A skeptical scientist who had
spent his career studying the
mechanics of the brain and
dismissing patient tales of
journeys to heavenly realms has
revealed his extraordinary
conversion after his own
encounter with the afterlife
during a near-death
experience.
Dr Eben Alexander spent 15
years as an academic
neurosurgeon at Harvard but he
was struck with a nearly fatal
bout of bacterial meningitis in
2008 and had no brain activity
when he lay comatose for seven
days at a Virginia hospital.
Though he was unconscious
and unresponsive during that
period, he is now describing a
'hyper-vivid and completely
coherent odyssey' to a place
beyond, filled with butterflies
and resounding music that has
shaken his scientific viewpoint
on human consciousness.
He says he entered a place filled
with clouds and the sound of
chanting, and was met by a
beautiful blue-eyed woman.
Dr Alexander describes his
paradigm shift from focusing
solely on the scientific make up
of the brain to considering the
spiritual realm of the mind, in a
deeply reflective essay in
Newsweek in advance of the
release of his book, Proof of
Heaven.
'As a neurosurgeon, I did not
believe in the phenomenon of
near-death experiences,' he
writes in his article, explaining
how he had previously relied on
'good scientific explanations for
the heavenly out-of-body
journeys described by those
who narrowly escaped death.'
Though he considered himself a
nominal Christian he said he
lacked the faith to believe in
eternal life.
When his patients would tell
tales of going to heaven during
near death experiences, he
relied on 'current medical
understanding of the brain and
mind' and disregarded them as
wishful thinking.
But after he became the patient,
he says he 'experienced
something so profound that it
gave me a scientific reason to
believe in consciousness after
death.'
The 58-year-old has an
impressive pedigree. His
ancestors were well regarded
politicians and prominent
fixtures in society in Tennessee.
His father was Chief of
Neurosurgery at Wake Forest
University from 1948 to 1978.
The younger Alexander
graduated from Phillips Exeter
Academy and received his
bachelor's degree from the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in 1975. He earned
his medical degree from Duke in
1980.
He spent 15 years teaching
neurology at Harvard Medical
School and the University of
Virginia - lecturing on and
researching brain mapping, the
treatment of brain tumors and
trying to understand cognition.
In 2008, the father-of-two was in
'good health and good shape,'
preparing to embark on a hike
with his son of a volcano in
South America, he said in a July
interview about the ordeal with
Skeptiko.
Little did he know that he would
soon become a patient at the
very hospital where he taught.
The doctor's life was nearly cut
short on November 10, 2008,
when he awoke at 4:30am to get
ready to go to work at the
Lynchburg General Hospital in
Virginia, where he worked as a
neurosurgeon.
All of a sudden, he developed a
severe pain in his back and
within 15 minutes he was
paralyzed in anguish and could
barely even move.
His wife, Holley, rushed in to
assist him and began to rub his
back to relieve the tension but
his condition worsened.
Before he began convulsing in a
seizure, his last words to his
wife were, 'Don't call 911,' and
he lost consciousness and has
no memory of what happened
for an entire week.
Fortunately for him, his wife
disregarded his advice and he
was rushed to an area hospital
and was diagnosed with
bacterial meningitis.
'My entire cortex - the part of
the brain that controls thought
and emotion and that in essence
makes us human - had shut
down,' he writes in his essay.
'Doctors determined that I had
somehow contracted a very rare
bacterial meningitis that mostly
attacks newborns. E. coli
bacteria had penetrated my
cerebrospinal fluid and were
eating my brain,' he added.
He was placed on a ventilator at
the intensive care unit and for
six days he was treated with
triple antibiotics to fight the
bacteria but his brain had little
functionality and he was
unresponsive, leaving doctors to
believe he would not recover.
As his family prepared for the
worst, on the seventh day he
suddenly opened his eyes.
His breathing tube was removed
and he miraculously told
doctors, 'Thank you.'
He suffered from amnesia and
could not remember his life at
all prior to his illness and
remained in a haze for the first
few days after he came out of
the coma.
As he recovered though, he
began to recall vivid memories
of a magical mental experience
during his time in the coma.
'There is no scientific
explanation for the fact that
while my body lay in coma, my
mind - my conscious, inner self -
was alive and well.
'While the neurons of my cortex
were stunned to complete
inactivity by the bacteria that had
attacked them, my brain-free
consciousness journeyed to
another, larger dimension of the
universe: a dimension I’d never
dreamed existed and which the
old, pre-coma me would have
been more than happy to
explain was a simple
impossibility,' he writes.
He says he entered a 'place of
clouds - big, puffy and pink-
white,' filled with butterflies and
angel-like creatures that were
'simply different from anything I
have known on this planet. They
were more advanced. Higher
forms.'
In this heavenly realm, he says
he heard 'a sound, huge and
booming like a glorious chant,
came down from above,'
providing him with a sense of
joy and awe.
A beautiful young woman
accompanied him during his
stay, 'she was young, and I
remember what she looked like
in complete detail. She had high
cheekbones and deep-blue
eyes. Golden brown tresses
framed her lovely face.'
Alexander admits his description
might sound like something
straight out of Hollywood, but to
skeptics he says he has a clear
sense that is was indeed real
and 'not some fantasy, passing
and insubstantial.'
After his remarkable experience
in 2008, Alexander says the
impact has been both on the
professional and the spiritual.
Now the scientist has committed
his energy to 'investigating the
true nature of consciousness
and making the fact that we are
more, much more, than our
physical brains as clear as I can,
both to my fellow scientists and
to people at large.'
But the self-described Christian-
in-name-only, now says his
experience with heaven has
deepened his understanding of
God and strengthened his faith.
'At the very heart of my journey
[is this], that we are loved and
accepted unconditionally by a
God even more grand and
unfathomably glorious than the
one I’d learned,' he concludes.
Culled from Daily Mail UK
News, Events, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Inspiration and Sporting News around the World.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Scientist convinced of the existence of heaven after 7-day out-of-body odyssey
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