Pastor who says he died and went to heaven to speak at upstate New York public school

A Washington minister will speak in New York state this week about his personal experience with dying, going to heaven, meeting Jesus and angels, being cured of 29 illnesses, and coming back to life.

The Post Star reports that Dean Braxton of Spanaway, Washington will give biographical and religious testimony on the evening of June 20 in the auditorium of the Whitehall Junior-Senior High School.

“Yes, I heard Dean speak last summer at The First Assembly of God Church in Plattsburgh,” Pamela Bolton, pastor of Out of the Box Worship Center, tells the Post Star. “He talked about his experience of dying and going to heaven, and he shared about seeing Jesus, angels, those who greet you when you arrive, pets in heaven, and how you can be sure to go there when you die,”

Bolton is planning a question-and-answer session after Braxton's Saturday presentation. "The event is free," according to the Post Star, but "a peace offering will be collected."

Braxton is visiting the Whitehall secondary school as part of a regional evangelical tour. The pastor's congregation is in Tacoma, Washington, but his speaking schedule is national.

In his book, In Heaven! Experiencing the Throne of God, Braxton describes how his soul ascended to heaven in 2006 while unconscious in the hospital. The book is a hit among evangelical Christians, and has been featured on the 700 Club.

"As Dean Braxton fights for his life for nine days in [the intensive care unit]," the book's official description reads, "his wife, Marilyn, will not accept defeat and wages a war of her own; intense prayer for her husband. She enlists other warriors and presses in to God for the impossible – Dean’s life… and his complete recovery."

According to deanbraxton.com, the pastor's website, "medical records show that Dean Braxton experienced cardiac arrest and died for one hour and forty-five minutes. He was absolutely stone cold dead. When Braxton died, he says that he found himself transported to heaven. Braxton saw family members, angels that are assigned to us, prayers in heaven, and much more. Not only that, but he claims that he actually saw Jesus Christ and was able to speak with Him. Today Braxton is called the 'Miracle Man' after having been supernaturally healed of twenty-nine serious medical conditions."

Marilyn Braxton wrote her own account of her husband's otherworldly experience in a book called Pressing In! A Woman’s Stand. 

For more than three years, the couple -- both licensed Christian ministers -- have been touring the country and meeting with Christian media figures "sharing their testimony of how Dean died for one hour and 45 minutes and was miraculously prayed back to life." According to the Braxtons, Dean "was told by Jesus, 'No, it is not your time. Go back!'"