Veridical-Experiential Theology (VET)

By Ian Todd

1)Why another theology?

Thomas Aquinas is one of the most famous Christian theologians. However, in 1273, he abruptly stopped writing his great work Summa Theologiae and never finished it. When his secretary and friend, Brother Reginald, tried to persuade him to continue his writing, Aquinas replied, “The end of my labours has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me.”¹ What appears to have prompted Thomas Aquinas to cease his writing and say this is that, whilst celebrating Mass on the Feast of St Nicholas, he had a transcendent spiritual experience – perhaps a vision of heaven – compared to which his earthly theological endeavours paled into insignificance. Aquinas died three months later.

Most theologians are not favoured with the type of vivid, transcendent insight into the spiritual realm experienced by Thomas Aquinas. Indeed, if they were and their reaction was similar to that of Aquinas, theology as an academic discipline would have a greatly reduced literature. So how do theologians formulate and develop their theological ideas? Well, one widely recognised methodology is that developed by John Wesley in the 18^th century and known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral – a term coined by Albert Outler². This uses four sources of information for theological reflection – Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience. Scripture (i.e. the Bible, in the Christian context) is regarded as the primary source of information, with Tradition, Reason and Experience providing secondary support. What is clear, however, is that there is no consensus on any topic of theological consideration. For example, there are at least ten different theories for the meaning of the Atonement (i.e. Christ’s death on the Cross). Using the Bible as the primary source of scriptural evidence also has its issues and points of contention: these range from the Bible being considered the inerrant and infallible Word of God by some, to the Bible being regarded as a collection of human writings with varying levels of accuracy and divine inspiration by others. Furthermore, for many non-believers, the Bible is nothing more than a millennia-old book whose factual basis cannot be verified or trusted and so cannot be deemed to hold any authority whatsoever.

So, what if we turn the Wesleyan Quadrilateral on its head and start (rather than end) with ‘experience’? Well, let’s firstly think about Thomas Aquinas’ life-changing experience on the Feast of St Nicholas in 1273. It seems that he never divulged exactly what it was, except that it caused him to re-evaluate his whole life’s work as a theologian. For Aquinas, therefore, whatever he experienced was very ‘real’. But the sceptic could retort that it was possibly an hallucination, or that Aquinas had some sort of psychotic episode, or some other somatic brain aberration. We have no way of countering these alternative materialist explanations that lead to the conclusion that what Aquinas experienced was not ‘real’ but resulted from abnormal biochemical processes in his brain.

The reason why we can’t counter the materialist explanations is that we have no independent corroboration of what Aquinas experienced – in other words, we don’t have the evidential basis to assert that his experience was ‘veridical’ (i.e. real or truthful). Indeed, the same could be said for most ‘religious experiences’ – they are unique to the individual experiencer and not shared, or open to corroboration, by others. This might seem to negate the possibility of using spiritual experience as a veridical primary source of information for theological formulation. Unless, that is, veridical forms of religious or spiritual experience can be identified.

I argue here that veridical evidence of spiritual/religious experiences and events is now available at a level of confidence that enables this information to be used to start developing a theological model that might be called ‘Veridical-Experiential Theology’ (VET). This is the result of at least 50 years of rigorous research using scientific methodology into various phenomena that might be termed spiritual, parapsychological, paranormal or supernatural. Others with far greater relevant experience and expertise than me have previously addressed these concepts – these include, for example, the theologians David Ray Griffin³ and Dale C. Allison⁴.

Here I briefly consider three areas of evidence: near-death experiences (including out-of-body experiences), reincarnation and miraculous healings. Before doing so, it’s worth establishing criteria for the nature of evidence that qualifies. I propose the following three criteria:

Evidence that is verified by independent corroboration and/or includes elements that are most straight-forwardly explained by the events being ‘real’ rather than ‘imagined’.
Evidence that is replicated in multiple examples (i.e. is not based on unique occurrences).
Evidence that is contemporary (not just historical). For this I propose that the evidence must fall within ‘living memory’ (about the past 90 years).

2)Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), including Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs)

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) can be defined as transcendent or spiritual experiences that occur when an individual is clinically dead, but with subsequent recovery. Clinical death is defined as having no heartbeat and no detectable brain activity. Indeed, it has been proposed that a more accurate name for NDEs would be Recalled Experiences of Death (REDs)⁵ to emphasise that the individual was truly clinically dead at the time of the experience. Of course, it’s because of the great improvement in medical procedures – particularly the availability of resuscitation procedures starting in the 1960s – that many people who would previously have died permanently are now brought back to life⁶. This partly explains the enormous increase in reports of NDEs in recent decades. Another important factor in this regard is the proliferation of research studies on NDEs that started with the work of the psychologist Raymond Moody published in 1975⁷. Since then, thousands of NDEs have been investigated by multiple researchers, many of whom are medical doctors and/or academic scientists. The results of these studies have been published in academic books ^eg.8, research journals ^eg.9 and books for the general public ^eg.10-23.

