Man Says He Met Jesus During A Near Death Experience And Saw A City In Heaven

Mike McKinsey was determined to make it to his son’s wedding despite having a 104-degree fever and severe abdominal pain.

He had already spent three days battling what he thought was an illness. Then doctors discovered his appendix had ruptured. What McKinsey says happened during emergency surgery would leave him convinced he had briefly entered heaven.

His account includes a figure he immediately recognized as Jesus, a mysterious glowing sphere, a city surrounded by white light and grass he says was so vivid that he somehow knew the exact number of blades.

A Ruptured Appendix Put Him In Emergency Surgery

McKinsey, a construction superintendent from Chattanooga, Tennessee, had traveled about five hours for his son’s wedding weekend.

He arrived sick and continued getting worse. During the rehearsal dinner, his temperature reached 104 degrees, yet he still played backyard baseball with his sons.

After three days of symptoms, he finally agreed to go to an emergency room.

A nurse touched his foot during the examination, causing severe abdominal pain. Doctors quickly determined that his appendix had ruptured, with a surgeon estimating it had happened roughly three days earlier.

McKinsey was rushed into emergency surgery.

He later recalled the operating table being freezing and narrow. He crossed his hands over his chest because he says there was barely enough room for him to fit.

Then he turned his head to the right.

He Says Jesus Walked Into The Operating Room

McKinsey says he saw a man enter through the operating room doors.

The figure looked different from the traditional images of Jesus he had seen growing up. McKinsey described dark skin, dark wavy hair, a short dark brown beard and “dark greenish blue” eyes.

Despite the differences, McKinsey says he immediately knew who he was.

“Even though he looked different, I knew immediately that it was Jesus,” McKinsey said.

According to his account, Jesus reached out his hand and said, “I want to answer your prayer.”

McKinsey says the operating room then disappeared.

He found himself standing barefoot on a hillside.

The Grass Was One Of The Strangest Details

The landscape McKinsey describes is unusually specific.

He says the grass was an intense, dark green and perfectly manicured. More strikingly, he claims he could feel every blade beneath his feet.

“I was standing on beautiful, lush green grass, a very dark green,” he said. “The blades of grass were perfectly manicured.”

He also says he somehow knew the exact number of blades of grass.

Around him was an overwhelming white light. McKinsey describes a glowing sphere about the size of a basketball emerging from that brightness.

The sphere produced smooth, tube-like beams of light. One struck him in the forehead, creating what he described as a buzzing sensation followed by warmth.

Then the white surroundings appeared to open.

A City Appeared Through The Light

McKinsey says he could see a city below him.

He described domes, rooftops and tall white buildings emerging through low fog. Gold appeared across parts of the landscape, including structures that reminded him of church steeples.

One detail stood out immediately.

There were no crosses.

Behind the city was a mountain covered in perfectly shaped trees with delicate, lace-like branches.

Above it all was a sky filled with colors McKinsey says he had never seen before. There was no visible sun providing the light.

He asked what he was seeing.

The answer, according to McKinsey, was simple: “It’s the glory of the Lord.”

He then says his knees gave out and the scene disappeared.

The 45 Minute Claim Has Not Been Independently Confirmed

McKinsey eventually woke in recovery and estimated that three or four hours had passed.

His medical crisis, however, was far from over.

About 24 hours later, he says he woke around 2 a.m. struggling to breathe. A nurse told him he was developing pneumonia. He was also battling a dangerous fever and an E. coli infection.

Medical staff packed him in ice and supplied oxygen. They gave him a spirometer, a device used to measure breathing capacity by showing how high a small plastic marble rises.

McKinsey says he could not move the marble.

He believed he was going to die.

“This is why Jesus showed me heaven,” he remembers thinking. “I’m going to die.”

McKinsey says the same presence returned, although this time he heard it rather than saw it.

“I had to get you flat on your back away from all the distractions so you could hear me.”

The 45-minute figure comes from McKinsey himself. During a January 2025 appearance on the Round Trip Death podcast, he described the period between being pronounced dead and later revived as “a good 45 minutes.”

There is no publicly available hospital record confirming that figure, so it remains an unverified part of his personal account.

Doctors Have Studied Awareness During Cardiac Arrest

McKinsey’s experience cannot establish what happens after death. However, researchers have been studying reports of awareness during cardiac arrest, producing findings that have raised questions about what the brain can do during extreme medical emergencies.

A 2023 study followed 567 in-hospital cardiac arrests across 25 hospitals. Of the 28 survivors who were able to participate in interviews, 11 reported experiences resembling awareness during resuscitation.

Researchers also detected signs of electrical recovery in the brain during prolonged CPR.

The study’s lead author said the brain “can show signs of electrical recovery long into ongoing CPR.”

That finding does not prove that people see heaven during cardiac arrest. It does suggest that brain activity during resuscitation can be more complicated than previously assumed.

Another Study Found Gamma Activity In Dying Patients

A separate 2023 study examined four comatose patients while life support was withdrawn.

Researchers observed bursts of gamma brainwave activity in two of the four patients.

The sample was extremely small, and scientists could not determine what those patients experienced.

The study’s lead researcher was clear about the limitation: “It is impossible to know if these people had any visions as they were dying.”

She added that if the patients had survived, “those two patients might have had some story to tell.”

That leaves an important distinction between measurable brain activity and personal reports of near-death experiences.

McKinsey Kept The Experience Private For Years

McKinsey says he did not immediately tell the world about what happened.

Before his illness, he described himself as a “Sunday Christian,” suggesting that his faith was present but occupied a relatively small part of his weekly life.

He eventually wrote about the experience in a memoir titled I Held the Hand of Jesus in Heaven.

His account has since been shared through interviews, podcasts and online videos, attracting a substantial audience.

Yet the part of the story that seems to stay with McKinsey most strongly is not the claim that he was dead for 45 minutes.

It is the landscape.

The grass beneath his feet. The strange light. The distant city. The mountain. The absence of crosses.

His Story Leaves The Biggest Question Unanswered

McKinsey believes he was shown heaven and encountered Jesus during a moment when his life was in serious danger.

Science can investigate cardiac arrest, brain activity and the memories survivors report. It cannot currently verify whether a particular vision represents an actual encounter with an afterlife.

That makes McKinsey’s account a personal testimony rather than scientific proof.

For him, though, the experience appears to have permanently changed how he views his faith and his own life.

He went into surgery fighting to survive a ruptured appendix. He says he came back carrying a memory of a place he believes exists beyond death.

And the image he has never forgotten is remarkably precise: a barefoot man standing on vivid green grass, looking toward a mysterious city beneath a sky unlike anything he had seen before.