A Witch's NDE: What She Saw Changed Everything

Summary

Imagine Heaven Podcast with John Burke
Episode: A Witch's NDE: What She Saw Changed Everything
Release Date: July 8, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of the Imagine Heaven Podcast, host John Burke delves into the profound near-death experience (NDE) of Savannah Muse, a 29-year-old woman whose tumultuous journey from witchcraft to Christian faith was forever altered by her encounter with the divine. Savannah's gripping narrative not only sheds light on her personal transformation but also explores the broader themes of faith, redemption, and the afterlife.

Savannah Muse’s Background and Early Life

Savannah Muse's story begins with a childhood distant from organized religion. Her early years were marked by an interest in fairy tales and horror movies, which subtly paved the way for her later involvement in witchcraft and paganism. At 14, Savannah briefly joined a church youth group, not out of devotion but for social connections. This period took a tragic turn at 17 when she was sexually assaulted during her time at the church, leading her to abandon her faith entirely.

Savannah Muse [01:57]: "I got raped. And what went through my mind was, why would a loving God let that happen to me? So I left the church."

This traumatic experience fueled her descent into depression and anxiety, pushing her away from God and into the world of occult practices as she sought solace and power through witchcraft.

Descent into Witchcraft and Paganism

In her early twenties, Savannah’s curiosity morphed into a deep-seated involvement with witchcraft and paganism. Influenced by her cousin and immersed in tarot cards, crystals, and pagan rituals, she began practicing black magic, believing it would protect her and grant her control over her circumstances.

Savannah Muse [06:07]: "I was just curious. Just curiosity. I had no real ill intentions of anything. Just I was just curious."

Her involvement intensified as she started selling metaphysical items, believing she was helping others. However, after another assault at 27, her reliance on curses and spells led to severe PTSD and further estrangement from any semblance of peace.

Health Crisis Leading to NDE

Savannah’s life took a dire turn in August 2023 when she experienced a severe health crisis. Battling undiagnosed and persistent illness, she underwent multiple hospital visits without a clear diagnosis. Her condition deteriorated to the point of renal failure, requiring intense dialysis and resulting in a traumatic brain injury.

Savannah Muse [15:14]: "I was just white as a ghost. So they rushed me to the ICU and my mom told me that my cardiac arrest happened on August 14, 2023."

On August 14, 2023, Savannah's heart stopped for 16 minutes, thrusting her into a near-death experience that would change her life forever.

The Near-Death Experience

During her 16-minute clinical death, Savannah recounts a vivid journey that began with observing medical staff from an otherworldly vantage point. She then transitioned into a picturesque paradise, described with lush greenery and vibrant wildlife, including a tiger that guided her through this heavenly realm.

Savannah Muse [20:04]: "I remember seeing a bunch of doctors. It was as if I was above and looking down and seeing just all these doctors and nurses just in and out."

Her paradise felt overwhelmingly real and joyous, filled with love and free from all pain and suffering. Among the surreal beauty, Savannah encountered her miscarried brother and, most poignantly, Jesus Christ Himself.

Savannah Muse [33:20]: "He says, I love you. I love you. You are so worthy. You are so loved that you are mine."

This divine encounter left Savannah with an indescribable sense of love and worthiness, fundamentally shifting her understanding of faith and existence.

Return to Life and Physical Recovery

Upon returning to her body, Savannah woke up fully conscious after 10 days on life support. Her immediate reaction was a simple, human desire for normalcy, evidenced by her first words being, "Can I have a Dr. Pepper?"

Savannah Muse [40:57]: "All the things to say. That's what came out of my mouth."

Though physically debilitated, suffering from neuropathy and renal failure, Savannah embarked on a challenging recovery journey. With unwavering faith and dedicated physical therapy, she regained her health within a year and a half, defying medical expectations.

Spiritual Transformation and Newfound Faith

Savannah's NDE catalyzed a profound spiritual transformation. Reconnecting with Christianity, she immersed herself in church activities, formed prayer groups, and eventually got baptized twice—each baptism symbolizing her rebirth and renewed faith.

Savannah Muse [53:08]: "It was such an incredible moment because I was able to walk through my church, stand in front of everybody and say, hey, I'm Savannah. I clinically died for 16 minutes. I encountered Jesus Christ and he saved me in every way a person could be saved."

Her story underscores the power of faith in overcoming personal demons and physical ailments, emphasizing that divine intervention can manifest in miraculous ways.

Insights and Reflections

John Burke and Savannah Muse engage in a heartfelt dialogue, reflecting on the significance of her experience. They discuss the vividness of her paradise, the symbolic nature of her encounters, and the broader implications for understanding heaven as described in the Bible. Savage's testimony aligns with John’s research on NDEs, highlighting common themes such as unconditional love, a sense of peace, and encounters with divine beings.

John Burke [62:02]: "He creates us to love God and to walk through this life with God, and so he makes a way."

Conclusion

Savannah Muse's near-death experience is a testament to the transformative power of faith and divine love. Her journey from darkness into light exemplifies the profound impact that encountering the divine can have on an individual's life trajectory. Through her story, listeners are invited to contemplate their own beliefs about the afterlife, the presence of God, and the possibility of redemption and renewal.

John Burke concludes the episode by encouraging listeners to seek a deeper understanding of near-death experiences and their connection to biblical teachings, urging them to explore the Imagine Heaven podcast for more enlightening stories and insights.

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Notable Quotes:

• Savannah Muse [01:57]: "I got raped. And what went through my mind was, why would a loving God let that happen to me? So I left the church."
• Savannah Muse [06:07]: "I was just curious. Just curiosity. I had no real ill intentions of anything. Just I was just curious."
• Savannah Muse [20:04]: "I remember seeing a bunch of doctors. It was as if I was above and looking down and seeing just all these doctors and nurses just in and out."
• Savannah Muse [33:20]: "He says, I love you. I love you. You are so worthy. You are so loved that you are mine."
• Savannah Muse [53:08]: "I was able to walk through my church, stand in front of everybody and say, hey, I'm Savannah. I clinically died for 16 minutes. I encountered Jesus Christ and he saved me in every way a person could be saved."
• John Burke [62:02]: "He creates us to love God and to walk through this life with God, and so he makes a way."

