NDEs, or near-death experiences, are starting to catch the attention of scientists–even atheist scientists–as something that cannot simply be explained away as a hallucinatory experience.
No Longer Explained Away As Hallucination
NDErs commonly report being out of body and, with stunning accuracy, report the surroundings of the other parts of the hospital they claim to have been in, even though during life, they had never been there.
Add to that, during the duration of the experience, NDErs generally have no brain waves, a stopped heart, and are frequently declared clinically dead at the time that the experience is taking place.
NDEs Across Cultures and Religions
Does the content of an NDE from a Muslim differ from that of a Christian? Or, how about an NDE from an American versus one from a Vietnamese man?
The answer to both is NO. NDEs share commonalities across cultures, religions, and geographic regions. If they were mere hallucinatory experiences, we would certainly not expect this to be so, as the subconscious minds of all of these individuals would certainly produce different fantasies…
…but they don’t, because NDEs are something else.
Those that experience NDEs typically have these things in common (Note that several of them are directly affirmed in the Bible, and that none of them contradict what the Bible teaches):
- Leaving the body, but still having a spiritual body
- Heightened senses
- Traveling through a tunnel
- Beautiful surroundings, intense love and light
- Life review
Paul talks about out of body experiences (See 2 Cor 12:2-4) and the uncertainty of being in or out of one’s physical body. The Bible affirms further the concept of physical and spiritual bodies in 1 Cor 15:40, 44-47 and other places.
In Revelation 21:23-25, the Bible talks about how in the presence of the glory of God, the light is so great that there is no need for the moon or the Sun…and, of course, any glimpse into heaven certainly would include the glory of God.
And as far as a life review, we know also that we live once and are judged (Hebrews 9:27-28).
So, Should We Believe Everything NDErs Come Back Saying Then?
Short answer: No.
Remember that, especially beyond the physical world where we have some bearing of how to determine reality, the possibility for deception absolutely exists.
We wrestle not again flesh and blood, but powers and principalities… (Ephesians 6:12).
NDEs can be deceptive, and so the specifics of one NDE or another should NOT be the basis for our afterlife theology…
That said, there are definitely aspects of NDEs that we as believers ought to embrace, the most important of those, of course, being that NDEs are about as close as proof-positive of an afterlife as we’re going to get on this side of heaven.
NDEs make people think about the very real possibility of life after death…
…and that, in and of itself, is a seed for a conversation worth having.
