Life After Death > One man's journey to Heaven and back

 

Ex-Atheist Artist Nearly Dies, Recalls Jesus Saving Him From Hell—And Returns to Paint Pictures of the Lord

Courtesy of Howard Storm

By Louise Chambers

10/20/2022Updated:10/23/2022

A former atheist attests to how his belief system was shaken to the core when he experienced meeting Jesus during a near-death experience. He recalled his savior transporting him from a hellish realm to the kingdom of Heaven for a glimpse of what could be earned in life. It was here that he also realized the grave error of his old ways.

Howard Storm, now 75, admits that he had an obsession with success in his earlier years. Raised in a suburb of Boston, he attended school in California before taking a job as an art professor at North Kentucky University in 1972. He became a renowned painter and sculptor, and that pursuit consumed him. Today, Storm is a retired ordained minister and lives in Fort Thomas.

“I Was My Own God”

“I was an atheist. I thought that lives were short and sweet and then you die, so the whole point was to be as successful as possible,” he told The Epoch Times. “I was an alpha male ... I was totally self-absorbed. I considered myself to be a good person because I didn’t flagrantly break the law, rob, steal, or murder anybody. I was my own God.”

But on June 1, 1985, at the age of 38, a brush with death changed Storm’s outlook on life completely.

A painting by Howard Storm; (Inset) Howard Storm in his early life and more recently. Courtesy of Howard Storm

He said, “I was taking a group of art students, along with my wife, on a three week tour of Europe. We spent our last week in Paris. The last day ... I exhausted the students, taking them to galleries and museums and some archaeological sites.

“At the hotel ... I collapsed to the floor with the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. My wife called the hotel desk, they called the emergency services, and a doctor came in quite promptly. With a great deal of effort, he got me off the floor and examined me ... I had to have surgery immediately, or I would die.”

Storm had suffered a perforation of the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine where gastric acids enter the digestive system, and was at risk of having sepsis. The cause of this was never determined, but Storm believes his life of excess—alcohol, overeating, and stress—was to blame.

He was rushed to a Paris hospital. Storm has since conferred with doctors in the United States who suspect that he had only two or three hours to live. Yet he survived ten hours; it was a Saturday, and there were no surgeons on the ward. He had to wait in agonizing pain.

Between Life and Death

“I spent hours begging for drugs,” he recalled. “About once an hour, the nurse would come in and ask me how I was doing, and I would say, ‘I’m dying, I need morphine.’ She'd say she was sorry but no—no doctor, no orders.”

Struggling to breathe, Storm felt he was nearing the end. Tearfully, he and his wife said their goodbyes, before Storm lost consciousness.

“I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but the next thing I knew I was sitting next to the bed and I felt wonderful,” he recalled. “I felt better than I ever felt in my whole life. I was overjoyed, amazed, thrilled, excited. ... The next thing I noticed was that my senses were heightened. I could see better, hear better, taste better, feel better—much better than I ever had before.”

Storm performed a “reality check” on his body, feeling his way from his feet to his head. He felt “real.” He tried to communicate with his wife and ward mate; despite raising his voice and even yelling, they stared right through him. Next came a troubling vision: a lifeless body in the bed beside him.

“The sheet went up over the shoulders, the neck, and the head was turned away from me. I bent over and looked at the face of the body, and to my complete horror and surprise it looked like me,” he said.

The horror continued when Storm realized he was not alone in this realm of what he found out was the afterlife.

The Hell Realm

“I heard people calling me outside the room,” he said in a video testimony. “There was a group of people in the dark hallway, back in the shadows, maybe eight ... They said, ‘We know all about you, we’ve been waiting for you for a very long time, and it’s time for you to come with us.’”

Storm wanted to believe these were medics, but as he followed the group into a dark abyss their professional demeanor changed, their numbers increased, and their words became cruel, blasphemous, and mocking. Storm became scared and lost.

He said, “I’m going back!” But the figures wouldn’t have it, and they beat him into a crumpled heap on the floor. He found himself in a hellish place, and Storm was compelled to call out to Jesus, despite his atheism. He remembered the format from Sunday school as a child.

A painting by Howard Storm depicts the strange figures who tormented him in a hellish realm during his near-death experience. Courtesy of Howard Storm

“The prayer was very simple: Jesus, please save me. My prayer was from the heart, out of pure desperation, and it was simple and direct,” Storm told The Epoch Times.