Features of NDEs frequently reported by people who experience them (called ‘NDErs’) include:

An Out-of-Body Experience (OBE). This is when the person becomes aware of having left their physical body but are still able to see and hear what’s happening in the vicinity of their body (often from above their body).
A feeling of being ‘more alive’ than at any time during their life and having enhanced perception.
Passing into a ‘tunnel’ and moving towards a new destination – often with a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
At the destination, encountering a divine ‘Being of Light’ who emanates unconditional love.
Encountering other spiritual beings including dead relatives and friends, or ‘angelic’ beings.
Undergoing a ‘Life Review’ in which scenes from throughout the person’s life are replayed with a focus on how they have treated other people.
Being aware of a decision to return to their body, often with a sense that they still have work to do or objectives to achieve in life.

A central question concerning NDEs is whether what is experienced is ‘real’ or ‘imagined’. People who believe there is nothing ‘real’ other than the material world that we experience daily are termed ‘materialists’ or ‘physicalists’. Such people argue that NDEs are imagined because they don’t believe a ‘spiritual dimension’ exists. Furthermore, materialists believe that the mind is entirely a product of brain activity, so there should be no conscious experience once the brain stops functioning. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed to explain NDEs from a materialist perspective but none of these can fully account for many of the features of NDEs²⁴. However, this still places an onus on those who believe that NDEs are ‘real’ to prove that this is the case.

The best current evidence that what’s experienced in NDEs is ‘real’ is provided by veridical OBEs. This is because, in numerous cases, OBEs provide evidence that is verified by independent corroboration, thereby fulfilling the first criterion for veridical evidence outlined in the previous section. More than a hundred of the OBE testimonies recorded to date have been corroborated by independent observers present at the time of the OBE²⁵. One example reported by Rivas et al.²⁵ is of a woman who, following a cardiac arrest from which she was resuscitated, reported that she had experienced an OBE in which she observed the room from above. During this OBE, she observed a 12-digit serial number on the top of the respirator in the room, which she committed to memory and recited to the staff. As the respirator machine was seven feet tall, none of the staff could see the serial number. However, when a porter came to remove the respirator, the staff asked him to climb a ladder to see if there was a serial number on the top as the patient had stated. The porter found this to be the case, and the number consisted of the same 12-digits reported by the patient to the staff. The chance of it being a pure coincidence that the patient recited the correct 12-digit number is one in a trillion (1/10¹²) and so is virtually impossible.

The independent eyewitness corroboration that’s possible with OBEs clearly isn’t possible for the ‘transcendent’ aspects of NDEs such as travelling through a tunnel, meeting mystical beings and/or deceased relatives, undergoing a ‘Life Review’, and so on. What researchers have therefore done is to scrutinize the common features of many NDEs to determine whether they are more consistent with reports of real events, or the nature of events experienced during hallucinations, dreams or other types of imagined events. For example, Jeffrey Long published a journal article that details nine lines of evidence indicating that NDEs are real, rather than imagined, experiences. In addition to the verification of OBEs mentioned above, these lines of evidence include the following²⁶:

NDEs experienced by people of different nationalities and different racial, cultural and religious backgrounds are similar. This is consistent with the reality of NDEs, since imagined events associated with dreams or hallucinations might be expected to vary markedly based on the diversity of the individuals involved and the circumstances of their NDEs.
NDEs reported by children under the age of 5 years are not significantly different from those reported by older children and adults. Young children are unlikely to have strongly established religious beliefs or understanding of death, so the similarities between their NDEs and those of older individuals suggest their experiences are real rather than imagined events based on cultural expectations.
NDEs are lucid, organized experiences as distinct from muddled or vague experiences as might be associated with hallucinations, delirium or dreams. Indeed, the majority report that during their NDEs they feel “more conscious and alert than normal”. Long reported that, in a survey of 1,122 NDEs, 95.6% of those surveyed said that their NDE was ‘definitely real’ and 4.0% that their NDE was ‘probably real’; thus only 0.4% (i.e., 4 people) thought that their NDE was not real²⁶.
NDEs including ‘seeing events and people’ have been reported by blind people, including some blind from birth²⁷. In some cases, it’s been possible to verify from independent witnesses with normal vision that what blind subjects say that they ‘saw’ during their OBEs was correct.

Thus, as stated in the first criterion for evidence that qualifies for VET, these features of NDEs are most straight-forwardly explained by the events being ‘real’ rather than ‘imagined’.

A common outcome for NDErs that is consistent with the reality of their experiences is that many of them undergo permanent changes in their personal, moral and spiritual values. This is less consistent with NDEs being merely hallucinations or other neurological aberrations since these would seem less likely to cause permanent, and sometimes dramatic, changes in attitudes and worldview. Common changes identified in those who have undergone NDEs, as summarised by Penny Sartori, include¹⁶:

No longer having a fear of death. Because many NDErs are convinced by their experience that there is life after death and of the reality of Heaven, they no longer fear death as being ‘the end of everything’.
More loving and considerate to others. Many NDErs are convinced that our purpose on Earth is to love each other—as exemplified by the ‘Being of Light’ and highlighted in their Life Review.
Less materialistic and status-seeking. The pursuit of wealth and the accumulation of material possessions become significantly less important to many NDErs. Similarly, striving for ‘status’ loses its appeal. This equates precisely with the message that ‘worldly’ values are not God’s values.
Enhanced appreciation of life. Although many NDErs admit that they didn’t want to leave Heaven and return to Earth, they often show enhanced appreciation of the value of living, in the knowledge of how life on Earth relates to the Afterlife and the fulfilment of God’s purposes.
Change in spiritual values. For some NDErs, their experience leads to profound changes in their spiritual values and/or religious commitment.
Sense of mission or purpose in life. Some NDErs feel that their recovery and return to life is intended to give them a ‘second chance’ to live out the values they learned during their NDEs.

