No doubt you have heard all kinds of people waxing nirvanic about their near-death experiences. For obvious reasons, those getting the most attention are scientists and doctors who many seem to think give these experiences more credibility.
Never mind that these doctors are invariably promoting books for worldly gain as much as providing insight into life after death. Perhaps you’ve seen Dr. Mary Neal on TV selling her To Heaven and Back; or Dr. Eben Alexander III selling his Proof of Heaven.
Not to mention that the vast majority of their peers insist that there is a biological/scientific explanation for most near-death experiences – as University of Cambridge neuroscientist Dean Mobbs duly noted in the September 12, 2011 edition of Scientific American.
But let me hasten to clarify that I have no interest in questioning anybody’s religious or mystical experience. It’s just that it betrays all religious belief that anybody would struggle to hold onto this life when he or she has one foot in Heaven – already experiencing the eternal joy, peace, and happiness every religion promises.
Which is why my only question to those who would have Doubting Thomases like me believe that they experienced this taste of Heaven is: then why are you still here?
And I don’t mind confessing that my cynicism is informed, in part, by the heavenly conundrum Black-American blues and jazz composer Tom Delaney posed in his spiritual song “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die.”