In answer to this, a man in a white robe appeared, causing the cursing figures to retreat. The robed figure had “a beard and long hair,” Storm recalled. He was “very well-built, very athletic” and “exceedingly gentle and kind.” This was Jesus. He led Storm to a safer place, bathed in a comforting light.

A Glimpse of Heaven

“He gave me a tour of Heaven but I was never admitted, I was strictly a tourist,” Storm said. “He said, ‘You don’t have the character to fit into heaven, and that’s why life is the way it is.’

“When I asked Jesus, ‘Am I going to go back into the pain?’ He said, ‘Yes, but you will learn from that. You will suffer a lot.’ He wanted me to fulfill the purpose with which I was brought into this world in the first place: to be a loving, kind person.”

Storm woke up, certain in the knowledge that Heaven is vast and ruled by God’s love, and all that is good, and ever will be, is already there. But he had not yet earned his place with his savior.

Of course, you cannot earn your way to Heaven, Jesus has already paid the price for your tuition.

Google AI Overview > The phrase "be worthy of your calling" in the Bible, often found in Ephesians 4:1, emphasizes living in a manner that reflects and honors the purpose and plan God has for a person's life. It's a call to live according to God's will and to show gratitude for the blessings received, including salvation.

What would have happened if he had died at that moment? Would he have ended up in a Heaven that he wasn't ready for? Are you worthy of your calling?

A painting by Howard Storm depicts a path with a divine destination. Courtesy of Howard Storm

An hour later, Storm was on the operating table. Upon his return to the United States, he was readmitted to the hospital for two months, with complications, before being sent home for a months-long recuperation.

Weak and bed-bound, he had time to contemplate his spiritual experience.

“The only thing I could do was read,” he said. “I got my wife to get me a book on Buddhism, and on Hinduism, and I had a Bible. I came to the conclusion that the Bible was much closer to what I'd experienced than the other books, so I decided that I was going the way of Christianity.”

When Storm was strong enough to walk, he took an old colleague up on an invitation to join her at a local church. Storm attended with his wife, and quickly felt at home in the company of others seeking God. Yet finding his own spiritual path was easier than convincing his friends and colleagues in the art world.

Conviction

“Everybody made fun of me and told me I needed to see a psychiatrist,” he said. “All my friends, all the other university professors were atheists. One of our favorite topics was making fun of people that were religious, as they were the equivalent of adults who believed in fairy tales.”

To be loving toward those who attack you and do not share your same values is a life-long journey, he added, but Heaven is the final destination.

“We’re just really raw amateurs at love,” he said. “When we go to Heaven, as we become perfect, are holy, sanctified, fully and wholly in love, we are given responsibilities. In time, we may be ruling and working in cooperation with God over other systems: people, maybe some cities, maybe some countries, maybe some worlds.”

A depiction of Jesus by Howard Storm Courtesy of Howard Storm

The year after having his near-death experience, Storm returned to the university. In 1989 he left to attend seminary, eventually becoming an ordained minister. His longest service was 14 years at Zion United Church of Christ in Norwood, Ohio.

His work, he said, even involved exorcising “demonic entities,” counseling people following “demonic attacks,” and championing the power of prayer. “It’s got to be sincere, it’s got to be from the heart, it’s got to be forceful,” he said.

A heavenly landscape painting by Howard Storm. Courtesy of Howard Storm

Now retired, Storm works with a village mission in San Victor, Belize. He has written four books based on his experiences: “My Descent into Death” (2005), “Befriend God: Life with Jesus” (2019), “Lessons Learned: A Spiritual Journey” (2014), and “It’s All Love” (2014).

He has rendered several oil paintings about his experience, including portraits of Jesus. But capturing the luminous eyes of the Lord escaped him. “They are radiance, coming from His love and light, and I haven’t figured out how to depict them,” he said.

Today, Storm’s doctrine is simple. He echoes the words of his savior: “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter

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Near-Death Experiences similar all over the world > What does it all mean?

 

From Blindness to 360 Degree Vision–

What 4,000 Near Death Cases Bring to Light

Blind from birth, a 22-year-old woman experienced seeing herself for the first time—while on the operating table.

By Yuhong Dong, M.D., Ph.D.

10/18/2024Updated:10/22/2024

Vicki Umipeg was prematurely born at 22 weeks, weighing 3 pounds. Her optic nerve was damaged due to high oxygen in the incubator, resulting in complete blindness. She had no visual experiences, no awareness of light whatsoever.

