Randy Kay’s “afterlife” experience still leaves him visibly emotional as he recounts visiting heaven, meeting Jesus, and returning to share his harrowing journey.
Kay, author of Heaven Stormed: A Heavenly Encounter Reveals Your Assignment in the End Time Outpouring and Tribulation, told CBN News he was once a denier of near-death experience claims — until he faced his own purported heaven journey.
“I would have said, ‘You know … they may have believed that they had that experience, but that the mind can play tricks, essentially,’” he said. “You know, some of them, I would say, were looking for attention.”
But Kay now holds a very different view, recognizing that people sometimes sacrifice their careers and success when they share these stories — journeys that the masses don’t always receive or believe.
It’s no secret there’s debate about heaven visitation stories, which can make it difficult to be open, honest, and candid.
“This is not the type of attention that somebody who has been a physician, or an executive, or somebody who has gained some modicum of recognition in the world would want,” Kay said.
Watch him share his experience:
He recalled his own afterlife experience, which began with a sore calf, something he initially ignored. At first, he thought it was a strained muscle, but, when his calf swelled during a bike ride, he knew something else was happening.
“I was able to make it back home and then went to the doctor to get an anti-inflammatory prescription, and, lo and behold, when I pressed my heel into the floor as the doctor had suggested, I collapsed,” Kay said. “And I was rushed to the emergency room.”
It turns out, the pain and swelling were due to seven blood clots that had formed. He then contracted Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a drug-resistant bacteria.
“The doctor said I was a walking dead man,” Kay said. “And then the septic shock [that] entered into my body caused a traffic jam in my vessels, my vascular system.”
The chaos landed Kay in a dire situation — one that he believes sent him to heaven.
“Everything went dark initially, and the next moment of recall, I was looking down on my body,” he said. “I was being pulled by this light. I know that sounds cliché almost, but it’s absolutely true.”
Kay continued, “I was in a kind of very vague, ethereal space initially where I saw these figures in front of me, and they were warring against each other. There’s no other way of putting it.”
After his return from his after-death experience, Kay came to believe these scenes allowed him to see spiritual warfare very literally play out.
Regardless of whether people choose to believe the heaven portions of his story, one detail is definitively true: Kay’s physical body was dead during this experience, making these memories and claims quite fascinating.
“My heart had stopped,” he said, noting hospital records indicate he was clinically dead for 30 minutes and 49 seconds.
During Kay’s heaven experience, he said he knew he was himself, but was also keenly aware he was seeing and visualizing the world quite differently than in the earthly realm.
“I was seeing things, hearing things beyond which I would be able to do otherwise in my body,” he said.
Kay recalled feeling compelled to call out Jesus’ name at one point during the experience. After doing so, he said he was immediately next to a figure whom he knew was Christ.
“I was so overwhelmed with emotion, and my first thought was, ‘So, this is love?’ And I just caved,” he said. “And I started shouting every superlative I could think of — ‘Praise you, Lord God!’ And then He reached down, and He wrapped His arms around me.”
Kay described feeling an unimaginable love in those moments — something he called the “most incredible experience,” with Jesus imploring Kay to trust Him.
Ultimately, Kay said God told him he needed to return home, a reality that left him deeply saddened, considering the paradise he was experiencing.
“I did not want to go,” he said. “I was returned because I had not fulfilled my purpose and it was the most disappointing statement from Jesus that I heard in all of heaven, but was also one that I knew I had to do, because I had to be obedient to the Lord.”
Kay said he went through a “period of depression” after returning, but he found purpose in sharing his story with the masses, inspiring people to see the beauty and truth in heaven.
“I will always long to be there again,” Kay said, reflecting on his experience being with Jesus. “I miss that and will always miss that until I return.”
The author waited 14 years to share his heaven experience, telling only a few people what unfolded before later revealing it to the world. Watch him tell his story.