In October of 2012, my dad and I were scheduled to go on our annual hunting trip to Bostick Plantation for a deer hunt; we had been doing it for over ten years or so. On this occasion, my mom was very ill, and Dad told me to go without him but to take his friend Bill instead and he would stay with my mom.

I was in a bad time of my life, making many bad decisions and putting myself in dangerous social situations even though I had a wife and a 6-year-old daughter. In hindsight, I think it was part of my self-destructive behavior that I had become known for. I was pretty much heading down the drain at that point.

I grew up in an abusive environment and had, over the years, grown to be pretty much emotionless, unable or unwilling to feel much of anything. In my free time, I was buried in UFO research for almost ten years, really obsessed with it.

2012 was an extraordinary year. The month before my NDE, I had a different kind of experience. I woke up at approximately 2:15 am on the couch. The couch was very comfortable on my back, so it was not unusual for me to sleep there. Anyway, I went to the kitchen, grabbed a Mountain Dew, stopped, looked at the clock on the oven and it read 2:25 am, and then stopped by the bathroom for about one minute or so, then went to sit on the couch where my laptop was located. I noticed I had a crick in my neck; it’s what I call it. I used to get them all the time as a kid; if you have had one, you know what I am referring to. It takes some time before the pain subsides. Well, I sat down on the couch and put my Mountain Dew on the floor. I grabbed my mouse and moved it around to get my computer out of sleep mode. I reached down to get a drink from my Dew and noticed it was not cold and thought the fridge must be having issues, I set the dew back down and looked at my computer, and it said it was 4:26.

I thought the power must have gone off, so I looked over at the stove, and it said 4:25. With that, I guess my subconscious picked up on the situation before I did because all the hair on my body stood up. I looked over to the back door, which was about 5 feet away, and saw it was open about 5 inches. That is about the time the freaking out hit. My parents lived on the same farm, and I looked down at their house. The motion lights were on but hard to see because of the strange dense fog. I saw nothing but the motion lights turning on and off around the barn in the fog. I tried to wrap my brain around it, but everything made me think, “Was it just me that lost 2 hours or did the whole world fast forward 2 hours anyway?” I reported it to MUFON as an unknown event that frightened me. My two Schipperkes were asleep on the back of the couch and showed no signs of alert; it was very strange. I know you are probably wondering what this has to do with an NDE, and that I understand, but please be patient; and you will see the full circle it takes as we move forward.

On October 14th, 2012, I gathered my gear for the trip and was saying goodbye to my family and assuring my daughter I would be home for her birthday on the 19th and not to worry. That made Bill and me late getting out, and we had to be there by noon that day, which was about a 3-hour drive. We arrived right around 2 pm, which was a bit of a problem because the first hunt was to leave at 3 pm. I have known the guide for over ten years, so he cut us a little slack, but it was a race against the clock. I was throwing things out of my bag to get all of my hunting clothes organized.

From years of practicing different martial arts styles and competing until I was 40, I also had a compound fracture of my femur when I was ten which was significant and made my left leg 2.5 inches shorter than my right leg. The leg injury caused many issues with my back, and I had been under doctors' care for it since 2004. Your body becomes immune to the medicines, so they increase the dosages to compensate for it. So my routine was 1 80mg pill in the morning and 1 80mg pill in the early evening. On this day, I would not have access to my medicine, so I didn't see a problem with taking it early as it had no natural physical effect on me.

When I entered the room I would be staying in, I took a pill out and set it on the nightstand so I would remember to take it before I went out to meet the guide. In a rush, I grabbed a pill and took it, then grabbed my things and went to the truck to load up with the others who would go hunting that evening. After joking around and getting to know each of the hunters, Bill said he forgot to bring his camo gloves, and I told him I had an extra pair in the room. So I ran back to my room to grab the gloves, when I saw my medicine on the nightstand next to the bottle, I grabbed the bottle to secure it in my things and grabbed and took the pill with the water they supplied since I left my Red Bull down at the truck, not realizing that I had already taken medicine.

We all jumped in the truck, and I felt energized and excited about the evening hunt, and we were off. The guide, Jimmy, told me that he had an excellent spot for me to go that evening; I gave him our customary 100-dollar tip; as I said, we were long-time friends, and we garnered special attention from our friendship and I am sure from the money as well. He said he had seen a lot of activity around the pines behind the lodge; he would put me there and take the others to the opposite side of the property and that I would be getting off first, so be ready. I had hunted this location before; it was a long road running east and west through the pines with another road going south from the 10-foot-tall wood hunting blind. The road went out about 300 yards and turned around the corner to the right where a big tree was. There were many areas to cover, but Jimmy said the deer would most likely come in from the west to the road to eat at about 100 yards or less. I told him that it sounded perfect and I would see him later.

I got up on my stand and set up everything to be reasonably comfortable for the next few hours. Almost immediately, I heard a noise a little way down from the rocks and sure enough, three does walked out and started grazing. A few minutes later, some more deer came out from the other side and seemed to be everywhere. Birds were flying around, and they had these huge squirrels, I think they were called fox squirrels. Some were pure black and others more calico colored, but I was fascinated by them because they were so big.

