Book Review: IMAGINE HEAVEN

I’m not sure where to begin with this book. To say Imagine Heaven has been life-changing sounds cliche and trite. And yet that’s exactly what it was/is. It’s not the writing, which is not great. In fact, it was rather distracting initially, and I was super annoyed by how the book was organized and by the author’s voice. But after a while, he seemed to catch his stride. Or maybe I just got used to the format and writing. Or maybe the stories and information captured me so much that I completely stopped caring about the literary qualities. About halfway through, I had a hard time putting the book down, and I didn’t want it to end. Actually I’m reading it again... but to my children. And they are just as fascinated as I am even though I have to explain quite a bit to them.

So what is this book about? Well, it’s about individual near death experience (NDE) stories and all the research that’s been conducted about them by various doctors and scientists over decades and even centuries. And then based on those stories and the research, the John Burke discusses what different aspects of heaven might be like, integrating scripture to back up and correlate with various points.

I appreciated that Burke, who desperately wants to prove (and does in my opinion) that all of this is legit, doesn’t ever say anything is definite. It is speculation and possibility. He doesn’t try to redefine scripture or add to it in any way. These stories simply enhance what’s already been confirmed and noted in the Bible.

The aspect that most affected me went way beyond the magical place that heaven seems to be though. That alone makes me ready to go, but the part that mattered most to me was the complete, overwhelming, unconditional, nonjudgmental LOVE each person felt as they were surrounded by angels and sometimes Jesus himself. In those that saw a review of their life, the theme was always, “How well did you love?” Accomplishments didn’t matter... at all. It was love that mattered. This has changed me so deeply and profoundly, I know I’ll never be the same, even though I’ll “fail” time and again as a human when I forget this important goal. But it’s given me such a new perspective on how I interact with those around me.

I’m finding just as much joy reading this a second time and the writing aspect of it has been completely forgotten at this point. I hope you’ll pick this up, no matter what your beliefs are. Even if you don’t believe any of this and may have a different explanation for what happened to these people, it’s still a fascinating read.

*Click on the image or on this link to go to Amazon where you can purchase the book. Yes, this is an affiliate link. :)