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."

[MarMema]

Those are great stories. Thanks for sharing them.

[Quix]

Your conjectures and assumptions mascarading as major doctrine are . . .

sad

and

incredible,

IMhO

[Arizona]

There is another dimension - the spiritual - that none of us understand. Coming into contact with it even once in your life can totally change your take on life. (Your #280)

This one sentence sums it all up for me, it is the absolute truth stated so simply.

az

[Quix]

Evidently you think Christ was lying when He said to the thief on the Cross:

TODAY YOU SHALL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.

Your mental and logical gymnastics with Scripture are pointless, to me, in addition to being inaccurate and mystifying.

[Quix]

I will earnestly endeavor to abide by your request.

HOWEVER, IF AND WHEN YOU CLEARLY SHOW OTHERWISE, I MAY FEEL CONSTRAINED TO POINT IT OUT.

[Quix]

BTW,

I work hard to avoid judgment and feel none per se toward you. You have had your path in life resulting in your perspective. I don't necessarily feel it is 100% as you seem to insist that it is. And, I'm not convinced that you are 100% insightful and accurate about yourself.

I DO MAKE A NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS AND HAVE BEEN WELL TRAINED TO DISTINGUISH (A) FROM (B).

[lawgirl]

"There is another dimension - the spiritual - that none of us understand. Coming into contact with it even once in your life can totally change your take on life. (Your #280)"

This one sentence sums it all up for me, it is the absolute truth stated so simply.

Why thanks Az. People that haven't felt it don't get it, and I just shake my head and feel sorry for them.

[stanz]

The point is......why do you feel that YOU have to evaluate ME or anybody else, for that matter? Should I go to your profile page and start analyzing you? This is absurd. When I respond to any thread, I don't expect to be psychoanalyzed.
And...my "path" is none of your business. Whether I am insightful or not is also none of your business.Please disengage yourself...I am not interested in your observations.

[Quix]

It has been my understanding that all of us who hold forth in public forums expect observations and comments about what we write.

That discourse is part of the fun and intensity of the public dialogue in such forums.

We analyze what each other say and where each other seem to be coming from all the time. It's pretty standard SOP around her from a number of perspectives. And, we all do it differently as well as do it from different perspectives. But normally there's some mutual respect for that fact, process and phenomenon.

How would it even be conceivably possible to comment on any post without making observations about what one is responding to, first?

And responding to word content without an appreciation for the inner as well as interpersonal context it derives from is not very scientific, logical nor complete.

You seemed to feel free enough to make comments about the rationallity of the post and person starting the thread--and to do so with a bit of a cheeky attitude, IMhO.

But when comments got uncomfortably close to rationality about your posts, stance etc., then you wanted everyone out of the pool so to speak. Doesn't seem very consistent at all.

Nevertheless, I will try and file it away somewhere that you are evidently a fairly brittle one about such matters and I will try to avoid rattling your comfort zone. I have now posted your screen name on a post it note near my computer to help me avoid breathing on you any further.

But your seemingly double standards are not overly impressive, to me.

[stanz]

Your posts are not fun.
You are not responding to what I wrote. You are making comments about what you perceive to be my personality. Stop it now.
There are no double standards here. I made one lousy statement about the story on that post being hokey and from that you have deduced all kinds of untruths. If I wanted to be analyzed, I would consult a shrink. I do not wish to hear another word about this. It's tedious.

[Aquinasfan]

It would actually be "Died and Came Back to Life" experiences.

As a Catholic Christian, I have to rule out that possibility a priori on Scriptural grounds. Personally, I believe these experiences are real. I believe that these are truly "near death" experiences, where the soul is in transition to the afterlife.

[Lazamataz]

flame away, but I'll never believe differently. It was a gift.

Your mother loved you very much to make sure you shared with her in that experience.

[EggsAckley]

Thank you. What a kind observation!

[Lazamataz]

When I respond to any thread, I don't expect to be psychoanalyzed.

NOOOOOObody expects the Spanish Psychoanalysis! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the American Psychological Association.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

[

[adam_az]

"Your understanding of theology and, well, reality in general appears to be about as adequate as your spelling."

While typing, I transposed an "e" and an "i," I suppose you've never made a typographical error?

Is that a mote in your eye, or are you just happy to see me?

[adam_az]

"If oxygen deprivation can, as very often reported and verified, enable its victims to float down the hallway and eavesdrop on doctor conversations about him - we need to start hiring a whole buncha people at Homeland Security to self-suffocate and eavesdrop on Al Qaeda."

You clearly have a lower standard for "verified" than I do.

"Actually, and more seriously, the Army used(s) Remote Viewing, before it ostensibly was abandoned. Translation: It went Deep Black."

Translation: You are speculating. BTW, if you know any remote viewers, send them to the Amazing Randi. He'll pay a million bucks to anyone who can prove under lab conditions that they have psychic abilities. Amazingly, he's had no takers.

[adam_az]

"Your only reason for replying was to ridicule. No one on this thread really cares if you believe that the entire universe is contained within your head and dies when you die. If you have nothing positive to add to the conversation, you should not even reply."

I suppose a "positive contribution" is one that takes *your* built in ideological biases and uses them as assumptions, as an epistimological starting point?

[Taliesan]

Show me your EVIDENCE that Mark wrote his gospel with that motivation. I'll spell it: E-V-I-D-E-N-C-E.

[cupcakes]

Only thing close to this I have to share was with my last delivery. I had been given an epidural too high in my back and it supressed the sensation of respiration(which I worked very hard to keep breathing although it was weird not to feel the breathing).
My blood pressure dropped dangerously low, while my heart rate was increasing dramatically. I was very near death and probably moments from cardiac arrest. While everyone was rushing around me and my husband was upset, I just remember this feeling of peace and I gotta tell you, I am one that despite a deep belief in God, I'm still scared of the unknown and here I was on death's door and in peace. I did not feel panicked at all. Some might say it was the anesthetic, but I had been put under in a general anesthesia before(which the epidural isn't) for a surgery and I still was pensive up to the last moment that I remember...this just wasn't the same. I had no fear.
Anyway, big deal. Not quite as neat as the others, but it stuck with me how peaceful I was even faced with death. With how anxious I get over that stuff, I really felt such a warm hand of calming reach down to me and let me know that either way, things would be ok.

[Some hope remaining.]

" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Now who said that the Bible wasn't relevant for life today? What Jesus said in the above passage is this: listen to what the Scriptures say about this life and the afterlife. Don't depend on the 'miraculous sign' when you have God's testimony available already.

Perhaps you are over-applying these verses. The rich man and his family were not inclined to accept, for they had Moses and the prophets already to convince them and hadn't done so. A miraculous type of experience doesn't usually convince that type of person, or sometimes may only temporarily.

I don't think that rules out experiences for those who might be inclined to believe, or already believe but need comfort/strenghtening/etc.

It would be a strange God indeed, to permit Satan to deceive those in the least position to discern (e.g. the stories of the various two year olds posted in this thread.). Even stranger, perhaps, for Satan to be interested in deceiving in such a way as to strenghten the faith in the Lord of the child and his family.