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Savannah Muse's story is a poignant reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of faith. Her encounter serves as a beacon of hope, illustrating that even in our darkest moments, there is a path to redemption and divine love.

Transcript

[John Burke]

Well, I'm John Burke, author of the New York Times bestselling book Imagine Heaven and Imagine the God of Heaven. And this is the Imagine Heaven Live series. It's a series that I'm doing in between seasons of the Imagine Heaven podcast. So if you haven't listened to season one, the first 10 episodes, in it, I cover a lot of what I discovered in 40 years of researching close to 1500 near death experiences and showing how the commonalities align with the Bible. I think you'll find it fascinating, so hopefully you'll listen to that. But in this live series, I'm just going to let you hear some of the full live interviews I've done over the years. And today, actually, this is one I did just last week. So I'll stick around to the end. I'm going to make some comments about it at the end. But Savannah Muse had never heard of a near death experience when just about 20 months ago, at the age of 29, she had one. Some tragic things had happened to Savannah in her life that led her away from God and into the world of witchcraft, Wiccan, paganism, all through her 20s. And at first it was just out of curiosity. Then it became a desire for power, even to curse and hurt those who had hurt her. But in August 2023, her heart stopped beating for 16 minutes. And as she was dying, one. One powerful word came to her mind. Savannah discovered the one name that has power over all evil. Listen well. Hey, Savannah Muse, thank you so much for talking with us today.

[Savannah Muse]

Of course, of course.

[John Burke]

Where. Where are you right now?

[Savannah Muse]

I am in Greenville, Virginia.

[John Burke]

Greenville, Virginia?

[Savannah Muse]

Yes. Yes, sir.

[John Burke]

Well, tell us a little bit of what happened that led up to your near death experience. Give us a little of the backgr background as well.

[Savannah Muse]

All right. So when I was a child, I was not really raised in the church. I went like Christmas and Easter. But I always had a thing for fairy tales and horror movies from a very young age, watching things that I should not have been watching. And I think that possibly paved a way later one in my life. Around 14, I found my way into a church and joined their youth group. But I wasn't really there for God. It was just to hang out with my friends and then kind of bounced around between there and another church. And then around 17, I got raped. And what went through my mind was, why would a loving God let that happen to me? So I left the church.

[John Burke]

It happened at the church. Someone that you met?

[Savannah Muse]

No, no, no, no. It just happened while I was attending the church.

[John Burke]

Okay, yes.

[Savannah Muse]

And so that was extremely devastating to me. I got put on antidepressants and then it just kind of slowly pushed me away from God. I guess I just kind of walked away. I was very confused. So fast forward a little bit to my 20s. I still believed in God, although I didn't know anything about Jesus Christ. I didn't know that it was called, you know, the Holy Bible. I didn't know the Gospels. I just knew there was a God and there was a place called heaven and then there was a place called hell. That was basically the extent of it. So when I was 21, my grandmother, who was my everything, my best friend, she passed away of cancer. And at the time, I had a cousin who was living with me who was into witchcraft. And so that's kind of how I was more so exposed to that. And now she. She has found the Lord, praise God. But she had a lot of crystals and she was very much into nature and the universe. And so I kind of took it a step farther and I started getting into tarot cards and oracle cards. I still wanted to communicate with my grandmother. I wasn't ready to let go of her. So that lasted probably until I was around 25.

[John Burke]

And that you were doing tarot card, were you actually doing readings or going to readings?

[Savannah Muse]

I was going to readings quite frequently.

[John Burke]

Okay.

[Savannah Muse]

Like paying, you know, to have.

[John Burke]

Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

And I had crystals all over my room and was really, really, really into fairy tales and folklore, fables, mythology, all of that. And I started studying all of this stuff. Like hardcore studying hours upon hours had probably hundreds of dollars wrapped up in fairy tale books and mythology books, all of this stuff. And somehow that got me deeper into witchcraft. I started then studying paganism, Wicca, witchcraft.

[John Burke]

And what was your, what was your motivation at that point?

[Savannah Muse]

I was just curious. Just curiosity, Just curiosity. I had no real ill intentions of anything. Just I was just curious.

[John Burke]

It wasn't. It wasn't like wanting to have power over people or things or not. Just curiosity. Okay.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. At that point. So around 26, I started having more friends that were in the witchcraft community. I was exposed to more and more things. I started collecting. And this is going to sound wild, but I pray that there's someone out there that this is for. I started collecting little fairy houses and little fairy trinkets and stuff. And I would put them all around my apartment. And I had an altar that was. I had a huge walk in closet and this altar had everything that you could imagine. I had animal bones, I had skulls, I had animals in jars. I had all of the slew of tarot cards. I had potion bottles. At this point in time, I'd fallen so deep into it that I actually sold stuff in a metaphysical shop and made money off of the things that I was selling, which included. I would make customized, like, little potion bottles for people, and I would get these little miniature brews and add dried herbs and ribbons. Just all this. All this stuff.

[John Burke]

And what was the significance of all that? Did all that play into the. Yeah, like magic.

