Is Heaven Real?

By Mike DuBose with Blake DuBose
July 19, 2013

Will our souls go on to Heaven, or will all of our thoughts and emotions simply cease with our last breath? At some point, every person wonders what will happen after death.

The answer stays maddeningly out of reach—no one can answer for certain until after death, and the dead can’t communicate with us. Most people who believe in an afterlife also believe in a supreme being that reigns over it. If our existence—on Earth and after death—is really possible, was it brought about by a God? Others ask, If God created everything, who created God?

According to a 2011 Gallup poll, 92% of Americans believe in God. Scientists can’t prove or disprove that God exists, but they do know a few things about the universe. Most believe that it was formed approximately 14 billion years ago, and Harvard University scientists have proven that a Big Bang created it. Some of the light from the Big Bang, travelling at 186,000 miles per hour, is just reaching us today! The universe is vast and full of mysteries. At the forefront: whether or not the Big Bang and the universe were made by an intelligent being, or if all existence somehow just happened.

As the owner of research and evaluation companies, facts are an important part of my life. I need to see proof or good evidence before making decisions, and I strive for unbiased, logical conclusions. Although most people’s perceptions of God and Heaven are faith-based, some scientists have also shared their opinions on God. Physicist and risk analyst Stephen Unwin, Ph.D. used the Probability of God mathematical equation he created to put the likelihood that God exists at 67 percent. In his famous Wager, 17th century French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal said that it makes more sense to believe in the existence of a God because if you do, and there is no God, you lose nothing—but if you don’t, and God does exist, you could be in trouble. Many mathematicians simply go by the coin toss theory and put the probability at 50-50.

Our purpose today is not to debate whether or not God exists, however. We respect all beliefs, and have attempted merely to present interesting evidence based on our research. Our hope is that people will use our findings to examine their own beliefs about the nature of the universe, God, and Heaven.

First, what is Heaven? The three most widely practiced religions in the world (Christianity, with 2.1 billion followers; Islam, with 1.5 billion; and Hinduism, with 1 billion, approximately), each believe in a Heaven and a Hell, although they disagree on how one enters the afterlife and its exact appearance. Because Christianity is the world’s most common religion, we have assumed the Christian idea of Heaven as described in the Bible for the purpose of this column.

Bits and pieces of scripture describing Heaven are woven throughout the Old and New Testaments. Images mentioned in them include: walls with jewels and precious stones; a place of many rooms; twelve gates of pearls; city streets and buildings built with pure gold; a city of brilliance illuminated by God; music, worship, and singing; angels and believers everywhere; a pure River of Life flowing through the middle of the land; twelve crops and a Tree of Life from which Heaven’s inhabitants eat; a place of rewards; friendly animals; no pain, sorrow, suffering, crying, or death; joy, fellowship, and productive work; Heavenly bodies; everlasting life; and, the opportunity to meet and talk with God. The prophets Isaiah, Matthew, Jude, John, and Paul wrote that Heaven will be beautiful beyond human imagination. Corinthians 2:9 states: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.

An addition to these ancient views of Heaven, we can also learn more about what it might look like from those who have come close to death and been revived. Because humans are so curious about Heaven and the afterlife, there is a huge demand for these stories; in fact, three of the bestselling books in America in July 2013 deal with near-death experiences. This is not a new trend—in fact, accounts of near-death experiences have been recorded as far back as ancient Greece!
 
Many skeptics say that near-death experiences are the result of chemical reactions in the brain. Others point out that since life after death can’t be absolutely verified, unscrupulous people could take advantage of others to make money from their stories. Of course, the dead can’t tell us the truth, and some have undoubtedly used others’ desire for knowledge for their own gain. However, with recent books about visions of Heaven coming from respected medical doctors, even skeptics are taking notice. We read six recent books about near-death experiences to look for threads of consistency amongst the authors’ views of Heaven.

Studying the accounts: The authors came from a mixed bag of spiritual backgrounds, including: a Christian pastor, a child of a minister, Christians with weak connections to the faith, and, finally, an atheist (whose book, in fact, was the #1 bestseller upon completion of this article).  

The circumstances leading up to each author’s experience varied, yet their visits had many parallels. None of those who visited Heaven during their near-death experiences wanted to return to Earth, even though they had close friends and families who would be left behind. In fact, some were angry that they had been brought back to life! According to all of the writers, Heaven is a far better place than Earth. Their glimpses of Heaven also radically changed each person’s life. However, some of them were afraid to speak about what they saw and heard for fear of being called crazy.

