The Near Death Experience of an Atheist: Ian McCormack

God did not put us on earth to suffer. He put us here to make a difference, and to have eternal happiness in heaven. Here is an interview with Ian McCormack, who had an NDE after he was stung by a Box Jellyfish five times during a night dive in the Maldive islands. The tentacles of a Box Jellyfish has one of the most deadliest poisons known on this planet - this poison can kill a human being within 4 minutes, after first inducing paralysis and a coma. This Near Death Experience is somewhat similar to that of another atheist, which I covered earlier in Swedenborg on the Near Death Experience of Howard Storm. For those of you who think NDEs is a product of a hallucination I would recommend reading Proof of the Afterlife...from a brain dead neurosurgeon. Ian was given just one small glimpse - he has a web site called A Glimpse of Eternity, and currently gives talks at a church in London. Here is a portion of an interview on CBN, and one can see that even now he is quite affected by the experience.



Below it is a more detailed account I extracted from another interview:

After he is stung his right side starts to become paralyzed, and he is helped to the nearest roadway from the shore, but the person who was carrying him runs back to the shore to see if his brothers are fine. He is on the side of the road, and he feels like falling asleep. He decides that he needs to rest from the ordeal, and is about to close his eyes and rest on the side of the road. Suddenly he hears a voice:

"Son, if you close your eyes, you will never awake again."

He is shocked, looks around, there is no one near him. He next encounters some Indian taxi drivers and asks them to drive him to the hospital. However they haggle over money, and he has no money with him. All three taxi  drivers start to walk away. Again he hears a voice:

"Son, are you willing to beg for your life?"

He is utterly upset with these Indian taxi drivers, and he encountered many Indian beggars in his travels.  He never once begged.  As they walk away, he falls to his knees, grabs his right hand (his right arm was paralyzed), and holds out his arms and starts begging. They all have a good laugh, and two walk away. However one stops, looks at him, and changes his mind. He gives him a ride, but once he realizes he is not staying at a hotel where he can get his wallet, he stops the taxi and pushes him out of the taxi. However his right leg is paralyzed and his foot is stuck in the door, and he pushes his foot out and leaves, leaving him there to die.

He is outside a hotel, finds a bar, and argues with a Chinese man to take him to the hospital. This Chinese man happens to have the only available car in the parking lot. They don't understand, they think he is on drugs or is a cocaine addict, and begin laughing at him. The poison now creeps up into his jaw and he starts chattering, and he can't talk. At this point, out of utter frustration, as the Chinese man is arguing about how stupid he is, he thinks about raising his hand and popping him on the head, or doing a head butt. As he is about to do that, he hears that odd voice again coming from nowhere:

"Son, if you do that, the adrenal rush will kill you, the toxin is too close to your heart."

Finally, a security guard at the hotel recognizes Ian, and calls for an ambulance. The ambulance almost misses them entirely. They put him in the ambulance, which has to climb a hill to reach the hospital. Unfortunately they put him in the ambulance in the wrong way, and the poison that was in his feet now starts to ascend from his lower legs and reach his upper body and head. At this points he starts seeing visions of a young blonde boy flash in front of his eyes, and he realizes that little boy is him. He is starting to have flashbacks, reviewing his entire life in an instant. He starts to wonder - is this death? Am I dying? Is there life after death? Is it really worth the gamble, to assume that their is no life after death? He realizes that to assume that if there is no life after death is sort of like playing Russian Roulette.

At this point Ian starts to see something else weird: he sees his mother in front of him, who begins to pray. He now thinks, "What is my  mother doing here in the ambulance?" Little did Ian know, half way around the world, his mother had a premonition. She had a habit of praying for her children, and she was the only Christian in the family. A voice spoke to her and said:

"You elder son Ian is nearly dead, pray for him now."

Ian at this time sees his mother praying, and hears her say:

"Ian, no matter what you have done in your life son, no matter how far from God you may be, if you call out to God from your heart, God will hear you, and God will forgive son."

