By Steven Bancarz| Do we have a soul? Is there life after
death? The afterlife is something that
has been experienced by countless people since recorded history who have
returned to tell their tales, with the most noteworthy account experienced
first-hand by Harvard trained brain neurosurgeon of 25 years, Dr. Eben
Alexander. This is not just another
afterlife account that can be written off as a hallucination. Before we look at exactly how his experience
of the afterlife defies all scientific explanation, lets explore his account a
little bit.
Before his experience, he did not believe existence of a
non-physical spirit. Trained in western medical school and surrounded by
medical colleagues who are deeply invested in the materialism view of the
universe, he thought that the idea of a soul was outlandish. Like most “skeptics”, he believed stories of
the afterlife to be hallucinations or products of the human imagination.
Dr. Alexander changed his mind after he was in a coma for
seven days caused by severe bacterial meningitis. During his coma he experienced a vivid
journey into what he knew to be the afterlife, visiting both heavenly and not
so heavenly realms.
After returning to his body and experiencing a miraculous
healing against all odds, and went on to write the NY Times #1 best selling
book “Proof of Heaven.” What Dr. Alexander confirms is that our life here is
just a test help our souls evolve and grow, and that the way we succeed in
doing so is to proceed with love and compassion. Here are just a few other notable points he
made:
– The experience of the afterlife was so “real” and
expansive that the experience of living as a human on Earth seemed like an
artificial dream by comparison.
– The fabric of the afterlife was pure LOVE. Love dominated
the afterlife to such a huge degree that the overall presence of evil was
infinitesimally small. If you wish to know the Universe, know Love.
– In the afterlife, all communication was telepathic. There
was no need for spoken words, nor even any separation between the self and
everything else happening around you. All the questions you asked in your mind
were immediately answered to you telepathically as well.
When asked what he wants everyone to know about the
spiritual realm, he always answers saying that you are precious and infinitely
loved more than you can possibly imagine. You are always safe. You are never
alone. The unconditional and perfect Love of God neglects not one soul.
“Love is, without a doubt, the basis of everything. Not some
abstract, hard-to-fathom kind of love but the day-to-day kind that everyone
knows-the kind of love we feel when we look at our spouse and our children, or
even our animals. In its purest and most powerful form, this love is not
jealous or selfish, but unconditional.
This is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious
truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists
or will ever exist, and no remotely accurate understanding of who and what we
are can be achieved by anyone who does not know it, and embody it in all of
their actions.”
Now let’s talk credibility for a minute. What makes this experience so much more
significant than another NDE account? Eben’s neocortex was completely
nonfunctional during the time of his coma do to his severe bacterial
meningitis, so there is no scientific account for why he experienced this. In fact, he gives refutations to 9 different
possible scientific explanations for his experience in his book.
Exploring Naturalistic Explanations
Let’s take a look at 5 potential explanations he outlines in
Appendix B of “Proof of Heaven”. Some
are of his explanations would make no sense to us as laymen untrained in
neuroscientific terminology, so here are the most common explanations he
refutes, all of which are taken verbatim from his book:
1. A primitive
brainstem program to ease terminal pain and suffering (“evolutionary argument”
– possibly as a remnant of feigned-death strategies from lower mammals?). This did not explain the robust, richly
interactive nature of the recollections.
2. The distorted
recall of memories from deeper parts of the limbic system (for example, the
lateral amygdala) that have enough overlying brain to be relatively protected
from the meningitic inflammation, which occurs mainly at the brain’s
surface. This did not explain the
robust, richly interactive nature of the recollections.
3. DMT
dump. DMT, a naturally occurring
serotonin agonist causes vivid hallucinations and a dream-like state. I am personally familiar with drug
experiences related to serotonin agonist/antagonists (LSD) from my teen years
in the early 70s. I have had no personal
experience with DMT but have seen patients under its influence. The rich ultra-reality would still require
fairly intact auditory and visual neocortex as target regions in which to
generate such a rich audiovisual experience as I had in a coma. Prolonged coma due to bacterial meningitis
had badly damaged my neocortex, which is where all of the serotonin from the
raphe nuclei in my brainstem (or DMT, a serotonin agonist) would have had
effects on visual/auditory experiences.
But my cortex was off, and the DMT would have no place in the brain to
act.
4. A reboot
phenomenon – a random dump of bizarre dis-jointed memories due to old memories
in the damaged neocortex, which might occur on restarting the cortex into
consciousness after a prolonged system-wide failure, as in my diffuse
meningitis. Especially given the
intricacies of my elaborate recollections, this seems most unlikely.
5. Unusual
memory generation through an archaic visual pathway through the midbrain,
prominently used in birds but only rarely identifiable in humans. It can be demonstrated in humans who are
cortically blind, due to occipital cortex.
It provided no clue as to the ultra-reality I witnessed and failed to
explain the auditory-visual interleaving.
His NDE account stands as the most credible account of all
time, and coming from his materialistic scientific background, we have good
reason to believe that he really did have a vivid encounter with something
beyond this world.
Here is an interview/feature he did with ABC News about his
condition and his experience: