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

Near-Death Experiences

As
Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven

A Brief Introduction in Plain Language

J.
Steve Miller

Dedication

To
bold researchers
who dare to explore new frontiers,
possessing an insatiable scientific curiosity
that drives them to push the boundaries of science
by questioning the prevailing paradigms

 
Near-Death
Experiences,
Copyright
©
2012 by J. Steve Miller
All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the author.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Miller, J. Steve, 1957-
Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief
Introduction in Plain Language / by J. Steve Miller

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index

ISBN-13: 978-0-9883048-6-4

1. Near-death experiences. 2. Future life.  I. title

BF1045.N4M 2012 
133.901’3 – dc22  
LCCN: 2012953057

For corrections, book orders, bulk discounts, author
appearances, inquiries or interviews, contact publisher by email or regular
mail at:

Wisdom Creek Press, LLC
5814 Sailboat Pointe NW
Acworth, Georgia  30101
www.wisdomcreekpress.com

The table
Sources of Anecdotes Involving
Apparently Nonphysical Veridical Perception
, in Appendix #8, is republished
with permission of ABC-CLIO, LLC, and author, Janice Miner Holden, from
The
Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
, edited by Janice Miner Holden, et al,
2009, permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jeffrey Long, MD

Preface

Introduction: The Search for Shangri-La

Chapter 1: A Four Year Old’s Near-Death Experience

Chapter 2: Studies on Near-Death Experiences

Chapter 3: A Collage of Near-Death Experiences

Chapter 4: Naturalistic Explanations

Materialist

Theoretical

Methodological

Psychological

Physiological
 

Reflections
on Naturalistic Explanations

Chapter 5: Do NDEs Provide Compelling Evidence That God and
Heaven Exist?

Exhibit 1
-
Reports (from outside the body) of the hospital room or accident location
provide corroborating evidence.

Exhibit 2
- NDErs
report enhanced mental functions while their brains are severely compromised.

Exhibit 3
- The
presence of remarkably consistent, yet unexpected elements are not what we’d
predict from a psychologically induced dream state.
Exhibit 4
- NDEs consistently have closure – distinguishing
them from dreams and hallucinations.

Exhibit 5
-
Children’s NDEs provide unique evidence.

Exhibit 6
-
Deathbed visions provide corroboration.

Exhibit 7
-
Shared NDEs provide multiple eyewitnesses.

Exhibit 8
- Face
to face interviews have a strong impact on the researchers.

Exhibit 9
- The
deaf hear.

Exhibit 10
- The
color-blind see colors.

Exhibit 11
-
The blind see.   

Exhibit 12
-
It’s extremely convincing to the one who experiences it, completely unlike a
dream.

Summary of the
Evidence

Chapter 6: What We Learn from NDEs

They are not consistent with every worldview.

What NDEs
don’t
teach us.

What NDEs
may
teach us.

About the being of light

About what really matters

About aspects of the afterlife

Conclusion

Pause to Reflect

Appendix
1 -
Do NDEs Differ Across Cultures?

Appendix
2 -
Two Recent Articles Proclaim that Science Has
Explained NDEs’ Paranormal Features

Appendix
3 -
Interviewing Circles of Trust – My
Original Research and Tips

Appendix
4 -
But is the Evidence “Scientific”?

Appendix
5 -
Blackmore’s Dying Brain Hypothesis

Appendix
6 -
Nelson’s Spiritual Doorway in the Brain

Appendix
7 -
Reflections on NDEs and
Christian Teachings

Appendix
8 -
NDEs with Corroboration

Appendix
9 -
Guide to Further Research

Acknowledgements

End Notes

Foreword
by Jeffrey Long, MD

Although I’ve never had a near-death experience (NDE),
they’ve significantly changed my life. Nothing in my medical training prepared
me for my first exposure to an NDE, spontaneously shared by a good friend’s
wife over dinner. I was absolutely astonished!  I recall thinking that
these experiences could change my views about life, death, and God. I
devised a plan to collect and study NDEs. This study changed my worldview and
reorganized my priorities.  