I watched the growing number of animals around my stand, and I was having the best day of hunting I could remember. I just liked watching the animals and sometimes recording them with my video camera. Since I was hunting for a specific deer that was, according to Jimmy, a beautiful old deer. Just what I was looking for and I didn't want to take a chance of spooking him, so I left my recording equipment behind. It didn't help that I was running so late.

I have a tradition, though I was not religious at the time. I always selfishly prayed something like, “God, give me a big deer, please.” It was a normal thing I did from the excitement and wishful thinking. I figured it couldn't hurt, right? Well, today was different. I was having the time of my life watching all the deer and other animals, and Instead of my usual prayer, I said, "Lord, I always ask you for a big deer, but today is undoubtedly the perfect day of hunting, and I won't ask you for a big deer. I can't ask for anything more than this, but if there is anything I can do for you, I will do it." That was that.

I continued to watch the deer and squirrels, and I was so relaxed. The sun started to go down a bit and was at the top of the trees on the west side. Something caught my eye about 100 to 150 yards out in this big pine tree, and I couldn't make it out. I looked in my bag for my binoculars but must have left them in the room at the lodge, so I lifted my rifle and looked through the scope out at this pine tree; I moved slowly so as not to scare all the deer standing in the roadway.

As I looked through the scope, I could see what appeared to be the exact likeness of Jesus's face in the shadows of the pine tree. I looked up from the scope to see if I could see it with my naked eye and then looked back through the scope, and there it was plain as day. It was Jesus's face, but the light was dark, and the dark was light, kind of like an optical-illusion Jesus picture, if you have ever seen one of those, but this was much more detailed. I kind of laughed and said to myself, “Wow, God is in everything, isn't he?"

Here is something I never talk about when retelling the events of the day. For just a moment after seeing the face of Jesus in the pine shadows, I saw all bright gold everywhere, except in the center, which was white, and it was the outline of a head, which I can only describe as having the shape of and hair of Don King. It lasted for just a second or so, and I saw no face, just the silhouette white, almost like a template, surrounded by bright gold. I don't mention that usually because how do you say I saw the face of Jesus and maybe Don King? So, while still looking through the scope, I panned to the right to see all the deer looking in my direction, and I thought I must have made a noise, so I slowly moved over to the rock area where the deer had come out earlier. When I got to the rocks, I saw the exact, and I mean the exact same image of Jesus's face in the shadows of the stones. It was at that moment I knew something was not right and said, either out loud or to myself, "Uh oh." Then the flight or fight instinct kicked in and panic set in. Right at that exact second, I felt like I was wrapped in a tight blanket and couldn't move.

I don't know if it was in my head, or there was a voice speaking that I heard with my ears, but in a man's voice, I heard the words, "Look for me and you will find me," and, "Ask of me and receive of me," and I thought something else. But it was when over my left shoulder there was a beam of white light, I was self-aware and thought to myself, “I can understand why people think it’s a tunnel because it looks like one.”

When that light hit me, I had the most indescribable feeling of love and joy; it is almost impossible to describe. If you took something that you loved more than anything, multiplied it times infinity, and then gave it physical properties, it felt like that, and it radiated through me. This is when I felt separated a bit, if that makes sense. I looked into the light, and I could feel my face was different, either injured or something, but it didn't feel right. I thought, “What is with that?” I like peaked out of myself and could see that I was looking into the light and the feeling that didn't seem right to me. It was me smiling, not a usual smile, but a strange super big smile and I was staring into the light. I felt like I was floating even though I thought, “Wow, it feels like I am floating,” but I paid no attention because I was basking in this light and feeling such a strong love and happiness. I looked at the Supernatural light like it was familiar to me, if that makes any sense. I didn't see any more faces or people and soaked up all of this incredible feeling. Then I became self-aware again and felt really like I was floating and said to myself or out loud, "I feel like I am floating," then I looked down.

I was maybe 100 feet above the tree stand, I don't know the exact distance, but I could see the deer stand and what appeared to be a person lying on their side in a semi-fetal position. It never occurred to me that it was me because how could it be, if I was looking at it? The situation just was not registering what was going on. In that few seconds of the realization that I was floating and seeing whatever was in the deer stand, I was slammed back into my body, for lack of a better word. I stood up with tears running out of my eyes and said, "No, no, I want to do that again." I was distraught that the sensation had ended.

I stood there momentarily and looked out, and the animals were gone. The road was empty. I saw some movement down straight ahead of me, but past the road directly south. It was a deer that appeared, coming out of the trees. It was a buck, and that was obvious. It must have been in the water because it shook its body like a dog, and I could see the water going everywhere. Then the deer started heading towards the roadway, going right or west, out by that big tree.

