Near-death experience

Today I was listening to Sunday on Radio 4, when they interviewed a man who had had an after-death experience – or maybe near-death, I don’t know. I’m aware that this is a controversial subject: scientists tell us that there’s an area of the brain that can cause these hallucinations in certain physical circumstances. On the other hand, I’ve seen evidence of people talking about leaving their bodies and floating upwards, looking down on the medical staff round their own body, and then as they move further out of the building, seeing certain objects on a particular roof. When they’ve returned to their earthly bodies and related this, people have checked it out and found that it’s just as they described.

The guy today was describing how he was met by a shining being, all pure white; and a tunnel of light, a light that was so full of love that he felt fully himself, fully alive for the first time. This, he asserts, was God: not at all like any religion he’d ever heard about.

I am curious about this. What was he experiencing? I don’t honestly know. I thought about what the bible teaches: that in fact there are several heavens, and that there are spiritual principalities and powers. These are both those who do God’s bidding, the angels; and those who are under the power of the evil one and whose whole object, as Jesus tells us, is to steal, kill and destroy.

So the bible is not completely silent on this matter, although there are glimpses only. St Paul talks about being caught up to the ‘third heaven’, whether in the body or out of the body, he’s not sure: and he heard ‘inexpressible things’ that he is not permitted to tell. Nobody can say what the ‘third heaven’ is, but it does suggest other heavens. The book of Revelation is full of extraordinary visions, which scholars continue to try and interpret: but the final vision is of a heaven full of light:

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Maybe this guy had a glimpse of the foothills, as it were, of heaven, where God’s love and light permeates everything. For a fascinating book on what heaven and hell might be like, see CS Lewis, The Great Divorce.

One thing is clear from this: it is God’s servants who carry his name, and who enjoy the light of his presence, in a place where time no longer exists.