Talk:Howard Storm (author)

Birthdate Contradiction
Infobox and first sentence differ. Which one is right? 67.169.145.35 (talk) 21:06, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

NKU
Dear Sirs,

I made a correction in the article about Howard Storm. It said that Howard Storm was a professor in the Art Department at University of Kentucky. That is incorrect. He held that position at Northern Kentucky University. I read his book, attended Northern Kentucky University, was graduated from University of Kentucky and grew up in northern Kentucky.

I do not have an IP address and don't want one, but my correction is factually correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.127.115.6 (talk • contribs) 28 January 2007

Howard Storm admits in his book he did not suffer a Near Death Experience (NDE)
I have read Storm's book My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life from cover to cover. While traveling in Paris, France, an ulcer or foreign object suddenly punctured Storm's duodenum sometime after 11:00 a.m. He was rushed to a Paris hospital, had a diagnosis within an hour, and was wheeled into surgery less than ten hours later, at about 9:00 p.m. -- a surgery which was totally successful. He claims it is rare for someone to live more than six hours with a punctured duodenum: the fact that he had to wait longer than that before undergoing surgery is apparently the entire medical basis for his claim that he 'must have been dead' while experiencing the psychotic episode he now calls his 'Near Death Experience'. As with Betty Eadie (author of Embraced by the Light, another false account of an NDE), there is no medical evidence Howard Storm died, and he doesn't even claim there is such evidence. Indeed, the facts are absolutely to the contrary: he was conscious when nurses arrived to wheel him to surgery (even asking them to 'be more careful' when moving him onto a gurney because of the extreme pain he was experiencing) and he did not die or have anything unusual occur during surgery.

Storm does not admit these facts until after describing his 'visit to hell and to heaven,' a tactic obviously designed to maintain the reader's credulity until after the supernatural proselytizing is complete. I guess his thinking (or the book company's thinking) is that by the time you finally get to the part where he admits he never died, you'll be so impressed with the bizarre things he experienced psychologically while unconscious (which I believe was a trauma-induced psychotic/schizophrenic episode combined with spiritual deception/possession) you will no longer care that what he describes is in no way, shape or form an NDE.

On p. 102 of My Descent into Hell Storm admits he was obsessed afterwards with the idea that what he had suffered was 'a psychotic episode brought about by the extreme physical trauma of dying,' but finally convinced himself (without psychiatric treatment) that had not been the case. Why? Because the episode 'changed his personality in a positive way.' Although I am not a medical expert, from what I have read, dramatic personality change is often an outcome and byproduct of psychoses, and it is not always a change for the negative. In any event, positive personality change is an utterly insufficient basis upon which to rule out the medical diagnosis of psychoses, and, indeed, I would argue Storm's own 'obsession' that this was the reality is, in fact, evidence that on some level (subconscious or unconscious) Storm has always been aware of what 'really went down.'

That said, it is my belief that events which damage the integrity of a person's brain or psyche (primary events being stressed-induced psychotic episodes and the chemical changes to the brain caused by drug use) create an opening for spiritual and/or psychological aberrations to arise organically within, or to invade from without. Split personality, hearing voices and seeing people who do not exist are forms of organic aberration; mind control (as with cults) or spiritual deception (as with Betty Eadie, Howard Storm and those who claim to be personally guided by a Voice which they claim is the Voice of Jesus/God) are forms of invasion/possession from without. One of the most telling facts of Storm's experience which points to spiritual deception by a presence which is HARMFUL AND DESTRUCTIVE instead of being whole/healing/of God is that the Voice tells Storm to pack up and leave Paris within a week of his surgery, despite the fact that his doctors have warned him it would be dangerous to his recovery to travel or get off bedrest for a month or more. Because Storm listens to 'the Voice' instead of his doctors, he develops a myriad of infections and internal problems which literally almost kill him off once he is back in the U.S. and results in him being debilitated for close to a year. He 'praises God' that 'his angels' protected him during this period such that he didn't die, but completely ignores the fact that IF NOT FOR THEM, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE! OMG! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Diane Stranz (talk • contribs) 14:11, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Article Expansion
I believe that this article is a good start, but does not convey enough of the depth of what Howard Storm is trying to express about what he says happened to him (an NDE). I firmly believe in maintaining a neutral point of view on the discussion of what he says happened to him, and believe that Wikipedia would be enriched if more of his claimed experience was detailed. As it stands today (May 28, 08), there is very little in this article about what he is trying to express happened to him, and that information would be useful for Wikipedia users to have, in order to understand more of what he (as a public figure) says & believes. I have attended a number of NDE-related events and read several NDE-related research books (including Howard Storm's book and other stuff he has made) and believe that the "essence" of what the "near-death experiencer" felt and is trying to express is just as important as the "bare bones" data about what they say they saw or where they say they visited. The near-death experience is always a subjective and highly personalized experience, and often the images are said (by the experiencer) to be less important in comparison to the "feeling" and the "meaning" behind the images and places they visited. I encourage enrichment of this article. EnochHenderson (talk) 04:26, 29 May 2008 (UTC)


