Bits and Bites from Around the World > Life After Death, or What? The science says 'Yes'!

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There is life after death: Revived patients share out-of-body

experiences in startling NYU report

By Marc Lallanilla, NYPost

Published Sep. 15, 2023, 4:48 p.m. ET

It’s not a deathbed myth: Our lives really do flash before our eyes when we die, according to a new report from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

“I remember seeing my dad,” said one patient after flatlining.

“I caught glimpses of my life and felt pride, love, joy and sadness, all pouring into me,” recalled another after being pulled back from the brink.

“I do remember a being of light … standing near me. It was looming over me like a great tower of strength, yet radiating only warmth and love,” a third survivor shared.

These and many other haunting recollections were described by cardiac arrest patients who underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation as they hovered on death’s doorstep.

Typically, doctors have assumed there is little to no brain activity after about 10 minutes of cardiac arrest, when the heart stops beating, depriving the brain of oxygen.

However, the new research from NYU turns that misconception on its head.

“There are signs of normal and near normal brain activity found up to an hour into resuscitation,” Dr. Sam Parnia, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, told The Post in a wide-ranging interview.

‘I was shown the consequences of my life, thousands of people that I’d interacted with and felt what they felt about me, saw their life and how I had impacted them. Next I saw the consequences of my life and the influence of my actions.’

The recollection of one revived patient whose identity has been preserved for privacy purposes

“We were not only able to show the markers of lucid consciousness — we were also able to show that these experiences are unique and universal. They’re different from dreams, illusions and delusions.”

Parnia is the lead author of a study published this week in the journal Resuscitation that studied brain activity and awareness among 53 patients who survived cardiac arrest at 25 hospitals, mostly in the US and UK.

The researchers were able to show that the brain is surprisingly more durable than most doctors had previously believed.

“Our brain is very robust” and “is more resilient to oxygen deprivation” than expected, said Parnia, adding that the organ “can restore itself and have markers of normal brain activity.”

Of the 53 surviving patients in the study, almost 40% reported having memories or conscious thoughts. Patients in the study asked that their identities not be revealed for privacy reasons.

The patients also had spikes in the gamma, delta, theta, alpha and beta brain waves associated with higher mental function, as recorded by an electroencephalogram, a technology that records brain activity with electrodes.

People who flatlined for up to an hour often experienced “lucid dying,” according to study author Dr. Sam Parnia.

Getty Images/ABSODELS RF

‘I was no longer in my body. I floated without weight or physicality. I was above my body and directly below the ceiling of the intensive therapy room. I observed the scene taking place below me.’

Anonymous patient

“There is a narrative arc in people who are having a near-death experience,” Parnia said of the common themes that survivors recalled. “Their consciousness becomes heightened, more vivid and more sharp.”

One of the most common shared experiences among people who have been revived following cardiac arrest is a 360-degree awareness of the space around them.

“In death, they have a perception that they are separate from their body,” Parnia said, “and then they can move around. But they’re in that [hospital] room and they’re gathering information. They felt that they were fully conscious.”

In that state of awareness, they’re often observing doctors and nurses working to save their lives, but their observation is completely placid and free of fear or distress.

Resuscitation survival rates are frustratingly low, in part because technologies haven’t advanced much since CPR was invented in 1960. “I could feel someone doing something on my chest. I couldn’t feel the actual compressions, but I could feel someone rubbing quite hard,” one revived patient told NYU researchers. “It was quite painful.”

sopiangraphics – stock.adobe.com

‘I remember walking away through a canyon. On either side of the canyon were men in white robes with hoods hiding their faces. The last thing I remember was all of them pointing to me.’

Another revived patient who ‘died’ and was brought back to life

And, yes, many people actually do see their lives pass before their eyes, much like in stories from folklore and popular media.

“Somehow in death their entire life comes to the fore,” said Parnia. “It’s a deep, purposeful and meaningful reevaluation of their lives.”

This review of their lives isn’t in any particular order, Parnia said, but more of a dive into morality and ethics. “It’s not a chronology. It’s a purposeful reevaluation of the things that we strive for in life, like a promotion at work.

“What becomes a primary reality is how we treat other people,” added Parnia, who is also director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone Health. “It’s not random flashbacks. There’s so much more.”

Another common theme is the sense of arriving at a place that feels utterly familiar: home. “Somewhere that they feel they recognize, and are going back to. They continue on the rest of this journey to a place that they feel is like home,” Parnia said.

“What’s interesting is that this is universal, in the US and in other countries.”

Science doesn’t yet fully understand how or why these common experiences occur, but Parnia believes the brain’s normal operating focus, which gets us through the day, becomes relaxed and “disinhibited” during near-death experiences.

