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And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die -- Genesis 3:4
Commencing in about 1970, there arose in western society an intense interest
in what came to be termed "afterlife" experiences. What is an
"afterlife" experience? Briefly, this phenomenon has been reported
by persons who have been in a (primarily) medical emergency where they have
been close to death. Some have reported sensations of "floating"
out of his or her body; of speeding down a tunnel of light thereafter; of
being welcomed at the end of this tunnel by deceased friends and relatives;
by seeing a city noteworthy for its beautiful lights; by being communicated
to in some fashion by a "being of light" who makes them feel warm,
loved and calm in some manner not able to be verbalized. This being of light
is never condemnatorythe affected individual is always made to feel at ease.
So convincing have some of these experiences been that some who have regained
consciousness and reported the above-noted sensations have been unable to
adapt again to mundane daily existencethey have had an intense longing to
return to the mental state described above.
These reported experiences have been the basis for an avalanche of books,
articles and talk shows. Book titles such as, You Cannot Die; Changed
by the Light; Coming Back to Life; Life After Life; The Case for
Immortality, Journey to the Other Side; Afterlife: Reports from the
threshold of Death; and Death The Final Stage of Growth; to
name but a few, can be found in any public library or bookstore. All are
filled with accounts of these experiences, some related by doctors and nurses
directly from patients they have dealt with, which seemingly gives the subject
an air of professional authority.
What is particularly noteworthy is that this alleged evidence for immortality
has no reference to religion of any kind, yet the accounts
are still put forward as irrefutable evidence of man's undying psyche. In
1978 for example, the California Museum of Science and Industry opened an
exhibit organized around the thesis that energy is indestructible, that
consciousness can exist independently of the physical body, and that there
is much evidence that consciousness does continue after death.
This display, which was named, "Continuum," featured reports of
visions of the dead and descrip tions of the afterlife, all designed to
convince the visitor that man remains a sentient being without the physical
body. Here was a case where alleged scientific arguments were brought forward
to attempt to prove the survival of man after death, an area previously
thought to be solely the province of religion, not that of science. What
are we, as Bible-believers, to make of all this?
The Teaching of the Scripture Concerning Death
Let us be unmistakably, unequivocally clear on one point: The Bible cannot
be reconciled with the interpretation (and let us stress this point of interpretation)
placed on these afterlife experiences. Death is viewed in Scripture as man's
Great Enemy: The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death
(I Cor. 15:2 6). It is not some new stage of "growth". The Scriptures
clearly teach the non-continu ance of consciousness at death:
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not
anything, neither have they any more a reward: for the memory
of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their
envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever
in anything that is done under the sun (Ecclesiastes 9:6). This
contrasts sharply with the "Continuum" exhibit which would have
everyone believe consciousness simply carries on right through death.
If these experiences really do indicate innate immortality, the Lord Jesus
Christ becomes a total irrelevancy. The Scriptures teach: For God so
loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life (John
3:16); But is now made manifest by the appealing of our Saviour
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1: 10).
The spiritualists were able to recognize decades ago this basic premise
arising out of their phi losophy: "Man has no need of a saviour; man
is his own saviour. " Why did they state this so bluntly? Because it
is the truth - if man is innately immortal, whether Jesus of Nazareth ever
lived or died is irrelevant - if man is inherently immortal, and will survive
death to live on in some new plane after death, where is there need of a
Redeemer from death? Jesus' statement about those who believe in him being
saved from perishing is mere incomprehensible babble - for if man is innately
immortal, there is nothing to be saved from. The quotation from 2 Timothy
is also incomprehensible - for far from bringing life and immortality to
light, he did no such thing, for it has obviously existed for all mankind
since the beginning. if we accept the interpretation placed on the accounts
of those who have experienced the near death phenomena described above,
man has neither need of Jesus, nor is he in danger of perishing. In fact,
God, and God's laws, and man's responsibilities to these laws, become one
great irrelevancy; in all the accounts given in the extensive literature
on the sub ject, there is not one single reference to one's morality in
this life ever being raised in the alleged "hereafter" as a basis
for judgment.
