Is God real? In philosophy God can be defined as that which is greater than what can be conceived. So, if we look at science which defines reality as that which we can see or measure we find that only 4 percent of our universe is made up of matter. This leaves 96 percent of our universe as unknown material (dark- matter or energy) and a lot of space for something that cannot be conceived.

   But sense God is suppose to exist in the hereafter let's put the question to people who actually die and have so-called Near Death Experiences weather what they experienced on the other side of death is real:

I am confounded by why people wonder if it’s real. If I were to take an airplane ride and go to another city and then come back, and I said: “I was just visiting so-and-so place,” no one would ask: “Are you sure? Are you sure you went?” And yet, this was much more real than that.

   What Connie expresses here is typical for most people who have a Near Death Experience. The place that they have been to on the other side is as real as anything in this world, and in fact, more real than that; as Melanie describes it, “Beyond anything that can be experienced in this world.”

   This sense that the experience is more real than real, was one of the first things that I focused on in my study. I believe this point to be one of the most important and convincing pieces of evidence since these experiences are testifying about another dimension that is of a higher or bigger reality outside our limited spectrum of reality.

   In my questionnaire, I asked each Near Death Experiencer (NDEr) if they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: “The power of my experience, which is beyond anything that I have ever experienced on earth, made me absolutely sure that my experience was real.”

   More than nine out of ten, 93 percent, said that they either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, and this consensus clearly suggests that we are dealing with a very different and unusual experience.

   As the statement points out, it is the force of the experience that convinces the NDEr beyond any doubt that their experience is real, because the sheer power of the otherworldly dimension that they experience is so overwhelming that it does not leave room for any doubt.

   With this insight I wanted to get closer to understanding the power of the experience, so I asked each NDEr to compare the sensation in their NDE to the sensation of experience here in this dimension on earth.

   Here 78 percent said that the sensation was stronger than here on earth, with 26 percent saying 50 – 100 times stronger than in this dimension, and 53 percent saying a thousand times stronger or beyond description. In the category of a thousand times stronger or beyond, I got statements such as; “beyond my ability to describe,” or it “cannot be measured,” and Priscilla gave this very good explanation that its,

Something that cannot be put into words. Part of the reason for this is that the experience of leaving this dimension and entering another is a very powerful sensation.

   As Priscilla explains; it is the event itself of leaving this world and entering another dimension in the Out-of-Body state that induces such a powerful sensation that cannot be put into words. And while this experience cannot be described exactly in human language, the sheer power of it still speaks so laud that there is no room for doubt in the mind of the experiencer.

   To make a parallel to experience in this dimension, we would have to imagine a state of heightened awareness, e.g. a situation where we almost had an accident. In the moments just before the accident we will experience an extreme sense of heightened awareness and sharpened focus to help us avert the accident. Most of us will have no doubt about the reality of this situation, in fact, some of us may say this moment is more real and even note upon the sense of timelessness.

   This is the sort of sharpened awareness and intensity of sensation that NDErs experience in their NDE, only it is much more powerful than anything in this dimension and this sheer power of the experience is the convincing factor. 

   It is also this convincing power that makes the NDE different from a dream or a hallucination. Given that a dream or hallucination is often used to explain away the NDE, I asked the NDErs to compare their experience to a dream or hallucination. To the statement, “What I experienced could have been a dream or hallucination,” 86 percent said that they either strongly disagreed or disagreed.

   When I turned the question around and asked the NDErs about the following statement: “What I experienced was very different from a dream or hallucination,” I found that 93 percent said that they agreed with 80 percent saying that they strongly agreed.

   From this result, it is very clear to the experiencer that the experience has a distinctive quality, which is unlike anything else in this dimension, and that the experience is not like any dream or hallucination.

   One NDEr puts it like this:

I am convinced that my experience is real. Everyone has had a vivid dream and anyone who is sane can tell the difference between a vivid dream and an experience. Having the experience itself is the convincing factor and that cannot be expressed in words.

   We all know the difference between a dream and reality, maybe not while in the dream but surely after the dream is over and we return to this reality again. It is the same for any sane person having a hallucination. After the hallucination is over, most people will know what is real and what is not. This is the same for people who have NDEs; after coming back NDErs are also able to clearly distinguish their experience from a dream or hallucination.   

   To elaborate on this point and build upon the last insight of the sense of a stronger reality, it is not uncommon to have NDErs suggest that this world is ultimately a dream. Connie tells us that, “It is the most real experience I’ve ever had. It is more real than waking up from a dream here on earth.”

   If we here think about the feeling of waking up from a dream and the exact moment our mind refocuses to distinguish the dream from reality. That is how the NDE is experienced, only this world is the dream and the other dimension is reality, and this is what is meant by the otherworldly and higher-dimensional nature of the NDE.

   There is also another distinguishing factor that separates the NDE from dreams and hallucinations, and that is the fact that most people who have NDEs remember the experience clearly many years after. Where dreams and hallucinations are often forgotten after some time, the memory of the NDE stays clear in the mind of the NDEr many years after.

   Michael confirms this here:

My experience was real to me. It was real to me because eight years later, I still see what I can consciously remember with absolute clarity – the Light, the people, the peace. Clinically dead at the time, I should have no memory at all, but I do – stronger than any waking or dreaming moment.

   When you add the power and intensity of the NDE to the fact that people remember their experience with great clarity many years after, then you have the argument why we should listen to these testimonies. They speak lauder than any other phenomenon known to man, or we could say that God speaks lauder to us through these experiences, and this is a good reason to listen.

   I also asked the NDErs to rate “how real” their experience was to them from 10 to 1000 percent. Here two thirds said more than 100 percent with 53 percent answering “1000%” real. This was of course a trick question to highlight the otherworldly sense of reality as in our normal understanding nothing can be more than 100 percent. However, Russ was cleaver to point out something important, “How can anyone quantify a particular number without anything to compare it to?”

   This is really a central point; that there is nothing else to compare the NDE to in this dimension and this is the reason that a reference to God is often made within this experience. There is simply no other experience or reference point here in this world that compares to what is experienced in the NDE, and therefore, the NDEr is forced to use the realm of God to explain what they have experienced.

   When asked: “What would you describe the core or essence of your experience as,” my study found that 53 percent checked the box with “pure being,” and 60 percent said yes to “essence of existence.” Moving further into trying to put a name on this core or essence, the consensus became even higher with 73 percent agreeing to call it “the Light.” The highest consensus was found through the religious word “God,” where 80 percent agreed to call the core of their experience – the experience of “God.”