In this fascinating podcast by LDS Perspectives, Dr. Brent Top, the Dean of Religious Education at BYU, shares fascinating insights into the LDS beliefs about life after death and near-death experiences.
Dr. Top also notes that Dr. Raymond A. Moody, who coined the term “near-death experiences” in his bestselling book in 1975, said Latter-day Saints "triggered him as a medical doctor on near-death experiences. He knew there was something unique about LDS theology regarding the afterlife."
► You'll also like: Life After Death: 6 Insights into the Spirit World
That's when Dr. Top decided to explore Mormonism's unique and important doctrines regarding life after life.
While near-death experiences can teach us about what comes next, Dr. Top notes that we need to focus on LDS doctrine more than popular stories or individual experiences.
Dr. Top continues, "One of the things that really jumped out at me were the core elements that are found in near-death experiences—as identified by the psychological, medical community as well as the near-death experience scientific and research community—the core elements they identified . . . coincide with Latter-day Saint doctrine with regards to the location of the spirit world, some of the descriptions of spirit bodies, the nature of a spirit."