[Savannah Muse]

Black magic, I want to say. So I, like. I guess I was first introduced to all the magic and stuff in the fairy tales, and then later on in life, I guess, somehow got more into it. And at this point in time, it was. I was starting to get that. The power, like, really kind of getting an understanding for it, you know, and having, like, the animal bones and stuff like that was to honor a life, know, past lived. And at this point in time, still had no ill intentions. Thought everything I was doing was, quote, unquote, helping people. Because I would take Sage and Palo Santo and I would, you know, bless all of these items. Essentially, I would say a little prayer, you know, please let this protect so and so and, you know, bring them prosperity or whatever, what may have you. So leading up to that, I think that it had gotten to the point. It had gotten to the point where I was about to be at no return. I. I would say I ended up at the age of 27, in the midst of all of this. I'm neck deep in all of this. I get raped again. And at this point in time, I'm like, okay, I have the power now. You're not gonna do that to me. And then I start putting curses on this person.

[John Burke]

It was someone you knew.

[Savannah Muse]

It was someone I knew. Yes. And so that kind of spiraled into a lot of ptsd, a lot of more depression, anxiety. And I. I basically wanted this person to die. If I'm being quite honest. I wanted them to stay because it was. It was. It was pretty brutal. They actually pulled jail time over it.

[John Burke]

Oh, I'm so sorry.

[Savannah Muse]

It's.

[John Burke]

That's horrible.

[Savannah Muse]

But so after that, I. It was a couple of months that was, you know, pretty rough. I stayed in bed. I was very depressed. But that's when I believe that God started kind of working in me a little bit. My mother all my life had been either a babysitter or working in a nursery. And since I had been 16, I kind of in and out, had babysat some kids and, you know, worked in A nursery and what have you. And I woke up one day, I was just like, I think I want to apply to be a preschool teacher. I don't know where that came from, but I applied a bunch of places and I started taking little online classes, enrolled in college, and then I actually got hired at numerous daycares, and I turned them down for one that was in a little church. And at the time, I was like, I feel like I do not belong in church. All of my tattoos and just everything. And they accepted me and they hired me as a full time teacher for preschool. And I fell in love. I fell in love with each and every little child. And I. My mother will tell you that she had never seen me so happy before in my life. And about seven months, looking back, you.

[John Burke]

Think God was leading you in that way, that's why you took that. Yeah, that job.

[Savannah Muse]

For sure, for sure, for sure. But then around seven months, and I started in August, so this would have been probably around February, I started getting really, really sick. In and out of doctor's offices, happening to call out of work all the time, leaving work early. The last straw for me before I resigned was I was sick in the next room, and a little kid came up to me and said, Ms. Savannah, are you okay? And that it shattered everything in me. And I was like, my kids can't see me like this. This isn't good.

[John Burke]

You didn't know what it was?

[Savannah Muse]

No, not at this time. I was just. I couldn't keep anything down. I couldn't eat. I was vaccinated for tuberculosis, the flu, Covid. You know, being a teacher, you have to be vaccinated for all of that stuff. Covid had never gone through my mind. I'd been to the doctor, you know, they had done strep throat tests and all of the stuff, and just.

[John Burke]

Is this. When is this?

[Savannah Muse]

What year was of 2023.

[John Burke]

Oh, so after the big COVID lockdown.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. Yeah. And I vaccinated, I think two different times. And I had the booster shots. So I'm sick. I can't keep anything down. This goes on for months. They finally remove my gallbladder. And I'm told at the hospital, you know, this is either solving the problem, but if it gets worse, we have another problem, we're gonna have to figure out what it is. So I got a lot sicker. And I stayed that way from February through August.

[John Burke]

Oh, wow.

[Savannah Muse]

And I.

[John Burke]

What? And. And were they the symptoms of COVID Yeah, but nobody. Why would they not test you?

[Savannah Muse]

I was in and out of so many doctors, so many hospital visits, it's. My records are actually sitting beside me. And I mean, it's like at tall. It was. And it was never tested for the flu. It's never tested for Covid. I was never tested for anything. I had to beg just to get an iv. Like was. Quite honestly, it was terrible.

[John Burke]

What do you think was going on?

[Savannah Muse]

I don't know. I think maybe the doctors just maybe didn't believe me or maybe they were just, you know, too busy. Because every time I went, it would be just in and out, really quick visits, you know, just kind of check. You're. You're fine, you have a cold, you're fine, you're having allergy symptoms, you know.

[John Burke]

But it just never left. It just hung on.

[Savannah Muse]

It just hung on. So in August, by this point, I've lost like £60. Just being bedridden for months, just constantly sick. I look like what I would have said that I looked like a zombie at this point in time. And I knew somehow that I will. That I was actively dying. My cardiac arrest happened on August 14, 2023.

[John Burke]

So that was just like 20 months ago.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

Wow.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

But you knew, you had a sense that you were dying?

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah, somehow I just. I knew and I cried out.

[John Burke]

You know, so many people have told me that they. They've told me, john, you know, when you're dying.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. It's really hard to explain, but I just. I knew I was scared. And I remember just saying Jesus. That's the last thing that I remember.

[John Burke]

Why Jesus?

[Savannah Muse]

I don't know. I don't know. I guess something in me, just all of that, my entire life, you know, just kind of having God lingering kind of in the background, I guess maybe that just came back and I just knew to just say Jesus. I think that's all the strength that I could monster up to say, honestly.

[John Burke]

And you were literally dying at this point, like in that moment.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

Where were you were at home or where were you?

[Savannah Muse]

I was at home. I was in my bed.

[John Burke]

And so you were alone or with someone else there?

[Savannah Muse]

My mom was asleep in the next room.

[John Burke]

Okay.