We can see then that the subject under discussion has far-reaching consequences
depending on our interpretation of the evidence. What is called into question
by these claims isn't some minor issue - the whole matter of God's entire
purpose with this creation, the purpose of Christ's death and resur rection,
God's prerogative to grant or not grant eternal life to whomsoever He wills,
is all so much poppycock if man is an innately death surviving being. Indeed,
even the Scripture concerning the nature of God Himself: ... the blessed
and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, Who
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see: to whom
be honour and power everlasting (I Timothy 6:15,16) is obviously not
true if man also intrinsically has an "immortal spark" within
him.
The Bible then clearly teaches that man is not immortal, does not possess
a non-dying element within his being and that eternal life is a gift from
God predicated upon belief in, and obedience to a very specific set of teachings
identified as "The Gospel". The books, talk-shows and magazine
articles put forward vigorously another teaching entirely, based on these
"afterlife" experiences, that there is evidence that man does
consciously survive death, a survival which has no reference to God. The
line of demarcation could not be much clearer. How then can we explain the
evidence which is raised in support of this viewpoint?
Afterlife Experiences - A Discussion From a Christadelphian
viewpoint, the author believes we need to have at least the beginnings of
an answer to this idea which appears to be gaining ever wider acceptance.
We must remain intellectually honest - if the Bible is true, the evidence
must be either false or being interpreted incorrectly; if the evidence really
is true, the Bible cannot be true. Therefore, issues such as this bear careful
examination.
The starting point for our discussion is Jeremiah 17:3: The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it? We are placed on guard by Scripture to the reality that the heart
(the mind) is deceitful above all things. This should alert us to the fact
that it is possible to be deceived by our own hearts we need some objective
standard against which to measure our own
minds. Take for example those in evangelical circles who have had the experience
of being "moved" or "touched" by the Holy Spirit. This
could take the form of speaking in tongues, of being "slain by the
Spirit" (where the affected person goes into a semi-conscious swoon
after being touched on the forehead by the preacher) or other manifestations.
To the person involved, it is a very real experience, one that they are
certain occurred, and cannot be shaken from the reality in his/her mind
of the fact of the visitation of the Spirit. What may be disconcerting
to them is that in other parts of the world, very similar experiences occur,
only in these cases the Holy Spirit is not the alleged agent, but rather
some god, local to the area. New Age believers actually hold the view that
they are being "channeled" by some outside being. As we know there
were those in Jesus' day who were firmly convinced their bodies were inhabited
by demons. In all four cases the experience is overwhelmingly convincing
to the affected party; an outsider looking at the evidence more dispassionately
may see the same mind/brain interaction in all cases, with only the stimuli
being different.
When we come to examine alleged afterlife experiences therefore, we must
keep the following facts in front of us: (1) The persons involved have never
actually diedthey were in all cases re stored to consciousness. Therefore
the term afterlife is itself a misnomer; these were very much living persons,
albeit in an unusual condition from a consciousness point of view; (2) About
40% of the persons who pass through a traumatic experience where death is
narrowly averted experience some kind of experience as noted above; interestingly
enough, the other 60% have no such experi ences; and (3) Hallucinogenic
and other types of drugs produce strikingly similar effects to those reported
in "afterlife" encounters.
Research - The individual who probably has done the most research
in area (3) above is one Ronald K Siegel, of UCLA. In the interests of article
length, we shall quote from his work, rather than others who have also delved
into this matter. He writes:
"All these phenomena bear a strong resemblance to those reported in
drug induced hallucinations and in hallucinations produced by other conditions...
The bright light is characteristic of many types of mental imagery;
it is due to stimulation of the central nervous system that mimics the effects
of light on the retina. Compare the following reports from afterlife and
drug hallucinations:
"Tunnels in afterlife reports: 'My awareness of the room dimmed,
and the world immediately around me became like a tunnel with walls that
glowed with slight orange-red reflected light.' 'I felt like I was riding
on a roller-coaster train at an amusement park, going through this tunnel
at a tre mendous speed.' 'I found myself in a tunnel - a tunnel of concentric
circles... a spiraling tunnel."'
