Essentials of Apologetics - Lesson 11

Near-Death Experiences

Sean McDowell
Lesson 11
Essentials of Apologetics

About four or five years ago, I decided to read some books and study the evidence for near death experiences. Now, some of my friends who are skeptical and not believers have a hard time believing me when I say, I really didn't enter this thinking it was going to be good evidence. I actually thought I was going to dismiss it. I'd heard too many stories of fabrication. It didn't feel like the kind of thing that could be verified, but I thought, you know what? I'm an apologist. I owe it to myself to study this. All I can tell you is it rocked my world. Not only the evidence I think is convincing, and you can assess it for yourself, but how much it uniquely points not just towards the afterlife or some soul, but actually uniquely towards Christianity. And I think today, because we value science so much, and there's more and more people writing and speaking and talking about near death experiences, that it's one of our best apologetics.

Let's define what we mean by this, but first off, one quick story. When I was working on some of this material, it was about that four or five years ago, I was sitting at a Starbucks near where I live and sometimes I'll go work there and this pastor walks in who I've seen at another Starbucks for years, never seen him at this one. He walks in and he says, "Hey, can I sit down and chat?" I was like, "Sure." He said, he didn't know what I was studying. He said, "Do you mind if I share with you a recent near death experience I had that changed my life?" I was like, "I don't mind at all."

I'm somewhat skeptical and not always willing to read in this is God or saying and doing something. Maybe that's a fault by me, but this time I'm like, okay. He said, "I recently, he was out surfing, was knocked out, was considered legally dead. He said, all I know is I went through this tunnel. I went through space and time and I met Jesus and he just held me and he told me that everything was going to be okay." He's telling me the story and when he finished I said, "I just want you to know I totally believe you. Thank you for sharing." He about fell out of his seat. I said, "The reason I believe you is I'm sitting here studying, preparing a lecture on near death experiences." I started walking through the very evidence and his mind was blown away.

Let's talk about this because I think it's not only a case that's true, but I think it's deeply personally meaningful when we understand what's going on. So technically by near death experience, it's when someone is clinically dead, was resuscitated and claims to have a peek into the afterlife. This is by John Burke, an expert who studied this since the eighties, in his book, Imagine Heaven. There is a more recent book out called Imagine the God of Heaven. So since somebody's clinically dead, brain is not sending brainwaves, heart is not functioning, they're resuscitated, sometimes after a few minutes, in some cases after hours, and then they claim to have a peek or a story about the afterlife. That's what we mean by a near death experience. So they're clinically dead, but of course not permanently dead. Now here's what's interesting is according to one study, 4.2% of people in the US and Germany claim to have experienced an near death experience. Another study showed 5.5%. That's one out of 20 or one out of 25 people. That would be on average about two of you in this room.

One thing I found is when I'm open to this and I'm listening to stories that people tell, over the last five years I've had multiple people share with me their near death experiences, including a girl who came to our program at Biola. She said, "I wanted to study apologetics. I was in a car crash and time was slowing down and I was supposed to die, but this man in a white robe protected me and told me I was going to be okay." It is far more common than you can imagine.

Well, in his book, Imagine the God of Heaven, John Burke lays out what he thinks are 10 points of evidence for near death experience. One is that they're actually verifiable observations.

What do we mean by this one? One case he documents is of a lady, her name was Pam Reynolds, and she had a very rare, what you might say is brain aneurysm deep in her stem. They could not be operated on normally, and so they had to drain the blood from her head. They had huge loud clicks to gauge her brainwaves. She was blinded, totally unconscious during this procedure. She comes out of it and says, "I popped out of my body," and starts describing with precision and detail things that were said, certain kind of saw that she saw the amount of times they were doing certain procedures on her body, and they all match up. They all match up. What's interesting about near death experiences are not just stories that people tell, as interesting as they are, but the times these can actually be verified. That's one example.

Second is how much common elements you find. Now, think about this, people from different countries, different religions, different professions, male, female, old, young, and there's about 40 characteristics that through these thousands of near death experiences consistently show up things like a life review, things like going through a tunnel, experiencing love, seeing relatives who had passed away. Now, different worldviews can account for some of these, but interestingly enough, it's only Christianity that can make sense of all of them, but we'll get to that.

