Pilot Spent 11 Hours in Heaven: ‘Nothing Was More Beautiful’
Successful airline pilot, Jim Woodford, had it all until he died. He then spent 11 hours in Heaven, and when he came back, he was changed forever.
In this excerpt, Jim tells you about his walk through the gardens of Paradise, experiencing the beautiful scenery of Heaven. His experience will give you a deeper understanding of what lies beyond…
What is Heaven like?
Heaven is like the earth, but ten thousand times ten thousand more beautiful and serene. The most grandiose vistas and scenery on earth are only vague hints of the beauty God has prepared for us in Paradise. The most unexpected aspect of Heaven’s landscape was that colors had sound and sounds had color, creating a sensory spectrum that overwhelmed my being with a sense of wonder.
Again, the commanding angel bowed to me in a gesture of invitation, saying, “Would you walk with us?” I nodded my head in acceptance. Then the angel turned gracefully and gestured with his arm the direction he wanted me to go. Now, with an angel on either side of me and the tall angel directly behind, they began to usher me into a landscape of unimaginable beauty. I was forgetting the tunnel and the pit that lay behind me and was totally present to those who attended my way.
Heaven, An Unexpected Journey
Jim Woodford with Dr. Thom Gardner
IMAX Vision
Heaven is not a globe or sphere, so there is no disappearing horizon in the landscape. Heaven is a continuous panorama expanding to infinity in every direction. Yet I could see features right in front of me with great clarity. It was as if the concept of distance was expelled from Heaven and eternity. Heaven exists in a spiritual dimension beyond our terrestrial experience. Things like colors, time, relative size, and distances are finite terms that are not really useful for describing the infinite nature of Heaven.
As I was walking along the pathway with the angels, there was a great augmentation of my ability to see not only what was before me but also in every direction at once. There was full peripheral vision on all sides, behind, and before without turning my head in any direction. It was more of a panoramic awareness. I’m at a loss to explain the level of clarity and awareness in Heaven. We see everything here in this life in mostly a surface, two-dimensional perspective. The vision in Heaven allowed me to see at greater depth. There was 360 degrees of vision that I can only compare to being in an IMAX theater with no limitation in depth or distance. It was as though I could see the single bloom of a flower on the side of a distant mountain, yet also see those sights directly in front of me at the same time. My eyes became as a microscope and telephoto lens simultaneously.
The Landscape of Heaven
Heaven’s landscape was punctuated with recognizable features like the appearance of mountains, trees, flora of all kinds, streams and brooks filled with brilliant blue, crystal water. All of the features of the surrounding landscape were filled with a bedazzling array of colors and sounds beyond any artist’s palette or composer’s manuscript, all laid out in a multi-sensory banquet under a brilliant blue yet sunless sky. In my estimation, the blue was a deeper blue than I was used to seeing in the sky. Not darker—deeper.
As we walked along, this simple woodland path surrounded with lush green grass appeared before me. Simple may not be the best description, as in fact it was a path of breathtaking, variegated color. There were blooms of flowers of dizzying variety bordering the path on both sides. Trees bedecked with iridescent leaves hung over the surrounding landscape we were walking through. I was on sensory overload and had to pause to take in the scenery with the angels on either side of me. They stopped to allow me to absorb what I was seeing. As I looked down at the flowers along the path, I was confused at first. It looked to me as though the flowers were all one mass of color. But I discovered, as I bent down, that the petals of every flower were translucent, like stained glass. The flowers were pearlescent. Each flower’s color merged with the color of the next, one beneath the other. There would be a red flower and beneath it was a yellow flower and then a blue flower and then the green with the stem. The appearance of the flowers reminded me of multi-faceted stained glass of every color melded together providing shades of known and yet indescribable varieties of colors and colors merging with other colors. I stopped to study them a little more closely. One of the angels saw that I was obviously transfixed and overwhelmed by the wonder of the flowers and smiled in delight. As we moved along slowly, the angels pointed out various aspects of this indescribable flora.
The flowers not only had color; they had sound as well. Accompanying the visual beauty was a concert of impromptu music created by the petals of the flowers as they were moved by the constant, gentle breeze that filled the landscape. There was a sense that the flowers sang an original and infinitely flowing melody without cadence or conclusion. I said to the Guardian, “Is that music?”
He said, “Yes, James, the flowers and all of Heaven are so happy you’re here. They are filled with joy. They are singing to you.” To me! The tall warrior angel described joy as living on the edge of a huge laugh motivated by a constant awareness of the presence of God. I cannot help but smile thinking about that definition. I experience that feeling even today as I recall my experience in Heaven.
