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A lifelong atheist who "died" for 50 minutes has opened up about what God showed her in the afterlife.
A woman named Riley Courtright was diagnosed with vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a severe subtype of a genetic connective tissue disorder, according to Cleveland Clinic.
The condition affects "how strong and durable certain tissues are in a person’s body, especially the arteries and organs," meaning people with the condition can bruise easily and face a high risk of dangerous internal bleeding.
Over an 18-month period, Riley says she died twice.
The first time happened at home after doctors told her there were no further treatment options.
The second occurred seven months before her interview on the Round Trip podcast, published in April, after Riley and her husband had moved to St. Thomas so she could spend what they believed would be her final days there.
"Dying is a funny thing because it all sort of happens at once, right? The moment that you realize your soul has left your body and that you're not a body with a soul, rather a soul with a body, right?" she said.
Riley described both experiences as a journey through what she called a cosmic wormhole, revealing that she reunited with deceased loved ones and heard otherworldly music and trumpets.
But she said her second experience was the most profound as she found herself directly in the presence of God.
"When I died, I instantly shot up to God. And there was no mistaking that's where I was," she told the interviewer. "He is bigger than the cosmos. I got to wrap my arms around his neck. I got to sit in his lap. I got to play by his ankles. I got to go with him to work."
"It felt like I got to watch him expand the universe. I got to watch him build the next Earth that we're all going to be on."
She said God allowed her to explore heaven and the Garden of Eden and travel through black holes and white holes.
"He explained it was it's everything. You get every bit of information that's ever existed in the universe all at once," she said.
Riley also claimed God told her he would give her a heart and lungs.
The woman told the interviewer that she suddenly returned to her body and woke up to her husband holding her cold body for about an hour and refusing to let medics take her.
"And when he was finally ready to let them take my body, he kissed me one last time, and I took a breath," she shared. "I went from being with God to [being] with my husband...and everybody's like shocked and terrified because they're like, what the f*** right?"
"The first breath that I took was the cleanest breath I've ever taken. There was nothing wrong with my heart anymore. My lungs were great. My kidneys, my liver. I was hungry," she continued. "I knew that I could get up and go to the bathroom... I had been healed, and I knew it."
Riley said she felt strong enough to run a marathon and was taken to the hospital for tests.
According to her account, doctors told her: "We can't explain this, but you look like a healthy 34-year-old. Like, your organs look good. We can't see the past trauma anymore from heart attacks, from strokes, or signs of internal bleeding. Like you're great.'"
She said doctors asked what they could do for her, but she declined treatment.
"I knew I wasn't meant to take medicine anymore. And so I said nothing," she added.
At the time of the interview, Riley said she was no longer an atheist and had been “healed” for seven months.
She shared that she could now do activities like yoga, ballet, and hiking, and revealed that she was able to eat more, a major change from the period when she relied on a feeding tube.
Riley also told listeners that her name has a special connection to her experience. She said God showed her a bundle of white lilies during her near-death experience.
Reflecting on how the experience changed her beliefs, she said: "I was an atheist, and I got to see God. So I also don't want people to be scared of this, like biblical telling or this Baptist telling of, you know, 'fear God' because God doesn't want to be feared. He wants to be loved, right?...His love is so unconditional."
