A Theological Orientation Guide
The world of near-death experience (NDE) and deathbed experience (DBE) literature is vast — and uneven. Some authors are mature Christian witnesses whose work strengthens the faith. Others are sincere researchers whose theology is mixed but whose data is valuable. Still others teach things flatly incompatible with biblical Christianity. And a small number have fabricated accounts or built ministries on testimonies that cannot be trusted.
This appendix offers a quick-reference orientation guide to the authors most likely to cross your path. It is not a substitute for the seven tests (Chapter 10) or the discernment checklist (Appendix B). It is a snapshot meant to help you decide where to invest your reading time.
Read with Confidence: The author's work is broadly trustworthy. Standard discernment still applies, but you can read these authors without the heightened caution required of the others.
Read with Discernment: The author offers genuine value (often empirical or pastoral), but mixes that value with theological framings that need to be filtered through Scripture.
Read with Caution: The author's framework departs significantly from biblical Christianity at important points. Read only if you have strong scriptural footing, and read critically.
Not Recommended: The teaching is so deeply at odds with biblical Christianity that lay readers are better served by other sources. These authors are listed here because they are influential and Christians need to know what they teach.
The criteria behind the categories are the same ones used throughout the book: fidelity to Scripture, the centrality of Christ, salvation by grace through faith, the reality of judgment, and the fruit of the experience in the experiencer's life. Where I have placed an author in a category, I have tried to do so charitably — quoting their own published words, distinguishing what is documented from what is inferred, and evaluating the teaching rather than the person.1
Neurosurgeon whose 2008 NDE during bacterial meningitis became the basis for Proof of Heaven (2012) and the follow-ups The Map of Heaven and Living in a Mindful Universe. Alexander frames his experience as teaching that "love is all there is," with no role for Christ, no mention of sin or judgment, and no exclusive gospel. His later work moves explicitly into channeling and consciousness-based New Age spirituality. Donald Whitney's evaluation is representative of the evangelical critique: the book makes Christ irrelevant and undermines the authority of Scripture.2
Researcher and three-time NDEr; author of Beyond the Light and The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences. Atwater's empirical observations on aftereffects are sometimes useful, but her framework is thoroughly New Age — emphasizing energy, vibration, "soul ages," and a non-Christian metaphysic. Her writing is influential in NDE conference circles and should be evaluated carefully.
Former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church; author of Love Wins (2011). Bell does not write primarily about NDEs, but his hopeful-universalist framework is widely adopted by NDE-influenced readers. Bell's argument deserves a fair hearing — historic Christian thinkers including Gregory of Nyssa held something like it — but his treatment slides past the biblical witness on judgment in ways that more careful Christian universalists (such as Robin Parry) do not.
Pentecostal Christian whose extended cardiac arrest produced the NDE recounted in In Heaven! Experiencing the Throne of God (2014). Braxton's account is Christ-centered, throne-focused, and biblically coherent. His subsequent ministry of teaching and intercession has remained orthodox. He is one of the contemporary Christian NDErs Burke draws on at length in Imagine Heaven.3
Author of Saved by the Light (1994) and several follow-ups. Brinkley's NDE produced what he describes as psychic abilities, future-telling, and a ministry centered on hospice work and energy-based spirituality. The trajectory is a textbook example of how a dramatic experience can launch an explicitly occult ministry.
Pastor of Gateway Church in Austin; author of Imagine Heaven (2015) and Imagine the God of Heaven (2023). Burke is arguably the most influential popular evangelical author engaging the NDE literature. He works pastorally rather than academically, but his theological filter is strong and his case studies are well-documented. Burke's work is an excellent gateway for Christians newly engaging the field.4
Subject and author respectively of Heaven Is for Real (2010), recounting Colton's NDE at age four during emergency surgery. The account is largely consistent with biblical Christianity (Jesus, angels, the Father), and Todd Burpo is an ordained pastor. Some details have been questioned, and the wider "celebrity child NDE" genre invites caution, but the core testimony has not been recanted and continues to encourage many.
Researcher and former president of IANDS; author of Dancing Past the Dark: Distressing Near-Death Experiences (2012). Bush's work is the indispensable empirical study of distressing NDEs. Her own theological framework is liberal-Christian rather than evangelical, and she resists a straightforward "hell is real" reading of the data, but her documentation of the phenomenon itself is unmatched and is heavily relied upon by Miller, Tabatt, and others.5
Author of the bestselling Embraced by the Light (1992). Eadie's account presents distinctly Latter-day Saint (LDS) theology — pre-mortal existence of souls, a "council of gods," universalism, and an elevated view of human divinity. Hank Hanegraaff's Christianity in Crisis-era critique remains a fair and substantive evaluation of the theological problems.
UK-based researchers; authors of The Art of Dying (2008). The Fenwicks' research on end-of-life experiences is methodologically careful and pastorally sensitive, with extensive interviews of dying patients and their caregivers. Their personal framework is broadly spiritual rather than confessional, but the data is highly valuable for Christian readers thinking about DBEs.
Pastor and author of Heaven Tourism, an evangelical critique of popular NDE testimonies. Gilley is a thoughtful Christian critic who raises real concerns about specific bestselling NDE accounts. His skepticism sometimes overshoots — sweeping in genuine experiences along with problematic ones — but he should be read alongside Miller and Tabatt as a counterweight.
Psychiatrist; co-developer of the Greyson NDE Scale; author of After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Death (2021). Greyson is the dean of academic NDE research, and his scientific work is essential reading. His personal theology is not evangelical, but his case documentation, statistical work, and resistance to reductive materialism are extraordinarily valuable.
Distinguished evangelical philosopher and resurrection scholar; co-author with J. P. Moreland of Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality (1998, rev. 2004). Habermas brings rigorous evidential apologetics to the NDE question. He treats NDEs as evidence for the soul and the afterlife while maintaining strict biblical fidelity. His joint work with Moreland is essential for Christian readers who want serious engagement with the evidential case.
President of the Christian Research Institute; author of various critiques of NDE accounts. Hanegraaff has been a voice of careful evangelical critique, particularly of Eadie. His selectivity is helpful — he critiques specific problems rather than the entire field — though his recent confessional move to Eastern Orthodoxy will affect how some evangelical readers receive his later work.
Author of Dying to Meet Jesus (2021); host of Heaven Encounters. Kay is an evangelical NDEr whose testimony centers on a personal encounter with Jesus during clinical death from a pulmonary embolism. He has co-authored with Shaun Tabatt and remains theologically anchored. His ministry has been Christ-centered and church-connected.
Hospice physician; author of Death Is But a Dream (2020). Kerr's documentation of end-of-life dreams and visions in palliative care is sober, beautiful, and pastorally valuable. He is not writing as a Christian theologian, but his work coheres with the broad outlines of Christian DBE testimony. Highly useful for hospice workers and pastors.
Psychiatrist; pioneer of death-and-dying research; author of On Death and Dying (1969) and On Life After Death (1991). Kübler-Ross's early work transformed end-of-life care. Her later work drifted into spiritualist territory, including reported encounters with spirit guides. Read the early work appreciatively; treat the later work with caution.
Radiation oncologist; founder of the NDE Research Foundation (NDERF); author of Evidence of the Afterlife (2010) and God and the Afterlife (2016). Long's empirical work — drawing on the largest NDE database in the world — is foundational. His theological conclusions, however, lean strongly toward the "all religions point to the same God" framework familiar from secular NDE literature.6 Read for the data; filter the theology.
Pastor of Grace Community Church; author of The Glory of Heaven (rev. 2013). MacArthur represents the most influential evangelical voice for wholesale dismissal of NDEs. His commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture is admirable, but the wholesale dismissal overshoots the evidence and is itself critiqued in this book (Chapter 35). Read him to understand the strongest Christian objection; engage the response carefully.
Subject and father of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven (2010). Alex Malarkey publicly recanted the account in 2015, declaring it fabricated; the publisher (Tyndale) withdrew the book. The case is a sober reminder that the marketplace creates incentives for invented testimonies and that publishers do not always verify what they promote.
New Zealand-born evangelist whose 1982 box-jellyfish-sting NDE produced his conversion and decades of ministry. No single book captures the testimony, though his account is widely circulated. McCormack's testimony has been told consistently for over forty years, has produced documented Christian fruit, and stands as a model trustworthy NDE.
