In 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper, we are told that he has “always believed” that heaven is “a place of God’s people,” and that after having been there he does not want others to die without Jesus Christ. Later on in the same chapter we are also told what it means to die without Jesus as his friend Dick says that many people are “lost and going to hell,” to which Piper answers: “You’re absolutely right.”

   While the book written with Cecil Murphey is more subtle and diplomatic about this Christian fundamentalist view, Piper’s website is more to the point. At Donpiperministries.com we are told about his Ministry that Piper’s message is simple: We can all have “eternal life someday through faith in Jesus Christ!”

   This is also where under the section on “How to go to heaven” we find the standard Christian fundamentalist line from the Bible: “Don Piper Ministries is a Christian ministry that believes the only way to go to heaven is to trust Jesus Christ as your savior. Jesus said in John 14:6, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Farther except through me.’”

   However, when we look at the research of thousands of people who have near death experiences there is absolutely no evidence to support Christian fundamentalism.  In fact, Piper himself reveals the core or heart of what heaven is that has nothing to do with a narrow interpretation of the Bible.

   Don Piper describes in the second chapter of his book that this intensely emotional state is experienced as perfect love and that “human words can’t express the feelings of awe.” Identical to this experience of Piper most people who have near death experiences also experience this intensely emotional state of love, peace and joy.

   While this feeling state together with a strong sense of heightened awareness is regarded as the core or heart of heaven, one researcher Dr. Peter Fenwick makes an important point about NDE research. Visions of paradise are not considered the core of heaven. In fact, while the emotional state is universal, experienced by 88 percent of people in his study, the music heard or the visual images seen in heaven are not.

   NDE research concludes that each individual will try to make sense of the experience by integrating their pre-existing belief system into their experience. Because the NDE is a very powerful experience that takes the understanding of most people far beyond their comprehension, many people will use their pre-existing belief system to try to make sense of it.

   This we can even learn if we try to listen closely to the testimonies that contain meetings with Jesus. It is extremely rare that we hear of NDEs where it is Jesus himself that tells people: “I am Jesus.”

   Instead we find that it is very often people themselves who make, or jump to, that conclusion: “Then a divine presence, which I knew was Jesus, put his hands on my shoulder.” In this testimony we have a meeting with someone “I knew was Jesus” and it is not Jesus who says: I am Jesus.

   Another person relates that, “At the top of the mountain was this bearded man that could only be Jesus.” Here we have the anticipation that it “could only be Jesus,” and in another account we can see that the person makes this conclusion based on going to church: “It was like the Lord talking to me, and I knew it was the Lord because I’ve been in church all my life.”

   This is very likely the same conclusion that Piper is making based on his Christian background. In the third chapter of the book he actually tells us that, “I did not see God. Although I knew God was there, I never saw any kind of image or luminous glow to indicate his divine presence…I only saw a bright iridescence.”

   Piper clearly tells us that he “did not see God” and that he “only saw a bright iridescence.” This is standard in NDE research as people most commonly see what they call “the Light.” Based on this bright light Piper concludes that God was there, like most people do and 80 percent in my study did as well.

   However, while this connection between the Light and God is generally accepted within NDE research, Piper’s conclusion that this light is the God of the Bible is not accepted. And this is where he goes too far in his conclusion and takes the NDE on a personal crusade through making a narrow Christian interpretation of his near death experience that is not supported by NDE research.