The book signings attracted thousands of attendees. The New York Times Bestseller list ranked it as the number one item. A Nebraskan kid who claims to have returned from the dead after getting lost on the operation table served as the inspiration for the song Heaven is for Real. “At first I was terrified, but I knew I was okay when I was in Jesus’ arms,” Colton Burpo said. Burpo claims to have seen Heaven and encountered his great-grandfather, Jesus, and John the Baptist. He is not alone either. From Attleboro, Massachusetts, Laura Garrity recalled, “I remember feeling such a sense of serenity. The serenity, the peace, and the absence of agony. Two years prior, the 46-year-old bus driver had a fatal heart attack while making her final morning run to Newton South High School. Employees from the school rushed over carrying an automated defibrillator. “I’m cutting her clothes off,” a female voice said as the last thing I heard. Garrity just heard the final few words, but she saw and experienced much more. After that, she claimed, “basically, things became dark.” “However, I floated up straight and saw myself. There is a flash of lightning-like brightness. Garrity claims that she entered heaven. She saw her ex-husband and mother, the colors were vibrant, and she felt uplifted. She recalls, “I extended my hand for my ex-husband to take it, but he wouldn’t accept it. He appeared to be saying, “It’s not your time. He then drifted away after leaving. Garrity was brought down to earth and taken to Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She had no blood pressure and no pulse. She wasn’t doing her own breathing. Even after 18 shocks to the heart, she was still in a coma. But something instructed Dr. Bill O’Callahan to continue. “I said I’m going to shock her three more times and we are going to have to quit,” recalls O’Callahan. If you can believe it, she returned on the third one.
