Just finished the book "Proof of Heaven" by Eben Alexander, M.D.
Most people are familiar with the near-death experiences (NDE) of many who claim to have had a glimpse of the beyond. The subject of NDE was popularized by Raymond A Moody when he published his book Life After Life in 1975. As Alexander points out new medical techniques enabling better rescue efforts from fatal conditions have produced a breed of trans-earthly voyagers in millions by now.
Alexander, a practicing neurosurgeon, claims to have strongly held, like others in his profession, that brain was merely a machine, howsoever complex, that produced consciousness. He had seen and treated patients with altered consciousness and that strengthened his beliefs. He quotes a case where he could diagnose a complaint of diminished consciousness as the result of a tumor. He removed the tumor and, sure enough, full consciousness reappeared! He discounted all NDE as mere fantasies.
He himself suffered meningitis from an unknown strain of E-coli and remained comatose for a full week. The spiritual experiences that he had while in coma form the subject matter of the book. The book is in the form of two intertwined strands - one about his family - biological and adoptive - his medical practice and his illness as told to him by others, and the other about his experiences in the "beyond." His experience changed his long held beliefs about consciousness and he felt duty bound to share his experiences and insights.
Alexander's NDE was a little different from the most common ones that start with going into a dark tunnel and emerging into the presence of a living light. He remembers being in a muddy darkness with a pounding metallic sound and things that could be roots or blood vessels reaching down from a place far above and going down to a place far below, for an eternity. He terms this place as the Realm of the Earthworm's Eye View. He describes it this way - "I was simply a lone point of awareness in a timeless red-brown sea." He also saw grotesque animal faces emerging from the muck, groaning or screeching and then going back into it. He also had awareness of a biological smell of blood and vomit that reeked of biological death.
Next came divine music and white light that obliterated the surreal dark gloom. As he saw through the light he was rocketed into that colorful, stunning and vibrant world that many of the NDEs describe. Gradually he realized that he was escorted by a girl and they were riding on a magical and beautiful surface that was like the wing of a butterfly. He didn't encounter any of his dead relatives and would figure out the identity of the girl after recovering and returning to the earthly existence.
He experienced direct communication without the limitations of a language, higher beings whose joy was audible, and finally, accompanied with an orb of light, landed into the shimmering darkness of the Godhead. Yes, darkness was how he experienced the ultimately reality. He refers to It as Om because he experienced that sound associated with it. The accompanying orb of light mediated between him and everything else like a placenta connecting a baby to a body. He quotes a seventeenth century poet who said - "There is, some say, in God a deep but dazzling darkness ..." While in the presence of Godhead he imbibed knowledge that remains with him even in this world. Only that it has become much difficult to process through a limited human mind. Like all NDE subjects he emphasizes that language is grossly inadequate to describe the reality that he experienced and what he is describing is only a best effort attempt subject to many limitations of our language.
He imbibed a strong message that love underlies all of the multiple universes. And that evil is necessarily present because free will would be impossible without it. To quote from the book - "Horrible and all-powerful as evil sometimes seemed to be in a world like ours, in the larger picture love was overwhelmingly dominant, and it would ultimately be triumphant."
Then at one point he returned to the Realm of the Earthworm's View. He discovered that he could again go to the gateway and beyond merely by recalling the divine music that had opened it the first time.
Alexander recalls that his NDE was also different in the sense that, unlike most others, he had totally lost his earthly identity.
He also describes how he was found to be behaving like a zombie when he woke up from his coma. He says that this was typically like a patient recovering from anesthesia.
Like many other NDE subjects, Dr. Alexander keeps emphasizing that the experience was not dreamlike but ultra-real and that human language is ill-suited to describe it and human mind has limitations in comprehending it.
Dr. Alexander now believes that brain does not generate consciousness but acts as a filter "shifting the larger, nonphysical consciousness that we possess in the nonphysical worlds down into a more limited capacity for the duration of our mortal lives." He insists on this because while he was having these ultra-real experiences, his brain was not working at all. And he vouches for that as a trained neurologist and gives reasons.
It is indeed a very interesting book and I would recommend it to you. After all, you had the patience and interest to read this blog to the end!