Lead study author Parnia (center) consults with colleagues at NYU Langone Health.

NYU LANGONE

‘I was asked if I wanted to come home … or wanted to come back here. I told them that my two sons needed me and I had to go back. I was suddenly in my body again feeling my achy joints flaring in pain.’

Anonymous patient

“Normally, there are braking systems that keep us from accessing all aspects of our brain,” Parnia explained. “The rest of the functions of your brain are dampened.”

But, “as the brain shuts down, as a defense mechanism to preserve itself [during cardiac arrest], the brakes are off.”

That sounds completely contradictory to me. But then, what do I know?

That’s when people “get activation of other parts of the brain that have been dormant. You get access to your entire consciousness and things that you normally can’t access, all of your emotions, feelings, thoughts and memories.

“These are not hallucinations. These are very real experiences that occur in death,” Parnia added.

The research being conducted at NYU Langone Health and other research centers represents a breakthrough in resuscitation, a specialty that has lagged behind other areas of medical research.

Life after death

“Somehow in death their entire life comes to the fore,” said Parnia of reports from patients who survived death experiences. “It’s a deep, purposeful and meaningful reevaluation of their lives.”

Getty Images

Resuscitation survival rates are frustratingly low, Parnia explained. “Our survival rate is not very good,” in part because technologies haven’t advanced much since 1960, when CPR was invented. “That’s how we feel in the world of resuscitation.”

Meanwhile, he and others now hope “we finally managed to understand what happens in death.”

Well, that is a vast overstatement. But keep working.

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Will Religion Ever Disappear? She Asked

The lighting of a cross during the Christian Los Escobazos Festival in Spain,
celebrating the conception of the Virgin Mary

It's a valid question and one that Rachel Nuwer ultimately answers correctly for all the wrong reasons. Her errant path began with the very question she asks, 'will religion ever disappear'? The question assumes, and she later verifies this, that religion is a human construct. That 'we made God' rather than 'He made us'. For if God really exists, then religion can never disappear. But if God is a human construct, then it's possible for it to die out.

Nowhere in the article does she give any hint that there might be 'something' real in religion. Consequently, all her excellent questions are directed to scientists and philosophers, only one theologian was consulted. So, I ask you, if you were writing an article on doctors or race car drivers, wouldn't you at least talk to a few doctors or race car drivers? Not Rachel! She must assume that they are all stupid, deceived, brain-washed, or nuts.

So, as one of those nuts, I will address some of her questions, and some of the responses to her questions below. Come along, and see if you agree with them or me.

Rachel Nuwer

Atheism is on the rise around the world, so does that mean spirituality will soon be a thing of the past? Rachel Nuwer discovers that the answer is far from simple.

A growing number of people, millions worldwide, say they believe that life definitively ends at death – that there is no God, no afterlife and no divine plan. And it’s an outlook that could be gaining momentum – despite its lack of cheer. In some countries, openly acknowledged atheism has never been more popular.

“There’s absolutely more atheists around today than ever before, both in sheer numbers and as a percentage of humanity,” says Phil Zuckerman, a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and author of Living the Secular Life. According to a Gallup International survey of more than 50,000 people in 57 countries, the number of individuals claiming to be religious fell from 77% to 68% between 2005 and 2011, while those who self-identified as atheist rose by 3% – bringing the world’s estimated proportion of adamant non-believers to 13%.

While atheists certainly are not the majority, could it be that these figures are a harbinger of things to come? Assuming global trends continue might religion someday disappear entirely?

It’s impossible to predict the future, but examining what we know about religion – including why it evolved in the first place, and why some people chose to believe in it and others abandon it – can hint at how our relationship with the divine might play out in decades or centuries to come.

A priest in Ukraine holds a cross
 in the ruins of Kiev's Trade Union
 building earlier this year 

Scholars are still trying to tease out the complex factors that drive an individual or a nation toward atheism, but there are a few commonalities. Part of religion’s appeal is that it offers security in an uncertain world. So not surprisingly, nations that report the highest rates of atheism tend to be those that provide their citizens with relatively high economic, political and existential stability. “Security in society seems to diminish religious belief,” Zuckerman says. Capitalism, access to technology and education also seems to correlate with a corrosion of religiosity in some populations, he adds.

This well-known phenomenon is absolutely true! The more confident we are in ourselves and our country, the less we need God. Consequently, God has to break us of our self-confidence in order for us to see that we need Him to direct our lives.

