God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience
By Jeffrey Long, Paul Perry
Published by HarperOne on June 28, 2016
224 pages
Excerpts:
“Our situation regarding NDEs is similar to the way humanity learned of exotic lands during the ancient era of exploration. After sailors returned from long voyages and wrote their accounts, scholars would survey multiple accounts from different voyagers, discern where they agreed or disagreed, and come up with the most likely descriptions of the geography, culture, rituals, and traditions of a particular exotic land. We are in a similar position today when it comes to the world of the afterlife.
“Near-death experiences are surprisingly common. A Gallup poll found that about 5 percent of those surveyed had an NDE at some time during their lives. From this and other surveys, we believe that millions of people around the world have had near-death experiences. In recent times those numbers have increased, largely because resuscitation techniques have greatly improved. People who previously would have died are now being saved due to advances in medical equipment and better training for emergency personnel. These life-saving measures would be expected to result in a higher incidence of NDEs than ever before.
“Remarkably, the content of near-death experiences is strikingly consistent. Even after rigorously studying NDEs for over fifteen years, I still marvel at how amazingly similar these experiences are regardless of the experiencers’ age, cultural beliefs, education, or geographical location.
“By comparing these accounts, we begin to see a coherent picture of this other world. For example, one striking aspect of these accounts, which we will explore more fully later in this book, is the consistency with which a divine is described. Those who report meeting a divine being generally portray God as someone who radiates incredible love, light, grace, and acceptance. This is not religious dogma or theology, but one of the most consistent claims of multiple individuals who have encountered a heavenly being. In other words, people are not merely stating or projecting their religious yearnings or beliefs, but, like the explorers of old, are describing an entity they have encountered. The fact that they describe these encounters so similarly gives us confidence that they have, indeed, met the same Being.”
— Pages 2,3
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“This book is presenting evidence for the reality of God and the afterlife from research that is new and pioneering. There are virtually no prior scholarly studies that explored what will be presented in this book.”
— Page 35
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“When I first realized that over 40 percent of near-death experiencers were aware of the existence of God or a supreme being during their NDE, I was shocked. This was an extraordinary finding! No prior NDE study had asked so many NDErs directly about encountering God in their NDEs, and no other study had reported such high numbers of NDErs being aware of God. To put this statistic in context, the percentage of NDErs who were aware of God or a supreme being during their NDE is greater than the percentage of NDErs reporting a tunnel, encountering deceased loved ones, or a having a life review. This new information tells us one element of NDEs happens more often than any of these other NDE elements: awareness of the existence of God.”
— Page 38
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“I am not aware that an awareness of God occurs anywhere nearly as often in other types of altered consciousness, such as dreams and hallucinations, as during NDEs.”
— Page 45
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“In his presence I felt like I was ‘home’ in a sense that I have never known before. I saw that my true essence is the energy of love, but as we reviewed my life together, I came to understand how I had removed myself from the benefits and bliss of love through anger. I saw how important it is to project feelings of love because other people can either benefit from or be negatively affected by my energy.
“I also came to understand that heaven isn’t a place that you enter but a frequency that you attain. Being in the presence of White Light was ‘heaven.’ It was the greatest feeling I had ever experienced or dreamed was possible. Having that feeling again is what I strive for — not going to a place. The feeling, the energy I experienced became ‘the place.’
“I understood that you take yourself with you wherever you go. Your own consciousness has to change in order to experience the higher frequencies of love, peace, joy, bliss, and tranquility, which I felt a part of.
“So I begged for the opportunity to do just that. I wanted to return because I knew that my consciousness didn’t mesh with the unconditional love I was experiencing. I knew that I had to become more loving in order to experience this indescribable love permanently.”
— NDEr Teri R quoted on pages 64-65
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“In the NDEs shared with NDERF over the years, there are hundreds of NDEs with information about life’s meaning and purpose, and they are strikingly uniform in what they have to say about it.”
— Page 95
To learn more about what near-death experiences and the purpose of life, go here.
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“I had many questions… I wanted to know how the world worked? What was our purpose in life? Why we are on this Earth? How did we come to be here? What was the right religion?
“They tried to slow me down. They said they couldn’t answer everything for me at this time. They said to try to explain would be difficult/beyond us as what we humans think is only a ant-like piece of what it all is/means.
“They did answer the religion question. They said there is no right or wrong religion. It is what is in your heart that counts.
“They also said our purpose on this Earth is to love.
“After my review they told me I had to go back because my mission in life was not complete. I had to be convinced and reassured I would come back someday. I did not want to return to my awful life.”
— NDEr Helen D quoted on page 97
To learn more about what near-death experiences and the purpose of life, go here.
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“I was told that people choose to be born into whichever religion or group that will help them achieve the lessons they are sent here to learn. I was told that the Earth is like a big school, a place where you can apply spiritual lessons learned and test yourself, under pressure, to see if you can actually ‘live’ what you already know you should do. Basically, the Earth is a place to walk the walk and literally live the way it should be done. It was made clear to me that some people come to the Earth to work on only one aspect of themselves, while others come to work on several aspects. Then there are others who come to not only work on their own nature, but also to help the world as a whole.
“The other side does not have the physical pressures that having a body has. Here on Earth, you must feed and clothe that body and provide shelter for it from the elements. You are under continual pressure of some sort, to make decisions that have a spiritual base. You are taught on the ‘other side’ what you are ‘supposed to do,’ but can you LIVE it under these pressures on Earth. From what I saw and heard there, it is all about relationships and taking care of each other. Perfection is not expected of people, but learning is expected and considered good progress.
