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

Author:J. Steve Miller [Miller, J. Steve]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Wisdom Creek Press, LLC
Published: 2012-11-06T05:00:00+00:00

Here’s an over-simplification of Sabom’s first prospective study, organized around the typical steps of the scientific method.

a. Ask a Question (Do NDErs sometimes observe their resuscitations from outside their bodies?)

b. Do Background Research (What research has already been done in this area?)

c. Construct a Hypothesis (NDErs reconstruct their resuscitation stories from what they’ve seen on TV and heard in the hospital.)

d. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment (Interview patients with cardiac arrests and NDEs to record accurately what they report, in a clinical setting. Compare their out-of-body perceptions of medical procedures with a control group of cardiac patients who didn’t report NDEs.)

e. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion (NDE patients accurately reported, in minute detail, their resuscitations. The control group consistently guessed wrong. Thus, NDE patients apparently saw their resuscitations from outside their bodies.)

f. Communicate Your Results (Publish results in peer-reviewed journals so that other scientists can freely comment and try to replicate the findings.)

I think the last step is significant. Rather than publishing in niche new age magazines or sensationalist newspapers, they published in the appropriate professional journals. As I said in the body,

Over 900 articles on NDEs had been written in scholarly literature up until 2005, gracing the pages of such respected journals as Psychiatry, The Lancet, Critical Care Quarterly, The Journal for Near-Death Studies, American Journal of Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychology, Resuscitation, and Neurology. In the 30 year period after Moody published Life after Life, 55 researchers or teams published at least 65 studies of over 3500 NDEs.(11)

Publication in appropriate journals gives scientific accountability in at least two ways. First, professional journals have peer review teams who screen articles for adherence to scientific methods. The reputation of the journal is on the line if they publish scientifically substandard work.

Secondly, peers in each respective field may comment on the study in later issues, or refer back to the study in later studies. Both the author of the study and the journal editors have their reputations on the line if the study shows bias or if later studies fail to replicate the results.

7. Does the evidence point beyond our final death?

Since “death” is typically defined as the final, irreversible cessation of life, those resuscitated from “clinical death” (i.e., cessation of heartbeat and breathing) were never truly dead. Thus, some argue that NDEs tell us nothing about what happens after a person’s final death.(12)

It’s certainly arguable (as I have argued) that they didn’t visit their final destination. But while they were on the other side (perhaps we could call it heaven’s front porch) many claimed to find evidence that there was more to come after their final deaths.

· Many met friends and relatives who had experienced their deaths many years before. These stayed dead (not merely clinically dead), from the earthly standpoint, but had apparently been experiencing an otherworldly life for years of earth time.

· Many reached a barrier, which they understood to be a point of no return. They believe that they peered to the other side, which would have been their first steps into the after-death existence.

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