Don Piper's "90 Minutes in Heaven"

This is certainly my most serious read of the summer.

Piper, with the assistance of Cecil Murphey, recounts the story of how he died in a car crash in January 1989 and was brought back to life 90 minutes later through the prayers of a pastor who stopped to see if he could give any assistance at the crash site. For at least the first 90 minutes after the crash there was no indication of a pulse, and it seemed to EMTs unlikely that Piper's body was without serious trauma to the chest and head. At least one arm and one leg were missing their long bones, and there was extreme loss of blood. The EMT's merely awaited a coroner to pronounce Piper dead before they could move him.

And yet, when the minister began to pray and sing with his hand on the shoulder of the apparently departed, all of a sudden the dead man began to sing along. Piper had a strong sensation of someone holding his hand, which would have been a physical impossibility given the position of his body in the mangled car. Piper later attributed that hand to being an angel on the scene.

Piper does not mince words in any aspect of this book. He describes in detail his experience with the greeting party of deceased friends and relatives who met him at the gates of heaven, the sights and sounds that he experienced that were beyond anything he could describe adequately in words. He talks frankly about the excruciating pain experienced in the healing process, which included 11 months in a contraption screwed directly into his leg to help regrow the missing bone. He suffered months of depression, something that subsided only after he was counseled by a colleague to accept the kindnesses and support of the people who came to help him out. He was hard on himself, and he hard on other people, at least until he better understood why God brought him back.

The story has been read by millions of people around the world. I dare say it has converted many into believers. The question it does not answer is, what about similar stories from people who are not believers? Are they false or mis-guided, or are they signs of God's abiding grace and inclusiveness?

I do not know the answer to the question of what experiences non-believers have in comparison to those Piper experienced. I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is some form of after-life. When my mother was close to death with pneumonia she saw a shrouded figure whom she recognized as one of her deceased brothers. He told her that it was not her time to go, and she lived. She now knows that she has a guardian angel and who it is.

Within an hour of my dad's death my brother-in-law in Wisconsin and my cousin in San Francisco, and I had all experienced freak car accidents that in timing and nature would have astronomical odds if they were not all tied to my dad's death. I believe that some heavenly announcer was alerting us, or possibly my dad's soul.

"90 Minutes in Heaven" is necessary reading for all Christian believers, and for anyone looking for answers about the here-after.

Liz Nichols