 * This is an online encyclopedia. It is not here to "promote" people.  This article should be deleted.  98.156.39.160 (talk) 01:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm with you, should totally be deleted. However, at this point we would be pretty hard-pressed to successfully accomplish a deletion. At least in the meantime, we must simply adhere to Wikipedia's guidelines and make the best article we can. To that end, and I had to point fingers, but I don't think User:EnochHenderson is someone we should allow near this or any articles with his clear lack of understanding of Wikipedia as an online encyclopedia. 199.21.245.12 (talk) 02:45, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

Really Awful Article, NDE Should NOT Link Here
Someone has heroically recapitulated this author's story in a veritable emesis of NPOV, unsourced, rambling incoherence. I recommend this article as a candidate for deletion. Tangential references to the publication history of the work in question should not qualify as sources. Interested parties should pursue purchase or lending options. I appreciate the very difficult position of the editors of the NDE article and their hard work. This piece of regurgitated fluff is not even close to the level of that article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.21.106.137 (talk) 08:02, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Concur. Even articles in the religious section should try and maintain some semblance of a NPOV. The article reads more like a promotional message for Howard's books or convictions than it does like a biography. I will suggest its neutrality be checked. Gralgrathor (talk) 22:41, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Whoa there. The article has its problems, but nothing that can't be fixed by a bit of rewording & addition of citations. For the record, I think the NPOV is also threatened at the end. Saying that, "He sidesteps the fact that listening to the supernatural is what endangered his life in the first place" reads like "TAKE THAT!" It should be more matter-of-fact.75.206.128.48 (talk) 01:09, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Agreed. This article should stay. The last sentence indeed reads like a TAKE THAT. And it's not even true. His life was endangered in the first place because he had a ruptured duodenum and there was no surgeon available at the hospital. I've read the book and he doesn't say anywhere that his long recovery time was due to complications from leaving the French hospital early. And the statement that Storm regained consciousness before surgery and told the nurses to be careful is completely untrue. It's implied in Storm's book that he woke up shortly after the surgery and the first thing he asked was "is this Heaven or Earth"? It seems that some atheist or perhaps a fundamentalist has deliberately inserted lies into the article to discredit Storm. 110.174.166.224 (talk) 09:43, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

I absolutely agree. This article is absolutely atrocious as an encyclopedic entry. Whether it be agenda-motivated or simply ignorance of Wikipedia's even most basic guidelines. I have done a bit to clean up the NDE, but frankly, I still think it requires a lot more work. What I have not done, which I think still is an utmost consideration, is tampered with the article's overall structure. The thing is just awkward. Do we really need an entire section on Anne Rice's endorsement of Storm's book? Who's idea was that? Why is there literally only one direct reference of his book, which is really Storm's only significant accomplishment from an Encyclopedia standpoint (evidently, inherently coupled with his NDE babble)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.21.245.12 (talk) 19:56, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

Atheist?
Is there anything available to corroborate the veracity as to whether he truly was an atheist before his NDE? COice6 (talk) 01:49, 18 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Why not from his book (p. 65 in the earlier edition, p. 107 in the later edition)?


 * After my experience I wanted to talk with somebody about what had happened, but I didn't have any religious affiliation and didn't know any clergy. When I got home from the hospital I called a nun who had been an art student of mine many years before. Sister Dolores was a history teacher at Notre Dame Academy and we had kept in touch over the years. She was a fine person and we enjoyed talking about art. I asked her if she would come visit me. When she arrived I was dressed in a bathrobe, wrapped in blankets and sitting in a recliner. I said, 'Something very wonderful has happened to me. I have met Jesus.' Then I began to cry and I couldn't stop crying. The harder I tried to stop, the harder I cried. After half an hour, she said she had to leave. Patiently, she had sat opposite me and watched me cry. I begged her to come back and apologized for crying. She promised to return in a week.}}
 * When she came back I managed to tell her my story in about an hour. She was silent through my telling. When I had finished, I asked, 'Do you believe me?' She looked straight at me and answered, 'Of course I believe you, but I wonder why it took so long?'
 * 'What do you mean. Why did it take so long?'
 * 'Do you remember the first time we met?'
 * 'No.'
 * 'You called me over to walk with you after the first day of class. You said you were an atheist and you didn't want any religion in the classroom.'
 * 'Oh, yes, I remember that.'


 * --EPadmirateur (talk) 03:44, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Book
This article is good, but I think that Howard Storm's book should have a separate article other than his biography page. The title of his book should also be stated. Frogger48 (talk) 04:04, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

Critical
I can't find any websites that are critical about the claims in Howard Storm's book, "My Decsent into Death". Can someone please help me to find these things?Frogger48 (talk) 04:44, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

Skeptics
Are there any citations or sources for the "skeptics" paragraph? I would like to read that article in The Northerner — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.212.197.96 (talk) 06:07, 16 January 2015 (UTC)