Do NDEs prove life after death? Why am I so skeptical?
by Clifford
Goldstein
Joe had been
everywhere from Lapland to the Sea of Japan, but his strangest trip was down the
block. Not that anything particularly exciting existed there. Nothing did. But
then again it was not where he went that was bizarre, but how.
A few weeks
earlier, when he had been lying on his bed, a strange tingling had begun in his
toes. The sensation crawled up his body like a band of bugs until it centered in
his head, encapsulating him in a loud, uncomfortable buzz. He felt himself
falling through a gray, misty tunnel.
He sat up,
mystified. The sensation occurred again and again, and each time he became less
fearful and more curious. Next time, instead of fighting it, he would go with
the flow.
One afternoon Joe
stretched out, closed his eyes, and relaxed when the tingling began. When the
buzzing reached his head, he told himself not to be afraid.
Instantly he
rocketed through the ceiling and found himself floating in a gray, crackling
mist-like static on an empty TV channel. Too scared to even scream, he suddenly
snapped out of it and sat up in his room, bug-eyed.
Astral Travel
When Joe asked his
friend Fred about the experience, Fred believed he had the answer.
"Astral travel,"
Fred said. "I've been doing it for years. I've been to Jupiter. I've even talked
with my dead grandfather in the astral plane."
The experience
enthralled Joe. All his life he'd believed that if something couldn't be put in
a test tube, it didn't exist. After those few seconds in the "astral plane,"
however, he wasn't so sure.
The Austro-German
poet Rilke once wrote, "Whoever you are: some evening take a step outside of
your home, which you know so well. Enormous space is near." Joe had taken that
step. Enormous space was, indeed, near. He wanted to step out farther.
A few days later,
however, Joe became a Christian. And, once he'd made that total commitment to
Jesus, those experiences in the twilight zone never returned.
He soon learned
why. As he studied the Bible, Joe discovered that his "astral plane" wasn't
travel at all. He had never left his body, but was duped into thinking he had.
Not only did Jesus save him from that deception, however, but through His Word
he gave Joe a better understanding of what had happened and why so many people
are being deceived.
Near-death
experiences
One of the most
interesting facets of astral travel is how closely it replicates near-death
experiences (NDEs), the stories of those whose vital functions (heartbeat,
breathing) stop, yet who , after being revived, give fantastic accounts of what
they saw while "dead."
The phenomena that
they describe - a buzzing, the sensation of going through a tunnel, the apparent
release from the body - are what Joe and others have experienced during astral
travel.
"There is a buzz or
a ring at death," writes Dr. Raymond Moody, Jr., who has been documenting NDEs
since the 1970s, "followed by a rapid progression through an enclosure or tunnel
toward light. There is surprise at being outside the body."
Joe knew the
feeling, yet he was nowhere near dead!
Apparently, those
experiencing astral travel and NDEs experience identical phenomena. And no
wonder, for they both spring from the same lies: that we possess immortal souls
and that the dead live on.
Immortal Souls
Despite popular
theology, the Word of God never teaches that within us is an immortal "soul" -
one that can be coughed up at death (NDEs) or in an altered state (astral
travel).
Genesis 2:7, for
instance, teaches that God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he "became
a living soul," this is, a living creature. The breath of life, together with a
fleshly body (made from "the dust of the earth"), created a living soul.
In Genesis 2:19,
the word for animals or "creature" is the same word translated "soul" in
scriptures that refer specifically to people (see Genesis 2:7).
The book of
Revelation uses the word soul even for the creatures in the sea: "And it
[the sea] became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the
sea" (Revelation 16:3). Souls are what living beings are in other words,
not what they possess.
"Hundreds of
outstanding Bible students of all faiths, spread over the centuries," writes
church historian Leroy Froom, "attest that there is not a single passage in the
Bible in which man, in his earthly life, is spoken of as immortal, either as a
whole, or in any part of his being."