Ian then thinks, forgive me, is there a God? If there is a God, who can he possibly be? He then says to himself, "I have no idea what to pray, please help me to pray." He then sees these words flash in front of his eyes:

FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AND SINS.

Ian then thinks, "How could God forgive me? Its too late. No, God could not forgive me, I have done too many things wrong. I would feel like a hypocrite to even ask that." He then sees his mother, who says, "Son, pray from your heart." Ian then says to himself, "God, I don't know if you can forgive me. I dont know if there is any soft tissue in my heart. But if you can, I sincerely ask you to forgive me of all my sins. Please forgive me." The moment he says this, he sees new words flash up in front of him:

FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE TRESPASSED AND SINNED AGAINST YOU.

Ian then says to himself. "I am not a vindictive person, I can forgive those who have sinned against me." Then right in front of him flashes the face of the Indian taxi driver who shoved him out of the taxi. He then hears a voice:

"Will you forgive this man, for pushing you out of his taxi tonight, and leaving you for dead on the side of the road?"

Ian then thought, "NO - you must be joking, I am not forgiving him."  Then the image in front of him changes, and he now sees the image of the Chinese man who had laughed at him:

"Will you forgive this man, for not taking you to his car tonight, and leaving you to die in the hotel?"

Ian again thought to himself, absolutely not. Then he began to think, "Who on earth is this voice? Who am I speaking to? Who is talking to me?" Part of him still wanted to take vengeance on these two men. Ian then decides to say this prayer:

"God I don't want to forgive these two men. But if you can forgive me of all the stuff I have done in my life, and I don't know how you do it, but if you forgive me, I will forgive these men. I will never touch them or lay my hands upon them."

When Ian finishes that prayer, the faces of the two men disappear. Now new words flash in front of his eyes:

THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

Ian read this, and realizes that is God's will. He has done his own will for twenty-four years. He then prays:

"God, I don't know your will. But it appears only a miracle will spare my life at this point."

He then adds:

"God if you are real, and you can hear me, I give my will to you. I surrender my life to you. I will try to follow you all the days of my life."

At that moment, he sees the entire Lord's prayer appear in front of his eyes. He then repeats the Lord's prayer. An amazing peace falls upon him. At that point the ambulance arrives at the hospital, and is rushed to the emergency room, after a few delays from the nurse. They can't get a pulse, and now realize how serious it is. They try to find a vein in his right arm, in the other arm they start to pump in anti-toxins. He is trying to keep his eyes open, but the poison then starts to come into his eyelids, and sweat is pouring off his forehead into his eyes.

And then, at that moment, Ian closes his eyes. He then hears the machine flatlines, and he is pronounced dead. And then something strange happens.

He opens his eyes, and finds himself in a standing upright position, fully awake. But it is pitch black. He can't see anything around him. He then thinks, "Why on earth did those doctors turn off the lights in here?" He tries to grope around for the wall, can't find it.  He then comes back to his bed, and realizes he can't find that either. He then thinks great, he has lost his bed, now what?

As it is pitch black, Ian decides to get a look at his hand. He brings his hand up to his face. His hand passes through his face to the backside of his head.  He then touches other parts of his body, but his hand passes through where his body should be. There was nothing physically present where his body should be. He is confused.

Now, as he looks into the darkness, he sees that the darkness has an evil presence. Cold, encroaching evil, pervaded the atmosphere. He then feels invisible eyes checking him out. Ian then senses something move towards him, and he starts to move back.

A man to the right then screams out, "SHUT UP!"

Ian responds, "Shut up? I have said nothing. What are you talking about?" Ian holds up his arm bracing himself for a hit.

Then another voice off to his left then yells out, "YOU DESERVE TO BE HERE."

Ian then thinks, "Deserve to be where? Where am I?"

Another man in front of him then shouts, "YOU ARE IN HELL. NOW SHUT UP!"

Ian was an atheist, and did not believe in hell. He thought it was a lie to scare people in religion. He realizes that these men could read his thoughts, as he said nothing, and his thoughts were really annoying them. As he wonders about it, he thinks of the prayer he uttered in the ambulance before he came into the hospital.