At the age of 22, she was thrown out of a car in Seattle, resulting in severe injuries—skull fractures, concussion, and injuries to her neck, back, and leg. While being rescued in the hospital, she found herself floating to the ceiling.

She had panoramic vision and saw a woman’s body lying on a metal operating table, with a male and a female medical staff working to save her. When she noticed the distinct wedding ring on the woman’s hand, she realized it was her ring, and the woman lying there was her.

As she had been blind all her life, she had never seen that ring or her body. Only in that near-death experience (NDE) did she see her ring.

Vicki was the research subject of Dr. Jeffrey Long, a practicing radiation oncologist in Kentucky. Long has dedicated more than 25 years to studying near-death experiences. He has researched and reviewed more than 4,000 cases of unique NDEs and published them on his website, the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation.

Long summarized the most common experiences of NDE based on his research, which is similar to what Dr. Raymond Moody, known as the father of NDE, has found:

• Out-of-body experience
• Absence of pain
• Passage through a tunnel towards a bright light
• Encountering deceased loved ones in a heavenly realm
• Undergoing a profound life review
• Feeling overwhelming love and peace

Vicki’s case falls under the typical type of “out-of-body experience.” Her experience, especially the panoramic vision, is shared by all with NDEs.

360-Degree Vision

In a recent conversation with The Epoch Times, Long recalled his conversation with the blind woman.

“She had a 360-degree vision, where she could simultaneously be aware of and process vision during her near-death experience, in front of her, behind her, right, left, up, down.”

“In fact, I told Vicki that the rest of us in our earthly lives have these pie-shaped visual fields because of the location of our eyes, in our eye sockets. She literally laughed at me because her entire life experience with vision [during her NDE] was at 360 or spherical vision.”

Furthermore, initially unfamiliar with math and science, Vicki intuitively grasped calculus and understood how planets are formed after her NDE. She gained answers to questions about science, math, life, planets, and God, experiencing a flood of knowledge and understanding languages she didn’t know before.

From Delusional to Real

People who reported near-death experiences were often dismissed by the scientific community as delusional or religiously influenced until a significant shift in perspective over the past few decades.

In 1978, five independent medical doctors and scientists—John Audette, who has a master of science degree; Dr. Bruce Greyson; Dr. Raymond Moody; Ken Ring, who has a doctorate in social psychology; and Dr. Michael Sabom—co-established the International Association for Near-Death Studies, paving the way for exploring these extraordinary experiences through scientific lenses.

“I first heard about near-death experience decades ago when I was in my residency training,” Long said, “and in one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, the Journal of the American Medical Association.”

“I was flipping through the journal looking for a cancer-related article, and totally by accident, found the phrase near death experience in the title of an article. I was puzzled because nothing I'd learned in medical school explained that. You’re either alive or dead.”

The article was written by Sabom, a cardiologist who studied people who have survived cardiac arrest and coma. Some patients reported their consciousness came out of their bodies and observed what was happening while their bodies were unconscious, he wrote. What they described seeing was accurate down to the finest details.

Several years later, the wife of one of Long’s college friends shared her detailed and remarkable near-death experience with him.

“During a surgery under general anesthesia, she went into cardiac arrest due to an allergic reaction, meaning her heart stopped,” Long said.

“At that point, she had an out-of-body experience, witnessing the chaos in the operating room and hearing the loud alarm from the EKG monitoring her heart. She briefly passed through a tunnel and found herself in a non-earthly realm where she encountered other beings. There, she was given a choice about returning to her life. She asked the beings for guidance, and after some conversation, she decided to return to her body. She was successfully resuscitated.”

Long wondered why more people weren’t researching this fascinating phenomenon, so he began his journey to collect NDE cases. He built a database of 4,000 cases. “By far the largest publicly accessible collection of near-death experiences in the world,” he told The Epoch Times.

In a survey, he asked people directly about the reality of their experience, and nearly 95 percent of respondents said their experience was “definitely real.”

The 30 Failed Hypotheses

According to Long, people who are skeptical about NDEs have proposed more than 30 different explanations for these experiences.

“The reason that there are so many of these skeptical explanations—over 30 floating around—is very simple,” Long told The Epoch Times, “Because none of the skeptical explanations explain anything during the near-death experience, let alone everything that occurs.”

Hypotheses of hallucinations induced by hypoxia (decreased oxygen levels) and hypercarbia (increased carbon dioxide) were raised to explain why NDEs don’t fly. The reason is simple, “Medically, that results in confusion and diminished consciousness, not increased.” Long said.

