ESPAÑOL: Cómo las Experiencias cercanas a la muerte de personas totalmente ciegas prueban la existencia del espíritu humano

In a recent video, apologist and former atheist Lee Strobel provided five evidences for the existence of the spiritual realm, CBN reports.

While we live in a physical world, we are also part of a spiritual realm that involves Godly angels and demonic ones. Strobel points to verified miracles and unexplained angelic encounter as evidence of this.

But the one that caught attention was his third evidence, Near Death Experiences (NDEs). These occur when people who have died reported their spirits leaving their body and allowing them to watch from above what was happening to them on the operating table. Their spirit returned when their bodies were revived.

The Bible teaches about the existence of the spirit, soul and body. The soul (mind, will and emotions) is created when our spirit merges with a physical body.

At death, our physical body dies, but our spirit continues to live on. This is vividly portrayed in the Jesus’ story about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).

At death Lazarus’ spirit ended up in Abraham’s bosom and the rich man in Hades, a place of suffering.

After death our spirit continues to experience pain and suffering. Both individuals were aware of their circumstances and could converse with others.

Equally important, even though they didn’t have physical eyes, they could still see. We read in verse 23, “And in Hades, as he [the rich man] was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side.”

Of course some would consider this just a folk tale. However, Strobel points to NDEs of the blind as evidence of the existence of our spirit.

“He cited a study of blind people who reported seeing during near-death episodes,” writes James Lasher in his article for Charisma News. “One researcher called it “impossible according to current medical knowledge.” Strobel said these accounts affirm ‘beyond a reasonable doubt that the Bible is telling us the truth — when we die, our spirit does separate from our body.‘”

The study analyzed NDEs of 31 people who were blind. Fourteen were blind from birth. Eleven had been blind since they were five and the remaining six were extremely visually impaired.

Many NDEs defy explanation as people saw things that could only be seen if they were looking down on them.

But do people who are totally blind have similar NDEs when they died. Are they capable of seeing, even though physically they are incapable of this?

The study found that these blind individuals were seeing similar things to people who had full sight. Then oddly, when they returned to their body, they could no longer see.

One of the more intriguing cases involved Vicki. She had been totally blind from birth due to irreversible optic nerve damage. All she saw was total darkness and she couldn’t even understand the concept of light.

She was critically hurt in a car accident and during an emergency operation she died. Though she was revived, Vicki later spoke about how her spirit left her body and she was able to see what was happening to her.

“And it was frightening because I’m not accustomed to see things visually, because I never had before!,” Vicki said.  “And initially it was pretty scary!  And then I finally recognized my wedding ring and my hair. And then I thought: is that my body down there?  Am I dead or what? They kept saying, “We can’t bring her back, we can’t bring her back!” And they were trying to frantically work on this thing that I discovered was my body and I felt very detached from it and sort of “so what?” And I was thinking, what are these people getting so upset about?”

She then described her spirit floating above the hospital and she was able to see the full hospital grounds. She even saw the crumpled remains of the family’s Volkswagen van.

After she awoke, her precise and detailed description of the hospital grounds and their van, defied explanation.

“The fact that somebody who has been blind from birth as a result of an atrophied eyeball and optic nerve…can nonetheless see people and surroundings raises significant questions… How does she do this?  This is impossible according to current medical knowledge.” said Van Lommel one of the study’s researchers.

It’s impossible to explain naturally.

But it is completely explainable with the Bible’s depiction of the spiritual world and existence of the human spirit.