From Atheist to Evangelist: A Near-Death Journey to Hell and Back

Bryan W. Melvin, 67, of Fort Collins, Colorado, says a medical crisis decades ago changed his life forever. He claims he died for four hours during a cholera illness when he was 22 and visited what he describes as hell, a journey that led him to become an evangelical Christian who travels the United States telling others about his experience.

Melvin’s account centers on a construction-site accident in Tucson, Arizona, where he says he first learned he had contracted cholera after drinking polluted water containing rust-colored algae, along with a neurotoxin and a form of dysentery. He was sent home from work, refused hospitalization for a time, and two days later, when friends planned a trip out of town, he encouraged them to go before his condition worsened. “I found out after I got taken to hospital that I had contracted cholera, along with some type of neurotoxin from the algae, plus a form of dysentery,” he recalled. “And then after they left, … it all hit me again. I managed to crawl back into the bedroom and on to the bed — and that’s when I died.”

His supernatural journey began with an out-of-body experience: he says he floated above his body, passed through the ceiling, and traveled through a dark void toward a radiant light accompanied by music that he could understand despite the language being unfamiliar. He describes being shown snippets of his life and a forthcoming reckoning, then entering a tunnel and a chamber that resembled a tormented landscape more than any conventional hell.

Melvin says he entered a square, cube-like cell area, with red molten rock and a sulfurous stench pervasive in the air. He saw people suffering punishments that, in his view, mirrored wrongs he had committed in life, and demons taunting those trapped inside the cells. “It was like the demons were taunting people that were trapped inside these cubes,” he said, and the torments ranged from physical beatings to more insidious mental anguish. He claimed to have seen Adolf Hitler in a fiery cell and Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Holocaust, in a similar torment, a detail he says underscored the gravity of moral failure.

“I had no idea I was going to come out of it,” he recalled. “This was my permanent home. I knew I deserved this place. I was totally without hope.” But the narrative took a dramatic turn when a figure he identified as Jesus, distinguished by the pierced wrists, appeared and signaled a possible return. Melvin says Jesus carried him out of the chamber and told him there was still a choice to be made. “He carried me out of there and I wept like I’ve never cried before,” he said, describing how a push from Jesus sent him back through the black void and into his body, feet first.

Melvin awoke in Tucson’s hospital after being found ice-cold in his home. Doctors noted signs of extreme physical distress, including stiffening, edema, and an appearance reminiscent of rigor mortis, and he later spent time reviewing his medical records. He says his recoveryconfirm that he had experienced a near-death episode, and the experience catalyzed a religious transformation that reshaped his life. He and his late wife, Sharon, who he described as a spouse since 1988, changed their beliefs after the event; he would later write about the experience in a 2005 book, A Land Unknown: Hell’s Dominion, and dedicate himself to evangelism.

"I just said, 'Lord Jesus, I never want to go back to that awful place,'" Melvin recalled. "Take me, I’m yours. You know, I owe you my life. That’s what I said." Since then, he has shared his testimony at churches and prayer meetings across the United States, seeking to warn others about the consequences of sin and to offer a path toward redemption.

The medical and near-death aspects of his story sit within a broader scholarly conversation. Researchers have long explored near-death experiences, which can include out-of-body sensations, feelings of detachment, or encounters with religious figures. Bruce Greyson, a leading near-death experience researcher, has noted that the experience is not universal, with estimates suggesting only a subset of people report the sensation of a sensory journey during temporary death. Some researchers emphasize that contextual factors and personal beliefs shape such experiences. Dr. Donna Thomas, a researcher at the University of Lancashire, has noted that many near-death experiences reported tend toward blissful themes, though variations exist.

Melvin’s advocates frame his experience as a turning point that underlined the seriousness of spiritual choices. He maintains that the vision not only altered his beliefs but redirected his daily life toward helping others through faith-based mentoring and ministry. He has written and spoken about his experience for years and maintains that what he saw in hell was not a fictional allegory but a real consequence of lives lived apart from faith.

Today, Melvin emphasizes perseverance in faith and outreach as central to his mission. Even as he acknowledges ongoing health issues and occasional relapses, his message centers on the transformative potential of divine intervention and personal turning away from past behavior. “That’s what we’re supposed to do as Christians,” he said of his work engaging with churches and prayer groups. “People’s lives have been shattered by life, they’re broken, they’re battered, they’re bruised, and we help pray and help them walk through that.”

The Daily Mail, which first published Melvin’s account, notes that his testimony has been carried into public discourse through his writings and public appearances, offering a personal narrative that intersects faith, mortality, and the search for meaning in contemporary culture.