As we find in religion, people who die and have Near Death Experiences also say that God is love. In my study I found that 93 percent said that they agreed with the statement “God is love.”

   But how are we to understand this love? Are we talking about conditional love, unconditional love or something in between? This is a very divisive question in religion and a source of conflict, but it is an area where the Near Death Experience (NDE) has a very important message for religion and the world:

There is no such thing as an angry God. The God force or power that I felt was totally forgiving of any so-called error. In my wildest dreams I cannot conceive of God being interested in punishing. God is interested in bringing us to ‘him’ – to love. Punishment just isn’t God’s game…It’s not who God is, it’s not what God is. God is all loving, all forgiving, all accepting.

   Jayne’s testimony is standard to NDE research and to the statement “God is angry” I found one of the highest levels of consensus in my study with 100 percent saying they disagreed with the statement. Almost eight out of ten, 78 percent, said that they strongly disagreed with the statement based on the experience that God is not angry and this is a key message that people bring back from the Light.

   I put the question whether there is any evidence of an angry God in NDE research to P.M.H. Atwater:   

 I have yet to hear of any experiencer, adult or child, that spoke of an angry God or a God that was upset, or in any way anything but loving and accepting and forgiving. However, I have heard many times of the various greeters that come to great people once they have crossed over to the other side. Some of those can be quite critical. Some of those can be quite strict. Some of those can be rather frightening. Some of those can be like demonic…But as far as the one great light, what you and I would call God; no. Nothing negative, nothing horrific, no anger, no judgment.  

   I included the long answer in the beginning of this chapter not to confuse some readers. It is true that in NDE research we do find negative experiences, or so-called distressing experiences, which happen to about 15 percent of people who have NDEs.

   We also find that hellish experiences, which are described as “truly hellish” happen to about one third of this group and to approximately 5 percent of people who have an NDE. These hell-like experiences can be frightening or even demonic in nature as Atwater explains, and based on this one could jump to the conclusion that this is evidence that God is angry.

   But things are not that simple as the full understanding of the NDE takes a deeper investigation. Just because people have negative or hellish experiences it does not automatic follow that God is angry. The important distinction here is the separation between the Light or God and what Atwater calls the “greeters” in the negative experiences. In NDE research we find a clear separation between the Light and the negative experiences.

   This is of course supported by the fact that NDErs tell us that God is love and not angry, but also through the fact that even the people who have negative or distressing experiences, will say that on a whole their experience was positive.

   In my study I found that all the people, 100 percent, who had distressing elements in their experience, said that the experience on a whole was positive. I also found the same high level of consensus among the NDErs against the statement: “God wants to punish us in hell.” Here 100 percent said that they disagreed, with 85 percent saying that they strongly disagreed with the statement.

   What this points to is the conclusion that the greeter or the negative experience is not the true nature of the Light. For NDErs there is a clear sense that the negative experience and the judgment does not come from the Light or from God.

My experience was of all embracing love, light, acceptance, and I guarantee you on this earth I have not lived the perfect life. But in that space, place, beingness, I was totally accepted and part of it and at one with it. So there was no judgment.

   As Cheryl here explains the Light is all embracing love and acceptance with no judgment. This is the nature of the Light and when we do find judgment in the NDE it seems to come not from the Light but from the person itself:

I did not experience any anger. In my life-review, I experienced a lot of things that I was judging – me – the humanness that came along with me that I hadn’t quite shed yet. Because I think dying is a process and I think that when we re-integrate into that light, it takes a while to distill some of our attitudes and leave it behind. I think we bring some of it with us for a while and I was judging my life’s experiences but my soul family wasn’t. There was no judgment in this light. I was ashamed that they had to experience some of the unsavory things that I had done. But they weren’t, they weren’t judging it. They were experiencing it.       

   Here David clearly has a sense that the judgment was coming from him-self, or as he explains; the humanness he brought along with him into the Light caused him to feel ashamed about his actions that he reviewed in his life-review.

   This experience is general to NDE research and Dr. Bruce Greyson, who has been a researcher for over 30 years, explains that:

Most people don’t have a sense of judgment but those that do usually say that they were judging themselves; that they were guided through a life-review by some type of an unconditional loving being and they themselves felt guilty about disappointing this being or just disappointing themselves.

   The distinction between the Light as unconditional non-judgmental love and then our own judgment can be very hard for some people to understand. 

   In sharing my research, I often receive emails from people that strongly object to the finding that God is not angry. It is easy to label these people fundamentalists and reject them, but as a researcher I try to understand their concerns by listening to their arguments.

   Here is one message that I received from a person that I will keep anonymous:      

I think the Light of God is conscious, not just a blob of unconditional love, it is consciousness and aware and being love and wisdom, and would not want anyone to suffer. Most don't penetrate the light but I am sure it is more aware than any human awareness and represents holiness and goodness, which means it is automatically opposed to evil, cruelty, sin, and abuse.

   I included this e-mail because I think it contains a valid question: how can God seemly be unconscious in the face of cruelty and abuse? I do not think that NDE research agrees with the logical conclusion that because the Light of God is conscious, therefore it is also automatically opposed to evil. Automatically clearly suggest being actively opposed, or as the person explains further: “Part of love is holiness and justice, and I don’t think God is sitting back indifferent to evil.”

   The first assumption here is that because NDErs testify that God is unconditional love, therefore God is unconscious and indifferent to cruelty and abuse. This assumption is based on the lack of distinction between God and the negative experiences – the crucial separation – that we looked at in the beginning of the chapter. Just because God is unconditional non-judgmental love, it does not follow that there are no consequences towards cruelty and abuse.    

   Clearly since people do have negative and distressing experiences that can be very powerful in their frightening or painful nature, it is not a free ride to God. The important distinction here is that while NDErs do have negative experiences these do not seem to originate from the Light or God.

   If we interpret the negative experiences as a consequence, it is fair to conclude that there are consequences in our journey to God. But again, the crucial distinction is that there can be consequences without these consequences being a punishment.