Why I am a Christian (23)

Near Death Experiences Suggest that Death Is Not the End

In 2012 I jotted down all the reasons I could think of why I am a Christian. I found 26 so I decided to serialise them in a blog every fortnight for a year.

I have so far covered themes from the realms of science, philosophy and theology before looking at five different facets of Jesus (I could have explored many more). Then I looked at the inspiration, invincibility and influence of the Bible. This is the sixth of the last nine posts which are more personal and are based on experiences rather than arguments.

Of all my 26 reasons this is the one I feel most hesitant and least sure about. It’s about the phenomenon of near-death experiences. If they are genuine they show that death is not the end, that there is an afterlife and that much of what is written in the Bible about eternity is exactly right. But it’s a big “if.”

According to the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), the term “near-death experience” was first coined in 1975 by Raymond Moody MD in his book Life After Life. It has since become a respected field of research in medicine and psychology. The following quote is from IANDS’s website.

“A near-death experience (NDE) is a distinct subjective experience that people sometimes report after a near-death episode. In a near-death episode, a person is either clinically dead, near death, or in a situation where death is likely or expected. These circumstances include serious illness or injury, such as from a car accident, military combat, childbirth, or suicide attempt. People in profound grief, in deep meditation, or just going about their normal lives have also described experiences that seem just like NDEs, even though these people were not near death. Many near-death experiencers (NDErs) have said the term ‘near-death’ is not correct; they are sure that they were in death, not just near-death.”

It is fair to say that there seems to be very little consensus in the scientific community at the present time about these experiences. Some attribute them to hallucinations. Others say they are due to an electrical surge in the dying brain. Others still refuse to take the field seriously at all, putting NDEs in roughly the same bracket as ghosts, UFOs and the conspiracy theory that the Apollo moon landings were faked. But some simply catalogue what is reported without any attempt to provide an explanation.

I am myself open-minded about all this. I do not strongly believe that near-death experiences are real spiritual events. They may be. Truth be told, I don’t actually know an awful lot about them. They could all turn out to be rationally explained by psychologists or through research into brain function. It wouldn’t undo my faith in Christianity at all. It would just mean that there are 25 reasons why I am a Christian and not 26. But what if they are real?

I have only ever met one person who has claimed to have had such an experience. I cannot comment here on my perception of that person’s trustworthiness. I do not know the person that well.

There is one reason, and one reason only, why I include this in the 26 reasons and that is a curious passage in 2 Corinthians 12 in which the Apostle Paul speaks of an experience of this nature in his own life and his reluctance to make much of it.

It is not, as far as I can tell, a testimony from near death but as the IANDS says, “People… in deep meditation or just going about their normal lives have also described experiences that seem just like NDEs, even though these people were not near death.”

This is the quote: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows. And I know that this man - whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows - was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations.”

Paul says here that someone he knew (perhaps it was an indirect way of speaking of himself as the end of the quotation possibly indicates) had a vivid experience of some heavenly place – perhaps physically, perhaps in a trance-like state – and that it was completely indescribable.

I keep an open mind about what people say has happened to them (especially I must say when it’s rewarded with a publishing contract) but I believe the Bible is trustworthy and true. I take the testimony of an Apostle writing Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to be totally reliable. That’s my starting point. I cannot write off all these stories out of hand when there is one such testimony in the inspired word of God.

I have come to believe that God might well sometimes give departing believers glimpses of what is to come partly perhaps to encourage us who remain.

The evangelist Billy Graham once said, “Just before dying, my grandmother sat up in bed, smiled, saying ‘I see Jesus and he has his hand outstretched to me. And there is Ben and he has both of his eyes and both of his legs.’” (Ben, Billy Graham’s grandfather, had lost an eye and a leg in war).

Sceptics might say that this is just delirium or wishful thinking. I do not say categorically that they are wrong. They may be right.

But I don’t know… There are several books out at the moment by people who claim to have had foretastes of heaven during a serious illness only to make a full recovery. I think these testimonies deserve to be listened to without prejudice.

When I wrote my 26 reasons down, I had recently read a book called Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo about his four-year old son Colton (Colton Burpo - what a name!) in which the child had undergone life-threatening surgery following a burst appendix. Thankfully, Colton survived the operation.

But following the surgery, it became clear that the child had had a remarkable and mystifying experience while still on the operating table. Days, weeks, even months following the operation he would talk unprompted, and matter-of-factly about being able to look down and watch the medical staff perform the surgery and see his father desperately praying in an adjacent room. His description of the scene in the waiting room was exactly correct, even though young Colton had at no time actually been there.

Other details slowly emerged as, now and again, Colton would come out with “what he had seen in heaven.” He said for example that he had met his miscarried sister, about whom he had no prior knowledge. He described meeting with his great grandfather, portraying him accurately, and who had died years before Colton was even born. He gave full and exact descriptions, in child’s language, of obscure details in the Bible - things he would never have learned in Sunday school or heard at home. That is just a short summary - there’s a lot more in the book.

Unless Colton’s pastor father is an absolute charlatan who has bullied his pre-school aged son to defend an elaborate lie as he grows up, it is hard to explain this away. Certainly, it doesn’t fit as some kind of trick of the mind when in trauma.

Another interesting testimony is from the Harvard trained neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander. This Huffington Post article about him (with video) seems as balanced as you would expect from such a respected, secular source.

This testimony is particularly thought-provoking because Dr. Alexander had, until his own NDE in the autumn of 2008, been highly sceptical of such phenomena. He was of the view that NDEs feel real, but are no more than fantasies produced by the brain when under extreme stress.

Then, Dr. Alexander suffered a rare illness (bacterial meningitis). The part of the brain that commands thought and emotion completely shut down. Alexander lay in a coma for a full week. Then, as his doctors considered discontinuing treatment, his eyes suddenly opened. He then began to speak of what he had experienced while in his comatose state.

Dr Raymond Moody whom I referenced above as the person who first coined the expression “near-death experiences” has gone on record about Dr. Alexander’s story saying “Dr. Eben Alexander's near-death experience is the most astounding I have heard in more than four decades of studying this phenomenon... one of the crown jewels of all near death experiences... Dr. Alexander is living proof of an afterlife.”

Now again, it may be that this man is making it all up in order to sell books. He certainly has done that, topping the New York Times bestsellers list. But if that is the case, he has completely hoodwinked one of the world's leading academic authorities on the subject, risking his entire career and professional reputation as he did. Or he may simply be mistaken or deluded.

To be fair, Alexander has attracted strong opposition from critics who have attempted to explain his experiences in purely natural terms. He has publicly refuted each attack, defending his account vigorously.

But there are many, many other stories of near-death experience. Many of them confirm biblical teaching. Some of them are more esoteric and new-age in feel – which in my view is the biggest argument against their authenticity.

Nevertheless, though I find all this quite interesting, my belief in life after death is not based on anecdotes and testimonies of this nature. My faith in heaven, hell and eternal life is founded on the well-attested historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which I put forward in Reason 14.

Everyone knows that if medical research finds a rational explanation for NDEs it will merely mean that there’s a rational explanation for NDEs. No big deal.

But what if it doesn’t? What if these experiences are based on a spiritual reality we cannot explain and not on the imagination or some malfunction of the brain when it shuts down? Then there is a big deal. While the research goes on, I read stories like those quoted above with interest and some encouragement. 

And until good evidence is produced to prove the contrary, NDEs lend some supporting evidence to my belief that heaven is real and they provide me with a 23rd reason for being a Christian.