Sharon Millerman's Near-Death Experience: Struck by Lightning

The House That Wasn't Hers

Sharon went into her house. Everything looked strange. The colors had this burnt gold quality, like the world had been dipped in amber. She looked at the curtains in her kitchen. They weren't hers. She walked into the dining room. The furniture wasn't hers either. It was her house, but nothing in it belonged to her. She was getting confused.

She heard an old-time radio playing, something from the 1920s or 1930s. She searched everywhere for it. There was no power in the house. She knew something had happened, but she didn't know she was dead. She couldn't find whatever was making that radio sound.

Just as she started to panic, something appeared. "There was this huge loving formless presence that appeared," Sharon describes, "and I mean he was huge and he just filled me full of this peace and this love that I've never felt in my entire life." She wasn't afraid anymore.

Moving Sideways Through Pink and Gold

The presence picked her up, she says, like he had big arms. They started moving sideways. Not up, not down. Sideways. They moved very quickly through what looked like beautiful pink and gold clouds.

When they reached the end of the clouds, Sharon saw the most beautiful garden she'd ever seen in her life. The sky was blue. The air was sweet. The colors were impossibly vibrant. "The pinks were pinker, the reds were redder, the yellows were brighter yellow, much more so than what you see here," she recalls. She could hear birds singing. The flowers were colors she doesn't have words for.

She still didn't know she was dead. She was just going with the flow.

The Brothers She Never Met

Two men came forward as they moved deeper into the garden. At first Sharon thought they were angels. They wore expensive, finely woven linen clothing and they were glowing. Then it hit her like instant divine knowledge: these were her two brothers who had died when they were babies. She'd been a baby when they died, so she'd never met them. But she knew them immediately.

When they smiled, they looked exactly like her dad when he was a young man. They were so beautiful. Sharon kept telling them, "Dad would be so proud of you," because they were so beautiful. They appeared to be in their late twenties or early thirties.

Her brothers were the ones who had to tell her she'd died. When they told her, Sharon said, "Okay, I can do this, this is okay," because she felt so much love and acceptance. That was one of the big things she couldn't get over.

When they told her she was dead, she looked down at herself. She could see her hair coming down the front. She could see her body. She was a better version of herself. She could see her clothes and her feet. She could feel the grass. She still had all her senses, but everything was extremely heightened. She could see all the way around without turning her head. She could see far distances in great detail. The air smelled like freshly cut grass.

The Gathering

They moved further into the garden. A bunch of other people started to gather around Sharon. They were from all different time periods. The women wore beautiful dresses. Some of the men wore fancy suits. Others were dressed like people dress today. She knew she knew them, but she didn't know where she knew them from.

Not one of them was old. Everyone was between their late twenties and early thirties. She didn't see any old people, any sick people, any people hurting or crying. Everybody was young and glowing, just so beautiful. They gathered around her, just loving her.

The Life Review That Wasn't

It was time for her life review. The huge loving presence moved from beside her to behind her. Her brothers got on either side of her. The other people gathered around.

Sharon saw what looked like an old-fashioned movie screen. She watched like a black and white movie going really fast, like an old-fashioned movie reel. It was her whole life. She saw herself as a little kid. It went from the moment she was born all the way up until the moment she died in her backyard.

It was over in a blink of an eye. Just a snap of the fingers. Sharon thought, "Wow, my life must be really boring because it's over so quick."

She asked her brothers what was missing. Something was off. They just grinned. They weren't going to tell her anything. "I was like, really, you're gonna do this now?" Sharon recalls.

What she got out of it was that the huge loving presence was God, and God at that time did not take on a form. He was just a spirit. He was huge and all he did was love her so completely. All those people around her loved her completely and accepted her totally. There was no judgment at all.

Sharon didn't know she was supposed to be judging herself. They didn't judge her and she didn't judge herself, so there was no judgment. That's why it was over so quick.

The Boomerang Effect

Then she heard a male voice say, "What you put out into the universe will come back to you." She'd never heard words like that. She didn't know what they really meant.

As they kept walking, it was like she was hooked up to a giant IV bottle of knowledge. There was this divine wisdom and she was being infused with all this knowledge. Part of that was being shown what those words meant.

