Facts on Don Piper

Facts on Don Piper: He is making a false interpretation of his experience of heaven as a Christian heaven in a narrow fundamentalist understanding.

   In chapter three of 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper not only tells us that he “did not see God” but also that: “as far ahead as I could see, there was absolutely nothing but intense, radiant light…The light engulfed me, and I had the sense that I was being ushered into the presence of God.”

   As Piper, most people who have near death experiences do experience this intense radiant light from which he had a “sense” that he was in the presence of God. He did not see God; he only had a sense of God, and this is the common experience of people who have NDEs. The experience of God is mostly defined by the light and then most people make the conclusion that this light is God, or that it is of God. However, unlike Piper the majority of people who have near death experiences do not conclude that Jesus is the only path to God as this light is universal. 

 Piper admits that: “I did not see God…I only saw a bright iridescence.” If Piper did not see God then how can he be sure that the God he “did not see” is the actual God of the Bible? Furthermore, how can he be absolutely certain that this God that he “did not see” is the God of a very narrow interpretation of the Bible?

   Obviously, he cannot, and this is the fault in his logic that amounts to a very irresponsible use of his NDE as confirmation of something that he cannot possibly confirm. Yes, he experienced heaven and the Bible talks about heaven. But this does not automatically follow that the heaven he experienced is the heaven of the Bible. Nor does it follow that the heaven he experienced is limited to the heaven of the Bible or any narrow interpretation thereof.

   In fact, the research of thousands of near death experiences show that most people who have NDEs experience a powerful heightened spirituality as a neutral source behind a conventional understanding of God; a neutral source that is as infinite and beyond human comprehension as the universe

Evidence of Life After Death

In a recent interview on NBC’s Today Show, Dr. Jeffrey Long explains some of the evidence of life after death that the research of near death experiences gives us. The first evidence that he mentions is the study by Kenneth Ring of 31 blind people where 80% were able to see during their near death experience. But he also explains that the fact that people, even very young children, describe almost identical elements of the experience points to the experience being universal and not made up.

On the reporter’s question on how we can be sure these experiences are not hallucinations caused by drugs, Dr. Long uses the answer of universality. However, another answer could be the case of Pam Reynolds who had flat EEG, no brain activity, during her near death experience. Drugs, chemical reactions in the brain and hallucinations would all show up on an EEG, as brain function and this suggests that these explanations fall short.

How millions of people all over the world can report the same phenomena beyond death and have clear conscious experience when the brain is inactive is the strongest evidence we have of life after death.

90 Minutes in Heaven

In chapter twelve of 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper tells us 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 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper is written with Cecil Murphey is more subtle and diplomatic about this Christian fundamentalist view, Piper’s website is more to the point. At Don Piper Ministries website 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.’”

In the last chapter of the book Piper tells us that, “I have looked at the research on NDE and thought about it often during the years.” This may be so, however, it is clear that he has not looked deep enough or thought hard enough as there is absolutely no objective evidence within research of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) to support religious fundamentalism.

   A quick look on the internet at the International Association for Near Death Studies’ website tells us that,

As with the pleasurable NDE, distressing NDEs seem to occur about equally to people of both genders and of all ages, educational levels, socioeconomic levels, sexual orientations, spiritual beliefs, religious affiliations, and life experiences.

   In my own research I found that 92 percent of the people in my study who had a Near Death Experience (NDE) disagreed with the statement: “Eternal life is only possible through a particular religion.” Nearly eight in ten said that they strongly disagreed with this statement based on their NDE. Also 92 percent said that, “No one has a patent on Salvation or Heaven,” and to the statement: “You need to believe in a particular religion to go to Heaven,” I found that 100 percent said that they “strongly disagreed.”

   The conclusion of the International Association for Near Death Studies, which is based on over 30 years of research, and my own findings clearly suggest that Piper’s claim that you need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven is wrong.