Three survivors of afterlife experiences share urgent messages from the other side in a first-ever joint interview with Randy Kay.
What happens when the heart stops, the body falls away, and something else begins? For Mark Nelson, Julie Bonn Blank, and Lori Peterson, that question isn’t hypothetical. Each of them crossed into eternity and returned—and for the first time, they sat down together to tell the world what they saw, heard, and were sent back to say.
The Man Who Died on Easter Weekend
Mark Nelson’s story reads like a battlefield report. In 2008, he spent 22 days in a coma while his body—ravaged by AIDS and failing organ by organ—became the site of a supernatural war.
His mother, trying to pray over him in the ICU, was physically thrown backward. She heard a voice say, “Get away from him. He’s mine.” Days later, a nurse no one had ever seen before—and no one ever saw again—untied Mark’s restraints against medical orders. He convulsed, pulled his life support out, and was clinically dead for 22 minutes.
In the darkness that followed, with his sins playing back before him and millions of voices pressing in, Mark did the only thing left to do. He said one word.
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“When I said Jesus, I heard the Savior of the world say, ‘I’m here,'” Mark recounted. “And at that very moment, I saw with my eyes the wind of the Holy Spirit. I’ve never seen wind before, Randy, but on this day, I saw wind. It blew in with such power that it shook the room.”
Within days, every scar on his lungs had vanished. There was no medical evidence that his organs had ever failed.
The Little Girl Who Met Jesus at Five
Lori Peterson’s encounter is the oldest on record in the room—1965, at age five, after a fall that should have ended her life. She woke up somewhere else entirely.
“I call it the white place,” Lori said. “It was white all around. The floor was kind of radiating light. Everything was light—up above me, on all sides. And the Lord Jesus was there.”
She wanted to stay. Instead, on the journey back, God showed her something she would carry for decades: a map of the Middle East, portions of it burned away, with a divine warning that what was coming would be “worse than anything that has ever happened before or will happen since.” Two years later, the Six-Day War broke out.
Lori has moved in prophetic intercession ever since, including a dream the night before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that she later understood as a commission to pray for the hostages.
The Writer Outfitted for War
Julie Bonn Blank’s encounter came in August 2024, when an allergic reaction stopped her heart in the back of an ambulance. She went up twice—and came back with specific orders.
In her second visit, she met Jesus in a meadow. “He completely outfitted me with armor,” she said. “I got a lightsaber that was better than any Star Wars lightsaber you’ve ever seen. A chest plate that had the verse on it: ‘No weapon against you will prosper.'”
His commission was clear: “Bring hope and healing to my people.”
Julie also returned with urgency about time. “He hasn’t come because we’re not ready yet for him to come,” she said. Every person still here, she explained, has a purpose only they can fill — shaped not just by personality or spiritual gifts, but by trauma, childhood, strengths and fears. “He makes [it] into this specific package that nobody else can make up.”
One Message, Three Voices
When asked to summarize their afterlife encounter in a single sentence, each survivor pointed in the same direction.
Mark: “Time is limited here on earth and we have to get our houses in order.”
Lori: “Keep your eyes on the Lord. Seek him while he can be found. It’s not about religion—it’s about the person of Jesus.”
Julie: “If your traumas are keeping you from moving forward into your purpose, those are the very things He wants you serving in.”
Three lives. Three encounters. One Jesus—still saying the same three words that brought Mark back from 22 minutes in the dark: I’m here.
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the upcoming book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