At that point a radiant beam of light comes through the darkness and touches him. His body lifts up off the ground and ascends upward. He feels like a speck of dust drawn toward the light. He looks around and sees he is travelling through a tunnel.

A wave of light comes toward him and passes through him: COMFORT. His fear disappears.

Another wave of radiant light comes toward him: PEACE.

He can see his arm: it is transparent, but full of light.

Another wave of radiant light comes toward him: JOY.

He pops out of the tunnel, and he is now surrounded by light. In front of him is a brilliant light, with phenomenal radiance and power. Ian then asks himself, "Is there someone in there, or that just an energy source for the cosmos?" A voice then comes from the light:

"Ian, do you wish to return?"

Ian then realizes this was the same voice that spoke to him before. He then begins to wonder if this is real, or is he just comatose from the poison, and this is just a dream? He looks back, and sees the tunnel closing behind him. Ian then says, "I don't even know where I am. If I am out of my physical body, I wish to return. I have no idea where I am." The voice from the light then says:

"Ian, if you wish to return, you must see in a new light."

Ian then thinks what does that mean? He looks around and sees he is surrounded by light. Ian then asks, "Are you the true light?" He then sees these words:

GOD IS LIGHT, AND IN HIM THERE IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL. 1 John 1:5

Ian then remembers he read that somewhere, but does not know what "1 John 1:5" means, thinking they are Roman hieroglyphics. This was foreign to him, for every other philosophy he heard was that God was Yin and Yang, encompassing both opposites: light and dark, good and evil. As Ian stands there, he wonders, "Could that be God?" Whoever it is, he knows his name, and seems to be able to read his thoughts. He reasons only God could do that, God must be able to see every sin he ever committed in his life. He knew that the light could pierce through everything and could see everything.

He then feels he does not belong there, and wanted to hide under a rock. He starts to move back to the darkness. As he moves back, he then sees another wave of radiance come from the light towards him. He fully expected it to catapult him back into the darkness. To his surprise, all he got was one thing: LOVE. He then said "God can't love me, I have cursed him." Another wave came, more love, this time stronger. He then asks, "Why are you loving me God? Don't you know what I have done?" He remembers his sins: he has slept around, did drugs... more love came towards him, tingling his whole being. All he felt was love, forgiveness and acceptance. He began to weep, as he felt the love move through him. He then looks around, he is surrounded by radiance, and his body is now full of light.

The waves of light cease, and Ian then wonders if he could step through that core of light, and see God. He is so close. He then asks him, "God, may I come in?" He thought if he can love and accept me for who I am, surely He won't mind. He steps through the radiance, the light was very dense. He sees shimmering veils of radiance, sparkling. He then feels healing touching his broken heart. As he moves in he wonders if he could see God. The light begins to open up, he first sees a man's feet, and then a white garment or robe of light. His eyes move up and sees his chest, and his arm are outstretched. As he comes to his face, he had to turn - the radiance was so pure, so bright - many times brighter than all the light he had just seen. He then comes closer, he thinks if he gets closer he could see God's face and know who he is. He is now a few feet away, and puts his face into the light. As he gets close, he suddenly moves to the side. He wonders, "Why did he do that, I was so close."

He looks ahead, and sees an opening into a realm - a green meadow, fields opened up before him, it looked like a new planet. There was a crystal clear stream working its way through the field. He felt this is home, he belonged here. He wondered why wasn't he born here? The thought came that one must be born again to enter here - he then realized that God had heard his prayer in the ambulance, and he was born again, and had been spiritually washed of his sins. Everything he saw there was giving off life. As he starts to move in, God's presence came back, and blocked the way. He then asked,

"Ian, now that you have seen, do you wish to go in, or do you wish to return?"

