place all the saints are forever freed from sin through the blood of our Redeemer.

In the earth below, the best and holiest of souls groan under the burden of corruption. Sin tries to cling to all that they do, and often leads them captive against their will. “Who shall deliver me?” has been the cry of many of God's faithful servants, who at the same time have been dear to Jesus. Sin is the heavy weight upon the saints while they live in their corrupted flesh. Therefore when they lay their bodies down, their souls are like a bird loosed from its cage, and with a heavenly joy they rise up to heaven. But here their warfare is at an end, and 'death is swallowed up in victory.' Below their souls were deformed and stained by sin, but here their bright souls by the ever-blessed Jesus are presented to the Father 'without spot or wrinkle.'“Not only are the saints here free from sin, but also from any temptation to sin. When Adam was in paradise, though he was innocent and free from sin, yet he was not free from temptation. Satan got into paradise and Adam fatally yielded to his temptations.

Like a disease, sin has eaten into the human nature and corrupted all mankind.”Here each soul is freed from this. Nothing but what is pure and holy can find admission here. That roaring lion who roams back and forth throughout the earth seeking whom he may devour, in respect to the saints in heaven, is bound fast in everlasting chains. The temptations of the world shall never again allure those who through faith and patience have overcome it and safely arrived here. In heaven we look with contempt on all earthly enjoyments.

There is nothing here that can disturb our peace, but an eternal calm crowns all our happiness.”Since we are freed from all sin and its effects, we are also rescued from punishment. After death, hell confines the sinner to eternal misery. Yet the blessed are delivered from all these things.”However, these things are but the least part of the happiness of heaven. Our joys are positive, more than just the negative that we have been redeemed from. What these are I shall try to show you.”Here we enjoy the sight of God, the blessed spring and eternal source of all our happiness. But what this is, I can no more fully explain than can finite creatures comprehend infinity.

Yet the sight of God continually fills our souls with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and with a love so flaming that nothing but the blessed author of it can satisfy, nor eternity itself can end. It is that which makes us live, love, sing, and praise forever while it also transforms us into His blessed likeness. Beholding God's face, we enjoy His love. His blessed smiles make glad our souls, and in His favor we rejoice continually, 'for in His favor is life.'

And by this blessed vision of God, we come to know Him far above how any had known Him in the world below. For the sight of Him opens our understandings, and 'gives us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Here we all enjoy Him face to face. Below the saints enjoy God in a measure, but here we enjoy Him without measure. There they have some sips of His goodness, but here we drink largely and swim in the boundless ocean of happiness. Below the saints have their communion with God broken off many times, but here it is uninterrupted. Below love is mixed with fear, and fear has torment; but here love is perfect, and perfect love casts out fear.

In heaven we love God more than ourselves, and one another like ourselves. Here we enjoy the perfection of all grace.”In heaven our understanding and knowledge is enlarged according to the greatness of what we can observe and think. In the world below light could only shine into our minds through the windows of our senses, so God had to condescend to our limited capacities when revealing His Majesty. Our purest ideas of God were very imperfect, but here the gold is separated from the dross and we can conceive the simplicity and purity of God. We understand about His decrees and counsels, His providence and dispensations. We clearly see here that from eternity God was sole existing, but not solitary, that the Godhead is neither confused in unity, nor divided in number. We see that there is a priority of order but no superiority among the persons of the Trinity, but that they equally have the same excellency and power, and equally are adored.

Those ways of God that in the world below seemed unsearchable and beyond our comprehension, we understand so clearly here by His divine wisdom that the truth could not be made more simple. “These are some of the things that make our souls happy. However, the happiness of the saints in heaven will not be complete until their bodies are resurrected and united with their souls. I will therefore show you what the resurrection body shall be like:”

First, the resurrection bodies of the blessed will be spiritual bodies, like mine. You may better understand this not only by seeing but by touch.(After saying this, the holy prophet was pleased to give me his hand.)They will be bodies that are purified from all corruption, yet will have substance. They will not be like wind or air, as people on earth sometimes foolishly imagine.”

Then I said to him that I always understood spiritual as the opposite of material, so I thought that a spiritual body must be immaterial, and not capable of being touched or felt as I found his hand was. To this the prophet replied that their bodies were spiritual, not only because they were purified from all corruption, but as they were sustained by the enjoyment of God without needing food, drink, or sleep. Beholding the Lord is what supports both their souls and their bodies, and is what they live upon forever.

