Posted on 02/04/2004 1:17:00 PM PST by 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."
The story is bogus. We know there is no supernatural, because it does not show up on instruments.
"Tumor begone!" Amazing story.
Lovely story. There's more things in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of.
He was a very different person after that and lived several more years of a good life.
Near death experiences haven't just happened to those who are dying. A body of scientific evidence has shown that similar experiences are had by people who have engaged in "huffing" which prevents the brain from absorbing enough oxygen to continue functioning properly, creating vivid halucinations. More recently a study which showed that pilots undergoing high-G training sometimes experience a hallucination very similar to reports of NDE. Loved ones, Jesus (or Bhudda, Muhammed, God, etc.), and a tunnel of light are reported in about 10% of the cases in which a trainee "blacked out" from high-G stress. Again, we see that the brain is deprived of oxygen and the body put in a stressful situation.
As much as the public seems to really really FEEEEEL that NDE's are really really true, they remain in the same category as acid trips and peyote dreams. Hallucinations, nothing more.
On a personal note: Why would you want to believe in NDE's? Wouldn't true knowledge of the "really real" afterlife totally nulify the basis of faith? Doesn't it just seem like some daytime TV huckster's wet dream?
Well, whatever, just quit slobbering on my posts.
Haven't heard of God building a lot of mansions for the arrogant in Heaven.
You've
been
to
heaven
?
Whutz
it
like
?
True, Not necessarily, BUT close enough - people can put themselves into these NDE's with drugs and even meditation.
The problem occurs when the Bible is clear that there is no such thing as in "immortal soul". No one is in Heaven except God and His angels, and no one is burning in hell either, because the dead are dead. Any "spirit" or "spiritual experience" that says contrary is not from the only Holy God, Most High, but from the god of this world who seeks to decieve, even the most elect, even if such were possible.
My Grandfather was in Washington DC during work hours when he got a call to rush to the hospital because his daughter (very small child) was being rushed there. He jumped into a cab and instructed the driver to hurry as fast as possible and why. The cabbie began racing through DC at breakneck speed, when suddenly my Grandfather reached forward and tapped the guy to tell him there was no longer any need to hurry, the child was dead.
This story would have been no more than a curious family tale, except when the cab arrived at the hospital my uncle (who is a devout atheist, even to this day and in his eighties) had to pay the cabbie and the cabbie told the story to my uncle! When my uncle asked my Grandfather to explain the strange tale the cabbie had told him, my Grandfather told my uncle that his deceased aunt (my Grandfather's aunt!) had appeared to him in the cab to say, 'No need to hurry and fret, Ralph, she's with us now.'
I have collected several such stories from our family and a few from others, anticipating writing a book on them, but not gotten around to typing it, yet.
My mom was not somed wacked out religious freak. She was a devout Catholic.
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