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John Burke, a pastor and former engineer, draws on 35 years of studying near-death experiences (NDEs) to construct a detailed picture of what Heaven may be like. An NDE, a term coined by Dr. Raymond Moody in 1975, refers to the vivid account reported by a person who was clinically dead, was resuscitated, and recalled experiences of an afterlife. Burke compares over 100 such accounts with promises and descriptions found in Christian Scripture. Writing as a convinced Christian who was once a skeptic, Burke distinguishes between what NDErs, or people who report NDEs, experience and the interpretations they assign to those experiences. He argues that while interpretations vary, the shared core experience aligns with what the biblical prophets and Jesus revealed. Burke frames NDEs not as additions to God's revelation but as experiences that add color to Scripture's picture, much as witnessing a sunset adds color to the biblical claim that creation declares God's glory.
Burke opens with George Ritchie's 1943 NDE. Ritchie, a young Army enlistee with double pneumonia, passed out during X-rays, left his body, and discovered he was invisible to the living. He traveled at great speed to a city he later identified as Vicksburg, Mississippi, a place he had never visited. Returning to his body, Ritchie encountered a Being of brilliant light he identified as Jesus, who radiated unconditional love and showed him a panoramic life review focused not on accomplishments but on love. After nine minutes of clinical death, Ritchie revived and years later confirmed verifiable details from his out-of-body journey. Moody, a philosophy PhD, heard Ritchie lecture at the University of Virginia, began collecting similar accounts, and published the bestseller Life After Life. Burke encountered the book at age 16 while his own father was dying of cancer and resolved to investigate.
Burke builds a case for the credibility of NDEs through skeptical medical professionals who became convinced through their own research. Vicki, a woman blind from birth whose optic nerves were severely damaged, left her body during a near-fatal car crash at age 22 and experienced visual perception for the first time, accurately describing details later confirmed by outside witnesses. Cardiologist Dr. Michael Sabom found that patients claiming out-of-body observations described their resuscitations with striking accuracy, while a control group who guessed made significant errors. Radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long collected thousands of accounts worldwide and concluded that NDEs provide powerful scientific evidence for an afterlife.
From Long's study of 1,300 cases, Burke identifies 12 core elements common to NDEs: out-of-body experience, heightened senses, intense positive emotions, tunnel passage, encountering brilliant light, meeting deceased relatives or mystical beings, altered time and space, life review, encountering heavenly realms, gaining special knowledge, reaching a boundary, and returning to the body. Children's NDEs contain the same elements as adults', and studies of blind NDErs found visual-like perceptions later confirmed by witnesses. Burke notes that not all NDEs are positive, citing accounts of terrifying experiences.
The book's central chapters construct a composite picture of Heaven. NDErs consistently describe receiving an upgraded spiritual body free of pain and limitation yet retaining familiar form. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mary Neal, trapped underwater for 14 minutes during a kayaking accident, felt her bones breaking yet experienced no panic, rising out of her body to be greeted by radiant spiritual beings. Burke connects these accounts to the apostle Paul's teaching that earthly bodies will be exchanged for heavenly ones (2 Corinthians 5:1–4) and proposes a three-stage model: Believers first receive a spiritual body at death, then a resurrected physical body at the end of human history.
Burke contends that in Heaven, people discover their true identity. Crystal McVea, a survivor of sexual abuse beginning at age three, died for nine minutes during a hospital visit and found herself before God with absolute certainty about her worth as God's creation. Burke argues that God's central concern, revealed in both NDEs and Scripture, is not accomplishment but love, and that NDErs consistently report being told they have a purpose to fulfill, with love at its heart.
Relationships, Burke argues, do not end at death but deepen. Don Piper, pronounced dead for 90 minutes after a head-on collision, described being instantly surrounded by deceased relatives and friends radiating joy. Four-year-old Colton Burpo recognized a photograph showing his great-grandfather Pop when Pop was 29 years old. Pop died before Colton was born, yet Colton identified him immediately while rejecting a photo of Pop at 62, explaining that nobody is old in Heaven (72–73).