Crisis of faith

Japan, the UK, Canada, South Korea, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, France and Uruguay (where the majority of citizens have European roots) are all places where religion was important just a century or so ago, but that now report some of the lowest belief rates in the world. These countries feature strong educational and social security systems, low inequality and are all relatively wealthy. “Basically, people are less scared about what might befall them,” says Quentin Atkinson, a psychologist at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Yemeni girls show their hands decorated with traditional
 henna designs as they celebrate the end of Ramadan

Yet decline in belief seems to be occurring across the board, including in places that are still strongly religious, such as Brazil, Jamaica and Ireland. “Very few societies are more religious today than they were 40 or 50 years ago,” Zuckerman says. “The only exception might be Iran, but that’s tricky because secular people might be hiding their beliefs.”

The US, too, is an outlier in that it is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but also has high rates of religiosity. (Still, a recent Pew survey revealed that, between 2007 and 2012, the proportion of Americans who said they are atheist rose from 1.6% to 2.4%.) That's a 50% increase but really, is it worth even mentioning?

Decline, however, does not mean disappearance, says Ara Norenzayan, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and author of Big Gods. Existential security is more fallible than it seems. In a moment, everything can change: a drunk driver can kill a loved one; a tornado can destroy a town; a doctor can issue a terminal diagnosis. As climate change wreaks havoc on the world in coming years and natural resources potentially grow scarce, then suffering and hardship could fuel religiosity. “People want to escape suffering, but if they can’t get out of it, they want to find meaning,” Norenzayan says. “For some reason, religion seems to give meaning to suffering – much more so than any secular ideal or belief that we know of.”

In the Philippines, survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan
march during a religious procession

Excellent observation! Although he appears confounded by the concept. Of course I can speak only for Christians, the world's biggest religion, but here is why suffering has meaning for Christians. We are all born as sinners, I'm sorry, Rachel, but it's true. As sinners we can have a relationship with God by accepting His Son, Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Sometimes we have to be backed up against a wall before we are willing to admit that we need God. When we do we not only have a relationship with God but we become destined for Heaven rather than Hell. Good perk!

Now, when we make Jesus Lord of our life, He comes in and starts cleaning up the filth that we have been living in up till then. This cleaning process is painful. The filth actually puts up a fight and doesn't want to leave, so sometimes God has to get a little violent with it, which He will only do if we let Him.

Hirohito Emperor of Japan

This phenomenon constantly plays out in hospital rooms and disaster zones around the world. In 2011, for example, a massive earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand – a highly secular society. There was a sudden spike of religiosity in the people who experienced that event, but the rest of the country remained as secular as ever. While exceptions to this rule do exist – religion in Japan plummeted following World War II, for instance – for the most part, Zuckerman says, we adhere by the Christchurch model. “If experiencing something terrible caused all people to become atheists, then we’d all be atheists,” he says.  Religion fell in Japan after WWII because they believed Emperor Hirohito was a god, and could not be defeated. When he was defeated their faith in him quite properly evaporated.

The mind of god

But even if the world’s troubles were miraculously (strange choice of words for an athiest) solved and we all led peaceful lives in equity, religion would probably still be around. This is because a god-shaped hole seems to exist in our species’ neuropsychology, thanks to a quirk of our evolution.

I was truly stunned when I read this - a god-shaped hole in us! Christians have known that for a long time, but for secular people to recognize it is mind-bending. A quirk of our evolution? Or maybe your theories on evolution need some tweaking. 

A rabbi reads during Purim festivities

Understanding this requires a delve into “dual process theory”. This psychological staple states that we have two very basic forms of thought: System 1 and System 2. System 2 evolved relatively recently. It’s the voice in our head – the narrator who never seems to shut up – that enables us to plan and think logically.

System 1, on the other hand, is intuitive, instinctual and automatic. These capabilities regularly develop in humans, regardless of where they are born. They are survival mechanisms. So then why is it they evolved relatively recently, and how did we manage to survive without it? System 1 bestows us with an innate revulsion of rotting meat, allows us to speak our native language without thinking about it and gives babies the ability to recognise parents and distinguish between living and nonliving objects. It makes us prone to looking for patterns to better understand our world, and to seek meaning for seemingly random events like natural disasters or the death of loved ones.

An Indian Sikh lights candles during
Bandi Chhor Divas, or Diwali

In addition to helping us navigate the dangers of the world and find a mate, some scholars think that System 1 also enabled religions to evolve and perpetuate. System 1, for example, makes us instinctually primed to see life forces – a phenomenon called hypersensitive agency detection – everywhere we go, regardless of whether they’re there or not. 

Millennia ago, that tendency probably helped us avoid concealed danger, such as lions crouched in the grass or venomous snakes concealed in the bush. But it also made us vulnerable to inferring the existence of invisible agents – whether they took the form of a benevolent god watching over us, an unappeased ancestor punishing us with a drought or a monster lurking in the shadows.

