Latest news with #heaven
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Man who 'died' for 45 minutes during surgery reveals what he saw... it made him question everything
A man who died on the operating table for 45 minutes during his surgery has claimed he saw Jesus standing over him who showed him heaven. Mike McKinsey, from California in the US, experienced the terrifying near-death experience while undergoing surgery to have his appendix removed. In what doctors described as 'the worst case they'd ever seen, the procedure took an unexpected turn, leaving him temporarily 'dead'. This means a person's heart has stopped beating and they've stopped breathing, but they may still be able to be revived. In Mr McKinsey's case, doctors were forced to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, to restart his heart and bring him back to life, he revealed in a recent viral video posted on the YouTube channel Coming Home. Once 'clinically dead', he said he saw Jesus who he described as looking 'like an Arab man'. Wearing a white robe, the holy figure had 'wavy brown hair' and 'dark greenish-blue eyes', that he said 'looked right into' his soul. When he reached out to take the hand Jesus offered him, he said he was transported to a meadow. He recalled being barefoot in nothing but his surgical gown, standing on 'perfectly manicured' grass—with heightened senses allowing him to take in the moment. Then, as he adjusted his eyes to the white, he said to his right was a bight light which 'all of a sudden starts sending these beams.' 'I felt the surgical room is now replaced with this beautiful warm feeling. All of a sudden somebody is pulling a curtain from my right to my left. 'The white whatever it was—the white fog or veil or the just whiteness gets pulled to the side and now I'm looking at this beautiful scenery.' He described standing on a hill above little flowers with soft petals that moved like they were dancing in the wind—which confused him as there was no wind. 'There's one big gold dome like a capital and there's other smaller gold domes—I mean the city's huge. It is miles apart,' he said. There was 'the most beautiful' sunset he had ever seen and then he noticed one of the tubes 'of white' hit the top of a tree. 'It was like it had a diamond on it because when that thing hit the top of the tree it burst into hundreds of tiny little light streaks. 'Pretty soon the whole mountain is lit with these bursting white beams of light and they kept' which he described as being like 'a big giant firework show. When he looked at the source of the light, he said: 'Jesus says to me "it's the glory of the lord".' This was when he said he knew he couldn't die, and was brought him back to the surgery room. The first thing he remembers is the doctor asking him if he remembered his name or where he was. This was when he realised there were five other people in the room dressed in scrubs and he heard someone say 'he's back'. He realised he must have been resuscitated when he saw a crash cart next to him with one of the resuscitation paddles 'kind of laying aside' and 'chords hanging down'. 'It was obvious somebody had used it. Someone was over there putting them back together—and I thought, oh boy, I did die' he said. He spent 12 days in hospital losing two and a half stone, as he was initially on a liquid diet for six days, before being eventually allowed to eat banana. Mr McKinsey first began to experience health problems in August 2024, when he started to suffer stomach issues while at a wedding, but it wasn't until three days later he went to hospital. It was at the hospital in Ventura, an hour-and-a-half drive to west of Los Angeles, he discovered his appendix had burst—which can be life-threatening. He recalled the medical staff starting the IV, rolling him down the corridor, and saying goodbye to his wife. While, he also doesn't say whether his heart stopped and if so for how long, it is possible to be clinically dead for 45 minutes and survive with a defibrillator. The phenomenon of near-death experiences has fascinated people and experts for millennia, but until recently there had been no scientific explanation. In 2023, Dr Jane Aspell a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Anglia Ruskin University revealed recent research shed light on how the brain generates the experience of one's self—and what happens when it goes wrong. 'There is now strong evidence that out of body experiences, and related experiences, are caused by abnormal functioning in parts of the brain that process and combine signals from our bodies. She explained it may be caused by damage to a vital part of the brain responsible for processing senses and balance. This could explain why those who have come close to death, taken drugs or suffered from a brain injury are among those who have reported out of body experiences. Such accounts have detailed cases of sufferers floating above their body that is lying down beneath them just after a traumatic event or accident. The professor explained recent research shed light on how the brain generates the experience of one's self—and what happens when it goes wrong. The right side of the temporal parietal junction, which sits just above the ear is associated with out of body experiences, Dr Aspell explained. This part of the brain is active during social functions, and needed to process empathy and memory. It also draws on the senses of vision, sound and touch to create a coherent feeling of the self inside the body. Part of the temporal parietal junction, called the vestibular cortex, acts as the balance system in our ears, helping us know where we are in relation to gravity. The vestibular cortex could offer further explanation on out of body experiences, Dr Aspell believes. If this area is not working properly, 'the experience of being one single body might therefore be disrupted,' explained Dr Aspell. If the brain cannot combine information from this balance system with other senses, it can give the feeling of floating above your own body, explained Dr Aspell.
