“Have you ever seen some­one die?” Ian McCormack asked the audience.

McCormack, orig­i­nally from New Zealand, came to Ferris from England on Sept. 24 to share his story enti­tled “A Glimpse of Eternity: Do Heaven and Hell Exist?”

The event, hosted by the Coalition of Mecosta and Osceola Community Churches, began with 20 min­utes of wor­ship. McCormack then took the stage and began his per­sonal story about death and eternity.

While div­ing for lob­ster off the coast of Mauritius, McCormack was stung on his arm by five adult box jel­ly­fish, also known as sea wasps.

“I had enough poi­son in my body to kill me 50 times over,” said McCormack. “Men stung by the box jel­ly­fish typ­i­cally die within the first three minutes.”

A local brought McCormack to the beach where he imme­di­ately col­lapsed. The local then instructed him to uri­nate on his arm, which he quickly did.

“The boy that brought me to the beach could see I was lit­er­ally dying right there in front of him,” said McCormack. “I began drift­ing into a place of sleep. I heard some­one tell me, ‘Son, if you close your eyes, you’ll never wake up again.’ I opened my eyes and there was absolutely no one around on the beach.”

McCormack’s body became com­pletely par­a­lyzed and necro­sis had begun to set into his bone mar­row by the time an ambu­lance arrived.

“I began to expe­ri­ence ‘death rat­tles’ and knew I was on the edge of death,” said McCormack.

On the way to the hos­pi­tal, his life began to flash before him.

“At this point of my life I was an athe­ist, but I knew I was nearly dead and I didn’t know if there was life after death or whether there was just noth­ing,” said McCormack. “I cried out to God and asked him to help me pray; for the first time in my life, I prayed from my heart and gave my life to the Lord.”

When McCormack arrived at the hos­pi­tal, he “died” for a period of 15 to 20 min­utes. During this time, he found him­self “in a very dark place, think­ing it was the hos­pi­tal” with the lights turned out.

McCormack went on to describe his expe­ri­ence of heaven, hell, and eter­nity. Among the things he wit­nessed were men’s voices scream­ing, beams of light, a long nar­row el, and God’s presence.

McCormack said God told him he could return to earth if he agreed to see things in a new light and to tell peo­ple about his per­sonal expe­ri­ences and God.

“I awoke in a morgue with an Indian doc­tor stab­bing my leg,” said McCormack. “I was a dead piece of meat open­ing my eyes.”

McCormack should have been par­a­lyzed for life and liv­ing on a machine after his encounter with the jel­ly­fish, but he asked God to heal his body.

“The power of God went through me like elec­tric­ity, healed me, and I walked out of the hos­pi­tal the next day,” said McCormack.

McCormack now trav­els around the world telling his tale of death and God, hop­ing to inspire both athe­ists and Christians alike. He is sched­uled to speak next in London on Sept. 29.

For more infor­ma­tion about McCormack’s expe­ri­ences, visit his Web site at aglimpse​ofe​ter​nity​.org.