Mariandree Cárdenas, 24, believes she had a profound near-death experience, spending what felt like three hours with God before awakening from a coma. The incident began when Mariandree, working from home in Guatemala, suddenly found her throat closing up and began choking. Her body started twisting, and she felt as though her face was “falling asleep,” rendering her speechless.
Before losing all physical movement, she managed to send a text to her mother and brother for help. They arrived to find her unconscious. With a history of asthma believed to have triggered the episode, Mariandree was rushed to the hospital where doctors placed her in a coma.
“I couldn’t hear almost anything anymore and my body no longer responded,” Mariandree, a graphic designer, recounted. “The last thing I heard was a nurse or doctor say the phrase ‘she left us.’ And in the blink of an eye, I stopped being on Earth and appeared somewhere else.”
Mariandree describes this as the moment she met her maker. “I appeared in a place full of light but without sun, moon, or stars, sitting at a long table full of food I had never seen, surrounded by beings of light who no longer had human bodies,” she explained. Communication happened through the mind, which felt completely natural to her as if she had always belonged there, reported The Sun.
“I experienced the greatest love for all those beings of light. I felt that they were all part of me, and I was part of them. In front of me sat God. I know it was God because he was the greatest light, illuminating the entire place. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he was laughing,” she said. “He was very happy and smiling, paying attention to me and to all the other beings at the same time.”
Despite feeling a deep sense of belonging and fulfillment, God told Mariandree she had to return. “He explained to me that it was not my time and that I had to return ‘for love,'” she recalled. Moments later, Mariandree emerged from her coma. “For me, it was three hours in heaven, but on Earth, it was three days. A day later, I was able to go home with the proper rest and care.”
Now fully recovered, Mariandree remains convinced of her experience. “I don’t think it was delirium. I believe it was something I had to live with because God wanted it that way. He chose me to show what happens after death, to solve that great mystery. I feel like he wanted to share some time with me and then he gave me back.”