New York Times
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘The Phoenician Scheme' Review: Benicio Del Toro Plans to Save His Soul
With his diorama-like compositions and tales of longing — usually for a loving family — Wes Anderson has taken audiences most everywhere on the planet: Asia and Europe, New York City and the American southwest, a fox's hole and an island inhabited by dogs. With 'The Phoenician Scheme' he globetrots again, zigging and zagging about, but he adds an unusual place to the list: heaven. Or, more accurately, the pearly gates that stand just outside of heaven, guarding the way lest the unworthy sneak in. These scenes are really snippets, rendered in black and white. In them, we repeatedly glimpse the weapons dealer and generally shady business tycoon Anatole Korda, a.k.a. Zsa-zsa (Benicio Del Toro, who is perfect) standing on some clouds before a robed assembly of what the film bills as the 'biblical troupe,' among whom are F. Murray Abraham, Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hope Davis and Bill Murray, who, delightfully, plays God. That all of these screen luminaries apparently just popped to Anderson's set for a day to film a tiny scene is indicative of where the auteur stands at this point in his 31-year career. Still boyish in appearance, he's just turned 56, with a bevy of awards under his belt. He's synonymous with his intricate aesthetic, which is perhaps one of the most recognizable in cinema. It's turned him into a brand, with social media creators and critics alike drawn to examining and imitating him. He curated a show at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum in 2018, and as 'The Phoenician Scheme' was premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, he was simultaneously the subject of a show at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. He's also built a career on an ever-expanding universe of returning collaborators and players. While some, like Murray, have been around for a long time, Del Toro is still relatively new to the fold, with 'The Phoenician Scheme' only his second Anderson outing (he had a role as a seductive criminal in 'The French Dispatch'). He plays the cold and aloof Korda who, upon surviving his sixth assassination attempt, finally admits he needs to appoint an heir to his business and vast fortune. He has nine sons who live in a dormitory across the street from his house — Korda is not a very good dad — but he also has an estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton, all deadpan chain-smoking charm), who is on the verge of taking her vows at the convent. Liesl's moral sense is as upstanding as her father's is utilitarian, and when he lays out his plan to her, she senses she might be able to do some good even if she doesn't trust him. So she convinces him to take the slightly higher ethical ground toward his big, well, scheme — the details of which are laid out so rapidly, and so sketchily, that it's pretty clear Anderson doesn't care if we really catch on to what Korda wants to do. Despite its title, this is not a movie about a plan, but about the man with that plan and, most important, his soul. In fact, this is a rather soul-obsessed movie, the kind you often see from artists who have been pondering the meaning of life lately. I can't guarantee that's what Anderson's been doing, but I can confirm this is the first of his films that depicts religious inquiry in any explicit way. As Korda and Liesl traipse around the world trying to drum up funding for his scheme, they meet with a series of Korda's acquaintances and associates and relatives, all of whom reveal something about how he's conducted his business, and life, in the past. These include but are not limited to a prince (Riz Ahmed), a pair of brothers (Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston), a nightclub owner with the delightful moniker Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), a guy named Marty (Jeffrey Wright), some militants led by a man named Sergio (Richard Ayoade), and finally two of Korda's family members: his utopian second cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson) and the grudge-bearing Uncle Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch). Yes, that's a lot of names. It's not even all of them. And that illuminates the biggest issue with 'The Phoenician Scheme': It's overstuffed, and thus skims and skitters across the surface of everything it touches, only glancing here and there before it's taking off to the next story beat, the next exquisitely detailed composition. A breath or two or 10 might have been in order, a moment to contemplate what the movie's getting at. You sometimes get the feeling it's afraid to look too hard at itself. That does, however, mirror how Korda has lived his life, until the moment Liesl shows