Religion professor at Kennesaw State University; author of Is Christianity Compatible with Deathbed and Near-Death Experiences? (2023), Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for the Afterlife (2021), and the standalone Ph.D. dissertation on DBEs. Miller is, alongside Tabatt, the most important contemporary evangelical scholar engaging this field. His Is Christianity Compatible? demonstrates 47 points of biblical compatibility in the NDE literature; his DBE work is the strongest case for taking deathbed visions seriously.7
Author of Dying to Be Me (2012). Moorjani's NDE during cancer remission produced a thoroughgoing Hindu-influenced monism: "we are all one," "all paths are valid," "there is nothing to forgive because there is nothing wrong." The framework is incompatible with biblical Christianity at the level of fundamental doctrine.
Author of Life After Life (1975), the book that introduced the term "near-death experience." (early work); (later). The original Life After Life is foundational and largely descriptive. Moody's later work, including past-life regression and the "psychomanteum" (a chamber for contacting the dead), departs significantly from any Christian framework.
Distinguished philosopher of religion at Talbot School of Theology; author of The Soul: How We Know It's Real and Why It Matters (2014). Moreland's philosophical case for substance dualism provides the metaphysical foundation that makes serious engagement with NDEs possible. His joint work with Habermas (Beyond Death) treats NDE evidence with rigor and biblical fidelity.
Orthopedic surgeon; author of To Heaven and Back (2011) and 7 Lessons from Heaven (2017). Neal's account of her 1999 kayaking-accident NDE is broadly Christian, with encounters with Jesus and deceased loved ones. Some details are subject to discussion, and the second book ventures further into reflection that some readers find speculative, but her overall trajectory has been Christ-centered and church-connected.
Hypnotherapist; author of Journey of Souls (1994) and Destiny of Souls (2000). Newton is not strictly an NDE author, but his "between-lives" hypnosis material has heavily shaped the wider afterlife industry. The framework is reincarnationist and explicitly contradicts Hebrews 9:27.
Researchers; authors of At the Hour of Death (1977). The cross-cultural DBE study by Osis and Haraldsson is a landmark. Their parapsychology framework is not Christian, but the documented data — Indian and American patients consistently seeing similar otherworldly figures — is empirically valuable and is drawn on by Burke and Miller.
Critical care physician; author of Erasing Death (2013) and lead investigator of the AWARE studies. Parnia's prospective hospital-based research on cardiac arrest survivors is among the most rigorous available. His personal framework is not Christian, but his work decisively undermines the strongest physicalist objections to NDEs.
Baptist pastor; author of 90 Minutes in Heaven (2004). Piper's account of his 1989 car-accident NDE has reached millions and has produced consistent Christian fruit. Some critics have raised questions about specific details, but the overall account is biblically coherent and the author has remained in pastoral ministry.
Christian cardiologist; author of Beyond Death's Door (1978) and To Hell and Back (1993). Rawlings broke the "all NDEs are pleasant" myth by documenting distressing NDEs from his own resuscitation practice. His methodology has been critiqued, but his overall contribution — that the dying have hellish experiences too, and that this matters theologically — is sound.
Founder of IANDS; author of Life at Death (1980), Heading Toward Omega (1984), and (with Sharon Cooper) Mindsight (1999). Ring's empirical contributions, especially the blind-NDEr research in Mindsight, are valuable. His theological framework — NDEs as precursor to a planetary consciousness shift transcending specific religions — is incompatible with biblical Christianity.
Franciscan friar; founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation. Rohr is not primarily an NDE writer, but his "universal Christ" theology shapes much of the contemporary contemplative-and-NDE crossover. The framework distinguishes "Christ" from Jesus in ways that depart significantly from Chalcedonian Christology.
Internist; author of Blessing in Disguise: Another Side of the Near-Death Experience (2000). Rommer's typology of distressing NDEs (which Tabatt and others draw on) is empirically careful and pastorally sensitive. Her interpretive framework is not strictly evangelical, but her data and categories are widely used.
Cardiologist; author of Recollections of Death (1982) and Light and Death (1998). Sabom is one of the very few major NDE researchers who is also an evangelical Christian. His Atlanta Study of cardiac arrest patients is methodologically rigorous, and Light and Death includes the famous Pam Reynolds case alongside a serious chapter on the syncretism problem.8
UK nurse and researcher; author of The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences (2014). Sartori conducted a landmark five-year prospective hospital study of NDEs in intensive care. Notably, her data shows NDErs reporting increased prayer, church attendance, and Bible reading — findings of obvious interest to Christian readers.
