The New York Time's best selling book Heaven Is For Real is about a four year old boy named Colton, who went to heaven while he was in surgery after a burst appendix. Skeptical? So was I.
His parents say that they at first didn't want to entertain the little boy's stories, but three things convinced them that they were true.
1.He know where his father was and what he was doing while he was being operated on.
2.He came back with knowledge of meeting his miscarried sibling, who he had no prior knowledge of.
3.He claimed to have met his great-grandfather, and could identify pictures of him when he was a young man.
His parents claim that there is no way he could have known any of these things, so therefore his story must be true. As a skeptical person, I would have still said this story isn't true, but some of the things I learned in psychology are going to help me say that. First: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I do not consider the testimony of a four year old extraordinary evidence, especially after learning about the shortcomings of memory in chapter 7. As we learned, children very susceptible to suggestions, as shown with the example of "Sam Stone." Children also have a hard time telling which memories are real, and which are false. Besides that, everyone's memory is susceptible to false memories!
Here is where the story gets fishy. Colton's father, who was the one who wrote the book, is a preacher. Colton was raised in a very religious household, with Bible stories being told to him every night before bed. Colton claims to have seen the Holy Spirit "shoot down" power to his dad preaching to their congregation while sitting in Jesus's lap. First thing, his father didn't preach at all while Colton was in the hospital. Second, Christian doctrine says that the Holy Spirit resides within a person, not in heaven.
Here are some more inconsistencies:
Colton describes details of what Jesus looked like, including the nail marks in his hands and feet. It is well known that Romans drove nails through the wrists during crucifixion, not the hands, which wouldn't have held up the weight of a body. When shown pictures of Jesus and asked which one looked most like him, he identified Akiane Kramarik's portrait of Jesus with blue eyes called "Prince of Peace". 
He chose a popular image of Jesus, not a more accurate one of a man with more middle-eastern looking descent. He story also fell to popular conceptions of heaven, like the pearly gate. He described a golden gate, with many pearls on it. The only description the Bible has of pearly gates is seven gates made of a single pearl, no gold.
I could pick on more things, I am only going to keep it to two more. First, Colton never died while he was in the hospital, he claims to have gone to heaven while he was in surgery. If he had died we could explain his story as a near-death experience, the result of endorphins overwhelming the brain. Next, his stories came about over the next few years, not right after his "experience." Occam's Razor: Is it simpler to believe that Colton went to heaven, or that he is experiencing false memories created by phenomenas like the misinformation effect?
Heaven is For Real
I think that it is simpler to believe that Colton is experiencing false memories created by phenomenas like the misinformation effect. I may be clouded because I am atheist, but I think that something that has been proven by researchers in psychology is much simpler than something that cannot be proven. There really is no real way of proving that heaven exists, much less proving that Colton went there or not.
I DEFINITELY appreciated your hard work and thoughts on this topic. I graduated from another university already with a degree in Theology, actually. After reading your paper I was completely blown away by your insight-fulness. Most lay people don't make the connections that you did in this paper, and just believe whatever people feed them... ESPECIALLY when it comes to religion for some reason. Unfortunately, I partially think people just believe religion because they are hoping for something better in "the next life," which they have every right to believe whatever they want. But, I just wish people would look at these religious topics from an unbiased standpoint, ESPECIALLY when it comes to context. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with religion, and I think all of your points were right on!
(P.S. most lay people think Jesus is a Caucasian man with bright glistening blue eyes, which I find hilarious).
When I saw that you chose this topic, I was instantly intrigued. I've heard of this book and actually began reading it a while ago (although I didn't finish). Until reading your blog, I was completely convinced that this story was true. I hadn't considered any of the things you brought up in your blog claiming otherwise.
I am religious and thus I do want to believe that this is true which galva034 has commented about already. I am now relooking at this story skeptically and would have to agree that the misinformation effect could have come into play in this situation. On the other hand, if he did go to heaven, maybe the memories attained there were altered by the misinformation effect. So maybe, he did see the nail marks on his wrists, but this memory was altered due to misinformation leading him to say he saw nail marks on his hands instead.
I think you can be religious and believe in heaven and a god and still see that this kid probably did not go to heaven. It is more parsimonious to say that he was influenced by his father to say certain things than to say he actually went to heaven, which would require extraordinary evidence. Someone who said they went to heaven from a non-Christian culture and described things from the Christian religion without ever learning about it, who also said they knew what someone was doing who wasn't the author of the book would be more believable.
I think Colton has totally fell victim to false information at his young age. Children are very susceptible at young ages and can manipulate their sayings because of it. Misinformation has obviously came to this kid's brain somehow whether it be in class or just made up in his head. Children at young ages have had the tendency to make up imaginary friends and can even make up imaginary stuff. This correlates with the imaginary things that Colton's brain has made up regarding Jesus and heaven. If he had a detailed image of what actually happened they should be totally different than reality.
Very nice application of the principals of scientific thinking here Annamarie. You also make a plausible case for how a young boy could have memories of heaven after being sedated from surgery. I never like engaging in debates on whether God or heaven exists. That seems a little pointless. I do get a little annoyed when people like this try to make money from stories of their children's experiences of the afterlife. No one should believe that this is proof that heaven exists given what we know about how easily memory can be manipulated. Then again, we can't rule out that he did not experience something extra ordinary. What matters is that we see this story for what it is and that when we have a more precise understanding for how the mind works we can come up with a more plausible explanation than ones based on faith, magical thinking or superstition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdUGoFTfP7w
I really disagree with most of this. One. The author of this opinion says off of her past studies,that you can't trust a 4 year-old's experiance because "Children also have a hard time telling which memories are real, and which are false." However, later holds the exact words of the 4 year-old against him in this following statement- "Colton describes details of what Jesus looked like, including the nail marks in his hands and feet..." as well as "He story also fell to popular conceptions of heaven, like the pearly gate. He described a golden gate, with many pearls on it." The logic behind this doesn't make sense to me either. Why would a preacher with a love for God, a loving wife, and a little boy lie to millions of people? Yeah, we live in a sick world, but come on now. If that man didn't love God, more than likly he wouldnt be 'wasting' his time talking about it anyways and I highly doubt they planned it all out. A man who cries when knowing he disobeyed God? A women who miscarried a precious baby? We can give all the reasons we want to of why we're here. Like a cosmic explosion theory. Like we're just a product of chance; that we have no real purpose. Which you have a right to believe. But personally, I don't think 66 books in the bible could flow so well with so many different authors for no reason. All about one God for no reason? How do you think society has come this far anyway?
Firstly, thank you for choosing a very interesting topic that you are seemingly educated about. Secondly, I have no idea how I hadn't already heard of this book or story. This is quite the controversial claim. I'm quite biased on this topic, being that I hold no religion; therefore, already have no belief in heaven, but analyzing this as objectively as possible, I feel as though there are far things pointing towards less "metaphysical" events. All of the points you made contradicting his journey to heaven, I find extremely valid. I definitely believe that this can be explained more simply by the misinformation effect possibly or other concrete sources of evidence.