Burke presents extensive NDE descriptions of Heaven's physical beauty: vibrant green grass emitting light from within, fragrant flowers, crystal-clear rivers, and majestic mountains. Captain Dale Black, whose plane crashed into an aviation monument at 135 miles per hour, described a magnificent golden city where light shone not on things but through them. Burke argues that Scripture presents earth as a shadow of Heaven's greater reality (Hebrews 8:5).
Many NDEs feature a Being of Light whom Burke identifies as Jesus. Burke cites Long's finding that 49.9 percent of NDErs encountered a definite mystical being or voice (123). Researchers Osis and Haraldsson studied 500 Americans and 500 Indians and found that while cultural interpretations differed, the core experience was consistent. Indian patients never described Hindu concepts like moksha (dissolution into Brahma, the ultimate divine reality in Hindu theology) or reincarnation, but did describe a loving, personal, white-robed figure, which Burke argues corresponds more closely to the biblical God.
Burke also addresses hellish NDEs. Howard Storm, an atheist art professor dying of a perforated stomach ulcer in a Paris hospital, was lured by voices into darkness where beings savagely attacked him. Remembering the childhood song "Jesus loves me," Storm called out to Jesus, and a brilliant light appeared, healed him, and carried him upward. Burke cites research reporting that 23 percent of NDErs in 12 studies described disturbing or terrifying experiences. He argues that hell is not God punishing people but God honoring the choice of those who reject him, citing C. S. Lewis's observation that "the doors of hell are locked from the inside" (230).
Burke examines the life review, in which people relive their lives in God's presence, experiencing not only their own actions but the feelings of everyone they affected. The emphasis falls entirely on relationships and love, not professional achievements. Burke clarifies that the life review is not the final judgment described in Scripture and distinguishes two biblical judgments: the great white throne, which determines who belongs to God, and the bema seat, which takes its name from the judge's platform at the ancient Greek games and functions as a rewards ceremony for the faithful.
Burke addresses why God allows suffering, arguing that love must be free and that free will entails the possibility of rejection and harm. Earth functions as a temporary stage where humans can make an informed choice to follow God before their decisions become eternal. In the final chapters, Burke presents a composite description of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city described in Revelation 21–22, with transparent golden streets, the River of Life, the Tree of Life, and a central throne where millions gather in worship. He argues that Heaven will be a place of creative work, exploration, and deepening intimacy with God. In two appendices, Burke presents historical evidence for Jesus as the Messiah and summarizes Dr. Pim van Lommel's analysis of alternate scientific explanations for NDEs, concluding that no physiological or psychological factor fully accounts for the enhanced consciousness, verified perceptions, and lasting transformation that characterize these experiences.
Burke opens with George Ritchie's 1943 NDE. Ritchie, a young Army enlistee with double pneumonia, passed out during X-rays, left his body, and discovered he was invisible to the living. He traveled at great speed to a city he later identified as Vicksburg, Mississippi, a place he had never visited. Returning to his body, Ritchie encountered a Being of brilliant light he identified as Jesus, who radiated unconditional love and showed him a panoramic life review focused not on accomplishments but on love. After nine minutes of clinical death, Ritchie revived and years later confirmed verifiable details from his out-of-body journey. Moody, a philosophy PhD, heard Ritchie lecture at the University of Virginia, began collecting similar accounts, and published the bestseller Life After Life. Burke encountered the book at age 16 while his own father was dying of cancer and resolved to investigate.
Burke builds a case for the credibility of NDEs through skeptical medical professionals who became convinced through their own research. Vicki, a woman blind from birth whose optic nerves were severely damaged, left her body during a near-fatal car crash at age 22 and experienced visual perception for the first time, accurately describing details later confirmed by outside witnesses. Cardiologist Dr. Michael Sabom found that patients claiming out-of-body observations described their resuscitations with striking accuracy, while a control group who guessed made significant errors. Radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long collected thousands of accounts worldwide and concluded that NDEs provide powerful scientific evidence for an afterlife.
From Long's study of 1,300 cases, Burke identifies 12 core elements common to NDEs: out-of-body experience, heightened senses, intense positive emotions, tunnel passage, encountering brilliant light, meeting deceased relatives or mystical beings, altered time and space, life review, encountering heavenly realms, gaining special knowledge, reaching a boundary, and returning to the body. Children's NDEs contain the same elements as adults', and studies of blind NDErs found visual-like perceptions later confirmed by witnesses. Burke notes that not all NDEs are positive, citing accounts of terrifying experiences.
