Not All Near-Death Experiences are True—Here’s How to Tell the Difference
Excerpted from The NDE Conspiracy.
If there’s one thing I learned in kindergarten that still serves me well today, it’s that age-old maxim: Don’t trust everything you hear.
That certainly holds true in the world of near-death experiences, which I’ve demonstrated throughout the book can offer you some unexpected twists and turns. Deciding how to evaluate the veracity of these experiences would be simple if the encounters people share were merely limited to clean and tidy Heaven and hell experiences, but that is not at all the body of work I gave you to consider—and it’s not what you will encounter as you engage with the wide world of near-death experiences.
There’s a Conspiracy Afoot
My premise is that God has given us near-death experiences to reveal Himself to all of humanity and to clearly alert us to the real eternal destinations of Heaven and hell, the former (Heaven) which is only accessible as a final eternal destination to those who have a relationship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. However, God’s plan for NDEs is not unfolding without challenge. There is a force at work in our world today that has nefarious intentions and is attempting to hijack many of these near-death experiences and related accounts to deceive people and lead them toward anything and everything other than the God revealed in the Bible.
That nefarious being is none other than satan himself, also referred to as Lucifer, who is a fallen angel whose pride got the best of him, which resulted in satan and those who joined him in rebellion being cast out of Heaven. Although satan and the other fallen angels (now demons) are no longer in Heaven, that does not mean they aren’t able to still exert great influence and wreak havoc in the earth realm.
Satan is still up to his old tricks, using that same page from his playbook that he played in the Garden of Eden where he successfully confused and tempted Adam and Eve to doubt what God said and to choose their own path. I believe he is also attempting to use near- death experiences in a similar way to confuse people to the end that they will doubt the truth of God’s Word and ultimately choose their own path that leads to eternal destruction.
I believe we see cases where satan’s influence is explicit, as in Bryan Melvin’s experience of encountering a false welcoming committee that in the end turned out to be a bunch of demons. Then there are many other cases where the work of satan’s hand is much more subtle, influencing experiencers’ afterlife encounters with an image of “God” that while seemingly radiating light and love, is also vague, nondescript, and unknowable. This is in stark contrast to the NDEs where God reveals Himself as either God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), or God the Holy Spirit, making Himself known in the form that experiencer needed Him to reveal Himself in. This latter scenario is much more befitting of the God we read about in the Bible who constantly goes out of His way to reveal Himself to us.
For the Journey Ahead You Still Need Some Choice Words and a Framework
In terms of clearly understanding and communicating a message effectively, words and their meaning matter a great deal. The NDE space is no exception. Here are primary terms you need to understand to effectively discern and describe the different types of experiences people share about:
Near-Death Experience (NDE)
Disturbing or Distressing Near-Death Experience (DNDE)
Spiritual Transformative Experience (STE)
Shared-Death Experience (SDE)
Deathbed Experience (DBE)
The NDE Conspiracy
Shaun Tabatt
Let’s consider the concern about people conflating near-death experiences with prophetic dreams and visions of Heaven and hell. We also need to acknowledge that there is a distinct difference between two types of experiences: 1) near-death experiences and 2) prophetic dreams and visions of Heaven and hell. The following are the basic criteria I believe are helpful for evaluating these prophetic visions:
How does this measure up to what we read about Heaven or hell in the Bible?
How does this fit with accepted orthodox and historic Christian views on this topic?
Are these accounts more appropriate for a personal journal rather than disseminated publicly?
Does this content point me to Jesus or is it doing more to give the author fame and attention?
In terms of weight and legitimacy when we contrast one versus the other, I lean more heavily toward the near-death experiences where somebody has clinically died as potentially more authoritative than many of these prophetic visions. That aside, we must always weigh any extrabiblical teaching gleaned from these experiences against the Bible and historic Christian orthodoxy and theology.
Now that we’ve completed the review of our vocabulary lesson, let’s move on to one of my most favorite things, the 9-point NDE framework I’ve developed over the course of my work on my last few books.
NDE frameworks are nothing new in near-death experience and related books overall, they are just far rarer in the NDE books published by Christian publishers. With that as a backdrop, I thought it would be helpful to offer an NDE framework to put structure around my and others’ work in the NDE space and thus my little framework was born.
1. Gateway to the Afterlife. While all roads don’t lead to Heaven, just about any road has the potential to bring you to that brink where you cross the veil to the other side. Some near-death experiencers were engaged in activities that some would label as dangerous, but the majority of them were simply going about their daily business carrying out tasks and activities they’ve done many times before. You’ll be both amazed and surprised by the great variety of experiences that ushered these men and women across the threshold into the afterlife.
2. Out-of-Body Experience (OBE). In some ways you could describe the entire NDE, DNDE, STE, and DBE journey as a sort of out-of-body experience, but what we want to get at in this particular section of the framework is the point at which the experiencer departs from their physical body up until they cross some sort of border or threshold to the other side. Some of the frameworks differentiate the OBE from experiences of going through a tunnel and being drawn toward a bright light. For our purposes, we’re putting all of those sorts of experiences under this heading of out-of- body experience.
