A California woman who considered herself a lifelong Catholic says a terrifying near-death experience completely changed her beliefs about God, hell and the afterlife. Kathy McDaniel, now 79, recalls being tormented for what felt like months in a demonic hellscape while her body was in a medically induced coma for 18 days in 1999.
However, after being 'blasted into heaven' and discovering what she believes is the true afterlife, McDaniel came to understand that the horrifying realm was not a punishment created by God, but a manifestation shaped by fear and the beliefs she carried with her. 'What I learned was that God is all-loving, all-forgiving, and would never condemn anybody. Anything that I was taught about God sending people to purgatory or to hell, it's not true,' McDaniel claimed.
The Medical Emergency
McDaniel was 53 when she suffered sudden lung failure due to pneumonia, which developed into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a life-threatening condition where the lungs become inflamed and fill with fluid. Despite doctors administering drugs to prevent memory during the coma, McDaniel had vivid recollections of encountering demons in a burning city while her spirit was taken into a realm of total darkness.
'I smelled something terrible, and then I started hearing shrieking and moaning coming out of this fog. I said to myself "this can't be good," then all of a sudden out of this fog came this booming voice that said "do you know where you are?"' McDaniel recounted. 'I said "I hope I'm wrong, but hell?" and the voice boomed back with his maniacal laugh.'
Encounters in the Dark Realm
McDaniel described in detail how demons tormented and attacked her, gave her impossible tasks to leave hell, and ultimately sent her into a frozen cabin with other broken women. She compared hell to a destroyed city with toppled buildings, fires burning, rubble everywhere, and people screaming. She heard metallic noises like a tank rolling by and saw crowds of ragged, lonely people saying, 'We are all alone here.'
In one episode, an ugly creature resembling a yeti offered her a way out. The demon brought her to a massive field of thorny blackberry bushes and told her to cut down all the thick canes with a pair of children's scissors. Desperate to escape, she tried, but the bushes grew back immediately, adding to her eternal torture. A female demon eventually led her to a cabin in a blizzard with other women in rags. When the demon said it was Christmas Day, McDaniel began singing 'Away in a Manger' and did not stop until she was transported to heaven.
The Heavenly Experience
Before returning to her body after doctors saved her life, McDaniel was lifted into heaven, where she met her former fiancé, Rick, who had died a month before her experience. She was filled with overwhelming love, joy, and bliss in a beautiful white place like a cathedral. Rick appeared as a younger version of himself, about 20 years younger than when he died at age 54, and told her it was time to return to Earth.
Years later, McDaniel began speaking with others who had similar journeys and now believes this heavenly journey was the real afterlife. She sees all humans as a small piece of God sent to Earth to learn from experiences.
Aftermath and Transformation
McDaniel, who had only a 38 percent chance of survival, experienced depression after the coma, haunted by the demons and questioning what in her life led her to that realm. 'I was unsure of what the hell that was all about. How did a good Catholic girl like me get thrown in hell?' she said in a December 2022 episode of The Other Side NDE. She kept her experience private for years, feeling nobody wanted to hear her story.
Eventually, she connected with the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), which dramatically changed her beliefs. After sharing her 'puzzle piece' with other near-death experiencers, McDaniel came to understand her vision as a manifestation of what she had been taught by the Catholic Church. 'I'm certain that I went to that place for one of a better word, it was a manifestation that I had because I believed I would. So there's been a lot of changes in the way I think, feel and believe,' she said. McDaniel now works with others who have had near-death experiences and has written about her experience in the book 'Misfit in Hell to Heaven Expat.'
