Before Dr. Eben Alexander, noted neurosurgeon and scientist, fell into a coma in 2008, he would have scoffed at the poor delusional souls that claimed to have had near-death-experiences. It isn’t that he didn’t believe that they thought the experiences they relayed were real. It’s just that he was raised as a man of science and accepted the scientific view that such experiences were the result of oxygen deprivation and a malfunctioning brain.
According to his article published in Newsweek Magazine that appears on The Daily Beast, on Oct.8, that all changed when he had an out-of-body experience while in a coma.
“As Alexander explains, “I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.”
Alexander awoke one morning with a severe headache, and by that night his entire cortex – “the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion and that in essence makes us human” was shut down due to bacterial meningitis. According to Alexander, the neurons in his cortex were totally inactive for 7 days, making it impossible for the brain to control his consciousness. In fact, doctors were considering discontinuing treatment when Alexander suddenly awoke.
During this time,Eben Alexander claims his consciousness was alive and well and transported him to an indescribable world filled with love and peace.
Initially he describes being surrounded by a blue-black sky filled with pink-white clouds and hovering beings that were neither bird nor angel. “But neither of these words do justice to the beings themselves, which were quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms.” he says.
He goes on to describe a world where everything is connected, including the senses. He recounts hearing visual beauty and seeing music.
During his spiritual journey, Alexander claims to have received three messages:
““You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever.â€
“You have nothing to fear.â€
“There is nothing you can do wrong.â€
Although Alexander claims he is as much a man of science as he was before this amazing experience, he says on a deep level, he is a very different man because he has seen a glimpse of a new reality.
“”The plain fact is that the materialist picture of the body and brain as the producers, rather than the vehicles, of human consciousness is doomed. In its place a new view of mind and body will emerge, and in fact is emerging already. This view is scientific and spiritual in equal measure and will value what the greatest scientists of history themselves always valued above all: truth.” says Alexander.
Dr. Eben Alexander’s book “Proof of Heaven A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife†recounts the entire experience and will be available for sale on Oct 23, 2012.
8 comments
I want to believe. But I’m still to read about a near-death experience which can really prove anything. Let’s wait for his book…
If Mr. Alexander were really dead he wouldn’t be alive today. What befuddles me about these life after death claims is that none of them was really dead. It seems that ‘delusion’ works even in a transient state of the brain.
Human beings cling to life after death.
The guy was in a coma. He was not dead. I want proof Parnia’s project is using a simple method to test the validity of out-of-body experiences. Images have been placed on high shelves that can only be seen from abovef. I’m going to wait for parnia. The three-year project.
Began in 2008 & like the results will be out soon. Like If no one sees the pictures it shows these experiences are illusions or false memories. Or is consciousness is a separate entity. I’m going to off my self anyway. Just want to know. His got a book coming out in feb 2013. Got to be about the study.? The summary doesn’t mention verified OBE.
But anyway thank’s noom. They are lot’s of story’s out they like his.
Heard it on the news a couple of days ago,just thought you might be interested.A bit skeptical myself ,but there you are
@ Noon, I spent a month of my life learning about near to death experiences. This one, particularly, you can find on youtube as well. There’s a documentary by Dr. Moody that will show a series of them. I won’t go into too much detail about the subject, since I already wrote a post about it a couple of months ago, but I’d like to underline a relevant aspect of this topic that I think would be of interest given the nature of this site. “Hellish” NDE’s were NOT ONLY experienced by people that had attempted suicide, but by a rather large amount of people that had been pronounced clinically dead for a variety of completely different reasons like an accident, for instance. I found two suicide attempt stories out of the very few that there are out there, where people described their “trip” as peaceful and beautiful. And ALL “hellish” experiences shared a happy ending in which they had been saved. I don’t believe in God much these days, but if there’s one, I wouldn’t be inclined to believe that he’d condemn the suffering to even more and worse punishment for not having been able to take the pain and having killed themselves, unless, of course, God was also Satan himself.
@black swan could you please provide links to these suicide NDE stories? I’d be very interested.
@Jack86, I don’t have the links anymore. Just goolge, near to death experiences and you’ll find lots about the subject. I personally prefer the videos since it’s easy to make up a story in writing but very hard to fake one through acting even if you’re Hollywood material. They are extremely interesting.