What’s in it for me? Get a glimpse into heaven through the lens of near-death experiences.
Sheila had always suffered from severe allergies, and one of the worst allergic reactions she ever had was while undergoing surgery.
The situation became so dire that she flatlined on the operating table, sending the entire room of medical professionals into a frenzy.
But while the doctors and nurses frantically attempted to revive her, Sheila felt at ease and pain-free – right on the ceiling.
Yes, she was floating serenely at ceiling level, looking down at her physical body.
The next thing she knew, she was in the nursing station, where a tunnel suddenly appeared.
She passed through the tunnel and came out in a land of beauty and light.
There, Sheila was surrounded by her departed loved ones and an abundant sense of love.
A mystical being materialized before her and asked her whether she wanted to return to Earth.
A part of her wasn't sure as she had a strong feeling that she was already home in that beautiful place.
One day later, though, she regained consciousness in the ICU.
What Sheila went through is a classic case of a near-death experience or NDE, a phenomenon in which a person experiences the afterlife while clinically dead.
Although seemingly uncommon, NDEs actually happen to one in every 25 people.
This frequency is attributed to improved medical care and resuscitation methods.
In this Blink to John Burke’s Imagine Heaven, we’ll walk you through more examples of NDEs as well as the author’s analysis of how these visions might offer a glimpse into what life after death truly looks like and how they compare to the Bible's teachings.
So, if you’re ready to imagine heaven, then let’s dive in.
Heaven as Described by Near-Death Experiences
When you picture heaven, you’ve probably been taught to think of an ethereal realm full of clouds and blinding light.
If you’re Christian, there might be dozens of angels playing trumpets and massive crowds singing church songs for all eternity.
But what NDErs call heaven actually bears little resemblance to this conventional notion.
Apparently, God’s paradise is so much more than just fluffy clouds and winged angels.
When neurosurgeon Eben Alexander clinically died from a rare condition, he found himself in a place so exquisite no adjective could do it justice.
It looked like a beautiful countryside, much like Earth with its lush greeneries.
There were vibrant fields, and the trees and flowers possessed a “living warmth.
” Eben described it as being like a dream world, but he somehow knew it was nothing short of real.
Retired bank president and golf enthusiast Marv Besteman, who died after getting his pancreatic tumor removed, also reported the lusciousness of the grass in heaven.
He mentioned how it was significantly greener than any other grass he had seen on Earth.
But aside from the ground, he was in awe of the sky, too.
It was filled with indescribably rich colors.
The only other shades that came close were the Hawaiian shore during sunset and the blue Caribbean waters.
Even blind NDErs claim that heaven is the most beautiful world.
Brad Barrows, whose heart stopped due to severe pneumonia, said that in heaven, he was no longer visually impaired, and the first thing he saw was a massive field with indescribable brightness.
He knew there were colors everywhere, but he couldn’t distinguish what shade they were since he’d been born blind.
What caught his attention, though, was the lovely weather and the crisp air.
Apart from the countryside, NDErs also describe a stunning city.
Such was the experience of Captain Dale Black when he died after the twin-engine Piper Navajo he was in collided with an aviation monument right after take-off.
Two heavenly guides led him to a breathtaking city that gleamed and resounded with celestial music.
There were colors dancing around and the air was filled with a sweet and gentle scent.
Gary Wood, who was killed in a car accident, had a different experience of the city when his friend, John, offered him a quick tour.
In his NDE, Gary was shown a huge building resembling a library.
It had solid gold walls and a crystal ceiling.
Then, they went to a grand auditorium featuring a spiral staircase.
These accounts may not be exactly the same, but when pieced together, they offer a glimpse of the ethereal realm that is heaven.
But while there are millions of almost similar NDE stories out there, it’s difficult not to wonder whether they’re real or just the individual’s imagination at work.
Let’s find out in the next section.
Scientific, Verifiable Evidence of NDEs
Katie was just seven years old when she drowned in a pool.
She was quickly rushed to the emergency room, but she was given only a 10 percent chance of survival when she lapsed into a coma due to brain swelling.