Some aspects of NDEs are consistent with various religions, including Christianity. However, another area of significant paranormal evidence, that would cause many Christians to raise their eyebrows, is reincarnation. So, let’s now consider some of this evidence.

3)Reincarnation

Reincarnation refers to the passage of souls into new bodies following the death of the previous body that they inhabited. This is a widely accepted concept in some religions – particularly Hinduism and Buddhism. Although reincarnation is not an accepted doctrine in Christianity, there were Christian theologians in the early centuries following Christ’s death and resurrection who seriously considered the possibility of reincarnation, which was often termed transmigration of souls^28,29. However, such ideas came to be considered heretical, particularly following the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Possibly the most comprehensive and thorough studies of reincarnation have been undertaken by Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker, both academic psychiatrists at the University of Virginia. Stevenson started his studies in the 1960s – he died in 2007. Tucker has continued these studies to the present day. The studies centre on young children who report details of past lives – Stevenson, Tucker and their colleagues have investigated and catalogued thousands of such cases^30-32. These investigations involve making a record of the statements about their past life made by the child and then attempting to investigate the validity of these statements by identifying the location and family apparently associated with the previous life. An example is a young girl in Sri Lanka who, when her mother happened to mention a particular town that the girl had never visited (Kataragama), told her mother that she had lived there in a previous life and had drowned when her mentally challenged brother pushed her into a river. She said that her father sold flowers at a stall near a Buddhist stupa and that they lived in a house near a big Hindu temple where people smashed coconuts on the ground. Stevenson was able to locate the relevant family in Kataragama and verified that 27 of 30 statements made by the child about the previous life were correct. This included that indeed, the family had had a two-year old daughter who drowned whilst playing by the river with her mentally challenged brother. The father had a flower stall near a Buddhist stupa and their house was adjacent to a large temple where coconuts were ritually smashed. There were no associations or acquaintances in common between the two families.

The analysis of hundreds of such cases shows that children who start talking about past life memories do so at a very young age (often less than three years old) but often lose these memories around the age of six. Many of these cases have been identified in India and South-East Asia where reincarnation is widely accepted, but cases have also been investigated and verified in North America and Europe. The average time between lives is about 4.5 years and in a majority of cases (about 70%) the previous life was terminated by an unnatural, traumatic death (as in the case above that involved drowning). It’s been proposed that this type of death may raise the chances of the previous life being remembered. Indeed, in some cases one of the first indications of the previous life is nightmares related to that life. The children sometimes demonstrate phobias related to the previous manner of death: in 52 verified cases of drowning, 45 of the children were scared of water. Furthermore, some children have physical features related to the previous manner of death. For example, some children who were shot in the previous life have a small birth mark where a bullet entered the body, and a larger birth mark where the bullet left the body. In many cases the children recognise and name people they’d known in the previous life.

Referring to Stevenson’s work, the renowned physicist Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf stated, ‘the statistical probability that reincarnation does in fact occur is so overwhelming….that cumulatively the evidence is not inferior to that for most if not all branches of science.’³³

4)Healing Miracles

Many Christians accept the accounts of Jesus’ miracles recounted in the Gospels and even those associated with the Saints of Old but may be much more circumspect about healing miracles happening today. However, there are, in fact, many accounts of healing miracles occurring today, and every day. The problem for many people, living in the context of the modern secular materialist paradigm, is that they say there is no evidence to prove that unexpected or unusual healings are miraculous in the sense of having a supernatural, rather than a natural mechanism. They might argue that the healing coincided with an unrecognised natural process in the body, or that the apparent illness was psychosomatic. These objections are not unreasonable and need to be addressed if the validity of miraculous healings is to be accepted beyond those who already believe in such things. This has long been recognised by the Vatican when it comes to canonizing saints on the basis of healing miracles in the Roman Catholic Church: thus, for healings to be accepted in this context they must be complete, instantaneous, durable and scientifically inexplicable as well as being supported by rigorous medical evidence. So, are there cases of verified miraculous healings beyond those investigated by the Vatican?

In the preface of his book ‘Miracles Today’³⁴ Craig Keener recounts the example of Barbara Cummiskey. In her teens, Barbara was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) that, in her case, turned out to be particularly severe and progressive. Over the next 16 years she spent three-quarters of her life in hospital and, at the age of 31, was in the terminal stages of the disease. She was completely paralyzed and bedridden – her body contorted into a fetal position. She had a tracheotomy so she could be given oxygen to compensate for her paralysed diaphragm and collapsed lung, and she was virtually blind. On Pentecost Sunday in 1981, two friends visited Barbara in her hospital bed. Someone had submitted a prayer request for Barbara to the local Christian radio station and the friends arrived with 450 letters and cards for Barbara that had been sent to her church. As the friends began reading these to Barbara she suddenly heard a voice over her left shoulder say, “My child: get up and walk”. Barbara could only speak when someone plugged up the hole in her neck. Seeing her agitation, her friends did this and Barbara said, “God just told me to get up and walk….Go get my family.” Her friends dashed out of the room but, feeling a sense of urgency, Barbara felt she couldn’t wait for their return. So, she jumped out of bed and found she could stand and walk normally. Unsurprisingly, when her friends and parents saw Barbara, they were astounded and joyful in equal measure. The next day, Barbara visited her clinician, Dr Marshall. He recalled that when he saw Barbara walking towards him, “I thought I was seeing an apparition! Here was my patient, who was not expected to live another week, totally cured.” After extensive tests conducted by himself and his colleagues, Dr Marshall told Barbara, “I’ll be the first to tell you: You’re completely healed. I can also tell you that this is medically impossible.” Thirty-four years after these events, Craig Keener met with Barbara and he found that she still spoke excitedly about her miraculous and permanent healing.

