I was sent to hell while dying from organ failure. Demons tortured me in unimaginable ways... then I discovered the truth about the afterlife
A California woman who considered herself a lifelong Catholic said a terrifying near-death experience completely changed her beliefs about God, hell and the afterlife. Kathy McDaniel said she was tormented for what felt like months in a demonic hellscape while her body was in a medically induced coma for 18 days in 1999.However, after being 'blasted into heaven' and finding the true afterlife, McDaniel said she came to believe the horrifying realm was not a punishment created by God, but a manifestation shaped by fear and the beliefs she carried with her.McDaniel claimed: 'What I learned was that God is all-loving, all-forgiving, and would never condemn anybody. Anything that I was taught about God sending people to purgatory or to hell, it's not true.' McDaniel was 53 years old when she suffered sudden lung failure brought on by pneumonia, which turned into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a life-threatening condition where the lungs suddenly become inflamed and fill with fluid.Despite doctors giving McDaniel drugs that were supposed to prevent her from remembering anything during the coma, McDaniel claimed she had vivid memories of encountering demons in the ruins of a burning city while her spirit was taken into another realm of total darkness.She said: 'I smelled something terrible, and then I started hearing shrieking and moaning coming out of this fog. I said to myself "this can't be good," then all of a sudden out of this fog came this booming voice that said "do you know where you are?"' 'I said "I hope I'm wrong, but hell?" and the voice boomed back with his maniacal laugh.' Kathy McDaniel (Pictured) said what she was taught as a Catholic left her misinformed about God and the afterlife McDaniel suffered sudden lung failure in 1999 after contracting pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and was placed in a coma for 18 daysMcDaniel remembered in detail how demons tormented and attacked her, gave her impossible tasks to leave hell, and ultimately sent her into a frozen cabin with other broken women.Before returning to her body after doctors saved her life, however, McDaniel said she was lifted into heaven, where she met her former fiancé, Rick, who had died just a month before her experience.McDaniel was suddenly filled with a feeling of overwhelming love, joy and bliss. She found herself in a beautiful white place that seemed like a cathedral.She then said Rick appeared to her as a younger version of himself, possibly 20 years younger than when he died at age 54, and told her it was time to return to Earth.Years after the near-death experience, McDaniel said she began speaking to others who had similar journeys and believes this journey into heaven was the real afterlife, as all humans are a small piece of God sent to Earth to learn from their experiences.McDaniel, now 79, described what she thought was hell as a destroyed city in ruins, with toppled buildings, fires burning, rubble everywhere and people screaming all around her.She also heard metallic noises like a tank rolling by and saw crowds of ragged and lonely people saying, 'We are all alone here.'McDaniel, who had only been given a 38 percent chance of living before her near-death experience, then entered a strange beauty parlor where a group of vain individuals tried to fix her hair before laughing at her cruelly. McDaniel compared hell to a burning city but claimed that she manifested this reality based on what she had been taught by the church (Stock Image) McDaniel said her experience sent her into depression for years and forced her to evaluate for Catholic upbringingAs she encountered more demons in this dark realm, McDaniel said in a 2022 interview, she remembered being approached by an ugly creature that resembled a yeti and offered her a way to leave hell.McDaniel said the demon brought her to a massive field of thorny blackberry bushes and was told to cut down all of the thick canes with a pair of children's scissors.Desperately seeking an escape, she tried to cut through the field, but the blackberry bushes would immediately grow back as soon as McDaniel removed one, adding to her eternal torture. Read More I plunged into hell while dying. The devil tortured me in the most heinous way... then God arrived She explained how a female demon eventually led her to a different realm after what felt like 'long months' in hell, where she was placed in a cabin in the middle of a blizzard with other women who were dressed in rags.After the demon told McDaniel it was Christmas Day in the real world, she started singing the carol Away in a Manger and would not stop until she was transported to heaven, where she was reunited with her former fiancé.After saying that, Rick told her she still had 'too much left to do' while in heaven, McDaniel woke up from her coma, surrounded by family who said they had been praying for her survival.However, McDaniel said the experience sent her into a depression as she was still haunted by the demons she had seen and questioned what in her life would lead her to such a realm.'I was unsure of what the hell that was all about. How did a good Catholic girl like me get thrown in hell?' she said in a December 2022 episode of The Other Side NDE.McDaniel added that she kept most of her experience private for years, claiming that 'nobody wanted to hear my story, they got too upset,' and questioned if she had committed some sort of sin which led her to hell.However, McDaniel said she eventually connected with the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), which changed her beliefs about the afterlife and religion dramatically.After sharing her 'puzzle piece' with other near-death experiencers, McDaniel claimed that she had a better understanding of what had happened while she was in a coma, calling her vision a manifestation of what she had been taught by the Catholic Church. 'I'm certain that I went to that place for one of a better word, it was a manifestation that I had because I believed I would. So there's been a lot of changes in the way I think, feel and believe.'McDaniel now works with others who have had near-death experiences and has written about her experience in the book 'Misfit in Hell to Heaven Expat.'