up. With each visit for each new funding plea, some aspect of Korda's life gets aired out briefly, and Liesl gets a better look at who her father really is. She also discusses God and religion and goodness with him, and with the tutor that Korda hires to travel with him and keep things intellectually interesting. The current tutor, Bjorn Lund, is an entomologist, so he's always talking about bugs; he's also played by Michael Cera, who somehow has never been in a Wes Anderson movie before. Thank god he's joined that particular cinematic universe. Korda, preternaturally calm about everything, confronts his past with outward aplomb, but there's an uneasiness growing in him. Between these scenes, we see him at those pearly gates, experiencing the difficulties that might lie in the afterlife. It's as if the mounting self-knowledge, prompted by Liesl's presence in his life, is prompting the long-overdue awakening of his conscience. And that leads to the big question the movie is asking, when you can look behind all that scurrying: Can a man like Korda be great, and also be good? Or are the two incompatible? Must conquering the world and amassing a fortune require exploiting everyone around him? (One of Liesl's innovations in his scheme is banning the use of slave labor, for instance.) Or, to quote a book of which Liesl is quite fond, what is the real profit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? One of the mottoes by which Korda has lived his life is 'if something gets in your way, flatten it,' a slogan that sounds suspiciously similar to the kind of advice you get from rise-and-grind TikTok gurus or ethically bendy tech executives. But the higher up you get, the flatter everything below you looks. It's easy to forget all those humans down there. Greatness and success, 'The Phoenician Scheme' suggests, are all well and good. But there's joy that comes from returning to the three-dimensional world, to a place where you pray or you cook, where a little scotch and a game of cards with friends at the end of a long day means love.
Hindustan Times
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Massive fight breaks out during Beyoncé's show in Chicago as fans throw kicks and punches at each other. Watch
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter concert in Chicago turned into a battle ground as several fans got into a physical fight during the middle of her performance. Pictures and videos from the concert were uploaded by fans on social media, which showed fans throwing chairs and pushing other people in the middle of the show. (Also read: 'So professional even at 13': Internet is impressed with Blue Ivy as she saves Beyoncé from onstage mishap) In a video that has now surfaced on X, a massive brawl escalated between a number of fans. Chairs were knocked down, while some of them tried to push and shove other people and tear their clothes. A few from the crowd, who were spotted in cowboy hats, were seen trying to destabilize the fight by taking the people away from each other. Apparently, the fight broke out in the middle of Beyonce's performance of II HANDS II HEAVEN. An attendee shared the video and wrote in the caption, 'FIGHTING DURING ll Hands ll heaven IS DIABOLICAL!!' Another said, 'Pulling hair and swinging on people as Beyoncé sings a romantic love song live in front of you is funny lol!' A comment read, 'What is there to even fight about? You are seeing Beyoncé! Now u bout to be banned from the stadium!' 'I don't understand how people PAY to go to these events and fight. Y'all supposed to be singing not swinging!' said another. A fan commented, 'I don't understand people who fight at concerts like y'all just looking for attention at this point!' This is not the first time that a fight has broke out during one of Beyoncé's concerts. During her first night tour at the SoFi stadium in Los Angeles, a fight had broke out at the VIP lounge after the concert. Several women were seen shoving and kicking each other. Meanwhile, the performance in Chicago was delayed due to weather conditions. However, Beyoncé made sure to go ahead with her set after the storms subsided and performed with Blue Ivy and Rumi Carter.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Living on Purpose: Straight is the gate and narrow is the way
