NDE: Beal's Glimpse of Heaven's Throne

A near-death experience (s/p being assaulted/TRIGGER WARNING) in which the person appeared in a vast expanse of white clouds filled with Christ's indescribable love. An angel then led the person to a magnificent place with a glass floor over fire, four enormous, many-eyed creatures singing “Holy, holy, holy,” and an immense throne of God and His great glory. Including being aware of people in heaven from the Old and New Testament. 

Experience Description:

The next thing I remember after everything went dark was that I suddenly appeared above a white cloud. Looking down at the top of the cloud, I could hear someone speaking. I looked up, and there were millions upon millions of children standing or sitting on my cloud, as well as on other clouds all around me for thousands of miles.

The clouds looked almost like upside-down clouds. They were all white, with no shadows, except that the distant ones appeared to have a thin black line across them because they were covered with children. Jesus was in the center of my cloud, and there were children in front of me as well as behind me, all looking toward him.

Jesus was reading from a Bible that was floating in midair. As he spoke and dictated what was in it, the pages turned on their own. It was a very beautiful place. There was an incredibly strong feeling of love that I cannot even explain here on Earth. I saw the scars on his face and hands. I could not see his feet because I was too far away, and there were children sitting in front of him.

I felt that this was a place where children would go if they died too young. It was as though that knowledge was simply imparted to me.

As I listened, an angel came and got me. He took me to a place where the floor was entirely made of glass, with fire underneath it. In the center was a large pedestal about the size of a house. Pairs of thrones surrounded it in a semicircle about 200 feet away.

On top of the large pedestal were four creatures. One looked like an eagle, one had the face of a man, one looked like a calf, and one looked like a lion. They each had six wings, and they were covered everywhere with eyes. The eyes were all different colors, shapes, and sizes, and they would randomly blink.

The creatures flew without effort, singing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." The song resounded and resonated inside of me. I felt as though every atom within me danced, with love pouring out of every word.

I was so curious that I walked up to the eagle-like creature and began looking at one of its wings when something caught my eye. One of the eyes was staring back at me, and within it I could see a reflection of myself looking at the eagle from behind. The creature was about ten stories tall, and I was standing near one of its two wings while they were at rest.

Then I noticed the throne of God. It was enormous and reached high into the sky. A cloud covered the upper portion of it, beginning around where the armrests would have been. A huge white cloak descended down the front of the throne. It was beautiful.

I knelt on the floor because I felt very unworthy. I noticed that the fire beneath the glass floor seemed to dance to the creatures' song as they sang.

The angel who had brought me there then took me to another place. It was very beautiful. There was a waterfall descending from a huge cliff, and the rainbows were complete circles that did not end. At the bottom of the waterfall was a huge lake. The water was so clear that I could see all the way to the bottom. The lakebed was covered with beautiful stones of many different colors.

The entire time I was there, I could hear the four creatures singing in Hebrew and English at the same time.

After spending some time there and enjoying its beauty, a different angel came to me. This angel had white hair. He took me to a huge field covered with grass. He placed his hands on my shoulders, looked into my eyes, and told me that it was not my time yet. He said that God had a plan for me and wanted me to return.

Something happened when he touched me. I instantly knew things that I should not have known. I told him, "If it is God's will."

When I woke up after being dead, I was lying in a pool of blood and vomit. I was having a seizure on the couch in the living room, not far from where I had been beaten. I was soaking wet, as though someone had washed all the blood off of me, and the wall was now clean.

I knew things. I knew that I was going to get married. I knew how many children I was going to have. I knew what kind of work I was going to do in this life, as well as other jobs I would have.

There have been many times throughout the years since this happened when I have experienced déjà vu because, when the angel touched me, I saw little glimpses of my future. The strangest part is how similarly some of those things have transpired and how much my daughter looks like the girl I saw in heaven.

I was gifted with things that I myself cannot explain, such as wisdom, visions of the future, experiences while praying, and a sense of worth beyond explanation.

I believe that we were all created long ago, when the Earth was created, but that we wait until we are born to experience this world. Not long after this experience, I became a Christian. That happened only two years later.

