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Thinking there is life after death is just plain silly . . . but then again I could be wrong. Long ago I can remember thinking there would be no sex after high school.

The phenomenon commonly referred to as Near Death Experiences have been fully explained by science. The fact that all reported visions are culturally-based for each individual simply supports the findings of the research... that such "visits" are nothing more than the phantoms of brains that are temporarily deprived of their normal flow of oxygen.

It could very well be a dream-like state constructed of earthly hopes and visions of loved ones. I do not believe that people enter the very distinct realm of heaven until they are fully and completely dead. I have never put much stock in all the varied reports of people who have had near-death experiences. It lends itself to sensationalism and abuse.

The Scriptures are actually almost silent on exactly what happens when one ACTUALLY enters God's eternal presence after true death. Scientific and materialistic types have little interest in it anyway, and are usually also unregenerate. Only those who have a "foretaste of glory divine" through the filling of the Holy Spirit have a sense of heavenly joy, even if they do not know the specifics.

One reason the Scriptures do not suply much info is that we couldn't comprehent it anyhow. Just knowing the inner presence of God through Christ is heaven enough for me - for now at least: it is "joy unspeakable and full of glory," as the Apostle Peter describes it. This transcendant joy is one reason Christians want to see people come to know the risen Lord. It's the kind of thing one really wants to share.

It's hard to judge another’s experience in any matter because it is their experience. One can only be skeptical in those matters and try to justify the mystical, or supernatural based upon science or some concrete evidence so that the world may feel...comfortable. We look at sci-fi on television everyday and in the Movie Theater and not once have I seen some one gets up, throw their popcorn on the ground and say "I don't believe that one bit." While storming out the exit demanding their money back. So for me this 90 minute of heavenly experience is one to keep jotted down in the record books. People still look for Big Foot. What does one have to say about Don Piper’s experience compared to Mary K. Baxter’s experience of Heaven and Hell?

The whole "near-death" phenomenon reminds me of the end of the story of Lazarus and Dives in Luke 16:19-31: "They have Moses and the prophets; if they do not hear them, neither will they believe one who rose from the dead." Those who don't believe the Bible are unlikely to be convinced by alleged visions of the afterlife.
I don't believe anyone sees Heaven or Hell until they die their final death, and we should judge all claims of such visions by the Word of God (which tells more about Heaven than many people think). But there are accounts of people supposedly dead who saw things in their hospital rooms which could not be seen from where their body lay, or heard conversations spoken while they were supposedly dead, which if true would show that there is a part of our consciousness which can exist outside our bodies (I have briefly experienced this myself). But we don't need science to prove this to us; the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the best attested historical fact of ancient times, is enough proof, as many atheists who set out to disprove it have discovered, and become believers as a result.