[Savannah Muse]

And she found me the following morning. So this would have been on August 14th. I was on my floor completely comatose and I had an antique table. It had like a really sharp edged corner and I missed hitting my head on it by again, like that much. So that alone was a miracle because it could have busted my head open. When the squad got there, they said that my blood sugar was in the 40s and I was just. I was white as a ghost. So they rushed me to the ICU and my mom told me that I probably had 15 different doctors in there. Just in and out, in and out, in and out. She had left to go get something to eat because she just, they told her, you know, we're, we're in here, you know, just leave for a little bit and then come back. So she had gone up the road and she had come back and she told me this was around like 5:00pm and as she's walking into the local hospital, Augusta Health, as she's walking in through the doors, they tell that it comes on the telegram, code blue. And it was my room number. So she fell to her knees and a woman came like running to her and was like, honey, honey, what's wrong? What happened? Like? And she's like, that's my daughter, that's my daughter. Oh my God, that's my daughter. And this woman stayed with my mom. And so a doctor came in and told my mom, we lost your daughter. We lost her for 16 minutes, but praise God, we got her back. She's comatose. She is on life support, but we got a heartbeat back. And then I remained comatose for 10 days on life support.

[John Burke]

What do you remember during that time?

[Savannah Muse]

During that time, I remember having an absolutely life changing near death experience. At the time, I wouldn't have even known what that term was.

[John Burke]

You'd never heard of a near death experience?

[Savannah Muse]

I thought it was like somebody, oh my gosh, he almost got hit by a car or something. I didn't know that people clinically died and had come back. I didn't know this for months after I even got home from the hospital. Yeah, but I remember seeing a bunch of doctors. It was as if I was above and looking down and seeing just all these doctors and nurses just in and out. And I had so many cords hooked up to me and my body was puffed up and I didn't look like me. And then I don't know how I got from one place to the other. But what I remember next was I was where I believe was paradise or some form of paradise. I was surrounded by the most lush green plants and trees and grass, flowers of different varieties and colors. And I've. I've heard this in other testimonies about the grass. When you don't, you don't walk on it. It's like you walk through it, but it doesn't wither, it doesn't bend, nothing. I remember it was like a cool breeze and it was as if it was like a bunch of vines and trees kind of just coming down like that. And then there was a tiger. And keep in mind I really had no significance to tigers. So at this point in time, still, I don't really know the significance of it, but I was greeted by a tiger and taken through just.

[John Burke]

And greeted. What do you mean just?

[Savannah Muse]

He was just kind of there and then I followed him.

[John Burke]

Okay.

[Savannah Muse]

I just kind of followed him through this, like tropical paradise. I don't want to say like a jungle, but imagine like a jungle here. But then like maximize that and eventually I'm walking. I guess I'm walking or floating, I don't really know, but I come up to a huge waterfall. And this waterfall is connected to this huge, pretty lagoon. And I don't know how to describe it other than the bluest water that I'd ever seen, but it was so clear that you could see to the bottom in the sand. It was like diamond. I mean, it just. It was mesmerizing. I look up to what I guess I look up to the right and I see a huge tree. And in this tree are nothing, hundreds of toucans. No, toucans.

[John Burke]

So it is like a tropical place.

[Savannah Muse]

And I. I can't tell you why, but that's. That's the first things that I saw. And I mean, baby toucans, big toucans. I mean, you could see even their feathers. I mean, it was. It was crazy. The. The tiger, I could tell you, the bluest eyes, I mean, the orangest of oranges, just incredible.

[John Burke]

And was it, Was it vivid?

[Savannah Muse]

Yes, so vivid, as if, like, almost as if you could see every single strand of hair on the top. That's how vivid it was. And it was as if you could see up close even if you were far away. And I don't know how to explain that other than.

[John Burke]

Yeah, yeah, well, that's a commonality.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. So that was the first thing that I remember. The second thing that I remember was again, and I don't know how I got from place to place, but I was in a park, like, setting and there was a playground, there were trees. It's like a sandbox, were families and little kids playing and just. I don't know how to describe it other than just pure joy, just pure bliss. It was as if, again, it was here, but so much more than here. I mean, every single thing was just radiating love. And I'm sitting one, like a bench type thing, and I'm just. I'm sitting there and I've kind of got my hands like this and just kind of. I just remember looking down and I remember my hands. Like I didn't have nail polish or anything, but my hands just looked, I guess, like they were always meant. I don't know if that makes any sense or not. It just.

[John Burke]

In what. In what way?

[Savannah Muse]

It just. It felt right. Like it. I felt as if I was like the purest version of me. Like all of my tattoos had been wiped away, my piercings had been wiped away. My black hair was its natural blonde hair. And I just feel so strongly that that's, you know, all of this just wasn't. Yeah.

[John Burke]

And did you have a sense of yourself?

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

Were you yourself?

[Savannah Muse]

I. Yes. But I don't think I knew that I had died. Like, I don't think that it had resonated that I was in heaven at this point in time. I think I was just kind of going with the motions, I guess, just kind of enjoying the. The feeling of love and everything that I was feeling. So I'm sitting on this bench and I look over to my left and there's a guy sitting there. He's got brown hair, he's got green eyes. He's in a gray T shirt with a pocket and light wash blue jeans. He looks at me and he says, and this is all telepathic. There's no, like mouth to mouth. It was just. We just communicated. He said, you don't know me, but I know you and I've always known you. I'm your brother.

[John Burke]

Wow.

[Savannah Muse]

And my mom had had a miscarriage about five years before I was born.

[John Burke]

Wow. And did you know that. Had she told you that?

[Savannah Muse]

I knew that she had had a miscarriage, but I didn't know that it was a boy. All I knew was that she had had a miscarriage. I knew the story of how it had happened, but that was kind of all I knew.

[John Burke]

And how. How old was he?

[Savannah Muse]

I would say between like 20s and 30s, somewhere in that area. And he looked. He looked like he would have been related to me if really. Like he had features of my mom, like the dark hair, the eyes, smile.

[John Burke]

Does she have green eyes?

[Savannah Muse]

She has. They're kind of like a greenish hazel.

[John Burke]

Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

And she has, you know, dark brown hair. My dad is blonde, blondish red hair, so I inherited that from him. But yeah. So I remember just being there with him and again, just the feeling of just love. And I don't remember saying or really thinking anything at that point in time. I think I was just kind of Taking it all in. The next thing I remember, I'm sitting at what I call Heaven's Riverside. And it was so you're.

