From the time that they pronounced me dead was
a good 45 minutes. They cut my clothes and then
they paddled my heart, my heart had stopped and
I could see people screaming and crying but I
didn't realize that was actually my physical
body because I was somewhere else. The only thing
that I could feel if you could imagine absolute
love and peace there wasn't anything else to
be felt. I was greeted by people I'd known in
the past. I'm back home again. Incredibly safe
and felt at home. Welcome, welcome to Round Trip
Death, everybody. And a very warm welcome to
our guest today, Randy Dron. How are you doing,
Randy? Very good. Thank you for having me. Good
morning. Good morning. It's good to see you.
It is pretty early on a nice warm summer morning.
Would you, just before we jump into your couple
of near -death experiences, give us a little
idea of who Randy is? Take a minute, tell us
about you. Well, I'm happily remarried and I
have a few children. Maybe you can tell behind
me, I'm a proud Navy veteran that served during
the desert storm. I'm also the dad of a couple
beautiful weenie dogs. All right. Well, that
is awesome, and we thank you for that. And you
live in the Houston area. We were just talking
about how hot it gets there, oh man. Brutally
hot, and July and August will be torture. Well,
now and then on this show we talk about hellish
experiences, and I'm not saying that's where
you live, but maybe the temperature compares,
I don't know. Yeah, well, no comparison. No,
all right. Hey, let's get right into it. Let's
go back in time to when you were just about 12
years old and you'd gotten very sick. What was
going on with your health and what led up to
your NDE? At first, my health was fine, but it
was Christmas time. Me and some church friends
and school friends, we decided to go Christmas
caroling at winter time. And this was a long
time ago. So if this tells you anything, it's
back in the day where a bunch of kids could pile
up in the back of a pickup truck and go to house
to house. So that tells you how long ago it was.
And without helmets on? No helmets. We would
hop in and out and we would go knock on doors.
And it was extremely cold that night. We were
out for a few hours. For some reason, I don't
know what got into me, maybe me just being a
careless... child, I didn't bring a coat with
me. I think all the other kids were bundled up,
but I didn't have one. So after the Christmas
caroling, there was a little Christmas party
afterwards and everything was still fine. But
unbeknownst at the time, the weather got to me.
So I went to bed and fell asleep that night.
In the middle of the night, I got deathly sick
and My spirit left my body. I didn't realize
where I was at at the time, but I was in a deep,
dark cavern, and I was flying along in my spirit
form. Now, mind you, I didn't have any fear,
but I knew where I was at. And I was in my spirit,
and I was flying along in this deep, dark valley.
There was no source of light. It was darkness,
but I could still see. I know that's kind of
a contradiction. I noticed no life, no water,
no trees. It was just a lifeless valley. Going
along, as far as the eye could see, I just saw
countless gel cells embedded in the rock. Just
to back up a little bit. To kind of give you
an idea of how how big this place was Say like
if you're looking up in the sky and you see an
airplane 30 40 ,000 feet in the air I would say
that's probably how high it was and how big this
valley mountainous region was So it's flying
along and I saw jail cells and they had bars
all in them I still didn't have any fear. I didn't
see any lost souls or any fire or anything like
that I continued to go quite a distance further,
reached another part of this place. In my spirit,
I could see down, embedded in the earth, there
was this big giant black mass. It was like half
of it was above the earth and half of it, I just
knew it instinctively, was below the earth. I
said, wow, this thing's like the size of a football
field. I remember seeing it in my spirit. Then
after that, I was back in my body and I woke
up the next morning and I was deathly sick. I
had to miss a few days of school. So that was
my first experience, but at the time I didn't
realize where I was at and God didn't really
reveal that to me until the 90s. Wow, that's
really unusual. What's the difference between
that experience or you just having a regular
dream in the middle of the night, some night?
Well, if anybody that's had this experience,
like the Bible says, in the body or out of the
body, I don't know. But I was there. It was a
real place. And how I found out later is the
Bible talks about the valley of the shadow of
death. There was a lady, I don't know if you've
heard of her, called Mary Kay Baxter. I was given
some cassette tapes in the 90s. about her experiences
where over a period of 40 days and 40 nights,
the Lord would appear to her, show her parts
of heaven and parts of hell, and she described
with her and Jesus and her spirit going along,
walking in a valley, and Jesus and her would
stop. Embedded in the earth were jail cells,
and the horror of it for her was in each jail
cell there was a lost soul. and they would talk
to her and they would explain what brought them
there and they would be weeping and crying and
begging the Lord to let them out. Then she was
taken on another night to another part of hell
where she saw the heart of hell and she described
a big black beating mass exactly what I saw and
her book she described it as a baseball field.