Similarly, System 1 encourages us to see things dualistically, meaning we have trouble thinking of the mind and body as a single unit. This tendency emerges quite early: young children, regardless of their cultural background, are inclined to believe that they have an immortal soul – that their essence or personhood existed somewhere prior to their birth, and will always continue to exist. This disposition easily assimilates into many existing religions, or – with a bit of creativity – lends itself to devising original constructs. 

That young children of diverse backgrounds believe this on their own, without being taught, ought to make you ask why, and how. Children instinctively know things that we adults are confounded over. They know because that God-shaped vacuum in them is not empty until we convince them that God doesn't really exist, like Santa Claus.

“A Scandinavian psychologist colleague of mine who is an atheist told me that his three-year-old daughter recently walked up to him and said, ‘God is everywhere all of the time.’ He and his wife couldn’t figure out where she’d gotten that idea from,” says Justin Barrett, director of the Thrive Center for Human Development at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and author of Born Believers. “For his daughter, god was an elderly woman, so you know she didn’t get it from the Lutheran church.” The 3 year old has no motive for or against God, like her father does; so she can just speak the truth.

For all of these reasons, many scholars believe that religion arose as “a byproduct of our cognitive disposition”, says Robert McCauley, director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Culture at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and author of Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not. “Religions are cultural arrangements that evolved to engage and exploit these natural capacities in humans.” Cultural arrangements! I don't think the 3 year old above was subject to any cultural arrangement.

Hard habits to break

Atheists must fight against all of that cultural and evolutionary baggage. Human beings naturally want to believe that they are a part of something bigger, that life isn’t completely futile. Our minds crave purpose and explanation. “With education, exposure to science and critical thinking, people might stop trusting their intuitions,” Norenzayan says. “But the intuitions are there.” People might stop trusting their intuitions, especially if they are being educated by atheists. 

Azerbaijani Muslims pray at the end of Ramadan

On the other hand, science – the system of choice that many atheists and non-believers look to for understanding the natural world – is not an easy cognitive pill to swallow. Science is about correcting System 1 biases, McCauley says. We must accept that the Earth spins, even though we never experience that sensation for ourselves. We must embrace the idea that evolution is utterly indifferent and that there is no ultimate design or purpose to the Universe, even though our intuition tells us differently. We also find it difficult to admit that we are wrong, to resist our own biases and to accept that truth as we understand it is ever changing as new empirical data are gathered and tested – all staples of science. Sounds a lot like brain-washing to me!“Science is cognitively unnatural – it’s difficult,” McCauley says. “Religion, on the other hand, is mostly something we don’t even have to learn because we already know it.” In other words, it's natural, which makes anti-religion unnatural. It's much easier to learn the truth if it is natural, than to learn a lie that is unnatural.

“There’s evidence that religious thought is the path of least resistance,” Barrett adds. “You’d have to fundamentally change something about our humanity to get rid of religion.” This biological sticking point probably explains the fact that, although 20% of Americans are not affiliated with a church, 68% of them say that they still believe in God and 37% describe themselves as spiritual. Even without organised religion, they believe that some greater being or life force guides the world.

Similarly, many around the world who explicitly say they don’t believe in a god still harbour superstitious tendencies, like belief in ghosts, astrology, karma, telepathy or reincarnation. “In Scandinavia, most people say they don’t believe in God, but paranormal and superstitious beliefs tend to be higher than you’d think,” Norenzayan says. In Sweden, most people no longer believe in God but still attend church services and pay the church tax. Curious, huh?

Buddhist monks file to a ceremony
 at Sampov Treileak pagoda, Cambodia

Additionally, non-believers often lean on what could be interpreted as religious proxies – sports teams, yoga, professional institutions, Mother Nature and more – to guide their values in life. As a testament to this, witchcraft is gaining popularity in the US, and paganism seems to be the fastest growing religion in the UK.

Religious experiences for non-believers can also manifest in other, more bizarre ways. Anthropologist Ryan Hornbeck, also at the Thrive Center for Human Development, found evidence that the World of Warcraft is assuming spiritual importance for some players in China, for example. “WoW seems to be offering opportunities to develop certain moral traits that regular life in contemporary society doesn’t afford,” Barrett says. “People seem to have this conceptual space for religious thought, which – if it’s not filled by religion – bubbles up in surprising ways.”

The in-group

What’s more, religion promotes group cohesion and cooperation. Really, have you ever been to a church board meeting? The threat of an all-powerful God (or gods) watching for anyone who steps out of line likely helped to keep order in ancient societies. “This is the supernatural punishment hypothesis,” Atkinson says. “If everyone believes that the punishment is real, then that can be functional to groups.”

