Imagine Heaven summary

Katie was just seven years old when she drowned in a pool. She was quickly rushed to the emergency room, but she was given only a 10 percent chance of survival when she lapsed into a coma due to brain swelling. Despite the odds, Katie lived to tell the tale of her NDE.

At the time she was comatose in the hospital, she found herself out of her physical body and freely traveling through her surroundings. She recalled following her family home, where she saw her mom making rice and roast chicken and her brothers playing with a GI Joe. Her parents verified the accuracy of her stories. But how could Katie, who was in a coma and not even physically present with her family, know exactly what each member was up to?

NDEs differ from one person to the next, but the hundreds of studies conducted over the years have shown that there are some striking similarities.

In Dr. van Pommel’s study, he notes that individuals of different backgrounds and ages claim to have had very comparable NDEs. Dr. Long also made the same observation. After studying 1,300 NDEs, he determined that over 75 percent go through an out-of-body experience, 74 percent get heightened senses, 76 percent feel extremely pleasant emotions, and 64 percent involve meeting a mystical bright light. Seven-year-old Katie’s pediatrician, Dr. Morse, investigated NDEs of kids and discovered that they had many common characteristics with those of adults.

Sheila, the woman who died due to her severe allergies, woke up from her NDE and was initially hesitant to talk about what she’d seen and experienced. When she finally opened up to one of the nurses on duty, a nun was immediately sent to talk some sense into her and tell her that what she went through was orchestrated by the devil himself.

Many Christians see NDEs as such, but contrary to their belief, these experiences are actually aligned with what is said in the scriptures. 

Not everyone who goes through an NDE gets a taste of the glorious and happy paradise. Sometimes, they wind up on the flip side of the coin. Yes, hell, according to NDErs, is just as real as heaven.

This kind of NDE isn’t reported as frequently as the heavenly one – perhaps because people are too traumatized to remember or too ashamed to come forward. But from the reported hellish NDEs, researchers discovered that they typically go one of three ways: the void, hell on Earth, and the pit.

These stories of heaven and hell from people who were clinically dead and resuscitated are meant to excite and inspire you to strive for eternal life in paradise. The better you picture heaven and all the splendor it offers, the more you’ll be motivated to work toward it.

These NDEs not only provide evidence of heaven's existence but also offer detailed descriptions of what it looks like. Burke hopes these accounts will strengthen your belief in heaven, and in turn, motivate you to live your life in a way that brings you closer to God.