Former atheist art professor; author of My Descent into Death (2005). (the original testimony); (later teaching). Storm's distressing NDE-turned-Christian-conversion is one of the most powerful in the literature. He went from atheism to Christian ministry. His later teaching (he pastored within the United Church of Christ) drifts in places — particularly toward universalism — but the core conversion testimony is biblically coherent.
Author of Communion (1987) and a long sequence of works. Strieber bridges UFO/abduction literature, NDE-adjacent material, and explicit occult themes. His framework is the polar opposite of biblical orthodoxy.
Editor, podcaster, and author of The NDE Conspiracy (2025). Tabatt's work is the most important recent evangelical book applying biblical discernment to the contemporary NDE landscape. His categories — counterfeit welcoming committees, demonic hijacking, the conspiracy of deception — are foundational to the present book.9
Author of A Journey to Hell, Heaven, and Back. Tuttle's evangelical testimony — including a distressing component followed by rescue and Christian conversion — is consistent and ministry-fruitful. He is one of the more reliable contemporary distressing-then-redemptive NDE testimonies.
Cardiologist; author of Consciousness Beyond Life (2010). Van Lommel's prospective Dutch study (published in The Lancet) is one of the strongest pieces of NDE research ever produced. His personal framework is "non-local consciousness" rather than biblical theism, but the empirical case for consciousness surviving brain death is presented with unusual scientific authority.
Author of Conversations with God (1995) and many follow-ups. Walsch is not an NDEr, but his work — claiming to channel a "God" who repudiates biblical morality and exclusive salvation — frequently appears in NDE-adjacent contexts. The teaching is straightforwardly contrary to historic Christianity.
Psychiatrist; author of Many Lives, Many Masters (1988). Weiss popularized "past-life regression" therapy. His framework is reincarnationist and contradicts the biblical witness on the singularity of human life and death.
Author of 23 Minutes in Hell (2006). Wiese's account of a hellish NDE is theologically sincere and produced a recognizable evangelical ministry. Some details are unusual and worth examining carefully, and the book is more sermonic than analytic, but the framework is biblically traditional.
Canadian commercial pilot; author of Heaven, an Unexpected Journey (2017). Woodford's account of his cardiac-arrest NDE is broadly Catholic-charismatic in tone. His ministry has been Christ-centered, and he wrote the foreword to Tabatt's NDE Conspiracy — itself a useful index of theological company.
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Three observations are worth keeping in mind.
First, "Read with Confidence" does not mean "read uncritically." Even the best Christian NDE authors should be tested against the seven tests in Chapter 10. The category simply means that when you do that testing, the work tends to hold up well.
Second, "Read with Discernment" is not a synonym for "this person is suspect." Many of the researchers in that category — Greyson, Long, Parnia, van Lommel, Sartori, the Fenwicks — have produced empirical work that the entire field depends on. The discernment in question concerns the theological framework wrapped around the data, not the data itself.
Several of the not-recommended authors include genuinely beautiful passages — about love, about presence, about the goodness of being known. Readers sometimes lift those passages out and read them as if they were Christian. They are not. The authors themselves embed those moments in non-Christian frameworks. Quoting them out of context can cause confusion. When in doubt, read the surrounding pages — and then return to the seven tests.
Third, this list is partial. New NDE authors emerge every year. When you encounter someone not on this list, the right response is not to search the internet for "is X biblical?" but to apply the discernment framework you have learned: the seven tests (Chapter 10), the experience-interpretation distinction (Chapter 9), and the discernment checklist (Appendix B). The framework is the point. This list is only a head start.
A guide like this is necessarily a snapshot of a moving picture. Authors change. Some who are listed here as trustworthy may, in time, drift; others now in the "caution" category may move closer to biblical orthodoxy. The categories should be held with charity and humility, never as a final verdict on a person's standing before God.
The point of this appendix is not to give you a stick. It is to give you a map. The trustworthy authors listed here have been a gift to the church — their experiences have brought many to Christ, deepened the faith of believers, and provided meaningful evidence for the reality of the spiritual realm. The not-recommended authors are listed not to make us afraid of them, but so that we know what they teach and can speak intelligently when someone we love is reading them. Discernment is, finally, in service of love.
