Do we have a soul? Is there life after death? The afterlife is something that has been experienced by countless people since recorded history who have returned to tell their tales, with the most noteworthy account experienced first-hand by Harvard trained brain neurosurgeon of 25 years, Dr. Eben Alexander. This is not just another afterlife account that can be written off as a hallucination. Before we look at exactly how his experience of the afterlife defies all scientific explanation, lets explore his account a little bit.
Before his experience, he did not believe existence of a non-physical spirit. Trained in western medical school and surrounded by medical colleagues who are deeply invested in the materialism view of the universe, he thought that the idea of a soul was outlandish. Like most “skeptics”, he believed stories of the afterlife to be hallucinations or products of the human imagination.
Dr. Alexander changed his mind after he was in a coma for seven days caused by severe bacterial meningitis. During his coma he experienced a vivid journey into what he knew to be the afterlife, visiting both heavenly and not so heavenly realms.
After returning to his body and experiencing a miraculous healing against all odds, and went on to write the NY Times #1 best selling book “Proof of Heaven.” What Dr. Alexander confirms is that our life here is just a test help our souls evolve and grow, and that the way we succeed in doing so is to proceed with love and compassion. Here are just a few other notable points he made:
– The experience of the afterlife was so “real” and expensive that the experience of living as a human on Earth seemed like an artificial dream by comparison.
– The fabric of the afterlife was pure LOVE. Love dominated the afterlife to such a huge degree that the overall presence of evil was infinitesimally small. If you wish to know the Universe, know Love.
– In the afterlife, all communication was telepathic. There was no need for spoken words, nor even any separation between the self and everything else happening around you. All the questions you asked in your mind were immediately answered to you telepathically as well.
When asked what he wants everyone to know about the spiritual realm, he always answers saying that you are precious and infinitely loved more than you can possibly imagine. You are always safe. You are never alone. The unconditional and perfect Love of God neglects not one soul.
“Love is, without a doubt, the basis of everything. Not some abstract, hard-to-fathom kind of love but the day-to-day kind that everyone knows-the kind of love we feel when we look at our spouse and our children, or even our animals. In its purest and most powerful form, this love is not jealous or selfish, but unconditional.
This is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists or will ever exist, and no remotely accurate understanding of who and what we are can be achieved by anyone who does not know it, and embody it in all of their actions.”
Now let’s talk credibility for a minute. What makes this experience so much more significant than another NDE account? Eben’s neocortex was completely nonfunctional during the time of his coma do to his severe bacterial meningitis, so there is no scientific account for why he experienced this. In fact, he gives refutations to 9 different possible scientific explanations for his experience in his book.
Exploring Naturalistic Explanations
Let’s take a look at 5 potential explanations he outlines in Appendix B of “Proof of Heaven”. Some are of his explanations would make no sense to us as laymen untrained in neuroscientific terminology, so here are the most common explanations he refutes, all of which are taken verbatim from his book:
1. A primitive brainstem program to ease terminal pain and suffering (“evolutionary argument” – possibly as a remnant of feigned-death strategies from lower mammals?). This did not explain the robust, richly interactive nature of the recollections.
2. The distorted recall of memories from deeper parts of the limbic system (for example, the lateral amygdala) that have enough overlying brain to be relatively protected from the meningitic inflammation, which occurs mainly at the brain’s surface. This did not explain the robust, richly interactive nature of the recollections.
3. DMT dump. DMT, a naturally occurring serotonin agonist causes vivid hallucinations and a dream-like state. I am personally familiar with drug experiences related to serotonin agonist/antagonists (LSD) from my teen years in the early 70s. I have had no personal experience with DMT but have seen patients under its influence. The rich ultra-reality would still require fairly intact auditory and visual neocortex as target regions in which to generate such a rich audiovisual experience as I had in a coma. Prolonged coma due to bacterial meningitis had badly damaged my neocortex, which is where all of the serotonin from the raphe nuclei in my brainstem (or DMT, a serotonin agonist) would have had effects on visual/auditory experiences. But my cortex was off, and the DMT would have no place in the brain to act.
4. A reboot phenomenon – a random dump of bizarre dis-jointed memories due to old memories in the damaged neocortex, which might occur on restarting the cortex into consciousness after a prolonged system-wide failure, as in my diffuse meningitis. Especially given the intricacies of my elaborate recollections, this seems most unlikely.
5. Unusual memory generation through an archaic visual pathway through the midbrain, prominently used in birds but only rarely identifiable in humans. It can be demonstrated in humans who are cortically blind, due to occipital cortex. It provided no clue as to the ultra-reality I witnessed and failed to explain the auditory-visual interleaving.
His NDE account stands as the most credible account of all time, and coming from his materialistic scientific background, we have good reason to believe that he really did have a vivid encounter with something beyond this world.
Here is an interview/feature he did with ABC News about his condition and his experience:
By Steven Bancarz , New York Times.
via SpiritScienceAndMetaphysics
Spelling counts, try editing before you publish
they do or not but we have a strong believe in it.
