Christian author Lee Strobel has been on a mission to uncover evidence for the afterlife following a health crisis 10 years ago that left him on the edge of death. So far, his investigative mission has exposed some shocking cases that convinced him of the validity of near-death experiences and proof of heaven and hell.

Strobel told CBN’s Faithwire, “I almost died 10 years ago. My wife found me unconscious. She called an ambulance. I remember waking up in the emergency room and looking up at the physician. He looked down at me, and he said, ‘You’re one step away from a coma, two steps away from dying.'”

He continued, “And so I lingered between life and death there for quite a while. I had a rare condition called hyponatremia, a severe drop in my blood-sodium level.” After that point, the author decided to start a journey to find evidence that supports the idea that an afterlife exists. He shares his voyage in the new film “The Case For Heaven” in theatres from April 4-6 via Fathom Events. The film is based on a book, as well.

Strobel admits that as a Christian, he believes in what the Bible teaches about the afterlife but erred on the side of skepticism due to his background in journalism and law. That background caused him to question things. That journey left Strobel astonished, particularly over the well-documented and researched data on near-death experiences.

“I was completely surprised by the evidence for near-death experiences. I was a skeptic about it,” he said. “I thought maybe it was just a lack of oxygen to the brain that causes hallucinations or something like that. And what I discovered is there have been more than 900 scholarly studies on near-death experiences published in scientific and medical journals over the last 50 years.”

Strobel said he is fully aware of the fraudulent stories that have been told, so he focused his attention on claims he believed had “corroboration,” using his legal and journalistic background to discern. Strobel said he wanted cases where people saw things or heard things they couldn’t have seen or heard without an authentic out-of-body experience.

The author shared his favorite example about a woman named Maria who died inside a hospital before being revived. Her claims afterward are nothing short of fascinating.

“She described later, ‘I was conscious the whole time. I was watching the resuscitation efforts that they were doing on my body. My spirit was kind of floating there in the hospital room, and then my spirit floated out of the hospital,'” Strobel recounted. “And when she was revived, and her spirit returned to her body, she said, ‘Oh, by the way, there’s a man’s tennis shoe on the roof of the hospital and its dark blue, it’s left-footed, there’s some wear over the little toe, and there’s shoelaces tucked under the heel.'”

These seemingly strange proclamations were investigated. Surprisingly, Maria’s description of the mysterious shoe on the roof was spot-on, despite reportedly never physically seeing the area. “In my book and the film, we document these cases,” Strobel said. “And I think it’s extraordinary.”

To find out more and get tickets for “The Case For Heaven,” click here. The documentary film is slated for a limited release, in theatres April 4-6.