On January 18, 1989, Don Piper collided head-on with a tractor trailer on Hwy. 19 near Houston, Texas.  The impact of the collision exceeded 110 mph.  Instantly Don was killed as was determined by two medic crews who pronounced him dead at the scene.  Don spent 90 minutes in heaven until he came back to life due to a divine purpose.  Recalling his time in heaven Don stated, “When I died, I didn’t flow through a long, dark tunnel.  In my next moment of awareness, I was standing in heaven.  Joy pulsated through me as I looked around, and at that moment I became aware of a large crowd of people. They stood in front of a brilliant, ornate gate.  I knew instantly that all of them had died during my lifetime.  They rushed toward me, and every person was smiling, shouting and praising God.  It was as if they had all gathered just outside heaven’s gate, waiting for me.  The first person I recognized was Joe Kulbeth, my grandfather.  He looked exactly as I remembered him, with his shock of white hair and what I called a big banana nose. ”Donnie!“ (that’s what my grandfather always called me) His eyes lit up, and he held out his arms as he took the last steps toward me.  He embraced me, holding me tightly.  He was again the robust, strong grandfather I had remembered as a child.  My grandfather released me, and as I stared in his face, an ecstatic bliss overwhelmed me.  After being hugged by my grandfather, I don’t remember who was second or third.  The crowd surrounded me.  Some hugged me and a few kissed my cheek, while others pumped my hand.  Never had I felt more loved.

One person in that greeting committee was Mike Wood, my childhood friend. Mike was special because he invited me to Sunday school and was influential in my becoming a Christian.  He also became a hero to me, because he lived the Christian lifestyle he often talked about.  When he was nineteen, Mike was killed in a car wreck.  It broke my heart when I heard about his death.  Now I saw Mike in heaven.  Never had I seen Mike smile so brightly.  I still didn’t know why, but the joyousness of the place wiped away any questions.  Everything felt blissful. Perfect.

Everything I experienced (in heaven) was like a first-class buffet for the senses.  I had never felt such powerful mbraces or feasted my eyes on such beauty.  Heavens light and texture defy earthly eyes or explanation.  Warm, radiant light engulfed me.  As I looked around, I could hardly grasp the vivid, dazzling colors.  Every hue and tone surpassed anything I had ever seen [on earth].  The best way I can explain it is to say that I felt as if I were in another dimension.  Never, even in my happiest moments, had I ever felt so fully alive.  

At some point, I looked around and the sight overwhelmed me. Everything was brilliantly intense.  Coming out from the gate, a short distance ahead, was a brilliance that was brighter than the light that surrounded us, utterly luminous. In trying to describe the scene, words are totally inadequate, because human words can’t express the feelings of awe and wonder at what I beheld.  A holy awe came over me as I stepped forward.  The farther I walked, the brighter the light.  I had no idea what lay ahead, but I sensed with each step I took, it would grow more wondrous.  Then I heard the music” (To continue the excerpt, obtain the book, 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper with Cecil Murphy).1

Near Death Experiences (NDEs)

NDEs are visions, encounters or episodes that most closely resemble the eventuality of an afterlife following a verifiable clinical death.  A 1982 Gallup Poll survey indicated that about 8 million Americans claimed to have experienced a NDE.  George Gallup, Jr. believed the estimate to be conservative, with latest figures showing that 40% of all resuscitated patients will have a NDE.  More recently, an article written by Tara Macisaac of the Epoch Times titled, “How Common Are Near-Death Experiences? – NDEs by the Numbers” stated, “Near-death experiences (NDEs) are reported by an estimated 200,000 Americans a year, and studies around the world suggest NDEs are a common human experience.3 The term, Near Death Experience, is actually a misnomer, as the people who have such experiences are not nearly dead, but truly dead!  Although many scientists and doctors attempt to “scientifically” explain away NDEs as the consequences of a dying brain, the fact remains that those who experience NDEs have been pronounced clinically dead!  People who are clinically dead are identified by a flat EEG (electroencephalograph), which means that there is absolutely no brain activity. They are completely brain dead.  Today a flat EEG is considered to be the ultimate criteria used to determine death.  Therefore the very criteria used to establish death is a total contradiction for those who experience NDEs.

