Investigating the Afterlife: Lee Strobel’s Exploration of Near-Death Experiences and the Supernatural
Lee Strobel, a seasoned journalist and legal analyst, has dedicated his career to examining prominent criminal and civil cases across the nation.
However, his latest exploration delves into one of the most disputed subjects: the existence of the afterlife.
Once a staunch atheist, Strobel has now applied his investigative skills to the realm of the supernatural. He contends that the gathered evidence supports the reality of both heaven and hell, with hell being depicted as profoundly disturbing.
In his recent publication, Seeing the Supernatural: Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World, Strobel analyzes numerous compelling near-death experiences (NDEs) that medical professionals acknowledge defy conventional medical clarification.
Remarkable Near-Death Experience Accounts
One account features Mary, a single mother who recounted observing her physical body from an elevated perspective as her life ebbed away in a hospital setting.
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
Strobel recounts Mary’s experience: “Suddenly, a tunnel materialized, and she felt an irresistible pull towards it. Her spirit ascended through a ceiling fan and then through the roof.”
She described reaching the tunnel’s end and being enveloped by sensations of intense affection and radiant light, where her life played out before her.
“I experienced every positive and negative action I had ever undertaken and its subsequent impact on others,” she stated. “This period was challenging, yet I felt enveloped in unconditional love and endured the painful aspects. I received a telepathic inquiry about my desire to remain or return.”
Strobel emphasizes a particularly noteworthy detail in Mary’s narrative that enhances its credibility: “As Mary’s spirit detached from her body, she noticed a red sticker affixed to the upper side of a ceiling fan blade, a detail imperceptible to those in the room. She later provided a precise description of this sticker.”
Verifiable Details from Beyond
Additional reports involve patients declared clinically deceased accurately describing medical procedures and instruments used, with a level of precision considered impossible through conventional means.
In the instance of Maria, a heart attack patient, she spoke of rising above her body and exiting the hospital, where she identified a stray tennis shoe on a window ledge.
Upon resuscitation, she described the shoe: “A man’s shoe, left foot, dark blue, with scuff marks above the small toe and a shoelace tucked beneath the heel.”
Staff verified her description, finding the shoe in the exact location she specified.
Child’s Out-of-Body Observation
Another account involves Katie, a seven-year-old involved in a swimming pool incident.
Found submerged and unresponsive, she was comatose with no detectable brain activity. Clinically dead for twenty minutes, she was sustained by a ventilator.
Strobel writes, “Remarkably, she made a full recovery within three days.”
Upon questioning by doctors, she detailed observing her family at home while in an out-of-body state.
“She provided specific insights into her observations, including her father’s reading material, her brother playing with a toy soldier in a Jeep, and her mother preparing roast chicken and rice. She even recalled the attire of each family member that evening.”
Her case was documented in the American Journal of Diseases of Children.
Sight Regained in the Afterlife
Intriguingly, individuals blind from birth have reported experiencing sight during near-death experiences.
Strobel recounts Vicki’s experience: “Vicki, blind for her entire 22 years, found herself observing her mangled vehicle after a car accident. Subsequently, she watched doctors attending to her body as she ascended towards the ceiling.”
Similarly, she described traversing a tunnel to a beautiful realm, greeted by deceased school friends and witnessing a review of her life.
Remarkably, she accurately described these friends, despite having never visually perceived them.
A Contrasting Account: The Terrifying Hellish Vision of Howard Storm
While the majority of NDEs are reported as positive, Strobel recounts the disturbing experience of Howard Storm, who claimed to have been taken to hell, encountering unimaginable terror.
Howard Storm, an atheist and professor at Northern Kentucky University, detailed his experience in a book after “dying” from a stomach ulcer.
“He initially followed enigmatic yet welcoming figures who beckoned him down a corridor,” Strobel writes.
“This progressed into a lengthy journey, with surroundings becoming increasingly ominous.”
Suddenly, his initially amiable guides turned aggressively violent.
“They began shoving, striking, pulling, kicking, biting, and clawing at him while laughing and cursing,” Strobel describes.
“He defended himself as best he could but endured physical and emotional torment in the struggle.”
Storm recounted: “No horror film or novel can adequately depict their cruelty. Eventually, I was disemboweled. I distinctly lost an eye, and my ears were gone.”
However, he asserts that upon crying out, “Jesus, save me!” a brilliant light emerged, and hands reached for him.
“Upon contact in that light, I could perceive myself and all the gore. I was roadkill. Then, the gore began to dissipate, and I became whole again.”
Demonic Encounters and Skepticism Turned Belief
Strobel also interviewed Richard Gallagher, an Ivy League-educated psychiatrist who transitioned from skepticism to belief in demonic forces following a direct encounter.
Dr. Gallagher, trained in psychiatry at Yale and psychoanalysis at Columbia University, initially encountered the demonic through a patient described as “possessed.”
The night preceding his meeting with this patient, his normally placid cats engaged in a fierce fight.
“Loud screeching sounds startled my wife and me awake. Our usually gentle cats were battling intensely, striking and clawing, seemingly intent on causing severe injury,” Dr. Gallagher recalled.
The following day, he met Julia, a self-proclaimed priestess of a satanic cult, accompanied by a Catholic priest.
Dr. Gallagher noted that upon Julia’s arrival, she smirked and remarked, “How did you enjoy those cats last night?”
This encounter led Dr. Gallagher to consider that some patients might be afflicted by demonic possession rather than solely mental illness.
“To the untrained observer, numerous possessions might resemble psychiatric conditions like psychoses and severe personality and dissociative disorders,” Dr. Gallagher explained.
“However, for experienced psychiatrists and other healthcare professionals, possessions diverge from these disorders in significant ways.”
Seeing the Supernatural: Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World by Lee Strobel is published by Zondervan.