Third is heightened lucidity. People in near death experiences would say things like, "I usually can see 180 degrees. I could see 360 degrees. I could hear things and sense things I never could have seen and heard." It's like people describe it going from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

Four is consistency, with or without anesthesia. One common explanation for near death experiences, well, maybe there's some drug somebody's given that can account for it. Well, it makes no difference whether somebody is on anesthesia or not to the type of reports that they have.

Fifth, the blind report seeing. Now, these are people who are blind from birth. Will report meeting certain people and describe the close and the scenes in a way of somebody who had never seen anything in their life before. And in many cases these end up matching up, but we'll get to that.

Sixth feature is meeting deceased people not previously known. So cases of individuals having a near death experience in saying, I met someone who is my twin, and this person never know when they were delivered, their twin had passed away, their parents had never told them. People being dead, coming back and saying, "Yeah, I saw," and I'm making this particular example, "I saw Uncle Joe." Unbeknownst to them, Uncle Joe had passed away and they were not aware of it. And then when they came back, discovered that Uncle Joe had died. Meeting deceased people that they could not have known were in a particular state or existed. Even a girl describing had not known that she was actually birthed in an affair and had a near death experience of somebody who she saw, told her mom about it, saw a photo and said, "That's exactly who I saw," was her birth father. These details of meeting deceased people.

Seven, knowledge beyond the body. In other words, you might try to say, "Well, Pam Reynolds was in the very room where people, these kind of things happened." But there's cases of people that are documented. There's a journal of near death experiences. There are medical doctors who study this very carefully and professionally and describe things about people leaving their bodies and hearing conversations and describing information distances away. One lady, for example, rushed to the hospital, described leaving her body and says, "Yeah, on the fourth story at this hospital, there was a blue tennis shoe that was left size 10 with a smudge mark." They go up and they find it. Now either she planted it and induced a heart attack or the story she gave actually matches up, but that's outside of where the body even could have been.

Eight, memory retention. Now, there are times where people know the brain is not functioning. There's no brainwaves, there is no heartbeat. But then people have memories they're able to come out from during that exact season, that time.

Nine is life change. Over and over again, people with the near death experience will describe it as transforming their lives.

And the last one that's fascinating is the same God across cultures. There's a constant expression of light and love and a God that's powerful, a God that's personal, a God that's relatable, even with backgrounds of people who don't believe in that God.

Now, are there cases of people coming out of near death experiences not believing in God? Yes, AJ Ayer, an atheist, had a near death experience. Now, should it surprise us that some people have a near death experience and don't become Christians? No. Jesus did miracles in front of people and many of them still didn't believe. He raised Lazarus from the dead and they want to kill Lazarus for a second time.

So it shouldn't surprise us because people interpret this through their worldview, but what people report consistently matches up with the same God that we find in the scriptures. Now, what is most significant about this are the cases that in which people gain information they could not have received otherwise.

So this fellow who came into Starbucks and told me the story, there was no way to verify this. He didn't claim to see or hear or know anything that he could not have known. But when people come back and say, "I heard this conversation that was taking place at home," and it matches up. It's like, wait a second. How do you explain that? So one story of a girl being rushed to the hospital and being able to report, here's what was taking place at my home during this time. I left my body and I saw and I came back; the toys that were being played with, the clothes people wearing, the conversations all matched up.

When information is gained that could not have been otherwise known, that's when it becomes evidentially significant. That's the barrier that naturalistic worldviews are going to have a hard time accounting for.

One other small piece of information I find interesting, Steve Miller, he's a professor. He has written a couple of books on near death experiences. Oftentimes people say the word just like a dream, but here's one difference with a dream. Near death experiences do not end abruptly like a dream, but they have closure more like a movie with scripted design. So think about how many dreams we have. We're just suddenly woken up because maybe you have to go to the bathroom or you're stressing over something. It's like they're starting a story but they're interrupted. That's not what near death experiences are like. They have a beginning and they have a natural closure at the end which points towards a design and a purpose that separates it from a dream.

So what John Burke says in his book, Imagine the God of Heaven, he says, "There might be certain explanations that can account for one or two or three of these features, but we need an explanation that accounts for all 10." He says, "We have thousands of people reporting the same kinds of things. The most simple explanation is they're actually reporting something they saw and experienced. This is a glimpse into the afterlife."