This hunting place had rules, and it wasn't a standard shoot-anything hunting lodge. It had strict rules; the deer needed to be over four years old or have at least 4 points on one side, no six-point bucks allowed, no spike bucks, and nothing but old deer. Suppose you shoot one that is not to those specifications. It’s a 500-dollar fine which is due immediately at the time of the guide's arrival. You carried the money just in case. This buck was big, but he was easily 400 yards out, and even looking through the scope, I could not tell for sure; it was a shot that I did not have the skill to make. So, I said to myself, that's a shame. It looks like a good deer, but shooting is out of the question.

I was thinking about if I could make that shot when the deer started trotting around the corner, and I heard, "It's OK." I got a chill and either said or thought, “No, it's not OK.” In that instant, like not under my power, I lifted the gun and took a quick shot; I don't even recall looking through the scope. Just up with the gun and the shot, and I was horrified to see the deer go right down.

I got down from my stand, still with amazement and agitation that I took the shot. That was over 400 yards, I would never take a shot like that, but as I walked the road down to the deer, it lay on the roadway. I stopped about 20 feet away from him and saw that the buck had 4 points on one side, but I could see it was taking a breath so I backed away very quietly and slowly to avoid making the buck's last moments fearful. The shot landed right where I always try to shoot, at the shoulders, right at the base of the neck of the spine. No suffering, one shot, and it's over. As I looked back at the stand, I was in awe that I had made a shot like that and actually hit the deer with such precision. I left the deer there and walked back to the stand as quietly as possible to wait for the guide, Jimmy, to come and get me.

Being the first one let off, I was the last to be picked up. I told him I got a deer down there on the road, and he said, “Where?” and we walked down the road toward the deer. He said, “Scott, how far is this deer?” I told him it's a ways down there. He asked if the deer had run, and I pointed to where he came out and where he ran. He kept strangely looking at me. We finally got down to the deer, and Jimmy tracked him back to see where he was hit and how far he ran. Then, he shined his flashlight back on the stand, which was barely viewable at that distance with his light. He looked at me and said that's over 400 yards around a corner; I just said yes. I told him I knew he was hit good but was not expired, and he asked me why I did not reshoot him to make sure he didn't get back up, and I just shrugged.

I could tell something was wrong; I had long known this man. He also knew me very well and my limitations. Something wasn't adding up to him, which was evident while he was talking. He looked at me and said, “That is one hell of a shot.” Walking back to the truck, he said something strange to me. He said, "OK, I dropped Scott off at the stand, but who are you?" I thought he was joking, but later I understood why he said that. The deer was undoubtedly the prettiest deer I have ever taken, not the biggest, but the prettiest. It was that deer and that shot that would be the seed that would grow inside of me more than anything else. The rest maybe I could explain away if I tried hard enough, but that impossible shot would prove to be the monkey on my back that I could not shake off. It would be the beginning of my transformation.

The rest of the days, I had little interest in hunting and told Jimmy to take the others to the better spots, that I got mine, and I would do some video work and try to get some good video of deer and other wildlife. The next day I looked in the trees, looking for shadows. I looked the rest of the days I was there. Jimmy continued to act a little different towards me but pleasant. Bill didn't even see a deer in the four days we were there.

When I returned home and was greeted by my family, my wife immediately knew something was different. We had been married eight years at that point, and she knew me better than probably anyone else, even my parents. I am a very private person and rarely share things with people. I did not tell my wife what had happened, but she kept asking me what was wrong with me; what happened? I told her nothing; I was okay. My wife is a now-retired criminal attorney, and when she gets a sniff of something, she is like a hound dog. She said, “You are acting different and don't even have the same look on your face.” I still did not talk about it and kept insisting nothing was wrong. That was until a week or so later when she cornered me and had to have a serious conversation.

She said I was different in my mannerisms, the way I spoke, and my look. I had had a rugged look to me, severe and not very approachable, but that was different, and she knew it. I still could not reconcile what had happened to me, but after constant prodding and poking, I told her I thought I saw God. At which you would think I said I had an affair. She broke down in tears and said, “This means the end of our marriage.” I said, “Of course not. Why would it be the end of our marriage?” She said I would leave her to follow God. I told her that in no way was I considering leaving her to follow God and that our journey would be together.

My wife is a US Citizen, but at the time, only possessed a Green Card. I am North American, and my wife was born in Mexico. Her mother was from Spain, and her dad was from Mexico. She was about as Catholic as you get, and I, during those eight years, was about as far away from any religion as you could get. Anyway, that crisis ended, and life went on for the next couple of weeks uneventfully, but she couldn't get over the change in my personality. My daughter was six, so she noticed nothing unusual with me. The following months were when things got weird.

In November, my mom passed away; her illness never got better, only worse, and she passed away on the 22nd of November 2012. My dad shut down. And strange things started occurring. Starting with a conversation between my wife and her sister-in-law, Alex. They were talking on video like maybe Yahoo messenger or something like that via an iPod touch or iPad. I am not sure of the device, but Alex said, “Oh, hi,” and told my wife to say “Hi” to Grandpa and asked how he was doing. My wife, Ana, said he was doing ok but having a rough time of it, and he is staying in his house a lot. She said, “Can I say hi to him?” Ana said he was down at his house, and Alex said, “Then who was the older gentleman that walked behind you just a minute ago?” That freaked everyone out because we were alone, just the 3 of us. That was the start of some dark times coming.

