In the largest such study ever conducted, researchers have found evidence that consciousness continues even after brain activity has ceased. This evidence of life after death came from a study led by researchers from the University of Southampton and published in the journal Resuscitation. “Contrary to perception, death is not a specific moment but a potentially reversible process that occurs after any severe illness or accident causes the heart, lungs and brain to cease functioning,” lead researcher Dr. Sam Parnia said. “If attempts are made to reverse this process, it is referred to as ‘cardiac arrest’; however, if these attempts do not succeed it is called ‘death.'”
Nearly 40 percent of those interviewed recalled experiencing some form of awareness after cardiac arrest (being pronounced clinically dead).
Today BJ is known for his dynamic soul-winning worship. BJ McKelvie is the founder of Amaia Ministries.
His faith journey actually began a few years before. Although he was a talented sound engineer with a bright future ahead of him, BJ was plagued with depression. Things go so bad that BJ decided to commit suicide. At the hospital his heart stopped twice and BJ stepped over the threshold that separates life and death.
I was 20 years of age and freshly out of engineering school and ready to take over the world, when a series of unfortunate events to place in my life.
I was at our summer place which was about 50 miles from the nearest town, now you see I was a proud unsaved person and mocked anyone who ever had emotional problems.
One night after playing cards with a friend I went home and got ready for bed. The next morning was to be my first day at a new job as an engineer.
As I got home I noticed a wind up alarm clock next to my bed that my mother had placed there. She borrowed it from a neighbor which was strange since I never needed a clock before to wake up. As I lay there emotions overwhelmed me and I could not take it anymore.
Just days before I was at the doctor for a sore throat and read on a sign that if you had any of these symptoms then you were dealing with depression, well I had everything on that list!
I brought it up with the doctor and she prescribed medication for me. I took the meds for a few days but things just kept getting darker and I had yet to tell anyone how I felt. I got up out of bed, reached for my bottle of pills and counted out “just enough”.
I knew that if I took to many it would make me sick but if I took just enough they would work to kill me. I took the pills two by two then went back to bed. Nothing happened for about an hour, I got up again and found a prescription that my mother had. Once again after taking “just enough”. I wrote a note to my parents and went to sleep.
The very last thing I said before I went to sleep that night was “God please forgive me for what I have done”.
Morning arrived an the alarm clock rang and rang until my mother got up to turn it off. As she tried to wake me she realized something was terribly wrong. My face was pale gray, I was barley breathing and would not wake up.
They rushed me to the country doctor who told them to get me to the hospital as fast as they could. They now had to face a one hour drive and fight to keep me alive. They finally arrived at the hospital with RCMP escort and rushed me in.
Meanwhile in the car they had tried to perform CPR but my jaw had locked closed making CPR impossible. I was now laying in a hospital bed, dying.
Suddenly, as real as real gets, I found myself standing at the nurses station, for some reason I was staring at a sink as a nurse brushed by me. I was thinking to myself how rude she was, it was as if she hadn’t seen me standing there.
As I lifted my head I saw my brother run by crying and my sister following, I watched as they left and then turned my head back to see my parents standing over a hospital bed crying. There was a doctor with them who was just leaving the room. Then one of the most shocking moments in my life – I saw who was in the bed…it was me!
As I realized who it was I suddenly saw a black diamond form under my bed. Like lightning I was pulled over and down into it.
From that moment on I was in total darkness, there was no ground, no sky, nothing around me except total darkness. It is hard to imagine but I was “nowhere”. There was no light at all except when I held up my hand to look at it. My hand was the only thing I could see.
Then I heard a voice. This voice was the most angry, big, deep and powerful voice you could ever imagine…as if it could crush you.
“Those who commit suicide go nowhere” spoke the voice. It came from up and behind me over my right shoulder and I couldn’t see anyone there.
It is impossible for humans to comprehend eternity but for those that have been to the other side you get a quick glimpse. I began to realize that I was nowhere and it was forever.
I said to myself “I really did it” and then torment started. It was like I was looking through a piece of glass and I could see my family, crying and broken. All I wanted to do was let them know I was ok and I didn’t mean to do this. I wanted to say I was sorry and hold onto my mom. I couldn’t. It was horrible, I couldn’t move and I knew I was there forever and that once that glass disappeared, I would never again see my family.
I was totally alone, isolated and separated. Now after what seemed to be hours, “your not getting a second chance” spoke that voice again. I knew that my hell was starting. Once last time the voice spoke “You’re not getting a second chance – but a new beginning” but this time the voice was so soft and gentle and full of the most love you could imagine.
I finally woke out of a coma in intensive care with my family at my bedside. I went on to have a full recovery, after learning how to walk again and suffering substantial memory loss but as the years progress God is restoring what I need to know.
There is much more to the story and I will finish with this. My heart stopped twice and the second time It didn’t start again. I was dead.
Know, I am born again and in love with Jesus , alive and doing fine and the only reason I am here today and not in hell is because – God is faithful to forgive.
The last thing I said before I went to sleep was “God please forgive me for what I have done” and he did.
I did not go to heaven because there is only one way to heaven – through Jesus Christ , I know that know, but God had to be a man of His word and forgive me. He did not give me a second chance because I didn’t deserve one but he gave me a new beginning because I asked him to forgive me.
When I was 22 years old, I was struck by lighting while I was driving my car. For about 15 minutes I was transported into hell. During this time an Angel of the Lord was driving my car!
Back to the incident, where I was hit by lighting. Through this experience I became aware of the fact that there is life after death. I was sad when I thought that there would be loved ones, friends and family members caught in hell.
