The name of the work is actually Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Near-Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife. And with a title that lengthy it’s understandable why it’s often referred to simply as Proof of Heaven, or Proof of Heaven book.
The wordy title is no accident as it conveys that this isn’t your ordinary Joe’s near death experience (NDE). No indeed. This NDE happened to a neurosurgeon (thank you very much).
Though the reference to neurosurgeon may seem grandiose, it actually is significant. Part of the specialty of a neurosurgeon is the functioning of the brain. Attempts to dispute NDEs often come down to claims that NDEs are not forays into an afterlife, as is often claimed, but are instead an act of a brain under duress. In other words, something like a hallucination.
There have always been counterarguments to the brain under duress NDE skeptics but having a neurosurgeon — a brain specialist — call these skeptics wrong is certainly meaningful. Eben Alexander (actually Eben Alexander III if one wants to get it just right) is the NDE neurosurgeon andProof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Near-Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife is his story — literally.
Proof of Heaven is Alexander’s autobiography, his partial autobiography at least, in addition to being an NDE case study. The selling point of the work however is Alexander’s NDE experience, obviously.
For those unfamiliar with NDEs, they are accounts of a conscious experience beyond human life recounted by individuals who were either close to death or thought to be, in fact, dead. NDEs essentially are tales of the afterlife, of life beyond life, told by people who were supposedly there and then came back.
NDEs potentially have an enormous appeal to anyone who is facing death — which is all of us. If NDEs are actually glimpses into the afterlife then the scary prospect of dying becomes much less scary because we don’t really die, we simply transition into a magnificent other world.
Sounds good. Too good to be true, for some.
NDE skeptics are not hard to find. Some are quite outspoken, and claim that scientific explanations can back up their critiques that NDEs are not genuine afterlife visitations. Then along comes Eben Alexander…
The fact that Alexander is a neurosurgeon is not the only significant thing about his story. His NDE was caused by an extremely rare case of brain meningitis that left his brain in a nonfunctional state: the number of adults who contract this sort of meningitis was stated, I believe, to be in the range of 1 in 10 million. But it doesn’t stop there. The mortality rate for someone in Alexander’s circumstances is 97%, and if death were not to occur then severe and incapacitating brain damage would.
Alexander not only survived, he made a complete recovery.
Let’s recap. A guy who just happens to be a neurosurgeon gets the rarest form of disease that causes his brain to be nonfunctional, he should die but doesn’t, he should be brain damaged and incapacitated but isn’t, and oh by the way during his medical ordeal he has an NDE which he can then go and tell the world at large about and refute all arguments that the NDE experience was somehow caused by his brain — an impossibility since his brain was shut down when it occurred.
All of it just a coincidence. NOT. Not in my opinion, at least.
Here’s my take. The NDE story of Eben Alexander’s did not come from Eben Alexander: it was created and manifested by the omniscient, omnipresent source that is sometimes referred to as God (Alexander refers to this source as Om). What makes me say this? Because Alexander represents the perfect case study for NDEs being, in fact, proof of life beyond human death. With Alexander, and the numerous incredible coincidences his case represents, the case for an afterlife becomes a virtual certainty.
Good news for humanity, I would say. Thanks Om.
I’ll admit that all of this isn’t coming from a skeptic. I have known of NDEs for some time, and I found them to be compelling and believable from the outset. Having said that, the person who studies Eben Alexander’s case and still denies that NDEs are looks into the afterlife has gone from being a genuine skeptic to being a belligerent skeptic.
I believe that the only compelling refute to Alexander’s story being proof of an afterlife is that Alexander is lying about his NDE. Given his background, and also taking into account the myriad other NDE accounts out there, I don’t believe Alexander is lying about the details of his afterlife experience. He is certainly not lying about the other aspects of his story as they are medically documented.
Alexander’s story is a message from God (or however one wants to refer to this presence) and the message is ‘Everything will be all right. Don’t be afraid.’ and also, and maybe more importantly, ‘Come awake and know who you really are.’ A call for the prodigal child to finally come home.
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Near-Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife may not be considered a literary masterpiece but I find it to be an exceptional and inspirational work. Find Proof of Heaven Here. Get more information about NDEs Here and Here.