For example, the medical community has often used the condition of oxygen deprivation of the brain (hypoxia) for the reason NDEs occur.  Yet a study conducted by Dr. Morse, a pediatrician, found there was no more oxygen deprivation measured in children who experienced NDEs as those who didn’t.  Upon interviewing more than 70 children who experienced NDEs, he reports on Jamie Untinen.  When Jamie was five years old, she almost died from spinal meningitis.  Later she drew a picture of what she saw during her NDE; 3 angels and Jesus sitting on a log.  She stated He was very nice and told her “it was not her turn to die.”4

In another case the subject explains, “I was deathly ill, shaking with fever, when I arrived at the hospital.  My temperature was almost 106° and I was having cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats).  I felt an incredible pain.  The wall of my uterus was ripping apart.  I was in septic shock, going into labor.  As I lost consciousness, I heard a voice shouting, ‘I can’t get her blood pressure!’ And then, within the tiniest fraction of an instant, I was out of my body and out of pain.  I was up on the ceiling in a corner of the room, looking down, watching doctors and nurses rush around frantically as they worked to save my life.  And that somehow turned me over.  Now I was in a sort of a tunnel, a cloud-like enclosure, a grayish opalescence that I could partially see through.  I felt wind brushing against my ears, except I didn’t have ears.  I was there, but my body wasn’t.  I began to feel the most incredible, warm, golden, loving feeling, and the feeling was also a wonderful, warm, golden light.  I was in this light, part of this light.  There was a presence in the light, a wisdom, and that wisdom was the final word.  The wisdom loved me and at same time it knew everything about me.  Everything I had ever done and felt was there for me to see.  I wanted to proceed into the light and stay there forever, but I was shown that I had to go back and take care of my two children.  In that same fragment of a second, I was back in my body, back in all the pain.  My son was being delivered, and I heard everybody screaming, ‘She’s back!’ I was so upset, so angry to be ripped away from the most wonderful peace in all the universe.  And then they told me my son had been born dead.  I have kept this experience to myself, but I go over it in my mind every night, and it has taught me three things. First, I know that death is not painful.  I will never be afraid to die.  Second, I know that it’s important to be true to myself and to others, because I will be accountable for my life when it’s over. I’m talking about eternity, something I’m going to experience for all eternity. And the third thing I know is that when you die you’re not snuffed out. I know that I’m more than my body.  There’s a soul that’s me.  And I know that I, my soul, will always be there. I know for certain that there is life after death.”’5 

Elements that Comprise Near Death Experiences

The recollections or visions of people who experience a NDE generally incorporate fifteen separate elements that recur again and again in this group.  Although the possible number of elements that comprise these visions may vary between one individual and another, no matter how many elements are contained in each NDE, they are so often similar, that this in itself is a phenomena. Because these elements form such a common relationship for those who experience NDEs, it’s claimed that such experiences go far beyond mere dreams, hallucinations, or delusions.  This is established because over 99% of all individuals who have gone through a bonfide NDE believe in life after death.  Based on the testimony of those whose experiences I have read, I am personally convinced that this is but a confirmation that an afterlife in heaven or hell as described in the Christian belief structure does exist.   Proof will hereby be given to validate this claim.  On the basis of these similar elements, I will present the following archetype model that was first formulated by Dr. R. Moody in his book Life After Life, who investigated over 300 NDEs. The following description comprises the most common elements found in a typical near death experience.

“A man is dying, and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a state of emotional upheaval.  After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to his odd condition.  He notices that he still has a “body”, but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before – a being of light – appears before him. This being asks him a question, non-verbally, to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a panoramic, instantaneous playback of the major events of his life. At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next life. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that the time for his death has not yet come. At this point he resists, for by now he is taken up with his experiences in the after-life and does not want to return. He is overwhelmed by the intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, though, he somehow reunites with his physical body and lives.  Later he tries to tell others, but he has trouble doing so. In the first place, he can find no human words adequate to describe the unearthly episodes. He also finds that others scoff, so he stops telling other people. Still, the experience affects his life profoundly, especially his views about death and its relationship to life.6