Remarkable as the above example is, there will be those who argue that, without Barbara’s medical records being available for independent review, the case cannot be validated. With this in mind, we should turn to the work of the Global Medical Research Institute (GMRI) (https://www.globalmri.org). Set up by Dr Joshua Brown, a professor of neuroscience at Indiana University, the objective of this Institute is to ‘Apply rigorous methods of evidence-based medicine to study Christian Spiritual Healing practices.’ The research protocol of the GMRI involves assessing submitted cases of apparent miraculous healing, but only those for which detailed medical evidence of the individual’s clinical status before and after the apparent healing is available for review. All of the information is assessed by members of the GMRI and by other clinicians who are specialists in the relevant disease area. If satisfied that the case meets the necessary criteria, it is then submitted as a paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The GMRI has published three such papers to date^35-37. For example, one case³⁶ involves a woman who, at the age of 18 (in 1959) lost her eyesight over a period of three months. Medical records from 1960 indicate that her visual acuities (VA) of 20/400 corresponded to legal blindness and her central retinal areas (fovea) showed atrophy indicative of juvenile macular degeneration. In 1972, after nearly 13 years of blindness, the woman suddenly regained her sight immediately after she and her husband (a Christian Pastor) prayed to God for her eyesight to be restored – what the GMRI defines as ‘proximal-intercessory-prayer’ (PIP). In 1974 her uncorrected VA was recorded as 20/100 in each eye (a 400% improvement). Her eyesight tests and retinal examination have yielded results within the normal range ever since. The authors of this article conclude that “Findings from this report and others like it³⁵ warrant investment in future research to ascertain whether and how PIP experiences may play a role in apparent spontaneous resolution of lifelong conditions having otherwise no prognosis of recovery.”

Having briefly outlined three areas of religious/spiritual experience that provide veridical evidence (i.e. OBEs/NDEs, reincarnation and healing miracles), let’s now use this information to see what sort of theology this generates.

5)God is Love (and is not angry with us)

One of the most consistent statements made by NDErs about their transcendent experience is that they were amazed and over-awed by the incredible love that they received. In many instances, this emanated from the ‘Being of Light’ that they encountered, whom many identified as God or Jesus or by another term essentially meaning a ‘Supreme Being’. Here are some specific examples from individuals who have written about their NDEs:

Rajiv Parti³⁸ said that, as he was enveloped by the brightness of the Being of Light, “…pure love…pervaded everything, as if my five earthly senses were soaked in omniscient, all-powerful love.”
George Ritchie³⁹ wrote about his encounter with the ‘being of light’ who he identified as Jesus: “…I knew that this man loved me… what emanated from this presence was unconditional love. An astonishing love. A love beyond my wildest imagining.”
Samaa Habib⁴⁰, caught in the blast of a terrorist’s bomb, reported that when she met Jesus, he “radiated an amazing love that contained deep acceptance.”
When Crystal McVea⁴¹ tried to find the right words to describe her encounter with God she wrote: “He is a loving God. I realized I didn’t just love God. I realized He IS love.”

This message that ‘God is Love’ and that, indeed this is the essence of God’s power is emphasised by Jeffrey Long in his book ‘God and the Afterlife’⁴². This is based on the testimonies of thousands of NDErs submitted to the NDE Research Foundation (established by Dr Long). In a chapter entitled ‘God and Religion’, Long states: “Traditional theologians often use the term omnipotent to describe God as ‘all-powerful.’ Many traditional religious stories emphasize the deity’s overwhelming power—whether it is Zeus sending storms or the biblical God destroying Sodom. But in reviewing the near-death experiences that discuss encountering God, we find almost no descriptions of God dramatically demonstrating destructive power. I cannot recall any descriptions in NDEs of God using power to harm any being. This should not be surprising given that in NDEs, God is typically described as profoundly loving. However, descriptions of the power of God are unmistakable when reading near-death experiences:

The entire encounter was about God, the ultimate power of God, and God’s forgiveness. The message was, ‘Love is the greatest power in the universe.’ (www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/robyn_f_nde.htm. Robyn F NDE 7209.)……….
I became aware of a presence vast and unimaginable, everywhere and everything, the beginning and the end, and he was Love. I came to know that Love is a power to rival all powers—real and perceived—in the universe. (www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/ally_d_nde.htm. Ally D 3019.)”

In addition to exerting influence through love rather than through power (as emphasised above by Jeffrey Long), the testimonies of NDErs also indicate that they did not experience wrath or judgement from God. We shall discuss this further when considering life reviews and redemption.

