Man who 'died and went to hell' says what he saw was worse than can be imagined

Edinburgh Live

04-06-2025

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A man has recounted his unnerving brush with death, a story that strays from the usual fiery hellscape often imagined; instead, his visit to the afterlife was filled with intense despondence and despair.
Howard Storm, a once sceptical atheist, father of two, and art department chair at North Kentucky University in the United States, saw his belief system turned on its head following a harrowing episode in Paris on June 1, 1985. He describes how he was suddenly gripped by an agonising pain so sharp that he thought he had been shot.
"It was like, right there, bang, the most acute pain I'd ever experienced in my life," Storm reflected. A trip to the hospital led to the dire warning that he faced death if surgery wasn't performed immediately to address the perforation of his duodenum, as reported by the Liverpool Echo.
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He proclaimed: "I didn't want to die because I knew with 100% certainty that when you die, that's it, it's over. The screen goes black, like in the movie theatre, you know? Says 'the end,' blackness, nothing."
At that time, Storm, only 38, felt too grounded in the real world—with a loving family, a thriving career, his artwork showcased in galleries, and financial comfort—to pass away. He narrates how he awoke from unconsciousness, standing beside his own hospital bed, feeling an unprecedented vitality, only to be confronted with the sight of his own lifeless body lying before him, reports the Mirror.
"But I couldn't accept that, because it's not. I mean, that's impossible. Then I heard people outside the room calling me by name in English, which I thought was odd because everyone in the French hospital spoke French.
"And they said, 'Hurry up. We've been waiting for you. We know everything. We've been waiting and waiting, and it's time for you to come with us'. So I assumed, since I had mentioned the doctor, that they were gonna take me to the doctor.
"So I left the light of the room and went out into the very grey, dank hallway, where there was this group of people that stayed back in the darkness away from the light of the room. He said he was led down what he first thought was the hallway."
He stated: "We walked for miles, and miles, and miles, and we never went up or down. They encircled me and just shepherd me into ever-increasing darkness. It started off with them being very officious. Like, 'This way, keep moving, hurry up'. That evolved into, 'What's the matter with you? Move, move faster. You're too slow'. That became vulgar.
(Image: undefined via Getty Images)
(Image: undefined via Getty Images)
"And then it became clear that they were gonna have at me. They began by kicking, punching, pulling. Then they started biting, and ripping, and tearing. And then they started invading me physically. So eventually, I was completely torn apart, lying on the ground, unable to even move or defend myself in any way.
"I'm completely defeated, completely depressed and in despair. And I couldn't think of any way out. This is it forever, and ever, and ever with these horrible people.
"And I heard a voice say, 'Pray to God'. And I thought, I don't believe in God, I don't pray. And the voice said, 'Pray to God,' kind of strong. And I thought, I don't know how to pray. I can't pray."
He shared that the voice grew louder, urging him to "Pray to God". His mind was drawn "involuntarily" back to his childhood days in Sunday school singing "Jesus Loves Me".
He continued: "I could see it vividly. I could hear it vividly. But much more importantly, I could feel it vividly, that as a little boy, when I sang "Jesus Loved Me". He added: "I believed in him as a little boy.
"And when that happened, I decided that I needed to take a chance 'cause I didn't know whether he would care about me or not. As far as I was concerned, his best option would be to leave me there. And I called out to him, 'Jesus, please save me'."
He described a "tiny light" appearing in the darkness, growing intensely bright. He elaborated: "It came upon me. It was impossibly brilliant."
If it had been light as we experience light in this world, it would have consumed me.
I mean, I just would have been burnt up. ""But it was that bright.
Out of it emerged hands and arms, and he reached down and touched me, and I saw myself come back together from the roadkill that I was. You know, I became complete.
He poignantly shared the transformative experience, revealing: "Much more important to me was that he filled me with the love that I never experienced in this world. And his hands and arms picked me up without any effort, and he brought me up against himself, and put his arms around me, to stroke my back like a mother or father would with their child. And I cried out of joy into his chest, slobbering all over him."
Discussing the more harrowing parts of his ordeal, he stated: "The people who took me into that place of darkness were people just like me. I mean this absolutely sincerely, Hell's not so bad. The problem is the people that are there. They're awful.
"They're really awful. There's nothing to do there except torment one another, so Hell is a place of continuous torment.
It's a place of complete hopelessness and despair. "
The man who used to be a professor shared his experience in Lee Strobel's film, "The Case for Heaven", which you can watch on YouTube, an event that completely changed his existence.