Steve Kang says he died and went to hell — and came back with a mission that no college classroom or drug-induced haze could provide.

After a failed suicide attempt in 1998, Kang, then a 19-year-old UC Irvine student, says he experienced a spiritual descent into hell, a vision that later catalyzed his recovery from addiction and led him to become an evangelical pastor, as Daily Mail reports.

Born into a life of comfort, Kang’s world collapsed when his father lost the family’s wealth during South Korea’s 1998 financial collapse. Forced into poverty, Kang found himself on American soil with bills to pay and no one to rely on.

Kang’s Descent into Addiction and Despair

While his peers focused on coursework and campus life, Kang spiraled into the drug scene. "During that entire summer, I do not remember being sober for more than an hour here and there," Kang told The Daily Mail, describing months of substance abuse that culminated in a loss of grip on reality.

By the fall semester, he was attending classes but couldn’t comprehend a word. “I still attended classes, but when the teachers and my friends were talking to me, I could not process even a sentence,” Kang recalled, highlighting just how far he had slipped from functioning student to addict on the brink.

A party in early fall turned critical when Kang unknowingly smoked a mix of heroin, cocaine, and PCP — a “death bowl” that kept him awake for 10 straight days and triggered hallucinations, what he now calls “spiritual attacks” and poltergeist activity.

A Frantic Search for Help Ends in Silence

Desperate for help, Kang reached out to Buddhist monks in Korea, only to be told, “We are in the middle of a silent prayer. We cannot help you.” His turning point came on the eighth day, when he claimed a spirit offered him a deal — less suffering in hell if he sacrificed his body.

On day ten, disoriented and broken, Kang wrote a suicide letter to his mother. “I wrote a letter to my mom, apologized for not making her proud, and said that I hoped to see her in the afterlife,” he said. Then, he stabbed himself in the stomach and neck.

His mother found him just in time to call 911. As surgeons worked to save his life over the next eight hours, she pleaded with every god she could name — Buddha, Allah, Confucius, and even reached out to a Christian friend.

A Vision of Hell Sparks a New Belief

While unconscious, Kang claims he experienced a nightmare beyond anything Hollywood could script. “After what felt like five minutes of falling, I landed and looked around. I was in hell,” he said. “There are sand pebbles everywhere. There’s no grass, there’s no flowers, there’s no plants, there’s no food, there’s not even a drop of water.”

He described monstrous figures cloaked in capes — towering over the barren terrain — and caves that resembled prison cells. Watching others dragged into eternal torment, he believed, “I’m next.” Then, he says he heard a voice speak directly to him: “No more Buddhism, no more drugs… I love you.”

Doctors considered his survival a miracle. Kang says he emerged from surgery physically stapled together — but mentally reborn.

Recovery, Faith, and a New Mission

The road back was long and grueling. For a decade, Kang dealt with insomnia, anxiety, and persistent nightmares of demons mocking him. He relied on about 20 different medications to function day-to-day.

Then, in 2012, he says he had another supernatural experience — this time of heaven. He described a radiant light and angelic choirs, and hearing the voice of God. The next day, Kang said goodbye to his meds and began rebuilding his life.

Kang joined the U.S. Army as a chaplain, met his wife Goeun Kim, and today lives in California, working as an evangelical pastor on a mission to prevent suicides — still scarred, both physically and spiritually, by what he saw.

Faith Over Doubt in a Secular Culture

Predictably, skeptics have dismissed Kang’s experiences as drug-induced hallucinations, claiming nothing more than trauma playing tricks on the mind. Kang doesn't shy away from criticism — he answers it head-on with research from others who claim similar encounters, like the work of author John Burke.

“Same story. Same turnaround of life,” Kang said of fellow near-death survivors. “So, I respect everyone’s beliefs and the skepticism, but what they saw is what I saw, and it’s what is in the Bible.”

In a time when faith is often mocked and institutions encourage victimhood over accountability, Kang’s story offers an alternative — a testimony forged not by privilege, but by pain, redemption, and resolve.