As a radiation oncologist (a medical specialty that
treats cancer with radiation), I work daily with patients who know their
earthly lives may soon end. My exposure to NDEs enables me to help them face
their cancer with courage and confidence. For over 35 years, medical doctors
and academics have published significant NDE research, scrutinizing the
experience in both professional journals and books. I’ve personally studied
over 3,000 NDEs that I collected at
www.nderf.org
. While
further clinical studies are always encouraged, it seems to me that a major
challenge today, for thinkers everywhere, is to sift through the mountains of
data that’s been collected and bring to light the implications.  

Important questions today for both NDE researchers and
people everywhere include: Do NDEs provide compelling evidence for the
existence of God and the afterlife? What is the evidence? Is the evidence
strong or weak? If some of these experiences are indeed encounters with the
afterlife, how should this impact my life priorities? 

While other books, such as my own, take up this
challenge, I believe that Miller’s book offers a valuable contribution to NDE
literature. First, he offers a fresh voice by employing creative analogies and
fresh angles to clarify salient points. Second, he avoids the insider academic
jargon that may obscure more than enlighten. Third, he remarkably manages to
consolidate recent research into a document that packs more of a punch for its
brevity. By focusing on the evidential value of NDEs, Miller can explore the
possible implications without burdening the reader with extraneous detail.

If this is your first exposure to the near-death
experience, fasten your seatbelts! You’ve embarked upon an exhilarating ride
that just might transport you to places you never imagined. – Jeffrey Long, MD,
author of
Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences

Preface

What if you slept?
And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?
And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven
And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower?
And what if, when you awoke, you had that flower in your hand?
Ah, what then? 
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What
then? Indeed.

This
is essentially the promise that many near-death researchers claim to fulfill –
a glimpse into eternity, verified with corroborating evidence. This book
intends to discover if they’ve fulfilled their promise.

What’s
a Near-Death Experience with Corroborating Evidence?

A
patient undergoes a risky brain surgery that requires lowering her body
temperature to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and draining all the blood from her
head. By three primary tests – a silent EEG, an unresponsive brain stem, and no
blood flow through the brain – she’s clinically dead. Yet, after the surgery
the patient reports that she was very much alive during the surgery, viewing
the procedure from outside her body. She described in accurate detail a
conversation that transpired during the surgery and the specialized instruments
used by the surgeons. Even if her vivid, conscious, out-of-body experience took
place prior to the draining of her blood, her eyes were taped shut, she was
deeply anesthetized, and 100-decible clicks assaulted her ears over 10 times
per second to monitor her brain stem activity. Except for the small surgical
area on her head, her entire body was covered.
(1)

But
who reported this event? An anonymous person who submitted it to a collection
of stories on a website? The patient? The surgeons? Could she have guessed the
conversation, or seen the instruments prior to the surgery? If it really happened,
what hypothesis best accounts for the event?  

Later,
I’ll talk about this remarkable episode and many fascinating studies, which introduce
evidence for the afterlife beyond mere anecdotes. 

Why
This Book?

Much
has been written recently about near-death experiences, from people sharing
their personal experiences, to doctors reporting their clinical studies in
great detail. I felt that a brief, readable introduction to this fascinating
field was in order, concentrating on the evidential value of the NDE. Here
you’ll find:

·
        
Reports
from those who claim to have visited heaven.

·
        
How
these reports are corroborated and what type of evidence they offer.

·
        
Introductions
to the primary researchers in the field.

·
        
An
emphasis upon the findings of clinical studies and scholarly, peer-reviewed
literature.

·
        
The
results of my own NDE interviews, suggesting ways that anyone can get closer to
the evidence by conducting their own interviews within their circles of trust. 
    

·
        
An
examination of naturalistic hypotheses.

·
        
Discussions
of the impact of personal expectations of death and cultural differences.

·
        
A
comparison of the content of NDEs with traditional Christian teachings.   

·
        
Recommendations
for further study.

My
Personal God Quest

Some
readers might be interested in my background and motivations for writing, to personalize
your reading experience and to help you understand my approach to research and
style.   

Forty
years ago, at the age of 16, I became obsessed with the importance of seeking
God. I reasoned that since earthly life was but a brief moment compared with
eternity, my first priority should be to determine if God existed and, if He did,
to figure out what He wanted out of my life. The words of Jesus Christ at times
inspired, at other times haunted me:

 For what does it profit a
man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

But
I had a problem.

