A woman who "died for 11 minutes" explained the extraordinary things she "saw in the afterlife."
Charlotte Holmes, from Wichita, was undergoing a routine check-up with her cardiologist in September 2019 when her blood pressure soared to a dangerous 234/134.
Doctors warned her she was likely suffering either a stroke or a heart attack.
She was quickly hospitalized, and as medical staff worked to stabilize her, her husband Danny could only watch, fearing the worst.
Recalling the terrifying moment on the TV show The 700 Club, Danny said: "Immediately, they call this code and everybody started rushing in. They just started working on her, and I thought, well, I'm wondering if I'm even going to be able to bring her home."
For 11 minutes, Charlotte's heart had stopped, and she was declared clinically dead. But according to her, during that time, she was experiencing something far beyond this world.
"I could smell the most beautiful flowers I've ever smelled, and then I heard music," Charlotte recalled. "When I opened my eyes, I knew where I was. I knew I was in heaven."
It was then that Danny realized something profound was happening. "That's when I knew she was not in this world," he said.
Describing the afterlife, she spoke of overwhelming beauty and how everything around her seemed to move in harmony with the music she heard.
"I can't convey to you what heaven looked like, because it's so above what we can even imagine, a million times," she explained, saying she was then escorted deeper into heaven by a group of angels.
"There's no fear, it's like pure joy when the angels take over," she continued.
During her experience, Charlotte claimed to have seen her parents, sister, and other family members.
"They didn't look old, they didn't look sick, none of them wore glasses. They looked like they were in their 30s. Yet it says in the scriptures, 'we will be known as we were known'. I knew them there in their new bodies. They looked wonderful."
One of the most striking moments, according to Charlotte, was when she saw a toddler, whom she did not initially recognize. "I can remember thinking, 'who is this?' And I heard my heavenly father say to me, 'It's your child.'"
She then recalled a deeply personal memory: "I lost that child. 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 seen this toddler, I said, 'God, how is that possible?' He said, 'They continue to grow in heaven - but there's no time, it's eternity.'"
However, Charlotte’s experience wasn’t confined to heaven. She claimed that she was then shown a vision of hell, which was in stark contrast to the beauty she had just witnessed.
"God took me to hell, and I looked down and the smell, and the rotten flesh - that's what it smelled like... and screams," she explained. "After seeing the beauty of heaven, the contrast to seeing hell is almost unbearable."
According to Charlotte, she was shown hell as a warning.
She said: "He says, 'I show you this to tell you, if some of them do not change their ways, this is where they shall reside.' I heard my father say, 'You have time to go back and share.'"
Following this, Charlotte said she felt herself being "drawn back" into her body, and at that moment, her husband noticed her eye twitch.
After 11 minutes of being clinically dead, Charlotte was revived. She eventually made a full recovery and was released from the hospital two weeks later.
Tragically, Charlotte Holmes passed away on November 28, 2023, at the age of 72 after suffering a heart attack.
She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Danny, their daughter Chrystal, and her grandchildren.
