Often, the main numinous experience is of angels or a guardian angel. ![]() At times, it involves a kind and sympathetic “being of light” at other times, the presence of Jesus or other religious divinities. Probably the most striking and thought-provoking cases are of persons born blind who during their NDE were able to see, and later described their surroundings, including colors.īut the experience of God is rare and ambiguous. Numerous cases of clinically dead patients describe in minute detail their own operating-room procedures and see relatives and friends present in other parts of the hospital. We have to say: a qualified “yes.” There does seem to be some evidence of a spiritual element separated temporarily from the body. But whatever the case, do the many different accounts of God and religion in these books give us any special insights that bolster traditional theology? Supporting Traditional Theology? NDEs will doubtless continue to give rise to differing interpretations. She emphasizes chemical and biological developments that take place in the process of dying. She argues that the near-death experience is merely the product of a dying brain, and does not support the existence of a soul or an afterlife. One skeptical treatment is Susan Blackmore’s Dying to Live. What are we to make of these books, in which medical professionals often risk their scientific reputations, and are subjected to critiques by physicians and scientists who have a variety of physiological and neurological explanations for the phenomenon? A Skeptic Some books focus on children’s NDEs – including I Saw God: The True Story of a Young Boy’s Miraculous Return from Death, and Heaven is for Real, which was dramatized in a film by the same name. Jose Maniyangat, an Indian Catholic Priest, recently retired, and conducting healing ministries throughout Florida. John Michael Tourangeau, in To Heaven and Back: The Journey of a Roman Catholic Priest and Fr. Roman Catholic priests have also offered analyses based on their own NDEs – Fr. Laurin Bellg, a critical care specialist, in Near Death in the ICU, brings Moody’s analyses up to date with his own investigations and interviews. To mention just a few: Proof of Heaven, by neurosurgeon Eben Alexander Evidence of the Afterlife, by oncology radiologist Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry To Heaven and Back, by orthopedic spine surgeon Mary C. Moody, a forensic psychiatrist, has been followed up by doctors who not only analyzed the phenomenon but recount their own NDEs, which sometimes border on the miraculous. Life After Life, a best-seller published by Raymond A. Interestingly, many of them have been written by physicians. Since then, books on NDEs and their interpretation have multiplied. ![]() ![]() In my 2008 book The Philosophy of Human Nature, I raised the question about whether the numerous reports and scientific analyses of near-death experiences (“NDEs”) could throw light on the proofs of immortality and other religious questions offered by thinkers like St.
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