She calls it the boomerang effect. "It's like you throw a boomerang and it gets faster and faster and it comes back at you," Sharon explains. "That's kind of like what happens with our thoughts and our words and our actions and how we treat people here." What we do goes out into the universe, spins, gains momentum, and comes back like a boomerang and smacks you right in the head. You don't know when it's coming or how it's coming, but it will come.

That made Sharon realize she'd better be a good girl, keep her mouth shut, be nice and loving and compassionate and kind, because that's what she wanted to come back to her.

They kept walking. She was getting more knowledge. Who God is. What God is. How the universe was put together. She kept saying to God, "God, you're so awesome, this is so awesome, you're so cool." She told him, "You're so simple and us human beings make you so complicated and you're not complicated at all," and she was shocked.

The Music of Everything

As this was happening, Sharon was looking around. She heard music. Big music. Huge music. Many instruments. Lots of orchestras put together. Drums and pianos and stringed instruments.

She noticed that everything had a vibrational sound. The trees had a sound. The rocks had a sound. The water had a sound. The grass had a sound. When you take all of those individual sounds and you put them together, you have the most magnificent choir and orchestra that you've ever heard in your life, and everything is singing praises to God.

Sharon is sure she was only there for a couple of minutes, but it seemed like she was there for weeks and weeks because there was absolutely no time.

The Glorious City

She could see what she called the Glorious City off in the distance. There was a bright golden wall going around the city. In the middle of the city was a round building with a golden dome on it. There were lots of buildings.

She saw some buildings on the outskirts. She saw a place where babies and children go, where they're loved and cared for. They were running around and playing and having a wonderful time. They were all different ages and stages. When babies and children die, there's a place they go where they're loved and cared for by their past loved ones, angels, whatever.

She saw another building. All these buildings were made of alabaster marble. They were beautiful. The architecture had columns and archways and intricate detail carved into the marble.

She saw what she calls the Hall of Knowledge, but she doesn't know if that's what it's called. It was like a library. It had a bazillion books from ceiling to floor. It was about every subject you could possibly want to know anything about. You can go in there and get one of those books and you get this knowledge.

She saw another building that had beautiful healing pools, like swimming pools, out in the back behind it. The water was like living water, just alive. It was like a spiritual hospital for people who have died a traumatic death or suicide. There are mentors and teachers and angels and people there to help bring these people gently to the awareness of what's happened to them. Everything in heaven is very gentle, very beautiful. They're loved into wholeness, loved into the understanding of what happened.

The Party Room

Then Sharon saw this one room that was absolutely magnificent. It was a party room. It had a big huge chandelier. It had a guy in the corner playing this giant beautiful gorgeous piano. There were people dancing and laughing and talking. There was a pink blush carpet on the floor and expensive paintings on the walls.

On the opposite side from the piano was a table with expensive white linen. There were silver trays and flowers, huge flower arrangements and candelabras. It was magnificent. There were fruits and vegetables and meats and pastries and breads, just every kind of food you could possibly want on these silver trays.

The women were in beautiful dresses of pink and purple and blue and yellow and red. The flowers on the table matched their dresses. There were men in tuxedos and fancy suits. There was a butler walking around holding a silver tray on his hand, passing around champagne glasses.

That's all Sharon saw of that. She doesn't know what the party was or what they were doing, but it was so real and it seemed so magnificent and festive and joyful.

Jesus Walks Out of the Trees

By this time they were sort of in the middle of the garden. Sharon was in shock over all of it. It was so gorgeous. There was a grove of trees over in the corner, off to the side from the wall of the city.

Jesus walks out of the grove of trees and comes up to her. When he does, her brothers disappear. She doesn't know where they went.

What he said to her was: "I love you, I'm with you, and don't be afraid."

That was her first clue that she was going to be sent back, but she didn't catch it. It went over her head because she was just staring at him. It didn't dawn on her that what he was saying was, "I'm sending you back."

He was solid, not just an image. He had long, dark colored hair. He had a dark olive complexion, kind of glowy like everybody else was glowing, so he looked like he had a tan maybe on top of the darker skin. He had beautiful brown eyes. He was breathtaking, just breathtaking.