[John Burke]

You're like somehow transported to this other place.

[Savannah Muse]

Somehow transported from place to place. And I don't know how or do.

[John Burke]

You think these are. These are just kind of like the snapshots you were allowed to take back.

[Savannah Muse]

Do you know, that kind of makes more sense. That makes a lot more sense to.

[John Burke]

Me because some people have, you know, have said, like, there was a lot more that they knew. They either experienced or understood.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

But they were only allowed. Karina is one person. She's like, lord, why won't you. I know. There was so much more. Why won't you let me remember it?

[Savannah Muse]

Right. It's almost like snapshots. That makes so much sense. Yeah. Because again, from place to place, it's like, I can't explain it to you because I don't know. Honestly, I have no idea.

[John Burke]

Right.

[Savannah Muse]

But so then I'm transported, you know, what I call Heaven's Riverside. And it was beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful.

[John Burke]

Why was it beautiful?

[Savannah Muse]

The water. The water, again, was so blue, but again, so blue, but so clear. You could just. You could see to the bottom of it, just the floor. I don't know if it was sand, but again, it just looked like diamond. And the grass, the trees, everything just looked perfect. The greenest greens. The cool breeze is swaying again. And sitting on the side of this riverbank, and I'm just looking and you can hear the birds chirping and butterflies going by and just. It was incredible. And I look over and. I'm sorry, I might get emotional. I look over to my left again and I'm like, kind of looking down, but to the left. And I tilt my head up, and right there was. I believe that it was Jesus Christ. I'm sorry. It's kind of a lot. You know, this is the first time I've publicly talked about it.

[John Burke]

Well, I understand completely, Savannah. I mean, yeah, it's. Very few people can remember that without it overwhelming their emotions.

[Savannah Muse]

But it was right there. And his hair was brown. It was about shoulder length. His eyes were just mesmerizingly blue. And his smile was so perfect. I mean, even his smile was radiating light. And he takes my hands and he says, I love you. I love you. You are so worthy. You are so loved that you are mine. And in that moment, you are mine.

[John Burke]

Is that what he said?

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

You are so worthy. You are so loved. You are mine. And just think all you said was the name Jesus. And I felt, but that's what he says, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

[Savannah Muse]

And I didn't know that. I had no idea. And in that moment, I just felt more love than I had ever felt in my entire life. I know my parents love me, I know I'm love, but it was just so overwhelming, but in the best possible way.

[John Burke]

What was it like?

[Savannah Muse]

It felt like every bad thing that had ever happened in my life just completely vanished. It felt like all the pain, all the sickness, it just fell off. It was just gone. I didn't feel sick, I didn't feel scared. I didn't feel like I was dying. I just knew that I was in the complete presence of God. And that's all I knew. So I remember him saying after that.

[John Burke]

Are you standing, Are you standing up? Are you sitting down? And he's holding your hands?

[Savannah Muse]

I'm sitting down. We're both kind of like kneeling down the ground, but we're high level with one another.

[John Burke]

So he came and knelt beside you?

[Savannah Muse]

Yes, yes. And so at this point, we stand up and he's still holding my hand and he says one more thing that I want to show you. Transition again. At this point, I'm walking and as I'm walking up, I see coming not out of the shadows, but they just kind of appeared. And it was my family. I saw my childhood dog, his name was Scruffy. I saw my dad's mother, my grandmother Moofi. And she was dressed in a red sweatshirt and it had a dog on it and blue jeans just like she would have been wearing here. Beside her was my uncle Richard, who again was in blue jeans, blue and plaid shirt, and he had a pocket with a dollar sticking out of it because he always gave me a dollar every time I saw him when I was a kid.

[John Burke]

Oh, how funny. So it's kind of like a little like, hey, remember this?

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

And they had. They had already passed away.

[Savannah Muse]

Yes. Yeah, they had already passed on like many, many years ago. So then beside him, I saw my grandmother, the one that I had tried and wanted to connect with so badly. And again, she didn't look sick, she looked good, she looked beautiful. And she was in this very tropical Hawaiian looking shirt and she had on flex and I can even tell you down to the buttons on her shoes, I mean, it was incredible. And beside her was my granddad, her husband. And he was dressed up and he had on a black suit, black top hat. And every time there was a wedding or A celebration or something. He would be in a suit, and he'd always joked, I need to have a top hat. I need to have a top hat.

[John Burke]

Oh. But he didn't.

[Savannah Muse]

He didn't have a top hat.

[John Burke]

So there he did.

[Savannah Muse]

So there he had a top hat. It was so many just like little nods to. To my life here.

[John Burke]

Did they look the age. You knew them when they passed away or did they look younger or what.

[Savannah Muse]

They looked the age. What they did when they passed away, but they looked a lot healthier and they. They looked like younger in the face. So recognizable as to. I was like, that's my grandmother. That's my grandfather. And I. I knew with every ounce of my being that it was them.

[John Burke]

Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

It's interesting. Some. Sometimes I think people appear to us. Sometimes they. The kind of. The norm is like 30, like what you were saying, but they can appear to us at whatever we would feel most comfortable with. So, like a grandparent would be like.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

If that's how mainly you knew them and saw them. Yeah, Many times. They will. Not always, though.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah, I've heard a lot of the times it's like in the 30s and stuff.

[John Burke]

Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

But for me, it was. They. They just looked like my grandparents. But they. They looked really good. Yeah, they looked really happy.

[John Burke]

And did they say anything to you?

