The story is as straightforward as it is unforgettable.

In 2008, at age 49, an Australian named Dr. Colin Perry, retired as a media professor at Deakin University in Melbourne (and once a former rock musician), experienced a heart attack while attempting to start a weed wacker.

Home alone—but obviously not really alone—Dr. Perry heard a loud Voice he took immediately to be that of God say, “You are going to die, but I have some things for you to do.”

The heart attack was that severe.

Obeying the “voice,” Perry called an ambulance, packed a bag, waited for paramedics, and en route to the hospital, lost consciousness. This all was told to former television producer Janie Duvall in one of her recent and wonderful podcasts [see below].

Floating in total darkness—free of weight and temperature—the retired professor initially enjoyed the peaceful sensation. But on realizing he might be dead, fear set in. And as it did, Perry began sinking into a bottomless “void.”

Hell? Lower purgatory? One can imagine the desperation as he cried out, “Jesus, help me!”

As he tells it, a Hand immediately grabbed his wrist, and he was pulled upward at hyperdrive velocity.

It was then that the professor arrived in a dimly lit, cloudy environment (as it turns out, a vestibule of Heaven) where he was surrounded by six or seven angels standing nine to ten feet tall and emanating ancient wisdom. The very presence of these beings overwhelmed the academic with love, making him feel instantly at home.

So often we hear that word associated with the afterlife: home.

With the angels was Jesus, whom Dr. Perry recognized by facial features matching three-D models of the Shroud of Turin (more on that in coming days).

Though the angels possessed incredible sagacity and power, the heavenly beings deferred completely to the Lord, Who obviously had vastly more wisdom and force than did they. His omniscient nature—knowing everything across the globe simultaneously—was beyond adjectives, recounts the professor.

In Dr. Perry’s telling, Jesus gave him a choice: proceed into paradise forever, or return to finish his earthly life. The Lord warned him that returning to life on earth meant taking responsibility for his choices, cautioning that the “forked roads” of the world would provide trials at every turn: circumstances that would not only test his faith but could cause him (if wrong choices were made) to end up at a place less pleasant than what he was currently experiencing.

Thinking of his five children—including an eight-year-old and a daughter with severe brain injuries—and unfulfilled prophetic words over his life, Dr. Perry took the chance and chose to return, determined to end up one day in that glorious place.

Before sending him back, Jesus performed a deep inner healing on his soul to remove years of accumulated grief. As Jesus entered his spirit, Dr. Perry felt connected to the Lord’s mind, briefly experiencing that omniscience.

Jesus and the angels then showed Dr. Perry visions of his future and the end times, which materialized  like a movie played through a thin veil. Colin observed how human free will creates branching paths and how God and His angels actively work across time to rearrange circumstances based on human choices. During this state, an angel was sent down to inspect his physical body, reporting back that the “vessel” was good enough for Perry to slip back into it.

Sent back to his body, Dr. Perry felt as though he hit concrete—the physical world felt heavy, dark, and oppressive by comparison, yet his fear of death was permanently gone. Though he felt as if twenty to thirty minutes had passed in Heaven, the paramedic confirmed he had been unconscious for only one minute.

At the hospital, angels spoke to Dr. Perry, informing him that they had healed three of his blocked arteries but left the fourth unhealed. A cardiologist later confirmed that his heart had mysteriously rerouted blood flow around the blockages—a medical miracle.

The fourth blockage remained so that he would have a clear medical record and testimony of the event.

For two weeks after, Perry continued to hear audible angelic guidance, which later settled into a heightened spiritual hearing.

As far as alleged “end-time” events, Dr. Perry was shown three massive tsunami-like waves representing: no, not actual ocean waves but successive global trials of 1) pestilence, 2) natural disasters, and 3) widespread warfare. He notes that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse reflect geographical directions aligned with Zechariah 6, signaling escalating global economic and military tensions.

He believes we are entering those times, as does a remarkable priest who (giving much more detail) is the subject of our next “Special Report.”

But Dr. Perry? The book he has written is remarkable. One can feel the Grace flow from him. And one learns that God’s Voice is often indeed a “still, small” one: “amplified thoughts.”

This is a term one should meditate upon in the calm quiet of deep prayer: those thoughts that are a bit more pronounced that normal ones. Where the devil is either stealth or loud, the Lord flows with our cerebration when we allow the Holy Spirit (by praying without ceasing, instead of constantly thinking).

No, not shouts, but in the constant flow of our internal dialogue, thoughts we should pay attention to. And like the Lord, those angels, he realized, are always around and guiding us.

His experience transformed his understanding of spiritual gifts, emphasizing for him that prayer in tongues, dreams, and inner prompts are direct lines of communication with God. He encourages believers to cultivate spiritual hearing, recognize Divine prompts, and act as earthly portals—especially in these dark times—for the Kingdom of God.

[resources: Dying To Be Alive]