Remember: the same Lord who warned us to test the spirits also told us not to despise prophecies (1 Thessalonians 5:19–22). We are not commissioned to suspicion; we are commissioned to discernment. Some of these authors will accompany you for years. Others you will meet once, weigh, and set aside. Either way, the goal is the same — to know Christ better, to walk faithfully in the time we have, and to be ready when our own hour at the doorway comes.
Alexander, Eben. Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.
Atwater, P. M. H. The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences: The Ultimate Guide to the NDE and Its Aftereffects. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2007.
Bell, Rob. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. New York: HarperOne, 2011.
Braxton, Dean. In Heaven! Experiencing the Throne of God. Chambersburg, PA: Divine Design Publishing, 2012.
Brinkley, Dannion. Saved by the Light. New York: Villard, 1994.
Burke, John. Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015.
Burpo, Todd, with Lynn Vincent. Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.
Bush, Nancy Evans. Dancing Past the Dark: Distressing Near-Death Experiences. Cleveland, TN: Parson's Porch Books, 2012.
Eadie, Betty J., with Curtis Taylor. Embraced by the Light. Placerville, CA: Gold Leaf Press, 1992.
Fenwick, Peter, and Elizabeth Fenwick. The Art of Dying: A Journey to Elsewhere. London: Continuum, 2008.
Gilley, Gary. Heaven Tourism. Springfield, IL: Southern View Chapel, 2014.
Greyson, Bruce. After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Death. New York: St. Martin's Essentials, 2021.
Habermas, Gary R., and J. P. Moreland. Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998.
Hanegraaff, Hank. Christianity in Crisis. Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1993.
Kay, Randy. Dying to Meet Jesus. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2021.
Kerr, Christopher, with Carine Mardorossian. Death Is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life's End. New York: Avery, 2020.
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying. New York: Macmillan, 1969.
———. On Life After Death. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1991.
Long, Jeffrey, with Paul Perry. God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience. New York: HarperOne, 2016.
MacArthur, John. The Glory of Heaven: The Truth About Heaven, Angels, and Eternal Life. Rev. ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013.
Malarkey, Kevin, and Alex Malarkey. The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2010. [Withdrawn from publication, 2015.]
Miller, J. Steve. Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for the Afterlife, Volume 1: A Groundbreaking, Scientific Apologetic. Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2021.
———. "Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for the Afterlife: A Multicultural Examination of the Literature." PhD diss., Columbia International University, 2019.
———. Is Christianity Compatible with Deathbed and Near-Death Experiences? The Surprising Presence of Jesus, Scarcity of Anti-Christian Elements, and Compatibility with Historic Christian Teachings. Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2023.
Moody, Raymond A. Life After Life. Atlanta: Mockingbird, 1975.
Moorjani, Anita. Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2012.
Moreland, J. P. The Soul: How We Know It's Real and Why It Matters. Chicago: Moody, 2014.
Neal, Mary C. To Heaven and Back: A Doctor's Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again. Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2011.
———. 7 Lessons from Heaven. New York: Convergent, 2017.
Newton, Michael. Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 1994.
Osis, Karlis, and Erlendur Haraldsson. At the Hour of Death. New York: Avon, 1977.
Parnia, Sam. Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death. New York: HarperOne, 2013.
Piper, Don, with Cecil Murphey. 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2004.
Rawlings, Maurice. Beyond Death's Door. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1978.
———. To Hell and Back. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993.
Ring, Kenneth, and Sharon Cooper. Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind. Bloomington, IL: iUniverse, 2008.
Rommer, Barbara R. Blessing in Disguise: Another Side of the Near-Death Experience. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2000.
Sabom, Michael. Light and Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998.
———. Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
Sartori, Penny. The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences: How Understanding NDEs Can Help Us Live More Fully. London: Watkins, 2014.
Storm, Howard. My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life. New York: Doubleday, 2005.
Strieber, Whitley. Communion: A True Story. New York: William Morrow, 1987.
Tabatt, Shaun. The NDE Conspiracy. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2025.
Tuttle, Ivan. A Journey to Hell, Heaven, and Back. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2017.
van Lommel, Pim. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience. New York: HarperOne, 2010.
Walsch, Neale Donald. Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1. New York: Putnam, 1995.
Weiss, Brian L. Many Lives, Many Masters. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
Wiese, Bill. 23 Minutes in Hell. Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2006.
Woodford, Jim, with Thom Gardner. Heaven, an Unexpected Journey. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2017.