[Savannah Muse]

My grandfather. And again, all soft. Thought he would always call me granddaughter. Granddaughter. I'm the oldest of, I think 12 or 13 grandkids, and it was granddaughter. Granddaughter. It's not your time. You have to go back home. And I remember I didn't want. I didn't want to. I can. I don't know how to explain it, as if I. I know that I was being stubborn where I didn't want to come back. I didn't understand. I just. I don't remember saying anything back, but I remember just kind of thinking, why? But I don't want to. I want to stay here. I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back to wherever back is. I don't know where I'm supposed to go back to, but I don't want to go. And just like that, I was back. And the first words out of my mouth were, can I have a Dr. Pepper? I mean, alert. I. I was back and there. Everyone's just freaking out, like, what. How. How is she here? She's asking for a Dr. Pepper. What's happening?

[John Burke]

Because you were 10 days in a coma.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. Woke up completely alert.

[John Burke]

Wow.

[Savannah Muse]

All the things to say. That's that's what came out of my mouth.

[John Burke]

Well, I used to be a huge Dr. Pepper fan, so thinking that Dr. Pepper's from heaven. Yeah, I could see that.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. I can't.

[John Burke]

I can't drink it anymore.

[Savannah Muse]

I begged for it for so long, they finally let me have it. I hated it.

[John Burke]

That's funny.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. So when I. Once I was back awake, things are pretty rough. Spent a month in the hospital. I formed two forms of neuropathy, and I was disabled for about seven to eight months.

[John Burke]

Neuropathy, where you can't feel in your feet?

[Savannah Muse]

Yes, it's from. It was from my knees down to my feet, both legs.

[John Burke]

So you can't walk. You can't.

[Savannah Muse]

It was very difficult. I could take maybe three steps with a walker, and that would take me, like, five minutes, and I would just scream and cry. I was on intense dialysis. My kidneys took a huge hit. I was in complete renal failure for about three months. I had dialysis three times a week for four hours a day. And that was the most terrifying thing to me. I do not like the sight of blood. And even, you know, growing up watching so many horror movies and stuff, sight of my own blood. I didn't. I didn't like that. So that was. It was exhausting, and it was hard. And then overcoming a traumatic brain injury because no brain waves, you know, for 16 minutes, I had to go through the physical therapy and the rehab part of the hospital. I had to do occupational therapy to learn how to write again. Count money.

[John Burke]

Oh, goodness, everything.

[Savannah Muse]

They would hold up little flashcards with different colors and shapes. Like, this one's a doll. This one's a cat. This is a ball. It was a lot for that month, to me, felt like eternity. I wanted to go home. In my mind, I thought I was still teaching, and every day I would say, you have to let me go. I have to get back to my class. My best friends had to break it to me that I had gotten so sick, I had to resign. That absolutely shattered me to the point I reached out to my boss at the time, and I asked her, I said, hey, what happened to me? And her reply was, what? You're alive. You know, like, you're. You're messaging me right now. What? Because at this point, a lot of my friends hadn't knew what had happened, that I clinically died for 16 minutes. And a Facebook post that one of my friends had made it gone viral around my area. So I had people in churches praying for me that I didn't even know And a girl from.

[John Burke]

Why did it go viral?

[Savannah Muse]

I. One person shared it, another person shared it, and it just kind of blew up in this area and it was just, you know, please pray for.

[John Burke]

To pray for you.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah, that, you know, this is what had happened. She's fighting for her life. You know, she needs the strength of God. Please keep praying for her. And a girl from my church that I attend now, her name is Jessie. She actually came to the hospital while I was comatose and she had never met me before. And she prayed with my friends and my family at that hospital for a long time. I mean, my parents said it was the most beautiful prayer that they had ever heard in their life. Life. So as I'm in the hospital and I'm regaining my strength and my memory, I hadn't told anybody at this time what had happened. I, I wanted to, but I thought, okay, they're going to put me in Crossroads, which is the kind of mental health facility. And I didn't want that to happen because I wanted to go home and I didn't want to speak about it until I got home because I felt like I for there. And I had a nurse and her name was Colby. She would always come into my room and she's just so sweet. And she, I knew she was a believer. She wore a cross necklace and she would, you know, she would paint my nails, she would brush my hair. She was just a friend. And she looked at me one day and she said, honey, something happened and if you ever want to talk about it, you can share it with me. I promise you I'm safe. You can talk to me about it.

[John Burke]

Wow.

[Savannah Muse]

So a couple of days pass and she comes in one morning and she's like, hey, honey. And she's just all cheery. She's like, I have a story I want to tell you before I have to clock out for my shift. And I said, okay. And she ends up telling me the story of her near death experience.

[John Burke]

Oh, wow.

[Savannah Muse]

She went to hell during. But she told me, she said, I just have a feeling that the opposite happened to you. And you need to know right now that you are such a miracle and you are a gift of God and you're going to overcome all of this. And it was so wild to have a, a nurse that had a near death experience. That just something.

[John Burke]

Because you didn't, you didn't really even know anything about that.

[Savannah Muse]

No, I had no idea. Not the slightest.

[John Burke]

So this, this is one of the first ones you're hearing about besides just having experienced it.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

And probably. Were you probably trying to sort through what was that, what happened?

[Savannah Muse]

Yes. Yes, sir. And I knew at that point in time, I knew that I wanted to get baptized. Once I got out of the hospital, I was very adamant that I'm going back to the church I attended when I was 17, and I was going to get baptized by that pastor. And I had it set down, like, the day I get out of the hospital, like, you're not taking me home. You're taking me to that church. I need you. And I didn't know what baptism meant. I had no idea. I just. It was just on my heart. So I go home, and it's hard. For about three months, I'm stuck in my living room. My bed is in my living room. I go from the bed to the recliner to dialysis, doctor's appointments, 19 medications at the time.

[John Burke]

Oh, my goodness.