I continued my studies of UFOs with a renewed passion, giving little thought to what had occurred in the woods that one afternoon. Strange things started happening in the house and outside over the next few months. My daughter and wife were experiencing strange things at the house. One night sitting at the dinner table, we heard a crash in my daughter's bathroom. We went in to see what it was. Issabella had a plastic 4-drawer pink chest of drawers that were not but 18 inches tall and maybe 24 inches long and wide. It was filled with books, toys, and things for the bathtub, and it was heavy. It had been flipped upside down by the toilet with all the contents over the floor.

Some days later, someone knocked on the front door loud. We heard the footsteps across the porch but wondered how anyone could get in since we were behind a security fence with an iron gate. It's not like you could drive into the farm without being let in. She went to the door after the loud and endless knocking, but no one was there.

We started seeing lights outside the house at night, and I saw a football-shaped craft go from one cloud to another while waiting outside of Issy's school. The girls saw the same thing by the house a day or so later. Too many weird things were going on not to notice: roaring sounds in the sky coming from everywhere and nowhere. My dreams were about floating every night, and I had those dreams for a long time until they just stopped. The strangeness only got worse. The activity in the skies outside the farm increased, which for me and my hobby was exciting for a while, but scary for my wife and daughter. My thoughts of that October seemed to be a distant memory. Then it all came to a head—on April 23, 2013, our anniversary.

We all went to bed as usual on April 22nd, 2013, at the regular time of around 10 pm. I woke up at 3:33 am and got up to use the bathroom. I thought it a bit cool that I woke up right at 3:33 am, but I noticed the living room lights on and kind of grumbled something about a waste of electricity and that Ana must have left the lights on when we went to bed. Instead of going straight to the bathroom, I walked down the hallway to the living room. The end of the hallway is the last thing I remember about that evening.

I woke up on the couch a little after 6:00 am, but something was wrong. I didn't feel right. I felt horrible, hurt, and nauseated. I kind of stumbled down the hallway, woke my wife and said, “You’re late getting up.” Issy had to get ready to go to her kindergarten class which takes a while for them to get prepared for. I said to Ana, “I don't feel good. Something is wrong.” And I went and sat on the couch until she and Issy came out. I was disoriented and felt like I had been beaten up very badly, and my side hurt. My whole body was aching, and I was confused, having trouble with words and names.

My wife looked at me and said, “What is on your face?” To which I responded that I didn't know what she was talking about. I just said, “I feel like I was in a car accident. I feel worse than I did the day after my black belt test in Hapkido, and that was the worst beating I have ever had.” I walked over to the table, and she looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Your forehead is bruised.” I said, “I have a headache, but my side is killing me.” I pulled up my shirt, and there was a triangle burn on my side with blisters. She put medicine on it and told me to look in the mirror. I went to the mirror, and it looked like a triangle with a tail coming out of it going across my forehead with a triangle shape above my eye. It looked like a bruise, but it was a burn. The triangle on my side was a burn as well. All that day, I had trouble making words, forming sentences, even remembering names. Every part of my body hurt, and I was fatigued. I was confused, and at our anniversary dinner, I could not remember how I liked my steak cooked; it took a week before I felt normal again.

The one thing that had changed was that I no longer thought UFOs were extraordinary. I thought they were terrible. MUFON was contacted again, but I had absolutely no memory of anything that had happened. I spoke with the Granddaughter of Barnie and Betty Hill, a lady named Marjorie, if I recall correctly. She brought me some comfort but did not change my new thoughts on UFOs. Well, that type of activity continued until we decided to move from our house, hoping to start anew in Florida, so away from South Carolina. We went to Florida in 2014, hoping to leave all the strangeness behind us, but we were not so lucky. Right from the start, we see lights in the sky that could not be confused with airplanes. We had one that sat over top of our pond with rotating lights, clearly not an aircraft.

My wife and daughter were out front of the house at one point, looking up from the driveway. They were screaming for me; I thought, “Uh oh, it's a gator,” but when I went out, I saw them looking up and pointing, saying, “wow” and “look.” I was looking, but I guess from my point of view, I could not see what they were looking at. I asked what it was. My wife said, “Those white lights are right there.” I said, “I don’t see them; I can’t see them. Where?” With that, a glowing white Orb flew out in front of me, maybe 80 yards up and about the same distance ahead. I definitely saw this. It pulled out in front of me and stopped, and then it got super bright to the point I had to shield my eyes from it. It went back to the normal glowing, went out to the left, and then back over to the right, where we saw two other white glowing balls join it in formation, one on top and two on the bottom, and they flew off NW on an upward trajectory. My wife had run and grabbed one of the scopes from the laundry room, and I watched them for some time. They were holding a triangle formation until they were no longer visible with the naked eye or the use of the scope.

It was at the end of 2015, and then 2016, when everything changed. I noticed that more and more. I was thinking of the activities of 2012, and the deer I got that day was displayed in a place of honor. I could not take my eyes off it. Though I denied it many times, I could tell I was not the same. My thinking was different, and most of all, I was feeling emotions, not just my own but other people's, which I call vibes. I was aware that things were different. I couldn’t wear watches, and every time I did, they would stop working. I was swarmed by dragonflies every time I went outside, not like one or two; more like hundreds. I had a couple of instances of an old tv turning off that circle that slowly got smaller. I think you have to have grown up in the 1960s and 70s to understand what I am speaking of, but I thought maybe I was sick.

My doctors told me I needed an ablation done to my heart to stop the ever-persistent SVT that haunted me, and I would end up in the emergency rooms with my pulse going over 200 and sometimes so high the machines could not read it. Many ice baths and shots of nitro, but was that the problem? I wasn’t sure. Pulse over 100 was normal for me. Imagine running a marathon every day. During the four years since my NDE, I wrote to many people about my experience. Many of them were well-known preachers online and prominent church pastors, asking about my experience and never getting a reply. At this point, I was confused about what had happened to me that day hunting. Maybe it was this UFO business that was plaguing us; I just wanted a professional opinion about my experience but never got a reply from anyone. My curiosity became an obsession, and I wrote more and more letters.

A little over three months before my 50th birthday, I got this incredible urge which felt almost out of my control. I wanted to read the whole Old Testament before my 50th birthday. Working on my farm would make it very difficult to accomplish this, but maybe listening to it would work. I bought the audiobook and started listening to it daily; I listened all day. I was surprised that it was a great library of books. I realized I knew nothing about anything in the bible as I listened to every possible minute. If I was unaware of the change in me, I saw it now. Especially the sensitivity and emotions; they were at the time so strong it was overwhelming. I could feel other people's moods without them even needing to say a word. Living my life feeling nothing but anger and distrust in people, this was a significant change. Well, I had developed a severe umbilical hernia, super red and painful to the touch and it was an issue, but I had no time to deal with it. It just seemed to get worse, so I went to the doctor, and he said I would need to have surgery which we scheduled, but I canceled because I was too busy. It got very uncomfortable, especially while cutting the pasture with the tractor. As usual, I kept putting it off, but my bible listening continued every waking minute.

While working in the barn I got bitten three times on the back by a spider of some sort. I didn’t know, but I was getting faint and weak and didn’t know why. I fell to the barn floor and lay there. I asked God for help. Slowly, I could get to my hands and knees and crawl to the house; off to the hospital we went. The doctor said it was the worst spider bites he had seen. The skin was turning black and dying. It left three scars in a triangle shape on my back.

I was getting close to my 50th birthday, and I still had maybe two bible books left. I wasn’t sure I would make my goal. I started talking and praying in the barn when no one was around. I was still seeking answers about my experience four years earlier and still had not received one reply from anyone. I expressed my frustration with my wife about it. My wife knew I was different regarding personality and overall actions, but she admittedly told me she knew something had happened to me. But she didn’t believe my recounting of my day hunting. It had to be something else, but not God. My wife was raised in Mexico and was an all-in Catholic. Through my reading of the bible and watching online help videos on understanding the bible verse by verse, I had disagreements about things in the Catholic religion. I had to be baptized Catholic before I could marry my wife. Otherwise, her parents would not have it.

About two weeks before my birthday, my wife was in the bedroom, and I was in the attached living room. I was answering emails on my laptop. I am kind of old school and hang tight to my computer, but I still do. She said she opened her iPad and went to YouTube and the very first video that appeared on her screen, she thought looked interesting. Well, she came out of the bedroom and stood in the doorway looking at me for a moment without saying a word, then said she was sorry. I asked what are you sorry for, and she told me to watch the video. I asked her what is it about; I did not want to see people getting hurt, which some find funny, even though I don't think so. She said to watch it. The video was about a lady who died in a car crash but was revived. It was like listening to myself talk about the light and the pure love and joy she felt that she could not easily describe. It was a testimony that was, without a doubt, too similar to be a coincidence. I was being told the answers I was looking for on YouTube.

From that point forward, everything changed in a good way, overall anyway. My umbilical hernia had gotten very bad by now. While in the barn, I had a sharp pain in my stomach and bent over grimacing. Standing up, I said I needed to fast for 15 days. I don’t know why I would want to do that, but I did. I had never fasted before, but I felt I had to. On the first attempt, I made it nine days drinking only liquids, mostly water or Redbull. I could not make it another day, and I had a fried egg sandwich from one of the eggs I had just collected an hour before. Failure. I waited a few days and tried again. During this time, with only one day to spare, I finished the last page; I think it was the book of Malachi.