Medical Debate

The majority of those who have experienced NDEs believe they have gone through a bona fide spiritual encounter. Yet, the scientific community as a whole has been hard pressed to accept these visions for  what they are perceived to be. Because of this, a number of theories have been forwarded to explain this phenomena away. One view is that these visions manifest themselves as a psychological defense mechanism, a way for people to detach themselves from the pain, reality and inevitability of impending and potential death. Dr. Glen Gabbard, psychiatrist and director of the C.E. Menniger Hospital in Topeka, Kansas states, “This so-called out-of-body experience gives the person in a life threatening situation a chance to detach and be safe.” Yet, an argument countering this theory states  that since the individual is going to experience an actual clinical death and may potentially die without ever “coming back”, what purpose does this psychological defense mechanism really serve?  What would the person gain or be protected from?  Conversely, this psychological defense mechanism does nothing to defend against a temporary death since permanent death never occurs in the first place. Certainly negative or frightening experiences will often cause an individual to unconsciously block out memories of terrifying events, but most people who experience NDEs have such positive experiences that the majority do not even want to come back from this most blissful state of perceived existence. Lastly, we need to remind ourselves, again, that these individuals are clinically dead.  By all medical standards and technical understanding, there should not be any evidence of conscious recollection. This has been shown by patients who undergo anesthesia. Under anesthesia, individuals are physiologically and psychologically closest to the point of death. Yet, we consistently fail to hear of reports approximating NDEs by such individuals (those under anesthesia).

Other scientists believe the phenomena is a physiological response by the brain and nervous system to trauma a person near death would suffer.  And others have shown that drug and electrical stimulation of the brain can induce similar “NDE” effects.  Dr. Siegel, a psychopharmacologist at the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine reported, “We can produce the fog, the tunnel, the light and an out-of-body experience”.  That proves, says Dr. Siegel, “the phenomena arises from common structures in the brain and nervous systems.” In another study, stimulation of the right temporal lobe of the brain can trigger a panoramic review of one’s life whereas stimulation of another area, the hippocampus, can produce a vision of bright light.  It is believed that conditions of or near death can trigger a “short circuit” in the brain that simultaneously allow a person to experience several of these phenomena at once. Other researchers believe that the brain, deprived of oxygen or influenced by drugs in the cases of extreme clinical situations, react in peculiar ways, causing hallucinations, delusions and/or delirium.7(E5)  But, experiments with oxygen deprived brain levels do not reproduce these findings. Dr. Schoonmaker measured blood oxygen levels at the time of his patients cardiac arrests. Those who had NDEs had sufficient oxygen present for normal brain functioning. In another study, Dr. Morse, a pediatrician, found there was no more oxygen deprivation measured in those children with near death experiences than those without the experience. It has been shown that in most cases where the brain has been exposed to electrical stimulation, damage, or conditions of hypercapnia(excessive CO2 in the blood), hypoxia (low oxygen levels), acidemia (high acid levels) that there is no sequence, no consistency or predictability to images seen. In fact, out-of-world experiences rarely, if ever, occur from a damaged brain, while in-this-world images are not uncommon. And we find that induced images and hallucinations consistently pertain to images of this world, this environment.8 Also, the theory of NDEs being nothing more than hallucinations cannot be validated. Hallucinations cannot account for a whole list of bona fide experiences that are found so common with those who experience NDEs: the power of transcendency, experiences that occur in another world, positive visual reconstruction of events at the scene of the emergency and the remarkable reproducibility of NDE sequences.  Most important, the resulting miraculous change or turnaround in people’s life-style is proof that such encounters are of another realm not found on this earth. 9 

It is possible that certain elements of experiences may lend themselves to be part of a NDE by way of drug effect, but it has been shown that there are many individuals who have not taken drugs and still go through a typical NDE.  In a study conducted by Dr. Karlis Osis and his associates, it was found that patients taking either sedatives or drugs, which are prone to produce hallucinations, were probably less likely to have after-death experiences than those who took no medication at all.10

