Reports of near-death experiences seem to be on the rise. Some are comforting. Others confusing. If any are true, how do we judge their veracity?
WeathersThe Oct. 15 issue of Newsweek features Dr. Alexander’s story. Alexander, a neurosurgeon, slipped into a short-term coma in 2008. Doctors determined that he had “contracted a very rare bacterial meningitis that mostly attacks newborns. E. coli bacteria had penetrated my cerebrospinal fluid and were eating my brain.” The result was a catastrophic shut down of his neurological functions for seven days.
Alexander stresses that “the human part of my brain, the neocortex, was inactivated” in those seven days. His body worked, but his brain did not. This, he underscores, is significant because while in this condition he “experienced something so profound” that it radically altered his previous beliefs and gave him a “scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.”
From there, Alexander carries the reader on an eventful journey in which he was transported into a “larger dimension of the universe.” He saw a canopy of “pink, fluffy clouds,” and witnessed “flocks of transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamerlike lines behind them.” And he was accompanied by a lovely young woman who spoke to him “without using words.” He summarizes her comforting message in three parts: “You are loved and cherished.” “You have nothing to fear.” “There is nothing you can do wrong.”
Prior to his near-death experience, Alexander had considered himself a Christian “more in name than actual belief” and a skeptic about the afterlife. But now he believes in life after death.
What’s wrong with Alexander’s version of the afterlife? It’s about him. He reports only things that make him feel good. Heavenly lights, butterflies, and a beautiful siren who tells him he is really okay after all. Add puppies, and this could be Disney.
What did he experience? No way to really know. But any reportedly near-death experience should be evaluated not only by what is included, but also by what is left out. And in Alexander’s case, what is left out is Jesus.
The suffering Redeemer. The glorified King. Any version of heaven that excludes the Savior fails at the core. Heaven is not about us. It’s about Him.