The book's central chapters construct a composite picture of Heaven. NDErs consistently describe receiving an upgraded spiritual body free of pain and limitation yet retaining familiar form. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mary Neal, trapped underwater for 14 minutes during a kayaking accident, felt her bones breaking yet experienced no panic, rising out of her body to be greeted by radiant spiritual beings. Burke connects these accounts to the apostle Paul's teaching that earthly bodies will be exchanged for heavenly ones (2 Corinthians 5:1–4) and proposes a three-stage model: Believers first receive a spiritual body at death, then a resurrected physical body at the end of human history.
Burke contends that in Heaven, people discover their true identity. Crystal McVea, a survivor of sexual abuse beginning at age three, died for nine minutes during a hospital visit and found herself before God with absolute certainty about her worth as God's creation. Burke argues that God's central concern, revealed in both NDEs and Scripture, is not accomplishment but love, and that NDErs consistently report being told they have a purpose to fulfill, with love at its heart.
Relationships, Burke argues, do not end at death but deepen. Don Piper, pronounced dead for 90 minutes after a head-on collision, described being instantly surrounded by deceased relatives and friends radiating joy. Four-year-old Colton Burpo recognized a photograph showing his great-grandfather Pop when Pop was 29 years old. Pop died before Colton was born, yet Colton identified him immediately while rejecting a photo of Pop at 62, explaining that nobody is old in Heaven (72–73).
Burke presents extensive NDE descriptions of Heaven's physical beauty: vibrant green grass emitting light from within, fragrant flowers, crystal-clear rivers, and majestic mountains. Captain Dale Black, whose plane crashed into an aviation monument at 135 miles per hour, described a magnificent golden city where light shone not on things but through them. Burke argues that Scripture presents earth as a shadow of Heaven's greater reality (Hebrews 8:5).
Many NDEs feature a Being of Light whom Burke identifies as Jesus. Burke cites Long's finding that 49.9 percent of NDErs encountered a definite mystical being or voice (123). Researchers Osis and Haraldsson studied 500 Americans and 500 Indians and found that while cultural interpretations differed, the core experience was consistent. Indian patients never described Hindu concepts like moksha (dissolution into Brahma, the ultimate divine reality in Hindu theology) or reincarnation, but did describe a loving, personal, white-robed figure, which Burke argues corresponds more closely to the biblical God.
Burke also addresses hellish NDEs. Howard Storm, an atheist art professor dying of a perforated stomach ulcer in a Paris hospital, was lured by voices into darkness where beings savagely attacked him. Remembering the childhood song "Jesus loves me," Storm called out to Jesus, and a brilliant light appeared, healed him, and carried him upward. Burke cites research reporting that 23 percent of NDErs in 12 studies described disturbing or terrifying experiences. He argues that hell is not God punishing people but God honoring the choice of those who reject him, citing C. S. Lewis's observation that "the doors of hell are locked from the inside" (230).
Burke examines the life review, in which people relive their lives in God's presence, experiencing not only their own actions but the feelings of everyone they affected. The emphasis falls entirely on relationships and love, not professional achievements. Burke clarifies that the life review is not the final judgment described in Scripture and distinguishes two biblical judgments: the great white throne, which determines who belongs to God, and the bema seat, which takes its name from the judge's platform at the ancient Greek games and functions as a rewards ceremony for the faithful.
Burke addresses why God allows suffering, arguing that love must be free and that free will entails the possibility of rejection and harm. Earth functions as a temporary stage where humans can make an informed choice to follow God before their decisions become eternal. In the final chapters, Burke presents a composite description of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city described in Revelation 21–22, with transparent golden streets, the River of Life, the Tree of Life, and a central throne where millions gather in worship. He argues that Heaven will be a place of creative work, exploration, and deepening intimacy with God. In two appendices, Burke presents historical evidence for Jesus as the Messiah and summarizes Dr. Pim van Lommel's analysis of alternate scientific explanations for NDEs, concluding that no physiological or psychological factor fully accounts for the enhanced consciousness, verified perceptions, and lasting transformation that characterize these experiences.
