Decades after surviving a three-week coma, Kathy McDaniel remembers her journey through what she describes as hell and her eventual meeting with God. Speaking on the DEAD Talks Podcast, McDaniel shared her near-death experience in hopes of validating others who have had similar encounters.

In 1999, Kathy McDaniel, then 53, fell ill with a severe strain of influenza after caring for a friend in Seattle. She developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a life-threatening illness that occurs when lungs are severely compromised. She was placed in a medically induced coma and given a 38% chance of survival.

"I was coughing up blood... I could feel my life force draining out through my feet," McDaniel recounted, according to the Mirror. During her coma, she claimed that she journeyed through hell to meet God in heaven, experiencing events she remembers in detail.

McDaniel described waking up in darkness that gradually turned into a reddish glow, which she initially took for sunrise. "Then the voice boomed out, scared me half to death and it said, 'Do you know where you are?' I'm thinking, and the only thing I can come up with is hell," she said.

She found herself in various places, including a ruined city with collapsing buildings, a battlefield, and walking along a dirt road with nothing around but the occasional pile of rocks. Feeling pursued, McDaniel ran through the darkness, not caring where she would end up. She claimed to have encountered a creature she describes as a demon, who offered her a "way out" if she completed a gardening task: cutting back seven-meter blackberry bushes that kept growing back. "I remember saying, 'That's going to be too hard,' and then I saw my friend who had died the month before," she shared.

McDaniel recounted that her friend had reversed in age from 53 to 35 and looked nothing like he did on his deathbed. He informed her she had "too much left to do," and it wasn't long afterwards that she was "welcomed back to Earth." Following this encounter, she entered heaven, where she met God. McDaniel added that she did not feel pain or fear at that moment, only peace and understanding that she was home.

"God was not a man, but 'light and love,'" she stated. McDaniel said that God told her it was time to return. After her recovery, she claims that she found herself back in her body, realizing she had undergone an experience. "For me, it proves that it happened not in my brain, but in my soul—and the soul cannot be turned off," she insisted.

Raised in a Catholic family, McDaniel spent her childhood attending Catholic schools and Sunday church services. However, struggles and traumas, including divorce and the loss of a baby, led her to question her faith in God. The near-death experience reinforced her belief in the soul and the afterlife.

McDaniel told the podcast host that she recalls everything that happened so clearly that it cannot have been down to her imagination. "It's common, and is accepted now in the groups that I belong to, that if you're in a coma, your consciousness can wander off," she said. She mentioned that she had "no idea [she] was dead" during the experience and came across some of her living relatives during her journey.

Decades later, McDaniel shares her story to validate others who have had near-death experiences. She acknowledges that people who hear her story often deny it, believing that they "don't want it to happen to them." McDaniel hopes that by sharing her experience, she can offer insight and comfort to others who may have faced similar journeys.

According to a report by the Mirror, Scientific American claims that 5 to 10% of the general population are estimated to have memories of a near-death experience. Many people report having interactions with God and getting a glimpse of the afterlife.

McDaniel continues to recount her story, emphasizing that she never experienced a flatline, indicating that no physical death occurred. "If he's dead, and I'm standing next to him, I must be dead too," she said, reflecting on seeing her deceased friend during her experience.

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