Background Information:

• Gender: Male
• Date of NDE: 06/1997

NDE Elements:

• (GRAPHIC) At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes. My father was beating me, smashing my head into the corner of a wall. The corner was sharp. I remember seeing my blood on the corner and feeling it dripping down my face from where a gash formed after six to eight blows to my head. I remember everything going really dark...
• How do you consider the content of your experience? Entirely pleasant
• Did you feel separated from your body? I clearly left my body and existed outside it
• How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? I would say beyond the alertness I have on Earth because I could see things and hear things and do things in heaven that I couldn't even do here on Earth.
• I remember hearing and seeing farther than I ever could see here on Earth and seeing more colors and more details also.
• At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness? More consciousness and alertness than normal
• Were your thoughts speeded up? No
• Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning. The time I spent in heaven felt like months, yet I was not dead for long.
• Were your senses more vivid than usual? More vivid than usual.
• Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience It was as if I could see more colors, and some of the colors I could feel. I was able to see further and focus or zoom in on people really far away.
• Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience I could hear the creatures singing in every palace I visited in heaven. Compared to not being able to hear people 100 feet away, this was especially noticeable when Jesus was reciting the Bible, and I was about 300 feet away.
• Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere? No
• Did you pass into or through a tunnel? Uncertain. I only remember everything fading to darkness and then suddenly I was in heaven.
• Did you see any beings in your experience? I actually saw them
• Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased beings? Yes. Many of the Old Testament and New Testament people were there.
• Did you see or feel surrounded by a brilliant light? A light clearly of mystical or other-worldly origin
• Did you see an unearthly light? Yes. When I looked up at God's throne, it was brighter than the rest of heaven, and heaven was very bright.
• Did you seem to enter another world? A clearly mystical or unearthly realm. Heaven.
• What emotions did you feel during the experience? Awe, peace, and I felt loved. I was very happy.
• Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness? Incredible peace or pleasantness
• Did you have a feeling of joy? Incredible joy
• Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe? No
• Did you suddenly understand everything? Everything about myself or others. I saw my future when the Angel touched me, and remembered parts of that when I awoke from death.
• Did scenes from your past come back? No
• Did scenes from the future come? Explained earlier.
• Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure? Uncertain. I am unsure.
• Did you come to a border or point of no return? I came to a definite conscious decision to return to life. The angel asked me if I wanted to return, and I said, "Let God's will be done."

God, Spiritual and Religion:

• What was your religion prior to your experience? Do not know. When I was very little (5 years old), my parents stopped going to church. But I remember some of the Sunday school classes, events, and sermons still to this day.
• Have your religious practices changed? Yes. Two years after my experience, I was invited to go to youth group. Six months after the invitation, the pastor explained what God's love was from First Corinthians 13:4-8. The explanation was exactly what I felt in heaven. Although I did not recall the experience at that moment, I was astonished at how much God loved me and wanted to be His wholeheartedly.
• What is your religion now? Christian - Other Christian. Non-denominational Christian.
• Did your experience include features consistent with your earthly beliefs? Content that was both consistent and not consistent with the beliefs you had at the time of your experience. Well, at that time I did not know much about God or heaven. I knew that there was a guy named Jesus from my little experience with Sunday school. I knew that I had the Holy Spirit, as I experienced something when I was five when I decided to listen to the pastor. But I didn't know much. We didn't go to church for many years.
• Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? Yes. It wasn't right after because I did not understand it very much. But when the pastor explained God's love and I felt God's presence again, I knew that the two things tied together, and that changed my life.
• Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice? I encountered a definite being, or a voice clearly of mystical or unearthly origin
• The two angels who spoke to me were different compared to normal humans. They are very hard to explain because there is little that parallels them here on Earth. But I could tell that there was a hierarchy. The second angel was more decorated than the first.
• Did you encounter or become aware of any beings who previously lived on earth who are described by name in religions (for example: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.)? Yes. Jesus, David, Matthew, Thomas, and John. Michael the archangel was mentioned but not seen.
• During your experience, did you gain information about premortal existence? Yes. Wisdom and knowledge of future events in the lives of other people I directly encounter.
• During your experience, did you gain information about universal connection or oneness? No
• During your experience, did you gain information about the existence of God? Yes. Both Jesus and God were there.