I hope you have enjoyed the recent messages about heaven lately, and I appreciate the emails expressing your speculations. My statements are my own opinions and calculations and originate from my fascination about what our future home will be like. There are so many more questions like will we eat, what will we do, will we live in mansions, will babies be born, can our loved ones communicate with us, will our pets be there, will all of nature including our bodies remain the same throughout eternity, will there be technology, will we sleep, and so on. We realize that no one really knows the specifics of all these things we are curious about, but there are hints here and there if we take the time to study and research the scriptures. There is no need to argue about heaven, but rather let us be filled with excitement and joy to know that being with God forever (wherever we are) is the greatest miracle blessing we could ever experience. As we have been discussing heaven, it's been on my mind that we should be taking our spiritual relationship with the Lord very seriously and not take His grace for granted. We love to discuss how Jesus is our only hope and heaven is waiting for us, but there is also a responsibility to constantly examine and evaluate our minds and hearts to make sure we are walking on the narrow path of purity and obedience. Are we spending time each day in prayer because we love Him and those around us who need Him? Are we drawing near to Him each moment so that we can live in the awareness of His presence? Are we repenting of our sins when we disobey Him so that we can approach Him with a clean heart and a right spirit? The word I am sensing is complacent in the context of relaxing in the fact that we have been rescued and are now just waiting for our eternal reward. As we mentioned about who will be in heaven, the Bible discloses distinct sins that He does not tolerate and are found in Proverbs 6:16-19, I Corinthians 6:9-20, Romans Chapter 1, and I Timothy 1:4-11. As Philippians Chapter 2 declares trembling and living in a reverential fear of God's holiness, we are reminded that He does not compromise or forget anything we think or do. Peter I 1:15-17 says, 'But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy. Since you call on a Father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.' The word foreigners is used to explain this world is not our permanent residence as God's children are citizens of the new heaven and earth which are coming. Temptations surround us and try to lure our carnal nature to love and embrace sin. We are being warned not to be so consumed with distractions and pleasures that we lose focus of Christ. Another word that is similar is deception. We bristle at the possibility of us being wrong, but there are many who are not genuinely redeemed. They have head knowledge, but do not abide in a covenant relationship with the living Jesus. We have also talked about how it matters which god we love and serve, that all religions do not lead to Jesus Christ. He will not accept just any type of philosophy or ideas that humans can dream of. The God of the Bible is particular and precise when it comes to people placing their faith the blood sacrifice of Jesus, and embracing that He rose again from the dead to save them from being eternally lost. God's grace and love transforms them into a new spiritual identity as being righteous 'in Christ.' I've listened to many people over the years who confessed how at one time they were convinced they were born again, but later in life realized they were living an illusion. Matthew Chapter 7 is disturbing as it talks about people who call on the Lord and believe they are working for Him, but He tells them on judgement day they were deceived. Again, this is why we must not assume the average decent person will automatically deserve heaven. If it was that easy, most everyone would be there. Actually, we read in Luke Chapter 13 that only a remnant will enter. Dr. Billy Holland is a minister, chaplain and author. Read more about the Christian life at Holland can be contacted at psalmz103@ This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: Living on Purpose: Straight is the gate and narrow is the way
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I died for a split second then came back to life - the image I saw continues to haunt me
A woman who momentarily 'died' twice has detailed the haunting scenes she claims she saw in heaven. Lisa Small, from Belleview, Florida, was just 24 when in 2008, she suddenly collapsed and had to be resuscitated. The now 41-year-old was suffering a drug and alcohol addiction that saw her spend at least $150 a day on the substances when during one cocaine binge she said she stopped breathing but her eyes remained open. Her then-boyfriend was forced to perform CPR for around 40 seconds, before she regained consciousness. It was only after she collapsed a second time later that night and stopped breathing again that she sought medical attention. Here, she said doctors explained that she had gone into respiratory arrest — a serious medical emergency where breathing stops, but the heart continues to beat. Research suggests just one in six patients survive the medical emergency after five years. Yet, Ms Small, who works as a waitress, claimed to have miraculously avoided any long-term damage, and said she was one of the handful of people to have survived a near-death experience, 'like a phoenix out of the ashes'. These phenomena, which have been a source of fascination for medics and the public alike for decades, are believed to occur when people are clinically 'dead', and extremely unlikely to survive. Many of those who've had such an experience claim to have seen the afterlife. Recalling her experience, Ms Small said: 'I literally stopped breathing. I collapsed. I stopped breathing. 