Conversations: A Neurosurgeon’s Afterlife Account with Dr. Eben Alexander

0:00 Hi, I'm Will and this is Conversations from the Skeptic Minifisitions. Every so often in the middle of a long interview, a guest says something that stops us in our tracks. Something that deserves its own spotlight. These are those moments. One guest, one big idea, just a few minutes that might change the way you see your life. So find a comfortable spot, stay skeptical, stay curious, and enjoy today's conversation. Dr. When I read your book, I was left stunned.

0:48 I'd been the skeptic second guessing everything I'd heard about life after death. Along comes a book from a very well-respected neurosurgeon that claimed to have proof of the afterlife. And I was thrown for a complete loop. I mean, if anyone is going to be able to debunk all the new age stuff that's been thrown around these days, it definitely would have to be you, right? But your book goes in the complete opposite direction. Now, I can't recommend reading your book enough to our audience, but for those that may not have had the chance to do so, can you give us a quick recount of the story? Yeah, I think, and very briefly, I should point out that the reason my story is so important to the scientific community is because it completely violates all the tenets of modern neuroscience in its mistaken notions of the brain creating consciousness.

1:36 And that's where I think my story has the most value. Because really the disease I had of severe case of gram negative bacteria, or meningocentral itis is a perfect model for human death because of its selective destruction of the neocortex, the outer surface of the brain and the brain stem. And that's why to have the experience I had is so remarkable. And in fact, there's a medical case report on my medical records by three doctors not involved in my care, but fascinated by my recovery. That's in the Journal of Neurolous and Middle Diseases in September 2018. And they make two very powerful points. It just confirm what I did in Proof of Heaven. One is they strengthened my argument that my brain could not have had any kind of dreamer hallucination, much less the most profound experience of my entire life.

2:24 And how did that happen? Especially at a time when my brain was demonstrably most offline. That's a real shocker. And then the second stunning kind of feature of the case report is my survival. The fact that over two months I ended up having a complete return of all my memories and then some and then being in the peak of health for the next 15 years, which is what I've really witnessed. Now, to get back to your question very briefly explaining my journey, it was in the setting of amnesia. That's very important to point out because that's an atypical feature of my into e that I had no memories of Evan Alexander's life. The words, the language, knowledge of earth, humans, etc.

3:06 It's God. And that empty slate was very important for the depth of where I was to go with all this. I didn't know that at the time, but it only became clear over the months and years of follow up after the event. And in fact, the essence of my NDE was really in three different levels of the spiritual realm. The first was what I call the earth, or my view, very primitive course on responsive realm. If all I'd done was go there and come back, I would have had a hellish NDE or a distressing NDE. But I went beyond that as most, you know, 95% of NDE's do into a realm that is far more beautiful and kind of our spiritual home, very comforting. The Gateway Valley is what I call that.

3:47 It had a lot of earth-like features. I had no body awareness. I was a speck of awareness on a butterfly wing, witnessing all that I did see in that realm, but that was a reality far more real than anything I was ever used to. And to kind of put that perspective, you need to realize that's the realm where, for example, we go through life reviews. And life review is experiencing birth to death, everything in between all at once. It's completely outside of earth time in a more eternal realm. And that's what I witnessed as so many other have in that realm. Thousands of years of history of reports of people with life reviews. And the life review is really just the gold rule written into the fabric of the universe.

4:29 Treat others as you would like to be treated because the life review is really a kind of review of the events of your life that's from the emotional perspective of others around you who are impacted by your thoughts and action. And the life review also was more of a reliving than a remembering. And it's like this disappearance of boundaries itself. Now for me, that was only a stepping stone in the journey, the gateway valleys, I called it, because music provided yet another portal just as it had leading the up from the earth where I view these melodies that came with this portal of light that allowed me to ascend to the next level. And likewise in the gateway valley, there were angelic choirs and hymns, chants, anthems, thundering from my awareness that energized yet another portal to a higher level.

5:18 Turns out that the third level, the main level that I visited beyond that gateway valley, that ultra real span was the core realm. That's why I realized that oneness with the divine is the very source of our conscious awareness. That all the dualities completely resolve as you get to that core level of oneness. And I would cycle through these levels multiple times. All that is told and much more tale, of course, improve of happening in my many talks about it. And in the sequel to that book, which is really living in my universe, that was co-written with my partner, Karen Newell. But it turns out I cycled through those levels as discussed many, many a time.

6:00 And then finally, there come a point where I could no longer conjure up the musical melody that led up into that gateway valley to say I was sad at that moment would be an understatement. But I also do I could trust in the universe that I would be taking care of as I was promised by that beautiful spiritual guide. And I knew that was the case. And so it turns out then I witnessed thousands of beings going off into the distance, heads bowed, murmuring energy, a lot of them with holding candles or hands up like that. And when I called all that and coming back to this world in my early writings, and though weeks after returning from coma, was the power of prayer. That's how I saw that. Was it was drawing me back to this world.

6:41 And the last thing I saw in the coma experience were the six faces. It would kind of bubble up out of the muck, say a few words into some beer again. That was a conversation from the skeptic manifestations. If that sparked something, the full interview goes much deeper. You'll find the link in the show notes. And if there's someone in your life that you think might just need to hear this today, why not send it to her way? Thanks for listening. We'll see you on the next conversations. [Music]