Most people are familiar with the near-death experiences (NDE) of many who claim to have had a glimpse of the beyond. The subject of NDE was popularized by Raymond A Moody when he published his book Life After Life in 1975. As Alexander points out new medical techniques enabling better rescue efforts from fatal conditions have produced a breed of trans-earthly voyagers in millions by now.
Alexander, a practicing neurosurgeon, claims to have strongly held, like others in his profession, that brain was merely a machine, howsoever complex, that produced consciousness. He had seen and treated patients with altered consciousness and that strengthened his beliefs. He quotes a case where he could diagnose a complaint of diminished consciousness as the result of a tumor. He removed the tumor and, sure enough, full consciousness reappeared! He discounted all NDE as mere fantasies.
He himself suffered meningitis from an unknown strain of E-coli and remained comatose for a full week. The spiritual experiences that he had while in coma form the subject matter of the book. The book is in the form of two intertwined strands - one about his family - biological and adoptive - his medical practice and his illness as told to him by others, and the other about his experiences in the "beyond." His experience changed his long held beliefs about consciousness and he felt duty bound to share his experiences and insights.
Alexander's NDE was a little different from the most common ones that start with going into a dark tunnel and emerging into the presence of a living light. He remembers being in a muddy darkness with a pounding metallic sound and things that could be roots or blood vessels reaching down from a place far above and going down to a place far below, for an eternity. He terms this place as the Realm of the Earthworm's Eye View. He describes it this way - "I was simply a lone point of awareness in a timeless red-brown sea." He also saw grotesque animal faces emerging from the muck, groaning or screeching and then going back into it. He also had awareness of a biological smell of blood and vomit that reeked of biological death.
Next came divine music and white light that obliterated the surreal dark gloom. As he saw through the light he was rocketed into that colorful, stunning and vibrant world that many of the NDEs describe. Gradually he realized that he was escorted by a girl and they were riding on a magical and beautiful surface that was like the wing of a butterfly. He didn't encounter any of his dead relatives and would figure out the identity of the girl after recovering and returning to the earthly existence.
He experienced direct communication without the limitations of a language, higher beings whose joy was audible, and finally, accompanied with an orb of light, landed into the shimmering darkness of the Godhead. Yes, darkness was how he experienced the ultimately reality. He refers to It as Om because he experienced that sound associated with it. The accompanying orb of light mediated between him and everything else like a placenta connecting a baby to a body. He quotes a seventeenth century poet who said - "There is, some say, in God a deep but dazzling darkness ..." While in the presence of Godhead he imbibed knowledge that remains with him even in this world. Only that it has become much difficult to process through a limited human mind. Like all NDE subjects he emphasizes that language is grossly inadequate to describe the reality that he experienced and what he is describing is only a best effort attempt subject to many limitations of our language.
He imbibed a strong message that love underlies all of the multiple universes. And that evil is necessarily present because free will would be impossible without it. To quote from the book - "Horrible and all-powerful as evil sometimes seemed to be in a world like ours, in the larger picture love was overwhelmingly dominant, and it would ultimately be triumphant."
Then at one point he returned to the Realm of the Earthworm's View. He discovered that he could again go to the gateway and beyond merely by recalling the divine music that had opened it the first time.
Alexander recalls that his NDE was also different in the sense that, unlike most others, he had totally lost his earthly identity.
He also describes how he was found to be behaving like a zombie when he woke up from his coma. He says that this was typically like a patient recovering from anesthesia.
Like many other NDE subjects, Dr. Alexander keeps emphasizing that the experience was not dreamlike but ultra-real and that human language is ill-suited to describe it and human mind has limitations in comprehending it.
Dr. Alexander now believes that brain does not generate consciousness but acts as a filter "shifting the larger, nonphysical consciousness that we possess in the nonphysical worlds down into a more limited capacity for the duration of our mortal lives." He insists on this because while he was having these ultra-real experiences, his brain was not working at all. And he vouches for that as a trained neurologist and gives reasons.
It is indeed a very interesting book and I would recommend it to you. After all, you had the patience and interest to read this blog to the end!
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