'All of a sudden I was in this big, huge open field, and there was a tree next to me, and then there was a guy in a white cloth. 'Way off miles and miles away, there was a sea of people. I couldn't physically see anybody, but I felt like I knew them. 'This feeling of just wonderfulness. I can't even explain it. It was like euphoria times a million.' During her second collapse, 'I went to the exact same spot, exact same tree, person, people in the distance, exact same feeling', she added. 'My boyfriend told me "your eyes were open the entire time"—so clearly I wasn't dreaming.' A respiratory arrest is a life-threatening emergency. Without immediate medical attention it can trigger brain damage or a cardiac arrest. A cardiac arrest happens when the heart suddenly stops beating or beats irregularly, disrupting blood flow to vital organs. One study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal involving 517 patients who had suffered a respiratory arrest found 59.6 per cent were able to be resuscitated in hospital. Just over a quarter (26.9 per cent) were discharged from hospital with 24.3 per cent surviving a year. Just 15.9 per cent, however, survived to five years. Ms Small said: 'I'm very grateful I'm one of the blessed ones that made it out. Where I was headed was total destruction. I feel like a phoenix out of the ashes.' Despite her near death experience, it wasn't until 2018 that she became sober having battled homelessness as well as multiple arrests. She estimated she spent around $40,000 in total during the 15 years she was gripped by her addiction to cocaine, heroin, crack, alcohol and the synthetic drug 'flakka.' She said: 'Addiction is basically a pit of despair, like a demon that has a hold of you. You have to be stronger than that.' Now, she credits the church and faith for her recovery. 'In July, I'll have lived in this house for six years now. I always have animals find me. I've had my three cats for eight years now.' But her most significant is the reconnection with her 20-year-old son, Ayden, a restaurant host where Lisa works—who grew up with his father. 'My son lives with me now,' she said. 'When he moved in on Christmas Eve of this past year, it's the first time he's ever lived with me and the longest amount of time that we've ever spent together. 'Being sober, my life has literally done a full 360, not even just a 180. Everything is different. Everything.' Experiences of seeing and hearing things while clinically dead do have some scientific basis. For years studies have shown the human brain still functions normally for a very brief time after the heart stops, although it appears to have ceased activity on regular scans. Research has also revealed that the brain can still experience sporadic bursts of activity even after an hour without oxygen, during resuscitation. Such discoveries have led to some medics calling for an overhaul of the standard practice that rules people should be declared dead after three-to-five minutes of oxygen deprivation to the brain, as these patients could still in theory be resuscitated. While evidence on something happening in brains after clinical death is still being explored, exactly why people have similar experiences remains an issue of contention among experts. Some theorise that as the brain is undergoing these changes essentially the 'brakes' come off the system and this opens our perception to incredibly lucid and vivid experiences of stored memories from our lives. However, this is only a theory and other experts dispute this. Clinical death also differs from brain death. Brain death is when a person on an artificial life support machine no longer has any brain function, which means they will not regain consciousness. Such patients have no chance of recovery because their body is unable to survive without artificial life support. In the UK this means a person who has suffered brain death is legally dead. This can be difficult to comprehend for families of the deceased as they can see their loved one's chest rise and fall with every breath from the ventilator as well as their heart continuing to beat. Brain death can be caused by both illness and injury when blood and/or oxygen supplies are cut off to the vital organ. The condition is different from a vegetative state where a patient's brain function remains.