6)Heaven isn’t just for Christians (although it may help)

About 80% of NDErs – only a proportion of whom would consider themselves to be Christians – describe their transcendent experiences as falling within the category of positive/pleasurable/heavenly. In fact, this type of encounter is reported by NDErs across all cultures and religions and, indeed, by those who do not espouse any religion. For example, Bruce Greyson¹⁰ recounts how Suzanne Ingram, who regarded herself as a lapsed Catholic, underwent an NDE following a car accident and described her experience as follows: “I recall meeting my Creator. Call this Creator what you will: God, Buddha, Krishna, Allah. It does not matter. I will call him God for simplifying this, but do not refer to any particular religion or God.” By contrast, some NDErs of a particular religious faith recognise the ‘Being of Light’ in the context of their religious beliefs. For example, a young Christian Middle Eastern woman called Samaa Habib was caught in the blast of a terrorist’s bomb in the church she was attending. The explosion threw her against a wall. She instantly lost consciousness and found herself face-to face with Jesus: “His face was brighter than the sun, and He was so glorious…He radiated an amazing love that contained deep acceptance. “Welcome home, Samaa,” he said in a voice sweet and gentle, yet also powerful, like the sound of many waters. He opened His arms to me… Like a magnet, His love drew me in.”⁴⁰ The ‘personal’ nature of this encounter is especially striking: “Welcome home, Samaa.” said Jesus.⁴⁰ I certainly have the impression that some of the most vivid and specific NDEs are those with a ‘Christian’ foundation. In some Christian-based accounts the NDEr claims to have met God (rather than Jesus), or both God and Jesus. The over-arching impression, however, is that the ‘Being of Light’ radiates absolute, unconditional love and acceptance.

For his book ‘Is Christianity Compatible with Deathbed and Near-Death Experiences?’⁴³, J. Steve Miller analysed over 100 consecutive NDE testimonies submitted to the NDE Research Foundation. He found that, in about 20% of these, the NDErs specifically said that they encountered Jesus. This is similar to the proportion of NDErs that say they experienced other key NDE elements. By contrast, NDE reports of meeting deities or prophets from other religions seem to be much less frequent, even for NDErs from these religious backgrounds.

After analysing many NDE testimonies submitted to the NDE Research Foundation, Jeffrey Long concludes, “When near-death experiencers receive information about religion during their NDEs, they generally understand that no earthly religion is the “chosen religion” or the “one true religion.” God is seldom portrayed as giving NDErs specific instructions about what they should or should not believe in their earthly lives. And that includes the religious beliefs of the NDErs.” ⁴² One of these NDErs reported: “The being was God. I asked Him whether only people of one religion will make it into heaven. He said everyone who believes and has faith, even those who don’t think they do, will make it. It depends on what’s in their hearts.” (www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Experiences/cynthia_h_ nde_5071.htm. Cynthia H NDE 5071)

7)God does not judge us – we do.

Some Christian theologies place a strong emphasis on judgement by God. Relevant to this is the finding that about 20% of NDErs report undergoing a ‘Life Review’ during their transcendent experience. However, the judgement that takes place during this process is made by the NDEr themselves, whereas God (or another transcendent being) takes on the role of supporter and comforter rather than judge.

The purpose of the Life Review seems to be, not so much to remind the NDEr what they’d done during their life, but to show how they treated other people. Indeed, in many cases, NDErs report that during their Life Review, not only did they witness the things they did and said to others but also experienced what these others felt in response to their actions and words. Here’s an example of a Life Review experienced by Rene Hope Turner and recounted by John Burke¹⁷: “During her NDE, Rene found herself before a man who welcomed her: …with great Love, Tranquility, Peace…He stood beside me and directed me to look to my left, where I was replaying my life’s less complimentary moments; I relived those moments and felt not only what I had done but also the hurt I had caused. Some of the things I would have never imagined could have caused pain. I was surprised that some things I may have worried about, like shoplifting a chocolate as a child, were not there while casual remarks which caused hurt unknown to me at the time were counted. When I became burdened with guilt, I was directed to other events which gave joy to others. Though I felt unworthy, it seemed the balance was in my favour. I received great Love.”

In his book ‘Lucid Dying’,²⁰ Sam Parnia recounts the life review of an NDEr called Steve, who said, “I re-experienced these events [referring to his actions in life] from my own point of view. I wasn’t just watching the events; I was actually reliving them again, while at the same time, I was also re-experiencing the actions from other people’s points of view. I was them. I was reliving the experience from their point of view, and at the same time, and I don’t know how this works, I was also experiencing it from a higher reality, the truth of the matter.” He went on to say, “The judgment came all from myself. It was not from an outside source, but then this being that was with me was also sending me comforting messages.”

Parnia also describes the life review of an NDEr called Rachel and what it taught her. Parnia wrote: “It taught her why compassion, caring, and justice are important. It also taught her that ‘love is the root of everything and can heal everything. The whole purpose of life is to bring love to this plane.’”²⁰

8)Hell is real for those who choose it…..