“Have you not read,” said the prophet,” that the blessed Jesus, after His resurrection, appeared in His body to His disciples when they were met together in a chamber and the doors shut about them? And yet He called to Thomas to come and reach forth his hand and thrust it into His side, which shows it had substance.”

Our bodies in the resurrection shall be immortal, and incapable of dying. Below their bodies are all mortal, perishing, and subject to crumbling into dust at any time. But here our bodies will be incorruptible and freed from death forever, for our corruption here shall put on incorruption, and our mortality will be swallowed up of life.”Here I desired the prophet to bear with me a little, while I gave him an account of my own ideas about these matter.”Speak, for I am ready to remove your doubt,” he said.”

I have learned,” I said, “in the holy Scriptures that immortality belongs to God only, and not to men. Daily experience tells us that bodies of men are mortal, and die. Therefore Paul told Timothy that God only has immortality.”“When I say that the bodies of the blessed here are immortal, I am speaking about the bodies in their resurrected state, that then they are subject to death no more. Man in his corruptible state is mortal and subject to death. And there is nothing more evident to all that dwell in the world below.

Even the bodies of all those glorified souls that are here in heaven are at this time still kept under the power of death. At the resurrection day, when they shall be raised up again, they shall then be immortal. And as to what you say from the Scripture, that the blessed God has only immortality, it is very true. He is most essentially so in His own being and nature; there is no angel or man that can, in that strict sense, be said to be so. We are immortal through His grace and favor; but God is immortal in His essence and has been so from all eternity. In that sense He may well be said only to have immortality. Whatever the blessed God is, He is essentially so in His own being. It can likewise be said that He only is holy, and there is none good but God, none righteous, nor none merciful but He.”

Section 5: We Shall Know Each Other

I remarked, “As I was brought here, I saw among the saints some that appeared to shine with greater brightness than the others. Are there among the blessed different degrees of glory?”“The happiness and glory which all the blessed here enjoy is the result of their communion with and love to the ever blessed God. The more we see Him, the more we love Him; and love changes our souls into His nature, and from this results our glory. This makes a difference in the degrees of glory.

Nor is there any murmuring in one to see another’s glory much greater than his own. The ever blessed God is an unbounded ocean of light and life, and joy and happiness, still filling every vessel that is put therein, till it can hold no more. And though the vessels are of several sizes, while each is filled there is none that can complain. My answer therefore to your question is that those who have the most enlarged capacity do love God most, and are thereby changed most into His likeness. This is the highest glory heaven can give. Nor let this seem strange to you, for even among God’s flaming angels there are diversities of order and different degrees of glory.

While I was talking with the prophet a shining form drew near. It was one of the redeemed. He told me he had left his body below resting in hope until the resurrection; and that though he was still a substance yet it was an immaterial one, not to be touched by mortal. He said, “We here behold a sight worth dying for- the blessed Lamb of God, the glorious Savior. Here we see Him in His kingly office, on account of which He is called King of kings and Lord of lords. But all the glorious greatness of our blessed Redeemer does not make His kindness seem distant, but only more precious. It makes heaven more than heaven tome to find Him reigning here, Who suffered so much for me in the world below.

And our Redeemer’s great happiness increases our own, as He invites each faithful servant to enter into his Master’s joy.”Here we see not only our elder Brother, Christ, but also our friends and relatives. Although Elijah lived in the world below long before your time, you no sooner saw him than you knew him. And so you will also know Adam when you see him. Here we communicate the purest pleasure to each other, a sincere ardent love uniting our society.

And oh, how happy is that state of love! Where there is love like this, all are filled with delight. How can it be otherwise, since in this blessed society there is a continual receiving and returning of love and joy.”But besides all the happiness that comes to us by our communion with God and with each other, it is to me a mighty happiness to understand all the deep mysteries of religion which the wisest in the world below could not fully understand. Here we discern a perfect harmony between those scripture texts that in the world below seemed to oppose each other.

And here we are especially filled with wonder and gratitude at discovering the divine goodness towards each one of us in particular. In respect to my former life on earth, I have seen the mercifulness of those very afflictions that I once (when upon earth) thought to show His anger. I am now fully convinced that no affliction that I met with in the world below (and I met with many) either came sooner or fell heavier or continued longer than was needful.

