I was once an atheist - these stories have convinced me that heaven AND hell are real

A self-proclaimed atheist set out to disprove God's existence, only to become a Christian who has since dedicated his life to the faith.

Lee Strobel, the former legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, experienced a near-fatal health crisis that led him to see the light.

Strobel's wife found him unconscious on the bedroom floor and rushed him to the hospital, where he was told he was 'two steps away from dying' before going unconscious again. 

While lying in the hospital bed, Strobel found himself 'hovering over that blurry line between life and death.' The experience sent him on a hunt to find out if death was truly the end or a new beginning.

'It caused me to dig a little deeper,' he told the Christian Broadcasting Network. 'And I was really kind of surprised by several things I discovered, because they really do … in an unexpected way … corroborate what the Bible tells us about the afterlife.' 

He met with dozens of people who claimed to have had near-death experiences, including a man who said he went to hell after dying and was torn apart by demons. 

'[These are] people who are clinically dead and yet their consciousness, their mind, their spirit, their soul continues to exist and see things and experience things that are impossible if, indeed, they weren't having an authentic out-of-body experience,' he said. 

One account came from Ian McCormack, who was stung by a venomous jellyfish while in the middle of the ocean, saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel and came back to tell the tale.

This story was chronicled in Strobel's new book 'Seeing the Supernatural,' in which he spoke to experts, researchers, and survivors to understand the mysteries of these out-of-body incidents.

'I was a skeptic about near-death experiences until I found out we have 900 scholarly articles that have been written and published in scientific and medical journals over the last 40 years,' Stobel told CBN.

Saw a light at the end of the tunnel 

McCormack was scuba diving in New Zealand when he felt a sharp stick, realizing he had been stung by a deadly box jellyfish.

'I'm too young to die, why did I go diving? What an idiot, I should have stayed at home,' he thought to himself.

At the moment, McCormack saw a vision of his mother, who told him: 'No matter how far from God you are, no matter what you've done wrong, if you cry out to God from your heart, he will hear you and he will forgive you.'

However, McCormack wasn't the only one having a vision during this ordeal. He claimed his mother told him she also had a vision of his impending death and began to pray.

The diver then said 'an incredible peace' came over him, as the fear of death left his body.

Before he was saved by those near the scene of the jellyfish attack, McCormack added he was 'drawn' into a tunnel by a bright light - but claimed he had to return to Earth for his mother's sake.

The near-death experience (NDE) was so profound that it convinced the atheist from New Zealand to become a pastor.

However, neuroscientist Dr Jane Aspell explained that it could be caused by damage to a vital part of the brain responsible for processing senses and balance. 

It could explain why those who have come close to death, taken drugs or suffered from a brain injury are among those who have reported out of body experiences.

Such accounts have detailed cases of sufferers floating above their body that is lying down beneath them just after a traumatic event or accident.

However, some of these encounters with unexplainable forces have led even the most 'hellbent' individuals to spiritual enlightenment.

Ripped apart in hell 

Howard Storm was a professor of art at Northern Kentucky University when he 'died' due to a stomach ulcer that perforated his duodenum.

He was still in the hospital when he found himself having an out-of-body experience, standing next to his own bed and following friendly visitors.

However, the visitors in Storm's vision became rude and hostile - punching, kicking, and tearing the dying man's body apart.

'There has never been a horror movie or book that can begin to describe their cruelty,' Storm declared.

'Eventually, I was eviscerated. I definitely lost one of my eyes, my ears were gone, and I'm lying on the floor of that place,' he recalled.

'So, now I have eternity - time without measure - to think about my situation. Because I had lived a garbage life, I had gone down the toilet,' the atheist professor confessed.

Storm said he realized that the visitors who attacked him in his vision were his 'kindred spirits' - people who had denied God and only lived for themselves.

'I wasn't far from becoming like one of my own tormentors for all eternity,' Storm said.

Then, Storm called out for help and a light appeared which was 'brighter than the sun' with arms and hands that reached out to him.

The art professor said that when the arms of light touched him, all of the pain of his life melted away. 

'If I took all my experience of love in my entire life and could condense it into a moment, it still wouldn't begin to measure up to the intensity of this love that I was feeling,' Storm explained.

When Storm recovered from his ulcer, he resigned as a professor, and became the pastor of a small church.

Gaining impossible knowledge 

Strobel's book also delved into some of the 'impossible' knowledge near-death patients gathered as doctors worked to bring them back to life.

Researcher Kimberly Clark Sharp described the story of a patient named Maria who saw something that should been physically out of reach during her near-death experience.

Published in the Journal of Near Death Studies, Sharp revealed how Maria was dying from a heart attack at the time where she claimed to have seen a blue shoe on the ledge of a hospital window in another room.

When Sharp went to check on the location of the shoe, she found it just as Maria had described.

Sharp described Maria's impossible knowledge as a 'an out-of-body experience while flatlining.'