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

I was a voracious reader at a very young age. By age 10, I was reading books like David Copperfield, reading hours and hours every day....devouring hundreds of books like a person who was starving for food. Sadly, in later years, I have not read as much, but fortunately, the benefits of my early endeavors were never lost. I have no doubt that those efforts early on have helped me in so many ways through the years; in my understanding of life, the way things work, my appreciation of knowledge, my communication skills. This book, "Heaven is for Real" is the first book I have read cover to cover in one sitting in decades. It is an easy read, but a powerful book as well. In my teens, I was very scientifically minded, and a self-professed atheist. If it didn't make scientific, logical sense...if I couldn't see it in mathematical black and white, it wasn't for me and I had no use for it. I went to Sunday School (forced), but my many questions and apprehensions could not be answered intelligently or proven (and hence the very definition of "Faith"). I simply could not take what were to me essentially fairy tales as Truth on Faith. Various personal experiences along the way in the path of life gave me pause and reason to rethink and redefine my own personal understanding of God, Energy, Mother Nature, Universe, All That Is...whatever you want to call it that we come to find out exists, but can not be explained rationally, scientifically or with absolute logic within our own limited, physical, Human abilities and limitations. In short, I evolved from a steadfast atheist, to a believer in something I called "God, Goddess, All That Is"...to a now more "religious" acceptance in God with the help of reading this book. Maybe from being a non-believer, to a believer with reservations, to now being personally comfortable with being in greater harmony with this higher power we call God. I highly recommend reading this book. I could not put it down. My eyes were teary often, not with sadness but perhaps with deep empathy for the Burpo Family's trials and also with the joy of revelation and understanding...also, I love happy endings :-) The story rang true to me(I am quite adept at smelling out BS). It was completely unacceptable for me to believe a 4 year old child could invent a NDE out of body experience, the meeting of a deceased great grandfather and a miscarried sister without any prior knowledge. Not to mention Angels, God, Jesus, Gabriel...with numerous detail and matter of fact relaying of the experience. A 3 minute experience of a 4 year old child in death's grip relayed to his parents over the course of weeks, months, years with such vivid recollection. It did not bother me that this was in the context of a Minister's family nor did I discount Colton's experience for that reason. If anything, it just made the story more perfect as Todd's interpretation as a Minister was quite natural and believable in view of Colton's relaying of his experience. It appears very obvious to me that perhaps the Minister himself learned definitively more about God from his 4 year old son than perhaps years of religious training, a humbling thought. This book put together for me events in my personal experience I can now understand with child-like beauty and understanding and acceptance without the need to rationalize. I'm also now very comfortable with the power of prayer and without compunction to use it often, daily in fact. Apprehensions regarding eventual and inexorable Death and the great beyond have vanished as well. Although I read this book in a few hours, it took me a week to digest it. Perhaps I'm digesting it still... If you read this book, you will come away making one of two choices. You either believe this story is a complete fraud, a fiction, a fabrication...or you simply recognize the simple truth and beauty that "Heaven is for Real"... I choose the latter with no qualms or second thoughts. Thank you Burpo Family for sharing your story!!!!! With Peace and Love..... :-)