In my mind I described it as a football field.
So really not much difference. The Lord revealed
to me as an adult where I was at. But with me
being so young, the Bible says, Yea, though I
walk through the valley of shadow of death, I
will feel no evil. For God art with me. For He
is with me. So He gave me that open vision, took
me there to prepare me for later to life. With
all my experiences, you know, and at the end
of the day, the Bible says, we overcome the enemy
with the word of God and our testimony. So this
is my testimony. So, and if people don't believe
me, that's okay. Believe the Word of God. If
they open up to the Lord, I'm just here to warn
them it is a real place. The Bible does tell
the truth. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, because
that's my message, you know, at the end of the
day. I know I don't remember any of my dreams
from when I was 12 years old, let alone last
week. So something obviously very profound happened.
Right. I'm curious, and you may have to just
sort of speculate on this, but I'm curious why
an innocent 12 year old would experience a representation
of hell. Have you thought about that? What do
you think the answer is? Well, you know, the
short answer, I don't know. I have my assumptions,
but I believe that's part of my purpose. As a
child, he's not going to scare anybody, of course.
As an adult, I realized with that. And I think
it's just to show the truthfulness of the Bible.
And I think it was maybe to help other people
and also to show me that hell's a real place,
because I can be really hard -headed and galactically
stupid at times, which happened later in life.
God's warning me. Warning, preparing. And letting
people know that hell's a real place and heaven's
a real place. All falls back to Jesus Christ.
Okay. Is there anything else about that experience
you want to share before we move on to the next
one? No, sir. Well, then let's fast forward.
I forget how many years ago this one was, but
just why don't you give me a little lead up to
it? Leading up to it. So when I got out of the
Navy in 92, coming out of the Navy, I went and
moved in with my adopted father and my stepmother
just to kind of get back on my feet, back into
civilian life. Well, a friend decided to go ahead
and give me some drugs, which I decided to take
a hit of acid. The effect didn't take place,
and then I took about eight more hits of acid.
And that was your first time, and you had that
much? Yeah. How old did you say you were? I was
22, and I took the first hit. I got impatient,
so I decided to take the rest of it. That's where
I was galactically stupid. So this time, and
everything was fine, you know, I was enjoying
it, enjoying the night. And then I finally went
to sleep in my bed. And then that's when I died.
And I was standing in my next moment of consciousness.
I was instantly transported to hell. And I am
standing in a pit of flames over my head. And
this time the fear came. The fire was over my
head. The whole cavern was filled with flames,
and I could hear the roar of the fire louder
than any natural flame. It was so loud that if
your human ears were there, it would burst your
eardrums and kill you. I was looking around,
and I knew where I was at, and I knew what brought
me there, and I felt regret and shame. And I
knew my body was back up on the earth, and I
said, I'm too late. And what I mean by that to
people is I thought I was too late to repent
and then regret. And I'm there in this lake of
flame. But God in His mercy, He lovingly and
sparingly withheld the pain, the fire, and the
torment from me. Because if that would have happened,
I don't think I would have been able to scream
out and think of Him. But going back up just
a moment, so I'm standing in this fire in this
pit and I look across a little bit further and
there was on another part of like a big demon.
This demon was consumed in flames but it didn't
consume him. I don't know if the flames hurt
him but he was covered in flames as well. A huge
demon, eight feet tall, ten feet tall. It was
strange, even though he was a distance away,
my eyes just supernaturally could like teleport,
almost like a telescope or binoculars, how you
can just zoom in. So my eyes locked with him
and I felt he was some type of pit boss or something.
That's the impression I get that was assigned
to me. So when he saw me and I saw him and I
was like his prey. And then right before just
the absolute hysterical terror took over me.