May ALLAH guide Atheists.
I believe but nothing to do with religion..
Weak. I can’t access the page. But without reading I’d say it proves that science and spirituality go hand in hand and are not world’s apart like some would have you believe
I have red the book that dr Eben Alexander wrote ! Beautiful experience !!! Several good books are written about that subject.
Let me get this straight.. Who believes afterlife exists believe it and who dnt believe dont…
Not a test…a treat.
may science eventually purveil and the silly masses will realise religion is nothin but make believe and population control !!
Read His book,,
Couldn’t of said it better myself John!
Amazing, believe.
Life is a school that accepts no dropouts. Also, the tests that we get are all different, so you can’t cheat on the answers.
Lethal Lee Woodford Kym Moira Dixon
Shaker Abady U will be interested about this one ha ha ha
Omg omg omg u see Emma
Watch him on You Tube! His near death story is just beautiful.
crap
Read his book, awesome!
Totally <3
More like a challenge … IMHO …
✨✨
Rather than an “afterlife” I believe that our lives are continuous; our souls move from life to life which we choose based on what we need to learn; the more we learn the less often we need to reincarnate and god, or gods are those souls which have learnt the most and are there to guide us and teach us…..:-)
Sophie Strong
Gloria
Told you 😉
I knew
As a psychic,this is really old news. I knew before i even could grasp the concept of death.
Also .. Dr Ben Carson, a true pioneer in neurosurgery believes the earth is just 6000 years old.. Facts doesn’t give a damn about your believes
Noor S. Farooqi MahRukh Khalid Muhammad Bilal Faruki
Oh you’re a psychic? In what field exactly?
How so?
His story has already be debunked.
Look it up
Reincarnation theory is true.
Rick Dasgupta
Ruben
His love is all around to be seen, in Africa and latest, in middle East.
Yes i know
About atma ,its clearly explaing in ayurveda..
Nice clickb8 m8 r8 8/8!
Akshay Sharma
Your spirit will live forever….. Your life will end oneday,prepare to meet thy God….
yes…its controlled by one and only one almighty, god….there is a life after death….its confirmed already in the holy” quran’..
Somebody invent a time traveling machine I just wanna take a ride in it before my spirit takes off 🙂
Psychic LMAO oh yeah and I’m superman on the weekends.
Uhhh duhhhh
you can say whatever you want but my experiences are my own and nobody can take those from me. I’ve been clinically dead on the table 3 times. all three times I went to the same place, so everyone is entitled to their own opinion but as an empath and a clairvoyant. I am confident in my abilities. I’ve been tested by medical professionals for mental health and I’m in the clear so say what you want to
Cindy Walch
Solange pretty interesting read
Tiffany A Woowoo please read this
interesting read…I’ve heard and read many articles on this, also his reference to DMT
Lol
Ambikeya
Karminder Pandher
There just up set because there close minded fuc. Wads who are blind
Fake
Read it
🙁 k.
Gabriela Vargas !!!!
Not fake. Belive.
Fake.
Jasdeep what do you think?
and then… you end up meeting yourself…;)
yes.. the husk has to be removed if not it will grow again somewhere…
wt hppned to the spirits of all the chicken, beef we ate?
wt hppned to the spirits of all the chicken, beef we ate?
Don’t you also believe that afterlife is supposed to be after life i.e. after death? How does a coma patient who is technically alive is allowed to pass on to experience afterlife? wait, another near death experience of a semi-working brain?
next time u go there, please stay there
Strange and unbelievable???.
Maybe there’s afterlife after all.
There is a lot of evidence for life after death !!!! Nothing new here.
Abdifatah Dahiye
Ohhh please. Stop it. There is no shred of evidence of anything suggesting an afterlife in this article.
bullshit
this only proves that consciousness is not a brain function and how deep are we into the mud. And you just gotta love that shity picture…the afterlife must look like this one, it makes sense yeah 😉
I’ve read his book ‘Proof of Heaven’ , it really helped me after the death of my Mum.
I have known there is an afterlife since childhood. Love the Lord our God with all your heart, soul and mind.
Just because we can’t explain it yet, doesn’t mean that it’s magic
I`ve experienced it……..its TRUE.
Rebecca Stone Aileen Gibson
Nicki Van Riel
Typical hallucination , the Bible tells when your dead your dead. The only way you will come back to life is if Jehovah God resurrects you in his fast approaching paradise here on earth . Your soul is you Gen 2:7 not some shadowy thing inside you , which is taught in all false religions & came from Ancient Greek mythology
The bible says he dead are concious of nothing at all……….
Âvïshèk Pråsãd
So you know it all…typical Bible thumper with all the answers..I am pleased to announce their is more to the picture than meets the eye..Thank God ..and if Jesus were here he would straighten this whole thing out..KJV recruits- typical- God will not allow his word to be trifled with. Give me a break..We have free will to mess even that up and have we done so..Yes..
