Woman who was clinically dead for 15 minutes vividly describes 5 years she spent in heaven
If you've ever wondered what heaven is like and not really bought into Belinda Carlisle's claims that it's a place on Earth, then your best bet would be to ask someone who's been there.
The only problem with that is that passing St Peter's entrance exam and heading through those pearly gates tends to be a one-way trip, so you don't get a lot of people coming back to talk about it.
On 6 May 2001, Dr Linda Kramer went to the toilet in the early hours of the morning and felt like she was going to sleep, but was actually experiencing what would have been a far more final rest than a simple slumber.
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She was later told she'd been pronounced medically dead for about 15 minutes, and in that time while she was being treated by paramedics, she said she felt like she'd been in heaven for five years.
Explaining that 'time did not exist' as we would perceive it, she said she figured out how long she'd been in heaven by working out how far she had travelled through this world she now found herself in.
Guessing that she could walk at a rate of about three to six miles per hour in real life, she used that to chronicle time as she moved around heaven.
While in heaven Dr Linda found that she could assume any form she wanted and even become other people she met, while the place itself was full of visually striking features.
She said: "That's when I found myself standing in what I termed the field of flowers. I was observing the mountain range 30,000 times huger than Mount Everest.
"There's a huge mountain range over in the back of wherever I was. I could see buildings with skyscrapers. Dubai is like little miniature hut in comparison. I saw lakes, I could see everything in a panoramic view."
"So I'm there interacting with people, talking to people, becoming them."
If she wanted to be somewhere, she thought about being there and felt instantly transported to that place, meaning she felt she was able to appear atop mountains and at other locations seemingly at will.
Others who have been clinically dead for a period of time and come back claim to have seen visions of the afterlife, with one woman writing out the message 'it's real' and pointing up towards heaven.
Another man says he met the devil after being stabbed in the heart before being dragged out of hell by an angel after praying for the first time in his life while doctors fought to save him on the operating table.
However, a scientist has said that life after death just isn't possible as consciousness persisting after death ispretty much impossible, meaning that once you're gone for good, that really is the end.
Joe Harker