My hopes were not disappointed, but God used all things to prepare me for a better eternal reward than what I had hoped for. But I remember that you are still in the body, and may be tired with hearing what I could forever tell, so great is the happiness that I possess. I shall only add one other thing about our happiness: though a vast multitude of blessed souls partakes of this joy and glory, this does not make less of what each receives. For this ocean of happiness is so bottomless that the innumerable company of all the saints and angels never can exhaust it. Nor is this strange, for in the world below everyone equally enjoys the benefit of light. There is no one that can complain that they enjoy it less, because another enjoys it also. All enjoy the benefit of light as fully as if no one else enjoyed it but themselves.

If a multitude of persons drink of the same river none of them is able to exhaust it, even though each of them has the liberty of drinking as much as he can. So whoever enjoys God enjoys Him as much as he can contain, according to his capacity. “Thus I have given you a brief account of our heavenly Canaan. It is not the thousandth part of that which might be said, yet it is enough to let you see it is a land flowing with milk and honey. In this happy place worldly relations cease. Nor is there male and female here, but all are like the angels. For souls cannot be distinguished into sexes, and therefore all relations are here swallowed up in God.”

He had no sooner spoken than he took me by the hand. Then, far swifter than an arrow from a bow, we passed by several shining forms clothed in robes of immortality, who looked at me as I passed them.

He said, to me, “Farewell, my friend, your guardian angel will shortly come and bring you back to the world below.” I drew near the shining form of a redeemed one that stood before me, who appeared extremely glorious, encircled with rays of dazzling luster. I hardly could behold her for the exceeding brightness of her face.

She said to me, “For what I am, to Him that is on the throne be all the praise and glory. The robe of glory which you see me wear is only the reflection of His own bright beams!”“You appear to be one who feels the mighty joys that you speak of.”She replied, “You should not think this strange. The mighty wonders of divine love and grace will be the subject of our song forever. Here all human relations cease and are swallowed up in God Who is alone the great Father of all this heavenly family.

As for the members of the family that I left behind in the world below, I have committed them to God. I shall be glad to see them all heirs of this blessed inheritance. But if they should join with the grand enemy of souls and refuse the grace offered them, and thereby perish in their unbelief, God will be glorified in His justice, and in His glory I shall still rejoice.”Then I desired to know whether the saints in heaven understood and were concerned for what was happening in the world below.

To this she replied, “As to the affairs of particular persons, we are not concerned with them and are ignorant of them. Only God is present in all places and sees all things. But the struggles and the victories of the church below is told to us by the angels, who are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those that shall be heirs of salvation. From what they report we are excited to renew our praises to Him that sits upon the throne.”

***

At this point my shining guardian told me that he must bring me back to the earth again, and leave me there until it was time for me to enter my heavenly reward.

In a very little space of time I found myself on earth again. I was left at the very place where the angel had met me, when I had been thinking about committing suicide through the temptations of the devil who had tried to persuade me that there was no God. How I returned there, I do not know. But as soon as I was back there, the bright angel who had been my conductor said, “John, I must go now. I have another ministry to complete. Praise Him that sits upon the throne forever, who has all power in heaven, earth, and hell. Praise Him for all the wonders of His love and grace that He has shown you in so short a time.”

As I was going to reply, the shining angel disappeared and I was left alone. I spent some time considering the amazing things I had seen and heard, and then knelt down and prayed. When I rose up I began blessing and praising God for all His goodness.

When I returned back to my house, my family was very surprised to see how my countenance had so greatly changed. They looked at me as if they scarcely knew me. I asked them what they were staring at. They answered that it was the change in my face that caused it. I said, “How am I so greatly changed?”

They told me, “Yesterday you looked so depressed that you seemed the very image of despair. But now, your face appears radiantly beautiful, and seems full of perfect joy and satisfaction.”

“If you had seen,” I said, “what I have seen today, you would not be surprised at the change in me.” Then I went into my room, took my pen and ink, and wrote down everything that I had heard and seen. And I hope that those who read this will be moved in their hearts just as I have been as I wrote everything down.