Life after death
Linked to the lie
of the immoral soul is the lie of "life after life." According to the Scripture,
the dead are not floating in some diaphanous mist, but instead are resting in an
unconscious sleep until the resurrection.
"For the living
know that they shall die," says the bible (Ecclesiastes 9:5), "but the dead know
not anything." Psalm 115:17 says, "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any
that go down into silence."
When Lazarus died,
Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may wake him out of
sleep" (John 11:11). A few verses later, He said clearly, "Lazarus is dead"
(verse 14).
Peter placed
righteous King David, not in heaven, but in the grave. "Let me freely speak unto
you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre
is with us unto this day . . . for David is not ascended into the heavens"
(Acts 2:29,34).
Though the Bible
never teaches an immortal soul, however, it does warn about demonic powers that
can deceive mankind with all types of lies.
"That great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with
him" (Revelation 12:9).
And one of the ways
they deceive "the whole world" is with the lie that though the body dies, we
live on. That lie was first told to Eve in Eden - "Thou shall not surely die" -
and it has been promoted, in one form or another, ever since.
Widespread belief
That lie is
believed by many people. A poll by the University of Chicago's National Opinion
Research Council indicates that 42 percent of Americans say that they have
contacted the dead. What's more, belief in an immortal soul and its logical
corollary, an immediate afterlife, are the cornerstone of almost all Eastern
religions and the New Age movement.
And though
Christians scoff at New Age mysticism, those who believe in an immortal soul are
open to similar deceptions. Talking about those who have experienced NDEs, for
instance, televangelist Pat Robertson writes, in his book, Answers to 200 of
Life's Most Probing Questions, "Many of them have seen heaven and some have
been allowed to see hell. . . .For all of them the experience has been a
life-changing one, and this is a uniform testimony to the existence of life
after death."
An article in
Christianity Today (October 7,1988) is more cautious. NDEs it says,
"fundamentally 'prove' nothing about life after death." "At best they are
partial, ambiguous, fragmented and distorted glimpses of [another world]. . .
."
Supernatural frauds
Are they?
A fundamental
teaching of Scripture is that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God" (Romans 3:23), and that Jesus Christ is our only hope of eternal life (see
Acts 4:12). Yet few (if any) of those who've astral traveled or experienced NDEs
come back convicted of their need of Christ.
"Instead," says
Christianity Today, "they tend to become suspicious of religious
'sectarianism.' . . . The modern visionary's conversion is not to an austere
spirituality, but to one that affirms joy and laughter."
Christianity Today comes
closest to the truth when it says, "Demonic (or New Age) elements cannot be
ruled out." They certainly can't, for they are the only explanation in light of
the Bible truth about the nature of man, the state of the dead, and salvation
through Jesus Christ.
Though certain
physiological factors could be involved in astral travel or NDEs, they are
fundamentally frauds - supernaturally inspired frauds. They could be
hallucinations, or demonic powers could be doing impersonations as well, for the
Bible says that "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2
Corinthians 11:14).
Clearly, when the
Bible talks about the supernatural, it's not using poetic figures but warning us
of literal powers whose deceptions are so vivid, so convincing and real that,
without a proper understanding of the Bible, humans are almost powerless against
them.
Back to Joe
After Joe's first
time in the astral plane, some Christians warned him that he was dabbling with
the devil. So convinced that his experiences were what he thought they were, he
laughed in their faces. "Do you believe in Santa Claus as well?"
After his
conversion to Christianity, however, and after he understood what had happened,
he tried to convince Fred.
"You can't possibly
be talking with your grandfather," he said, "because he is asleep."
When Joe explained
that supernatural powers were behind these experiences, however, Fred wouldn't
listen.
"No," Fred
responded, "I know my grandfather."
He's not the only
one.
_____________________
Used by permission
of the author. Clifford Goldstein is the author of numerous books and articles.
He is a frequent conference and special events speaker. Prior to his conversion
to Christianity, his experience with occult phenomena prepared him to write with
credibility on the subject of
the deceptions of
God?s enemy and how peoples of the world are impacted by them.