More spiritual thoughts for the holidays

The holidays are upon us.  This means many enter into spiritual expressions of faith.             While I was preparing the last blog, I could not give you many of the books I've read on the subject. “Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back,” by Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo, Colton Burpo and Lynn Vincent. A young boy of four years old life is in jeopardy in surgery. He later begins to tell his parents his experiences as they live their everyday life.  Needless to say this makes their life more than normal. Read it and enjoy.

“Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife,” by Eben Alexander III M.D. This book is a testimony of a neurosurgeon’s personal experience when he is brain dead.  His fellow doctors, nurses and others know that he should not be able to come back to a normal life.  He writes with such technical descriptions of moving from a daily non-spiritual experience or understanding, to one that challenges his colleagues to believe there is more to life than just the physical that we can see.

“Heaven Is Real: Lessons on Earthly Joy--What Happened After 90 Minutes in Heaven,” by Don

Piper and Cecil Murphey. This is a book about a pastor who has a crash. The interesting thing about this book is that the man is not completely healed.  He comes back and must work through breaking almost every bone in his body. I loved the description of his 90 minutes in heaven. If you have someone struggling with life and death processes, think about reading the description to them.  It may bring them peace.

“The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life Beyond This World,” by Kevin Malarkey and Alex Malarkey. Note: I realize that the young man in the book has renounced the truth of the book.  I have read that the parents are in the midst of the divorce, and the parents have different views of how religion and faith is walked out in real life.  I’d love to interview those whose lives were touched by the son and subsequently written about in the book. The book I reviewed above would seem to confirm that the son could have had such experiences the knowing of situations in other people’s lives. Hence, I leave this book for you to consider. 

Thinking of the spiritual, heaven and such.

      There is a new book out about spiritual journeys and heaven. This is a  non-fiction book that I just finished reading is entitled “Glimpsing Heaven: The Stories and Science of the Life After Death,” by Judy Bachrach.  I enjoyed reading this book because it told stories of normal people making the journey of death and returning to life when sent back.  It brings a person to understand that there is more than just dying and being placed in the dirt.  I personally believed there is more than this mortal human existence; this author brings first-hand accounts to the reader through interviewing others and including her own personal experience. Some would question objectivity of the author. But, we all have personal experience, and I find it difficult to believe that even the most dedicated researcher keeps out subjective experiences to inform their responses. Computers can take raw data and spit out results, but even those are guided by the programs written by humans. 

Some who hold strict religious views may find it not what they want to consider. I found it fascinating to see how people describe their experiences in terms of total love, feeling of peace, no fear, knowledge, others meeting and communicating with the person, the description of objects coming toward them and communicating to them. There were some negative experiences but even those people grew and found that the experience allowed them to refocus their lives to be different.    

This book shows that many in our society have had personal experiences like this, but will not share them because of the stigma from society.  It often personally challenges what the person finds important in life. They become much more outward focused on others. Not driven to success and power. They have a knowing in circumstances that they never had before. I personally am not challenged by many of these descriptions, because if you read the descriptive portions that include visions, prophecy and prose within the Bible they have some similarities to what was communicated in the written text. Read it and you decide.