It was mentioned in section 6 that about 80% of NDErs describe their transcendent experiences as positive/pleasurable/heavenly. So, what about the other approximately 20%? Well, they find their NDEs to be negative/distressing/hellish. Detailed consideration of these experiences can be found elsewhere.^44,45 These distressing NDEs take various forms: some NDErs described finding themselves in a state of ‘nothingness’ – sometimes referred to as ‘the Void’. For example, in Nancy Bush Evans’ book ‘Dancing Past the Dark’⁴⁵, one NDEr describes his experience thus: “…as the hours went on with absolutely no sensation, there was no pain, but there was no hot, no cold, no light, no taste, no smell, no sensation whatsoever. ….. And at that point it became unbearable, it became horrific, as time goes on when you have no feeling, no sensation, no sense of light. I started to panic and struggle and pray and everything I could think of to struggle to get back…”

Probably less common than experiences of ‘the Void’, are so-called hellish NDEs that can involve, as summarised by Margot Grey⁴⁶, “… a definite sense of being dragged down by some evil force … visions of wrathful or demonic creatures … [or] unseen beings or figures which are often faceless or hooded … intensely cold or unbearably hot … sounds that resemble the wailing of ‘souls’ in torment … a fearsome noise.”

The reasons why some people have distressing NDEs whilst others have pleasurable NDEs is not entirely clear or straightforward. In his book ‘After’¹⁰ the NDE researcher Bruce Greyson states, “…I have heard accounts of blissful NDEs from career criminals, including murderers serving life sentences in prison. The meager amount of evidence we have from frightening or distressing NDEs at this point suggests that they can occur under the same conditions as do blissful NDEs. We don’t know why some people have distressing NDEs while others have blissful ones.”

Not surprisingly, this can lead to long-term psychological problems for those who have undergone distressing NDEs but can’t work out what in their life might explain this – or, to put it simplistically, why they ‘deserved’ such an experience. More commonly, however, distressing NDEs seem to lead to what Bush⁴⁴ calls a ‘conversion response’ in which NDErs interpret their experience as a warning related to behaviours in their lives that they see to be unwise or simply wrong and take steps to change appropriately.

It should also be borne in mind that an NDE is a limited transcendent experience that ends when the NDEr returns to their body and their earthly life. Thus, we cannot conclude that these distressing NDEs are consistent with an extreme view of hellish judgmental punishment sometimes defined as ‘eternal conscious torment’. Furthermore, some NDE testimonies provide evidence that God endeavours to ‘turn things around’ for those who find themselves caught in the midst of a distressing NDE.

9)…..but there is an escape route.

George Ritchie underwent an extremely vivid and detailed NDE in 1943 at the age of twenty when he died of double pneumonia in a military training camp. Fortunately, he was dead for only nine minutes, although the doctor had already signed his death certificate by then. In fact, about twenty years later, it was hearing George Ritche talk about his NDE that prompted Raymond Moody to start researching into the phenomenon leading to his book ‘Life After Life’⁷ and coining the term ‘Near-Death Experience’. As part of his NDE, as recounted in his book ‘Return from Tomorrow’³⁹, Ritchie describes a hellish scene he was shown while accompanied by Jesus: ‘The plain was crowded, even jammed with hordes of ghostly discarnate beings…..they were the most frustrated, the angriest, the most completely miserable beings I had ever laid eyes on. “Lord Jesus!” I cried. “Where are we?” At first I thought we were looking at some great battlefield: everywhere people were locked in what looked like fights to the death, writhing, punching, gouging….. If I suspected before that I was seeing hell, now I was sure of it….. These creatures seemed locked into habits of mind and emotion, into hatred, lust, destructive thought patterns….. no condemnation came from the Presence at my side, only a compassion for these unhappy creatures that was breaking His heart. Clearly it was not His will that any one of them should be in this place. Then—what was keeping them here? …..Perhaps in the course of eons or of seconds, each creature here had sought out the company of others as pride-and-hate-filled as himself, until together they formed this society of the damned. Perhaps it was not Jesus who had abandoned them, but they who had fled from the Light that showed up their darkness. Or, were they as alone as at first it appeared? …..That entire unhappy plain was hovered over by beings seemingly made of light…..Were these bright beings angels? …..All I clearly saw was that not one of these bickering beings on the plain had been abandoned. They were being attended, watched over, ministered to. And the equally observable fact was that not one of them knew it. If Jesus or His angels were speaking to them, they certainly did not hear. There was no pause in the stream of rancour coming from their own hearts; their eyes sought only some nearby figure to humiliate.’

So, what Richie’s vivid account seems to tell us is that this form of hell isn’t ‘decreed’ by God but is generated by the souls who inhabit it – who have shunned the light of heaven that would expose their selfish and hate-filled natures. However, equally striking is Ritchie’s realisation that even these seemingly lost souls have not been abandoned by God – but are oblivious to the opportunity to be rescued from their hellish situation.

If Ritchie’s account was a unique, isolated example of this type of hellish scenario – with the possibility of redemption that is also implicit – then it would be reasonable to give little heed to it. However, there are numerous NDE testimonies of this type. One example is the testimony of Ian McCormack⁴⁷, who died temporarily after being stung by box jellyfish whilst scuba diving. McCormack found himself in a place of utter darkness and bitter cold with a pervading sense of evil. Although it was too dark for him to see anything, he became aware of others around him who shouted at him that he was in hell. In the ambulance on the way to hospital, he’d asked God to forgive him for the way he’d lived his life, and he now cried out for God’s help. McCormack described what happened next: ‘Then a brilliant light shone upon me and literally drew me out of the darkness. A voice spoke to me from the centre of the light: “Ian, you must see in a new light.” I remembered being given a Christmas card, which said, ‘Jesus is the light of the world,’ and ‘God is light and there is no darkness in him.’ So, this was God! To my amazement a wave of pure unconditional love flowed over me. Instead of judgment I was being washed with pure love. Pure, unadulterated, clean, uninhibited, undeserved, love.”

