People who die and have so-called Near Death Experiences report experiences of both Heaven and Hell, and by looking deeper into the research of these experiences beyond death we can learn a lot about both places. A quick look on the internet at the International Association for Near Death Studies’ website tells us that,

As with the pleasurable NDE, distressing NDEs seem to occur about equally to people of both genders and of all ages, educational levels, socioeconomic levels, sexual orientations, spiritual beliefs, religious affiliations, and life experiences.

   Here the group of pleasurable NDEs contains heaven-like experiences like Piper’s NDE and distressing NDEs contain so-called hell-like or hellish experiences, which in religious terms would mean the people going to hell. But as we here find in NDE research, there is no mention of Jesus as the only way since experiences of both heaven and hell happen equally to people of all walks of life and religious beliefs.

   We also find a vide difference in the content of the NDE based on cultural differences. Where a person in a Christian culture sometimes will meet, or claim to have met Jesus, a person in another culture with a different religious background will meet another religious figure and have a very different experience.

   One example is the study of eleven NDEs from Thailand published by Todd Murphey in 1999, where we find that instead of Jesus or a Christian fellowship, it is the Lord Buddha and the Buddhist Lord of Death, Yama or his servant Yamatoot, that people meet.

   One testimony explains that,

Finally I came to a temple wall. The Yamatoot took me to a large gate where I saw a monk giving a sermon to a group of elderly men and women. I made the formal gesture of respect to the Monk, and as I did so, I realized that the truth and highest form of help was to be found in The Lord Buddha.

   Here we see many of the specific aspects of Buddhism integrated into the experience through the concepts of a temple wall, a Monk and the Lord Buddha. These contents of the Thai NDE are very clearly specific to the Buddhist culture in Thailand.

   Also if we look at how these Thai NDEs are experiencing heaven, we will find that the description of heaven is very different than what we find in the Bible: 

The Yamatoot took me up 27 levels. I saw many beautiful things in heaven. There were lovely pavilions in heaven, where jewelry littered the ground. I could not see anyone there. The Yamatoot told me that the people in heaven were arupa [formless] beings, and thus, were invisible. I heard monks chanting the Pali recitation "Shina Bahnchorn" [The Buddha's Window] the whole time I was in heaven. I had never ordained as a monk, and so, had never learned the "Shin Bahnchorn" during my life. Nevertheless, I heard it constantly as I walked among the heavenly homes of that paradise.

   In this testimony we have the experience of the “heavenly homes” as Buddhists believe in multiple levels of heaven and not one heaven like in the Bible. And while Piper tells us in chapter three about the music he heard in heaven, that all the songs where; “praises about Christ’s reign as King of Kings,” here we have instead Buddhist monks chanting a “Pali recitation,” something that most be considered very different from songs praising Jesus.  

   So, here we clearly see the differences in cultural conditioning and how it is specific to each individual culture. This is also very evident if we e.g. look at aboriginal cultures we find a very different picture of the cultural content.

The first fact is that NDE research finds a vide difference in the content of NDEs based on cultural differences. As we have seen, these differences are evident in pleasant or heaven-like experiences where meetings with religious figures are clearly defined by the religious background of each individual.

    This is also the same with unpleasant or hell-like experiences, where we also find a difference in the cultural content of these negative experiences.

   If we look at a couple of Western experiences of hell we can see how the content fits with a classical Western view of hell. The first person explains that, “I felt I was in Hell. There was a big pit with vapour coming out and there were arms and hands coming out trying to grab me.”

   Another person gives this longer testimony:

            It was really like all the images I had ever had of Hell. I was being barbecued. I was wrapped in tinfoil, basted and roasted. Occasionally I was basted by devils sticking their basting syringe with great needles into my flesh and injecting my flesh with the red-hot fat. I was also rolled from side to side with the long forks that the devils used to make sure that I was being well and truly roasted.

   In both testimonies of hell we have the classical content of a Western hell and while the first person tells us she felt she was in hell the last person even explains that it was like all the images he had ever had of hell. 

   If we then look at non-Western experiences of hell we will quickly see that the content is different. Todd Murphy’s study of Buddhist NDEs where he looked at 11 Thai cases also found a specific cultural interpretation of hell. While there was a higher frequency of distressing elements in these hell-like experiences, it is very clear that they have specific cultural content where people met Yama, the Buddhist Lord of Death or his servants that are called Yamatoots.

   One account reveals that, “Yamatoot told him that he had to be judged. He then found himself in front of Yama, the lord of the underworld.” Another person explains that, 

I looked and saw that they were Yamatoots. One of them spoke to me saying "we've come to take you to hell." I said "I'm not going", and I tried to escape. I turned and repeated that I was not going to go to the house of Yama.