And again, insecurity and suffering in a population may play a role here, by helping to encourage religions with stricter moral codes. In a recent analysis of religious belief systems of nearly 600 traditional societies from around the world, Joseph Bulbulia at the University of Wellington, New Zealand and his colleagues found that those places with harsher weather or that are more prone to natural disasters were more likely to develop moralising gods. Why? Helpful neighbours could mean the difference between life and death. In this context, religion evolved as a valuable public utility.

“When we see something so pervasive, something that emerges so quickly developmentally and remains persistent across cultures, then it makes sense that the leading explanation is that it served a cooperative function,” says Bulbulia. Or, maybe it is not a human construct at all.

Finally, there’s also some simple mathematics behind religion’s knack for prevailing. Across cultures, people who are more religious also tend to have more children than people who are not. “There’s very strong evidence for this,” Norenzayan says. “Even among religious people, the more fundamentalist ones usually have higher fertility rates than the more liberal ones.” Add to that the fact that children typically follow their parents’ lead when it comes to whether or not they become religious adults themselves, and a completely secularised world seems ever more unlikely. And yet, fewer and fewer people are having children.

One would think that if religious people have more children and children tend to follow their parents belief system, that religion would be booming instead of diminishing. Your mathematics works against you.

Enduring belief

For all of these reasons – psychological, neurological, historical, cultural and logistical – experts guess that religion will probably never go away. Religion, whether it’s maintained through fear or love, is highly successful at perpetuating itself. If not, it would no longer be with us.

And even if we lose sight of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu gods and all the rest, superstitions and spiritualism will almost certainly still prevail. More formal religious systems, meanwhile, would likely only be a natural disaster or two away. “Even the best secular government can’t protect you from everything,” says McCauley. As soon as we found ourselves facing an ecological crisis, a global nuclear war or an impending comet collision, the gods would emerge. 

The God does not emerge. Like the 3 year old said, 'God is everywhere'! What happens during crises is that our priorities change and our perspective enlarges beyond our measly little lives, and we begin to see things as they really are, because we are willing to see the truth for a change. You can never know the truth when you are not willing to see it. 

“Humans need comfort in the face of pain and suffering, and many need to think that there’s something more after this life, that they’re loved by an invisible being,” Zuckerman says. “There will always be people who believe, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they remain the majority.” 

Jesus was not an invisible being. He was God and He was man. He still is both. That you ignore the many miracles that He performed and the words He spoke that could only have come from the perspective of the very Creator of the universe, makes it quite obvious that you are not willing to know the truth. It doesn't fit into your perilously narrow, scientific construct, so it must be wrong!

For true Christians, God is not operating in our imagination, He is very real. We communicate with Him. He frequently answers prayers in ways that are impossible for anyone but God. At times you can sense His presence in a most powerful way. He has proven Himself to us over and over, else why would hundreds of millions of people be willing to die as martyrs for Jesus Christ. They certainly wouldn't for some imaginary, invisible friend.

In so refusing to open your minds, you miss the entire point of life, the very reason we are here.

Gus, Apostle to the Andes

This is a brief, but remarkable story of a friend of mine whom God used in a most amazing way. Gus does not call himself an apostle, it is a title of respect bestowed upon him by South Americans.

La Paz, Bolivia

Gus Schlamp, was born in Swift Current Saskatchewan in November of 1941, but was raised in the small logging town of Vanderhoof, in central British Columbia, Canada. He remained in Vanderhoof and worked in the forest industry for twenty five years, and another two years in Edson, Alberta. From that humble beginning, Gus could never have imagined that he would one day be responsible, in partnership with God, for delivering the Gospel to 7,000,000 people.

Life was good for Gus. He met and married a beautiful woman named Martha, and they soon began having children.

One Saturday Gus was in town where he bumped into an acquaintance who was a night watchman at a sawmill. They weren't that acquainted with each other, but they knew each other somewhat and had a casual chat.

Monday morning, while Gus was working in the bush, word came from town that the mill where this man was a watchman burned down. And the night watchman died of a heart attack. He was somewhere in his 50s, but he dropped dead.

Gus Schlamp and some schoolchildren

This really shook Gus up as he began to question the meaning of life and the meaning of death. His questions soon led him to the Bible where he found the answers and committed his life to Jesus Christ. Gus was 31 when received the assurance of salvation; he had been married about ten years.

Meanwhile, God had already brought Gus's neighbour into his wife's life. She was an on-fire Christian and soon led Mrs Schlamp to Jesus, and then to church. Gus had attended church as a youth but it was not an evangelical church and Gus found little real relevance in what he learned there. So with both Gus and his wife becoming new Christians, they decided to find a church, but not the one Gus attended as a child. They went to the church their on-fire neighbour attended and they got lit-up.

