Priest Who Saw Heaven Hell and Purgatory

Priest Who Saw Heaven Hell and Purgatory

THE PRIEST WHO SAW HEAVEN HELL AND PURGATORY

Fr. Jose Maniyangat is currently the pastor of St. Mary’s Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Macclenny, Florida. Here is his personal testimony: I was born on July 16, 1949 in Kerala, India to my parents, Joseph and Theresa Maniyangat. I am the eldest of seven children: Jose, Mary, Theresa, Lissama, Zachariah, Valsa and Tom.
At the age of fourteen, I entered St. Mary’s Minor Seminary in Thiruvalla to begin my studies for the priesthood. Four years later, I went to St. Joseph’s Pontifical Major Seminary in Alwaye, Kerala to continue my priestly formation. After completing the seven years of philosophy and theology, I was ordained a priest on January 1, 1975 to serve as a missionary in the Diocese of Thiruvalla.

On Sunday April 14, 1985, the Feast of the Divine Mercy, I was going to celebrate Mass at a mission church in the north part of Kerala, and I had a fatal accident. I was riding a motorcycle when I was hit head-on by a jeep driven by a man who was intoxicated after a Hindu festival. I was rushed to a hospital about 35 miles away. On the way, my soul came out from my body and I experienced death. Immediately, I met my Guardian Angel. I saw my body and the people who were carrying me to the hospital. I heard them crying and praying for me. At this time my angel told me: “I am going to take you to Heaven, the Lord wants to meet you and talk with you.” He also said that, on the way, he wanted to show me hell and purgatory.

HELL: First, the angel escorted me to hell. It was an awful sight! I saw Satan and the devils, an unquenchable fire of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, worms crawling, people screaming and fighting, others being tortured by demons. The angel told me that all these sufferings were due to unrepented mortal sins. Then, I understood that there are seven degrees of suffering or levels according to the number and kinds of mortal sins committed in their earthly lives. The souls looked very ugly, cruel and horrific. It was a fearful experience. I saw people whom I knew, but I am not allowed to reveal their identities. The sins that convicted them were mainly abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, hatefulness, unforgiveness and sacrilege. The angel told me that if they had repented, they would have avoided hell and gone instead to purgatory. I also understood that some people who repent from these sins might be purified on earth through their sufferings. This way they can avoid purgatory and go straight to heaven.

I was surprised when I saw in hell even priests and Bishops, some of whom I never expected to see. Many of them were there because they had misled the people with false teaching and bad example.

PURGATORY: After the visit to hell, my Guardian Angel escorted me to purgatory. Here too, there are seven degrees of suffering and unquenchable fire. But it is far less intense than hell and there was neither quarreling nor fighting. The main suffering of these souls is their separation from God. Some of those who are in purgatory committed numerous mortal sins, but they were reconciled with God before their death. Even though these souls are suffering, they enjoy peace and the knowledge that one day they will see God face to face.

I had a chance to communicate with the souls in purgatory. They asked me to pray for them and to tell the people to pray for them as well, so they can go to heaven quickly. When we pray for these souls, we will receive their gratitude through their prayers, and once they enter heaven, their prayers become even more meritorious.

It is difficult for me to describe how beautiful my Guardian Angel is. He is radiant and bright. He is my constant companion and helps me in all my ministries, especially my healing ministry. I experience his presence everywhere I go and I am grateful for his protection in my daily life.

HEAVEN: Next, my angel escorted me to heaven passing through a big dazzling white tunnel. I never experienced this much peace and joy in my life. Then immediately heaven opened up and I heard the most delightful music, which I never heard before. The angels were singing and praising God. I saw all the saints, especially the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, and many dedicated holy Bishops and priests who were shining like stars. And when I appeared before the Lord, Jesus told me: “I want you to go back to the world. In your second life, you will be an instrument of peace and healing to My people. You will walk in a foreign land and you will speak in a foreign tongue. Everything is possible for you with my grace.” After these words, the Blessed Mother told me: “Do whatever He tells you. I will help you in your ministries.”

Words cannot express the beauty of heaven. There we find so much peace and happiness, which exceed a million times our imagination. Our Lord is far more beautiful than any image can convey. His face is radiant and luminous and more beautiful than a thousand rising suns. The pictures we see in the world are only a shadow of His magnificence. The Blessed Mother was next to Jesus; she was so beautiful and radiant. None of the images we see in this world can compare with her real beauty. Heaven is our real home; we are all created to reach heaven and enjoy God forever. Then, I came back to the world with my angel.

While my body was at the hospital, the doctor completed all examinations and I was pronounced dead. The cause of death was bleeding. My family was notified, and since they were far away, the hospital staff decided to move my dead body to the morgue. Because the hospital did not have air conditioners, they were concerned that the body would decompose quickly. As they were moving my dead body to the morgue, my soul came back to the body. I felt an excruciating pain because of so many wounds and broken bones. I began to scream, and then the people became frightened and ran away screaming. One of them approached the doctor and said: “The dead body is screaming.” The doctor came to examine the body and found that I was alive. So he said: “Father is alive, it is a miracle! Take him back to the hospital.”