"Tunnels in drug hallucinations: ' I'm moving through some kind
of train tunnel. There are all sorts of lights and colors'. ' It's sort
of like a tube, like I sort of feel ... that I'm at the bottom of a tube
looking up. "I am traveling into a tunnel and out into space'."
"Cities and lights in afterlife reports: 'There were colors
- bright colors - not like here on earth, but just indescribable... I could
see a city. There were buildings - separate buildings ...a city of light.'
'I believe that it was at this very instant when I felt myself die that
I started moving at very high speed toward a net of great luminosity and
great brilliance'."
"Cities and lights in drug hallucinations: 'There are tall structures
all around me ... it could be buildings, it could be anything ... and in
all colors.' 'Like extremely futuristic architecture ... like spheres and
things constructed very differently.' 'And it seems like I'm getting closer
and closer to the sun, it's very white ... and there's like a geometric
network or lattice in the distance'."
"Memory imagery format in afterlife reports: 'It just
flashed before me like a motion picture that goes tremendously fast, yet
I was fully able to see it, and able to comprehend it. I "Me best thing
I can think of to compare it to is a series of pictures like slides. It
was just as if someone was clicking off slides in front of me, very quickly'."
"Memory imagery format in drug hallucinations: 'Everything's
changing really fast, like pictures in a film, or television, just right
in front of me. I am watching it happen right there.' 'People stand ing
in the office, appearing like slides that are crossing my field of vision'.
"
"Consider the following similar reports: Perceived reality in afterlife
reports: 'I floated down to a grassy field which had horses, cows, lions,
and all kinds of wild and tame animals. It was a painting at first, then
it became real. I was in that field looking at all those great things when
you [indicating the doctor] pulled me back."'
"Perceived reality in drug hallucinations: 'In fact, the scenes
in my head are very real ... I mean if you get right into it, it's as though
you are there sort of like in a movie or something ... That's a
mental image, not a real one. I guess it's hard to tell the difference.'
'Now it looks like a comic book scene, not at all vivid, only I'm not daydreaming.
I see these things!' 'My mind left my body and apparently went to what some
describe as the "second state." I felt- I was in a huge, well-lit
room, in front of a massive throne draped in lush red velvet. I saw nothing
else but felt the presence of higher intelligence tapping my mind of every
experience and impression I had gathered. I begged to be released, to return
to my body. It was terrifying. Finally I blacked out and slowly came to
in the recovery room. That's my ketamine experience'."
PCP Intoxication - A classic example of a chemically triggered death
experience can be found in intoxication with phencyclidine (also know as
PCP or Angel Dust) a psychoactive drug with mixed excitatory, sedative,
cataleptoidanesthetic, and hallucinatory properties ... a salient feature
of PCP intoxication (is) reduced verbal productivity, the appearance of
calm in the subjects, and reported experiences of sheer "nothingness."
One subject reported lying in a meadow and described the meadow "as
a place that he has often considered he would like to be buried in. The
theme of death ran through most of his retrospective account of the episode.
Possibly the experience of combined cutoff of interoceptive and exteroceptive
cues is close to one's conception of what death must be like. " Other
common deathlike experiences in PCP intoxication include ineffability of
the experi ence and difficulty verbal behavior; feelings of peace and quiet;
disturbances in space and time perception; out-of-body phenomena (including
ecstatic feelings of timelessness, weightlessness, peace, serenity, and
tranquillity); no perception of smells, odors, temperature, or kinesthesia;
fear; and confusion."
The reader can begin to see a clear pattern emergingwhen the brain is affected
by drugs or by the stimulus of a critically-grave situation, the effects
on internal phenomena in the mind/brain are virtually identical. And yet
no one would dream of claiming that drug-induced effects are evidence of
continued existence!
An Explanation - Perhaps the best explanation of how this "afterlife"
phenomena may come about was proposed by a psychiatrist L. J. West (referred
to in Siegel's article). West made this analogy: Picture a man in his living
room, standing at a closed window opposite his fireplace and looking out
at the sunset. He is absorbed by the view of the outside world, and does
not visualize the interior of the room. As darkness falls outside, though,
the images of the objects in the room behind him can be seen reflected dimly
in the window. With the deepening of darkness the fire in the fireplace
illuminates the room and the man can now see a vivid reflection of the room,
which appears to be outside the window.