But the fact remains, and the most compelling argument against all the scientific explanations that have been used to refute or discredit NDEs is that these individuals are in a status of clinical death! Normally, all brain activity can be registered on an electroencephalograph (EEG) whether they are hallucinations, delusions, sleep, coma, unconsciousness, drug induced visions, visions induced by electrical stimulation of the brain, or any type of electrical activity of the brain.  People who are clinically dead are identified by a flat EEG, which means that there is absolutely no brain activity. Not only has their heart more than likely stopped beating, which in the past has been the first criteria of death but the second and most bonafide basis of death is a flat EEG. A flat EEG is now considered to be the ultimate criteria used to determine death. Yet, without any reasonable explanation, patients who have been declared brain dead are the very ones who report having NDEs upon resuscitation. Technically speaking this should be impossible.  Even patients under deep anesthesia and coma, often considered closest to brain death, are more unconscious than those who have NDEs by degree of recall.  And this is the most striking characteristic that is found in most NDEs! It is the ability for these individuals to recall with vivid detail certain events which occurred after clinical death! This is especially true of resuscitation procedures that were investigated by cardiologist Dr. Michael Sabom. Over a five year period he interviewed 116 cardiac patients who had come close to dying. Of the 116 patients, 32 reported having experienced NDEs. He then compared the description of resuscitation procedures of the 32 NDE patients to 25 patients who did not experience a NDE.  Among the test group who did not experience NDEs, 80% of the patients failed to accurately describe the resuscitation procedures.  But none of those who experienced NDEs made significant errors in describing the resuscitation procedures, leading Dr. Sabom to believe that they were cognizant during their own resuscitation, although they were dead!11 This is illustrated in this excerpt from the story of a young woman who suffered a serious car accident……

“During this time I heard Jack (the surgeon) saying to – the other doctor’s name was Cliff, “this is really too bad, the damage is severe.  That liver’s about gone.  But let’s try to patch it up anyway, but the way it’s been lacerated, I don’t think it’s going to function.  Look at the pancreas, that’s pretty well wrecked, too.”  I heard the conversation. About two weeks later, I asked Jack, “What went on in the OR?” He replied, “Hon, you died on us there.  You just went out.  And we had to rush to get you back.”  And I said,”Well, when?” And he continued, “Well, halfway through the operation, your pressure just gave out on us again and we cut you open and started working on your liver and (you) just went.”  And I said, “Was that the part when you said, ‘Look at that liver and it’s about gone?”  And he said, “How did you know, how do you know that?  You were out – totally.” And I said, “I could see you operating on me. I was awake.”  And he said, “You weren’t awake, you were sleeping, you were totally out.”  I said, “I was awake, I saw what you were doing, I saw you lean over to Cliff (associate surgeon) to some instruments and I saw how you were pointing around and I could see you standing here and Cliff was standing on this side of the table…..Cliff was giving you this instrument and you were doing this to me and, all of a sudden, all these people rushed over to me and they started sticking needles in me and doing all these things.” “That’s when you died (said the doctor).  Come on, how do you know that?  Did Cliff tell you that?” And I said, “No, that’s the only thing I can remember.”  And he said, “That’s really freaky.”12

What makes the majority of bonafide NDEs unique is the manner of similarity it touches this unique group.  First, upon resuscitation the individuals may recall precisely what occurred in the room while they were clinically dead.  Often they are able to reconstruct the scene, identify persons in the room, tell where they were standing, what they said, and also what they were wearing.13  In a most dramatic example, it is inexplicable how blind individuals who experience NDEs can report visual constructions of clothing colors, types of jewelry, and other visual details occurring in the room.  Moreover, how victims can visualize events and people located in other rooms and how they see loved ones in another world, with no prior knowledge of their deaths is an enigma that cannot be scientifically explained. 14  So often with those who experience NDEs, the steps of clinical death experiences are the same, as if they all had the same type of dream. Yet, analysis of dream states within a group of individuals (not experiencing a NDE) never give such a similarity in patterns compared to those who experience NDEs, thereby ruling out the possibility of a NDE being a dream.15

Finally, and it deserves repeating, so significant is an experience such as this, we often see a miraculous turnaround in people’s lives that speak of a supernatural event that is not seen anywhere else.  A great majority of individuals who have had bonafide NDEs show a drastic change in their lifestyle. They in a sense appear to have gone through a conversion experience.  If these visions about an after-life and heaven are true, is there a biblical basis to these accounts? In order to authenticate  these  experiences as  being  biblically  true and real, let us compare them to the scriptures. (NEXT PAGE)