1. Introduction to religion and NDEs

Heaven is not about religious beliefs, but about spiritual actions. It is not true, as some people believe, that we get to heaven by giving verbal assent to belief in God. It is love, not religious doctrines, that creates spiritual growth. Religions are cultural institutions but love is universal. Those religions which claim superiority over other religions or exclude people for various reasons, go against God’s law to love others as we love ourselves. Although religion, in itself, is not important to God, all religions are necessary because there are people who need what they teach. For this reason, all religions are precious in the sight of God. All religions refer to the same God. All religions are different ways of trying to describe the same God. After death, if you insist upon searching for an old man on a throne as God, you will do this for awhile until you get the idea that you are following an illusion. These insights into religion, and more, come from people who have experienced heaven through near-death experiences (NDEs) which you will discover in the article below.

2. Religion is not as important as many people believe

An example of the spiritual change that often takes place in near-death experiencers can be found Tom Harpur’s excellent documentary entitled Life After Death (YouTube video). In it, he profiles a minister named Ken Martin who had a near-death experience. Upon his return from his experience, he discovered that everything he had previously known – his ministry, his calling, everything – was insignificant in comparison to his experience with the afterlife.

“Doctrine and creed and race mean nothing. No matter what we believe we were all children joined under one God. The only rule is God’s true law: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (May Eulitt)

“God does not care which religion is best. God does not care what religion people practice. They are all a blooming facet of the whole. All religions refer to the same God.” (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

“One man who had a near-death experience realized that the “God” of his religious background wasn’t anything like the reality. He learned that it doesn’t matter if people call him God, Allah, Great Spirit or whatever, he is one and the same.” (Dr. Liz Dale)

“Everyone, religious or not, believing in God or not, transitions to the spirit world as part of the natural process of life. Just as one does not need to be religious to live in the physical world, one does not need to profess a particular faith to live in the spirit world.” (Nora Spurgin)

“Heaven is about deeds, not creeds. Therefore, persons of many cultures and religions form the societies of heaven.” (Emanuel Swedenborg)

“Religious beliefs have little to do with what we experience in the transition from one realm to another, except that we are allowed to see briefly the teacher or guru that we followed. Regardless of cultural or religious beliefs, we have the same basic experience at death.” (Betty Bethards)

“God is not dependent on our belief, for our belief or disbelief in God does not affect God – only us.” (P.M.H. Atwater)

“God cares little about our religious affiliation or church membership. Love is not limited to any one religion or even religion at all. Religions are cultural institutions but love is universal.” (Kevin Williams)

Kenneth was born and raised a Southern Baptist. As a child, he first made his commitment to Christ and was baptized with water. He was a member of the church all his life. He was saved, on the path toward heaven, a believer, a follower of Jesus, and he knew this assured him a place in heaven. Nevertheless, he had an NDE and it sent him straight to hell. (Rev. Kenneth Hagin)

“God is not a member of any church or religion. It is the churches and the religions that are members within the vastness and the glory that is God. There is no one religion just as there is no chosen people or person, nor any single way of regarding what cannot be fully comprehended. We are all sons of God in the sense that we are all souls of God’s creation, without gender, without form, without nationality, complete and whole and perfect as we explore the never-endingness of God’s wonderment.” (P.M.H. Atwater)

“Having faith IN Christ doesn’t matter as much as having the faith OF Christ. It is foolish to think that Jesus will carry your cross for you because he taught people that they must take up their own cross. Having the faith of Christ means to practice unconditional love.” (Kevin Williams)

“There is a lot of solid evidence in the Bible itself that the Bible has serious and devastating errors in it.” (Kevin Williams)

3. Emanuel Swedenborg’s discourse on religion

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a renowned Swedish scientist and Christian mystic whose spiritual visions led to experiences which have remarkable similarities to the NDE. So remarkable are these similarities, that in Dr. Raymond Moody‘s ground-breaking book on NDEs, Life After Life, he devotes an entire section of his book to describe these similarities. Dr. Moody describes how Swedenborg described death as a pulling away from the physical body, followed by encounters with departed ones and a life review drawn from the person’s memory. Most notably, is his description of encountering a supreme Being of Light which Swedenborg described as “the Sun of heaven in which the Lord resided.” The following are just a few of Swedenborg’s insights about religion and the true path to attaining heaven according to Swedenborg’s most famous work Heaven and Hell which was translated into the book entitled Awaken From Death:

“Some people believe that it is hard to lead a heaven-bound life (which is called a spiritual life) because they have heard that a person needs to renounce the world, give up the appetites that are associated with the body and the flesh, and live like spiritual beings. They take this to mean nothing other than rejecting what is worldly – especially wealth and prestige – and walking around in constant devout meditation on God, salvation, and eternal life, passing their lives in prayer and in reading the Word and devotional literature. They think that this is renouncing the world and living by the spirit instead of by the flesh.