I was on day 10 of my fast. Praying for the strength to make my goal. It was a long road, but I made it. On day 16, I finished work on the farm at about 9 pm and went to take a shower. My wife was in the bathroom telling me about her day and getting ready for bed. We talked a bit while I was in the shower, mainly about a new calf that had been born. I was in heaven with all the animals to take care of. I got out of the shower, grabbed the towel, and dried my hair when I heard a glass bouncing around the sink. I took the towel off my head and saw my wife looking at me; she was pale and pointing. My first thought was one of those giant spiders was next to me or on me, and I said, “What?” as I am brushing my skin at invisible targets. Then I spun around to see if something was behind me because my wife wasn’t saying anything, just pointing. Finally, I raised my voice and said, “What, Ana?” She just looked and pointed at me. I looked in the mirror and didn’t see anything at first. It was then I saw the giant red umbilical hernia was gone, not smaller, not less redness, I mean gone like there was nothing there ever. I went to the doctor, and he asked me if I had gotten the surgery, and I told him no, which seemed to puzzle him to no end. He examined my stomach, poked at it, and checked my belly button roughly. He said he had never seen that before. He said that I needed surgery.

Three days later, in the night, I was watching a video which I think is called Under God's Dome or God's Firmament, not sure, just know Mark Seargent did it. I had just taken a shower, my daughter was across from me sitting on her bed, I was in my usual spot on the couch, and my wife was in the connecting bedroom. I came to a point in the video where they were talking about how the eyes can betray you or be manipulated and showed an optical illusion of Jesus. I thought it said to stare at the picture for 4 seconds, then look at a white wall and blink. I hit pause with the picture on the Alienware computer. I tried it but could not see Jesus on the wall. I called my wife in and told her to get the optical illusion on her iPad and try it; she pulled it up on her iPad and went back to the bedroom to try. I tried again for 4 seconds and blinked fast at a white wall but couldn’t see him. One more try, and I looked as hard as possible and blinked as fast as I could.

There was this crazy vibration like a fast shake of my head, just strange, but what came next dropped my jaw. If I recall correctly, gray clouds traveling counterclockwise were swirling. It was all I could see. Slowly, a hole started opening in the center. I could see something green. The hole gradually got bigger until they were gone, and I was looking at the grass with a horizon full of crazy-looking clouds, with flashes of all colors going off. It reminded me of the old cartoons when two people were fighting in a cloud of dust, and it would show lights flashing to signify the blows hit. But this was real, and those were real clouds and very scary looking. They stopped at what appeared to be a fence line. I started looking back to the right. It was a game trail, and then I saw him, a guy standing not more than 20 feet away at about 2 o'clock from me. He was staring at me. He wasn’t smiling or frowning, just looking at me. I am sure I was with my mouth wide open in disbelief at what I was witnessing.

No doubt in my mind that the person looking at me was Jesus; for the most part, he fits every description I had seen. He was tall and had a white robe on and sandals. His eyes were intense; they were a cross between light green and dark blue, almost emerald. Piercing eye but non-threatening. From my vantage point, it looked like he had a slight glow around his head, but as I moved to the right towards the path and a little closer, I saw a very delicate thin white cloth draped over his head from shoulder to shoulder. You could see his wavy brown hair coming out from underneath at shoulder length.

I did not see my hands or feet while walking or moving. I was now in front of him on the path, he looked gaunt but super healthy. He had dark tanned skin. The next thing I know I am right in front of him. I was looking up slightly to the right and saw his beard and mustache. So he was taller than I was and appeared to be in his late 20s. I wear a beard and mustache, but I was fascinated with his; it was trimmed very close, and it was perfect. I mean perfect; every hair looked like it has been individually cut. It was remarkable. I guess if you have not grown a beard and mustache, this probably does not make sense to you, but for those of you that have one or have managed one you know how hard it is to maintain. This was immaculate. Funny that the beard and the mustache are what I focused on, but I had to be standing basically on his feet as close as I was, like an embrace, I say this because I was looking at his beard, looking up, 5 to 6 inches to my right. He had high cheekbones and a perfect complexion.

The amount of time that had gone by, I was not sure. Within seconds, I was immediately standing back where I started; he turned to his right and put his arm out, pointing not directly into the clouds but off to that right side. Though the field was lit like daytime, I saw a slight glow on his left cheekbone. Which was a bit confusing because with all the lights and things in the clouds, the many reds, yellows, and oranges, I figured the sun was behind him and those clouds. There was no visible sun that I could see, just a glowing light sky but not blue. At that moment he swung his arm out and I was sitting on my couch. I called to my wife and said, “When you did the optical illusion, did you see life-like Jesus?” She said, “No, just like a painting of his face.” I asked her to come in there. I was blinking and blinking, trying to get back to where he was. Why didn’t I say anything to him? He wasn’t wearing a name tag that said Jesus, but I never doubted that it was him. (Edited: I am adding this because it is a common question I get when I tell of this experience, he did not have any wounds on his hands or feet, I would have seen it for sure.) 