[Savannah Muse]

I was 30 at the time. So I was 29 when the cardiac arrest happened. And I was miserable. I. I won't lie, I was absolutely miserable. But when I started going to church, that misery kind of. It started falling off, and I started. I didn't really know what prayer really meant at this point in time, but I would just say, please, God, if you just take this pain away, like, I'll do whatever you want me to do. I got to be able to walk. I got to be able from kidneys to function. I'm 30 years old like that. I know this is not what you want for me. This is not it. You brought me back. I'm here. I'm alive. I probably shouldn't even be sitting at home right now. Probably shouldn't even be able to pray to you right now. So please just heal me. And that was kind of my prayer every day for a couple of months. The winter was rough, but when the spring came around of last year, it was as if I woke up one day and the pain wasn't completely gone, but it was gone to the point that I could start really try to walk again. I would use my walker in my apartment, and I'll just go from room to room, kitchen to living room, back to back, and started building up my strength. And I was told, you know, you may never walk again, swim again, you may never teach again. You know, we don't know. We can't put a time limit on any of this. And within a year and a half, my kidneys are fully recovered. There's no inkling that I could ever have cardiac arrest again. They're saying that I've recovered From a traumatic brain injury.

[John Burke]

Wow.

[Savannah Muse]

The neuropathy is gone. I can walk, swim, I can teach again. I teach Sunday school.

[John Burke]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Savannah Muse]

I did get baptized. I got baptized twice. The first time, I was just so adamant. I didn't understand. I just said, I love Jesus. Went under the water, came out, was like a little kid. And then six months passed and I decided I'm not on 19 medicines anymore. I think at that point I was down to 10. I wasn't in a wheelchair anymore, so I could walk myself and get in the pool. So six months had passed and I got baptized again. And it was such an incredible moment because I was able to walk through my church, stand in front of everybody and say, hey, I'm Savannah. I clinically died for 16 minutes. I encountered Jesus Christ and he saved me in every way a person could be saved. And I went under the water and I know it was only for a few seconds, but it. It felt like eternity and it felt like glass shattering all. I mean, it just felt like everything again, just bad. Just. It was gone in that water. And I came up and I just felt. I felt like a new person. I really did. I just. It was so refreshing. I want to say, like, renewing. I. I don't know. It just.

[John Burke]

Rejuvenating.

[Savannah Muse]

That's the word. That's the word. Yeah.

[John Burke]

And when. When did you get baptized? That. The second time? Just recently.

[Savannah Muse]

May 9th of this past year.

[John Burke]

A year ago?

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. And since then, it's amazing.

[John Burke]

I mean, all this is really, really fresh still, isn't it?

[Savannah Muse]

Really fast? I mean, it's been a very fast process.

[John Burke]

And, Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

I ended up joining a prayer group that we go to. We meet weekly. A life group that we meet weekly. I am a greeter at my church, and I'm also a Sunday school teacher.

[John Burke]

That's awesome. That's so cool. Can I ask you. Can I ask you some questions? Just about. Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

First of all, thank you so much for sharing all that.

[Savannah Muse]

Of course.

[John Burke]

And I.

[Savannah Muse]

You.

[John Burke]

You, you know, I've. I've heard it, I expect it. But when you teared up thinking about seeing Jesus, I teared up too, because it's just, you know, I just. I think so many who listen to these, you know, there's something cathartic.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

When you see the emotion that again and again and again can't be contained, you know, because of how wonderful he is.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

So when you were in his presence, when you. When you saw him, how did you know who it was?

[Savannah Muse]

It was as if I had known him my entire life and that's the only way I really know how to explain that. I just kind of just, I just knew that I was in the presence of God.

[John Burke]

So you knew he was God?

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

And you knew it was Jesus and.

[Savannah Muse]

You knew nothing about anything.

[John Burke]

And he looked, he looked like Jesus. You said shoulder length hair, blue eyes. Interestingly, yeah. It's so wild to me that it's going to be one of the questions I ask the Lord when I get there. Like, okay, what color are your eyes really?

[Savannah Muse]

I've heard green, I've heard brown, I've heard blue. And for me it was blue.

[John Burke]

Well, and Heidi Barr, who's a friend of mine now, who she was 16 year old, didn't know Jesus. She was Jewish, but she prayed to God every night. She believed in God even though her dad told her there is no God.

[Savannah Muse]

Right.

[John Burke]

And Jesus Christ is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind. That's all she heard. And yet when her horse crushes her, there he is. And she said, I didn't tell anybody this for years because he's Jewish. We have brown eyes. She's Jewish, but he had blue eyes.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

And a lot of people. So my, my working theory, and I don't know if this is true or not, but is that maybe on earth he really did. There is a tribe of, of Israelites that did typically have blue eyes or there are a lot of them did.

[Savannah Muse]

Right.

[John Burke]

And so he could have.

[Savannah Muse]

Right.

[John Burke]

But then the glorified Jesus, you know, his eyes are, I mean John described him like, like fire, which kind of like has all the colors. Right. You see blues and you see greens and yellows and reds and everything browns, but I don't know. So what did he say anything else to you?

[Savannah Muse]

Nope, just.

[John Burke]

It was just that.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah. Short and sweet and to the point.

[John Burke]

Yeah. And, and why do you think he said that to you?

[Savannah Muse]

I think that he, I think he knew that I needed to know that I was loved because I didn't, I didn't really feel love. I knew that people loved me, but I had a hard time accepting it. I would always kind of push people away. I didn't very. What's the word? Skittish. Like, I didn't like people like hugging me, being in my space. None of them. It was as if it was just like a full on embrace, like I love you, you know, and just, I think it was everything that I needed as, as I've told my friends this and I think I needed to die in order for him to save me in order for me to get off of the really bad path that I was on. And I kind of want to say, like, I'm not here to, you know, bash, you know, fairies or fairy tales or, like, anything like that. Everyone's, you know, convictions are their own. It just. For me, that's my story, and that's just kind of what happened to me.

[John Burke]

Well, and what do you. What do you. Did you get any insight about all that?

[Savannah Muse]

No.