“But an abundance of experience and discussion with angels has enabled me to know that the situation is completely different from this. In fact, people who renounce the world and live by the spirit in this fashion build up a mournful life for themselves, one that is not receptive of heavenly joy; for everyone’s life on earth stays with them when they enter the spiritual realm. On the contrary, if people are to accept a life in heaven, they must by all means live in the world and become involved in its functions and dealings. Then through a moral and civic life they will receive a spiritual life. This is the only way a spiritual life can be formed in people and their spirit be prepared for heaven.

“Living an inward life and not an outward life at the same time is like living in a house with no foundation, which gradually settles, or develops cracks and gaps, or totters until it collapses.

“If we examine a person’s life with rational acuity, we discover that it is threefold: there is a spiritual life, a moral life, and a civic life; and we find these lives distinct from each other. There are people who live a civic life but not a moral or a spiritual one. Then there are people who live both a civic life and a moral life and a spiritual as well. These are the ones who are leading heaven’s life – the others are leading the world’s life separated from heaven’s life.

“A heaven-bound life is not a life withdrawn from the world but a life involved in the world. A life of piety without a life of love (which occurs only in this world) does not lead to heaven. Rather, it is a life of love, a life of behaving honestly and fairly in every task, every transaction, every work, and from a more inward source that leads to a heavenly one. This source is present in that life when a person behaves honestly and fairly because it is in keeping with divine laws. This life is not hard.” (Emanuel Swedenborg)

4. Love is the true “religion”

Sandra Rogers: “I asked the light, which I call Christ, how people from other religions get to heaven. I was shown that the group, or organization, we profess alliance to is inconsequential. What is important is how we show our love for God by the way we treat each other. This is because when we pass to the spiritual realm we will all be met by him, which substantiates the passage, ‘No one comes to the Father, but by me.’ The light showed me that what is important is that we love God and each other, and that it isn’t what a person says, but the love in their being that is examined in the afterlife.” (Sandra Rogers)

“What is truly important is love, not religion.” (Beth Hammond)

“The best religion is the religion that brings you closest to God.” (Howard Storm)

“There are only two true religions – the religion of love and the religion of fear.” (Sandra Rogers)

“Your religion is where your love is.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“How are we saved? By unselfish love. When we love unselfishly, our vibrations are so high that the only place we’ll fit into is heaven. There is no other place we can go if we want to. This is divine justice because it gives all the people who ever lived, as well as all the higher animals who know right from wrong, an equal chance to eventually attain internal harmony which will fit them into some kind of heaven – regardless of their intelligence, education, indoctrination, ignorance, wealth or poverty.” (Arthur Yensen)

“The central message that Buddhist near-death experiencers bring back from their journey is that the most important qualities in life are love and knowledge, compassion and wisdom.” (Lingza Chokyi)

“People who truly practice the religion of love will find themselves in a universal sphere where everyone understands that true religion is to love others as ourselves.” (Nora Spurgin)

“There is light that can be found in many, many other faiths. All faiths which stress love have this focus. All have their own paradise, but the devoted eventually learn the tremendous experience that all is one under God and that there is no division in purpose. There is one God of us all.” (Margaret Tweddell)

“Near-death accounts suggest that unconditional love is the highest form of religion there is.” (Kevin Williams)

“Jesus didn’t come to preach a new religion. Jesus was a Jew who preached unconditional love.” (Kevin Williams)

5. Religions have an important purpose

Betty Eadie wrote: “I wanted to know why there were so many churches in the world. Why didn’t God give us only one church, one pure religion? The answer came to me with the purest of understanding. Each of us, I was told, is at a different level of spiritual development and understanding. Each person is therefore prepared for a different level of spiritual knowledge. Each church fulfills spiritual needs that perhaps others cannot fill. No one church can fulfill everybody’s needs at every level.” (Betty Eadie)

“The different religions just have different ways of explaining the same Creator.” (Dr. Liz Dale)

“God created differences in religion because of the different lessons we all need to learn.” (Sandra Rogers)

“All religions are necessary because there are people who need what they teach.” (Betty Eadie)

“Religions have a place and any one person in that religion is on the path of learning what is important for that soul.” (Darlene Holman)