You
see, I’m a skeptic. Always have been. Not in the narrow sense of someone who puts
down religion, but in the general sense of one who always questions everything.
My dictionary defines skeptic as “one who by nature doubts or questions what he
hears, reads, etc.” That’s me. My picture should be in the dictionary beside
that definition.

When
someone tells me something outrageous that a political leader (regardless of
political party) said or did, I ask,  

·
        
“Who
reported it?”

·
        
“In
what publication?”

·
        
“In
what context?”

·
        
“Could
the reporter be biased by her political affiliation?”

·
        
“Was
it reported objectively, or with sensational spin?”

As
you can imagine, my skeptical bent led me to continually question religious
claims, repeatedly subjecting them to rigorous scrutiny. Although I committed
my life to God as a sophomore in high school, I soon plunged into periods of
doubt as I wrestled with questions concerning God and the truth claims of Christianity.
  

My Academic Quest

As a result, my academic career reads like a God search.
I attended five institutes of higher learning – diverse colleges, universities,
and graduate schools – primarily searching for spiritual truth. My course of
study included many classes relevant to the study of God and religion -
philosophy of religion, world religions, Bible, Greek, Hebrew, philosophy of
science, deductive logic, history of philosophy, ethics, sociology, psychology,
psychology of religion, theology, etc.

Whether my professors were agnostics, Christians or
Buddhists, I questioned their beliefs and did independent research to separate
fact from fantasy, personal taste from uncomfortable truths. In my spare time,
I often read books arguing for and against religious beliefs, collecting quite
a library along the way. This broader view of religious and philosophical studies
helps me when I study a particular slice of evidence such as near-death
experiences.

Naturally, I sought God not only academically, but also through
prayer and trying to maintain a teachable, open heart.  

How My Background Informs This Study

With this background, you’ll better understand several
aspects of my writing.

First
, I read widely and document
my sources obsessively, so that if you wish to do further research or check my
interpretation of certain studies, you can find the original sources. Beyond
documentation, my endnotes and appendixes, which make up a large portion of the
book, contain expanded material that I feared might bog down less enthusiastic
readers. So if an argument seems weak or incomplete, check the endnote to see if
I pursue it further there. If I’ve overlooked important sources or misunderstood
the ones I refer to, please alert me at
[email protected]
. 

Second
, I seldom use words that
speak with finality such as “prove” or “proven.” This is partly because of my
skeptical nature but also because of my desire for precision. Since “prove” indicates
“100 percent certitude” in fields such as Math and Deductive Logic, I’ll tend
to use the more humble phrase, “sufficient evidence,” which is more appropriate
for subjects of a scientific or legal nature.

Example: For centuries, scientists thought that all swans
were white, since they’d observed tens of thousands of white swans. On the
basis of such strong evidence, many would have been tempted to declare with
finality, “We’ve proven that all swans are white.” But then someone visited
Australia and saw a black swan. That one observation ended the “all swans are
white” theory.

So please don’t think I’m playing down the strength of an
argument when I speak of “sufficient evidence.” Our biggest decisions of life
are made by weighing evidence rather than holding out for logical certitude. We
convict murderers on the basis of sufficient evidence. Yet, one more piece of
evidence could overturn our verdict. We choose our cars and houses and spouses
and vocations on the basis of sufficient evidence. In my opinion, absolute,
logical certitude is typically found, not in the real world, but in abstract
worlds like math.  

Third,
I try to write as simply as
possible. Sloppy argumentation often dresses up in technical vocabulary and
literary profundity. Thus, while some NDE literature speaks of myocardial
infarctions, I’ll simply call them heart attacks.

Fourth,
I want to approach
this subject humbly, recognizing that I have so much more to learn. While I’m
far from exhaustive in my research, I’ve tried to read the best resources
representing various positions. Again, if you feel I’ve overlooked significant
data, feel free to correspond.  

Part of a Larger Work

Over time, I hope to write further on the subject of
evidence for religious truth. When I do, you may find the present book as one
of its chapters.