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TOP NEUROSURGEON ‘SPENT SIX DAYS IN HEAVEN’ DURING A COMA

A top neurosurgeon claims to have ‘Proof of heaven’ after making a full recovery from a seven day coma that saw his neocortex inactivated.

Dr Eben Alexander, who teaches neuroscience at Harvard University among others, fell seriously ill after contracting a rare form of bacterial meningitis in 2008.

Within hours of developing a severe headache, Dr Alexander’s entire cortex—the section of the brain that controls thought and emotion —had shut down.

Though his chances of survival were low, he awoke from the coma seven days later and began describing an ‘other worldly experience’.

"I was in a place of clouds. Big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky," he wrote in an article for Newsweek.

He also goes on to describe "Flocks of transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamer-like lines behind them."

While Dr Alexander admits his scientific expertise has made him skeptical of afterlife experiences, he claims the loss of function to his cortex makes his experiences unique.

"I’m not the first person to have discovered evidence that consciousness exists beyond the body," he said.

"I know full well how extraordinary, how frankly unbelievable, all this sounds."

"But as far as I know, no one before me has ever traveled to this dimension (a) while their cortex was completely shut down, and (b) while their body was under minute medical observation, as mine was for the full seven days of my coma."

Dr Alexander admits many still struggle to accept his story, particularly his medical colleagues.

His forthcoming book, "Proof of Heaven, A Neurosurgeon journey into the Afterlife" that aims to dispel the skepticism will be published by Simon & Schuster later this month.

"I’m still a doctor, and still a man of science every bit as much as I was before I had my experience,” he said. “But on a deep level I’m very different from the person I was before, because I’ve caught a glimpse of this emerging picture of reality."

Afterlife exists says top brain surgeon

A prominent scientist who had previously dismissed the possibility of the afterlife says he has reconsidered his belief after experiencing an out of body experience which has convinced him that heaven exists.

While in a coma the neurosurgeon says he was met by a beautiful woman in a 'place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones'

By Mark Hughes, New York7:52PM BST 09 Oct 2012

Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis.

During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion "shut down" and that he then experienced "something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death." In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a "place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones" and "shimmering beings".

He continues: "Birds? Angels? These words registered later, when I was writing down my recollections. 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." The doctor adds that a "huge and booming like a glorious chant, came down from above, and I wondered if the winged beings were producing it. the sound was palpable and almost material, like a rain that you can feel on your skin but doesn't get you wet."

Dr Alexander says he had heard stories from patients who spoke of outer body experiences but had disregarded them as "wishful thinking" but has reconsidered his opinion following his own experience.

He added: "I know full well how extraordinary, how frankly unbelievable, all this sounds. Had someone even a doctor told me a story like this in the old days, I would have been quite certain that they were under the spell of some delusion.

"But what happened to me was, far from being delusional, as real or more real than any event in my life. That includes my wedding day and the birth of my two sons." He added: "I've spent decades as a neurosurgeon at some of the most prestigous medical institutions in our country. I know that many of my peers hold as I myself did to the theory that the brain, and in particular the cortex, generates consciousness and that we live in a universe devoid of any kind of emotion, much less the unconditional love that I now know God and the universe have toward us.

"But that belief, that theory, now lies broken at our feet. What happened to me destroyed it."

"I was in a place of clouds.

After six days on triple antibiotics, showing no response and with little neurological function remaining, his physicians had few words of encouragement for his family.

On day seven he said “Thank you” when the breathing tube was removed! However, his earliest recollections were strange and involved no recall of his life before coma. Like a newborn, he had no functioning language, nor knowledge of this world, our culture, or the loved ones surrounding him. Foggy-minded for several days, he steadily improved and began writing and organizing his recollections of the experience..

Memories from the time in coma were inexplicable. They were like a patchwork quilt, with no apparent sequence, nor temporal relationship to one another. [Regardless,...]The purest and most extraordinary part of his journey happened deep in coma.

http://www.lifebeyonddeath.net/archives

DrVolin wrote:Of course, the vulgar materialist in me wants to point out that perhaps the whole experience was a split second while his neo-cortex was rebooting at the end of the coma. And the naive Popperian in me wants to ask whether and how he can test that hypothesis.

DrVolin wrote:Of course, the vulgar materialist in me wants to point out that perhaps the whole experience was a split second while his neo-cortex was rebooting at the end of the coma. And the naive Popperian in me wants to ask whether and how he can test that hypothesis.

crikkett wrote:a) doctors are stuck on themselves
b) he's probably never hallucinated before
c) I'm glad he pulled through

Also - someone having an experience like this and then calling it "proof" of anything is not someone I'm inclined to trust. Personal experience is not proof of anything. Our brains didn't evolve for "truth", it shows us what we want/need to see.