My eyes hurt and I had a bad headache right between the eyes. When I told my wife about my experience, she didn’t know what to think. Maybe she thought I was starting to lose it, but she had seen a total change in my personality and the ordeal with my umbilical hernia so she worried first about my comfort. I played the video for her. The video said to look at the picture for 30 seconds and then look at a white wall. Where did I get 4 seconds and the blinking part? No idea. In minutes of the event, the less-than-a-year-old Alienware computer shut off and would not turn back on again. I took it to the computer shop and he said the electronics were fried and the motherboard and possibly the hard drive would need to be redone. So after 10 days of working on the computer, they were telling me even with the new motherboard, it is not functioning and suggested to send it back to the manufacturer. I didn’t opt for the extended warranty so I still have this computer that I worked on and was able to access using a boot drive I created from a Sandisk. Everything in the computer was erased except a few programs and the computer will not function properly, taking a long time to open one of the remaining programs, but totally unusable.

The UFO activity ended; we no longer saw anything. Things seemed to be settling down. My daughter was now 10 and it was time to have my long-awaited heart procedure done. My cardiologist set me up with the best surgeon for this procedure and he was out of Tampa, about an hour and a half from my house. I was really nervous about this surgery, I guess because I had been putting it off for a long time. Because I had learned the importance of family and had learned what it was to really love. I did not want my daughter to forget me if something happened.

I had trouble sleeping leading up to the surgery. So I would try to take naps in the daytime when I could. Maybe a week before my surgery, I lay down on the couch to take a nap. I put on headphones and listened to a video I had come across sometime before called The Teachings of Jesus Christ on a YouTube channel called Scrawny2 Brawny. Which are the beatitudes or the sermon on the mount. I listened, trying to relax but was not able to fall asleep. Then another incident occurred; Less vibration and the clouds this time looked like a long tunnel of them and seemed to be spinning slower. At the very end, it started to open.

I could see dark wood, like cherry wood or maybe mahogany. The hole opened up all the way, but I could get no closer. It was like looking down a hallway into a room at the end. I saw a person in a white robe standing over what appeared to be a chest of some kind in that dark wood and piped in gold or brass. All the wood was piped with this gold or brass material. I wanted a closer look but I could move no closer to it and then it was over. A little later after I settled back down, I was thinking, “I have no idea why this is happening and less of an idea of what it meant.” I was able to take a nap after that.

Nothing more happened. I researched about people who have had visions and have seen Jesus but really couldn’t find anything except one that said Jesus reveals himself to people he has done things for. I didn’t put a whole lot of faith in what I read but began to think about it. What has Jesus done for me that he would reveal himself? That was that "Duh" moment. Four years earlier, he had given me a second chance I did not deserve. He fixed my hernia and basically changed my whole outlook on life. Funny how we take things for granted.

It was surgery day, time for my ablation. I wasn’t having as many instances of SVT but still on occasion having some bad ones. We arrived at 8 am for an 11 am surgery. Not sure why they need so much time before the surgery but we showed up on time and filled out the paperwork. I have had many surgeries and never had an issue. I was laying in the operating room now. I was fidgety and agitated somewhat. I said something doesn’t feel right and they put a weighted pad across my chest and pinned me down. That is when my mind went into panic mode once again, I could do nothing, I couldn't move. They said they would be right back and give me something to keep me calm. I felt utter fear come over me and I did the only thing I could think to do. I said, “God, do you want me to have this surgery? If you don’t, please do not allow it.” Then I said I didn’t fear death but I worried for my wife and daughter and how they would get along without me. Would he please watch over them?

They gave me a sedative and that was that. I woke up and sat up and said, “Did you fix it?” and the doctor's assistant said, “You’re all done.” I asked again if they fixed it. She said they did everything to stimulate the action with electrical shocks where the reports said the problem was. She said they tried everything and they could not see any signs of SVT. I wasn't very happy about that because to me I just wasted a few thousand dollars. My pulse was 98 when I went in and when I went out of the operating room it was 70. My heart rate had never been 70 in my life that I knew of.

They seemed almost mad at me about it. My wife said they said the doctor would be out to talk to her which scared her and she said the doctor never came in. I was wheeled out to recovery. My wife and daughter came in and she was visibly shaken by the whole ordeal. I was happy and felt great, besides having trouble walking. The nurse helped me to the bathroom after refusing my wife to help me, which did not make her very happy.

Well, that was that and we went home and since then my pulse has been 70. They took me off my heart medication, and my doctor said I didn’t need to be on it anymore and he would do a follow-up the following month. That visit had the same results: pulse 70, no instances of SVT and I was drinking Redbulls with abandon. I have been drinking Redbulls all day every day since then and my pulse is always 70's, though I have a breathing problem now from an extended run-in with black mold which makes my heart rate go up sometimes briefly when I lose my breath.