Despite the odds, Katie lived to tell the tale of her NDE.
At the time she was comatose in the hospital, she found herself out of her physical body and freely traveling through her surroundings.
She recalled following her family home, where she saw her mom making rice and roast chicken and her brothers playing with a GI Joe.
Her parents verified the accuracy of her stories.
But how could Katie, who was in a coma and not even physically present with her family, know exactly what each member was up to?
Apparently, the seven-year-old’s account isn’t an isolated case.
Many other NDErs claim to have out-of-body experiences, the details of which can be confirmed to be true.
Among the most notable stories is that of Maria, a woman who clinically died from a heart attack.
During her out-of-body experience, she went outdoors and saw a left tennis shoe sitting on one of the windowsills on the hospital's third floor.
NDE researcher Kimberly Clark Sharp went on the hunt for the shoe, and when she found it, Maria’s description of it was spot on.
Such corroborative evidence like Katie’s and Maria’s were what prompted multiple doctors and researchers to dive deeper into NDEs.
They wanted to know whether NDEs can be explained by mere scientific factors, such as oxygen deprivation, psychedelics, and chemical brain reactions.
In many published studies, researchers have found that the most logical explanation for NDEs is that life continues beyond death.
One researcher, Dr.
Jeffrey Long, points out that when a patient’s EEG flatlines, no more brain activity is recorded.
Yet NDEs are described in such lucidity that can’t be generated by a brain in such a condition.
Additionally, Dr.
Pim van Lommel shares that the stories told by people who use drugs aren’t quite the same as NDEs, ruling out the theory that these experiences could be induced by substances or medications.
All these lead John Burke to a simple conclusion: there is an afterlife.
Similar Elements Across NDEs
NDEs differ from one person to the next, but the hundreds of studies conducted over the years have shown that there are some striking similarities.
In Dr.
van Pommel’s study, he notes that individuals of different backgrounds and ages claim to have had very comparable NDEs.
Dr.
Long also made the same observation.
After studying 1,300 NDEs, he determined that over 75 percent go through an out-of-body experience, 74 percent get heightened senses, 76 percent feel extremely pleasant emotions, and 64 percent involve meeting a mystical bright light.
Seven-year-old Katie’s pediatrician, Dr.
Morse, investigated NDEs of kids and discovered that they had many common characteristics with those of adults.
As you may recall, Sheila, Katie, and Maria all had out-of-body experiences.
This appears to be one of the most common NDE elements.
Pete Morton, who suffered from a cardiac arrest, went through the same and even watched as doctors resuscitated his body.
Vicki, who’d been blind since birth, also had an out-of-body experience and was able to observe her surroundings and the car wreck she was in.
Once the NDErs realize that they’re no longer in their physical bodies, they start to notice their heightened senses.
When Dr.
Richard Eby died after falling headfirst from the second floor of an apartment, he realized he could see perfectly at distances as close as 10 inches and as far as 10 miles.
Don Piper, a pastor who got hit by an 18-wheeler and chronicled his story in the book 90 Minutes in Heaven, mentioned how he was exposed to a spectrum of colors he’d never seen or even knew of.
Jeff was also involved in a car accident with his family, and in his NDE, he shared how he smelled his wife’s hair with a sense of smell “tenfold” what he had on Earth.
Before the NDEs end and the individuals return to their physical bodies, they often report having encountered a mystical brilliant light.
Some of them could identify that it was either Jesus or God, but others simply leave it at that: a very bright light teeming with love.
The latter was how Hazeliene from Singapore described the being during her NDE.
On the other hand, Steve Sjorgen, a pastor in Cincinnati, knew right away it was God the moment someone spoke to him.
Not all NDErs report these core elements, and even when they do, no two accounts are the same.
But this doesn’t mean that NDEs are fabricated.
In fact, Burke posits that the scriptures actually support the NDErs' claims, as we'll see in the next section.
NDEs and the Scriptures
Sheila, the woman who died due to her severe allergies, woke up from her NDE and was initially hesitant to talk about what she’d seen and experienced.
