Charlotte Holmes from Wichita, Kansas claimed she experienced both heaven and hell after she was declared clinically dead for 11 minutes and then came back to life.
Holmes went for a regular, routine check-up with her cardiologist in 2019 when her blood pressure suddenly spiked.
Doctors believed she was either having a stroke or a heart attack and she was rushed to hospital and put on intravenous drip.
While medical professionals hurried to help her, Holmes began describing seeing and smelling beautiful flowers to her husband Danny, who had been right by her side throughout the ordeal.
Danny believed she was not ‘in this world’ at this time as he looked around the room to see no flowers whatsoever.
In an interview with The 700 Club, Holmes recounts: “I looked around at the beauty. I could see the trees, I could see the grass. And everything was swaying with the music because everything in heaven worships God.”
At this point, Holmes’ heart had stopped for a total of 11 minutes and she was declared clinically dead.
The grandmother said she couldn’t describe what heaven was like: “It’s so above what we can even imagine a million times.”
Holmes claimed that, as angels led her into heaven, she felt ‘no fear just joy.’ Then, she began to recognize familiar faces, which were her deceased family members.
The woman said: “I see my mom, I see my dad, I see my sister, I see my family members standing behind.”
She claimed that none of her deceased family looked sick or old; they looked in their 30s.
Behind her parents was a ‘light so bright’ she couldn’t look at it, but she believed this was the heavenly father.
Holmes also remembered seeing a toddler. At first, she was unsure who it was, but the heavenly father informed her that it was her child whom she had sadly lost.
“I lost that child,” she explained. “I was five-and-a-half months pregnant. I can remember them holding the baby up and saying, Charlotte, it’s a boy. Then he was gone.
“So when I [saw] this toddler, I said, ‘God, how is that possible?’ [And] he says, ‘They continue to grow in heaven.’”
It was at that point when God guided her to show her something final, he wanted to show her ‘the edge of hell.’
The Journal of Palliative Medicine says: “End-of-life dreams and visions can occur in wakeful or sleep states and typically manifest with clear consciousness. A common element reported by bereaved family members and clinical staff is the personal or spiritual solace provided by the dreams/visions for patients at the end of life.
“Clinicians have reported that whereas hallucinations frequently elicit anxiety or perplexity, ELDVs evoke peacefulness, comfort, and a sense of wonder. In addition, ELDVs help patients reconcile past life events and accept death.”
What Holmes described next sounds horrifying.
“I looked down, and the smell, and then rotten flesh – that’s what it smelled like – and then screams,” she recounted. “After seeing the beauty of heaven, the contrast to seeing hell is almost unbearable.”
“And He says, ‘I show you this to tell you, if some of them do not change their ways, this is where they shall reside.’”
It was at that point that Holmes was brought back to life. She said she felt like like her spirit was being drawn back to her body.
The grandmother went on to make a full recovery and was released from the hospital after a two-week stay.
She went gone on to share her story during public appearances and aimed to give others hope that there is a heaven.
“People need hope,” Holmes said. “They want to know that there really is something out there, they want to know that everything’s okay. Heaven is more than you can imagine.
“I can look you square in the eye and tell you for sure, heaven is real.”
According to The Ozark County Times, Charlotte Holmes passed away on November 28 last year at the age of 72 after suffering a heart attack.