They started a Sunday evening sing along with the young people from his former church, which eventually developed into an Evangelical church. Gus's good life got even better than he could have imagined. It wasn’t long before he decided to go to Bible College. He graduated from Prairie Bible Institute in beautiful, downtown Three Hills, Alberta, in 1980. He then returned to his first occupation – logging. Soon, child number six was born.

Alas, life is never one filled with long periods of great joy and happiness. Times of testing come upon us bringing great difficulties into our lives, sometimes they come from the most unlikely source.

Gus's wife bought a really nice skirt, one day; it fit her beautiful figure very flatteringly. Gus loved it. It had a slit up one side that revealed a little leg. She looked fantastic in it. Unfortunately, her neighbour's husband thought so too and complained to his wife that he was being tempted by her appearance in that skirt with the slit.

The neighbour, the very one who led her to the Lord, rebuked Martha for tempting her husband. Where I come from, this is often called mis-placed anger - she probably should have rebuked her husband for not looking away. Or, perhaps she was jealous that her husband admired her neighbour so much. Or, perhaps she was jealous that she didn't look as good as the woman who had 6 kids.

Vanderhoof, British Columbia

A gentle word, I'm sure, and Martha might have made sure to not where the skirt around the neighbour's husband. Nevertheless, Martha disposed of the skirt, never wearing it again. That unfortunate incident began to erode her enthusiasm toward church.

One day, Gus and Martha found a bottle raspberry juice that had fermented, and they drank it. That was so much fun that they began buying wine and drinking it. Over time the drinking increased. As the drinking increased, the fun decreased, and Gus would often find his wife staying up late rather than praying together and going to bed with him. If he had only gone out to her and encouraged her to come to bed, things might have worked out very differently; but he didn't, and since they no longer prayed together the two grew farther and farther apart.

Okanagan Lake at Summerland

Gus’ marital relationship deteriorated over the years to the point of an official divorce in the year 2000, after which he retired. But divorce and retirement left Gus experiencing a very lonely and empty life. He moved to Summerland, in southern British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, but just continued to spiral downhill. He began to contemplate suicide. Then he began to plan his suicide.

There was a large sign on the side of the highway not far from where Gus lived. He decided that if he hit that sign on his motorcycle at about 100 mph, it would decapitate him instantly and he would hardly feel a thing.

Before Gus could exercise his plan, the Lord opened his eyes and heart through Job 2:9. Then he understood what Job’s wife meant when she said to Job: “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” What he understood her to say was, “Why don’t you do yourself in”? At that point Gus understood that if he was to take his life into his own hands he would be cursing God. Gus had enough fear of the Lord that he did not want to curse God. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." Prov 9:10.

(In the Bible, the word translated “fear” can mean several things. It can refer to the terror one feels in a frightening situation (Deuteronomy 2:25). It can mean “respect” in the way a servant fears his master and serves him faithfully (Joshua 24:14). Fear can also denote the reverence or awe a person feels in the presence of greatness (Isaiah 6:5). The fear of the Lord is a combination of all of these.)

Gus abandoned his suicide plan and decided to start over and build a new life. He didn’t feel that he had a right to start another relationship, so he looked at other options. He thought about moving away, but as his relationship with the Lord was improving, Gus struggled with his motives for wanting to leave, but then God pointed him to Isaiah 49:13 and on:

"Sing, O heavens!

Be joyful, O earth!

And break out in singing, O mountains!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

And will have mercy on His afflicted."

Isa 49:14  But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." 

Isa 49:15  "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 

Isa 49:16  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. 

Isa 49:17  Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you. 

Isa 49:18  Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the LORD, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does. 

Isa 49:19  "Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land-- surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. 

Isa 49:20  The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: 'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.' 

Isa 49:21  Then you will say in your heart: 'Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?'" 

Isa 49:22  Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

This seemed to be loaded with purpose and promises to Gus.

With the Lord now directing his path, Gus didn’t move down the road, or to another part of B.C., He decided that he was going to start over in another country, Gus investigated Costa Rica but found no opportunities. So, he ended up moving to Bolivia where he bought ‘farm’ land consisting of 247 acres of heavy jungle, with a river bordering the north end, and a lake on the south end. He then bought a bulldozer and built seven kms of road to the property.

The first year he lived in a tent under a straw roof in the yard of the people from whom he bought the land. After the road was built and some clearing done, Gus built his house, shop and garage all under one large metal roof. He then started clearing the jungle and planting rice. He also had some pasture with cattle.

Mud is a problem on the mostly dirt
roads, especially in rainy season

During his time on the farm, Gus attended a Spanish church in a village called Santa Maria, 20 kms away. But to get there he had to reach the main highway, which meant crossing the river by ferry for the first 2 1⁄2 years before a nice bridge was built.