When she finally opened up to one of the nurses on duty, a nun was immediately sent to talk some sense into her and tell her that what she went through was orchestrated by the devil himself.
Many Christians see NDEs as such, but contrary to their belief, these experiences are actually aligned with what is said in the scriptures.
For instance, four-year-old NDEr Colton Burpo reports that heaven is always bright because of God and Jesus.
Another NDEr named Bill mentioned how heaven’s version of nighttime is just faded light and not complete darkness.
Both claims are consistent with Revelation 21:23, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
” Another verse in the book of Revelation says, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.
” This is essentially identical to New Zealand surfer Ian McCormack’s account.
He said that when he was in heaven, there was a clear stream in the center of the fields running across the landscape.
Even Captain Dale Black, the pilot whose plane crashed, recalled seeing a river running through the center of the city and all the way to the wall.
He mentioned that the river water shone, but the light was somehow within it, not on it as you would usually see on Earth.
Rebecca Springer, who suffered from a severe illness, described the river as crystal clear.
Gary Wood, the man involved in a car accident, also noticed a river that was as clear as crystal, but he added that it flowed right from the Almighty God's throne.
Apart from the NDErs' matching description of what seems to be the River of Life, many of them portray Jesus Christ in the same way the scriptures do.
According to Revelation 1:16, the Son of God’s face is as brilliant as the sun.
Samaa, from the Middle East, described it as even brighter than the sun.
Vicki, the blind NDEr mentioned earlier, added that light was even coming out of Jesus’s beard.
Meanwhile, Dr.
George Ritchie, who chronicled his NDE in the book Return from Tomorrow, said that Jesus was simply made out of light.
In Daniel 10:6, the Son of God is also said to have “eyes like flaming torches.
” This is similar to Dean Braxton’s account when he flatlined for almost two hours while undergoing kidney surgery.
He remembered that Jesus's eyes looked like flames that changed into varying colors.
Samaa also described Jesus’s eyes as blazing fires but with overwhelming love.
These are only a few of the instances where NDErs’ accounts match the teachings in the scriptures.
There are a lot more out there.
And while the NDEs may not provide a word-per-word telling of the scripture, you'll find surprising similarities between the two.
Experiencing Hell Instead of Heaven
Not everyone who goes through an NDE gets a taste of the glorious and happy paradise.
Sometimes, they wind up on the flip side of the coin.
Yes, hell, according to NDErs, is just as real as heaven.
This kind of NDE isn’t reported as frequently as the heavenly one – perhaps because people are too traumatized to remember or too ashamed to come forward.
But from the reported hellish NDEs, researchers discovered that they typically go one of three ways: the void, hell on Earth, and the pit.
The void is just as the name suggests.
NDErs often experience free-falling in absolute darkness, and the longer they spend in the darkness, the more terrifying it becomes.
The only way they’re pulled out of it is when they pray to God to save them.
Hell on Earth, on the other hand, is what dead people experience when they can’t let go of their business on Earth.
They’re too preoccupied with something else that they don’t notice the light that is God, trapping them on Earth forever.
Finally, there’s the pit, which is known to be the most hellish of the three.
Several NDErs who’ve gone through the pit have described the experience as similar to being trapped in a dark cave or sometimes below the ground.
Similar to the NDErs who saw heaven, they also have heightened senses, but this time, they’re not greeted with beautiful colors and sweet smells.
Instead, they get foul odors like feces and sulfur.
There are also tormentors inside the pit who taunt, bite, and harm the people.
NDErs are saved from the pit by calling out to God.
Although what they experienced wasn’t exactly the hell you grew up imagining, Burke stresses that their accounts prove that it exists just as much as paradise.
Final Summary
These stories of heaven and hell from people who were clinically dead and resuscitated are meant to excite and inspire you to strive for eternal life in paradise.
The better you picture heaven and all the splendor it offers, the more you’ll be motivated to work toward it.
These NDEs not only provide evidence of heaven's existence but also offer detailed descriptions of what it looks like.
Burke hopes these accounts will strengthen your belief in heaven, and in turn, motivate you to live your life in a way that brings you closer to God.