Ex-atheist describes near-death experience

Standard-Times ^ | 1/31/2004 | LINDA ANDRADE RODRIGUES

[yonif]

DARTMOUTH -- A native son and newspaper carrier for The Standard-Times in Falmouth, Howard Storm went on to earn a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and for 20 years was an arts professor at Northern Kentucky University. An avowed atheist, he believed that there was no such thing as life after death -- until the day in 1985 when he died and went to hell.

Speaking to about 125 people at Smith Mills Church last week, Mr. Storm became very emotional, often stopping to compose himself, as he described his near-death experience, which transformed his life.

In 1985, Mr. Storm, 38, and his wife, Beverly, were in Paris on the last day of an art tour. Buckled over by searing pain in the middle of his stomach, he was rushed to the hospital. Awaiting emergency surgery, he knew he was dying. He said good-bye to his wife and drifted into darkness.

Standing up, he realized he was between two hospital beds. He looked at Beverly, who was motionless, staring at the floor, sitting in the chair next to his bed. He spoke to her, but she didn't seem to hear.

As he bent over to look at the face of the body in the bed, he was horrified to see the resemblance that it had to his own face. But he knew that was impossible because he was standing over the person and looking at him.

Off in the distance, outside the room in the hall, he heard voices calling him. They were pleasant voices, male and female, young and old, calling to him in English.

"Come out here," they said. "Don't you want to get better?"

He stepped out into the hall, full of anxiety. The area seemed to be light but very hazy, and he couldn't make out any details.

He followed them shuffling along in his bare feet with the memory of pain in his belly, yet feeling very much alive. The fog thickened as they went on, and it became gradually darker.

Overwhelmed with hopelessness, he told them he would go no farther and that they were liars. He could feel their breath on him as they shouted and snarled insults.

Then they began to push and shove him about, and he began to fight back. A wild frenzy of taunting, screaming and hitting ensued. As he swung and kicked at them, they bit him.

Even though he couldn't see anything in the darkness, he was aware there were dozens or hundreds of them all around and over him and that his attempts to fight back only provoked greater merriment.

They began to tear off pieces of his flesh, and he realized that he was being taken apart and eaten alive, methodically, slowly, so that their entertainment would last as long as possible. In that wretched state he lay there in the darkness.

Suddenly remembering a prayer from childhood Sunday School class, he said, "Yea though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."

To his amazement, the cruel merciless beings were incited to rage by his prayer. They screamed at him, 'There is no God! Nobody can hear you!" But at the same time they were backing away. He realized that saying things about God was actually driving them away, and he became more forceful. They became more rabid, cursing and screaming against God, but in time, they retreated back into the distant gloom beyond his hearing.

Alone, destroyed, and yet painfully alive in this horrible place, he yelled out into the darkness, "Jesus, save me."

Far off in the darkness, he saw a pinpoint of light like the faintest star in the sky. The star became brighter and brighter. As it came closer, he realized that he was right in its path, and he might be consumed by its brilliance.

This was a living being approximately 8 feet tall and surrounded by an oval of radiance. The brilliant intensity of the light penetrated his body. Ecstasy swept away the agony. Tangible hands and arms gently embraced him and lifted him up. He slowly rose up into the presence of the light, and the torn pieces of his body miraculously healed before his eyes.

After his words of personal witness, Mr. Storm answered questions for an additional two hours.

"He told me that he has given this talk hundreds of times, but whenever he describes these creatures, he just comes apart," said the Rev. Michael Robinson, pastor of Smith Mills Church.

After Mr. Storm's near-death experience, he entered United Theological Seminary and was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Christ. Since 1991 he has been pastor of Zion United Church of Christ in Cincinnati. He documented his near-death experience in the book "My Descent into Death and the Message of Love which Brought Me Back," published in 2000.

Earlier in the day, the Rev. Storm spoke to about 30 area faith leaders at Smiths Mills Church on the topic "Bringing Passion of the Gospel into City Ministry."

"Jesus weeps for New Bedford," he said. "He can heal addictions, broken relationships and poverty. I broke every one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus can fix what's wrong with us."

[missyme]

Isn't that the same thing Evolutionists spout about in the Proof of GOD?

[CyberCowboy777]

I can believe whatever I like - I do not pass it off as scientific fact.

You can troll all you like, because I do not seek to prove the existence of my Messiah, I have nothing to prove. I simply except that man knows very little about the universe.

I have had dreams that were vivid enough to wake me with elevated heart rate, sweat and emotional context. I can assure you I was not drugged or oxygen deprived. The account you gave me could well have been a dream - how can I know?

Your anger over the anecdotal nature of various Faiths do not in anyway elevate the necessity for observable fact in science.

[BobS]

"Scales are guages that measure the gravitational pull of a certain object."

And Isaac Newton figured it out after he was boogying down the street one day and some kid dropped an apple on his head! Then came velocity and acceleration. Now they us a Fournier transform of the phase, amplitude and distance of an RF source and reciever.

[SkyRat]

I have always wondered if that's true then why?

Why not?

You assume the brain is designed to trigger a pleasant sensation when death comes. It could just be a random byproduct of the brain getting killed cell by cell. Kind of what happens to my harddrive when running several read/write operations and just switching it off.

Anyway, I'm sure your questions, or our questions, will be solved eventually. On way or the other.

[Sloth]

Most likely a hallucination.

