Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language (7 page)

I studied
50 consecutive NDEs (from the most recently submitted working back
consecutively) plus over 50 nonwestern NDEs as submitted to Dr. Long’s website.
(35)
I fully expected that at least some would report an abrupt ending, since most
scientific studies seem to find anomalies and outliers. Yet,
not one of
these NDErs reported a disruptive ending.
Indeed, the majority spoke of a
conversation ending in a decision to return, or just knowing that it was time
to return. But even in cases that didn’t include a conscious decision to
return, I saw no NDE that was cut off abruptly, like mid-sentence.

For
an example of closure, here’s the conclusion of an NDE from someone who almost
drowned:  

I heard a voice say, "It is not yet
your time. You'll be alright." I couldn't tell if it was a male or female
voice. Next thing I knew, my brother grabbed the back of my coat and pulled me
out of the water.
(36)

Since
I’ve not heard this issue discussed among researchers, I’d like to leave it
rather tentative. Perhaps it’s very significant. On the other hand, perhaps
further NDE research will yield alternate explanations. In personal
correspondence with NDE researcher Bruce Greyson, he suggested, “We don’t know
whether the account of making that decision or being sent back is a retroactive
distortion of how the NDE really ended.”

I’d
like to see more research on this. Are there parallels to this experience in
dream research, such as the brain retroactively inventing a story line to go
with a certain feeling or pain or intuition? If so, is it likely that the
closure story could be triggered by the brain to retroactively coincide with
the feeling of regaining consciousness?

But
even if some decisions to return could be explained in this manner, it still
doesn’t explain why so extremely few, if any, NDEs are interrupted mid
sentence, as we typically find in dreams and hallucinations.
They
seem more like movie scripts – planned, directed, and designed to end with
closure. This data seems to fit better with NDEs being a real experience with
the other side, rather than a naturally occurring dream state or hallucination.
  

Exhibit
#5 - Children’s NDEs Provide Unique Evidence(37)  

Seven-year-old
Katie was found floating face down in a YMCA swimming pool. Pediatrician and
medical researcher Melvin Morse resuscitated her in the emergency room, but she
remained profoundly comatose – massive swelling of the brain, no gag reflex –
with an artificial lung breathing for her. He gave her a ten percent chance of
surviving.

Astonishingly,
she made a full recovery within three days.

When
she returned for a follow-up appointment, Katie recognized Morse and told her
mom, “That’s the one with the beard. First there was this tall doctor who
didn’t have a beard, and then he came in. First I was in a big room, and then
they moved me to a smaller room where they did X-rays on me.”

She
mentioned other details, like putting a tube down her nose – all accurate, but “seen”
while her eyes were shut and her brain was deeply comatose.           

Morse
asked her what she remembered about her near drowning. After all, if it
resulted from a seizure, she might have another one.

She
responded, “Do you mean when I visited the Heavenly Father?” That sounded
pretty interesting, so Morse responded, “That’s a good place to start. Tell me
about meeting the Heavenly Father.”

“I
met Jesus and the Heavenly Father,” she said. Perhaps it was his shocked
expression. Perhaps her natural shyness kicked in. Whatever the reason, that’s
all she’d say for that appointment.

Next
week, Katie was more talkative. She remembered nothing of the drowning, but
recalled an initial darkness, then a tunnel through which Elizabeth came. She
described her as “tall and nice,” with bright, golden hair. Elizabeth
accompanied Katie through the tunnel, where she met several people, including her
late grandfather, two young boys named Mark and Andy, and others.

Katie
also reported visiting her earthly home, where she saw her brothers pushing a
GI Joe in a jeep, while her mom cooked roast chicken and rice. She even knew
what they were wearing. Her parents were shocked at the detailed accuracy.

Finally,
Elizabeth took Katie to meet the Heavenly Father and Jesus. The Father asked if
she wanted to go home. She wanted to stay. Jesus asked if she wanted to see her
mother. She said, “Yes” and then woke up.

It
took about an hour for Katie to tell the story, but that hour changed Dr.
Morse’s life. He interviewed the intensive care nurses, who said that Katie’s
first words were, “Where are Mark and Andy?” She asked for them repeatedly. Morse
reflected on Katie and her manner of telling the story. Although extremely shy,
she spoke of the experience in a “powerful and compelling way.” 

Morse
spent hours talking to the parents about anything from Katie’s background that
could help explain such an experience. They were Mormons and hadn’t talked to
her about tunnels, guardian angels and such. When Katie’s grandfather died, her
mom had told her that death was like sending someone on a boat ride, while the
friends and family have to stay on the shore.
(38)

Morse
published the case in the
American Journal of Diseases of Children
(39)
and considered further research. He had a grant to do cancer research, but
the grant director, Janet Lunceford, supported his wish to instead study
children with NDEs through Seattle Children’s Hospital. He assembled a team of
eight researchers, each of whom had relevant expertise. For example, Dr. Don
Tyler was an expert on anesthetics and their effects upon the brain. Dr.
Jerrold Milstein, director of the Department of Child Neurology at the
University of Washington, studied the brain stem and hippocampal function.
(40)

Morse
concluded from his three-year study:

We are taught in medical school to find
the simplest explanation for medical problems. After looking at all the other
explanations for near-death experiences, I think the simplest explanation is
that NDEs are actually glimpses into the world beyond. Why not? I’ve read all
the convoluted psychological and physiological explanations for NDEs, and none
of them seem very satisfying.
(41)
 

He
published the results of his study in a medical journal and wrote a book to
give further detail.
(42)

When
children have NDEs, they experience the same elements as adults.
(43)
Yet,
it’s extremely doubtful that they’ve heard of NDEs or have expectations similar
to adults. Their childlike spontaneity in describing events totally outside
their previous learning or experience provides a unique and powerful line of
evidence. This is part of the appeal of little Colton’s NDE in
Heaven is for
Real
. His reports were spontaneous and childlike, describing from his point
of view things that adults could more fully understand.
(44)

If
childhood experiences were tailored to what they wanted to see in a time of
extreme illness, surely they’d dream of their parents. Instead, they often see
deceased grandparents or pets. And like adults who experience NDEs, their lives
are impacted for the long haul. They become more empathetic than their peers,
sensing the emotions behind spoken words. They want to help others and
gravitate toward the helping professions – nursing, medicine, and social work.
(45)
  

Here’s
another child’s experience. A five-year-old contracted meningitis, fell into a
coma, and awoke reporting that he’d met a little girl on the other side who
claimed to be his sister. She said to him,

“I’m your sister. I died a month after I
was born. I was named after your grandmother. Our parents called me Rietje for
short.”

When
he awoke and told his parents, they were shocked and left the room for a
moment, then returned to tell him that he indeed had an older sister named
Rietje who’d died of poisoning a year before he was born. They had decided not
to tell him until later in life.
(46)

The
childhood NDE seems to clearly fit better with the spiritual hypothesis than
naturalistic hypotheses that lean on expectations or wish fulfillment,
especially when corroborating details are present.

Exhibit
#6 - Deathbed Visions Provide Corroboration.(47)  

The
first known attempt to pull together accounts of people’s deathbed visions was
by Sir William Barrett, professor of experimental physics at Ireland’s Royal
College of Science. His study was prompted by his wife (who was a physician),
who rushed home to tell Sir William about a remarkable vision seen by Doris, a
lady who was about to die after giving birth to her child. Doris spoke with
great delight about seeing her deceased father. Then, with a rather puzzled
expression, she said, “He has Vida with him.” Doris turned toward her and
repeated, “Vida is with him.” She soon died.

Doris’
sister Vida had died three weeks before, but nobody had told Doris, due to her
state of health.
(48)  

Three
large-scale studies of deathbed visions were done in the second half of the
twentieth century. The first study collected and analyzed the reports of nurses
and doctors concerning over 35,000 patients. A second gathered about 50,000 reports.
These were both American studies. Later, a third study compared 255 reports of
deathbed visions in India. Amazingly, “the results from the Indian survey were
in agreement with results from the earlier surveys on almost all points.”
(49)
 

Some
points of evidential interest from these studies:

1 -
Those who said that the deceased relatives or angelic beings had come for the
purpose of taking them away, tended to die sooner than the ones who merely
spoke of seeing beings on the other side.
(50)  

2 - Sometimes
the visions were reported by people who were not expected to die, thus ruling
out expectations as the cause. A college-educated Indian man, still in his 20s,
was doing very well after a hospitalization. He was to be discharged that day
and both the doctor and the patient fully expected a recovery. Suddenly the
patient shouted, “Someone is standing here dressed in white clothes. I will not
go with you!” He died within ten minutes.
(51)

If
these visions were caused by culturally influenced expectations, you’d expect
them to differ vastly from person to person and culture to culture. Their high
degree of convergence would seem to fit better with a spiritual explanation
(there is an afterlife) than a purely naturalistic explanation (there is no
afterlife).
(52)

Exhibit
#
7 - “Shared NDEs” Provide Multiple Eye Witnesses.(53)

Often,
those who are near (relationally and/or physically) the dying share the NDE.  These
reports are evidentially valuable in that several people may independently
report and corroborate the experience. Additionally, these reports can’t likely
be explained by naturalistic explanations such as the dying brain hypothesis,
since those sharing the experience were not in the process of dying. Neither
were they suffering from oxygen deprivation, hypercarbia, fear of personal
death, or other symptoms that may influence the brain at death.  

Here’s
an example experience, corroborated by all who were present:

Five
members of the Anderson family in metro Atlanta were at their mother’s bedside
as she was dying. Since this was the end of an extended illness, none were
especially psychologically distraught at the time. As one of the daughters
reported, “Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the room.” The appearance of
the light was unlike “any kind of light on this earth. I nudged my sister to
see if she saw it too, and when I looked at her, her eyes were as big as
saucers. …I saw my brother literally gasp. Everyone saw it together and for a
little while we were frightened.”

They
next saw lights that shaped themselves into an entranceway. Her mother left her
body and departed through the passage, ushering in a feeling of ecstatic joy.
They all agreed that the entranceway resembled the Natural Bridge in the
Shenandoah Valley.
(54)