For about six years, Gus developed his farm quite successfully, but during this time he became rather concerned about the salvation of the many children throughout Bolivia. When he would see children the question that would always come to mind was this: “What opportunity will these children ever have to come to know God and His eternal salvation?”

The Lord developed that question to a very specific call and led Gus into His ministry to bring the Word of God to all the public schools throughout Bolivia.

During those six years, Gus found that he had some of the Lord’s funds on hand, tithe money that he hadn't yet disbursed, and he did not know where to designate it. Then it came to mind that he should purchase some children’s Bible story books and give one to each family in his church. He did.

After that, he felt like the Lord was saying, (that’s fine but there are more children). So he thought maybe he should do this to other churches as well. But then the question came to mind saying, “Gus, why do you only think of the children in church?”

That question hit fairly hard because Gus felt that the Lord wanted him to do this over all of Bolivia, and that was a much bigger project than he could even imagine. There were so many questions like; where would the material come from, where would the funds come from to purchase the material, how would it get distributed, what material should be distributed?

Gus went around this tree while road-making

While thinking on all this the Lord gave him the Bible verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls you who also will do it”. By now you have probably figured out that Gus doesn’t do anything half-way; perhaps that’s why God chose him for this great challenge. So, Gus sold his farm and all that he had and bought a vehicle to transport the material. He also purchased two apartments for rental purposes to generate some income, and he rented a room together with a secure car garage in the city of Santa Cruz.

Then he ordered 500 children’s Bible Story Books from Ohio, USA for $700.  Gus distributed these to schoolchildren and teachers in a town north of Santa Cruz called Rurenabaque where he had done a survey to get an idea of the number of students in schools. Gus was very excited to have received such a holy calling, and determined to not give God a divided heart which meant sell everything and go into this full time.

After some time, a friend came from Paraguay with some Scripture material and asked Gus if he could store it in his garage for a while. Two weeks later, the friend asked if Gus had looked at the material yet which he had not, but as he looked at it he knew immediately this was exactly what he needed, and it just happened to be in his garage.

This was enough to give him a really good start. Montero was a smaller town North of Santa Cruz where he knew a pastor who was very excited about this mission. He would provide him with a bed for the night and also arrange for either himself or another pastor to go with him for the day as he distributed the booklets. During this process he met up with many pastors, and this is where he met with Rene Estevez Ordonez who worked on the project until 2011.

Following up on where the material came from, Gus found that David Klassen from Canada was instrumental in directing the material to Paraguay from World Missionary Press and was more than willing to arrange for them to receive this material as well.

Gus soon realized that his funds would run out and that funds would have to come in from outside sources. Therefore, he felt the need to make himself accountable somehow and, so, developed a board of directors consisting of some Canadians and some Bolivianos.

He also realized that support would likely come from Canada and, so, he also formed a board in Canada consisting of persons who have been in Bolivia and have seen the work first hand. Since then they have become a charitable organization known as Next Generation Ministries Inc. (NGM).

NGM is committed to the following ministries in Bolivia:

Bolivian Board

1. Presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every school, student and teacher.

2. Work together with evangelical pastors to bring this about.

3. Supply each student with the Word of God.

4. Supply each teacher with Bible study booklets.

5. Encourage these helping pastors to follow up on all these students and teachers.

The country's schools only go to grade six. This means that every six years they will all be new students. So it would be good to cover Bolivia every three to six years.

What do the materials consist of and how are they produced?

The material is in booklet form and it is mostly Scripture. Actually it is the Bible in condensed form with all the major doctrines of the Gospel. They are printed and shipped for free from WMP (World Missions Press).

   

This is the cover and second page of the booklet.

NGM’s access to Bibles has been very limited, but when they have Bibles or New Testaments they try to leave at least one with each school and, if possible, one with each teacher. Their next shipment is going to have 1,250,000 Scripture Booklets.

What has happened as a result of this mission in Bolivia?

Since this mission started in 2005 the gospel has been presented to more than 7,000,000 teachers and students, and may soon exceed 10,000,000. Every schoolchild in Bolivia and every teacher has received the booklet. Today NGM has workers in the cities of Cobija, Trinidad, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, La Paz and Sucre.

Recently the door has opened to Peru, but with the existing mission, they are not able to use funds that are given to NGM for the work in Peru.

NGM has contacted WMP who are prepared to ship a small container to Lima, Peru, if Gus can coordinate the work there to unload and distribute the material. As of this writing, WMP is contemplating the shipment of a container to Lima.

This container of Scripture booklets is to be placed into the hands of the Assemblies of God, which is a very large organization in Peru. Gus spoke to a leading pastor in Lima who told him that he has the oversight of 6,000 pastors in Peru. So, it appears that they have all their workers in place and will make good use of the material, with God’s blessing.

