When I was in high school, I was a teenager that was up to no good.

I would skip class, have some cigarettes, drink some alcohol.

It was just, one day, my friend told me, "Let's have a cigarette."

He handed me a bottle of pineapple juice and said, "This would really f*** you up."

It didn't feel like anything until I went to first period.

When I got to first period, I started seeing blurred vision and I had stomach pains.

Felt like somebody was grabbing a machete and stabbing me in the stomach repeatedly.

All I remember was just turning back and looking at one of my classmates, and I was just like,

I'm... I'm... I'm in trouble; I can't see anything.

I'm... I'm blind, I'm going blind.

That class ends, and I was walking with⏤like a totally blind person, my arms out.

I... I thought it was just something that it will come and go and I blacked out.

Turns out that pineapple just had rubbing alcohol.

Now, this next part might sound insane.

The doctors called my mom and my father to let them know that I wasn't gonna make it.

I died.

All I remember was waking up in a place that was so peaceful, where everything was so beautiful.

I saw people that I'd never even knew in my... in my life, my grandpa and my grandma there, my loved ones.

Saying it wasn't my time yet.

I remember from that day is waking up in the hospital, and seeing shadows that weren't there, scenarios that felt so real.

Doctor just shocked, my parents were shocked, and that's only the beginning of the story.

And these voices kept coming months after I was released from the hospital.

The more I try to ignore the... the voices, they became screams of just people in pain.

It drove me to the point where I was afraid to go to sleep 'cause I... every time I would go to bed, I would see myself out of my body.

My soul would just be lingering around my body and these shadow people would still be there.

I was just terrified.

I got to the point where I felt completely drained.

So, I had to ask my mom for help.

I told my mom, I was like, I've been seeing my body⏤my soul's been out of my body, and I've been seeing him laying down⏤and I've seen these people around my body.

My mom is an extremely religious person.

So, she decided to take me to church as a spiritual guidance.

That's what they call it.

Spiritual guidance.

Some of you may know it as an exorcism.

I didn't want to seek help.

You know, when you're 16 year old, you're rebellious and keep stuff to yourself.

I didn't want to be seen as a crazy person.

I didn't want to be put in a mental institute.

Some of you hear exorcisms, and you guys automatically think what you see in movies.

It's not that.

There's no holy water being tossed at you.

There's no screams, there's no levitating chairs.

There isn't any of that.

Exorcisms are not allowed to be practiced in the United States.

Some people do, but they do it in the down-low.

And I remember immediately the moment I got to that church, my body started feeling hot.

All I remember was they walked me into the kitchen⏤there's a chair there⏤sit me down at the chair, and just⏤the floor felt like clouds and I felt heavy.

I felt like I was falling through the floor, and the man proceeds to open up the Bible and says prayers, and there's another lady that was right behind me speaking in tongues.

All I remember was just hearing this huge banging coming from the door, just...

These noises were unignorable; they became so loud it felt like somebody grabbed the sledgehammer and was repeatedly hitting the door.

Felt like somebody was there trying to break in to get into me.

I'm not sure.

The moment the prayer was done⏤really, really weird⏤the whole room when completely silent.

The guy with the Bible that was reading the prayers looked at me and said, "You're saved."

Then when the moment that finished, it just felt like I was myself again.

This experience didn't make me more spiritual, but this exorcism had a silver lining.

Like, I recently lost my father not too long ago; I experienced after life.

I know it's real.

So, I knew that my dad was at peace, so I didn't have anything to worry about.