A young model from Russia, Svetlana, recounts a near-death experience

A young model from Russia, Svetlana, recounts a near-death experience and explains why she believes she ended up in hell despite never having harmed anyone.

My dream had always been to become a model. Since I was young, we used to take photos similar to those seen in Playboy. After some time, I received a good offer to work abroad, and I started preparing to leave. Suddenly, I developed a high fever and severe pain. An ambulance came and took me to the hospital. There, the doctors told me I had appendicitis, but during surgery, they discovered I also had peritonitis. They put me under anesthesia, but my heart could not endure it, and I died during the operation.

I found myself in a dark tunnel. It was like a huge well, and I was falling downward at tremendous speed. At first, I was overwhelmed with shock and terror because I understood that I had died.

In that world, a person understands everything. It is as if your eyes are opened, and all the stereotypes you acquired since birth are removed. There, you understand exactly who you are.

My whole life passed before my eyes. I asked myself, “Is that all? Was that my entire life?” I was only twenty-four years old. When you are young, you believe your whole life is still ahead of you and that nothing is over yet. I still had many plans, and suddenly everything was cut short without my consent and without my wanting it.

I knew I was going to hell. I saw that fire. I cannot explain it with words. It is impossible. There are no words on earth that can describe what I felt—the terror, the darkness, and the fear a person experiences when the soul leaves this world and enters the next. That alone may be the greatest punishment; there is nothing worse.

On earth, even the worst person still has hope because there is always tomorrow. A person can still repent and follow God's commandments. We all have tomorrow. It is not true that all suffering is on earth. Earth contains both hell and paradise.

Anyone who had seen hell would give everything to return to earth. They would give away all their possessions and all their happiness just for the chance to come back.

As I tried to justify myself before God, asking why this was happening to me, I could find no excuse. I realized that everything we do on earth—our goals and our actions—is often driven by selfishness. We live within our own self-centeredness.

I understood that I had lived my entire life only for myself. Up to that point, my life had been empty. I had nothing to say in my defense before God because I had not lived for Him at all. I had not kept His commandments. I had not thought about Him. Although I had never harmed anyone, I had done nothing for the God who created me.

Then, in the midst of that terror, I heard words telling me that a person has value in this life only when living close to God. Immediately, I cried out, “My God, please save me, and you will see that I will be different. I will change my whole life.”

I understood that if I passed through the gates of Hades, I would never return. I kept crying, “God, help me. I will live differently. Help me.”

Then I found myself in the intensive care unit. When the doctors came to take me to the morgue, they noticed that I was breathing. They were astonished to see that someone they believed dead had come back to life.

When I realized I had escaped hell, my happiness was indescribable. I was afraid to close my eyes in case I returned to that darkness. I kept repeating, “I was in hell. I was in hell.”

I had many questions, but two were the most important. The first was why I, a good girl who had never harmed anyone, ended up in hell. The second was how a person could avoid going there.

Later, I began reading the Bible and the Gospel, and I found my answer. The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth and died to save me so that I would not go to hell.

My friends and acquaintances called me and said, “Svetlana, don’t take it so seriously. Continue your life. Pursue your career. You are beautiful and talented. You can achieve anything. Why are you burying yourself every day?”

Eventually, I decided to return to modeling. However, I planned only to take modest photographs rather than provocative ones.

The moment I made that decision, I felt unbearable pain in my abdomen. An ambulance came, and it was the same people who had taken me before. The same doctors examined me, and I realized this might be my end.

The most frightening part was that the pain was so intense that I believed I could not have endured it for even another minute. I could not drink water. After surgery, when the tubes were removed, there was a bottle of water beside me. As soon as I drank it, I asked myself, “What could be better in this life than being free of pain, being able to drink water, and having God beside you?”

When I left the hospital, I went to church the very next day. Before, I had been the star of my own life. From that moment on, I wanted God to be the light within my soul.

I believe God brought me back from hell and gave me life again so that I could tell everyone what I experienced—women and men alike. Do not go to hell. Turn to God. Get to know Him and dedicate your life to Jesus Christ so that He may become the Lord of your life.