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

passage, ushering in a feeling of ecstatic joy.
They all agreed that the entranceway resembled the Natural Bridge in the
Shenandoah Valley. (54)
     
    Other
shared experiences may include portions of the deceased’s life review, so that
they see and experience friends of the deceased that they never knew. One
experiencer subsequently looked in a year book and recognized people first seen
in the life review.
     
    Since
these experiences come unexpected, researchers can’t attribute them to wish
fulfillment. And even if some fervently wish to see someone’s soul depart, it’s
unlikely that they’d share such unexpected elements as distortions in the room,
which were reported in many unrelated cases. (55)
     
    When
I read Moody’s recent book on shared experiences, I assumed that such
experiences were pretty rare. Only Moody, I reasoned, could come up with a
large collection of shared experiences, since he’s interviewed thousands of people
with NDEs over his lifetime.
     
    Thus
I was surprised that in interviewing my own close contacts, I found one of my
relatives, a retired history teacher who holds a masters degree, telling me of his
own shared death experience. Bucky woke at 3:00 AM feeling an extreme heaviness
on his chest, much like people report in a heart attack. He saw a light in the
distance, then came out of his body and looked down at his body from the
viewpoint of the ceiling and observed some celestial beings. (From this vantage
point, the light was now behind him.) He experienced the extreme peace reported
by so many in NDEs. He came to in his bed, in a serious sweat, and immediately
the phone rang. His father, who lived 90 miles away and had not been ill, had
suddenly died of a heart attack. (56)
     
    Reports
of the shared death experience seem to take the evidence to a new level, since
more than one person can often testify to experiencing the same paranormal
phenomena. And again, since friends and family weren’t experiencing the
psychological and physiological symptoms of dying, you can hardly attribute it
to anoxia or another characteristic of dying brains. Moody shares scores of
these accounts, many of them containing corroborating evidence, in his 2010
book, Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One’s Passage from This Life to
the Next .    
     
    Exhibit
# 8 - Face to face interviews have a strong impact on
researchers.
     
    Dr.
Moody says that before his interviews, he would have dismissed such tales out
of hand. The interviews changed his mind. (57) Dr. van Lommel was a
convinced materialist, but never forgot that extremely emotional patient who
came back from a cardiac arrest speaking of “a tunnel, colors, a light, a
beautiful landscape, and music.” (58) Dr. Rawlings originally regarded
most of the NDE stories he heard as “fantasy or conjecture or imagination,”
until one of his patients repeatedly died and resuscitated, each time reporting
with great emotion what he was experiencing on the other side. The genuineness
of the patient compelled him to take the experience seriously. (59)
     
    One
of the men I interviewed was a successful, intelligent, respected,
self-confident man of about 60 years. I started the interview with friendly
chitchat, then asked him about his experience. He choked up. I don’t mean I saw
a hint of a tear in his eye as he talked. I mean he couldn’t speak at all until
he reined in his emotions. He apologized and took a few more moments to regain
his composure.
     
    To
me, from the perspective of the interviewer, I had no doubt that he was profoundly
sincere – absolutely certain he’d left his body, entered another dimension, and
spoken to three beings about whether or not to return to earth. He said it was
“absolutely distinct from a dream.” What he experienced was real, powerful,
unforgettable, and life-changing.
     
    While
this may at first seem like a rather subjective point, remember that in a court
of law the apparent sincerity of the witness can