Hieronymus Bosch (d. 1516), \u201cAscent of the Blest\u201d
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
What if you slept?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd what if, in your dream, you went to heaven<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd there plucked a strange and beautiful flower?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd what if, when you awoke, you had that flower in your hand?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAh, what then?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The lines quoted above from the poet Coleridge are directly relevant to NDE accounts in which the experiencer seems to learn something (e.g., about events in a different room or on a separate floor or at a distant location, or about the recent death of a loved one) that he or she could not have known by ordinary means.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now I offer two more passages from\u00a0J. Steve Miller, Near-Death Experiences As Evidences for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language<\/em> (Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2012).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the first, Miller offers some good thoughts on how to think about contested issues like near-death experiences (and many others):<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I seldom use words that speak with finality such as \u201cprove\u201d or \u201cproven.\u201d\u00a0 This is partly because of my skeptical nature but also because of my desire for precision.\u00a0 Since \u201cprove\u201d indicates \u201c100 percent certitude\u201d in fields such as Math and Deductive Logic, I\u2019ll tend to use the more humble phrase, \u201csufficient evidence,\u201d which is more appropriate for subjects of a scientific or legal nature. . . .\u00a0 Our biggest decisions of life are made by weighing evidence rather than holding out for logical certitude.\u00a0 We convict murderers on the basis of sufficient evidence.\u00a0 Yet, one more piece of evidence could overturn our verdict.\u00a0 We choose our cars and houses and spouses and vocations on the basis of sufficient evidence.\u00a0 In my opinion, absolute, logical certitude is typically found, not in the real world, but in abstract worlds like math.\u00a0 (xii-xiii)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the second, he responds to the suggestion that there still might be a fully naturalistic explanation for NDEs out there, just waiting to be discovered:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
True.\u00a0 And if that day comes, I should reweigh the evidence and humbly conclude, \u201cWow!\u00a0 Was I wrong about NDEs!\u201d\u00a0 But unfortunately, I can\u2019t transport evidence from the future and weigh it to make up my mind today.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nFuture scientific evidence may disprove the big bang theory and quantum mechanics and relativity and many of the other scientific theories that currently make the most sense in the light of our current observations and experiments.\u00a0 Yet, scientists believe these theories because today\u2019s<\/em> evidence clearly weighs in their favor.\u00a0 Future evidence is an unknown that can\u2019t be accounted for.\u00a0 (37)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had that flower in your hand? Ah, what then? Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) \u00a0 The lines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1727,1104,4847,16594,5835,5168,1008,1011,16257,16260,900,903,9916,3907,16615,10447,16612,16609,16586,16583,15956],"class_list":["post-88210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afterlife","tag-death","tag-deathbed","tag-decased","tag-dying","tag-evidence","tag-immortality","tag-life-after-death","tag-life-after-life","tag-life-after-life-after-life","tag-nde","tag-near-death-experience","tag-near-death-experiences","tag-proof","tag-proven","tag-scientific","tag-studies","tag-study","tag-veridical","tag-verifiable","tag-visions"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Bosch's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/09\/Hieronymus_Bosch_013.jpg\")
<\/a>