University professor 'died and went to hell' - 4 words saved him

HOWARD STORM DID NOT BELIEVE THERE WAS ANYTHING TO COME AFTER DEATH BUT HIS NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE LEFT HIM QUITTING HIS HIGH POWERED JOB AND TRANSFORMING HIS LIFE ELAINE BLACKBURNE Network

Content Editor 01:00, 04 Jun 2025 A man who "died and went to hell" has described what happened - and it is not what many believe. When asked to conjure up a picture of hell many

would put burning flames and screams of torture. However one man says he went to hell - but was saved thanks to four words. And he says it was nothing like people imagine but left him

defeated and in despair. Howard Storm was an atheist dad of two and professor and chairman of the art department at North Kentucky University in the USA when his life changed forever. He was

in Paris on a trip on June 1, 1985 when he felt a sudden pain that made him think he'd been shot. "It was like, right there, bang, the most acute pain I'd ever experienced in

my life," he said. He went to the hospital where he was told he had a perforation of duodenum and if he didn't have immediate surgery he would die. He said: "I didn't

want to die because I knew with 100% certainty that when you die, that's it, it's over. The screen goes black, like in the movie theatre, you know? Says "the end,"

blackness, nothing. Article continues below "I was 38 years old. I had a wife. I had two kids. I had a good job. I had a career. I had art galleries showing my work. I was winning

prizes. You know, I was making money. This is not right. This is not time for me to die. "I woke from unconsciousness, and I was standing next to the bed, and I felt wonderful, better

than I ever felt my whole life. And I noticed that the big, dead lump in the bed was me. "But I couldn't accept that, because it's not. I mean, that's impossible. Then I

heard people outside the room calling me by name in English, which I thought was weird because everybody in the French hospital spoke French. "And they said, 'Hurry up. We've

been waiting for you. We know everything. We've been waiting and waiting, and it's time for you to come with us'. So I assumed, since I had mentioned the doctor, that they

were gonna take me to the doctor. "So I left the light of the room and went out into the very grey, dank hallway, where there was this group of people that stayed back in the darkness

away from the light of the room. He said he was led down what he first thought was the hallway. He said: "We walked for miles, and miles, and miles, and we never went up or down. They

encircled me and just shepherd me into ever-increasing darkness. It started off with them being very officious. Like, 'This way, keep moving, hurry up'. That evolved into,

'What's the matter with you? Move, move faster. You're too slow'. That became vulgar. "And then it became clear that they were gonna have at me. They began by

kicking, punching, pulling. Then they started biting, and ripping, and tearing. And then they started invading me physically. So eventually, I was completely torn apart, lying on the ground,

unable to even move or defend myself in any way. "I'm completely defeated, completely depressed and despair. And I couldn't think of any way out. This is it forever, and

ever, and ever with these horrible people. "And I heard a voice say, 'Pray to God'. And I thought, I don't believe in God, I don't pray. And the voice said,

'Pray to God,' kind of strong. And I thought, I don't know how to pray. I can't pray." He said the voice became louder and said, 'Pray to God'. He said he

mind went "involuntarily" to him as a little boy in a Sunday school singing "Jesus Loves Me". He added: "I could see it vividly. I could hear it vividly. But much

more importantly, I could feel it vividly, that as a little boy, when I sang "Jesus Loved Me". He added: "I believed in him as a little boy. That's why when I was 12, I

wanted to get baptised 'cause I wanted to know him. "And when that happened, I decided that I needed to take a chance 'cause I didn't know whether he would care about me

or not. As far as I was concerned, his best option would be to leave me there. And I called out to him, 'Jesus, please save me'." He said at that point a "tiny

light" appeared in the darkness and got very bright. He explained: "It came upon me. It was impossibly brilliant. "If it had been light as we experience light in this world,

it would have consumed me. I mean, I just would have been burnt up. But it was that bright. Out of it emerged hands and arms, and he reached down and touched me, and I saw myself come back

together from the roadkill that I was. You know, I became complete. "And much more important to me was that he filled me with the love that I never experienced in this world. And his

hands and arms picked me up without any effort, and he brought me up against himself, and put his arms around me, to stroke my back like a mother or father would with their child. And I

cried out of joy into his chest, slobbering all over him. "The people who took me into that place of darkness were people just like me. They were people who had rejected God, rejected

God's love, and God gave them exactly what they wanted. "I don't believe God punishes anybody. I believe God gives everybody exactly what they want. The Bible says humans

judge by appearances, God judges by the heart, and if we seek God and seek God's love, we will find it in this world and in the next. "And if we reject God and reject God's

love, we get to go to a world where those things don't happen. And I don't mean this as a joke. I mean this absolutely sincerely. "Hell's not so bad. The problem is the

people that are there. They're awful. They're really awful. There's nothing to do there except torment one another, so Hell is a place of continuous torment. It's a place

of complete hopelessness and despair." The former professor told his story in the Lee Strobell movie "The Case for Heaven" which can be seen on YouTube. His experience

impacted him so greatly that he resigned his position at the university - his tenured professorship and his role as chairman of the art department - and became a pastor at a small church.

Article continues below Lee Strobell speaking in the film added: "That's some evidence that this was more than just some loose hallucination. There was something profound that

happened to him, something that chilled him to the bone."