Is Heaven real? Those who are convinced it is often point to accounts of people who say they've actually been there. For many, these stories are comforting, but they've also generated their fair share of skepticism. This is what Heaven is really like, according to people who've been there.
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00:00Is heaven real? Those who are convinced it is often point to accounts of people who say
00:05they've actually been there. For many, those stories are comforting, but they've also generated
00:10their fair share of skepticism. This is what heaven is really like, according to people
00:14who've been there.
00:15Daryl Perry claims he got a warning in the form of multiple messages saying that his
00:19time was coming, with one voice saying,
00:21"'Son, you're going to have to die on my behalf.'"
00:24In 2007, after a sudden heart attack, the already God-fearing Perry says he began to
00:28float above his body, distantly watching his own wife perform CPR on his unresponsive
00:33form. Abruptly, he found himself in a warm, brightly lit heaven.
00:36He says he was greeted by an angel named Gabriel, who appeared as a huge man with brown skin,
00:41dreadlocks, and immense wings. Gabriel never spoke, instead pointing to his own back, which
00:46Perry took as a sign to climb on.
00:48Gabriel then took Perry on a sort of piggyback sightseeing tour of heaven, where he saw relatives
00:53who had already passed on. Finally, he saw God, whom Perry describes as a bright light
00:57with no defined form. And throughout, Perry describes that he felt completely at peace,
01:02though he had previously been deeply reluctant to leave his wife and three children back
01:06on Earth.
01:07Eventually, Perry was revived and came back to our realm. Doctors warned his wife, Nikki,
01:11that her husband had suffered brain damage and might not be the same. Though he still
01:14experienced significant physical effects and required rehabilitation, Perry's mental faculties
01:18appeared to be intact. He's still able to communicate his memory of a serene and profound
01:23visit to the afterlife.
01:25Tales of journey through the afterlife have been around for centuries. Page through various
01:29manuscripts and you'll find a series of knights, peasants, religious folk, and more being sent
01:33on the right path by their visions. This tale begins with Sir Owain, an Irish knight who's
01:38worried about his soul. He travels to St. Patrick's Purgatory, an actual pilgrimage
01:43site reportedly visited by Christians since the 5th century BCE. Writers have mentioned
01:47the spot as early as 1180 CE, when Owain's story was written down.
01:51In Owain's tale, he goes through a cave on the island into Purgatory. He finds himself
01:55in a great field, speaking to a group of 15 men dressed all in white. One says Owain should
02:00call on Christ if he's ever in trouble, which proves helpful later on. Like many medieval
02:05afterlife narratives, Owain spends quite a lot of time wandering through the torments
02:09of Hell and Purgatory. Eventually, though, he reaches Paradise, which is full of beautiful
02:13sights and sweet smells. Two archbishops tell him that this is actually a fancy waiting
02:18room for Heaven. They lead Owain to a mountaintop, where he can just see the gates leading to
02:22the afterlife. The two men give Owain some heavenly food and then gently tell him to
02:26get out there and tell everyone what he saw.
02:29In one of the earliest examples of Irish vision literature, a man named Autumn Nahn is given
02:33a taste of both Heaven and Hell. The vision of Autumn Nahn was written down sometime in
02:38the 10th century and shares strong links with pagan accounts of the underworld. Autumn Nahn's
02:42journey begins on the feast day of St. John the Baptist. He's picked up by his guardian
02:47angel and first taken to Heaven. There, he sees the city of Heaven surrounded by seven
02:51walls. Inside is God himself, sitting on a throne and surrounded by music and scents
02:56so beautiful that it all surpasses the human ability to describe.
03:00Just outside the heavenly city is a second settlement for those who aren't quite ready
03:04to enter the presence of God. The city has six doors or gates that people must pass through
03:08on their way to their divine rewards.
03:11Every second of every lifetime is always recorded. And as each one ends, we sort of look at it.
03:17And then, if everybody agrees, you move forward.
03:20Some people need to be put on what sounds an awful lot like a celestial time-out, waiting
03:24until they've been purified enough to move onward. For many historians, this is a clear
03:28precursor to the medieval Christian idea of purgatory.
