Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife Paperback – October 23, 2012

Nota Bene: I am ASSUMING for the sake of this comment that the account rendered in the book is real, i.e. it is a sincere effort by a real human being with a real MD degree to relate, in good faith, an experience he believes in good faith that he had. I am ASSUMING that this book and story are not a cynical fabrication by someone who is looking to fool the gullible, nor an attempt to make a quick buck writing about something that will sell books. I have not made a *substantial* attempt to verify the existence of Eben Alexander nor to verify his degree and positions.I have not had a NDE myself. Whatever knowledge I have of them is strictly based on those of other people, often obtained quite indirectly. The first NDE I had heard about while I was on a retreat in 1968. It was a "negative" -- meaning frightening -- NDE. Eben Alexander's account of a NDE is of particular interest because it occurred in a hospital setting while the subject was under intense scrutiny and because the subject is a neurosurgeon. That he entered the experience more-or-less as an unbeliever makes it even more interesting. The book is also interesting about what it says about Eben himself and his family. He comes across as a very good man who is surrounded by a very loving family.Having said that, I will say that I found his account of his vision (I say "vision" as his story is an attempt to relate the audio-visual aspects of a memory of an event that was presumably not "audio-visual" in the usual sense of the word, as his sense organs were not functioning, and the experience no doubt transcended "audio-visual-olfactory-tactile" experience.) to be a bit amusing. I say "amusing" not in a disrespectful way, but to convey the, well, amusement, I guess, of seeing a grown, educated, American man find out, via a truly extraordinary experience which certainly appears to be a gift from God, that which the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches have been trying to tell people for the past 2000 years, and Protestant churches for the past 500: God is Love. God LOVES us. Eye has not seen nor has ear heard what God the Father has in store for us. God's love is universal. God transcends what we call time and space. (Actually, philosophers have been telling us THAT for a VERY long time.) There are non-corporeal beings who know, love, and serve God. Evil in the World is a consequence of free will. Etc. etc. These are things we all SHOULD have learned in Catechism and had reinforced through our own lives of prayer and particular relationship with God through the person -- at least for Christians -- of Christ Jesus. That the good Lord saw fit to arrange this particular experience for Dr. Alexander both speaks to the love of God, and to the difficulty Man has discerning His purpose in particular instances.While his experience and vision are extremely interesting, there are no surprises for a Christian, and probably none for a Jew either. (I am not sure how most Muslims would think of this, so I won't try to guess.) Also, Eben's NDE was tailored for his particular needs, apparently, as appears to generally be the case for the more credible NDEs. He saw and heard (and felt and was made aware of and was infused with) the things to which he, in particular, needed to be so exposed.Regarding the book itself: it is an easy read, but very moving. Toward the end I found myself blubbering like a baby, as I related to an experience one of his sons had. There is something like a surprise ending that, of course, I will not reveal.The book makes some recommendations in terms of websites (including one started by Dr. Eben Alexander and an associate) for those who wish to learn more about NDEs and other spiritually transforming experiences. He also includes a book list that is quite broad in its scope. It includes books by the Dali Lama, Douglas Hofstadter (a strict materialist), Francis Collins (a life scientist and a believer) and many others in a variety of fields. Oddly, his list does NOT include Christian mystics like St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, nor anything about Heaven by someone like Peter Kreeft. I suspect that Dr. Eben Alexander is not familiar with these authors.Buy it. Read it. Spend some time on your knees.

"Proof of Heaven "is a book written about a near-death-experience that all - those who believe in heaven, and those who do not - will find provocative. What makes this near-death-experience (NDE) story unique and interesting is the Author, Eben Alexander, Md, a highly trained neurosurgeon who spent fifteen years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.Eben, like many trapped by science and the secular culture, was convinced that NDEs were caused by, and based on the natural shutting down of body's physiologic function in death. He repeatedly called God and heaven into question - how these could exist? His scientific world over the years undermined his ability to consider there was something larger.My interest in this subject began in late 1979 when my father shared with me that he had had an NDE while his body was shutting down due to uremic poisoning. My father, a proud man, told me that he had traveled through a dark tunnel towards a bright light when he found his parents standing his way, telling him that "he was not ready."Two years later, participation an executive management program at Columbia University introduced me to Roger Blackwell, the top university-based consumer marketing expert in the U.S., who was part of a national task team studying NDEs. He spent nearly three hours sharing his team's observations and findings. I have been an eager student of NDEs ever since.Eben was not prepared for what he personally experienced in late 2008 when his body shut down due to an attack on his brain by E. coli meningitis. His consciousness found itself submerged something like mud. He had no idea where he was, who he was, or where he came from. He was in a place of pulsing, pounding darkness, and a smell like feces. There was no sense of time. At first, he felt that there was no difference between him and the half-creepy environment that surrounded him.A light then appeared out of the darkness and he heard a living sound - "the most beautiful music one could ever hear." The light came closer and found it was not a light but rather something he could see through, an entry to another realm. He then found himself in a completely new world. He felt like he was being born, not reborn.Below him was something that looked like earth but was not. Someone was traveling next to him, a beautiful girl. She gave him a look that exuded love beyond all the different types of love he had ever experienced. It was something higher, and pure. They were flying over trees, fields, streams, waterfalls, and people, people who were laughing. She spoke to him without words in three parts:1. You are loved and cherished by God, dearly, forever.2. You have nothing to fear.3. There is nothing you can do wrong.She added he would see many things, but, eventually, he would go back.He then found himself entering "an immense void, completely dark, infinite in size, but also infinitely comforting. He then experienced God, the Creator, the Source, who is responsible for making the universe and all that is in it... While there was no distance between him and God, he could sense the vastness of the Creator and how miniscule he was compared to God... He was told that Evil was necessary because without it free will was impossible, and without free will, there would be no growth, no forward movement, no chance for us to become what God longed for us to be. Love was overwhelmingly dominant in our world and would be ultimately triumphant."He encountered God while in a reality of consciousness completely free of the limitations of his physical brain. He learned that human experience continues beyond the grave and that life is not meaningless. In life and after, human experience falls under the gaze of a God who loves and cares about each one of us."He was taught that only one thing matters - love. Love is the basis of everything. Love is unconditional. Love is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists or that 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 their actions. This is not just the most important emotional truth but also the most important scientific truth."Eben, "I was blind and now I see." He now feels it his duty, his calling, to tell people about what he saw beyond the body and beyond this earth. We must end the big lie, culture's belief in matter as the core reality and that all else - thought, ideas, consciousness, emotions, spirit - were merely productions of it. A big mistake is to believe God does not exist or is impersonal."There is no need to fear the world and build ourselves up through fame or wealth or conquest. Our truest, deepest self is completely free and has no need for the things of the world. We need to get in touch with this miraculous aspect of ourselves. We need to cultivate it and bring it to light. This being is within ourselves and it is the being God intended us to be. How do we get closer to this part of self - manifesting love and compassion?...prayer and meditation."The author learned his beautiful companion was a sister who had died several years earlier, a sister he had never known and had never seen. He recognized her as his guide when another family member shared a picture of her after he returned.This is a very provocative book, one that all should read. There is much more to life than most appreciate.