[John Burke]

When you were there?

[Savannah Muse]

No.

[John Burke]

What's your. What's your kind of understanding now?

[Savannah Muse]

I would say that when I thought that I was communicating with fairies, when I thought I was, you know, leaving offerings to fairies and this. That. And I think that I openly invited evil spirits into my home in some form that. I don't know. I just know that things were really bad, and when things got really bad, it escalated very quickly.

[John Burke]

Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

And I don't know if he played a part in me, you know, getting so sick. I. You know, my mind has gone through all the theories of what if, what if, what if? But to me, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, you know, what if? What matters is that God let me have a second chance to come back here and.

[John Burke]

Yeah.

[Savannah Muse]

Get it. Right.

[John Burke]

Well. And, you know, Savannah, having. Having interviewed others where in heaven, Jesus showed them all the times that he showed up to try to intersect their life.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

You know, like a very clear, like, come on, follow. Let's go.

[Savannah Muse]

Right.

[John Burke]

And I. I wonder if, you know, he did that in steering you toward that Christian daycare.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

And. And the evil that felt like it had a right to you was like, we got to get her. We got to get her now. And as a result, you know, because when. When you started telling me they weren't testing you for Covid or, you know, they weren't like, that's not normal. Right.

[Savannah Muse]

That's not normal.

[John Burke]

That almost feels like a, you know, a conspiracy or something that. I mean, I'm not saying the doctors were conspiring.

[Savannah Muse]

Right.

[John Burke]

But I'm saying just a conspiracy of evil to try to get you before you.

[Savannah Muse]

Yeah.

[John Burke]

Turned.

[Savannah Muse]

I've been told that many times.

[John Burke]

And, you know, and. And. And the Lord was pursuing you, and. No doubt. And that's why what came to your mind was to cry out the name of Jesus.

[Savannah Muse]

I agree.

[John Burke]

I don't have any doubt.

[Savannah Muse]

And it's just. It's still surreal, you know, to me. Like, it hasn't been that long. It's still really fresh. And. Yeah, it's it's with me every day.

[John Burke]

What do you feel like you're taking back from this that could help others?

[Savannah Muse]

That no matter what diagnosis you have, no matter what a doctor may say, our God has the final say and he'll bring miracles out of absolute disasters. I mean it. I'm still learning scripture, but I know it says that he brings beauty for.

[John Burke]

Ashes and works all things together for good for those who love Him.

[Savannah Muse]

That's definitely what he's done for me. He's brought beauty from the ashes.

[John Burke]

Yeah. Wow. Well, you have such a powerful story, and I know that he's going to use you to have such a. An influence on so many people and to point so many people toward the light of God.

[Savannah Muse]

For sure. For sure.

[John Burke]

Wow. Pretty cool, huh? I mean, you know, you see a couple of things in this that, That I just wanted to make comment on. First, God was pursuing Savannah, you know, even though. Even though she was going far from him, you know, leading her into this Christian run daycare, the way the people in it really loved her. So that at that moment of when she was dying, she called on the name of Jesus and that was the name over all that had power over the evil that I believe wanted to take her down forever. But a couple interesting things you may have heard. First of all, the tropical jungle. I honestly, I had never heard that, except another young woman I just interviewed that you'll hear from soon said that she saw in heaven that there are places to experience our favorite seasons, like whether you like winter or summer or fall or spring. And it reminded me with the tropical experience or like Debbie Ali, if you didn't hear her in one of the episodes, I did. You know, the beaches of heaven, that, that all of it, all of it is on earth, all the diversity of beauty on Earth. It's just a foreshadowing of the wonders to come because God created it all. And, you know, it was interesting, the snapshots she said of the jungle, and then she's in a playground, the park bench and then the tree by the river. And I tend to think sometimes, you know, the Lord doesn't allow people to bring back all. All that they experienced. So how she got from one to another, she doesn't know. But I. I kind of wonder if, you know, the gaps are. He didn't let her bring back everything. He usually doesn't. By the way, Paul talked about this when he had an experience of heaven. And he said, you know, I experience things that no one is allowed to tell. So there's some things that they're not allowed to bring back. Another fascinating thing is no tattoos in heaven. Sorry, Ben Sledge. Ben is my army vet friend who is so proud of his, you know, two long sleeves of tattoos. And we always joke about it. And so I guess that's bad news for Ben. No tattoos, she said. And she met her miscarried brother, who she knew there had been a miscarriage, but she didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. And he was grown, like she said, in the late 20s or 30s. But above all, I love what Jesus said to her, you know, because really all she had done is say his name, Jesus. You know, I think sincerely. And when she encounters him, he says, I love you and you are so loved. You are so worthy, and you are mine. And, you know, it just reminds me of the thief on the cross. You know, there were two thieves, but on either side of Jesus, one mocked him, the other said, jesus, will you remember me when you come in your kingdom? It was a simple acknowledgment and a recognition of his need for him. And, you know, it's just a great reminder that Jesus is the one who is God and who is love and loves you. And he makes us worthy. You might not feel worthy. I don't feel worthy. Most near death experiencers say the same thing. I didn't feel worthy. But he makes us worthy because he paid for all of our wrongs, because what he really wants is our love. He created us to love God and to walk through this life with God, and so he makes a way. So I hope that this has encouraged you and I hope it will encourage you to seek God if you don't know him, to walk with God if you do. And if you've liked this live series, you know, I hope you will dive deeper into understanding the meaning of near death experiences and how they relate to the Bible. Check out the Imagine Heaven podcast in the links below if you want to go even deeper. I've written books on imagine Heaven, which is the 40 commonalities of these near death experiences. And you hear, hear them, but you also see them in scripture. And then imagine the God of heaven, where you can, you know, dive into the character and the person of who God is, and you'll find you haven't yet imagined him as he truly is. Well, till next time, God's blessings.