Reading “The Proof of Heaven” by Dr. Eben Alexander is almost like experiencing the NDE that he went through, to really be at the hospital with him where his loved ones were holding his hand 24/7 while he was in a coma, to be with him while he went through the underground, the gateway and the core back and forth experiencing the bright light and the melodious songs and the angelic being, to be able to hear with the whole being without anyone talking, to be able to see without physical eyes, to not have a concept of time, to feel a divine presence and be overjoyed to the fullest.
I wasn’t feeling well over this long weekend. Couldn’t go out because I didn’t want to spread the flu around. Couldn’t watch TV or browse the net since eyes were hurting. Couldn’t sleep because, I’d start coughing the moment I was in bed. So though of reading a book that I’d wanted to read for a couple of months. A had finished reading and told me the gist, but I wanted to read it too. So made some hot water, poured it into the flask and came upstairs to my room. Poured some hot water into a cup, opened a sachet of Emergen-C and eased myself on the beanbag with the book in one hand and cup in another. I was almost completely immersed into the book for almost two days. Slept a couple of times in the middle, refilled the cup with hot water almost mechanically, went down to have food ..etc but my mind was in the book and I completely forgot about everything else.
Getting up after finishing the book was like going into a theatre and coming out. In fact he explains that going from ‘the realm of the Earthworm’s eye-view’ to the gateway is like coming out to the welcoming warmth of a sunny summer afternoon after being in a dark theatre for couple of hours - that experience multiplied 1000 times.
There is much more to write but this is one of those books where a person has to either read and engage in conversation with another who has read.
Some chapters had very good quotes at the beginning. I felt that the chapter headings were also good. It kind of gave an anticipation to what we might find in the chapter.
”A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.” — ALBERT EINSTEIN
”The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.” — ALBERT EINSTEIN
”We must believe in free will. We have no choice.” — ISAAC B. SINGER
”There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” — SØREN KIERKEGAARD
”And the drawing near of Death, which alike levels all, alike impresses all with a last revelation, which only an author from the dead could adequately tell.” — HERMAN MELVILLE
”I maintain that the human mystery is incredibly demeaned by scientific reductionism, with its claim in promissory materialism to account eventually for all of the spiritual world in terms of patterns of neuronal activity. This belief must be classed as a superstition … . we have to recognize that we are spiritual beings with souls existing in a spiritual world as well as material beings with bodies and brains existing in a material world.” — SIR JOHN C. ECCLES “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” — ALBERT EINSTEIN
”If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” — RENÉ DESCARTES
”I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.” — ALBERT EINSTEIN
”Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” — CICERO The last chapter “The Photograph” had a very interesting twist and had an amazing poem called “When Tomorrow Starts Without Me.” by David Romano.
Where to find the book to buy
- eBay : http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Proof-of-Heaven-A-Neurosurgeons-Journey-into-the-Afterlife-by-Eben-III-Alexander-2012-Paperback/143365475
- Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195
Header Image - “Great Light A” by Birrell Walsh via Flickr.