He thought, return? What for? He wanted to go in, but God was in front of him. He had nothing to return back to - he was a single man, and had no family. He then thinks no one in his life ever loved him, he has nothing to go back to. The love he was experiencing was greater than he had ever felt. He asks, "Can I stay here, I have no desire to go back." He was about to look back and say "Goodbye, cruel world." As he looks back, he sees a clear vision of one person who loved him: his mother, who had prayed for him every day of his life. If he were to go now, his mother would have no idea that God had heard her prayer. He then says to God, "God I wish to return for my mum. I have lived such a selfish life, I want to return and tell her that what she believes is real." God then says,

"Son, if you wish to return, you must see things in a new light."

From this he thought he must begin to see things from God's eternal perspective, not his own selfish perspective. He needs to love people in a different larger way. He wonders how he could go back. He looks, but now he not only sees his mother, but his father, his siblings, and behind them, thousands upon thousands of other people. There was a sea of humanity. Ian asks, "God, who are all these people?" God answers:

"Ian, if you do not return, most of these people will not step inside a church any longer to hear My name."

Ian says, "Church? Well neither would I. I don't even know these people. I know my mum, I wish to return for her, I love her." God responds,

"Ian, I love all of these people. I desire for all of them to come to know Me."

He thinks, "What?" This was not something he expected. He feels the heart of God reaching out to all of these people Ian does not even know. Ian responds, "God I don't know about them, but how do I return, back through the tunnel, back through the darkness, and back to my physical body?" God responds,

"Son, tilt your head." Ian tilts his head. "Now feel the liquid drain from your eye. Now open your eye, and see."

He opens his right eye, he is looking down the length of his body, which is on a slab in a morgue. His leg is held up by a doctor with a scalpal, prodding his foot like a dead piece of meat. The doctor gets spooked turns around and sees Ian's eye looking at him, and his face goes white as a sheet and yells in surprise. Ian then hears God's voice:

"Ian, I have just given your life back."

Ian thinks, "If that is true, could you help me tilt my head to the left and look out my other eye. I am getting sick of looking at this doctor." His head tilts, now his left eye opens, and through the doorway he sees nurses and orderlies staring at him. They jump up and collide with each other. He looks, no one was giving him CPR or electric shock - the doctor is holding the scalpel, shaking. Eventually he is told that he has been dead for 15 minutes. Ian realizes, if he has just seen God, he now has to change his life.

He then thinks, "God, if you have given my life back, can you please heal me, and allow me to walk out of this hospital and live a normal life? If not, I would rather be dead, please take me back into your presence." He then feels this warmth and power course through his body in successive waves, healing his body. Within 3-4 hours, he got total movement and feeling back. He walked out of the hospital the next day on his own, completely healed. When the fishermen of the island saw them, they thought they were seeing a ghost and ran and yelled. He could look at people, and see what was going on their life - what was oppressing them, what was making them sad. He asked God, "Why is that?" He heard God's voice say,

"Ian, you are now seeing people in a new light. Don't judge people, I want to heal them. Set them free from the oppression of the darkness that is tormenting them. I want to see them set free, out of the darkness, and into My light."

Ian sees that his life has changed - he does not want to party, does not want to do drugs, or chase after women - he wants to live a pure life. He asks God, "What has happened to me?" God then responded,

"Ian, you are a reborn Christian. That prayer in the ambulance saved your soul, son." 

He then asked God, "What must I do then?" God responded:

"Read a Bible."

Ian did not know what a reborn Christian was, and had never read a Bible. For the first time in his life, he asked his father to give him his Bible. He read it in six weeks. As he read, he began to see the stuff he had seen in the other life mentioned in the scriptures. He wept, thinking to himself, "You arrogant pig. You have mocked this from a distance, and foully cursed God. You never took the time to read this book. You fool." He then realized why he had to forgive others before God could forgive him - without forgiveness, the hate we hold in our heart will grow like a cancer, and keep us in darkness. When we forgive, we release ourselves from darkness, and God can then enter in, and cleanse our heart from sin. God then becomes our Lord, and we are given a new will in life.

Here is a trailer of the movie, The Perfect Wave:



Here is the full interview, from which I extracted a summary for this blog post: