Howard Storm  •  howardstorm.com  •  Howard Storm was an art professor and self-professed atheist who had a profound near-death experience in 1985. During his experience, he was at first led to a hellish place and then to a very heavenly place. In heaven, he was able to ask numerous questions and obtain profound answers from those he identified as Jesus and other saintly persons. After his experience, he became an enthusiastic Christian and eventually a Protestant minister.

The following is an excerpt from his first book, My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life, in Chapter 6: The Past and the Future.

God inspires every insight of science. We had used this inspiration to further our means of destruction. The great gifts that God wants to give us will not be given until we are loving enough to handle them. God wants to give us the power to control matter and energy with our minds, the ability to communicate directly with our thoughts, to travel through time and space by will, to have knowledge by contemplation. The powder of these gifts is beyond our wildest imagination, but they will not be ours until we mature spiritually and can use these powders wisely and lovingly.

I asked, “When will this be?” They said the time is coming soon. I informed them that humankind was no better for the lessons of the two world wars and that we were about to have an even worse third world war.

They said, “There will be no more world wars.”

I said, “There are forty thousand nuclear weapons aimed and ready to be launched any minute. Someone, somewhere, is going to press the button and there will be a nuclear war.”

They said, “No, that is not going to happen. God will not allow a nuclear war.”

“Will God reach down and grab the missiles to stop them from exploding?”

“No. God is going to end the Cold War. God loves every creature, and God will not let the world be destroyed by people.”

“How is God going to do that?”

“God is changing the hearts of people to love around the world.”

“The Cold War won’t end for a hundred years,” I insisted.

“The Cold War will end in a couple of years.”

I was skeptical. “What will come next?”

“The world is at the beginning of a major transformation. It will be a spiritual revolution that will affect every person in the world.”

I asked what the world would be like when this change takes place.

We were in a beautiful natural wooded setting. There was no evidence of human intrusion or man-made devices. They told me that this was the future, and that we were in a garden that people tended. People came by and talked with one another. They were dressed simply and wore exotic ornaments. They resembled Native Americans in their dress. I asked what they did. Everyone spent the majority of their time with the children, teaching them about love and the wonders of the natural world. They didn’t make any distinction between work and play. They all participated in child-rearing and teaching as the most important activity of their lives. People raised food by sitting next to plants and communing with them. In a few minutes they could harvest mature fruits and vegetables. They ate what they grew immediately, without cooking. The clothing was all made of finely woven fibers. There was very little metal except in the ornaments.

I asked, “Is this paradise?” They laughed and said, “No, only compared to the world you live in. In this future world people will have sickness, but the treatment for disease will always be successful. People will gather around the person in need of help and through prayer, touch, and meditation the disease will be cured. People will grow only enough food for their needs. Collectively, all the people of the world will control the weather. The climate will be regulated by the collective will of humankind. The plants will be loved and raised by individual people. All animals will live in harmony with people. There will be countless small communities of people all over the world and each will have its own identity and culture. There will be many different languages, but all people will be able to communicate telepathically. There will be no technology because there will be no need for devices, since humans will have the power to control matter and energy. People will stay within their communities unless they want to experience life in a culture that has different music, or vegetation, or scientific investigation.”

Everybody was a student of nature, which they knew intimately and with which they could communicate, knowing the sensations and vibration of every part of creation. People explored outer space without moving an inch. People communicated telepathically with everyone on Earth and had relationships with intelligent beings on other worlds. There was no space travel because there was no need. People stayed put and shared life experiences across galaxies. People valued the life experience they had been given in this world because they knew it was a precious gift from God. There were no possessions. People sought the welfare of their community in its spiritual health and growth. When someone was troubled, the community focused its attention on that individual. Occasionally an individual would become a recluse for as much time as needed. When a person was satisfied that he had had all the life experience he needed, the community gathered together around him. They had a celebration while such a person lay down and his spirit moved to heaven. This was the cause of great rejoicing. People were born, grew, learned, and died. They lived to love God, love one another, and love themselves.

I was amazed because I thought the future world would look like the science fiction I had been raised on. The future that I was being shown was completely different from what I expected. People lived in extreme simplicity and harmony. There was no want. Everyone was happy. There was no conflict.

I asked, “When will this come about?”

They said, “In two hundred years.”

I contradicted them. “Not in two hundred thousand years. People are not ready for this.”

They answered, “This is the future that God wants for humanity, and it will happen. This is the world God has created for us to live in. This is the way God created human beings to live.”

“How will it happen?” I asked.

They answered, “God is changing the world now. God wants worldwide conversion. God is going to awaken every person to be the person he or she was created to be. Those who accept God’s will shall flourish, and those who deny God’s love shall perish.”

“Will the United States,” I asked, “be the leader of the world in this change?”

“The United States has been given the opportunity to be the teacher for the world, but much is expected of those to whom much has been given. The United States has been given more of everything than any country in the history of the world, and it has failed to be generous with its gifts. If the United States continues to exploit the rest of the world by greedily consuming the world’s resources, it will have God’s blessing withdrawn. Your country will collapse economically, which will result in civil chaos. Because of the greedy nature of people, you will have people killing people for a cup of gasoline. The world will watch in horror as your country is obliterated by strife. The rest of the world will not intervene because they have been victims of your exploitation. They will welcome the annihilation of such selfish people. The United States must change immediately and become the teacher of goodness and generosity to the rest of the world. Today the United States is the primary merchant of war and the culture of violence that you export to the world. This will come to an end because you have the seeds of your own destruction within you. Either you will destroy yourselves or God will bring it to an end if there isn’t a change.

“The United States has been given the opportunity to be the peacemaker of the world. With its medical, agricultural, manufacturing, and scientific knowledge, America could teach less fortunate countries how to give every person food, clothing, housing, medical care, education, and economic prosperity. The United States has the power to help every person in the world access clean water and hygienic waste disposal. Millions of people in the world are dying for lack of things that people in the United States take for granted. This is not God’s will. God wants you to know that every person is your brother and sister. God wants every person to have the same chance for fulfillment that a person in America has. God sees the people of the United States becoming increasingly greedy, self-centered, and uncaring. There must be a turning to God, or the reign of the United States will end.”

Since 1985, when I was told these things about the future, the Cold War ended with little bloodshed. There have been signs of a great spiritual awakening taking place worldwide. Interest in God, religion, life after death, and personal spirituality has grown dramatically. The self-centeredness of American culture hasn’t changed appreciably, which is cause for grave concern. I don’t know if the richest country in the history of the world is doomed to lose God’s blessing or if the people of the United States will become the moral light of the world. How long will God allow the injustice to continue? The future lies in the choices we make right now. God is intervening in direct ways in human events. May God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.