Afterword – A Note from the Author

This is the second book about Personal Stories of Visiting Heaven. I received so much positive feedback on the first volume and received so many new and powerful stories since then that a second volume was a natural step.

In spite of the great feedback, very few people are aware of these two books. You see, this is not being published by someone with an existing audience. There is no advertising or marketing budget; it is only by word-of-mouth that people can find it. You are part of a very small group of readers that have found these specific books from amongst the many titles on the subject.

What do people care about today? What question must every person ask at some time in their lives? – Is heaven for real? They may not ask this question when they are young and carefree. They may not ask it today or tomorrow but you can rest assured that some day they will ask that question and they will want to find an answer. You have the answer that they are looking for.

When someone you know asks that question, “Is Heaven for Real?” will you be able to pass along this information?

I would like to tell you the story of a young college student who was ambitiously pursuing his own plans for life. He thought he was following a path towards success but the distractions of the world were bringing life-threatening dangers towards him from many different directions.

One day someone gave that young man a book; it was a simple little book about the end-time events as described in Revelation from the Bible. That book planted a seed that took root and over the course of several months, that young man slowly came to faith and escaped from the negative influences that were threatening to destroy his life. That young man was me! You never know how a simple little book can turn out to be a treasure for someone.

Now you also have a simple treasure that you can easily share with others. Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10 v 8). All you need is someone’s email address and you can send a gift copy of this book to them that they can read on their Kindle Reader, on their portable device or even on their desktop computer. It is also available in paperback so you can send them a hard copy to read. Of course you can share the powerful message of hope in many ways other than this book; especially non-verbally with actions of love and kindness.

One may wonder, is it worthwhile to think about heaven? Is it useful to share stories about heaven? Some would argue against it. Some have even made the comment, “He is so heavenly minded, he is no earthly good!” This is simply a negative comment that is unproductive. The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians:

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded…let us mind the same thing…For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

Paul tells us to mind the same thing, the prize, what the Amplified Bible calls the supreme and heavenly prize. He actually has harsh words for those who mind earthly things. We look to hope, a hope that makes not ashamed, the hope that is laid up for you in Heaven and you can be sure… “…every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself, even as he is pure”.

To be heavenly minded on the contrary can bring much earthly good! – Being heavenly minded fosters an awareness of how important it is to love one another, to encourage one another towards good deeds as we know the day is fast approaching.

So, this book is simply a tool to encourage and open up discussion but it can be much more. Imagine the effect you could have for all of eternity; you have the opportunity to strengthen the faith of a believer who is struggling; you can lead an unbeliever to the glorious hope of heaven and at the same time you will build up rewards in heaven for yourself and strengthen your own steadfast hope.

If you sent a gift copy of this book to just a few friends; what an impact that could make on someone’s life for eternity? What blessed hope could take root and grow! There are people you can reach that no one else can. Please share this treasure with others; here are the links for you:

Is Heaven for Real? Personal Stories of Visiting Heaven

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BXKG41U

and the second volume:

Is Heaven for Real? 2: Personal Stories of Visiting Heaven

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CTT66SU

May God richly bless you in all things.

~ Patrick Doucette

[1] Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down, page 238

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – A Fateful Flight

Chapter 2 – Gunned Down to Glory

Chapter 3 – A Crash at Christmas

Chapter 4 – Over an Hour in Heaven

Chapter 5 – A Young Boy meets His Grandma at the Gate

Chapter 6 – An Early Trip to Eternity

Chapter 7 – A Sojourn in Her Sleep

Chapter 8 - A Scary Surgery

Chapter 9 - A Surfer’s Story - Revisited

Chapter 10 - Bonus Addendum - John Bunyon’s Rare Vision of Heaven

Afterword – A Note from the Author

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – A Fateful Flight

Chapter 2 – Gunned Down to Glory

Chapter 3 – A Crash at Christmas

Chapter 4 – Over an Hour in Heaven

Chapter 5 – A Young Boy meets His Grandma at the Gate

Chapter 6 – An Early Trip to Eternity

Chapter 7 – A Sojourn in Her Sleep

Chapter 8 - A Scary Surgery

Chapter 9 - A Surfer’s Story - Revisited

Chapter 10 - Bonus Addendum - John Bunyon’s Rare Vision of Heaven

Afterword – A Note from the Author