A man who temporarily died after battling a bout of sepsis says he ‘saw Heaven’ and was taken to an unexpected place during his trip to the afterlife.
David Hanzel, 50, said that prior to his brush with death, he had - like many of us - often wondered what happens to us when we die. You can see him talk about the afterlife here:
However, the psychic medium reckons he now knows what’s waiting for us on the other side and it’s probably not quite what you were expecting.
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Hanzel, from North Carolina, was taken into hospital with a nasty lung infection and sepsis in September 2015 before ‘flatlining’ and slipping into a two-month long coma.
In an interview with the Daily Star, Hanzel said he had ‘no conception’ of his own death - but had previously believed he would suffer an early departure from this Earthly plane.
"I just remember closing my eyes because I was sick,” he told the publication. “And then when I opened my eyes back up, I was in this night sky.
"It was the most beautiful, velvety, silky night sky.
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"No clouds. No stars. No nothing. And there wasn't a beginning or end to it."
At this point, Hanzel became aware of two ‘beings’ that he says acted as guides for him as he attempted to navigate his new surroundings.
He went on: "All of a sudden one being was on my left and one on my right. They just felt comfortable. Like I knew them.
"They showed me that it was the most beautiful, golden-white light. It was so pretty and there were all these angels and everything going up into it."
And where did these beings take Hanzel to, you ask? The boozer.
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Yep, a pub - but we’re not talking your rough as a badger’s a**e type of local, this was more a sort of Heavenly bar.
"They had told me this later on, whatever your beliefs are or whatever you're comfortable with - this is what you're going to see first when you die.
"They put me in almost like a bar. It had these beautiful coloured bottles on the side. No alcohol or nothing."
No alcohol? Count me out.
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After visiting the pub, Hanzel says he felt himself walking easily up the side of a huge white 'marble' building.
"When you stepped, you didn't feel like your foot touched the ground. Like there's no gravity. It's kind of like you're floating and walking." he added.
And upon waking from his coma, Hanzel had an epiphany.
"I came back with total forgiveness for everybody who's ever done anything bad to me,” he said.
"I think it literally took dying to understand all those things and all about religion."
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Fair enough - so quite different from your average night in the pub then?
Claire Reid