03:32A former skeptic, Crystal McVie, claims she went to Heaven after a near-death experience
03:36nearly took her from this world. In McVie's case, that was pancreatitis that eventually
03:40led to respiratory arrest. According to McVie's account, she closed her eyes during a medical
03:45procedure and opened them in Heaven. She says she saw angels and God, who was so overwhelming
03:50that she fell to her knees in awe. Human words failed to encompass her vision of the Almighty,
03:54who she says is best described as an overwhelming brightness that flooded all of her senses.
04:00McVie also says that angels emitted their own amber-colored light. They communicated
04:03with Crystal telepathically. Ultimately, God gave her a choice — stay in joyful bliss
04:08in Heaven or return to her four children on Earth. She initially chose to stay with God,
04:12she says, but the sound of her mother's voice ultimately changed her mind. Just before returning,
04:17McVie recalls in her book Waking Up in Heaven that God commanded her to,
04:20"...tell them what you can remember."
04:23In 2008, Harvard-educated neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander became suddenly and gravely
04:28ill after contracting bacterial meningitis. His descent into a coma was followed by something
04:33truly surprising. When he finally emerged from the coma, Eben recalls that he had practically
04:38no memory of anything from his life, much less a profound spiritual experience.
04:42"...I was out in this void of infinite, infinite coal black, but with an orb of light."
04:51Eventually, he was able to communicate what he believed was a profound experience of visiting
04:56Heaven. It began with what he called an Earthworm's Eye View in his book Proof of Heaven. From
05:01this muddled, subterranean state, Eben claims he ascended to a higher state of consciousness,
05:06accompanied by a white light and perfect music. Next, Eben says he entered the Gateway Valley,
05:11a hyper-real place full of colors beyond human understanding, constantly blooming plants,
05:16and millions of butterflies. At one point, he says that he rode on a butterfly wing with
05:20a beautiful woman who never spoke but instead transmitted thoughts of unconditional love.
05:25He now maintains that there's no logical explanation for this experience other than the existence
05:29of an afterlife. Many researchers want more concrete evidence, but Eben may not be able
05:34to supply the necessary data to push it out of the realm of religion.
05:39Paul the Apostle is one of the towering names of early Christianity. After his conversion
05:43in the first century CE, he went on to found several Christian communities throughout the
05:47Roman Empire. That conversion was reportedly touched off by a visitation from Jesus himself,
05:52as related in the Book of Acts. Christ appeared as such a bright light that Paul was struck
05:57blind for three days. Paul's meetings with the divine didn't seem to stop there. In several
06:02letters to Christian enclaves, he relates other visions, including visits to a complex
06:06heavenly afterlife. In one letter, Paul claims that God appeared to him as a small child
06:10who took him to all 10 levels of heaven. The third level is pretty high up, he says, but
06:14you can see Earth from there. Angels hang out on levels 4 and 5, while the sixth heaven
06:19is full of light. As the levels grow higher, his descriptions become vaguer and more esoteric.
06:24He also writes that heaven's got golden gates and an unidentified greeter at the entrance.
06:29Turns out that Paul isn't alone in his visions of paradise. There are numerous accounts of
06:33people who have beheld heaven and even gone there, from Enoch to Moses to the author of
06:37the Bible's Book of Revelation, John of Patmos.
06:41After being hit by a car, Tennessean Priscilla McGill recalls sitting peacefully on a cloud
06:45in light and peace and calm. It was a welcome change from a short time earlier, when the
06:49vehicle that struck her had caused several broken bones, lacerations, and internal injuries.
06:54Because of the accident, McGill spent months in the hospital, where her heart stopped beating
06:58on multiple occasions. During the moments when she coded, Priscilla says she was whisked
07:03away to a beautiful afterlife. On one of those occasions, she recalls seeing, like many others,
07:07lush fields full of flowers and departed loved ones, like her own mother.
07:11McGill also remembers speaking to her spiritual mother, who broke it to her that Priscilla
07:15still had to go back to Earth. While some point to the strength of the painkillers that
07:20McGill was given during her hospital stay as one explanation for her visions, she's
07:23adamant that they came from a divine source. She also says that she feels obligated to
07:28tell her story and ask everyone, is your heart right?
07:31Drothelm, by all accounts, was an ordinary man. He was a regular Anglo-Saxon living in
07:37the north of England, probably sometime in the 7th century CE. Like many medieval folk,
07:41however, he eventually became sick with a serious illness and appeared to die. What
07:46really happened, the chronicles say, was something else entirely.
