#12720 What are Near Death Experiences? NDEs, Purgatory, and Souls - Jimmy Akin
Catholic Answers Live
Catholic Answers
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“What are Near Death Experiences?” This question opens a discussion on near-death experiences and the nature of the soul. The conversation also addresses critiques of NDE content, the concept of purification in the afterlife as described by Father Nathan Castle, and intriguing thoughts on the relationship between soul and brain in hypothetical scenarios.
Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter
Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com
Questions Covered:
- 00:55 – What do you say to critics of your content on NDEs, who say that it understates the skeptical research in the academic NDE literature?
- 18:50 – What do you think of the way purification seems to occur in Father Nathan Castle’s afterlife accounts? It would seem that rather than experiencing a “painful” and “fiery” purification as often depicted in pious stories and prayers about purgatory over the centuries, the souls essentially just learn new things and gradually correct their misunderstandings and errors, including needing to come to grips with their past sins and their effects on others. The idea that angels, saints and deceased relatives all get involved at different points along the journey of purification of souls and to help them move to a new level really appeals to me.
- 36:17 – If two individuals had their brains swapped, would their soul remain in their original bodies? Or if it stayed, how would the mismatched soul/brain experience consciousness?
- 46:01 – My wife is utterly convinced that all lizards including and especially the dinosaurs used to be dragons and wings were the limbs mentioned in Genesis when God punished the serpent. Note that most modern-day lizards although they do have legs still scurry around on their bellies because of their wide stance.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent. |
| 0:05.2 | When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers. |
| 0:11.5 | Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Welcome back, Catholic Answers live. |
| 0:32.7 | We are doing a weird questions today with Jimmy Aiken. |
| 0:36.2 | When you hear that music, you know you're always in for a great time with some fun questions. I am Edgar Lujano, the producer for the show and filling in for Cy Kellett today. It's always a pleasure to be with you on this side of the glass. And Jimmy, we got plenty of questions. So shall we jump back in? Sure, absolutely. All right. Let's go over to raphael figerato 4858 he asks what do you say |
| 0:59.3 | to critics of your content on n dees who say that it understates the skeptical research in the |
| 1:05.4 | academic nDE literature well um i would say a. First one, I actually don't have that much |
| 1:13.1 | content on NDEs. I've done a couple of episodes, Mysterious World on it. I plan to do much more, |
| 1:19.0 | but I, and in the episodes I've done, especially the first one that was a general overview, |
| 1:26.0 | I was actually very cautious about |
| 1:28.4 | NDE's. Now, the other thing I would say is I've read a lot of the academic literature |
| 1:37.7 | on NDE's, and I think Raphael may be under a misimpression about what that academic literature contains, because it seems |
| 1:47.7 | that he may be under the impression that it's much more skeptical of NDEs than it actually |
| 1:56.1 | is. There are some skeptics who have written about NDEs, like Susan Blackmore, for example, |
| 2:03.5 | would be, you know, an example of that. She's a researcher over in the UK. And there are others, too, |
| 2:12.9 | but the skeptics actually are a pretty small group. |
| 2:18.3 | So I think Raphael may simply not be aware of the breadth of research on near-death experiences, |
| 2:25.3 | and it's actually much more positive than what he may be aware of. |
| 2:32.3 | Having said that, skeptical proposals may indeed explain some NDEs or some |
| 2:40.6 | aspects of indie that are commonly reported in NDEs, but they don't explain it all. There is no |
| 2:49.4 | comprehensive skeptical theory or aggregation of theories that explains all |
| 2:56.1 | of the elements we find commonly reported in near-death experiences. So that's the first thing, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 5 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Catholic Answers, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Catholic Answers and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.