Applied to the perceptual-release hypothesis of life-after-death experiences,
the daylight represents external stimuli (vision, hearing, smell, touch)
which the brain normally is processing all the time. In cases of illness
(with the associated deterioration of organs), accident or drug abuse, this
external sensory input is cut off from the brain. However, the brain is
still functioning, and in compensation for the lack of external sensory
input, "manufactures" images which may come from the subconscious
part of the personality.
Just as the man looking at his window in the darkness can see the reflection
of his room "out there" so these "internally manufactured"
tunnels, cities, bright lights etc. appear to be external to the
individual's mind, when in fact they are all occurring within the brain
deprived of normal exter nal sensory stimuli. One can begin to see that
these internal experiences could, convincingly, appear to be real
external events from the vantage point of the person undergoing the
trauma.
There is much other literature available as to how persons under the influence
of ether or mesca line have been absolutely certain that they too have had
a personal encounter with God, very similar to the experiences noted above.
Other literature deals with the phenomenon of "depersonalization",
a personality dissociation process whereby an individual sees himself as
a third party - a concept closely allied to "out of body" and
"afterlife" experiences. They tend to be repetitious to the mate
rial given above, and therefore are only mentioned in passing here.
Conclusions - What then can we conclude? This writer believes the
following can be stated fairly:
(1) There are cases where persons have undergone experiences at times of
critical illness which have been very real to them and have had a profound
influence on the manner in which they thereafter
have viewed death. However, the same experiences have been clearly related
by individuals who have taken certain drugs, completely removed from any
context of facing death. Therefore, it ap pears the cause in both cases
is some disruption in normal brain function (and how the mind of that person
may differentially react to that disruption) rather than having anything
to do with survival after death. There is no point in arguing with the
fact of the internal mental experience-it is the interpretation of that
experience which is the point at issue.
(2) Many of these people are totally convinced, based on their experience,
that man survives death consciously. We are again confronted with Jeremiah's
revelation that the heart (mind) is deceitful above all things, who can
know it? These incidents are ones where the heart deceives itself as to
the meaning of its own abnormal functioning, combined with some preconceptions
about survival after death.
(3) The idea that man survives death is strongly condemned in the Scriptures.
For example, necromancers who allegedly communicated with the dead, were
an abomination to God. Why was this so? This author believes it was for
this reason: Man is in a desperate, dying condition. Without coming to God
in the appointed manner, individuals are lost to oblivion for ever. There
is nothing pleasant, there is no manner in which this very harsh reality
can be sugar-coated. Man needs God. Any teaching or practice which would
in any way obscure this stark reality, which would in any manner tend to
"lull" mankind into thinking "all is well" was and is
totally unacceptable to God, as it posed, and does pose, a great danger
to individuals seeking the true way of salvation.
Therefore, while in no manner doubting the sincerity of those who claim
these experiences, it is just another example of the manner in which the
heart can be totally self-deceived. As those who are enlightened by the
standard of the Word of the Living God, we can give no credence to the Serpent's
Lie in its newest and most seductive garb.
Two other sources with follow-up references are:
Siegel, Ronald K. "The Psychology of Life after Death," American
Psychologist, 35 (1980):911-93 I.
Noyes, Russell, and Roy Kietti, "Depersonalization in the Face of Life
threatening Danger: A Description," Psychiatry, 39 (1976):19-27.
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brethren of Christ (Heb. 2:11), We are a body of people associated together
by a belief in the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of
Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12); and by immersion into Christ (Gal. 3:27) for the
remission of sins (Acts 2:38) and a part in his resurrection (Rom. 6:5).
We do not profess to have received any new revelation, but hold that the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are able to make wise unto Salvation
(2 Tim. 3:15,17). Believing in the Divine Authorship of the Bible, we think
it only reasonable to eschew any interpretation thereof which fails to harmonize
all the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures; and finding that the creeds
of the various sects around are, in a great variety of ways, opposed to
the direct teaching of the Bible, we feel compelled to stand apart, making
appeal in all such matters to the statements of Scripture, and testing all
creeds thereby.
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