Rudy Giuliani has revealed he had a “very significant spiritual experience” while hospitalized in a coma this month.
The 81-year-old ally of President Donald Trump said his late top aide, Peter J. Powers, who died in 2016, gave him an “intervention” during the medical episode, which hospitalized him in critical condition between May 3 and May 4.
“I also had a very, very significant spiritual experience at a time in which I was in a state of like… out of it,” he said on his Wednesday return to broadcasting. “I would equate it to a dream of my being on line headed for, I can’t say headed for heaven, headed for a trial by St. Peter.”
Giuliani continued, “There was a very significant intervention by my Peter, I have my own Peter … Peter J. Powers, my friend of my lifetime.”
The former New York City mayor, who is Roman Catholic, said he retold the experience to his son while still in his hospital bed so it could be documented.
“Peter said some very significant words, and I made sure, as soon as I woke up, I started telling people, and then I recorded it in part,” he said.
The full experience will be revealed by Giuliani at a later date, he said, adding that he has been reflecting on it “a lot” and spoke to a priest about what he saw.
“I don’t want to embellish it, and I don’t want to deny what was there,” Giuliani continued, noting that he has also written out the experience himself.
He added, “I wrote it down, and it’s quite beautiful.”
Giuliani revealed his experience on his conservative talk program, The Rudy Giuliani Show, which airs on Lindell TV. His Wednesday show marked his first public remarks since doctors listed him as being in critical condition with viral pneumonia.
Speaking from Palm Beach, Florida, Giuliani said that he feels back to “100 percent” and has even been exercising by going up and down stairs.
His doctor revealed last week that he began feeling ill after returning from a trip to Paris. His breathing began deteriorating to the point that he was placed on a ventilator—a condition made worse by injuries he sustained in the September 11 attacks in 2001. Things became so dire at one point at the hospital that a priest was summoned to perform the last rites.
Giuliani was previously hospitalized in August after being rear-ended in a vehicle collision, but his injuries—a fractured thoracic vertebra in addition to multiple lacerations and bruises—were not a factor in his most recent illness.
Giuliani said that Trump was “terrific” during the ordeal, noting that his team was in constant contact regarding his condition.
“Of course, I have to thank the president, of whom I had a very good conversation after I got into the hospital,” Giuliani said.
