IAN McCORMACK (The jellyfish man)
Ian was night diving off the island of Mauritius in 1982, when stung by 5 box jellyfish [also known as the marine stinger or sea wasp and a single box jellyfish can contain enough poison to kill up to 60 adults] Scientists quote this particular type of jellyfish as being amongst the most venomous creatures in the world and a single sting can prove fatal.
Ian, born in New Zealand was into a 2 year adventure travelling around the world surfing, diving, partying, womanising and having fun. An atheist who explored Eastern religions. "Although my own Mother was a Christian, I thought this was something old people were involved in, for grandmothers and old ladies.
"Whilst night diving in a light wetsuit with some local Creole fisherman, I saw an unfamiliar shape and then felt something smash into my forearm which felt like volts of electricity. My whole arm began swelling to double its normal size and the blistering hit me like burn blisters. I could feel the toxin quickly moving up my bloodstream into my lymph glands. By the time I got back to the small boat, I had been stung 5 times. I felt this was the end. I wondered what I had done in my life to deserve this kind of punishment". Stung by 5 box jelly fish and just one can kill a person in just 15 - 20 minutes depending on where they are stung. If stung across the throat it can be as quick as 4 minutes. "I was not ready to die. The fisherman recognised the attack and told me, one of these will kill you and you need to get to the hospital immediately. When I saw the black rastafarian turn white, I knew I was in serious trouble.
"They dragged me onto the fishing boat and told me to urinate on my arm. One of the fisherman took me ashore and helped me try to remove my wet suit which I felt was restricting my breathing and change into normal clothes. At the beach I collapsed and the boatman dragged me up to the main road to get help. I experienced in my forearm what felt like thousands of volts of electricity and I was thankful I had smeared Vaseline petroleum jelly on my forearms and face which had offered some protection and helped prevent the tentacles from sticking to my skin. I was now alone and needed to get to hospital urgently, and somehow managed to stop a taxi. The Indian taxi driver thought I was on drugs or drunk or both and when he realised I had no money, took me to a local hotel and dumped me in the carpark. The Chinese proprietor also refused to take me in his car, thinking the marks on my arm were from overdosing on heroin. Time was precious and I knew it was probably too late. A security guard who happened to be a drinking buddy, saw me and rang for an ambulance.
"My whole right hand side was now paralysed and by the time an ambulance came to my rescue, I was completely paralysed and necrosis had started to set into the bone marrow [the death of bone marrow tissue]. My body went through the death rattles, it was frightening. As I was wheeled into the hospital I saw my life flash before me. My Mother appeared in a clear picture in front of me on her knees, praying. I didn't realise that back in New Zealand my Mother was given a clear vision of my face, and told 'your eldest son Ian, is nearly dead, pray for him now'. I saw this while I was in the ambulance. I felt her say to me 'call out to God. No matter how far from God you are son, He will forgive you. Call out from your heart'. I thought to myself, I don't believe in God, it's too late for me. How could He forgive someone like me? But I remembered my Mother, a woman of faith. In that moment, I began to wonder... What if she was right? What if there really is a God? 'God if you're real' came the prayer from my heart, 'help me remember the prayer my Mother taught me as a child. If there is anything soft or good left in my heart, please help me remember the Lords prayer'. Before my eyes the words appeared, forgive us our sins and others who have sinned against me. I thought well I can do that, but then God showed me the faces of 2 people I had difficulty forgiving from my heart. One of the faces was the Indian taxi driver who had pushed me out of his taxi. That was not easy! But I chose to forgive them knowing first God had forgiven me. The peace that came in that moment has never left me.
"I knew in that moment I had given my heart to God and a peace had come but my body was still dying. I could feel myself coming out of my body, I could hear the Doctors talking and saying that's all we can do for you as they filled me with anti serum. I felt I needed to stay awake all night but I had no strength and could only move my eyes. As I was trying to gather strength the machines monitoring my heart, flat lined and I was pronounced dead. I was out of my body alive and could hear the machine and doctors confirming my death. I went into complete darkness and thought the power must have been cut off or am I dead dead. I was groping around in the darkness (in my mind) looking for a light switch, so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face so I brought my hand closer to my face and it went straight through my face. Both hands. I could pass them right through my body - nothing. Then I had a terrifying realisation, I could be alive out of my body. All I could think of was I had met people who had amputations and they could feel their severed limbs - phantom pain. Is it possible my physical body could be back dead on the hospital bed I apparently have just left? Where am I"?
Part 2 of 2 parts
Alone on the hospital bed, already pronounced dead, Ian knew he was having an out of body experience.
His story continues: "Then I could feel this evil. This intense evil. It was like invisible eyes all looking at me. Like a spiritual darkness. I could hear men screaming out in the darkness saying 'shut up'. I thought, I have said nothing not realising my inner thought was speech and they could hear me saying, where am I, who turned the lights out? Another man screamed 'you deserve to be here'. Where? I asked. Another voice screamed 'you're in hell'. Hell I thought, but I don't believe in hell. I thought hell was supposed to be a party place and now I'm wrestling with this whole concept. Then I realised this could in fact be Hades, this could actually be hell. The next moment I thought, God had every right to send me here, but I reflected on the Lord's prayer I had offered earlier in the ambulance. Next, a radiant light appeared through the darkness and drew me out.
"Psalm 23 even though I walk through the valley [Hebrew word is deep darkness]of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. The evil was all around me but it could not touch me. Greater is He within me. Nothing can separate me from Gods love, neither life nor death. I didn't know scripture but it just came alive to me. Walking in darkness and seeing a great light!
"I had seen sunlight come through windows as a child and dust go up in it, and I was like a speck of dust going up. Isaiah 9:2 says 'those who have walked in darkness have seen a great light'. I'm being drawn up and I see this narrow tunnel of light. What is that? I move down this tunnel at the speed of light and waves of radiance come up. The first wave, comfort. I thought that's a living emotion. The second wave, peace. I was flooded with the peace of God. It went right through me. I didn't know what to do. I turned my head to see what my body looked like cause in the darkness my hand had gone straight through my face, and I could see my arm transparent, a spiritual being of light. (God is the Father of light.) I could see through my hand. I moved further down the tunnel and another wave came, joy. I came out of the tunnel and saw the full radiance and glory of God, it covered the heavens. As I stood in the presence of God, He called me by name. 'Ian do you wish to return'? I thought, return? I looked behind me and saw the tunnel dissipating back into darkness. Am I out of my physical body? Am I standing here or am I comatose? Am I having a NDE [near death experience] and tripping out of my mind? Is this happening in my head or am I actually out of my body?
"Here I am trying to reflect on, is this real. 'Do you wish to return? If you return you must see in a new light'. I asked Him. Are you the true light? His response to me was, 'Ian, God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all'. 1 John 1 5. God is light! I've just come from darkness they called hell, and this is the now the Kingdom of Heaven. This was Almighty God. I was shaken. He knows my name. He knows my thoughts before I speak. I am not a good man. I have done a lot of things wrong. So I pulled back and as I did waves of light came off His presence, pure love. I cried like a child as waves of love and acceptance came into me. I said but God you cant love me, and started telling Him my sins. Each sin I told him, He flooded me with more love. But God I have cursed you, I have done drugs and slept around. More and more of His love. He showed me all my sins had been forgiven when I prayed in the ambulance. He had forgiven me when I prayed from my heart. I stood before Him with no sin and no darkness. I opened my eyes and I was full of liquid love and light encased 2-3 feet around me in pure light and pure love. The radiance around the Lord eclipsed everything and I felt like a glow worm or firefly.
"I walked closer and closer until suddenly the light opened up and I saw the bare feet of a Man with dazzling white garments to His ankles. As I looked up, it seemed as if the light emanated from His face, like brilliant jewels. It was as if He was encased in cloud and I asked God if He loves me, could I step in and see Him face to face? I walked into this cloud and I saw my hand disappear. I could not see my spiritual body as it had been eclipsed by the radiance. It was like veils of miniature stars and as I moved through these veils I could feel the light healing my broken heart. As the layers deepened and the cloud began to part, I could see Jesus with His hands outstretched, bare feet, dazzling white robes and as I looked towards the face of Jesus it was as though He had taken this cloud and clothed Himself in garments of this cloud of light. As I looked towards the face of the Lord, the radiance, the source of all light was coming out of His face. I knew if He spoke, constellations and galaxies would come into existence. As I walked towards Him I felt purity and child like innocence restored back to me. I was weeping with happiness. He showed me at the end of the tunnel were green fields, rivers, mountains and natural beauty. I thought I'm home. I am looking at a new earth. As I stepped forward Jesus blocked my way and asked me. 'Now you have seen, do you wish to remain here or return'?
"Remain here I stated. I believed I had no one to go back for and no one I loved, but you love me Lord. I looked back to say goodbye to the dark cruel world and the Lord showed me my Mother. The one person who had taught me and honored me. I thought if I chose now to pass through into eternity will she never know I have encountered Jesus and her prayers have been answered? Will she know her son has given his heart to the Lord. How selfish would I be to enter eternity and my Mother have to bury me thinking she had lost her son to hell. It would break her heart. I chose to go back and the Lord said, I must see things in a new eternal light. The light of heaven. I looked behind me and saw my family and relatives and thousands of others. Who are they I asked. 'When you go back' the Lord answered, 'they are those who have not chosen me. I love them all and I want them to know me'.
"The Lord told me to tilt my head and feel the liquid drain from my eyes. 'Open your eye Ian and see'. I was instantly back in my body lying on a slab in the morgue. I had been pronounced clinically dead for 15-20 minutes and moved from A & E down to the morgue. When I came back into my body, an Indian Doctor was holding my right foot and in his left hand was a scalpel pricking my foot like a dead piece of meat. When he saw me open my eye the blood drained from the poor Doctors face. I asked the Lord if I could open my other eye and saw nurses running in terror and smashing into each other as they ran. I could feel nothing from my neck down. I said Lord if I have seen you, could you please heal me and enable me to walk out of hospital and live a normal life. The power of life like electricity came through my body, from the top of my head to my feet. Within 3-4 hours I was totally healed and the next day walked out of that hospital.
"Since this experience the Lord has led me into full time ministry. I returned to New Zealand and spent a year recuperating on the family farm where God enabled me to get my life sorted out. God has enabled me over the years to minister to people of many nations and cultures. He has blessed me with the gift of marriage, the joy of raising a family and the honour of serving Him. My heart continues to pour out His unconditional love and mercy to everyone I come into contact with".