There were also brooks or small streams of water there about three to four feet wide. They were not deep. The water was a brilliant blue. The pebbles that lay on the bed of the streams were golden in color. The water was lit from the bed of the stream with light ascending upward as rivulets of light danced on the surface of the stream. The water made sound as well. These streams also composed a spontaneous, tinkling musical offering that accompanied our steps through the landscape. The angel described these streams as the “living water of life.” I was told that these brooks fed into a larger central river that flowed beneath the sixth gate of joy into the city of Heaven. Every stream was connected to every other stream just as we are to one another. The flowers, the breeze, and even the streams all sang together creating a symphonic concert that resounded throughout Heaven’s landscape, flowing and cascading to the throne of God.
As I continued to examine the flowers, I bent toward them and the most wonderful fragrance came up from them. Like everything else I experienced in the garden of Heaven, I strain to compare it to what we have on earth. The fragrance could be compared to a memory of being surrounded by sweet-smelling jasmine flowers I experienced in the South Pacific or perhaps the smell of the incense burned during the Catholic mass I recall as a small boy. It was sweet and powerful in effect, yet not overpowering. It was the pervasive fragrance of love that permeated everything around me in Heaven. It was a scent that filled my senses and flowed along with the breeze. I turned to the angel on my left and I said, “They smell so beautiful.”
The angel said, “Yes, James, that is the scent of sanctity.”
Everything in Heaven reflects the love and nature of God, from the colors upon colors to the fragrance of the flowers to the constant serenade of music to the startling purity of the streams of water flowing through Heaven. The city itself is illuminated by the very presence of God. No sun nor moon nor stars—only the light of God and the Lamb. All things, every sensory input, inspired by and bearing the signature of God.
Eternal Light of Heaven
As a pilot for many years, I was first trained to orient my geographical position by use of the greater and lesser lights in the heavens. To my great surprise, there was no source of natural light in Heaven. There was no
sun, no moon, no stars or other celestial source. Everything, and I mean everything, was infused and bursting with the light of God. Light comes out of everything—from the grass and the flowers to the angels. Absolutely everything is filled with light and there is no darkness at all! Because light came from everything, there were no shadows. But imagine for a moment looking at scenery and there are no shadows of any kind. Everything in Heaven was revealed in a dazzling optical clarity. There is also no shadow of doubt or disbelief, no shadow of shame, no shadow of death. This all-pervading light is like the light of truth that banishes any shadow of falsity. There is no need for shade or shelter from a blazing sun because there is no sun. There is no need to hide from foul weather in Heaven. There is no weather. The light felt like the warm and gentle love of God. I can imagine that Heaven is rather like the Garden of Eden. Physically, the temperature was like a constant 72 degrees.
As I have shared this experience here and there, I have been asked, “Well, weren’t you allowed a period of rest in Heaven?” That would assume that somehow I was weary or tired. The simple answer is that it was not necessary like it is here on earth with all of our cares and worries and physical limitations. I was unaware of any pain or distress or fatigue of any kind. In fact, the only emotion carried to the precincts of Heaven is love. To my awareness, my body was more a blend of spirit and flesh and therefore there was no weariness or physical fatigue, yet I could move as I did in my earthly body.
Although I was not weary, there were along the pathway little alcoves or areas where one might pause for a meditative reflection—nests of quiet focus as a person might do at twilight or the end of a full day. These spaces were softly snuggled in the green and variegated flora and filled with the music of Heaven’s joyful greeting. Yet there is no end of the day and eternal light in Heaven. There is rest in the embrace of Heaven’s loving light.
Enthralled, I gathered in the sights and sounds of Heaven’s landscape that spread out before and around me in every direction. As we walked along we came to a large meadow in the midst of Heaven’s garden. It was bordered by a familiar sight that had been with me on earth for most of my life—a sight that was a delight to me and that made me feel as though Heaven and this precinct of paradise was created just for me. There were horses in Heaven!
Encounter the Glories of Heaven, the Terrors of Hell, and The Stunning Reality of the Unseen World!
When Jim Woodford died, he spent 11 hours in Heaven. When he came back, he was changed forever.
A successful airline pilot and businessman, Jim had it all—a loving family, substantial wealth, and all of the good things that come with it. But none of this was enough to satisfy the emptiness he felt in his heart. He always hungered for something more. And then he died.
Jim was never a religious man. When it came to matters of God and faith, he was ambivalent. But as he lay in the hospital bed, clinically dead for more than 11 hours, his consciousness was transported to the wonders of Heaven and the horrors of hell. When he returned to this world, he brought back the missing peace his soul had been longing for.
Join Jim Woodford on this unforgettable journey into the afterlife!
Awaken to the vivid sights, sounds, and sensations that you can enjoy in Heaven forever.
Be inspired by detailed descriptions of the “contrails of prayer” in Heaven’s skies, the “sticky love” of God, what it feels like to hug an angel, and more!
Encounter the chilling realities of hell, and the sharp claws of destruction that threatened to pull Jim into eternal darkness.
Take comfort in the “six simple words” that led Jim into the presence of Christ.
Whether you need hope for tomorrow or strength for today, this story is your invitation to a radical transformation!
