What we can learn from people who die and have so-called Near Death Experiences is that they report experiencing God or the light of God beyond death. After leaving their bodies, people explain entering another worldly dimension that is beyond human comprehension and for lack of words to describe this other dimension people resort to using the word God. There is simply no other experience or reference point here in this world that compares to what is experienced in the near death experience (NDE), and therefore, people are forced to use the realm of God to explain what they have experienced.
In my new book, The Light Behind God, I reveal my in-depth study of 16 people who have had a near death experience. Here I found that when I asked: “What would you describe the core or essence of your experience as,” 53 percent checked the box with “pure being,” and 60 percent said yes to “essence of existence.” Moving further into trying to put a name on this core or essence, the consensus became even higher with 73 percent agreeing to call it “the Light.” The highest consensus was found through the religious word “God,” where 80 percent agreed to call the core of their experience – the experience of “God.”
One person in my study explains:
“What I knew when I came back was that I know that light was of God. It was of or from God. I didn`t think the light itself was necessarily God, although it could be, I don`t know. But I know that that light is part of God...or a part of what God emits.”
Thursday, February 4, 2010
90 Minutes in Heaven
In chapter twelve of 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper tells us that he has “always believed” that heaven is “a place of God’s people,” and that after having been there he does not want others to die without Jesus Christ. Later on in the same chapter we are also told what it means to die without Jesus as his friend Dick says that many people are “lost and going to hell,” to which Piper answers: “You’re absolutely right.”
While 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper is written with Cecil Murphey is more subtle and diplomatic about this Christian fundamentalist view, Piper’s website is more to the point. At Don Piper Ministries website we are told about his Ministry that Piper’s message is simple: We can all have “eternal life someday through faith in Jesus Christ!”
This is also where under the section on “How to go to heaven” we find the standard Christian fundamentalist line from the Bible: “Don Piper Ministries is a Christian ministry that believes the only way to go to heaven is to trust Jesus Christ as your savior. Jesus said in John 14:6, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Farther except through me.’”
In the last chapter of the book Piper tells us that, “I have looked at the research on NDE and thought about it often during the years.” This may be so, however, it is clear that he has not looked deep enough or thought hard enough as there is absolutely no objective evidence within research of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) to support religious fundamentalism.
A quick look on the internet at the International Association for Near Death Studies’ website tells us that:
"As with the pleasurable NDE, distressing NDEs seem to occur about equally to people of both genders and of all ages, educational levels, socioeconomic levels, sexual orientations, spiritual beliefs, religious affiliations, and life experiences."
In my new book, Behind 90 Minutes in Heaven I also share my personal research of near death experiences. Here I found that 92 percent of the people in my study who had a Near Death Experience (NDE) disagreed with the statement: “Eternal life is only possible through a particular religion.” Nearly eight in ten said that they strongly disagreed with this statement based on their NDE. Also 92 percent said that, “No one has a patent on Salvation or Heaven,” and to the statement: “You need to believe in a particular religion to go to Heaven,” I found that 100 percent said that they “strongly disagreed.”
The conclusion of the International Association for Near Death Studies, which is based on over 30 years of research, and my own findings clearly suggest that Piper’s claim that you need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven is wrong.
While 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper is written with Cecil Murphey is more subtle and diplomatic about this Christian fundamentalist view, Piper’s website is more to the point. At Don Piper Ministries website we are told about his Ministry that Piper’s message is simple: We can all have “eternal life someday through faith in Jesus Christ!”
This is also where under the section on “How to go to heaven” we find the standard Christian fundamentalist line from the Bible: “Don Piper Ministries is a Christian ministry that believes the only way to go to heaven is to trust Jesus Christ as your savior. Jesus said in John 14:6, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Farther except through me.’”
In the last chapter of the book Piper tells us that, “I have looked at the research on NDE and thought about it often during the years.” This may be so, however, it is clear that he has not looked deep enough or thought hard enough as there is absolutely no objective evidence within research of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) to support religious fundamentalism.
A quick look on the internet at the International Association for Near Death Studies’ website tells us that:
"As with the pleasurable NDE, distressing NDEs seem to occur about equally to people of both genders and of all ages, educational levels, socioeconomic levels, sexual orientations, spiritual beliefs, religious affiliations, and life experiences."
In my new book, Behind 90 Minutes in Heaven I also share my personal research of near death experiences. Here I found that 92 percent of the people in my study who had a Near Death Experience (NDE) disagreed with the statement: “Eternal life is only possible through a particular religion.” Nearly eight in ten said that they strongly disagreed with this statement based on their NDE. Also 92 percent said that, “No one has a patent on Salvation or Heaven,” and to the statement: “You need to believe in a particular religion to go to Heaven,” I found that 100 percent said that they “strongly disagreed.”
The conclusion of the International Association for Near Death Studies, which is based on over 30 years of research, and my own findings clearly suggest that Piper’s claim that you need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven is wrong.
Evidence of Life After Death
In a recent interview on NBC’s Today Show, Dr. Jeffrey Long explains some of the evidence of life after death that the research of near death experiences gives us. The first evidence that he mentions is the study by Kenneth Ring of 31 blind people where 80% were able to see during their near death experience. But he also explains that the fact that people, even very young children, describe almost identical elements of the experience points to the experience being universal and not made up.
On the reporter’s question on how we can be sure these experiences are not hallucinations caused by drugs, Dr. Long uses the answer of universality. However, another answer could be the case of Pam Reynolds who had flat EEG, no brain activity, during her near death experience. Drugs, chemical reactions in the brain and hallucinations would all show up on an EEG, as brain function and this suggests that these explanations fall short.
How millions of people all over the world can report the same phenomena beyond death and have clear conscious experience when the brain is inactive is the strongest evidence we have of life after death.
On the reporter’s question on how we can be sure these experiences are not hallucinations caused by drugs, Dr. Long uses the answer of universality. However, another answer could be the case of Pam Reynolds who had flat EEG, no brain activity, during her near death experience. Drugs, chemical reactions in the brain and hallucinations would all show up on an EEG, as brain function and this suggests that these explanations fall short.
How millions of people all over the world can report the same phenomena beyond death and have clear conscious experience when the brain is inactive is the strongest evidence we have of life after death.
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