American neurosurgeon Dr Eben Alexander claims that he reunited with his sister in the afterlife.
Full story here: Top doctor who fell into coma
The medic's life changed forever in November 2008 when he woke up one morning with a 'searing headache' while working at the Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia.
"Within a few hours, I went into a coma: my neocortex, the part of the brain that handles all the thought processes making us human, had shut down completely," he explained.
It was determined that Alexander was suffering from bacterial meningitis, which was 'eating into his brain like acid' and inflaming his spinal cord - and his chances at survival were little to none.
Dr Eben Alexander used to be 'skeptical' about the afterlife until his brush with death
The academic, who taught brain science at Harvard Medical School, was experiencing seizures, and doctors decided to place him into a medically-induced coma to give his body a chance to recuperate, even though the prognosis didn't look good.
"Scans showed no conscious activity whatever - my brain was not malfunctioning, it was completely unplugged. But my inner self still existed, in defiance of all the known laws of science."
Alexander admitted his line of work had made him 'skeptical' about patients claiming they had experienced out-of-body experiences, angelic encounters and hallucinations, as he believed it was the brain's way of coping with trauma.
"And then, in the most dramatic circumstances possible, I discovered proof that I was wrong,"
"After an expanse of time had passed, though I can't begin to guess how long, a light came slowly down from above, throwing off marvellous filaments of living silver and golden effulgence. "It was a circular entity, emitting a beautiful, heavenly music that I called the Spinning Melody.
"The light opened up like a rip in the fabric of that coarse realm, and I felt myself going through the rip, up into a valley full of lush and fertile greenery, where waterfalls flowed into crystal pools.
"Within a few hours, I went into a coma: my neocortex, the part of the brain that handles all the thought processes making us human, had shut down completely," he explained.
It was determined that Alexander was suffering from bacterial meningitis, which was 'eating into his brain like acid' and inflaming his spinal cord - and his chances at survival were little to none.
Dr Eben Alexander used to be 'skeptical' about the afterlife until his brush with death
The academic, who taught brain science at Harvard Medical School, was experiencing seizures, and doctors decided to place him into a medically-induced coma to give his body a chance to recuperate, even though the prognosis didn't look good.
"Scans showed no conscious activity whatever - my brain was not malfunctioning, it was completely unplugged. But my inner self still existed, in defiance of all the known laws of science."
Alexander admitted his line of work had made him 'skeptical' about patients claiming they had experienced out-of-body experiences, angelic encounters and hallucinations, as he believed it was the brain's way of coping with trauma.
"And then, in the most dramatic circumstances possible, I discovered proof that I was wrong,"
What he saw
After slipping into the coma, he recalls feeling as though he was in a 'primitive, primordial state that felt like being buried in earth' - but he was aware this was not the world he was familiar with as he sensed, heard and saw 'other entities'."After an expanse of time had passed, though I can't begin to guess how long, a light came slowly down from above, throwing off marvellous filaments of living silver and golden effulgence. "It was a circular entity, emitting a beautiful, heavenly music that I called the Spinning Melody.
"The light opened up like a rip in the fabric of that coarse realm, and I felt myself going through the rip, up into a valley full of lush and fertile greenery, where waterfalls flowed into crystal pools.
It was paradise, and Alexander wanted to travel into it 'deeper and deeper'. He describes heaven as being as 'vast, various and populated as Earth', but says that 'nothing is isolated, alienated or disconnected' there, adding: "Everything is one."
Alexander explained that while soaking up the sheer beauty of the place, he eventually encountered an 'infinitely powerful' deity who he referred to as Om, who served as his guide.
"She was an extraordinarily beautiful woman who first appeared as I rode, as that speck of awareness, on the wing of that butterfly," he said. "I'd never seen this woman before. I didn't know who she was.
"Yet her presence was enough to heal my heart, to make me whole in a way I'd never known was possible. Her face was unforgettable.
Without actually speaking, she let me know that I was loved and cared for beyond measure and that the universe was a vaster, better, and more beautiful place than I could ever have dreamed.
