Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife

Eben Alexander

Oct 2012 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The #1 New York Times bestselling account of a neurosurgeon's own near-death experience—for readers of 7 Lessons from Heaven.

Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.

Then, Dr. Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion—and in essence makes us human—shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back.

Alexander’s recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself.

Alexander’s story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.

This story would be remarkable no matter who it happened to. That it happened to Dr. Alexander makes it revolutionary. No scientist or person of faith will be able to ignore it. Reading it will change your life.

Ratings and reviews

Although Dr. Alexander struggles with explaining his experience, given his limited linear human vocabulary. He attempts to put into lay terms what it is he saw, felt, & came to know. I liked how he says science & spirituality must co-exist. I would have liked to have him detail more of his upper level experience.But maybe he's still trying to understand it all.

I guess it all came down to Appendix B. It's pretty much his own list of possible reasons the NDE could have been experienced within science's understanding of the brain. He gives very short answers for why these scenarios are not the case, but saying that a scenario can not be true, because of the clarity of the NDE, the realness of it; well I just don't think that gives enough credit to the complexity of the human mind. It's like he keeps saying how much is unknown about consciousness, but goes on to make assertions about it with the utmost certainty. The other curious thing was time reference, of which he had almost none. In the beginning of the book, he almost seems to imply that he is going to be able to explain how he was aware of "human time" while in the coma, but the reader never really gets this. In fact, he says he has no reference of time. He questions himself while in the NDE, minutes, days, months, years? There is a good chance the NDE could be completely experienced in the time slipping into the coma, coming out of the coma, or even fabricated during the recovery stage.

Look this guy up. Malpractice galore. I believe in an afterlife but my gut says this guy is a fraud. What he said about the afterlife has been said a lot better by others. Regurgitation. He had a 3 million dollar lawsuit against him and lost Dr privileges in 3 hospitals before he got sick. Works in some underling capacity now. He wrote about his family mostly.

About the author

Eben Alexander, MD, has been an academic neurosurgeon for the last twenty-five years, including fifteen years at the Brigham & Women’s and the Children’s Hospitals and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is the author of Proof of Heaven and The Map of Heaven. Visit him at EbenAlexander.com.