3. Heightened Senses. Most near-death experiencers report having a heightened sensory experience when they are no longer tethered to their physical body. The typical senses we associate with our physical body such as taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight are cranked up to a superhuman level. Experiencers report not needing to talk when they are in their spirit body. Communication is a sort of instantaneous thought-to-thought or perhaps better stated, spirit-to-spirit exchange. Many also report receiving or having access to knowledge that gives them a deep understanding of the things they’re encountering on the other side. Sometimes that might look like receiving a massive knowledge download in Heaven and at other times that looks like fully understanding why the people you see tormented in hell are there.
4. Encountering Other Beings. Near-death experiencers often share about beings they encounter on the other side during their afterlife journey. These beings can include:
Angels, demons, and even satan
Divine Beings: Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit
Deceased People: family, friends, strangers
These beings are the less controversial of the bunch. Some experiencers also report encountering animals in Heaven. We’ve heard stories including:
Lions
Horses
Deceased pets
I joke that there are no house cats in Heaven as people always tell us about their dogs. We’ll see if future interviews prove me wrong.
5. Life Review. Many near-death experiencers report a time during their NDE when they see their life passing before their eyes. Some describe it as a movie of their life that is playing in their head. This can include the good things you’ve done in life as well as the bad things. Some people say that in the midst of the life review, they’re able to sense and experience how other people were impacted by the choices and actions that are replaying in front of them. It is not uncommon for people to express feeling overwhelmed by the many things that God has forgiven them for.
6. Encountering Otherworldly (“heavenly” or “hellish”) Realms. When NDEers cross over to the other side, not only do they meet other beings, they can also encounter entire cities, structures like houses, other buildings, roads, etc., and vast landscapes filled with all of the things we’d expect to encounter in nature, all very much like what we might encounter down here on earth.
Sometimes these things are simply a part of the scenery in Heaven or hell that don’t have a significant meaning and other times they reveal profound truths. As you read through afterlife stories, keep an eye out for the hidden truths that might be revealed in these structures and landscapes.
7. Learning Special Knowledge. During their time on the other side of the veil, many experiencers receive special knowledge. This may come through something they saw, something they experienced, or a special impartation of knowledge or information from a being they encountered.
8. Returning to Your Earth-Bound Body. All journeys must eventually come to an end. Some NDEers know they’re returning to their body very early in their experience, while others don’t know up until the moment they’re about to return to their body. Some people’s re-entry accounts are just as dramatic as the circumstances that started the experiencer down their whole NDE journey in the first place, while others are about as exciting as waking up from a nap.
9. Post-NDE Lingering Effects. Whether somebody has a Heaven experience, hell experience, or the afterlife combination platter of the two, it’s impossible to not be profoundly marked by it. People report having dramatic shifts in their personality, new direction in their journey of faith, and some are now fully awakened to the supernatural activity that is taking place here on the earth.
While the majority of the people we’ve encountered have been dramatically changed for the better, we’ve also met experiencers who still carry a certain amount of trauma and PTSD from some especially disturbing experiences with hell and the demonic.
In my work I’ve found this framework helpful in deciding how to conduct an NDE-related interview and it continues to impact my writing on the subject. I’ve also shared it with several of my friends who have had a near-death experience as a potential way for them to learn how to structure their testimony for when they share it publicly or put it in a book.
There’s also two important discussions that are evergreen in the NDE space. Those are the discussions of if consciousness continues after we die and the probable alternate medical explanations for NDEs. While these topics may not interest you if your primary focus is what happens in the midst of a near-death experience, I’d encourage you to dedicate some time to getting familiar with the conversations happening around these two topics as they do influence a lot of the new and ongoing research in the NDE space.
What Really Awaits Us Beyond the Veil?
You've read the amazing accounts and heard the incredible interviews of people who’ve died, experienced the afterlife, and come back to tell about it―but can you actually believe them?
As one of the most trusted Christian voices in the NDE space, bestselling author and podcaster Shaun Tabatt has spent years researching and investigating testimonies of near-death experiences throughout history. His interviews with survivors have been heard by millions around the world, and what he’s found will fundamentally change the way you think about afterlife accounts.
In this astonishing, eye-opening book, Shaun reveals the truths, the lies, and the ugly sides of NDE accounts, empowering you to discern what’s trustworthy, disprove what’s dangerous, and confidently know what awaits you on the other side.
Full of never-before-published testimonies of heaven and hell, penetrating research, notable stories and documentation throughout history, and real-world wisdom, this vital, accessible book turns a critical eye on afterlife accounts and the NDE industry, helping you:
Stay grounded in biblical truth and a biblical worldview.
Understand the 9-point NDE framework and standard terminology.
Separate the truth from the lies in NDE and afterlife descriptions.
Expose perilous pitfalls, such as psychics, mediums, aliens, spirits, and memories of past lives.
Share the true hope of the afterlife with others.
Don’t fall for false witnesses or half-truths. What lies beyond the veil is more amazing than you can imagine―it’s time to discover the truth for yourself!