I screamed Jesus in that place. Through all the
fire and everything, God was still there. He
heard my cry through that fire. And as soon as
I screamed Jesus, He put me back in my body and
I popped up and it was morning time. So I don't
know how long I was there. And then I would say
for almost a week afterwards, I had like severe
PTSD and I guess this is a little reminder. I
could audibly hear the roar of the fire be like
going to work or something in the morning. I
could hear the fire in my ears again, and it
would traumatize me. That is terrifying. Yes.
I'm curious, did you grow up going to church?
Is that why you thought about calling out to
Jesus? Absolutely. So like I grew up abused,
you know, so my adopted father, you know, growing
up, I had a very abusive childhood. Later, I
tried to make amends by moving into his house
in the neighborhood. For just a sense of escape,
this was back in the 70s, I would go, their little
Baptist Sunday school bus would roll through
the neighborhood. So as a sense of escape to
get away for a few hours, I would go to Sunday
school. That's where I first heard about Jesus
as an eight -year -old child, you know, and I
knew he was the Son of God. So I had always had
a connection with Jesus. You know, the Bible
says my people perish for lack of knowledge.
But when I was in that place, thank God, I literally
didn't know to call upon the name of Jesus, and
he saved me. So that's my whole point with everything.
I think God did this for two reasons. I think,
you know, the Bible says in Job, God will strive
with a man two, yet three times to turn his soul
back from the pit. I have free will, but he foreknew
I would be stupid at times. and he would have
to try, you know, time after time to get my attention,
which he finally has. So to save me and also
to warn people that hell is a real place. If
you don't believe me, I don't care. God told
me I need to share that with people because if
I have this and I keep it secret and don't tell
anybody, that's on me. I don't want to stand
before the judgment seat of Christ, even though
my salvation isn't on the line. If the Lord asked
me, it's like the man with the talents. I could
either take these experiences and I can be a
coward and I can bury it. Like, well, God saved
me from it. I'm afraid what people are going
to say. Or I could take this talent, this gift
that God's given me and tell people. And if one
person that listens to your program turns to
Jesus Christ, because the Bible says, when one
person repents, the angels in heaven rejoice
and accept Jesus Christ as their savior. That's
who I'm doing it for, for that person. So I just
want to thank you for letting me maybe reach
somebody through your program. Tell me a little
bit about, again, I'm asking you to speculate
on some things because I'm just trying to better
understand. Yes, sir. The experience that you
had when you were 12 compared to when you were
22 were both, as you call it, hell, but they
sounded very different. Yeah. Explain that. Why
do you think that was? Well, I can only speculate,
and God will give me the answers. The biggest
difference, at 12, even though I was in a place
of hell, there was no fear, and at that time,
I was serving the Lord. Plus, I was a child,
I had no fear, and I think God was preparing
me. When I was 22, I can't debate anybody. Once
saved, always saved. I'm not a Bible scholar.
I don't have a theology degree. I just know.
my experience. I chose to walk away from the
Lord. I chose to overdose on drugs, and I almost
paid the price. But God had mercy, and I think
he foreknew I was going to do that, and he pulled
me out. If I wouldn't have screamed Jesus, all
I know is I would still be there. But God gave
me a chance. He took me out of there, and I better
do something with it. So yeah, it's a warning
to let people know that hell is real. And through
Jesus Christ, no man comes to the Father but
through Jesus Christ. The Lord is merciful and
wants to give us time after opportunity after
opportunity to turn to Him. So while we're breathing,
trust in the Lord, have a relationship with the
Lord. I've heard a lot of distressing NDEs or
hellish experiences, whatever we want to call
them. The researchers say they're probably 10
to 15 percent. of all the near -death experiences.
For some reason, we've had quite a few on the
show recently. I don't know why that is. I don't
know if it's a big word of warning out there
to everybody or just what it is. That's not for
me to say. And everybody describes it differently
though. Even you had two different experiences.
The thing that stands out to me as kind of extra
terrifying is just how loud that roar of fire
was. Mean I can just kind of picture that in
my mind is whoa Yeah, and it wasn't just like
where I had a dream people have dreams of hell
all the time But I think what anchored it in
for me just to let God know because God's so
smart He's like, you know, I'm gonna make sure
you know where you're at Randy. You're gonna
hear hell as well Deafening roar of fire. I don't
know how to explain it and also with God In the
supernatural realm, everything was just more
vivid with my eyesight. And the strangest thing,
I knew my body was back up on the earth. And
that's when the regret and the sorrow, and I
said to myself, I'm too late. What have I done?