A further example is provided by Howard Storm⁴⁸ who died temporarily of a burst duodenal ulcer. Not realising he was dead, he was persuaded to follow some discarnate individuals who he mistook for medical staff. As he gradually realised the truth of his situation, and that these spirits were intent on causing him harm, he tried to turn back. At this point his captors attacked him, horrendously. In his book, Storm recounts what happened next: ‘Lying there, torn apart, inside and out, I knew I was lost. I would never see the world again. I was left alone to become a creature of the dark…..[then] a very old tune from childhood started going through my head…..‘Jesus loves me, da da da…’ There was only that bit of the tune and those few words that I could remember…..It was just a spontaneous recollection from my Sunday school days growing up in church. Jesus loves me…..I desperately needed someone to love me, someone to know I was alive. A ray of hope began to dawn in me, a belief that there really was something greater out there. For the first time in my adult life I wanted it to be true that Jesus loved me. I didn’t know how to express what I wanted and needed, but with every bit of my last ounce of strength, I yelled out into the darkness, ‘Jesus, save me.’……Far off in the darkness I saw a pinpoint of light like the faintest star in the sky…..It was moving toward me at an alarming rate…..Soon the light was upon me. I knew that while it was indescribably brilliant, it wasn’t just light. This was a living being, a luminous being…… Ecstasy swept away the agony. Tangible hands and arms gently embraced me and lifted me up…..the despair and pain were replaced by love. I had been lost and now was found; I had been dead and now was alive. This loving, luminous being who embraced me, knew me intimately…..I was unconditionally loved and accepted…..Jesus does love me, I thought. I experienced love in such intensity that nothing I had ever known before was comparable.’

10)Love is the answer……

What we have seen so far is a message of relentless love: God loves everyone, forgives everyone and works for everyone’s salvation. So, what does God wish us to do with our lives? Some theologies claim that God’s primary purpose is to promote His own glorification. But there seems to be nothing reported in NDE testimonies that supports this view. What we have seen, however, is that a strong emphasis, at least for a proportion of NDErs, is put on how they’ve treated others. Or to put it another way, how much love they have shown in their lives. In his book ‘Pluriform Love’⁴⁹ Thomas Jay Oord defines love thus: ‘To love is to act intentionally, in relational response to God and others, to promote overall well-being.’ This clearly expresses Jesus’ commandment: ‘Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.’ (Matthew 7:12).

As we saw in section 2, many NDErs learn this lesson and studies show that they become more loving and considerate to others following their NDEs. Some NDErs who have expressed this lesson in their NDE testimonies include the following:

This is how Crystal McVea put it⁴¹—she’d had a difficult life as a child and teenager but, as an adult, underwent an NDE during an acute episode of pancreatitis: ‘…standing in [God’s] glorious presence, filled with His infinite wisdom, there was still one question I felt compelled to ask… ‘Why? Why didn’t I do more for You?…Why didn’t I do what You asked me to do?’ It’s not that I felt regret—it’s that I loved God so immensely I felt like He deserved so much more from me. But God wouldn’t allow me to feel bad about it. There is no feeling bad in heaven…. He is a loving God. I realized I didn’t just love God. I realized He IS love.’
Mary Neal is an orthopaedic surgeon who underwent an NDE during a drowning accident while kayaking in Chile. This is how Mary explained what she learned⁵⁰: ‘We need to be about God’s business every moment of every day. …if you accept that there’s life after death and … the rest of God’s promises… it changes the way you see today…every moment matters, every choice, every decision…the reality is that we are here for a reason. We are here to learn and grow and change and help others do the same. …the only thing that truly matters is loving God and being a window through which God’s light can shine through this world, and loving each other.’
Howard Storm received this same message during his NDE. Howard recounted⁵⁰, “[Jesus] said, ‘…Your purpose is to love the person that you’re with.’…If you love the person that you’re with, they’ll love the person that they’re with and they’ll love the person that they’re with. And that will multiply… it’s God’s plan. It will work. Just love the person that you’re with.”

11)…..possibly repeatedly

But what of those who don’t realise their intended purpose during one life on Earth? Well, at least for some, more than one (or possibly several) lives may be lived in order to achieve their purpose. In other words, they undergo reincarnation. As was mentioned in a previous section, reincarnation (also referred to as transmigration of souls) was a significant factor in early Christian theology and recent studies, particularly by Stevenson³⁰ and Tucker³¹, strongly support the occurrence of reincarnation. Referring to many of the cases he studied – particularly young people who died unnaturally – Stevenson said: ‘We can see that … their lives ended in a state of incompleteness. At the time of death they might all, for different reasons, have felt entitled to a longer life than the one they had had, and this in turn might have generated a craving for rebirth, perhaps leading to a quicker reincarnation than that among persons who died replete with life, so to speak, and at its natural end.’³⁰ Referring to NDErs who recounted being made aware of their previous lives during their transcendent experiences, Parnia stated: ‘…..we found survivors don’t refer to these experiences based on traditional notions of reincarnation derived from Eastern religions or metempsychosis from ancient philosophy. ….. Instead, there is an understanding that one lifetime may not be sufficient to achieve the specific levels of knowledge and understanding that are needed. What is described is instead a recognition that an ascending series of human lives exist, which are meant to help people fulfil this purpose.’²⁰

