Paul Poulton considers the recent surge in New York Times best-sellers, from people who say they have seen heaven and returned to tell the tale.

Paul Poulton

When I talk to my fun-loving friends about life after death they sometimes reply by saying, 'No-one has ever come back to tell us, have they?' And that, they suppose, is the snappy answer that puts an end to any awkward conversation that might have followed.

You may have heard that response yourself, but it's a response that seems to be losing its appeal. The New York Times best-seller list has recently featured several books about people who say they have seen heaven and returned to tell the tale. The top of the non-fiction best-seller list is a book called 'Proof Of Heaven' by neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander, not far behind is 'Heaven Is For Real' by Todd Burpo. There are other books of a similar nature and we can see by their titles that their aim is to put an end to the materialist belief that there is no more to reality than its physical attributes. The rather gruesome nature in which people in these books get a licence to see heaven won't be attractive to most of us - it seems that an accident or some nasty illness befalls the victim before they get to see the wondrous vistas and beings in the celestial expanse - but most people I think would like to get a peep of what heaven is like if we could forgo the grisly prelude. Even sceptics like the neurosurgeon who wrote the book 'Proof Of Heaven' now confidently announce that 'the spiritual realm is real'.

Another book that has been on the New York Times best-seller list for over two years is by orthopaedic surgeon Mary Neal. Mary was kayaking on a river in southern Chile when she got trapped under a waterfall; her book is called Heaven and Back: A Doctor's Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again. So the automatic rejoinder of, 'No-one has ever come back to tell us,' may not hold as much water as first thought.

To pile a bit more pressure on the happy-go-lucky materialist, the human soul itself is now being tracked and analysed by two eminent scientists. Dr Stuart Hameroff from the US and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose say our souls are more than the interaction of neurons in the brain. They say that research into quantum physics is beginning to validate that the human soul exists. Their work has led them to say the essence of our soul is contained inside structures called microtubules within brain cells, when we die the information within them is not destroyed, instead it merely leaves the body. They say that by its very nature it can't be destroyed, this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.

All this is interesting and near death experiences are not new, we know that Paul who helped write parts of the New Testament was once stoned and left for dead. He later talked about being caught up to the third heaven - the first heaven is the clouds, the second heaven is the stars and the third heaven is the spiritual abode where God lives. Paul found what he experienced there hard to describe in physical terms; he wasn't even sure if he was in his body or not.

Most of those who say they've seen heaven mention that it looks like a busy place; there's stuff to do, places to go and business to attend to. I guess that falls into line with what Christian teachers have taught throughout the years and a quick look through the Bible will show us that when glimpses into heaven occur there often seems something purposeful going on. The picture we sometimes see of someone in heaven sitting on a cloud playing a harp doesn't seem to sync with the reports we hear. We read that far from being a place of eternal repose there are official positions to be taken up, judging angels, ruling cities, being (metaphorical) pillars of God's temple, and some will rise to shine like stars in the universe. Then there's feasting and being entertained to be entered into, not to mention pleasures for evermore. Heaven seems like it's an exciting place to be.

When we are young we tend not to think of heaven and hell too much and in a way that's how it should be. It's easy to be absorbed in the enchantment of what heaven is going to be like and we could end up buying all the books by people who say they've been there, or scouring the internet for near-death-experiences. But I don't think that kind of fascination is helpful, it's like some people are so worried about getting ill and dying that it ruins their life while they are living. In a similar way some people may be so preoccupied with life after death that it takes the wonder out of the life they are actually living.

What counts is that here on earth we grow into the person that is ready to take on the eternal position that we have been created for. We are all becoming something regardless of our age; it's not how old we are that counts but what we are growing into. Some people wither away like a plant without water and others start to shine like stars in the universe.

The people who have written the recent books about their experiences with heaven may be good honest people; I'm sure most of them are, but there may be others who are cashing in on the new trend. So how can we be sure if anyone has ever come back from the dead to tell us? The answer to that question is Jesus did.