Reddit reviews Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back

> It could have been a lie by the parents, wanting attention

From the Amazon listing:
> Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words

So, yeah. Definitely a possibility.

Book it's referencing.

Amazon has the best rating system I've used. It has reviews with scores. It also then lets other people vote on each review. Finally it shows you the best scoring good and bad review. You can also filter reviews by the rating they gave.

Take the reviews for Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back as an example. it is very controversial (it is about a boy who nearly died and then claimed to have visited heaven).

On any website with traditional voting methods (including reddit), there would be no way to get a variety of views on the book. On reddit, favourable reviews would be downvoted while critical reviews would be upvoted, leaving only the critical reviews visible. On amazon however you can see the best favourable and critical reviews, and also browse by start rating. You can easily read many reviews from different perspectives.

This solves the problem described in the comic, as while it would still have a good score, the second review you would read would be "it doesn't work". I just don't know why more sites don't use this system.

Michael Shermer's book "The Believing Brain" actually touches on this stuff at length. Whether or not DMT is released is certainly an interesting question. "Near death experiences" as well as people who have died and been revived unanimously report seeing crazy things. That's not an opinion. It's a fact. And it's one I'd love to see neuroscience and psychology concretely explain. I think it's basically explained, but I'd love to see the explanation dumbed down for the layman. When your brain is deprived of oxygen and all those neurons are firing off--your brain experiences a sort of 'euphoria'. That's quite a bit different from this!

Edit: I'm in Japan so it linked to a Japanese Amazon site.

It might be a way to ease someone into the realities of the next existence by not shattering their worldviews too quickly. (Just saying.)

I've read of at LEAST one NDE where the "incredibly bright being of love and light" actually transformed itself into various incarnations to represent the mental ideal of the person. A bunch of others showed that you can project a form of yourself, it seemed to be a skill.

note: I've read probably hundreds of NDE's. Surveying the eyewitness testimony, you see. The most interesting ones are those of congenitally blind people who see in this state, despite having no working brain function to process visual imagery nor ways to explain it. (You can tell they're seeing, based on their struggle to describe "sensing things at a distance".)

Based on reading hundreds of NDE's, which I'm sure almost no one here has the patience or inclination to do, I think it is best to just keep an open mind about it and not necessarily blithely chalk it all up to dimethyltryptamine.

Also, as a possible extra point of validity, a LOT of the ideas that MANY people talk about in NDE's would be considered heretical in most of the world religions (example: the idea that very few people end up in any kind of Hell). The life reviews that were described, I found especially poignant (stuff like "none of my professional achievements seemed to matter, but hugging my sister late one night when she was in a bad state was a big deal")

[EDIT: I found this book, which I actually hadn't heard of until I came here, on Amazon (I will leave the irony of /r/atheism advertising a supposedly spiritual book to me successfully as an exercise for the reader), but I did see that someone posted the OP image to the book images which is fucking hilarious. This book itself certainly does seem "tainted with Christianity". Can't wait for the Buddhist version! :) ]

http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Real-Little-Astounding-Story/dp/0849946158
Sorry, hospital not dentist, but yeah it happened.

I am sooo sorry! :( I was given the book heaven is for real by a friend after our miscarriage and it brought me a indescribable sense of peace. I'd love to send you a copy if you PM me your address.

This shit show comes to mind, in which a brainwashed four-year-old finds an audience and his parents cash in. I can't roll my eyes hard enough.

Four and a half stars?!?

ಠ_ಠ

> Heaven is for real

amazon.com

Isn't this the book about the 4 year old preacher's kid who regales his tale to heaven during surgery? Why would anyone believe the story of a 4 year old and take that as evidence or truth?

If someone was looking for answers to the truth of an afterlife, they are not in that book. I'll take a scientist over a 4 year old any day.

Nope. This is the real book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0849946158/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Heaven is for real really solidified my belief in the afterlife and heaven. Definitely recommend this to anyone regardless of your religious beliefs

I see this is already up on Amazon

Wow! That is a truly amazing story.

I have heard other stories, like that one kid that saw his dead sister in heaven (that supposedly he didn't even know he had). Or that god healed someone's bad back or cancer or sam's mum's glaucoma (no offense).

I myself even saw Jesus Christ in my front yard when I was four. He descended from heaven with a light brown curly beard, white robes, and a blue sash. He stood there for a second and then when back up into the clouds without saying anything at all. In fact, he looked suspiciously like the Jesus from my kid's bible book.

I don't know what any of it means. I am likely to say that I had some sort of a one time hallucination. That kid was probably oxygen deprived. Dreams are notoriously odd.

Maybe I am too skeptic. Maybe I am just too blinded by the world to understand evidence even when it is in front of my face. But the fact that studies on prayer have shown it to be inneffective, and we don't have any evidence that is not anecdotal for miracles or god speaking lead me to not take any of it to heart.

Thanks for sharing your story though.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0849946158/ref=pd_aw_sim_b_3?pi=SL500_SY115


I have read this one. Its about a kid having a out of body experience and meeting his dead relatives and god.

There actually is a piece of crap scamautobiography for Christians with this very premise.

The movie "Heaven is for Real" is based upon a (claimed) true story about a 4-year old that had an afterlife experience. He met his grandfather (who died before he was born) and a miscarried sibling, along with a person who he believed was Jesus Christ. Book link: https://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Real-Little-Astounding-Story/dp/0849946158

That's just one, popularized story. There are plenty of others out there that haven't been reduced to movies.

Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back https://www.amazon.com/dp/0849946158/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_VwqWDbR42N55J

No.

What do you think of the Heaven is For Real kid who is making millions because when he 'died' he saw different things from you?

I'm betting it's a parody of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Real-Little-Astounding-Story/dp/0849946158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309976063&sr=8-1

Does no one want to comment on this? http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Real-Little-Astounding-Story/dp/0849946158 or are you guys just going to say the parents made it up?

In cast the ranking changes in future, the book is here.

I understand. That is truely among the best arguments I've ever heard for an interventionist God.

If the past few years are any indication, you could probably write a best-selling book about it.


I recomend wating a few years and letting the story grow in your mind. Maybe by the time you write your book, your clothes will be all magically folded by themselves in the washer.

If that story urks you, there's a book called Heaven is for Real that will REALLY get the blood boiling. Haven't read it, but just the summaries and reviews will do the job...

Heaven is For Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0849946158