12)Sexual orientation is of no consequence

Some theologies conclude, based on tenuous biblical evidence, that sexual relations other than those between a married man and woman, are forbidden by God and will be punished in Hell. They further decree that any sexual feelings or gender preferences other than ‘straight heterosexual’ must be resisted and suppressed. If this was correct, one would expect to find that NDEs experienced by LGBTQ+ individuals are of the negative/distressing/hellish type described above. However, the evidence clearly shows that this is not the case. Liz Dale investigated LGBTQ+ NDEs in her book Crossing Over and Coming Home’⁵¹ and found them to be of the same nature as other reported NDEs. Furthermore, in a follow-up analysis, Liz Dale and Kevin Williams found no significant difference in the outcomes of LGBTQ+ and non-gay NDEs when analysed statistically⁵². Dale and Williams conclude: ‘The two groups of LGBT and Non-Gay NDEs have shown no significant differences on all areas of enquiry…..All over the world LGBT people have been unfairly treated, persecuted, discriminated against and yet it is very clear that on the Other Side there is no such persecution.’

13)God is active in the world today

Some forms of progressive theology deny the existence of God as a real supernatural being – examples include Christian Atheism and Secular Theology. In such cases, God cannot be presumed to be active in the world since God does not exist. By contrast, other forms of progressive theology not only support the existence of God but consider God’s activity in the world to be of central importance. An example of such is Open and Relational Theology (ORT)⁵³, which states that ‘God, us and creation relate so that everyone gives and receives’ (https://c4ort.com/about/).

Theologies such as ORT are consistent with the rigorously researched data on veridical healing miracles that was briefly reviewed in section 4. In many such instances, medical professionals agree that there is no medical explanation for these healings based on the physical sciences. In terms of the criteria I laid out in section 1, the most straight forward explanation for these healing miracles is therefore that they result from God’s action associated with PIP. This therefore provides direct evidence of God’s activity in the world.

14)Summary, conclusions and reflections

From all the above considerations, my conclusions are:

i) God’s essence and power are based on love.

ii) God is not angry with humanity.

iii) God is not tied to a particular religious creed.

iv) God is not judgemental – we judge ourselves.

v) God does not condemn anyone to hell – it results from human choices.

vi) God constantly strives to redeem those who choose hellish spiritual environments.

vii) Humans are spiritual beings – physical life is an opportunity to learn to love and grow, and to test our ability to do so.

viii) We may experience physical life numerous times as we grow in love.

ix) Sexual orientation and gender identity are non-binary aspects of our physical natures that are not subject to discrimination by God.

x) God partakes in relational interactions with the physical world – this can result in outcomes that surpass our expectations of what is possible (defined as ‘miracles’).

In reaching these conclusions, I have tried to ‘follow the evidence’ provided by the many, rigorous, evidence-based studies into NDEs, cases indicative of reincarnation and contemporary PIP-associated healing miracles. Furthermore, as a career scientist, I have endeavoured to assess the evidence in an unbiased way – without ‘fear or favour.’ In this context, I can add that, before the year 2020, my views and beliefs on many of these issues were very different from where I find myself today. Although I’m a lifelong Christian, I used to doubt the reality of an afterlife – thinking that death would probably be the end of my existence and ‘hell’ was just a fabricated construct to scare people into religious belief. I thought apparent miracles were biblical myths that either never happened, or had some logical, physicalist explanation. I certainly never entertained reincarnation as a serious possibility. However, it was in 2020, whilst looking for direct evidence-based arguments for the existence of God, that I started reading some of the literature on NDEs. I was amazed, not only by what I discovered in this literature, but also by the scientific rigour and extent of many of the studies, and that these have been progressing for decades. This led me to find that this is also true for investigations into cases of reincarnation and healing miracles, as well as other types of ‘paranormal phenomena’ not discussed here. I find it both interesting and frustrating how many secular scientists on the one hand, and religious individuals on the other hand, are dismissive of all of this information, often when their knowledge in these areas is scant. My presumption is that, in many cases, such people are loath to face the uncomfortable possibility that their worldview might be challenged if they treated this information seriously.

So, finally, which types of established theological frameworks is VET consistent with? Well, it’s clearly not consistent with conservative or fundamentalist theologies which often portray God as wrathful and judgmental, as having a narrow view of ‘correct’ religious beliefs and being condemnatory of anyone who is not either celibate or a married heterosexual. Conversely, VET is not consistent with ultra-liberal theologies that question God’s actual existence and often join secular physicalists in denying the reality of an afterlife, miracles or anything ‘supernatural’. I feel that VET fits very well with some mainstream progressive theologies such as Open and Relational Theology⁵³ which centres on God’s love and God’s relational interaction with creation in an open future. One aspect of VET that is probably a challenge for virtually all contemporary Christian theologies is the acceptance of reincarnation as a real phenomenon. However, as I have said, the evidence supporting the occurrence of reincarnation is extensive and impressive. Furthermore, it would not have been either surprising or unacceptable to many Christians in the early centuries of the faith^28,29. Indeed, it would be interesting to compare the beliefs of those early Christians with what can now be believed on a veridical-evidential basis two thousand years later.

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