Appendix C

A Field Guide for Testing an NDE

A Practical Tool for Pastors, Families, and Careful Christians

Why This Guide Exists

Someone you love has just told you about a near-death experience. Maybe they were on an operating table. Maybe their heart stopped in a hospital room. They came back with a story about light, about peace, about a figure they believe was Jesus. Their eyes fill with tears as they tell you. They believe it was real.

What do you do with that?

You could dismiss it. Some Christians do. You could accept every detail without question. Some Christians do that too. But the Bible calls you to a third option. It asks you to test.

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." — 1 John 4:1 (ESV)

"Test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." — 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22 (ESV)

This appendix is the testing tool. In Chapter 23, I walked through the full discernment framework, with its biblical roots, its scholarly voices, and a worked example. Here I have distilled that framework into a field guide you can actually use. Print it. Keep it near your Bible. Bring it to a hospital visit or a grief-support meeting. It is not a replacement for prayer and pastoral wisdom. It is a companion to them.¹

Test One: The Scripture Test

This is where you begin. Always. Does the experience, or the lesson the person draws from it, contradict the Bible?

The prophet Isaiah set the standard plainly: "To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn in them" (Isaiah 8:20, ESV). And Paul warned the Galatian church: "Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8, ESV).²

Notice what Paul says. An angel could be the messenger. The experience could feel heavenly. But if the message contradicts the gospel, it fails. The source does not matter if the content is wrong.

So when you listen to someone describe their NDE, hold it up against what Scripture teaches. Did the experience tell them that all religions lead to the same God? The Bible says otherwise (John 14:6). Did it tell them there is no judgment? Scripture says there is (Hebrews 9:27; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Did it tell them that sin does not matter? The whole story of the cross says it does.³

A genuine experience from God will never contradict what God has already said in His word. Scripture came first. Scripture remains the measure.

Test Two: The Jesus Test

The apostle John gave the early church a specific test for spiritual experiences. "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" (1 John 4:2–3, ESV).⁵

In the world of near-death experiences, this test translates into a simple question. Is Jesus present and honored? Or is He absent, veiled, replaced, or denied?

In my doctoral research, I found that about 20 percent of NDEs involve Jesus by name. That number may seem low, but look at what sits beside it: less than 1 percent involve any other named deity. Even people who do not follow Christ and who would expect a different figure tend to meet "light and love," not the god of their own tradition.⁶ The data shows a striking pattern. When a specific figure is named, it is almost always Jesus.

When someone tells you about an NDE, ask: Was Jesus there? Was He honored as Lord? Was the being of light identified, or did it stay nameless and vague? A being of light that tells you all paths lead to God is not the Jesus of Scripture, no matter how warm it feels. As Paul warned, Satan himself can appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).⁷

Michael Sabom, a cardiologist who studied NDEs for more than two decades, made the same point from the medical side. He found that many NDErs intuitively identify a glowing figure as "Jesus." But intuition is not enough. The critical test, Sabom argues, is to compare what that figure teaches to what the Bible says. When the teachings contradict Scripture, the figure is not the biblical Christ, no matter how warm the feeling.²¹ In one case reported by Maurice Rawlings, an NDEr met a radiant figure and felt great reverence. He suspected it was Jesus. So he asked outright: "Are you Jesus?" The spirit answered, "No."²²

The Jesus test does not mean that every genuine NDE will include a clear encounter with Christ. Some people experience peace, or a tunnel, or a life review, without meeting anyone they can name. That is not a failure. But when a figure of light does appear, pay attention. If that figure is not identified as Jesus, or if it teaches things Jesus would never teach, that is a red flag worth noting.

Test Three: The Fruit Test

Jesus taught His followers how to recognize a false prophet. "You will recognize them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16, ESV). The same principle applies to near-death experiences. What did the experience produce in the person's life over time?⁸

A genuine encounter with the God of the Bible should produce what Scripture calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). Look for these. Did the person come back with a deeper love for Christ? A greater kindness toward others? A hunger for Scripture and prayer? A humility that was not there before?

The research supports this test. Bruce Greyson, one of the most careful NDE researchers in the world, used standardized questionnaires to compare NDErs with people who came close to death but had no NDE. Those who had NDEs scored significantly higher on measures of spiritual growth, life satisfaction, personal strength, and appreciation for life. Many also reported a drive toward further spiritual growth after their experience.²³ These are exactly the kinds of fruit a genuine encounter with God should produce.