Now, there are some objections that you might be thinking about and it's important to consider these. Well, if everyone has a soul, why doesn't everyone who experiences cardiac arrest have a near death experience? We know what's interesting, it's possible that everybody does, and that some have a near death experience and don't remember it. That's possible. But also if near death experiences are a revelation that God is giving, we shouldn't expect everybody to have a near death experience more than we should expect everybody to have a personal miracle.

There's nothing about a near death experience that requires that everybody have one in the same circumstance or similar circumstances. That doesn't seem very compelling to me. [inaudible 00:15:02] might say, "Well, how can we prove there's not a naturalistic explanation?" Notice what this does. This puts the benefit of doubt on the theist to prove there's no possible naturalistic explanation. If somebody said that to me, I would say, "Okay, timeout. I cannot definitively prove there's no naturalistic explanation, but I'm not sure the burden proof is on me. We have thousands of people reporting common phenomena. What I want to know is what's the best explanation for the phenomena that we see? So you tell me which naturalistic hypothesis can explain a way near death experiences the best." That's where the burden of proof lies, and I don't think any of them can. For example, Michael Shermer said, "Maybe when the brain is coming back, there's certain hallucinations."

Okay, maybe the brain is coming back online, things are more heightened. But that can't explain why someone like Pam Reynolds who was not visually in a position to see could describe the exact saw. It doesn't explain how the lady who left her body could see the tennis shoe on the fourth story.

So I don't know how you can account for those unless you say they're liars and not trustworthy. But we'll get to that because the common explanation is, well, the reporters are seeking money or fame. What's interesting about this is it's actually the opposite. What's somewhat sad and heartbreaking is how many people have had near death experiences and no one will believe them? Over and over, I saw stories of people saying, "I saw this and it changed my life. And I tell my pastor," and he's like, "Give this. We need to give you counseling." Or I tell my nurse and they're like, "Give them more drugs. This person is hallucinating." That's actually heartbreaking.

Up until five years ago, I probably would've thought you might be a little bit kooky. That sadly would've been my response. Now, our response when somebody says, "I've had a near death experience," is to say, "Tell me about it. I believe you." Now are there some cases of people lying? Sure. There was a bestselling book that was invented as the kid got older. They're like, "Yeah, my parents made this up. This didn't happen." Just because there's some false accounts doesn't mean all the accounts are false. You find very credible people, in many cases reporting near death experiences even when they would be disparaged and viewed negatively and come at a personal and professional cost to themselves. The folks on near death experiences I've talked with and seen are not the folks doing this for the money. In fact, what they'll say to you is, "Money doesn't even matter. My life is about loving God and loving others and things that do matter."

Now, what do NDEs prove? And then we'll see what questions you might have. Well, a minimalist, a maximalist ethic would argue that it supports Christianity. I think it does. I think when we look at the experiences that people have, it's only Christianity that uniquely matches up. For example, you might think, well, Hindus see Krishna, Muslims see Muhammad and Christians see Jesus. But about 40% of all near death experiences, including people who are not Christians, report seeing Jesus. There's very few, if anybody, seen Buddha or Muhammad or Krishna. I think uniquely supports Christianity.

A minimalist ethic would be that it at least shows initial stages of life after death. It minimally shows evidence for the soul. But if you think about near death experiences, they challenge certain worldviews, like naturalism. How can you get information of a body that's not present and not even functioning; that cries for something supernatural. It challenges ideas like determinism that says there's no free will. Because one of the big takeaways of a near death experience is you can make good choices. You are free to live your life a certain fashion, make better choices.

And finally, deism. This is not a distant God. It's a God who's very present and a God who speaks. In fact, one more is this challenges new age because in new age God is an impersonal force, but the consistent portrayal of experiencing God is that God is relatable, God has spoken, God is personal. Jay Steve Miller in his book, Professor Miller, Near-Death Experiences says, "With the state of research today, even if near death experiences, my only evidence, I choose theism over atheism, survival over extinction." And I agree. Thoughts or questions about near death experiences? Yes.

Are there examples of people who didn't see heaven? They saw hell.