During this whole time, we were caregiving my dad who had a stroke in 2015 and had seemed to start dementia in a rapidly progressing manner. There was one more instance of an emergency situation where I felt the Lord had intervened. In our house in Florida, I was doing a few exercises upstairs where I had my vision. I needed a break so I sat on the couch and laid my head back. I felt a piercing pain in the top of my head. I grabbed at the spot not knowing what was going on, but I immediately knew whatever it was, it would kill me. I just could feel it. When my ability to breathe became very labored, I said, “YESHUA HELP,” and with that, I fell to the ground. I was able to reach my inhaler on the table and started pumping it and gasping for breath. For a second I got a breath and got medicine in my lungs. Things were getting fuzzy. I tried to get back up and fell again. My wife who was in the movie room with my daughter thought she heard me call her, which I did not. I could hear her call to me but I could not answer.

She came running up the steps and ran to me asking what happened and I just had enough air to say, “911.” They were asking her what the emergency was and she told them I was on the ground having breathing difficulties but she didn't know for sure since she just found me this way. They said an ambulance was on its way. I slowly started to get my breath back, but felt very strange. I was sitting on the floor and kept hitting my inhaler until I could take shallow breaths. I told my wife to call the hospital back and we would just go there. It was 30 minutes away but I was feeling a little better. Tell them to save the ambulance.

I was able to get up and go over to the couch to see what had happened. It was a red paper wasp in the curtains that stung me. I had been keeping bees and knew I had a reaction to the honey bees but nothing like this. So we got in the SUV and headed to the hospital. I could tell I was getting worse with every minute. I didn't realize it but I was in anaphylactic shock and my whole body was swelling at an alarming rate. Maybe the ambulance wasn't a bad idea after all. It took a few minutes to leave the house because we had to explain that I was injured to my dad, who didn't seem to care but wanted to go with us and we could not leave him by himself. So we were running late. My wife called the hospital on the way and explained the situation again, and they said they would be waiting for me.

When I arrived, they met us at the curb with a wheelchair and went flying across the sidewalk and through the doors. People were running everywhere and I was put in a room. They hooked me up to a number of IV's and some guy in a white coat was setting up a table with scalpels and tubes. I said, “That's not for me is it?” and he said, “If these medicines do not work we are going to have to do a tracheotomy,” to which I replied, "Oh the hell you are," and he said, “If the medicine doesn't stop the swelling, we will have no choice because you are not going to be able to breathe.”

They couldn't believe I even made it to the hospital and said I was very lucky. They told my wife 5 minutes more and I may have suffocated and died. They also said that every time I get stung it will be twice as bad as the time before, so now I have to carry Epi-pens everywhere I go. They said if it happens again, inject one in my leg and 20 minutes later, hit myself with another one while I go to the hospital. It was a really bad reaction and another instance where God intervened. Thank you, Lord.

My Dad got worse and worse. Those were very hard times. We had built a home in Mexico because my dad and mom had wanted to move to Mexico when he retired, and I guess he was holding on to that memory. So we built the house and are still here today. My wife has totally converted over to following the KJV bible and no longer practices the Catholic faith, but is a strong Christian woman. We are on the same journey, but I recognize the different paths, and our relationship remains strong despite the differences in world and life issues.

Since 2016, there has not been much to report. A few of what I call God dreams, which I put on YouTube, and vivid NDE dreams. The smell of flowers through the house on occasion. However, we are seeing arial phenomena again. One was so big I thought it was the moon in the crescent phase at first glance, then I watched it go from south to north from one cloud to another, and it was about the size of a basketball at arm’s reach. No silver dollar would work here to judge size. It sent me into an asthma attack as I ran to get my camera. It was making its own clouds. It was that close and that clear.

In closing, I will share my thoughts on what I think is happening. 1. There is a battle going on for our souls. 2. We are not our bodies; we just inhabit them. 3. Death of the body is not the death of you. Besides the floating feeling and all that love, it was still me with the same thought patterns and same stubbornness in regards to looking at the bigger picture. 4. I would be curious to hear how many fellow NDErs had a dark period after their time in bliss; it's an endless battle. 5. Something happens to us after we experience an NDE, in regards to personality, outlook, magnetic properties, and maybe vibrational frequency. My sensitivity, in regard to people's feelings or emotions, is off the charts. 6. The bible is a connection to our Father and Savior. Most Importantly there is a God and we need to try and walk with him. And there is evil, not little green men from other planets, an evil that inhabits a body or vessel.

Thank you for your time to read this, I am close to my 10-year anniversary and there is not a day that goes by that I do not think of my experiences and what it all means. NDEs can be a wonderful, beautiful, lonely, and depressing experience but there are people out there you can talk to that understand what you are going through. I am not sure why this happened to me and I still have not figured out what God wants of me or what it all means, but I am sure it was because I was a big sinner and needed to be saved from myself.

That love that NDErs feel but cannot describe can be summed up like this. To feel that love again, I would give everything I ever had, and everything I might ever get, to feel it again. That's how I described it to my daughter because there are no words to describe it. Embrace that, and run with it. I don’t know about you, but I am excited about the next adventure when this one on earth is done, but by the grace and mercy of God, I am still here. For those who have experienced an NDE, you have been woken up, been given a gift. Before, we were sleepwalking through life. Now we can truly see the beauty of God's creation. Walk the road with God; do not get off on the wrong exit while searching for answers.