God, Jesus and other Religious Beings
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by Jack H Hiller

February 3, 2020

A frequency analysis for a sample of NDE reports.

An analysis of the 62 most recently archived NDE reports on NDERF at ( https://www.nderf.org) was performed to develop a sample frequency estimate for experiencing God, Jesus, and other major religious figures.

Nine categories of information were defined for coding as representing an experience or not.

1. Agnostic, atheist, New Age, or nothing before the NDE

2. Christian affiliation

3. Non Christian to include Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist

4. Experience of a mystical light

5. Experiencing God as a huge zone of light that enveloped the spirit

6. Experiencing God as a being with personality

7. Experiencing Jesus as a personality

8. No experience of light or a deity, just an OBE

9. A hellish experience.

RESULTS

Unfortunately for "clean" scoring, these categories proved not to be mutually exclusive, as multiple elements were reported for the experience; for example, in one report there was a mystical light at first, then it developed into a huge zone and was experienced as God, and then Jesus was also experienced, so 4., 5., and 7. were checked.

One unanticipated finding was a glaring disproportion of NDEs for those who did not profess belief in God. According to a 2017 USA research estimate by Pew reported by The Atlantic ( https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/american-atheists-religious-european-christians/560936/ ) 63% definitely believe in God regardless of religious affiliation, leaving 37% who do not or are uncertain. A recent academic study ( https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/13/15258496/american-atheists-how-many ) estimated that 26% of Americans do not believe in God. So, it's fair to set 37% as an estimate of the agnostic/atheist percentage. In this sample of 62 NDE reports, 56% were agnostic or atheist or not willing to commit to belief in God (category 1.). A test to estimate if 56% is statistically significantly different from 37% (using 26% would have produced a higher level of significance) yielded a Z value (2.6) which is significant for a reliable difference at a probability of .009, which is a stronger result than the .05 level generally used to decide if there were a reliable difference. Thus, it appears that NDEs are more frequent for those who did not already have belief in God, suggesting that they were getting a wake-up call for a life course correction.

There were four Muslims in this sample. Two experienced only a mystical light, and the other two had an OBE without contact with God experienced. Muhammad was not experienced.

There was one Buddhist and his experience was in category 5 of immersion in a huge zone of light that produced "incredible joy." He did not see any image of Buddha, but decided it was apt to label this light as Buddha.

Jesus was reported to have been experienced by 13 % (including one by the only Jewish respondent), while God was experienced (from categories 5 and 6) by 29%, with two experiences as personal. There were two hellish experiences reported.

One striking result was the dominance of category 4, the experience of mystical light in which they were immersed by 63% of the reports. I interpret this as support for the Tripartite Domain theory ( see Near Death Experience of Space, Time, and Consciousness https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081T7D7LQ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Jack+Hiller&qid=1574353884&s=books&sr=1-1 ) theorizing that the 2nd Domain (which is Heaven) is a universal field of consciousness functioning as a medium for light, with all entities existing in this Domain manifesting as forms of light.

CONCLUSION

This pilot study appears to warrant further research to increase the sample size and scope of investigation about the perceptions and implications for deities occurring in near death, spiritually transformative, and out of body experiences.