{"id":596,"date":"2019-03-28T11:25:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T15:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=596"},"modified":"2022-11-02T17:24:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T21:24:42","slug":"man-brain-dead-11-hours-visits-heaven-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2019\/03\/man-brain-dead-11-hours-visits-heaven-hell.html","title":{"rendered":"Man Brain Dead for 11 Hours Visits Heaven and Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Woodford woke up in the middle of the night with his arms and legs completely numb. The doctors diagnosed him with a disease called Guillain-Barre. This disease is a rare condition in which your immune system attacks your nerves, leading to muscle weakness and even paralysis.<\/p>\n<p>The disease filled him with incredible pain that was difficult to get any relief from.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It eventually shut down my earthly body,&#8221; Jim says. &#8220;My fingers began to curl inward so much they had to be splinted to remain straight. Through medical treatment and physical therapy, I was able to learn to function. I found temporary relief in powerful prescription drugs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The pain eventually became too much for Jim, and he decided to take an entire bottle of pain meds in an attempt to end his suffering.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I should have known better but all I was consumed with was stopping the pain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In what he thought was his last moment alive, Jim cried out &#8220;God, forgive me!&#8221;. Jim didn&#8217;t identify as a Christian at the time and even considered religion a crutch. In that moment, though, he had a strange change of heart.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had this overwhelming sense, in those last nanoseconds of my life, that I had wasted this beautiful life that the Creator had given me. And I had never honored him for that life. And I was just trying to express my sorrow for not having lived a better life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He was completely brain dead for 11 hours, and during that time he says he went to heaven and hell.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I soared beyond the scope of any aeronautical instruments. In a moment, I was transported through a tunnel of brilliant, golden light into fields and pastures surrounding Heaven whose colors and sounds defy description.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He began to descend into a dark wasteland, where he saw dark beasts with shining red eyes yelling out his name. Jim became scared and started calling for Jesus. Three angels came to his rescue.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As I looked into the gracious, loving eyes of Jesus, I found healing for the emptiness I had experienced in my earthly life and a new purpose to declare God&#8217;s glory. I wanted nothing more than to abide in the presence of the One who rescued me from death and destruction, but I was sent back with a single command: \u2018Jim, my son, this is not yet your time. Go back and tell your brothers and sisters of the wonders we have shown you.&#8217; With that, my spirit left the brilliance of Heaven&#8217;s paradise and traveled back, re-inhabiting my earthly body, which had been brain-dead and on life support for eleven hours.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Next thing he knew, Jim woke up inside a hospital room completely free of all pain. After some years of self-reflection on his experience, Jim started to share his testimony with others and even wrote a book about it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once you&#8217;ve seen Heaven and walked in the very presence of angels and of Jesus, you can never be satisfied on earth again. Now I&#8217;m filled with the love of Jesus and desire to fulfill his mission.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Woodford woke up in the middle of the night with his arms and legs completely numb. The doctors diagnosed him with a disease called Guillain-Barre. This disease is a rare condition in which your immune system attacks your nerves, leading to muscle weakness and even paralysis. The disease filled him with incredible pain that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":4540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,39],"tags":[344,343,341,342,133,345],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news","category-miracles","tag-convert","tag-death","tag-heaven","tag-hell","tag-near-death-experience","tag-testimony"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Man Brain Dead for 11 Hours Visits Heaven and Hell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jim Woodford didn&#039;t identify as a Christian, but after his near death experience his life changed forever.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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