Now, back at the hospital, they gave me blood transfusions and I was taken to surgery to repair the broken bones. They worked on my lower jaw, ribs, pelvic bone, wrists, and right leg. After two months, I was released from the hospital, but my orthopedic doctor said that I would never walk again. I then said to him: “The Lord who gave me my life back and sent me back to the world will heal me.” Once at home, we were all praying for a miracle. Still after a month, and with the casts removed, I was not able to move. But one day while praying I felt an extraordinary pain in my pelvic area. After a short while the pain disappeared completely and I heard a voice saying: “You are healed. Get up and walk.” I felt the peace and healing power on my body. I immediately got up and walked. I praised and thanked God for the miracle.

I reached my doctor with the news of my healing, and he was amazed. He said: “Your God is the true God. I must follow your God.” The doctor was Hindu, and he asked me to teach him about our Church. After studying the Faith, I baptized him and he became Catholic.

Following the message from my Guardian Angel, I came to the United States on November 10, 1986 as a missionary priest… Since June 1999, I have been pastor of St. Mary’s Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Macclenny, Florida

Proof of Heaven

Proof of Heaven

Proof of Heaven by Dr Gary Scott Smith!

“Heaven is Real,” a Newsweek cover proclaimed. Renowned neurosurgeon Eben Alexander’s scientific world view had previously led him to view near-death experiences as having plausible scientific explanations. However, spending seven days in a coma convinced him that the afterlife truly exists.

Accounts of out-of-body encounters with the spiritual world have a long history. Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) wrote 25 books about his trips to heaven and hell. However, public fascination with the subject exploded after the 1975 publication of physician Raymond Moody’s “Life After Life”and cardiologist Maurice Rawlings’s “Beyond Death’s Door,” both of which featured dozens of accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs). These NDEs commonly involved feelings of being out of one’s body and of peace and quiet, meeting one or more “Beings of Light,” a life review, and a new perspective on life and death.

Numerous investigators stress the positive benefits of NDEs. Moody claimed that every subject he interviewed “had a very deep and positive transformation.” People lost the fear of dying and going to hell and love dominated their lives. They gained an intense appreciation for life, developed a deeper spirituality, and took more personal responsibility.

Mally Cox-Chapman maintains that NDEs produce an enhanced self-image, improved relationships, greater purpose in work, and a richer spiritual life. Moreover, many visions of heaven include joyful reunions with deceased loved ones, which help console those who long to see family and friends again. NDEs, she adds, send “the message we most need to hear” today: “forgiveness and unconditional love.”

In a runaway best seller — “Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back” — a 4-year-old gives an account of his trip to the other side. Nevertheless, the age and background of the boy who recounted his journey to his pastor father and the circumstances under which his near-death experience occurred led many to offer alternative explanations for his story.

Numerous scientists contend that NDEs are “caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, or drugs, or psychological stresses evoked by the fear of dying.” Skeptics insist that “drugs, oxygen deprivation … disassociation, temporal lobe stimulation, endorphin surge, anesthesia” or “even memories of birth” cause these experiences.

Eben Alexander argues that his account is more credible because his trip to the other side occurred while he was in a deep coma during which the human part of his brain, the neocortex, was inactivated. His higher-order brain functions were “totally offline.” Science cannot explain, Alexander asserts, how his “brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe.” Previously, he would have explained what he experienced as impossible.

He encountered the same dimension “described by countless subjects of near-death experiences and other mystical states.” No one else, however, had traveled to this celestial realm while his cortex was completely inoperative and his body was under meticulous medical observation, as Alexander’s was during his coma.

Alternative explanations of NDEs posit that they “are the results of minimal, transient, or partial malfunctioning of the cortex.” However, Alexander’s near-death experience occurred while his cortex shut down as documented by his CT scans and neurological examinations.

During most of his journey, a woman accompanied Alexander. She communicated three major points to him: “You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever;” “you have nothing to fear;” and “there is nothing you can do wrong.” This message filled the neurosurgeon with great relief. He concluded that he had been given “rules to a game I’d been playing all my life without ever fully understanding it.”

rt Einstein, was dominated by God’s unconditional love. The one place where people embraced his story, Alexander reports, is the church. Christians celebrated his conclusion that “we are loved and accepted unconditionally” by a “grand and unfathomably glorious” God.

Alexander emphasizes that he is still a neurosurgeon and a man of science, but he has been fundamentally changed. His life goal is now to help explain a new picture of reality which will show that the universe is “evolving, multi-dimensional, and completely known by a God who cares for us … deeply and fiercely.” Alexander has written “Proof of Heaven,” which Simon & Schuster will publish next month, to advance this quest.

Although Alexander’s account has been warmly received in his church, Christians have been among the most vocal critics of NDEs. They complain that many NDEs (like Alexander’s) portray a “magnanimous, understanding, all-loving,” “compassionate being,” who finds no fault with anyone, which clashes with biblical teachings about the nature of God and heaven. Christians also observe that people’s interpretation of their NDEs depended heavily on the concepts of the afterlife that are popular in different eras and cultures. Nevertheless, given the pervasive belief in the afterlife and most people’s desire to go to heaven, many will find Alexander’s account and argument both reassuring and inspiring.

Dr. Gary Scott Smith chairs the history department at Grove City College in Pennsylvania and is a fellow for faith and the presidency with The Center for Vision & Values. He is the author of “Heaven in the American Imagination” (Oxford University Press).