Sharon has seen him several times since because he's visited her physically, not in dreams or visions. This was the only time she saw him in a robe. He certainly did not look like the blonde hair, blue-eyed Jesus that everybody thinks of, but he was absolutely breathtaking.

What Would You Do If It Was Just Me and You?

Jesus led Sharon over to a wooded glen. There was light coming through the branches. There was a log lying there and a stream. She sat down on the log. When she sat down, Jesus walked away.

There was a man sitting on the other end of the log. Sharon knew that man was God. That huge loving formless presence from the beginning had now taken on a form. She knew that form was not, I mean, it was the face he chose for her to see.

He was beautiful too. She wants to say he was an older version of Jesus, but not, maybe an extension, Jesus was a younger extension. She doesn't know how to put it. But he looked totally different. He had short black curly hair. Blue eyes. His skin was not as dark.

They're sitting on the log and he turns to her and says, "What would you do if it was just me and you?"

Sharon said, "What?" She did not understand the question.

He said, "What would you do if it was just me and you?"

She still didn't understand the question. So he just grinned at her. He said, "Come with me." They get up and move further into the wooded glen. There was a clearing. He kind of waves his hand and opens up the sky.

Sharon can see the vastness of the universe. She could see the spinning planets and sparkling stars and these rainbow colored gases. But there were no buildings and no trees and no people and no cars and nothing. It was just all that stuff and nothing.

She looked at God and said, "If it's all of that and just me and you, you would be sick of me after the first 10 minutes with all of my questions, and you wouldn't like me anymore, so no."

When she said that to him, he threw his head back and he laughed. When he laughed it made her laugh, because his laughter is so contagious. His eyes were sparkling. It was kind of a cute, funny situation. Sharon felt really, "Oh my gosh, did you just say that to God?"

They went and sat back down on the log. He asked her again. He said, "What would you do if it was just me and you? No mom and dad, no husband, no children, no friends, nobody, just me and you."

Sharon just kind of looked at him. She really didn't know what to say even then. She's looking at this tree and it draws her attention away from the question.

All of a sudden she's starting to think these thoughts. She doesn't know where they came from, whether it was God who put them in her head. But she said, just out of the blue, and she has no idea why: "God, your hundredth name in the Quran is God is everywhere, God is nowhere, and God is in me."

He said, "Yes, that's right."

Sharon had never read the Quran. She'd never seen the Quran. She didn't know anything about it. So she was kind of shocked at herself that she'd come up with something like that and that it was right.

Seeing God in Everything

Then, as she's looking at the tree, she sees the detail of the bark and the roots beneath the ground pulling the nutrients out of the soil. The nutrients go up into the leaves and the leaves clean the air and we breathe the air. So everything is connected to everything and every single part is very important to everything else.

Sharon is sure God put that in her head too, because she was never one to think that way.

She looked at God and said, "God, you made this tree, you are in this tree, so when I see this tree I see you."

He said, "Yes, that's right."

Then she started thinking about her parents. She said the same thing. "God, you made my parents, you are in my parents, so when I see my parents I see you."

He said, "Yes, that's right."

She said the same thing about her children.

Then Sharon got kind of sad because there have been people in her life who've said really horrible things, who've hurt her very deeply. She started thinking about those people. She said to God, "God, there are people in this world who hurt other people on purpose, but yet you made these people, you are in these people, so when I see these people I see you."

He said, "Yes, that's right."

He said, "Now I have a question for you."

Sharon was like, "Oh my Lord," thinking she wasn't going to do well.

But he said, "When you look in the mirror, what do you see?"

Sharon didn't know what to say back at first, because her first answer would have been "nothing." Her whole life she'd been told, "You're fat, you're ugly, you're stupid, you're this, you're that, whatever." She didn't know what to say. That's not something you tell God.

So she said, "Well, you made me, you're in me, so when I look in the mirror I see you."

He said, "Yes, that's right." And he was so happy. His eyes were sparkly and he was smiling this gorgeous smile. Sharon felt like a little girl who just passed a test. She was happy that he was happy.

What he was basically telling her was: "I don't make mistakes. I don't make junk. And you are not all of the things that those people in this world are telling you that you are. You are not what the world makes you to be. You are what I make you to be. And I love you." That's what he was telling her.