Meanwhile, he'd been in a coma for a week and showed no signs of improvement, prompting doctors to consider whether they should turn his life support off - but he then suddenly regained consciousness.
"My eyes just popped open, and I was back. I had no memories of my earthly life but knew full well where I had been," he explained. "I had to relearn everything: who, what, and where I was.
After his near-death experience, he felt like a 'different person' due to the things he had experienced, and he found it especially difficult to get Om off his mind.
But everything made sense when the doctor, who was adopted as a child, received a letter four months later.
Alexander explained he remembered nothing of his birth family and grew up not knowing that he had a biological sister, Betsy until he later went in search of his parents. "But for Betsy it was too late: she had died," the medic said. One of his relatives, whom he had been in touch with, sent Alexander a photograph of his sister, which solidified his alleged afterlife experience — Betsy was the woman he had encountered.
"The shock of recognition was total," Alexander added. "The moment I realised this, something crystallised inside me. "That photo was the confirmation that I'd needed. This was proof, beyond reproach, of the objective reality of my experience.
"From then on, I was back in the old, earthly world I'd left behind before my coma struck, but as a genuinely new person. I had been reborn."
Alexander explained that while soaking up the sheer beauty of the place, he eventually encountered an 'infinitely powerful' deity who he referred to as Om, who served as his guide.
"She was an extraordinarily beautiful woman who first appeared as I rode, as that speck of awareness, on the wing of that butterfly," he said. "I'd never seen this woman before. I didn't know who she was.
"Yet her presence was enough to heal my heart, to make me whole in a way I'd never known was possible. Her face was unforgettable.
Without actually speaking, she let me know that I was loved and cared for beyond measure and that the universe was a vaster, better, and more beautiful place than I could ever have dreamed.
Meanwhile, he'd been in a coma for a week and showed no signs of improvement, prompting doctors to consider whether they should turn his life support off - but he then suddenly regained consciousness.
"My eyes just popped open, and I was back. I had no memories of my earthly life but knew full well where I had been," he explained. "I had to relearn everything: who, what, and where I was.
After his near-death experience, he felt like a 'different person' due to the things he had experienced, and he found it especially difficult to get Om off his mind.
But everything made sense when the doctor, who was adopted as a child, received a letter four months later.
Alexander explained he remembered nothing of his birth family and grew up not knowing that he had a biological sister, Betsy until he later went in search of his parents. "But for Betsy it was too late: she had died," the medic said. One of his relatives, whom he had been in touch with, sent Alexander a photograph of his sister, which solidified his alleged afterlife experience — Betsy was the woman he had encountered.
"The shock of recognition was total," Alexander added. "The moment I realised this, something crystallised inside me. "That photo was the confirmation that I'd needed. This was proof, beyond reproach, of the objective reality of my experience.
"From then on, I was back in the old, earthly world I'd left behind before my coma struck, but as a genuinely new person. I had been reborn."
Comment
NDE's are controversial. What are we to make of them? Wise words from Albert Einstein:
“A man should look for what is, and not what he thinks should be.”
How we see and understand the world is controlled by our brain.The human brain has about 86 billion neurons. Each of those neurons can have thousands of connections, making our brains incredibly complex.
"We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are" (Talmud)
Not suprisingly there is no definitive scientific explanation for NDE's. Medics and psychologists have theories about what the science might be behind NDE's but by their nature repeat experiments are impossible. So it's difficult to follow Einstein's dictum in these cases.
Some NDE's are not positive and can be accompanied by fear.
Those who experience a positive NDE, and there are thousands who do, will need no convincing. The rest of us must choose whether these are evidence of an after-life or simply our brain doing it's own thing.
The NDE Researech Foundation website is a database of over 5000 reported NDE's
The NDE Researech Foundation website is a database of over 5000 reported NDE's
www.nderf.org/
Study of 1000 NDE's here Near-Death Experiences Evidence for Their Reality
Conclusion from this study
The combination of the preceding nine lines of evidence converges on the conclusion that near-death experiences are medically inexplicable. Any one or several of the nine lines of evidence would likely be reasonably convincing to many, but the combination of all of the presented nine lines of evidence provides powerful evidence that NDEs are, in a word, real.