Michael Sabom found something similar in his Atlanta Study. His NDE patients did not drift toward New Age beliefs or Eastern religion. Instead, they took traditional church involvement more seriously. Sabom concluded that an NDE strengthens a person's inner faith, their sense of meaning, their ability to love, and their commitment to family. Their NDEs led to a stronger belief in God, greater concern for others, a deeper desire to pray, and less emphasis on material things.²⁴ Sabom read those results through the lens of Jesus' own test: a good tree bears good fruit (Matthew 7:16–18). These aftereffects looked like good fruit to him. And they do to me as well.

Or did the experience lead them somewhere else? Did it spark an interest in psychic powers, mediums, or the occult? Did it fill them with spiritual pride, so that they now see themselves as having special authority others lack? Did it pull them away from the church and from the Bible?⁹

Time is the friend of this test. The fruit of a genuine experience tends to grow slowly. A changed life, a softened heart, a new compassion for suffering people. These are the marks of something real. Quick fame, a speaking circuit built on sensational claims, and an ever-growing pile of unbiblical teachings are the marks of something else.

The Tabatt/Kay Nine-Point Check

Shaun Tabatt and Randy Kay developed a nine-point framework for identifying whether a reported experience has the features of a genuine NDE. The idea is simple. Real NDEs tend to share a set of core features. The more of these features an experience includes, the more likely it is a genuine near-death experience rather than a dream, a hallucination, or something else entirely.¹⁰

In my doctoral research, I scored all 5,278 cases in my database using this framework. The nine points are: the death or near-death of the person, an out-of-body experience, heightened senses, encountering other beings, and visiting otherworldly realms. They also include a life review, receiving special knowledge, returning to the body, and lasting effects after the NDE. The average score across more than five thousand cases was about 7.1 out of 9, and that number stayed remarkably steady across seven decades of reports.¹¹

This check is not a spiritual test. It does not tell you whether the experience was from God. It tells you whether the experience has the shape of a real NDE. Think of it as a first filter. If someone reports an experience that includes only one or two of these features, it may not be a near-death experience at all. It may be a vivid dream, a medication reaction, or a false memory. A high score means the experience looks like what thousands of other NDErs report. It earns a seat at the table. Then the spiritual tests (Scripture, Jesus, fruit) do the real work.

This filter matters more than ever because some people now claim that certain drugs produce the same experience as dying. Researchers at New York University, led by Sam Parnia, put that claim to the test. They examined every published scientific study of DMT and ketamine hallucinations and compared them to NDEs. What they found was striking. The drug experiences were nothing like the NDE. Drug users reported haphazard geometric shapes, random images, encounters with elves and aliens, and feelings of becoming godlike. The coherent, life-changing arc of a genuine NDE was simply absent.²⁶ If someone describes an experience full of swirling shapes and random beings, the nine-point check will flag it. That is a hallucination, not an NDE, and the spiritual tests need not even begin.

Other Voices: Moody, Long, Burke, and Moreland/Habermas

Several other approaches deserve mention. Raymond Moody, the founder of modern NDE research, noticed early on that the identification of the being of light varies with the person's background. Christians tend to identify the light as Christ. Jewish experiencers often call it an angel. Others simply call it light. The being itself is described in almost identical terms, but the name given to it changes.²⁹ That is why the Jesus test looks not just at what the person calls the figure, but at what the figure teaches. The label matters less than the content.

Jeffrey Long studied more than four hundred NDE accounts and found a striking consistency across cultures, religions, ages, and backgrounds. The same core elements appeared regardless of what people expected. The love described was overwhelmingly consistent, and 96 percent of those who encountered a divine being said the experience was "definitely real."³⁰ This consistency is itself a kind of evidence. When hundreds of people from different places and decades report the same thing, the pattern earns a careful hearing.

John Burke, in his work on NDEs, uses a comparison method. He holds individual NDE accounts up against Scripture and against each other, looking for the places where they agree and the places where they part ways. Burke's instinct is right. When hundreds of accounts from different cultures and decades all point in the same direction, and that direction lines up with what the Bible teaches, the pattern carries weight. When an account stands alone with a strange teaching no one else reports, that loneliness is itself a warning.¹³

J.P. Moreland and Gary Habermas bring a set of theological criteria to the table. They ask five questions of any NDE: What does it say about the nature of God? What does it say about the identity of Jesus? Does it line up with the gospel message? Does it take sin and judgment seriously? And does it respect the authority of Scripture?¹⁴ If the answer to any of these questions is no, the experience should be handled with great care.

I see these approaches as variations of the same basic instinct that the Bible gives us. Test everything. Hold fast what is good.