I broke every one of the Ten Commandments.

He murdered people and made graven idols? That IS pretty bad.

[Eva]

Me too... I don't get it.

[spectre]

I actually felt a chill reading your last paragraph. I believe :~)

sw

[adam_az]

"Isn't that the same thing Evolutionists spout about in the Proof of GOD?"

Evolutionists include god in their discussions about evolution, it's not pertinent.

Next?

[adam_az]

"Your anger over the anecdotal nature of various Faiths do not in anyway elevate the necessity for observable fact in science."

Anger? LOL, now you're projecting, and I don't mean your aura or soul or whatever.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

bump

[missyme]

Not that I hear...Since people have different versions of G-d. Although I beleive in the G-d of the BIBLE many other cultures believe in something else, if I am asked to PROVE there is a G-d that is irrelevant because it is based on a belief system as the same question you have on Proof of Messiah...

[CyberCowboy777]

Anger? yep.

Go back and read your posts. Full of venom and anger.

Your in denial, and I don't mean a river found in the Old Testament.

[Julliardsux]

It measures the effect of gravity, not the gravity itself - therefore, it is like looking to the effect of this man's NDE - his change in life - to measure the NDE.

[Jane G]

My husband is a medical doctor and very much the scientist. Three years ago my spouse had an NDE. All his medical colleagues at the hospital who knew and worked surgically on Ed to save his life did not think he would make it. He remained in critical condition, in ICU, unconscious, for a month before he pulled through. During that time he said he saw a brilliant white light and felt the presence of a Supreme Being. The two talked and Ed felt so much at peace with no demands made upon him. He was given a choice to come on or go back. The Supreme Being said that his job on earth was not complete, as their were many patients that were still in need of his doctoring. Ed also did not want to leave me nor our young son who was 10 years old at the time. He asked if I would be with him. He was assured that his wife and son would be with him if he came back. He did not speak of his NDE experience for quite some time as he wanted to think about it. Little by little he began to reveal parts of it to our family. As he and I began to read books about it, we noticed the same similarities that Ed experienced. One, he has no fear of death. Two, a sense things happen for a reason and that in the end everything will turn out right. Three, a psychic ability. As a trained Ob/Gyn clinician for 35 years, he has always been good in listening to his patients and figuring out what was wrong. But since his NDE, says he intuitively knows before he picks up their chart, or knows the patient's name, or goes into the exam room for the first time. Other Ob/Gynys seek out his advice on patients that they can't figure out a diagnosis. The NDE experience changed my husband.

[spodefly]

At summer camp when I was 13, I was training to get certified to dive. This particular day we were swimming in a pond, with snorkels, goggles, fins and an inflatable vest, following a nylon string/rope anchored along the bottom of the pond in a random pattern. You would follow the rope, move to the surface, clear the snorkel, breath, then go back down and follow the rope some more.

Somehow, I got my foot caught in the rope. It was at the last of my breath when I was turning to head up to the surface. I don't remember much about the panic that I went thru when I couldn't reach the surface. My swim buddy apparently tried to help, but inflated the vest (CO2). So I couldn't go back down to free myself or make it to the surface. I passed out. The last thing I remember is looking up to the surface, seeing the greenish light, and trying so hard to reach it.

Next thing I know I was at home, sitting on the floor in the living room. I was sitting where the sun would shine in the late afternoons during the summer. My mom was in the kitchen cooking pork chops, although I didn't actually look over to see her. There was a slight smoke in the air from the cooking, and the sunlight from the window made a clearly visible beam onto the floor in front of me. I could see tiny lint specs floating in the sunlight just in front of me. My dad was on his way home from work, and we would be eating soon. My little sister was already sitting at the table though I never actually looked over to see her there. I felt happy, and comfortable, and safe.

I awoke on the dock with several camp counselors looking down at me. My arms were over my head. My first words were, "damn rope." I spent a couple of days in the camp infirmary. The rope left a scar around my ankle that I have to this day. I have no idea how my foot got caught in it, especially around the swim-fin I was wearing.

The memories of being at home, the details of the tiny lint pieces floating in the air, the sunlight beaming in thru the window, the smell of the pork chops cooking, the feelings, sensations, etc., are more profound than almost any other memories I have from that age.

The mind does weird things when it is dying. And fortunately, they are not at all unpleasant.

[EggsAckley]

I have no doubt about either of your experiences. Here's one for you:

My Dad died just days before Christmas. On Christmas morning, a day that Mom would be opening the yearly rabbit sculpture/picture that he always gave her, we both decided it would be good to go to the cemetary. When we got there, it was gloomy, dripping with fog, and very depressing. We were just about to leave when a tiny white bunny rabbit hopped out of nowhere, right over my Dad's grave. Pink eyes, pink nose, pink ears.......the perfect little white bunny. We looked at each other and agreed that this bunny HAD to have come by way of my Dad.

The funny part is, every year she would say "next year I want a REAL bunny, a LIVE one!" He would always laugh and say "Over my dead body." I'm not making this up.........it REALLY happened!

The bunny grew into a huge rabbit, and lived for 4 years, about a year and a half longer than life expectancy. We named her "Charlie's Angel Hare," after my Dad, Charles.

[EggsAckley]

SAaa Cruz??!! That's where I live.

[EggsAckley]

Oops.....SAaa = Santa

[RightOnline]

I rest my case.

[lucidloony]

Get out before its too late!:}