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion:

• During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? Yes
• The whole time I was in heaven I felt this value, this worth, but I still felt unworthy before God. It was the love I felt.
• During your experience, did you gain information about the meaning of life? Yes. We are God's creation, his will for us is to be with him and him with us.
• During your experience, did you gain information about an afterlife? Yes. All the children who died too early, before they can decide to follow Jesus, enter heaven, specifically the place I first went.
• Did you gain information about how to live our lives? Yes. Jesus doesn't look like the drawings and pictures that every church has. He looked very rugged; his face had scars all over, especially across his forehead where a crown of thorns had been. It looked like he was beaten really badly. His hair was ragged, as if someone took a knife and chopped it off. He had fire in his eyes, and when he spoke, it resounded throughout the room that I was in when he recited the Bible. His cloak was white, and he had a golden sash that had characters written on it that I can't even understand. Just like the Bible says that there's a word written on them that no one else can understand.
• During your experience, did you gain information about life's difficulties, challenges and hardships? No
• During your experience, did you gain information about love? Yes. The love I felt there is far more than what I have experienced here so far. It permeates our bodies and is like the air we breathe here on Earth. The love I felt in heaven is much like that, as if it feeds me and keeps me alive.
• What life changes occurred in your life after your experience? Large changes in my life. After becoming a Christian at 12, I experienced a huge change. I used to be so jealous of my brother because he was favored in my family and would not be beaten like I was and not treated badly like I was. So I would beat him up when my parents were gone. When I became a Christian, the jealousy and the anger disappeared as if the sun had risen on a dark valley for the first time. When the pastor spoke about God's love and Jesus' love the night that I became a Christian, I felt that same feeling that I felt in heaven when I was 10. It was God's presence. That is what the love feeling is.
• Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? Uncertain. I am uncertain of this.

After the NDE:

• Was the experience difficult to express in words? Yes. There are things and details in heaven that I can't explain here on Earth because there's nothing to compare them to.
• How accurately do you remember the experience in comparison to other life events that occurred around the time of the experience? I remember the experience more accurately than other life events that occurred around the time of the experience. The memories are still so vivid. It's as if I could relive them. I can't really explain or tell much about what happened because there are no parallels here on Earth to compare them to.
• Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Yes, mostly things to do with my own body. I can tell it to change its temperature and give me energy. I also can tell it to numb pain.
• Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? There were five places in heaven. I had visited only three that I can explain. In the third place in heaven there was a little girl. That little girl now exists but is only 7 months old. I wonder what she will look like when she gets big, but I think I already know. I also feel that the place in heaven for all the children to go is very meaningful to me. I take comfort in knowing that God has a place specifically for the children who died too early. To me this shows how much God loves children just as it is explained in the Bible.
• Have you ever shared this experience with others? Yes. I have shared this testimony with others. Most react in disbelief even though they are Christians themselves. There are a few that do believe, mostly pastors. There are a couple of people I spoke to who also had a near-death experience and saw Jesus too. Two of those people described Jesus the exact same way I did: beaten, covered in scars, his hair chopped, and his face rugged. But there's a beauty there, though his eyes had fire in them. There is also love on his lips and peace in his countenance.
• Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience? No
• What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was definitely real. It took a while before I could remember my experience because shortly after I woke up from my seizure, I experienced 6 months of amnesia from the brain trauma. But afterwards, I was able to remember everything from my past before the traumatic experience all the way up to the beating and the experience in heaven, which at first I thought was a dream, although so vivid that I couldn't even explain that it was a dream.
• What do you believe about the reality of your experience now? Experience was definitely real. The clarity of the memory is clearer than the clearest childhood memories that I have. I have seen the angel in real life after my experience. There was specifically one time that I saw him standing in the archway in front of my mom and dad's room when I was 17. My dad was trying to break my arm because the family dog broke the screen door. I had just come back home from work and all I could do was cry because I saw the angel standing there. The angel told me to cry, then the angel followed dad into the room and dad closed the door. My dad stayed in the room for 3 days. He was unable to move. My mom helped him to his recliner and he sat there for another 2 days.
• At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? Yes. There were people that I saw in my future when the angel touched me, whose names I knew even though I had never met them. I remember meeting them at my old church: a mother and her child. I already knew their names when I met them, and they wondered how I did. Also, seeing the angel, as well as other angels here on Earth, is like reliving my past experience.
• Did the questions asked and information that you provided accurately and comprehensively describe your experience? Yes.
• Anything else to add? Not sure.

-Source