3 Words Saved Him From a Demonic Creature

Excerpted from Jim Woodford’s testimony from Real Near Death Experience Stories.

Unless you’ve lived under a rock in a cave, I think everyone has heard of the tunnel of light.

But I never paid any attention to it. Suddenly I began to go forward toward this tunnel of light. As I went through the ring, I could see an immense distance. All of it was covered with a cloud that was golden, but there was a distinct path through the center. Once I realized what this was, it was as though I had pushed the throttles on an L-1011 forward to achieve V-1 on takeoff. (I’m a pilot by trade). I felt this tremendous force of speed. And I went at tremendous speed into this tunnel of light reclining backward about 45 degrees.

To give you an idea of the speed, I could feel and see the stars streaming by. I mentioned that in Baltimore one night, and there was a young guy in the front row and he said, “Sounds like the opening of Star Trek to me.” That’s a pretty good analogy. It was the stars streaming by. I was terrified because I’m a technical person, always understanding why things are happening, wanting to learn. But I was absolutely baffled. There was no rationale, no technical reason I could attach to this. The other thing that I remember vividly was that when you’re going fast, whether you’re in your convertible or in a speed boat or on your motorbike, you hear the rush of the wind. You hear the noise of the air. But right now? Nothing. Complete silence. And yet the sensation of tremendous speed.

I suddenly became aware of a bright light at the end of the tunnel that was even lighter than the tunnel. And as I came toward it, I decelerated and came upright. I found myself facing—I still don’t know whether to call it a door or a portal covered in mist. But I did know I had no choice because I sensed that the tunnel was closing behind me. And so, I stepped through this mist-covered portal and gingerly put one foot inside because I could not see what I was stepping onto. I felt something firm and brought my other foot in. I looked down as the mist started to clear and I was stunned because I was looking at the most perfect green grass I’d ever seen. Each blade was beautiful in its symmetry and its evenness. I now know what they mean by the grass is always greener on the other side. They’re talking about heaven.

The mist cleared in front of me. I looked up and to my right, where this beautiful mist was lifting off this field. The field was covered in flowers of so many colors—colors that I have no name for. I’ve traveled to 52 countries in the world. I’ve been to the most beautiful places, but nothing compared to this. I was stunned by the beauty of it and the rolling fields that seemed to go on forever and this beautiful vault of a darker blue sky than we’re used to here on earth—but no sun. As a pilot, I was trying to orient myself and I thought, “If I could find the sun, I’d know my southeast, southwest.” No sun. Everything seemed to generate a light that created this fusion of color.

I swung my vision to the left. As I left that beautiful vista on the right, the grass went from green to brown to black to scorched. I was really taken by looking for the technical reason. Why would there be this dichotomy between these two vistas? The darkness continued to the left and into what seemed to be a crevasse. I guess I’m just naturally inquisitive. I made a few tentative steps to the left to see what was beyond this chasm. As I looked down, it was as though the walls of this chasm were covered with a shiny black anthracite coal. The first thing I saw at the very pit of the bottom of this abyss was a fire, a red fire, like a glimpse of a campfire in a distant valley.

But I was caught by the difference. Not only that, there was a sense of gloom, a miasma, a sense of dread. I think ever since we crawled out of caves, we’ve always feared the darkness. I started to turn away from this, but then something happened—the fire became greater at the bottom. As I was looking down, two things happened. The brightness of the fire increased, and I realized that down and looking sideways, it was as though a large door had opened and I could hear a sound for the first time. The sound was the sound of two large doors being forced open on hinges that had not been oiled. You could hear them screeching and so on, just rusty. That flooded the view with more light, and I realized the light was coming from the side to the bottom.

Then, to my utter amazement, something shuffled out of that doorway. The doorway was huge and so was the creature that came out. I looked down on it, and it appeared to have a form—large, round. It was on fire. Its body was on fire. Its head was squat on the shoulders and it seemed to be searching around the bottom of this pit for something. Suddenly it was as though it became aware of me, and it swiveled its head around and looked up at me. And fellows, I can tell you something—the look of hatred that I saw in its glowing eyes, not just for me but for all of mankind, will stay with me forever. On top of that, there was an odor that came out of that pit, a sense of decay, a sense of all things bad. As I said, a miasma.

I turned because I couldn’t bear to look at it, but just the second before I turned, it began to scramble up the sides of that pit. Now, for its size—it was large—it moved with amazing nimbleness and crawled very rapidly up the side of that pit. And I scrambled backwards falling backward on my elbows, and it reared up out of the pit. I was confronted by this creature—body on fire, dripping saliva, and the most horrendous face. But the other thing was there was screaming, and the screaming was not coming from its mouth. The screaming appeared to be coming from within the body. It was as though this creature had consumed souls and they were crying out for mercy.

It stepped out of the pit and lumbered toward me. To keep my sanity, I scrambled to my feet and turned my back to it. Remember, I mentioned six words. I said the first three, “God, forgive me.” Now I turned toward the beautiful light and I raised both hands. This time I cried out the next three words, three words that I had never prayed in my life: “God, help me.”

Instantly, three points of light appeared in the beautiful cerulean blue sky, converging toward me. One was coming from about 90 degrees, the other one from about 260, and the other one from about 310, all converging into one. At the same time, this creature was behind me. And then, in addition to the screaming, I heard it speak my name. This creature knew me. It knew me. I wasn’t that bad of a person. I may not have gone to church, but what did I do to deserve this? All these thoughts were racing through my mind. I gave to the poor if there was a tax break, but what did I do to deserve this? And it had a strange voice. It was in between a growl and a whisper. And I could hear it saying, “Jim, we are here for you. We are here for you. Join us. Come to us.”

I honestly believe that had I turned at that moment and looked into its face, I would have been snatched, but instead I concentrated on this beautiful light coming toward me. All of a sudden, the lights fused together, and I was looking at this light traveling toward me and the light washed over me. At that point, I turned to look back. When that light struck that creature, it screeched and screamed in agony and scrambled backward like a rat running for cover. Darkness and evil cannot live in the light of God. It must stop playing in the light of God.