A man who attempted suicide in 2020 plunged into a five-day coma, emerging with a vivid account of witnessing hell rather than heaven. Gerhard Schug describes standing beside the devil, watching souls sorted and pulverized in a nightmarish scene that forever altered his perspective on life.
Descent into Despair
Gerhard’s ordeal began after the tragic death of his eldest daughter, Tanja, in 2019 from a pulmonary embolism. Devastated by the loss, he grappled with severe health issues including a spinal injury, Parkinson’s disease, lung disease, bipolar disorder, depression, and borderline personality disorder. He had also survived a prior heart attack.
“On that day, I felt an overwhelming longing for Tanja,” Gerhard recalls. “My youngest daughter and I found her dead in her flat. I missed her terribly and felt forsaken and lonely.”
Isolated and withdrawn, his weight ballooned to 150 kilos. He secluded himself in his second-floor apartment, blinds drawn, surviving on chocolate and beer. Medications exacerbated his weight gain, and a hospital stay for a virus offered no solace amid visitor restrictions.
“It was an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and a need to be with my deceased daughter,” he explains. Despite a close bond with his surviving daughter, he felt abandoned in his suffering.
Terrifying Visions in the Coma
Awakening in the intensive care unit, Gerhard learned doctors had warned his daughter of likely death or severe brain damage. Yet he survived, haunted by crystal-clear memories of his near-death experience.
“In my near-death experience, I didn’t pass into a bright light or a beautiful afterlife,” he states. “There was a large, grey stone palace with a high canopy roof and a flat throne like a stone block. The devil sat on it, horns and all, in intense heat.”
From above a jetty with old boats, souls arrived and approached the devil. Four lion-claw-like stones at the palace base rotated with a deafening creak. “Some souls were selected and ground up under the claws,” Gerhard recounts. “The noise was terrifying. I sat next to the devil, watching it all. I wasn’t afraid for myself, but for those souls.”
Raised Catholic, he questions if his background influenced the vision but insists, “I know I was there.”
A Profound Transformation
The experience lasted the full five or six days of his coma, instilling a sacred view of life. “God gave me life; I have no right to take it,” Gerhard affirms. “If I do, I’ll end up in hell, not with my daughter.”
Now embracing a “glass half full” mindset, he lives gratefully, awaiting God’s timing for his departure.
