Appearing in hours 2 & 3, Howard Storm described his hellish near death experience (NDE). Before his NDE, Howard, a Professor of Art at Northern Kentucky University, was an avowed atheist and hostile to every form of religion and those who practiced it. In June 1985, at the age of 38, he nearly died due to a perforation of the stomach and his life was forever changed. His life was so immensely altered after this experience, that he resigned as a professor and devoted his time to attending the United Theological Seminary to become a United Church of Christ minister.
During the NDE, Howard felt more alive – his eyesight was better – everything was on overdrive. When looking back at his body in the bed, he continued to think that the body on the bed was not real. He could not understand why his body was lying there. He started yelling and screaming at his wife and she didn’t move or respond at all. Then, he heard voices saying it was time to go and saw "shadowy" people in the hallway waiting for him. He asked them if they were part of the surgical team, but did not recognize them. Eventually, he realized he was not at the hospital – when he would ask questions, the beings would tell him to "shut up." It got darker and darker and now there were a lot of people – a big crowd was waiting for him in this darkness – they pushed and pulled at him to get him further into the darkness. They were toying with him – even tormenting him. One even ripped a piece of his ear off, another placed a finger in his eye.
It was a terrifying experience as the beings laughed and insulted him. When he would mention anything about God, the people around him went crazy – they told him they were really going to hurt him now. Howard discovered this was a way to fight back – it didn’t have to do with faith – he just kept repeating lines he remembered about God as the beings continued to back up away from him while he chanted on and on about God. His life at that point seemed so helpless and pointless. He eventually saw light and felt hands from this light that took away all his pain and despair – he was filled with ecstasy that he can’t even describe. He was embraced in this bright light. He finally had the realization that this light was God or heaven. Seven beings of light appeared and told him everything was going to be OK. What began as a hellish nightmare turned into an experience of a lifetime.
Open Lines are featured in the rest of the program. During the first hour, Art discusses Denis Tito taking a ride to the International Space Station. Art doesn’t like the way Tito is being treated and thinks NASA is overreacting. Art also reports on computer attacks from Chinese hackers on American websites.