I died and went to heaven - here are 3 crucial lessons I was taught

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 spirt was being guided through 'what we call heaven' where he learned three crucial lessons.

Tolman, who lives in Nevada, told DailyMail.com the first one was the power of authenticity, followed by the purpose of life and the importance of loving all beings.

'One of the biggest things I learned is that we've got it all wrong here,' he said.

'We've allowed all of our traditions to convince us that all of us are on some kind of trial. But we're not here on some kind of trial. We're here to learn and to grow. That's it, plain and simple.' 

Tolman was born in Texas, but now lives in Las Vegas with his wife Andrea and their two children. 

The experience he had nearly 20 years ago completely freed him of the fear of death, Tolman said, noting he looks forward to returning to heaven.

'When that day comes, I am very much looking forward to it,' he explained.

'In fact, we were on a plane ride out to Georgia a couple years ago, and there was some real bad turbulence on it. 

'And when it happened, I looked over to my daughter and said, 'This might be it. Maybe this is it. Maybe we're gonna 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 while in the afterlife.  

He said that while on his journey through heaven, he was forced to embrace 'principles' to be able to move from the heavenly realm - and the first one was 'authenticity'.

'The first step on the staircase for me was to understand that authenticity is the most powerful step for all of us,' said Tolman.

'Otherwise, we're wasting our time here. Every moment that we are not being authentic, it's a moment wasted. And so it's very important for us to be as authentic as we can.'

'The purpose of life is that we're here to learn. There's no pass or fail. It's our journey individually, but as well, it is our journey collectively.'

He continued to explain that the last lesson was that we have to embody love for all beings.

'When I say all beings, I mean all creation, humans, animals, plants,' continued Tolman.

'All of life, in all of its form. We've got to learn to love even the scary part. And as we do, we start to find the shadow of heaven existing here.' 

The revelations came about after Tolman and friend had taken the supplements on January 18th, 2003.

The men knew 'something was wrong' and stumbled into a restaurant that morning to find help. 

While Tolman's friend was able to get assistance, he laid dying in the restaurant's restroom before help came.

Emergency workers arrived on the scene to find the young construction worker's body had already turned cold, but an enthusiastic EMT started to revive his body - and that was when Tolman saw something that changed his life.

'The emergency worker said, in his words, that he felt something tell him I wasn't dead,' said Tolman. 

'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. He opened up that body bag to attempt resuscitation and on the third attempt, he was actually able to get the heart to come back and start beating.'

Tolman was rushed to the hospital and put on life support, but while his body sat lifeless in the emergency room, his spirt went on a journey.

'It was just this super serene moment where everything came down crashing on me,' he said.

'I had what people talk about as a life review, where I saw all the bad that I ever did, but then I started to see all the good that I ever did, and I started to feel this warm presence behind me. 

'That's when I turned around and saw this gentleman just all dressed in white.' 

At that moment, Tolman felt a rush of 'warm peaceful energy' and thought it was God.

But it wasn't God, it was a man who said: 'I'm your guide, I'm here to help you.' 

The man in white motioned to Tolman, saying he could go home or back into his body. 

'There was no chance that I wanted to go back to that body. I felt all this loving, peaceful energy coming from him,' Tolman said. 

'And so I told him, 'I want to go wherever that energy is coming from.''

He followed the man, feeling energy being fed through his spirit, to an area with buildings, grass, flowers trees, water and other people. 

'I didn't have any interactions with them, except for my guide, said Tolman.

'I connected to the space. I connected to the grass and it's odd to say, but I felt a tremendous love and peace and serenity coming just from the grass as I touched it with my feet.'

Tolman's guide hugged him and a voice saying a prayer was heard.

The prayer was being spoken by Tolman's brother, which he found out about years later, over his lifeless body in the hospital bed.

He recalled feeling 'forced' back into his body and woke up.

'I had a very hard time picking up the pieces of what this was and trying to figure out life,' Tolman said. 

A few years later, he was visiting a town in Wyoming when he saw a picture of an old man with a long white beard and full head of hair.

Tolman said the image was of the guide who had met him in heaven, but was also his great-grandfather.