What happens to our consciousness the moment we die?
Christians believe our souls end up in one of two places: Heaven or Hell, according to the Bible.
For atheists and non-Christians, beliefs about our immediate destination after death are as diverse as the various sects themselves.
Some people, however, don’t need to guess. That’s because they’ve reportedly been to the other side and lived to tell about their serene — or horrifying — experiences.
Christian journalist Lee Strobel documented many of these cases in his new book “Seeing the Supernatural: Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World.”
Many of the near-death experiences Strobel included appear to defy medical explanation.
For instance, Strobel described the case of Mary, a single mother who died in her hospital bed, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
“Suddenly a tunnel appeared, and she felt herself being pulled toward it,” Strobel wrote. “Her spirit passed through a ceiling fan and then through the ceiling.”
Mary said at the end of the tunnel she was shrouded with love and light, and that her life played out before her.
Do you believe in an actual heaven and actual hell?
“I felt every good or bad deed I had ever done and its consequences upon others,” she described. “It was a difficult time for me, but I was supported by unconditional love and weathered the painful parts. I was asked telepathically about whether I wanted to stay or return.”
What made Mary’s case peculiar, however, was not what she saw on “the other side,” but what she saw in her hospital room.
“When Mary’s spirit floated out of her body, she noticed a red label on the top side of a blade on the ceiling fan, hidden from view for people in the room. She later described the sticker in great detail,” Strobel wrote.
Another case centered on Maria, a heart attack patient who also died in her hospital bed.
Maria rose from her body, ascending through the ceiling and above the hospital roof.
When she was revived, she told the staff she had seen a shoe on a window ledge of the hospital.
“A man’s shoe, left-footed, dark blue, with a wear mark over the little toe and a shoelace tucked under the heel,” she said.
The staff later found the shoe exactly where and how she had described it.
Such cases are not always so blissful or fascinating, however.
Some have recounted experiences that could only be described as hellish.
Atheist Howard Storm was a professor at Northern Kentucky University when he died of a stomach ulcer.
Following his death, Storm was outside of his body.
“He began following some mysterious but friendly visitors who beckoned him down the hallway,” Strobel wrote. ‘This turned into a trek of miles, with conditions getting darker and darker.”
Suddenly, his guides turned on him.
“They began pushing, hitting, pulling, kicking, biting and tearing with their fingernails and hands as they laughed and swore at him. He fought back as best he could, but he was mauled — physically and emotionally — in the struggle,” Strobel wrote.
Storm further described the chilling experience.
“There has never been a horror movie or book that can begin to describe their cruelty. Eventually I was eviscerated. I definitely lost one of my eyes, my ears were gone,” Storm said.
Storm called out, “Jesus, save me!” and a bright light pierced the darkness, and a pair of hands reached for him.
“When they touched me, in that light, I could see me and all the gore. I was roadkill. and that gore began to just dissolve and I came back whole,” Storm said.
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