There are. In fact, according to some studies, about a quarter of near death experiences are hellish and they're harrowing and they shake, well, they literally shake the hell out of people, to be blunt. And so you see similar kinds of life change with people that have hellish near-death experiences, and in some ways you might think, why would that be the case? Well, some people need to see God's love. Some people need to be scared and shaken up. But yeah, I think people with hellish near death experiences are even less likely to share those. But we're seeing more and more cases come out.

Two, your research, would you use the word that's [inaudible 00:21:21]? That's part one. Number two is, do you think it's both people that are professing Christians and people that have nothing to do with Christianity.

Oh, yes. So I would use the soul. Out of body experience is you're in your soul, apart from body. That's language I would use. I think it's good evidence for the soul. The people who have near-death experiences are every worldview, every background, all over the world; believers, non-believers, atheists have had near-death experiences. Now, some have become believers, some like AJ Ayer have not. But it is not just something that Christians are reporting, for sure. That's a great question. Yes.

As far as [inaudible 00:22:09], you don't communicate with the dead, that's biblical, right? To not communicate.

Agreed.

How would that relate to [inaudible 00:22:23]?

Okay, so not communicating with the dead would be like, don't have a seance. Don't visit a medium to speak with the dead. That is completely ruled out. In a near death experience, you're not talking to the dead. Somebody has died and they've come back. So you're talking to somebody who's alive, they were just dead and they came back. So this has nothing to do with trying to access the dead through some ritual. People don't try to have near-death experiences. In fact, a lot of people who have had near-death experiences, because there's a part of me that's like, "Wow, I want to be held by Jesus. I want to see this," and the more I've researched this, it's like, whoa, there's a certain weight and a heaviness and a burden that comes with this. So there's some people in my life I wish would have one to shake them up out of their own mortality and see spiritual things, but they're not looking for this and trying to talk to the dead. They died and have come back and report what they saw on the other side. That's a really helpful clarification. Any last questions? Go?

When people come [inaudible 00:23:37]?

What?

When they go to hell.

Oh, when they go? So it's not so much that they go to hell, it's more of a hellish type experience. So some might report demonic experiences instead of bright light. It's very dark, a feeling of oppression, a life review that says you're basically going to hell if you don't change things. There's a lot of different experiences, but what's amazing about a near death experience is people just know certain things outside of the way we normally know stuff. How do you know that's really Jesus? We don't actually know what Jesus looked like. I know you think he looked like Cavizel in The Passion, but people just know it and experience it. People who come back from near death experiences that is hellish, just say, "I just felt terror. I was afraid. It was demonic." And it literally scares the bejesus out of them.

Escort these dark figures, basically the figures down and they're being dragged and they're being blocked from trying to get back.

That's right. There are certain cases of people seeing angels and having demonic forces tour them around in places that they see. I don't read as much about hellish ones. They're scary when you read them, but almost a quarter of them in some accounts really are. Let's do maybe one last question. Go ahead.

Could some of the positive ones be demonic as well? Because you're talking a lot of these people, were not Christians, not trusting Christ or anything like that, correct? So could could that give them a false hope of everything's great with me and God and I don't know.

So could some of the false ones be demonic? They could. Anything is possible. I want to know what's most reasonable. And so what do we, nobody that I'm aware of who's saying we should look at the evidence for near death experiences is saying, "This adds something to what's in scripture." Nobody's saying that if they say that they're out of bounds. The question is, do what people report line up with scripture? And consistently it does at times. There's one or two outliers I found. I'm not quite sure what to do with that, but these are total exceptions. So you'd have to ask the question, why would demonic types of influences encourage people to focus on loving others. Encourage people to see the supernatural. Have radical high percentage of people who see Jesus. Why would that be the case? I think that's a fair question to ask.

So it's possible, and there might be some that are, but as a whole, the evidence so lines up with a Christian God that I don't find it compelling to explain these away as demonic. Especially in the West, when the most common objection people have is against the existence of the supernatural, against the miraculous. So why would there be so many seemingly demonic, supernatural events that resist a natural explanation? The more I think about it, the less I would be convinced that this would be Satan's way of trying to attack and critique people. If that was, he's sure been an utter failure at that methodology, based on the results that have been seen.