It is just amazing how God can use one humble but determined man to begin and run a work whereby the Gospel reaches 10,000,000 people – perhaps an entire generation of an entire country have the opportunity to receive the assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Is it any wonder that they call him the Apostle to the Andes.

But Gus would want to make sure you know that this is not a story about him; it’s a story of what God can do, and he would give Him all the glory which is right. But I would like to point out that for God to glorify Himself He needs servants who listen, are willing, have faith, and are courageous. Gus is such a man. God bless him.

If you would like to be a part of this incredible ministry, please visit NGM’s website: http://nexgenerationbolivia.org

 You also have the opportunity to support NGM’s Supplier: www.wmpress.org

4th Century Depiction of Jesus Found in Spain

Archaeologists in Spain say they have found one of the world's earliest known images of Jesus. It is engraved on a glass plate dating back to the 4th Century AD, reports from Spain say.

The plate is believed to have been used to hold Eucharistic bread as it was consecrated in early Christian rituals. It measures 22cm in diameter and fragments of it were unearthed outside the southern Spanish city of Linares, ABC newspaper reports.

Scientists working for the FORVM MMX project found it inside a building used for religious worship in what remains of the ancient town of Castulo. The find made scientists "review the chronology of early Christianity in Spain", FORVM MMX project director Marcelo Castro told El Mundo newspaper. Maybe Paul did make it to Spain as some believe. The 4th century would be only about 300 years after the Crucifixion of Jesus, and perhaps less than that after the death of Paul.

The pieces were in an excellent state of preservation - 81% of its original area has now been pieced together by scientists.

Hands holding an ancient plate

In the image, Jesus Christ is flanked by two apostles, believed to be Peter and Paul. "The scene takes place in the celestial orb, framed between two palm trees, which in Christian iconography represent immortality, the afterlife and heaven, among other things," ABC writes.

El Mundo notes that Christ looks very different from later depictions: he has no beard, his hair is not too long and he is wearing a philosopher's toga.

Reconstruction of images on plate

German Scientists at Prestigious University Prove There is Life After Death

I wouldn't normally post stories like this, but since it came from what appears to be a very reliable source, I'm making an exception. Technische Universität of Berlin, or Berlin Technical University was founded in 1879 and has produced no less than 10 Nobel Prize winners.

None of the major news networks are reporting it, but Sunnewsonline, IndiaToday, and dozens of lesser sites. I can't swear to it's integrity, but I'm making it available anyway. So treat it with skepticism until there is more verification or debunking.

Near-death experiences have been hypothesized in various medical journals
in the past, as having the characteristics of hallucinations, but Dr Ackermann
and his team, on the contrary, consider them as evidence for the existence
of the afterlife and of a form of dualism between mind and body.

Berlin| A team of psychologists and medical doctors associated with the Technische Universität of Berlin, have announced this morning that they had proven by clinical experimentation, the existence of some form of life after death. This astonishing announcement is based on the conclusions of a study using a new type of medically supervised near-death experiences, that allow patients to be clinically dead for almost 20 minutes before being brought back to life.

Technische Universität of Berlin

This controversial process that was repeated on 944 volunteers (where did they find them?) over the last four years, necessitates a complex mixture of drugs including epinephrine and dimethyltryptamine, destined to allow the body to survive the state of clinical death and the reanimation process without damage. The body of the subject was then put into a temporary comatic state induced by a mixture of other drugs which had to be filtered by ozone from his blood during the reanimation process 18 minutes later. American death penalty administrators are you reading this?

The extremely long duration of the experience was only recently made possible by the development of a new cardiopulmonary recitation (CPR) machine called the AutoPulse. This type of equipment has already been used over the last few years, to reanimate people who had been dead for somewhere between 40 minutes to an hour.

Dr Berthold Ackermann Technische Universität of Berlin

The team of scientists led by Dr Berthold Ackermann, has monitored the operations and have compiled the testimonies of the subjects. Although there are some slight variations from one individual to another, all of the subjects have some memories of their period of clinical death and a vast majority of them described some very similar sensations.

Most common memories include a feeling of detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of an overwhelming light.
The scientists say that they are well aware that many of their conclusions could shock a lot of people, like the fact that the religious beliefs of the various subjects seems to have held no incidence at all, on the sensations and experiences that they described at the end of the experiment. Indeed, the volunteers counted in their ranks some members are a variety of Christian churches, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and atheists. Fascinating!

“I know our results could disturb the beliefs of many people” says Mr Ackermann. “But in a way, we have just answered one of the greatest questions in the history of mankind, so I hope these people will be able to forgive us. Yes, there is life after death and it looks like this applies to everyone.”