“God and the Afterlife,” by Dr. Jeffrey Long, Part 1 of 2

Dr. Jeffrey Long is an American radiation oncologist and author. In 1998, he founded the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation. His book “Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences,” published in 2010, became a New York Times Best Seller. Dr. Long’s 2016 book, “God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience,” focuses on the connection between near-death experiences and encounters with God.

“As I started pouring through hundreds, and then ultimately thousands of near-death experiences on my website, I was amazed at how common God, concepts of God, would appear. So, with the narrative response that followed, I learned a huge amount about that amazing, overwhelmingly loving, compassionate Being Entity called God, which is the best word in the English language, that near-death experiencers encountered, or became aware of, so commonly.”

We asked Dr. Long: Do diverse backgrounds and religious traditions influence near-death experiences? “So, we’ve been able to do, by far, the largest cross-cultural study of near-death experience that’s ever been reported. Everywhere in the world, whatever the language people have, the content, what happens during the near-death experience, is strikingly similar.” “So, what people overwhelmingly consistently describe in near-death experiences of Heaven is a realm that is literally not physical. So it's beautiful literally beyond language, what they’re describing with Heaven, and absolutely a wonderful place far more amazing, beautiful, wonderful, than anything that’s literally possible anywhere on the planet.”

“Very uncommonly there are hellish experiences. Now that can involve the demonic, or a sense of fear, by the person having the near-death experience. But I want to emphasize as we talk about hellish near-death experiences that, very commonly described, even for beings in that realm, there seems to be a sense that if they ask for forgiveness, if they want to, with sincerity, leave that realm, they seem to have the ability. Forgiveness seems to be literally off the scale in that Heavenly realm.”