Apparently Alex Malarkey didn’t come back from heaven. He came back to reality.
The bestselling book, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, co-authored with his father, Kevin, a so-called therapist, was a fraud. Alex has now written a letter to Christian booksellers admitting he lied about his experience to get attention.
The question I have is, how could anyone have not known this from the beginning? Honestly, books like this, and others like it (Heaven Is Real; Proof of Heaven), just don’t ring true, not least because anything written about heaven has to be phony. Nobody has been there or ever will be there because heaven is not a place.
Let’s get that straight. Heaven is not a place. It is a metaphor for a mystery, for our conviction that life is not limited to the here and now. So wherever people who have near death experiences “go,” it is not a place called heaven.
Think about it. If God exists, then by definition God cannot be in a “place.” God just is. “Place” is how we earthlings think because we are confined to time and space. Eternity is the opposite.
The Book of Revelation in the Bible speaks of streets of gold, pearly gates, and mansions in the sky because that is all the author could conceive of given the limitations of living in this world.
So if someone tells you they just got back from heaven and wants to tell you all about it, you can bet it’s made up, an illusion, or perhaps even a delusion. But for sure it is not true, it is not real.
For me it is sad that so many people get caught up in this kind of profit making charade. They obviously need proof of something they are supposed to take on faith. But publishers and movie producers know a good thing when they see it so they grab hold of these stories and run with them.
I wish Alex Malarky’s decision to tell the truth would make religious people wake up to the Elmer Gantry’s of the world who are ready to take advantage of their sincere desire to believe in life after death.
I wish his recantation would help religious people understand that faith is the opposite of certainty, and that anyone who suggests he can prove heaven exists or is real is not a friend to faith, but its nemesis.
But I doubt it will. No, 18th century philosopher David Hume was probably more right than wrong when he argued that reason is the slave of the passions.
Which means, among other things, that we believe what we want to believe, whether it is true or not.
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I absolutely agree with you. Thanks for your honesty and integrity.
I think this topic, that of a supernatural realm, is far more complex than a brief discussion of heaven as a place can attempt to explore, Jan. A level of higher consciousness wherein the creator is, as well as other personalities, might not be a “place” in the way we as temporal beings know but its existence in some construct has millennia of testimony by humans of higher consciousness able to glimpse it and them. The Judeo/Christian story has many examples. Personally, since my youth, I’ve seen the story of Christ as a supernatural one; that’s how it resonates with me; how it makes sense. For me It identifies God as the source and destiny of all spirit endowed beings. It is that difference, not just our minds, that separate us from other animals. Otherwise, what is the point of attuning ones self to the Father, making His higher will ones own, as did Christ? Living supernatural values makes us practicing children of God’s way and at its apex creates life on earth as it is in … Heaven, a construct wherein the highest values and meanings are manifest. Obviously, we all have a long way to go but that’s the promise I see in the bodily resurrection, an eternal life moving ever nearer The Father, our spiritual source.
Of course, like believing in the existence of God, which you have often pointed out, belief in that realm and all of those personalities who might inhabit such a realm, is a matter of faith for humanity. I simply include many entities and the existence of heaven as another realm of existence with dimensions we cannot explain in temporal terms.
Regarding this book/story: any discussion of such a topic relies heavily on the sincere humility of the speaker for consideration. Most “seers” are both humble and guarded in discussions of what they would consider to be a sacred topic and as such not for profit making. This book and its authors failed that test.
Okay, not brief but some scaffolding of an alternate view.
Nicely stated, as always, Jan. Many will be bothered by your logical assertion that heaven is not a “place,” but they certainly can believe that it if they’d like.
It is the charlatans and frauds who make claims that are demonstrably untrue, in order to make MONEY off the naïve, who deserve our scorn.
I agree whole heartedly with your comment, Bill. I guess I come down to a view that if one wants to believe there is a heaven, that’s fine; if one wants to believe there is no heaven. that’s fine. As with so many things about religion, they are personal choices, I think there are few verifiable facts. It’s a matter of faith.