Is heaven real?

[caption id="attachment_4704" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Paradise Canto - Heaven"][/caption]

NASHVILLE, Tenn- GHN -- Is Heaven for real?  It is if you believe the story of a boy
who went there during surgery while a nurse told the family,"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but we were told not to give your family any encouragement. "

The nurse had gone on to say, "They didn't think Colton was going to make it. And when they tell us people aren't going to make it, they don't."

A new book with the title Heaven is Real by the parents, Todd and Sonja Burpo,declares that it's so and will
be on the New York Times best seller list on December 3.  It's evidence
is the return to life of a boy who related an experience in heaven while
he was in surgery for a burst appendix.

On the list of folks relating an experience of life after death, including
stories involving children, Todd and Sonja Burpo have written what
reviewers say is a good one.  Their 4-year-old child had actually died
and gone to heaven, is the thesis, following an infection that followed a
burst appendix.

It was during that surgery the story becomes
at its keenest, relating the story of a child's return to earth from a
trip to heaven.

Several months later while passing by the same hospital that saved him, Colton
related his experiences during surgery and about his trip to heaven.
His narrative is what forms the essence of the book.

The boy's father is a pastor and the mother a children's minister.  But
there are narratives of these experiences that involve individuals not
in a theological framework when they make these discoveries themselves.

The new work dovetails in terms of its descriptions with information found
by Melvin Morse in his research on near death experiences of children,
something he has been involved with for more than 20 years in Seattle.

Dr. Morse argues that "the study of NDEs provides a starting point for
understanding the mysterious link between our brains and the universe.
Though sound scientific studies have already identified the existence of
"the God Spot" - the right temporal lobe of the brain - Morse takes this concept
several steps further. Building on the controversial theory that memory
may actually be stored outside the brain, he suggests that the right
temporal lobe acts not as a "computer" for our individual minds, but as a
transmitter and receiver of the universal
mind."

In other words, there is a mechanism that allows us to know God in our
human consciousness.  Dr. Morse also believes this can be activated
consciously in various ways and discusses this in some of his work.

This is something in which many people have an interest, given the number of
stories about the tunnel of light and the visions of angels and other
heavenly beings.

"The early success of this amazing book proves once again that strong sales
on unknown authors are indeed still possible in a tough economy," says Matt Baugher, Thomas Nelson Vice President and Publisher. "It's a fascinating, true story. It's a privilege to have this book on our list."

The book was co-authored by Lynn Vincent who wrote the book Going Rogue: An American Life.