The Lancet study studied hundreds of patients who were successfully resuscitated after cardiac arrest or clinically dead. Eighteen percent of those patients reported NDE. If cerebral hypoxia is the reason for causing near-death experiences—and everyone clinically dead has hypoxia—then most patients should have experienced NDE, said the researcher. However, this was not the case.

Others have argued that endorphins—the brain’s naturally produced narcotic-like substance—might explain NDEs. However, endorphins continue to exert their post-event pain-relieving effect on the brain for over an hour, which is not aligned with NDE, Long said.

“With near-death experiences, the moment they return to their physical body—boom—there’s no relief of pain or anything; they’re instantly having pain.” Long said.

Others have talked about seizures. Long said, “Seizures generally cause reduced or substantially altered consciousness, not the lucid, consistent experiences.”

Ernst Rodin, the former president of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, commented, “In spite of having seen hundreds of patients with temporal lobe seizures during three decades of professional life, I have never come across that symptomatology [NDE] as part of a seizure.”

The Lancet study also concluded that patients’ medication treatments or fear of death were found to be not associated with NDEs.

‘Doubly Impossible’

Additionally, NDEs have even been documented under general anesthesia.

“Under general anesthesia, you should have no possible lucid, organized, conscious experience.” Long said.

Some people were under general anesthesia—and then their heart stopped—in this case, Long said, it should be “doubly impossible to have any conscious experience.” And yet, they’re still having the same typically hyper-lucid, hyper-alert, hyper-conscious experience that all other near-death experiences have, he added.

“That, almost single-handedly, refutes any possibility that NDEs are due to physical brain function.”

Beyond Cultures, Religion, and Age

Other hypotheses include the psychological model, which proposes that NDEs are caused by imaginations based on personal, religious, or cultural background. However, individuals often report NDEs that are inconsistent with their life experiences or beliefs regarding death.

Some people say NDEs are culturally determined. However, Long found that the experiences are “remarkably similar wherever in the world they occur.”

“No matter where on earth they happen, it doesn’t make any difference. Whether you’re, say, a Muslim in Egypt or a Hindu in India, a Christian in the United States, or even an atheist everywhere in the world, that near-death experiences occur, and whatever their prior belief system was or wasn’t, the content what happens during a near-death experience is strikingly similar.”

After the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China, Chinese scientists observed a similar pattern of NDEs as the Western record.

Among the 81 survivors, 65 percent had heightened clarity of thought, 43 percent felt separation from their physical bodies, and 40 percent felt weightlessness. The experience was similar regardless of age, gender, occupation, or health status before the earthquake.

Long studied a group of children 5 and younger, with an average age of 3.5—“practically a culturally blank slate,” he said. “The content of these very young children is strikingly similar to the content of near-death experiences of older children and adults.”

Meeting God

Moody, who started studying NDE more than half a century ago, has pointed out that many near-death experiencers describe encountering a radiant being of light known as “The Being of Light,” as Moody describes in his book, “Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon - Survival of Bodily Death.”

This light is often described as a brilliant and indescribable radiance that doesn’t harm the eyes. Most individuals perceive this light as an advanced being imbued with love and warmth, or God.

Vicki also reported that in her NDE, she saw a figure with extraordinary radiance; she recognized this being to be Jesus.

To further investigate the truthfulness of “God” in near-death experiences, Long conducted research about God between 2011 and 2014, based on 420 cases of NDEs from people of various professions and walks of life.

Before experiencing a near-death event, 39 percent of people believed in the “absolute existence of God.” After their NDE, this belief increased to 72.6 percent. The number of individuals who believed in the absolute existence of God increased by 86 percent, and their faith in God greatly intensified, he wrote in his book, “God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience.”

Long carefully examined 277 descriptions of encounters with God and found a significant consistency in their descriptions—an all-loving and all-gracious supreme being radiating love and grace.

Other common features of encounters with God described in near-death experiences include nonjudgment, acceptance of who they are and a sense of unity or oneness with God. Communication is essentially always nonphysical or telepathic.

Positive Message

Before delving into NDE research, Long was puzzled by questions such as “who we are,” he felt that we are much more than just how our physical brain operates.

Near-death experiences provide overwhelming evidence for the existence of a consciousness apart from the body—a more eternal existence, said Long.

We are not just constrained operating machines but lives with numerous possibilities beyond our current recognition.

This is “the most powerfully positive message” for all humanity, he added.

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