That was huge for Sharon. But we do take on the junk of the world, she says. We do believe what the world teaches. And we don't hear what he's saying.

The Lake and the Future

After that happened, two angels came and got Sharon. They took her to a lake. It was so beautiful. It was like looking into glass, it was so calm. She leaned over and looked into the water.

She could see the earth below. What she was seeing was like it was right up in her face. She could see all these things happening. This was back in 2005, so what she was seeing is stuff that's happening now. She saw future events.

She saw the collapse of money. She saw terrorist stuff. She saw lots of things. But she didn't know what to do with it when she saw it all.

The angels were saying that these things don't have to happen. "It's up to you all. Your collective human selfishness is what is causing these things to happen and you can change this. These things don't have to happen."

But they have happened, at least what Sharon's seen so far has happened. The angels were saying there's time to change, but we have to make that change.

Then Sharon was sent back to her body. If she had a discussion or conversation about whether to come back or not, it probably wasn't a good one and that's why she can't remember.

She does have a right bundle branch block in her heart from the lightning and a seizure disorder.

That's her second near-death experience. Sharon has told her story across multiple interviews, including her reflections on life before incarnation and reincarnation and other aspects of what she saw on the other side.

What This Reveals

Sharon Millerman's account is one of the most theologically rich near-death experiences in the contemporary literature. What makes it so compelling is not just the vividness of the afterlife landscape she describes, but the precision of the spiritual instruction she received.

The detail about seeing her infant brothers as young men in their late twenties is one of the most commonly reported features of NDE reunions. Experiencers consistently describe deceased loved ones appearing at an optimal age, neither elderly nor infant, but in the prime of life. This suggests that our essential identity is not tied to the age at which we die, but to some ideal form we inhabit in the afterlife. Sharon's brothers, who died as babies and whom she never met in this life, were instantly recognizable to her. That's not memory. That's soul recognition.

The life review Sharon describes is unusual in one critical respect: it happened without judgment. Most experiencers report being asked to judge themselves during the life review, to feel the emotional impact of their actions on others. Sharon's review was over in a flash because neither God nor the gathered loved ones judged her, and she didn't know she was supposed to judge herself. What this suggests is that the judgment we fear is entirely self-imposed. The divine presence offers only love and acceptance. We are the ones who bring the scales.

The teaching about the boomerang effect is a perfect distillation of what many spiritual traditions call karma or the law of reciprocity. But Sharon didn't get this as abstract philosophy. She got it as direct knowledge infused into her consciousness. What you put out into the universe gains momentum and comes back to you. Not as punishment, but as natural law. The universe is a mirror. It reflects what we project.

The vision of the Glorious City is architecturally consistent with dozens of other NDE accounts that describe cities of light, libraries of infinite knowledge, and healing centers for souls who died traumatically. The detail about the party room, complete with a butler serving champagne, might sound frivolous to some readers, but it points to something profound: heaven is not a static place of eternal worship. It's a place of activity, creativity, celebration, and joy. People are dancing. They're eating. They're laughing. The afterlife is not the end of experience. It's the continuation of it in a realm where suffering has been removed.

But the heart of Sharon's experience, the moment that changed her life, was the conversation with God on the log. The question, "What would you do if it was just me and you?" is a koan. It's designed to short-circuit the rational mind and force a deeper realization. Sharon's first answer was a deflection. Her second answer was the truth: God is everywhere, God is nowhere, and God is in me. God is in the tree. God is in her parents. God is in her children. God is even in the people who hurt her.

And then the question that broke her open: "When you look in the mirror, what do you see?" Sharon had spent her whole life being told she was fat, ugly, stupid, worthless. She'd internalized those voices. But in that moment, sitting with God, she gave the only answer that made sense: "You made me. You're in me. So when I look in the mirror, I see you." And God said, "Yes, that's right."

This is the core teaching of Sharon's NDE: You are not what the world says you are. You are what God says you are. And God says you are divine. God says you are loved. God says you are enough.

Sharon came back with a right bundle branch block in her heart and a seizure disorder. The lightning left physical scars. But it also left her with something the world can't take away: the knowledge that she is loved completely, that her life has meaning, and that the universe is held together by a force that is both infinitely vast and intimately personal. She came back knowing that God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't make junk. And neither do you.