A woman who claimed to have spent 11 minutes in heaven after a near-death experience revealed the extraordinary things she saw in the afterlife.
Charlotte Holmes was having a routine check-up with her cardiologist in September 2019 when her blood pressure suddenly spiked to a terrifying 234/134, with doctors informing her she was either having another stroke or a heart attack.
She was hospitalised as medics tried to stabilise her, while her husband Danny watched on helplessly.
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Recounting the moment he thought he was losing his wife, he told the TV show The 700 Club: "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."
As her condition continued to deteriorate, Charlotte began describing things which she could see, such as flowers - but as her husband surveyed the room and realised they're wasn't any, he came to a stunning realisation.
"That's when I knew she was not in this world," he said.
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His wife's heart had stopped and for the next 11 minutes, she was clinically dead.
However, according to Charlotte, she was looking down on her lifeless body from up above while watching doctors and nurses attempt to revive her.
"I could smell the most beautiful flowers I've ever smelled, and then I heard music," she recalled. "When I opened my eyes, I knew where I was. I knew I was in heaven."
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The mum, from Wichita, Kansas, explained she was greeted by sheer 'beauty' in every direction and watched on adoringly as 'everything swayed' along in time with the music she could hear playing.
"I can't convey to you what heaven looked like, because it's so above what we can even imagine, a million times," Charlotte said, explaining she was then led deeper into the afterlife by a group of angels.
"There's no fear, it's like pure joy when the angels take over," she continued. "I seen my mom, I seen my dad, I seen my sister, I seen family members standing behind.
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"I seen saints of old," the mum explained. "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."
Charlotte then revealed that she saw a toddler, which left her quite confused.
She said: "I can remember thinking, 'who is this?' And I heard my heavenly father say to me, 'It's your child.'
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"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'."
Charlotte then claimed that she was taken to a place that was the complete opposite of the paradise she had just enjoyed.
"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."
Detailing why she was taken there, Charlotte said: "And 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'."
She then described how she felt herself being 'drawn back into' her body, while Danny noticed her eye twitched.
Charlotte - who went on to make a full recovery and was released from hospital after two weeks - said: "I felt the pain, where I hadn't felt pain, I felt the sorrow."
Following her near-death experience, she decided to share her incredible story with others.
"People need hope," Charlotte said. "They want to know that there really is something out there, they want to know that everything's okay. Heaven is more than you can imagine.
"I can look you square in the eye and tell you for sure, heaven is real."
According to The Ozark County Times, Charlotte passed away on November 28, 2023, at the age of 72 after suffering a heart attack. She was survived by her husband of 52 years and their daughter Chrystal, as well as her grandchildren.
Olivia Burke