In summer 1981 I was driving home from a party, when it began to rain. My safety belt from my passenger side was hanging out of the car door. By this I was earthed. All of a sudden it was very bright in my car. I was hit by lighting and I thought this is the end, I am dying. Immediately I was screaming: Jesus help me, I don’t want to die!
After that I left my body and I saw myself sitting in my seat with burned hands holding the steering wheel of my car. With an enormous rush the journey went through a tunnel, which was like a canyon.
I did not touch it at all. This short time was terrible, I can’t find the words to describe it.
At the end of the tunnel, I stood in front of a big gate with the engraved words “Welcome to Hell”.
There I was brought into a big waiting room, by demons that had met me at the entrance. I was utterly shocked by the earnest cries of the people for Jesus to help them.
Did they not read their bible correctly to find out that it it is not enough to say yes to Jesus once, live as you please and at the end end up in Heaven?
That is a lie that is well spread, even in a lot of congregations today.
After that I saw black passages in which I only felt great FEAR.
The creatures that I saw there, were more terrifying than anything I even saw in a Horror movie. Today I know that they were demons.
As soldiers they where marching past me, and in the middle of them were people that were screaming with pain.
It was very difficult to breathe down there, because of the terrible smell of this place. I saw a lake, which looked like the inner part of a volcano, where people were cursing because of great pain and crying out to Jesus.
I was grateful towards God for letting me see the happenings in this lake of fire from a distance.
Does it not hurt when we burn ourselves at the iron or on the stove? How much more is the pain that is experienced in the lake of fire. People were cast into a cave,where there was no escape.
Demons stood on the side of the cave and were throwing spears at them. Every time someone was hit by a spear, he would cry and scream of pain.
I experienced this torment myself and in all my life I never knew pain to this extent. I had pain in every part of my body. There were snakes over snakes crawling around and frightening the people. By the thought of it my tummy turns. Nobody should think there is time to convert in hell.
Everyone is busy with his own pain and anguish that has no end.
In hell, I discovered a fear that has never been on earth. I makes me very sad to find so many unforgiving and sleeping Christians there.
It is the last hour,we must wake up !
It was such a grace that I met Jesus in such a place. Jesus has the loveliest voice, the nicest eyes and a very special smile. His presence radiates an unimaginable light. He is more than embodied love, I can find no words to describe Him.
He sent me back into my body with the instruction to proclaim what I had seen. In the meantime an angel was driving my car to my grandmother’s house.
There I came to myself and started to scream. I was hit by lighting , – “I was dead and in hell!” I screamed again and again.
I was one of those guys that refused to go to the doctor, even though my health was not in good condition.
I was so tired at times I would lay on the floor, right then and there, to rest.
I was also having a special kind of seizers and did not know it at the time. When I would go to bed, I had a tendency to slow down on breathing and totally relax.
One night I stopped breathing all of the sudden, I went into a really bright tunnel that was full of white light, but it did not hurt my eyes; I was moving at an extreme speed upwards.
I would say that the tunnel was about 12 feet wide, the white light permeated everywhere up and down the sides, it seemed to be penetrating through the walls it was actually very beautiful. I realized I was out of my body, but all of my senses were still there.
Gravitational pull was not there nor G forces. I am pretty sure that I was traveling at least the speed of light, but all of the sudden I was slowing down, at the top of the tunnel there were things hanging down; they were about 20 feet long and completely filled the tunnel.
They looked like white silk punching bags, they were extremely clean. When I ran into them they wadded up and stopped me, I automatically started pushing them apart and moving upward through them, when I got through them the next thing I got a hold of was the edge of a hole in a floor.
I felt as though I was being birthed again into a new world. I looked around in the great big room while still hanging onto the edge of the floor, off to the right and front of me about 10 feet away was a wide and long table.
At the end of the table closest to me was a man sitting in a throne type chair; he was clothed in a white robe. I was to his back left side, I could see his dark wavy brown hair shine, it was a mahogany color and it came down to his shoulders. Also, I saw his pronounced nose from my backside angle realizing the Middle Eastern influence, of course I already knew who he was and is, the only begotten son of God JESUS CHRIST.
My near death experience was a two fold experience, allow me to explain…
It was exactly my twenty years in the military, I had just returned to my former Unit of assignment (that I work for fulltime), post my Units Mobilization for Operation Iraqi Freedom at Ft Bragg NC; it was Sunday 02/06/2005.
On Friday I had received my ordination as a Christian Minister, and had prayed that I would be effective for the Lord, (Like the Apostle Paul) and that the enemy would know who I was.
Our Battle Group Training was in water survival, (that I had practiced for over twenty years.) Towards the end of completion of the course, I had what I thought was terrible heart burn. A little embarrassed, I approached my Commanding Officer and other NCOs’ so that I could lie down for just a moment.
Due to the quick response of a Warrant Officer, an ambulance was soon dispatched.
Then as a NSA police officer was questioning me and as the Paramedics arrived, I would “black out” due to heart failure caused by a piece of plaque.
Immediately before blacking out, I would feel a being lying shoulder to shoulder with me, (on my right) and see HIM in shadow. I remember at this point the sound was my last sense to go.
As the Paramedics’ defibrillated my heart (one or two times) the sound returned in the blackness or void. As I regained consciousness it was if I was under the street and someone slowly slid open the manhole cover above me. I could look up and see the Paramedics faces working on me looking down.
As documented, I said “that feels better” although I only remember asking if I had a heart attack? I was told not to try and talk, so I said “being as no one said that I haven’t, I must have!”
The second experience I had was much different… In transport to my requested hospital my ambulance became stuck in traffic, I could hear Donny, (my Paramedic) saying that we must get on the highway and find a different route to a different hospital……….