What have I done? Is it ever too late? No, as
long as we have breath. The Bible says today
is the day of salvation. Turn to the Lord Jesus
Christ, because we could get hit by a bus. We
could die in our sleep. We could fall off a ladder.
So as long as we're breathing, trusting the Lord
in His goodness, no man comes to the Father but
through Jesus Christ. You mentioned that when
you were 12, you didn't feel any fear. When you
were 22, did you feel fear? It sounds like it.
Fear is not the word. Hysterical terror, I would
say, is the best I can describe it. Right on
the edge of insanity with terror. Terrible. Terrible.
Was there any point that you felt like you went
to some kind of a heavenly place or felt God's
love or was it just the fact that you woke up
out of it? During the experience when I overdosed?
Either one. During those two experiences? No.
Okay, we'll talk about another experience in
a minute that does go down that direction a little
bit, but I just want to finish up on these before
we move on. Physically, What happened to your
body after the overdose? Were you just fine when
you woke up in the morning? Did you have some
after -effects? When I woke up and I popped up
and it was morning time in my spirit I was like
completely sober Clear mind clear -minded and
in my head and when I was there, I was clear
-minded in my head So that experiences was so
You know, like if somebody's drunk or something
and they have an accident, they become completely
sober. I was completely sharp, you know, minded
with everything. And I can remember for up to
a week, just at the strangest times, I would
hear at the low, the fire audibly, not in my
head, but I could hear it. I would just kind
of shake a little bit. And I think God just loved
that as a remnant to prepare me. And just a subtle
warning like, hey, Randy, yeah, that place you
heard with that fire, yeah, it's there. Let me
just give you a quick reminder in case you just
try to play it off. Let me just remind you. Here's
what I'm trying to put together in my own mind.
Some people have these NDEs that are absolutely
beautiful and they feel so much incredible love,
love of God. and they come back and that guides
them through their life. And what you're telling
me is experiences that you had were more like
the opposite, like I'm going to do good because
I know how bad hell is. Me doing good or nothing,
it's nothing about that. You know, Jesus, you
know, talked about a lot about heaven and Jesus
talked about hell a lot, but Jesus talked about
hell twice as much as He did of heaven. So I
think obviously Jesus must have done that for
a reason. We all have a purpose. My good deeds
is a dirty rag, so I'm not trying to earn my
way to salvation. It's because of what Jesus
did on the cross. His blood sacrificed for me
that He can cleanse my sins so I can be with
Him in heaven. And then maybe somebody listening
to you will not take my words, but take the words
of Jesus. trust in Jesus. The Bible says those
that call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
And some people, God just has, you know, to roll
up his sleeves and get to work to fix the stupid.
To fix the stupid. Okay. How was the other way
you put it earlier? Cosmically stupid? Galactically
stupid. Galactically stupid. I love that term.
And we all fit that from time to time. Thank
you for all of that. We're going to go down a
little bit different path now, and this is something
that we don't usually get into on this show.
We try to stick with near -death experiences,
but from time to time talk about related experiences
to near -death experiences, and those are categorized
as there are shared -death experiences, out -of
-body experiences, spiritually transformative
experiences, and probably a few more that I just
can't name at this point. But you had an interesting
and very positive out -of -body experience at
one point. This actually happened to you in church?
It did. Would you tell us what happened that
time? Sure. And just right before I say that,
you know, it's funny, at least funny to me how,
or strange how Jesus spoke of hell twice as much.
So two to one versus, you know, the glories of
heaven. I've had two experiences in hell and
one of heaven. I find that kind of interesting.
But when I was 14, I spent the night with my
grandmother and my step -grandfather. I think
it was out for the summer. We went to a church,
a church service. And I remember a big auditorium,
lots of people, lots of people. And that day,
they had a guest speaker to give the sermon.
Well, Big Church, so he gave his sermon, and
I remember at the end, he started talking like,
hey, closing up if anybody needs any type of
prayer or anything to come forward so that he
could pray for them. A lot of people went up,
but when I was sitting there, not to be funny,
but as a 14 -year -old boy, certain things that
14 -year -old boys feel guilty about. So, you
know, I wanted to just go up there, you know,
confess my sins and just ask for prayer for it.