To briefly summarize each book:

• Waking up in Heaven by Crystal McVea: A thirty two-year-old mother of four children dies, sees Heaven, and is given instructions by God to tell of what she saw.
• To Heaven and Back by Mary Neal, MD: An orthopedic surgeon dies during a river accident and sees Heaven, but returns when told that her time on Earth is not over. An angel visits her in the hospital when she returns to Earth and tells her that her husband will have serious health issues and her oldest son will die. 
• Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo: A pastor’s four-year-old son, Colton, dies, goes to Heaven, and comes back with a remarkable story about what he saw and heard. He returns knowing some family secrets that his parents had never revealed to him.
• 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper: A pastor dies in a car crash, visits Heaven, and then returns to a long, painful recovery. God tells him that he is returning to Earth because another minister was praying for him. 
• Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, MD: A neurosurgeon goes into a coma and visits Heaven. He is told by God to tell people what he saw and returns to prove that what he experienced was real.

We also reviewed Randy Alcorn’s Scripture-laden book, Heaven, which appeared on the New York Times’ bestseller list. Unlike the other authors, Alcorn never visited Heaven or had a near-death-experience, though he is considered by some Christians to be a leading writer on the Biblical view of Heaven. Using direct quotes from each bestseller and Alcorn’s research-based viewpoint, we can examine several perspectives of Heaven and how it might look, feel, and sound.
 
Waking Up In Heaven: Medically speaking, Crystal McVea was dead for nine minutes, although she felt like she was in Heaven for days. She writes that she was guided by two angels through a tunnel (a magnificent passageway…of blinding, swirling, shimming brightness) to Heaven’s gates and entered into a place beautiful beyond the imagination: Beautiful, brilliant, amazing are wildly inadequate. McVea said that the colors she saw were a trillion times brighter than any of ours, and that she could taste and feel light. She felt as if she were home and also a part of God, bathed in love, joy, and purity. There were no bad feelings; in fact, she said that she felt more alive in her time there than her entire life on Earth. I believed I couldn’t possibly feel any more joy than I did, she wrote. I truly, truly believed my soul was going to explode. She revisited her life on Earth and the traumas she endured, and all of her questions were answered. In the end, she was told to return home and God said to her, Tell them what you remember. She returned with a different mindset than she had before the accident: After I died I came to realize that my fortune was my family and friends and the love of God, and the rest didn’t matter all that much.

To Heaven and Back: Surgeon Mary Neal also called Heaven home. After her death (which, unlike the others, she did not see), she described being met by 15-20 dazzling and radiant souls who greeted me with the most overwhelming joy I have ever experienced and could ever imagine. These beings were sent to guide and protect her during her journey to Heaven.  Like McVea, Neal describes enhanced perception. She said that the guides engulfed all of her senses as though I could see, hear, feel, smell them, all at once. The beings communicated with her and each other without speech as they guided her along a path toward a great and brilliant hall larger and more beautiful than anything I can conceive…radiating a brilliance of all colors and beauty. However, before she reached the great hall, the guides told her that it was not yet her time. Despite her protests, she then awoke in a hospital room on Earth. During her recovery, Neal said, an angel appeared and transported her to a rock in sun-drenched field, telling her to rejoice always even in the midst of troubled circumstances. The angel then told her that her eldest son would die soon and that her husband would experience significant health problems. Even though she faced tragedy, she concluded her book by saying, God created us, knows us, loves us, and guides us. Her son’s death a year later and her husband’s health problems lent credibility to the message and her journey.

Heaven is for Real: In this book, Todd Burpo shares the story relayed to him by his four-year-old son, Colton, who died on the operating table. Colton told Burpo that, upon his death, he could see his body rising and his parents praying in different rooms. He traveled to Heaven, where he saw Jesus, clothed in all the colors of the rainbow and having the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. He said that Heaven was made from gold, pearls, and jewels; that there were many beautiful flowers, trees, and animals of every kind, including dogs, cats, and lions; and that no one was old. Colton also described the Holy Trinity (God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit), the angel Gabriel, and Satan (whom he did not want to talk about). He revealed information about the eventual spiritual battle of good and evil predicted in the Bible. Like Neal, Colton was also given information that he could not have obtained otherwise. After the experience, he told his parents that he had met his great-grandfather (who died 30 years before he was born) and his stillborn sister (appearing as a grown woman). Colton was able to pick out the picture of his great-grandfather, whom he had never seen, from a group of photos, and his parents were shocked by his reference to his sister, as they had never told him about her. Colton’s parents said that his story of Heaven gradually unfolded over time and they were stunned at the details he knew about his family’s past, God, the Bible, Heaven, and the future.