07:50According to the Venerable Bede, the 8th-century monk who wrote down Drothelm's tale in his
07:53ecclesiastical history of England, the dead man suddenly recovered, frightening everyone
07:58in his household. He scared them further by relating his tale of visiting the afterlife,
08:02heaven included.
08:03First, however, was a tour of hell, led by a man with a continence full of light who
08:07didn't speak to Drothelm. Eventually, the duo made their way to heaven, a place of intense
08:12light and numerous flowers. This wasn't the main show, it seems, as Drothelm saw a higher-level
08:17paradise, with even brighter lights and beautiful singing. Unfortunately, his spiritual guide
08:21stopped suddenly at this point and then turned back, making it clear that the man wasn't
08:26ready to do more than glimpse the promise of heaven.
08:29Three-year-old Colton Burpo was pretty normal until a burst appendix sent him to emergency
08:33surgery. While his parents waited, surgeons worked on Colton until he was brought back
08:37from the brink of death. After Colton returned home, however, he claimed that he had briefly
08:42died and went to visit Jesus. His father, Todd, was so taken by this story that he turned
08:46it into a bestseller, Heaven is for Real, which was itself adapted into a movie of the
08:50same name in 2014.
08:53Colton's story emerged over the next few months. In it, he says that he went up to heaven and
08:57met Jesus, who gave him homework. Jesus also has a rainbow-colored horse. Angels flew around
09:03on wings and sang to the boy, who also got to meet John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit,
09:07and God himself.
09:08The details were so dramatic and extra-biblical that some questioned Colt's fair. The details
09:13that really convinced the family were somewhat more mundane. Colton eventually said that
09:17he met his great-grandfather, Pop, while he was in heaven. Colton later identified Pop
09:20via a photo. He also says that he met a sister his mother had miscarried.
09:24"'Honey, who told you I had a baby die in my tummy?'
09:28"'In heaven, this little girl came up to me. She told me she died in your tummy.'"
09:34That apparently came out, says the book, when they watched Colton and were surprised that
09:37his emotion over a seemingly non-existent sister.
09:41Heaven apparently smells wonderful and has an excellent band. This seems to be a common
09:45feature among accounts of visiting the heavenly side of the afterlife, and on Piper's visit
09:49seems to be pretty similar. Piper says that his trip to heaven happened in 1989 after
09:54his car was hit by a truck, leaving him in a terrible state. His injuries were so bad
09:58that he didn't have a detectable pulse for 90 minutes. While paramedics were working
10:02on him and a passerby was praying over him, Piper claims that he was in heaven.
10:07Like so many others, Piper felt compelled to write down his experiences, publishing
10:11them as 90 Minutes in Heaven. Along with the beautiful music, Piper recalls seeing light
10:15reflected off the gates of heaven. While others with similar experiences have been vague about
10:20the source of the light, Piper says that it comes directly from the glory of God.
10:24Beyond the gates, Piper saw a city with gold-paved streets, flooded with what he called, quote,
10:29"'the brightest colors my eyes had ever seen.'" He also reports seeing his grandfather, with
10:33whom he had been close, standing nearby to welcome him into paradise.
10:38Young Annabelle Beam had been suffering from a mysterious spat of medical issues for years.
10:42Doctors and her family alike were flummoxed until she finally received a diagnosis of
10:46pseudo-obstruction motility disorder. That was only so comforting, however, since her
10:50illness was rare and incurable. It looked as if Annabelle would be incapacitated for
10:55life.
10:56Things changed dramatically and unexpectedly in 2011. That's when Annabelle fell headfirst
11:01into a hollow cottonwood tree in her front yard. After she'd been trapped there for five
11:05hours, emergency workers were finally able to extract her. Shortly thereafter, the Beam
11:09family discovered that Annabelle's disorder had abruptly and permanently gone away. For
11:14quite a few families, that's enough to mark an event as a miracle or medical anomaly.
11:19What's even more striking for many is Annabelle's claim that she went to heaven while her body
11:22was trapped inside the hollow tree. As per Annabelle's account, heaven is a peaceful
11:26place with plenty of light and no pain. She also says that she met Jesus, who has brown
11:31hair and wears a white robe with a purple sash. Annabelle asked if she could stay, but
11:35Jesus told her that she had further business back on Earth. When she returned, her family,
11:39like others whose loved ones have gone through similar experiences, published a book. The
11:43resulting account, Miracles from Heaven, was released as a film in 2016.