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Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 2:37 am
by DrDonkeyLove
I'm don't think a lot about what happens after death but I've seen a few books about Near Death Experiences (NDE's) prominently displayed in airport bookstores over the last couple of years. They looked ridiculous and I assumed that they were mostly written by hucksters or confused people.
One book grabbed my attention after I heard a couple of radio interviews because the guy felt genuine and was uniquely educated. Dr. Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon. He caught some kind of super cortex killing cerebral meningitis. His book, Proof of Heaven, is about his spiritual experience while being essentially brain dead prior to his recovery.
The experience transformed him from someone without belief in an afterlife to someone who believes that consciousness is independent of the brain and that there is definitely an afterlife. In recent years I've been pretty convinced that NDE's are nothing more than a pleasant shut down program of the brain but I'm not a neurosurgeon who's experienced and studied this experience like Dr. Alexander.
Maybe NDE's are nothing more than than a phase of physical death....maybe they're something more spiritual and reflective of a dimension we're not generally in touch with. Regardless, it's an interesting subject.
Comments?
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:07 am
by nafod
My theory/guess is that the portion of the noggin that defines self and that is tasked with defending that self to all comers, a higher order function for sure, and the one that stands between you and an enlightenment experience, shuts down first when you start to go. Thus you are briefly enlightened before kicking the bucket. Some are lucky enough to walk the razor's edge and come back.
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:24 am
by Blaidd Drwg
If you want to see god,it will take about 10 minutes total.
DMT.
If you want a longer session with god/gods/jungle magix..this could take 2-48 hours (depending on dosage) to ascend the rope of death. Descent not included.
http://www.ayahuasca.com/
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:12 pm
by Kazuya Mishima
Yeah, DMT will take you to the place where the little bouncing machine elves reside, complete with their ability to convert spoken language into material objects so beautiful that it will drive one insane.
Tread carefully.
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 4:39 pm
by Holland Oates
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovi ... -problems/
Some of them might want their money back after reading a withering expose of Alexander's ALX -0.79%
background, written by journalist Luke Dittrich and published by Esquire. (It’s behind a paywall, but non-subscribers can purchase access for $1.99.)
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 2:27 pm
by Dunn
Blaidd Drwg wrote:If you want to see god,it will take about 10 minutes total.
DMT.
If you want a longer session with god/gods/jungle magix..this could take 2-48 hours (depending on dosage) to ascend the rope of death. Descent not included.
http://www.ayahuasca.com/
Indeed. Ayahuasca journeys can be incredibly life altering. Good mojos.
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:05 am
by Damien
Steven Novella's take on it:
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/inde ... of-heaven/
Conclusion
I understand that what Alexander experienced was strange, powerful, and profound and is coupled with the fact that he experienced a brush with death and survived. I will not presume to know how such an experience would affect me. This does not mean, however, that we can take his interpretation at face value.
Alexander, in my opinion, has failed to be true to the scientist he claims that he is. He did not step back from his powerful experience and ask dispassionate questions. Instead he concluded that his experience was unique, that it is proof of heaven, and that it defies any possible scientific explanation. He then goes on to give a hand-waving quantum mechanics, the universe is all unity, explanation for the supernatural. This is a failure of scientific and critical thinking.
Addressing his one major unstated premise, that the experienced occurred while his cortex was inactive, demolishes his claims and his interpretation of his experience.
As a neuroscientist I admit to a fascination with such experiences. I would love to experience something similar, to see what it is like (although I am not willing to damage my brain or take mild-altering drugs to do it). I would think that a neuroscientist would see such an experience as a powerful window into how the brain works (as Susan Blackmore did), how it constructs reality, and how the subjective experience that results from that construction can be altered, not as a window into a mystical and supernatural world.
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:03 pm
by Abandoned by Wolves
Damien wrote:Steven Novella's take on it:
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/inde ... of-heaven/
Conclusion
Alexander, in my opinion, has failed to be true to the scientist he claims that he is. He did not step back from his powerful experience and ask dispassionate questions. Instead he concluded that his experience was unique, that it is proof of heaven, and that it defies any possible scientific explanation. He then goes on to give a hand-waving quantum mechanics, the universe is all unity, explanation for the supernatural. This is a failure of scientific and critical thinking.
Addressing his one major unstated premise, that the experienced occurred while his cortex was inactive, demolishes his claims and his interpretation of his experience.
Bingo.
Re: Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander
Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:44 pm
by lasalle
Ed Zachary wrote:http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovi ... -problems/
Some of them might want their money back after reading a withering expose of Alexander's ALX -0.79%
background, written by journalist Luke Dittrich and published by Esquire. (It’s behind a paywall, but non-subscribers can purchase access for $1.99.)
I just finished the Esquire article. Ed you don't really do justice to how thoroughly he completely rips this guy's credibility apart. Down to the level of getting the weather forecast on the day he claimed to have seen a rainbow: no rain, no rainbows.