90 Minutes in Heaven: Christian pastor Don Piper was traveling home from a conference of ministers when a truck hit his car, killing him. Unlike the others, Piper said that he appeared instantly in Heaven without traveling through any sort of tunnel. Once there, he became aware of a very large crowd, many of whom he had known, like his grandfather, friends, and teachers. It was a joyous reunion of people kissing and hugging him in excitement. He described Heaven as a first class buffet for the senses…Warm, radiant light engulfed me…As I looked around, I could hardly grasp the vivid, dazzling colors. Every hue and tone surpassed anything I had ever seen. Never, even at his happiest, he said, had he felt so alive, and he experienced no sadness at leaving behind his family and possessions. He not only heard beautiful music, but also felt it flowing through his body. He saw a gate ahead that had an amazing brilliance, and behind it, buildings and streets of gold. Moving toward it, I had the sense I was being ushered into the presence of God…A holy awe came over me as I stepped forward, he said. After his return to Earth, he underwent years of painful recovery, but maintained the memory of his Heavenly experience, saying, I was home. I was where I belonged.

Proof of Heaven: Like the other writers, neurosurgeon Eben Alexander experienced a vision of Heaven that made him want to stay forever. Unlike the others, he was an atheist—until he experienced Heaven. The place I went was real. Real in a way that makes the life we’re living here and now completely dreamlike by comparison, he wrote. Like McVea and Neal, he had a guide, an angel in the form of a little girl. Similarly, he also experienced a sensory overload of beautiful sounds and indescribable colors. It seemed that you could not look at or listen to anything in this world without becoming a part of it, Alexander wrote. The landscape he saw was Earthlike: I was flying over trees, fields, streams, and waterfalls, and there were people and children, too, laughing and playing. The people sang and danced around in circles, and sometimes, I would see a dog, running and jumping among them, as full of joy as the people were. His guide and other advanced beings answered his questions without language, and he was able to instantly and effortlessly understand concepts that would have taken me years to fully grasp in my Earthly life.  Alexander was told to return to Earth and tell of his experience, although he was sad to leave his home in Heaven.    

Heaven: Randy Alcorn did not have a near-death experience; rather, his bestselling book, Heaven, is based on his study of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. To summarize, Alcorn writes in his book that Heaven will be a garden, city, and kingdom. People who enter will be with Jesus in Heaven, being reunited with family and friends, and enjoying great adventures in Heaven. Alcorn says that Heaven will be 2 million square miles and filled with natural wonders, magnificent architecture, thriving culture, and no crime. It will be overflowing with arts, music, drama, and even sports. He stated that we will renew old relationships and create new ones with other people while in Heaven. Alcorn also believes that there’s a good chance that we will also be reunited with our deceased pets. He says that the people of Heaven will have unlimited access to God, a one-of-a-kind being who is infinite, existing outside of space and time. Clearly, Alcorn’s scripture-based interpretation of Heaven shares many traits with the experiences of the other authors who came back from death.

The bottom line: Who is right? As a researcher, I always look for patterns and facts before coming to conclusions. Though they had never met before, the people who said they visited Heaven during near-death experiences described many common themes. Could it be that they were purposely returned as messengers from God? Even if a small portion of what they said was true, Heaven will be a glorious place!

About the Authors: Our corporate and personal purpose is to create opportunities to improve lives by sharing our knowledge, experience, success, research, and mistakes.

Blake DuBose graduated from Newberry College School of Business and is president of DuBose Web Group. View our published articles at www.duboseweb.com.

Mike DuBose has been in business since 1981, authored The Art of Building a Great Business, and is a field instructor with USC’s graduate school. He is the servant owner of three debt-free corporations, including Columbia Conference Center, Research Associates, and The Evaluation Group. Visit his nonprofit website www.mikedubose.com.

Katie Beck serves as Director of Communications for the DuBose family of companies. She graduated from the USC School of Journalism and Honors College.

© Copyright July 8, 2013 by Mike DuBose and Blake DuBose–All Rights Reserved. You have permission and we encourage you to forward the full article to friends or colleagues and/or distribute it as part of personal or professional use during the year 2013, providing that the authors are credited. However, no part of this article may be altered or published in any other manner without the written consent of the authors. If you would like written approval to post this information on an appropriate website or to publish this information, please contact Katie Beck at [email protected] and briefly explain how the article will be used and we will respond promptly. Shorter versions of some articles may be available.