One of the criticisms of near-death experiences (NDEs) comes from some Christian groups. They claim that NDEs cannot be valid because they depict only heaven and never hell. In other words, all of the accounts are of people traveling through a tunnel to a peaceful and beautiful place and never to a place of fire and brimstone.

While this is often the case, there are exceptions. George Ritchie, in a ground-breaking account of his NDE (see his book Return from Tomorrow), describes groups of people who are going through a hellish experience:

“… we were apparently still somewhere on the surface of the earth, I could see no living man or woman. The plain was crowded, even jammed with hordes of ghostly discarnate beings; nowhere was there a solid, light-surrounded person to be seen. All of these thousands of people were apparently no more substantial than I myself. And 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 spirits were locked in what looked like fights to the death, writhing, punching, gouging. No weapons of any sort, I saw as I looked closer, only bare hands and feet and teeth. And then I noticed that no one was apparently being injured. There was no blood, no bodies strewed on the ground. A blow that ought to have eliminated an opponent would leave him exactly as before.

“If I suspected 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.

“Even more hideous than the bites and kicks they exchanged, were the sexual abuses many were performing in feverish pantomime. Perversions I had never dreamed of were being vainly attempted all around us. It was impossible to tell if the howls of frustration which reached us were actual sounds or only the transference of despairing thoughts. Indeed in this disembodied world it didn't seem to matter. Whatever anyone thought, however fleetingly or unwillingly, was instantly apparent to all around him, more completely than words could have expressed it, faster than sound waves could have carried it.” (from www.near-death.com/experiences/ritchie02.html)

Craig Lundahl and Harold Widdison include a chapter on “The Realm of Bewildered Spirits” in their book The Eternal Journey. In this chapter they note that other researchers, such as Maurice Rawlings and Margot Grey, have also dealt with frightening NDEs. Rawlings, in particular, has been critical of the preponderance of positive experiences and claims that this imbalance is not present if experiencers are interviewed immediately after the experience. In other words, according to Rawlings, over time the negative experiences are forgotten and only the positive experiences are remembered. Lundahl and Widdison claim that in recent years more and more frightening experiences are being described. They include a number of these accounts in their book. One vivid account is that of Don Brubaker, who claims that he was confronted by Satan. He saw a large glowing red ball.

“Almost like the light on the front of a train. In that instant, as the red ball rushed toward me, I knew terror like never before. As it approached, I realized that it was really a large, eerie red eye. It stopped when it got close to me, and then began traveling alongside me through the tunnel. I could hardly stand to look at it, its gaze was so piercing. It felt like it was looking right into my mind, into my very soul …

“As the red eye glowered at me, the thoughts began to arrange themselves, coalescing slowly. Suddenly, the idea was undeniable.

“I was in Hell.

“The realization swept over me like an ocean wave, unstoppable though I tried desperately to dismiss it. Hell! I didn’t even believe in hell! And here I was? This was it?

“I had only the briefest moment to react to the thought when a deep, comfortable voice echoed through the tunnel.

“’Have no fear, my son,’ the voice said with a certain resounding nobility, ‘for I am with you. I have chosen you to write about the experience you will go through.’” (pp 229-230)

When Don wondered why he had been chosen to have this experience, the voice responded,

“’You’ll first experience hell, … to prove to you the reality of evil. You’ve only believed that there was goodness. You must see for yourself that hell is real. And then you can tell others about the awful reality of hell, and about the beautiful glory of heaven.’” (p. 230)

Don then proceeds to give the explicit details of his hellish experience.

(to be continued)