Here a minister co-authors a book about what happened to his four year old son when the boy was laying on the operating table. This minister leads a small Nebraska Methodist church located in a town that is 60 miles from the nearest Walmart store. He supports himself and his family by installing garage doors and earning a meager salary from his church congregation. As I read this book, I began to see the same pattern of issues that is present in the book PROOF OF HEAVEN. Here we see a minister whose personal life and relationships with others is convincing proof that what he writes is the absolute truth. His wife, a good Christian woman, who is for all practical purposes as important to his congregation as he is, was a full party to the events reported in this book. Whatever their son Colton told his farther, he simultaneously told his mother. And occasionally, he also made comments about what happened to him in the presence of others whose reputability cannot reasonably be questioned. And this minister's close friends include more than a few other ministers who are also leading Christian churches in western Nebraska and other nearby states. So as I read about these events, I was assured that they actually had happened, but I also observed that they seemed to be somewhat ridiculous. For example, Colton's great grandfather, who resided in heaven, had wings - wings much larger than Colton's wings. But, many of the things that he told his parents were, besides being, at times, ridiculous, also were often amazing. Colton clearly knew things he could not reasonably be expected to know. Things his mother and father had never told him: for example, they had once lost a child to a miscarriage; a little girl. Colton knew this fact and met her in heaven. Another example is that he could recognize his great grandfather by being shown a picture of him when he was in his late twenties; but he could not recognize his great grandfather when he was shown a picture of him as an elderly person. Colton met God and the Holy Spirit. They were two separate beings. He had no trouble getting personal time with God. Colton said Satan was still alive and well and would someday have one last fight with the souls of heaven. Now if I were to spend enough time I could list dozens of things said in this book that do not agree with my own spiritual beliefs. I will cite only a couple of them. I believe in original sin, therefore, children have sin, but Colton was easily able to enter into heaven. In my opinion, no one can enter into heaven who has any sins in his soul. Even Jesus remains outside of heaven, until the end of this age (in my opinion), because He is carrying sins of the cross. And the book I mentioned above, PROOF OF HEAVEN, presents a full-grown man who enters heaven numerous times. Again, I envision him as not able to enter into the real heaven until the end of this age when his soul will be sinless. But are we to question his honesty? Are we to question Colton's honesty, or his minster father's honesty, or his Christian mother's honesty? And there are other accounts like these, although not always so well known to the public. They are recounted in magazine articles and books that often don't make the best sellers list. There are so many of them that it is hard for us to reject them all as bogus. Quite the contrary, we are looking, in my analysis, at a phenomena of a psychic nature that is somehow often connected with our own human spiritual evolution, and our own spiritual faith. HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is heartwarming. I do not take every word literally, but I would say that we can see clearly in the case of this book that psychic things have taken place inside of the realms of a Christian family that are below the level of absolute spiritual revelation but are far above the level of day dreams, or night dreams. Something happened to this young boy; something that was good. He knew things he should not have known. Hopefully, as millions of Christians read books like this one and as the years pass we will have men/women arise among us who will be able to make sense out of this increasingly common thing, which I think of as spiritual/ psychic phenomena. I will also mention that I recently downloaded (free) a book that is pure interpretation of New Testament Bible scriptures. The author points out such obvious facts as that no one can go to heaven before Jesus goes to heaven and that will only happen when the end of this age arrives. We all want to think that we will be in heaven in the next few years while those behind us are still struggling with the challenges of life. Not so according to this book. Thus it contradicts HEAVEN IS FOR REAL. The circular I received gives Sunday Sept 22 and Sunday Sept 29 as the next two days that it can be downloaded free. Otherwise it is expensive. I would balance a book like HEAVEN IS FOR REAL by reading this book, it is called HEAVEN IS IN YOUR FUTURE, author David Arthur DuRocher. It will make you feel good. You will come away convinced that everybody goes to heaven (in the end). That message is not found in HEAVEN IS FOR REAL. According to the beliefs of Colton's father, many will go to hell. I am now reading THE ZEALOT by Reza Aslan. It is a New York Times best seller. The author is a gifted writer and historian. He gives us a Jesus who is a historical figure, not a spiritual figure. Before you read this book, I strongly suggest building your spiritual fortress by reading HEAVEN IS IN YOUR FUTURE, and possibly some other books written by strong believers in the divine nature of Jesus. But, does that mean I don't like THE ZEALOT? No! I think it is going to turn out to be the best book I have ever read about the history of the middle east in the years when the New Testament was written. I will write a review about it when I am finished reading it. God speed.....

This book is old. I read it many many moons ago and have since then bought it many times as gifts. Great story. Help keep faith. Definitely worth the read.

美しい本で読みやすいです,この本をお勧めします.どうもありがとうございます。

Aɓsolutly amazing.you have to believe there is a heaven after watching this,in dact i know there is because my saughter is there.

Onthullende waarheden over de hemel. Lees 't!

Es un libro sorprendente. Te cambia el concepto de la muerte y hace que uno tenga más fe de la que tenía antes de leer el libro.