My Observations on a book: After-death experience of an 11 year old boy

There's a book out now about a young boy's after death experience.

 Before I even venture to read it, I already have some reservations about it.

According to USA TODAY:  Colton Burpo, an 11 year old is famous for being the boy who had a near-death experience when he was 4 years old during emergency surgery for a burst appendix. Doctors offered little hope he would survive. Not only did he live, he says he went to heaven during the operation, met Jesus, John the Baptist, his great-grandfather and a sister he didn't even know he had (she was miscarried before he was born), then came back to tell his folks about the trip. A book about Colton's journey is called Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. 

HERE'S WHAT I DON'T QUESTION: 

* I absolutely DO believe that this boy died and came back. 

 *I absolutely DO believe that he had an out of body experience and met is great-grandfather and sister, and even Jesus. 

 * I absolutely DO believe the boy's experience about Heaven being "filled with bright colors and lots of rainbows."

HERE'S WHERE THE DOUBTS COME IN:

USA TODAY SAYS, it was written by Colton's father, the Rev. Todd Burpo, who has a small evangelical congregation in Imperial, Neb. It was co-written by Lynn Vincent, who collaborated with Sarah Palin on the her book, Going Rogue.

   

Having someone write the book that is SO immersed in religion and so biased with conservative religious views makes whatever else is in the book a lot less believable. I've seen this before with a Mormon who had an after-death experience and I stopped reading that book half-way through because it became a Marketing piece and promotion for joining the Mormon Church. 

- People who write books with a religious agenda are doing so for their own benefit. This boy's father is a reverend of a church. It seems that they're exploiting their son's after-death experience to promote their own religious beliefs. 

- Many people have after-death experiences. When we die our energies leave our body and we have the ability to see those who passed before us. Family members are always there when we die. Yes, people may also see Jesus, God or another religious figure because they likely call to them as they're passing. Most of the time, they see their relatives who tell them it's not their time. 

- Just a caution to people who start to read books about after-death experiences: If you find that any of them start pushing or promoting one religion, stop reading it. There's an agenda. If you want to read a great book where the woman who died came to a better understanding of the afterlife, pick up Betty Eadie's "Embraced by the Light."