For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
This podcast is an adaption of a draft chapter from my book, What’s the Truth about Heaven and Hell? Sorting Out the Confusion about the Afterlife.
The universally familiar NDE/OOB sequence:
- A sense of well-being
- Disembodiment
- A tunnel leading to light
- Visions of persons, events, and objects
- Interactions with other beings, human or divine
- A new evaluation of one’s life
- Return to life
- Most of this can be explained by the drop in oxygen levels in the brain, the buildup of carbon dioxide, reduction in neural firing, shutdown of the visual cortex, and euphoria triggered by dopamine and endorphins in the brain).
The five cases we discuss in this podcast:
- Case 1: Don Piper (90 Minutes in Heaven, 2004)
- Case 2: Choo Thomas (Heaven is So Real!, 2003)
- Case 3: Colton Burpo (Heaven is For Real, 2010)
- Case 4: Bill Wiese (23 Minutes in Hell, 2003)
- Case 5: Eben Alexander, MD (Proof of Heaven, 2012)
- Other recent New York Times bestsellers on heaven and hell: Richard Sigmund, My Time in Heaven (Whitaker House, 2009); Dennis and Nolene Prince, Nine Days in Heaven (Charisma House, 2011); Mark K. Baker, A Divine Revelation of Hell (Whitaker House, 1997); Kevin and Alex Malarkey, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World (Thomas Nelson, 2011).
Scriptures referred to
- Revelation 21:1
- Mark 8:38; 2 Timothy 2:12
- Colossians 2:18-19
- John 3:13
In brief:
- NDEs are universal, happening to members of every culture and religion.
- Experiences tend to reflect the faith background of those undergoing them.
- Many, but not all, can be rationalized in terms of physiology or psychology.
- NDEs are suggestive of a spiritual world and an afterlife. They strongly imply the former, though they do not prove the latter.
Also recommended:
- Dinesh D’Souza, Life After Death: The Evidence (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2009). Easy to read, written for general audience.
- Gary R. Habermas and J. P. Moreland, Immortality: The Other Side of Death (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1992).
- Michael A. Persinger, S. G. Tiller, and S. A. Koren, “Experimental Stimulation of a Haunt Experience and Elicitation of Paroxysmal Electroencephalographic Activity by Transcerebral Complex Magnetic Fields: Induction of a Synthetic “Ghost”? Journal of Perception and Motor Skills, 90:2 (2000), 659-674.
- Pim van Lommel, Ruud van Wees, Vincent Myers, and Ingrid Elfferich, “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest,” The Lancet 358, issue 9298 (2001): 2039-45.
- For more about the case of Colton Burpo, you may listen to a podcast with notes: “Heaven is for Real—Or is It?”.
- Douglas Jacoby, What’s the Truth about Heaven and Hell? Sorting Out the Confusion about the Afterlife (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 2013), chapter 16.