The Red-Flag Checklist

Across this book, I have gathered the specific warning signs that should make any careful Christian pause. No single red flag is enough to condemn an account by itself. But when several of these show up together, the caution grows. Here they are, drawn from the discernment work of Chapter 20, Chapter 21, and Chapter 23.

Watch for any NDE that teaches a message contradicting Scripture. Watch for a being of light that stays nameless, avoids being identified as Jesus, or gives teachings Jesus would never give. Watch for the claim that Jesus is absent or denied. Watch for occult elements: psychic powers, contact with spirits, channeling, or interest in mediums after the experience. Watch for the denial of sin or judgment, as if nothing we do has consequences. Watch for the teaching that "we are all gods" or that divinity lives inside every person equally. Watch for a "deceased" loved one who is actually still alive, because as Shaun Tabatt has shown, this is a serious marker of deception.¹⁵ Watch for any promotion of reincarnation. And watch for the "all religions are one" message, the claim that it does not matter what you believe because every path leads to the same place.

In my doctoral research, I found that about 12 percent of NDEs promote some form of reincarnation. About 19.6 percent mention psychic or medium activity. And about 21 percent contain content that contradicts Scripture.¹⁶ These numbers tell us that the problem is real. It is not most NDEs. It is not the majority. But it is common enough that no careful Christian can afford to skip the testing.

J. Steve Miller offers a practical warning on this front. NDErs never come back reporting that someone on the other side told them to visit a medium. In fact, one NDE patient told a relative to stop seeing a psychic because the psychic was lying. Researcher Penny Sartori verified that the relative had indeed been secretly seeing one. Miller argues that evil entities exist on the other side. So even if a medium tells you things only your deceased loved one could know, you can never be certain who you are really talking to.²⁷

Sabom found that well over half of his NDE patients reported a heightened interest in psychic phenomena after their experience. This happened equally among conservative Christians, liberal Christians, and God-believers. Yet such activity is clearly forbidden in Scripture (Deuteronomy 18:9–14; Isaiah 8:19–20). The fact that an NDE makes someone more open to the psychic does not mean the psychic is safe. It means the person needs careful guidance from a Bible-grounded community.²⁸

Putting the Tests Together

Here is how the layers fit. Start with the Tabatt/Kay nine-point check. Ask whether the experience has the features of a genuine NDE. If it does, move on to the Scripture test. Hold every claim and every lesson against the Bible. Then apply the Jesus test. Ask whether Christ is present, honored, and rightly represented. Then give the fruit test time to work. Look at what the experience produced in the person's life over months and years. And scan the account for any of the red flags listed above.

Most near-death experiences will pass these tests with room to spare. My research found that about 87 percent of scholarly NDE cases showed high or moderate compatibility with a biblical framework. The overall figure across all 5,278 cases was about 71 percent.¹⁸ The majority of NDEs echo what the Bible already teaches: God is real, the soul survives death, love is central, and both heaven and a place of separation are genuine. This book exists to help you receive those accounts with gratitude and hope.

But at least one in ten NDEs in my study carried clearly unbiblical content. That is why this field guide exists too. Not to make you afraid. Not to make you suspicious of every story. But to make you wise. The Bible never asks us to choose between being open and being careful. It asks us to be both.

Using This with Someone Who Is Grieving

I want to close with a word about tenderness. This field guide is a tool. It is meant to be used. But the setting in which you use it matters as much as the tool itself.

Imagine a grieving widow tells you she saw her husband on the other side. Jesus was with him. She felt a peace she had never known. Stop. This is not the moment to pull out a checklist and start grading her experience. She needs to be heard first. She needs to know that you take her seriously and that you care about her pain before you care about the theology.

Listen. Ask gentle questions. Let her talk. Suppose nothing in her story contradicts Scripture. Jesus was present and honored. The experience has deepened her trust in God. Then you have good reason to say what the evidence and the Bible together suggest: "That sounds real. I am glad God met you there."²⁰

If something in the story does raise a flag, you do not have to address it that day. Grief has its own timing. A gentle question a few weeks later, asked with love, does more good than a theological correction delivered over tears. Remember that the person in front of you matters more than the argument. Testing is obedience. But so is love.

I have sat with families who were comforted by what a dying loved one saw. I have also sat with people who were confused or troubled by strange elements in an NDE. In both cases, the same approach helps. Hold Scripture in one hand. Hold the person in the other. Do not let go of either one.

That is what this guide is for. Use it wisely. Use it gently. And trust the God who is both the Light the dying see and the Word by which we test what they report.