“All of our experiences in a lifetime tend to follow some sort of pattern and often will recreate the same lessons, only in a different way, and under various circumstances. This is how you know what you are here to learn and test. If you examine the patterns, certain themes will become clear.
“I was shown a library filled with gold covered books. These are the lives of people on Earth where their life plan is laid out and what they hope to achieve through certain key experiences. From what I was shown, people have free choice as to how to get to these preset key experiences. They can take a meandering path of experiences or a more direct route, but there are certain events that are preset and will happen, no matter what. Each of those key events are benchmarks and one’s reactions to them will show how much they have learned and what more needs to be done, or learned.
“The economic turmoil we are now going through is one of those ‘world events’ that was preset. People have a choice as to how to react to these events. From what I was shown, the spiritual way is to help each other and help those in need. This is the ultimate act of love. But there is also the choice of becoming more protective and self centered, less sharing and keeping one’s own possessions as primary in one’s reactions to what is there. This is a materialistic way of viewing it all, as if the material world is more than the connection between all of mankind.”
— NDEr Jean R partially quoted on pages 101-102
To learn more about what near-death experiences and the purpose of life, go here.
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“The most frightening things that I have encountered in my life were not from fictional books or scary movies, but from near-death experiences with hellish content.”
— Page 157
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“It is often difficult for near-death experiencers to find the words to describe their pleasant experiences. It is understandable how even more difficult it would be for an NDEr to share an experience that was frightening or even terrifying. NDErs experiencing hellish NDEs are likely aware that they risk negative judgments from others due to the content of their NDEs…
“To study hellish NDEs, 26 NDEs containing at least some hellish content that had been shared with NDERF were reviewed. Consistent with the findings of other NDE researchers, our study found a variety of elements in the hellish content, including frightening or threatening beings, hellish landscapes, threatened or actual torture, and communications containing taunts or malevolence. This brief description of the content of hellish NDEs admittedly cannot do justice to the full range of horrific content or depth of emotional terror that is often present.”
— Page 164
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“Hellish NDEs may describe landscapes, entities, or sensations that are unworldly, frightening, and suggestive of classical concepts of hell. Hellish NDEs are a relatively small percentage of all frightening NDEs. It is estimated that about 1 percent of all NDEs shared with NDERF are hellish.”
— Page 163
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“The great majority of frightening NDEs are not hellish. They are frightening for reasons other than having hellish content. To help understand frightening near-death experiences, some assistance is available from the largest prior study of frightening NDEs, done by Barbara Rommer, M.D. This study reviewed dozens of frightening NDEs.
“Rommer believed frightening NDEs occur for three reasons:
“1. They provide motivation to the NDEr to reconsider prior choices, thoughts, and beliefs;
“2. They result from the presence of a less than loving mind-set immediately prior to the NDE; or
“3. They result from negative programming during childhood.
“From my review of scores of frightening and hellish NDEs on NDERF, I offer my speculation about the cause of frightening NDEs. I am in agreement with the first cause of frightening NDEs suggested by Rommer, but I am less certain about the last two.
“Changes in NDErs lives following typical NDEs are generally substantial and quite positively life-changing. These changes following NDEs have been called aftereffects. Consistent with the aftereffects of pleasant NDEs, Rommer found that frightening NDEs often result in substantial positive life changes, including a greatly reduced fear of death. Some individuals experiencing a frightening NDE even came to view it as a gift and perhaps the most important experience of their life. As with pleasant NDEs, changes following frightening NDEs may require many years to fully manifest. My review of scores of frightening NDEs leads me to be in substantial agreement with Rommer’s conclusions regarding the aftereffects of frightening NDEs… It is my feeling that this type of NDE may be among the most transformative of all, since it allows a person to see and feel the worst evil and the best good.”
— Pages 165 – 166, Page 161
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“Many near-death experiences are not totally frightening from beginning to end, but have parts that are frightening and parts that are pleasant. When NDEs have both components, it is more common for the frightening part to occur first. The early, distressing stage then eventually transitions into the later, and usually longer, more pleasant stage of the NDE.”
— 162
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“Many prior NDE studies used the term ‘negative’ to describe NDEs that were frightening or hellish. I prefer a different label for the hellish NDEs I’ve studied. Personally, I call them ‘a walk through the Valley of Death.’ It is good to remember that most of these are just that, a walk through the valley followed by a new earthly life that may be made more positive by these brief glimpses of that place called hell. Also of note is the fact that there is historical literary evidence that past saints and holy men and women have experienced descent into hell. And although this brush with evil may be hard on them, it also often provides the grist for a deeper spirituality, one that moves them to greater spiritual wholeness. That is why I prefer not to think of these hellish NDEs as negative. Rather, they are frightening experiences that can lead to the same level of positive transformation as those NDEs that might be described as pleasant.”
— Pages 170 – 171
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“An important point is that I never read an NDE describing God casting the NDEr into an irredeemable hellish realm. My speculation on hellish realms described in NDEs is that beings likely enter hell as a result of very poor choices — likely a great many poor choices. I personally believe that the poor souls in hell have the free will to both make good choices and return to the heavenly realms that seem to be our real homes.”
— Page 171
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“Due to the overwhelming percentage of loving and warm experiences reported in near-death experiences (NDEs), I occasionally receive e-mails from people, often in a depression, wondering if they should try suicide in order to induce one. I immediately respond: ‘Absolutely not!’ I encourage those who are depressed to seek counseling and also to discuss their life issues with their health-care team. People who had near-death experiences as a result of suicide attempts almost uniformly later believe that their suicide attempts were serious mistakes. An NDE should never be sought by creating a life-threatening event.”
— Page ix
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