“The most important thing is to really live what our religion teaches. Even if we have the greatest religion of all, it won’t do us any good if we don’t put it into practice in our lives. Whatever we practice becomes a part of us.” (Daniel Rosenblit)

“Religion is used as a stepping stone to further knowledge. As an individual raises his level of understanding about God and his own eternal progress, he might feel discontented with the teachings of his present church and seek a different philosophy or religion to fill that void. When this occurs he has reached another level of understanding and will long for further truth and knowledge, and for another opportunity to grow. And at every step of the way, these new opportunities to learn will be given.” (Betty Eadie)

“One does not have to be religious to dwell in the spirit world, but one inevitably will benefit from a thorough understanding and practice of a particular tradition.” (Nora Spurgin)

“We have no right to criticize any church or religion in any way. They are all precious in God’s sight. Very special people with important missions have been placed in all religions that they might touch others.” (Betty Eadie)

“It is possible for the uneducated and unbelieving spirit to be a virtual prisoner of this earth. Such spirits may not recognize the energy and light which draws one toward God. Lacking the faith and power to reach for the light, unenlightened spirits may actually stay on earth until they learn of the higher power which surrounds, and is available to them.” (Betty Eadie)

6. NDEs are the source of many religious concepts

a. NDE archetypal images

NDE archetypal images have been consistent throughout history. Jenny Yates describes how the phenomenology of the archetypal Being of Light in world myths and religions shows the archetypal parallels with the Light in the NDE that are consistent across time and cultures. Yates shows how the phenomenon of the Being of light of the NDE has parallels to:

1. The light of God’s presence reflected in the shining face of Moses on the mountain.
2. The light of the Shekinah in mystical Judaism.
3. The transfiguration of Christ.
4. The light of Sophia (Wisdom) in Christian Gnosticism.
5. The union of the individual and the universal soul called Atman–Brahman in Hinduism.
6. The clear light of enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism.

b. NDEs correlate with Judaism

Jewish scholars have discovered contemporary NDEs in Israel and found parallels in the Talmud, Zoharic traditions, and later Rabbinic literature and folklore. The theme of judgment before a heavenly court is particularly prominent in the Jewish NDE tradition (Jonathan Neumann).

c. NDEs correlate with Buddhism

Carl Becker reports that Japanese Pure Land Buddhism is grounded upon the reality and accessibility of NDEs for all (1984 b.c). Becker also explores the strong parallels with the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Tibetan Buddhist leader Sogyal Rinpoche explores the parallels between NDEs and the classic Tibetan Book of the Dead in his article in this book.

d. NDEs correlate with Hinduism

The Hindu subtle body that leaves the body at death, Arvind Sharma shows, is analogous to the spiritual body described in Hindu NDEs. The flash of light experienced by the youthful guru Yogananda is an archetypal parallel to the NDE light. (Yogananda, 167).

e. NDEs correlate with Christianity

The New Testament describes Paul’s NDE because Paul is defending his authority as an apostle on it. John describes an NDE in the Book of Revelation. Some Christians consider NDEs to be very much like Biblical resurrections (Wilkerson). The Mormon faith is very open to NDEs because it already has a well-developed picture of the next world. Mormons who have reported NDEs are well-received in the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Craig Lundahl, Arvin Gibson).

f. NDEs correlate with mysticism

NDEs have also been compared to mystical shamanic journeys (Kenneth Ring) and to Kundalini yoga’s mystical states (Dippong; Ring, 1984). Christian mystics such as Edgar Cayce and Emanuel Swedenborg describe having visionary experiences identical to NDEs. John Pennachio defines an NDE as a mystical state, since NDEs show congruence with Walter Pahnke‘s nine categories of a mystical experience:

1. Intuitive unity (a sense of cosmic oneness)
2. Transcendence of space and time
3. A deeply felt positive mood
4. A sense of sacredness
5. A feeling of insight or illumination
6. Paradoxicality
7. Ineffability
8. Transiency yet persisting positive changes in attitude and behavior (the experience passes)
9. Persisting positive changes in attitudes and behavior
10. David Lorimer interprets NDEs and the psychic experiences of NDE survivors as their participation in the immanent, divine presence described in the mystical literature of the Perennial Philosophy, from Plato’s Being to Emerson’s Oversoul. Judith Cressy shows a number of specific parallels between NDEs and mystics in the classical tradition, such as St. Teresa and John of the Cross. In her essay in this book, she encourages NDE survivors to seek supportive spiritual communities that can support their journey of integrating the Light into daily life.

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By Kevin Williams