A man who died and “saw heaven ” has shared what the afterlife is like – and says he was taken to a very unexpected place.
Spiritual medium David Hanzel, 57, used to wonder about what happens after we die. Do we see the pearly gates, or is it more of a void?
Now David claims to be one of the few who can share an insight into the afterlife, saying he got a rare glimpse of the other side and “flatlined” while he was in hospital with a lung infection.
David, from North Carolina, explained that he was instantly in the place where he felt most comfortable, which for him was a pub.
But instead of being his local ale house, it was a brightly colourful boozer he’d never been in before.
David Hanzel has seen the afterlife
He said he was in a relaxing pub that was brightly coloured.
The self-styled ghost whisperer barely survived after a deadly bout of sepsis coupled with a lung infection ravaged his body in September 2015.
David explained to the Daily Star : “When they took me in, they had to do surgery. I had 70 per cent of my lung covered in infection and I had sepsis – it was running all through my body.”
On his “deathbed” aged 50, David’s pulse had essentially “flatlined” and he fell into a two-month-long coma.
He added: “I didn’t even know I was dead, I didn’t, I had no conception.”
David, who claims to be “an extremely psychic person”, had previously in life said he knew he was “going to die” prematurely.
What happens when we die is one of the big questions in life
But as the ghost whisperer was drifting off into an eternal sleep, he claimed to be greeted with a “beautiful afterlife”.
David said: “I just remember closing my eyes because I was sick. And then when I opened my eyes back up, I was in this night sky.
“It was the most beautiful, velvety, silky night sky.
“No clouds. No stars. No nothing. And there wasn’t a beginning or end to it.”
While in the ethereal world, the psychic said he wasn’t alone, and two “beings” acted as his guides.
He added: “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.”
He didn’t see any pearly gates
David has a unique insight
And it wasn’t the pearly gates which David saw. Instead, he claimed that it was a beautiful bar.
The ghost whisperer revealed: “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.”
After going to the pub, David said he walked effortlessly up the side of a skyscraper – like a scene out of Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
He added: “They sent me walking up a big white building. It was marble and had the most beautiful marble veins you’d ever seen.
“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.”
After waking up from his coma two months later, “healed” of all ailments, David had an epiphany.
He concluded: “I came back with total forgiveness for everybody who’s ever done anything bad to me.
“I think it literally took dying to understand all those things and all about religion.”