{"id":9943,"date":"2015-01-16T08:05:56","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T13:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/?p=9943"},"modified":"2015-01-15T22:32:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T03:32:27","slug":"an-atheist-in-heaven-eben-alexanders-venture-into-eternity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/2015\/01\/an-atheist-in-heaven-eben-alexanders-venture-into-eternity\/","title":{"rendered":"An Atheist in Heaven: Eben Alexander\u2019s Venture Into Eternity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I adored th[e] simplicity\u2014the absolute honesty and <\/em>cleanness <\/span>of science.\u00a0 I respected that it left no room for fantasy or for sloppy thinking.\u00a0 If a fact could be established as tangible and trustworthy, it was accepted.\u00a0 If not, then it was rejected.<\/em><\/em><\/span> This approach left very little room for the soul and the spirit, for the continuing existence of a personality after the brain that supported it stopped functioning.\u00a0 It left even less room for those words I\u2019d heard in church again and again:\u00a0 \u201clife everlasting.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Eben Alexander was an atheist.<\/strong>\u00a0 After 25 years as a respected academic neurosurgeon, Dr. Alexander could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul.\u00a0 He had heard of near-death experiences, but they seemed implausible and, therefore, uninteresting.<\/p>\n

Then his own brain was attacked<\/strong> by an E. coli bacterial infection, a rare form of meningitis which is fatal in more than 90% of cases.\u00a0 For seven days, he lie comatose in Lynchburg General Hospital, brain activity reduced to pure physical impulses.\u00a0 The part of the brain which is the locus of higher functions such as memory and intentional decision-making or logic was completely inactive.<\/p>\n

Doctors, certain that his death was inevitable, wanted to discontinue treatment<\/strong> with antibiotics, and encouraged his wife to prepare for a final goodbye.\u00a0 But Eben Alexander didn\u2019t die; defying medical predictions and confounding his doctors, Dr. Alexander awoke.\u00a0 Even more surprising, his cognitive function returned rapidly.\u00a0 The doctors\u2019 dire predictions of serious brain injury were quickly disproven, as language and memory and emotion returned.<\/p>\n

Before his illness, Dr. Alexander\u2019s rational approach had led him to believe that the universe had evolved by happenstance<\/strong> without the aid of a Creator.\u00a0 During his coma, though, he had seen for himself that heaven was real.\u00a0 He had entered a new realm, a spiritual realm, where music and light combined in unimaginable beauty.<\/p>\n

Something had appeared in the darkness.<\/em><\/span> Turning slowly, it radiated fine filaments of white-gold light, and as it did so the darkness around me began to splinter and break apart.<\/em><\/span> Then I heard a new sound, a <\/em>living sound, like the richest, most complex, most beautiful piece of music you\u2019ve ever heard.\u00a0 Growing in volume as a pure white light descended, it obliterated the monotonous mechanical pounding that, seemingly for eons, had been my only company up until then.<\/em><\/span> \u2026Then, at the very center of the light, something else appeared.\u00a0 I focused my awareness, hard, trying to figure out what it was.<\/em><\/span> An opening.\u00a0 I was no longer looking <\/em>at the slowly spinning light at all, but <\/em>through it\u2026.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Proof<\/a>I recall that Eben Alexander\u2019s dramatic story Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon\u2019s Journey into the Afterlife\"\"<\/em><\/a>\u00a0elicited a small firestorm of television and radio interviews<\/strong> when it was released in 2012.\u00a0 Myself, though, I stumbled across it in the airport bookstore when, having packed hastily, I forgot to bring a book to read on my flight from Detroit to Phoenix.\u00a0 For the next five hours, I lived in its pages\u2014smiling at Eben\u2019s memory of life in the afterworld, warmed by his recollections of vibrant colors and rich music, of beauty, and of the Creator whom he called simply \u201cOm\u201d.<\/p>\n

I did notice<\/strong> that Dr. Alexander, while he wrote of attending an Episcopal church and gratefully received the Eucharist, said nothing about meeting Christ during his adventure outside of the bounds of time.\u00a0 I was not troubled by that.\u00a0 He had not actually entered into full union with God and with the saints\u2014only with the messenger who turned out to be the sister whom he\u2019d never met.\u00a0 And much of what he discovered regarding one\u2019s relationship with God was consistent with Catholic teaching.<\/p>\n

Proof of Heaven<\/em><\/a>\"\"<\/strong>\u00a0will surely be a comfort to those who are facing the loss of a loved one, or who can only watch as a friend or relative slips from this life into coma and into eternity.<\/p>\n

It will be a strong witness<\/strong> to those in the medical community who, like Dr. Alexander before his illness, imagine that they know better than their patients.<\/p>\n

And it will be a joyful read<\/strong> to the rest.\u00a0 I am happy to recommend it.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Oh, and there\u2019s more!<\/strong> \u00a0If you\u2019ve already enjoyed Proof of Heaven<\/a><\/em>, you\u2019ll want to read Dr. Alexander\u2019s most recent book, The Map of Heaven: \u00a0How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Map of Heaven<\/i><\/a>,<\/strong> Dr. Alexander\u00a0shares some of the stories that the people have told him and links them up with what the world\u2019s spiritual traditions have to say about the journey of the soul.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Both of these excellent titles by Dr. Eben Alexander are included in this month\u2019s Patheos Book Club.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I adored th[e] simplicity\u2014the absolute honesty and cleanness of science.\u00a0 I respected that it left no room for fantasy or for sloppy thinking.\u00a0 If a fact could be established as tangible and trustworthy, it was accepted.\u00a0 If not, then it was rejected. This approach left very little room for the soul and the spirit, for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,76,238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-death-and-dying","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Atheist in Heaven: Eben Alexander\u2019s Venture Into Eternity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I adored th simplicity\u2014the absolute honesty and cleanness of science.\u00a0 I respected that it left no room for fantasy or for sloppy thinking.\u00a0 If a fact\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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