So lots of people went up to the church, 50,
60 people or more, and he started at the far
end, and me and my grandfather went up also,
and we were at the other end opposite of him.
So they all lined up, and I noticed when the
guest speaker went to the first person, there
were like two bigger gentlemen, and he was doing
something very strange. He would go up to them,
talk to them for a second. He laid his hand on
them, and he'd pray for a minute, and they would...
fall backwards unconscious, and then the two
guys behind the person would gently lay him down,
and the women of the church, they would lay like
a little blue blanket over him. And this just
blew my mind, like, what? Where am I at? What
is going on? This is just so strange. I've never
seen anything like this. And I'm just watching
in amazement, and one by one, without fail, he
would lay his hands on him, pray, and they would
just fall out unconscious. incredible 14 year
old like what it was just so strange and funny
to me well he kept getting closer and I kept
just watching him more intently and my grandfather
he was the second to the last and I'm the last
person so he starts praying for Willie and he
has these big thick glasses and he prays for
him and I thought was the funniest thing his
glasses just go flying over his head And he goes
unconscious, still just, you know, in bewilderment
and lay down, put a blanket on him. And just,
oh my, he comes to me and he didn't even have
time to pray. As soon as he put his hand on me,
I was out. And like, in the Bible it says, in
the body or out of the body, I do not know. I
believe it was John. He was taken and, you know,
shown a vision. I'm out. And the real me, I am
standing in a white sea of light, an ocean of
light, endless, no beginning, no end. The funny
thing with this light though, it's kind of a
contradiction because this light was so bright
and so pure, it should have blinded me, it should
have been a blinding light, but it didn't blind
me. Not only was I in this ocean of white light
that didn't blind me, The light was alive. I
don't know how to explain it, but the light was
moving and pulsating, just like pulsating with
just unimaginable, godly energy. I was standing
there, but I was standing in the light, but I
wasn't standing on a floor. I was standing in
the light and I became one with the light. I
said, God's on the other side of that light.
I didn't know how far God was away. I said, man,
if I can just walk. through this light, I can
get to the Father. I began walking in this light,
and then as soon as I started walking, boom,
God put my spirit back in my body. I'm paralyzed
on the floor, but I have this perfect peace over
me. I didn't have any control of my body. I couldn't
open my eyes. I couldn't move, but I could hear
the people in the church, and I'm like in this
perfect peace soaking it in. So then eventually,
you know, they helped me up and I get back to
my seat. And just bewildered by the experience,
but I don't know what everybody else saw, but
that's what God showed me. And I can honestly
say, I think God did that just, well, I know
he foreknew all the trouble I was going to get
into, all the things, just to give me a glimpse
of hope. Say, Hey, Randy, hell's real, but so
what? Heaven is real, too. I believe that's why
He allowed me to experience that. You mentioned
that you didn't know what everybody else saw.
Did you talk to your grandfather, though, about
his experience there? No, I was just overwhelmed
by everything, and I hadn't talked about it for
years. Like, how do you explain this to people?
So I kept it secret. You know, I kept it to myself.
Yeah, why do you feel like you need to share
it now? Well, God's revealed to me that we all
need to help bring people to Christ. We're all
called to do that, to share the gospel and our
testimony. Maybe just to give hope to somebody.
Maybe there's an agnostic listening to this or
an atheist or somebody that doesn't know the
Lord, a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Muslim. And
I would just say, trust in Jesus Christ. Don't
trust my words. Call upon the Lord. God won't
let you down. Test the Lord. He's near to though,
all we have to do is call upon him and he's no
respecter of persons. I'm nobody special. I just
want to share my experience to let you know that
he's special, not me. Wow, that's a perfect ending
to this interview. But I have one last question
real quick. How much fear of death do you have?
Now? None. The staying, the fear of death. I
look forward one day being called home to heaven.
I know I'll be with the Lord one day, so I'm
happy to do this now. No more fear. Perfect love
casts out all fear. And Jesus is perfect love.
Randy, I really appreciate you sharing with us
today. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you for having
me. Thanks again for listening and sharing this
podcast. Don't forget to hit the follow or subscribe
button and sign up for our newsletter at roundtripdeath
.com. If you want to share your near -death experience,
or if you have questions or comments about the
show, send an email to eric at roundtripdeath
.com. Until then, I wish you everything good
that you're looking for in this life and the
next.