Just saying what the Bible says . If Jesus was here he would be preaching about Jehovah Gods fast approaching Kingdom , so Jehovah’s Witnesses do the same , Jesus quoted accurately from the ancient scrolls as do we
Yes. Either Eternal life or Eternal damnation.
You will all see when you get there, God is good!!!
God is good!!
The Jehovah’s Witnesses I know are not so arrogant about it. In fact, they and the Seventh Day Adventists that I’ve known are some of the most humble, polite and kind people in the world. Just saying.
I understand this is not “scientifically credible” because, even though it is related by a scientifically trained person, it is still an anecdote and anecdotes are not scientific evidence. However, I have my own anecdotal experience to relate to concerning “afterlife” and I will not be surprised to find that there is one — and of course, if there’s not one, I won’t know it at all. Good enough for me.
So refreshing. So positive. So very true.
Until my parents passed I was on the fence post about an afterlife…after my mom passed she visited me twice that I’m aware of…and my father once…I know that there is more to this life than just living and dying…our souls continue on…where,why and how? not a clue !! I know when I die I will be leaving my body and I’ll be off to the next realm…that’s what I truly believe,like it or not <3
I had a NDE. You’ll find out for yourself. Until then, enjoy the ride.
Liam O’Brien
Yep – that’s me converted!
It’s like a theorem. Single proof enough!
“During his coma he experienced a vivid journey into what he knew to be the afterlife”. So, he KNEW it was the afterlife. Not sure this is the sort of ‘proof’ that Luke McQuirk would approve of!
Oh for those that don’t agree wait your turn it will happen to you
Really feel for you Tracey it’s so sad to lose a loved one . We look forward to seeing our loved ones when they are resurrected in Gods fast approaching new system right hear on earth .Jesus had the power to heal when he was on earth from God , that is a foreshadow of what he will soon do world wide . Psalms 37:9-11 Rev 21:4
I believe his story without ashadow of a doubt. I feel sorry for people that simply cannot open their hearts and believe this is real. Someday they’ll know.
You are been sarcastic, right?
There is?????
I read his books and I agree with all he says.
If you would like a bit of info Jayne go to Jw.org . There you will see 99% of all Bible prophecy has come true & that’s why we don’t doubt the end of this wicked system is soon to follow . I find it very sad that many don’t take heed. Reminds me of people who stubbornly refuse to move when the authorities say to get out when a tornadoes coming
All religions are false
A mate of mine got stabbed. Died and was resuscitated several times. He saw the light Travelled towards it but was told to go back.
Yep
Sasha Birenbaum
I read his book. Pretty convincing
I have no doubt about it , never did its like a knowing ! instead of a believe !
stating the obvious… only fools doubt facts… and facts aren’t necessarily scientific…
Swan Davies
Amy, seem familiar?
Muhammad Irfan Fazil
My concern is, can we meet our loved ones in afterlife?
This was debunked in 2013… same with boy who said heaven is for real, he later came out and said he made it up.
The other side of consciousness …
Pam Conway
Susan Eltzholtz
Nothing new read: Pim Lommel,
What a wonderful thought!
Lejla Čolaković
Sean
Of course we can
Never heard about a Buddhist or someone of another religion experiencing anything like these people, probably our imagination does it when coming out of the coma.
I believe we do!
ben carson is also a neurosurgeon, just sayin.
No, it never was debunked
yes it was… google it
How would you debunk him , with science ? Which has been wrong more times then it’s right . The holders of ancient knowledge all over the world talk about the spirit never dyeing.
That’s how science works… you keep looking for answers no matter what the first answer was, and in the discovery of new evidence the conclusion changes. But there is still no conclusive evidence of afterlife other than fairy tales written by men from the dark ages.
If anything it’s the human brain playing tricks… easy to do.
Riiiiiiighhht
He was very sick and was likely hallucinating… http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/proof-heaven-author-debunked/313681/
How can you “believe” something you have NEVER seen? Just sayn’. And don’t try and sell it cause I aint buyin
Lol
Eben Alexander, MD and his book “The Proof” if somebody interested with the subject
I think you mean “expansive,” not “expensive.” I can’t afford an expensive after-life.
I had a friend died a couple weeks ago.shared this with me….. He came back to life after paramedics revived him. He said he saw Jesus and spoke telepathically to him and asked Him if He could stay longer in life on earth. He said Jesus arms were criss crossed on His chest….and Jesus said that He and the Father and Holy Spirit said He could go back…He said He saw him
standing by his bed…saw a brilliant light and could not make out His face but knew it was Jesus.
What Happens When You Die
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiHP5obKDKs&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSl43sixzuE&feature=youtu.be
The Truth About Reincarnation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNgzpRFRGBo&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAGbmtK696o&feature=youtu.be
It was Alex Malarkey’s 2010 book titled The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A True Story that came out as untrue. It is often mistaken for a similar work titled Heaven Is for Real. The latter book involved a different child named Colton Burpo, who was four years old at the time of his purported visit to Heaven.