Vincent Tolman was just 25 years old when he fell into a coma after taking a diet pill he bought online.
The construction worker had taken a super-strong dose of GHB, a drug used in bodybuilding circles as an appetite suppressant, causing him to have violent seizures, vomit and fall to the floor while eating at a restaurant in 2003.
His heart stopped beating for several minutes. Tolman’s body was then hooked up to life support for three days, during which, he claims, his spirit was guided through “what we call heaven,” where he learned three crucial lessons.
Tolman, who lives in Nevada, told DailyMail.com that the first was the power of authenticity, followed by the purpose of life and the importance of loving all beings.
“One of the most important things I learned is that we have done everything wrong here,” he said.
‘We have allowed all our traditions to convince us that we are all in some kind of trial. But we’re not here at some kind of trial. We are here to learn and grow. That’s all, plain and simple.
Vincent Tolman was just 25 years old when he took a then-legal GHB precursor that was 20 times the correct dose, causing him to have seizures and vomiting before he died in 2003.
Tolman was born in Texas, but now lives in Las Vegas with his wife Andrea and their two children.
The experience he had almost 20 years ago completely freed him from the fear of death, Tolman said, noting that he hopes to return to heaven.
“When that day comes, I’m looking forward to it,” he explained.
‘We were actually on a plane trip to Georgia a couple of years ago and there was some really bad turbulence.
“And when it happened, I looked at my daughter and said, ‘This could be it.’ Maybe this is it. Maybe we’ll go together.”
Even Tolman’s friends have noticed a change in him, saying the incident made him “completely different” from the 25-year-old they once knew.
And Tolman knows it all came down to the lessons he learned in the afterlife.
He said that during his journey through heaven, he was forced to embrace “principles” in order to pass from the heavenly realm, and the first of them was “authenticity.”
“For me, the first step on the ladder was understanding that authenticity is the most powerful step for all of us,” Tolman said.
‘Otherwise, we will be wasting our time here. Every moment that we are not authentic is a wasted moment. “That’s why it’s very important for us to be as authentic as possible.”
Tolman told DailyMail.com that he learned three lessons while in heaven. The first was the power of authenticity, followed by the purpose of life and the importance of loving all beings.
‘The purpose of life is that we are here to learn. There is no approval or failure. It is our individual journey, but it is also our collective journey.”
He went on to explain that the last lesson was that we have to embody love for all beings.
“When I say all beings, I mean all of creation, humans, animals, plants,” Tolman continued.
‘All life, in all its forms. We have to learn to love even the scary part. And as we do so, we begin to find the shadow of the sky existing here.’
The revelations came after Tolman and his friend took the supplements on January 18, 2003.
The men knew “something was wrong” and that morning they stumbled upon a restaurant to seek help.
While Tolman’s friend was able to get help, he lay dying in the restaurant’s bathroom before help arrived.
Emergency workers arrived at the scene and discovered that the young construction worker’s body had already cooled, but an enthusiastic paramedic began resuscitating his body, and that’s when Tolman saw something that changed his life.
Tolman’s construction job led to the experience that he said changed him completely.
“The emergency worker said, in his own words, that he felt something telling him he wasn’t dead,” Tolman said.
“From my perspective, I was witnessing everything from above, and I actually saw an energy hit him and say, ‘This one’s not dead.’
‘That was enough for him. She opened the body bag to try to revive him, and on the third attempt, she got his heart to come back and start beating.
Tolman was rushed to the hospital and put on life support, but while his body lay lifeless in the emergency room, his spirit went on a journey.
“It was just this super serene moment where everything came crashing down on me,” he said.
‘I had what people call a life review, where I saw all the bad things I did, but then I started to see all the good things I did and I started to feel this warm presence behind me.
“That’s when I turned around and saw this gentleman dressed all in white.”
Tolman said he met a guide while in heaven. Years later he saw this photo of his great-grandfather, who he believes was the man who accompanied him through the afterlife.
At that moment, Tolman felt a surge of “warm, peaceful energy” and thought it was God.
But it wasn’t God, it was a man who said: ‘I am your guide, I am here to help you.’
The man in white gestured to Tolman and told him he could go home or return to his body.
‘There was no chance I would want to return to that body. I felt all this loving, peaceful energy coming from him,” Tolman said.
“And then I said, ‘I want to go wherever that energy comes from.'”
He followed the man, feeling the energy feed through his spirit, to an area with buildings, grass, flowering trees, water, and other people.
“I didn’t have any interaction with them except with my guide,” Tolman said.
‘I connected with space. I connected with the grass and it’s strange to say, but I felt tremendous love, peace and serenity coming from the grass when I touched it with my feet.’
Tolman’s guide hugged him and a voice was heard saying a prayer.
The prayer was being said by Tolman’s brother, which he learned about years later, over his lifeless body in the hospital bed.
Tolman has since written a book about her experiences and works as a life coach.
He remembered feeling “forced” to return to his body and woke up.
“I had a hard time understanding what this was and trying to understand life,” Tolman said.
A few years later, he was visiting a town in Wyoming when he saw a photo of an old man with a long white beard and a full head of hair.
Tolman said the image was of the guide who had met him in heaven, but that he was also his great-grandfather.