| ABOUT US | ARCHIVES | LINKS | RSS FEED | MONDAYS | |

3quarksdaily

An Eclectic Digest of Science, Art and Literature

« Birthday Letter: Sylvia Plath and "Daddy" | Main | Innocence of Muslims »

October 13, 2012

Proof of Heaven? No.

Steven Novella in Neurologica:

Newsweek_Heaven_Is_RealIn an article for Newsweek, neurosurgeon Eben Alexander recounts his near death experience during a coma from bacterial meningitis. This is sure to become a staple of the NDE/afterlife community, as Alexander recounts in articulate and breathless terms his profound experience. His book is called, Proof of Heaven – a bold claim for someone who insists he is and remains a scientist.

Alexander claims:

There is no scientific explanation for the fact that while my body lay in coma, my mind—my conscious, inner self—was alive and well. While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension I’d never dreamed existed and which the old, pre-coma me would have been more than happy to explain was a simple impossibility.

While his experience is certainly interesting, his entire premise is flimsily based on a single word in the above paragraph – “while.” He assumes that the experiences he remembers after waking from the coma occurred while his cortex was completely inactive. He does not even seem aware of the fact that he is making that assumption or that it is the central premise of his claim, as he does not address it in his article.

More here.

Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 07:25 AM | Permalink

Comments

No

Posted by: Daniel Rourke | Oct 13, 2012 9:26:34 AM

In order to know that Alexander was "breathless" as he was writing, Novella would have had to be there, He seems to be unaware of this. Not good for a scientist.

Posted by: Larry | Oct 13, 2012 9:28:17 AM

I had a heart attack and flatlined for five minutes when I was 37. Trust me, there is nothing after this life. Nothing.

Posted by: Josef Stern | Oct 13, 2012 12:26:51 PM

A crucial fact to keep in mind is that 'near death' is not death.

Posted by: Ruchira | Oct 13, 2012 12:35:18 PM

Equally crucial is the fact that "near beer" is not beer.

Posted by: Angling Saxon | Oct 13, 2012 12:36:27 PM

And NO.

Posted by: waqnis | Oct 13, 2012 1:06:17 PM

He's a doctor. We must trust him.

Posted by: reader | Oct 13, 2012 1:09:00 PM

Isn't it strange that all of these near death experiences involve heaven? Doesn't anyone go to hell anymore?

Posted by: reader | Oct 13, 2012 1:10:45 PM

Or as some people like to say, a "near death experience" is as much like real death as a "near sex experience" is like real sex.

And no, apparently no one goes to hell. Nor do they go to the Sumerian afterlife, the Egyptian afterlife, the many Buddhist afterlives, etc., etc. (Of course, no one is an ancient Sumerian or Egyptian any more, so I guess that's understandable. And some Buddhists claim to be so far along the path to full enlightenment that they remember their own past lives, but they don't give any evidence for this.)

Posted by: JonJ | Oct 14, 2012 7:11:59 PM

Is there life after death for other animals? Why should there be for us?

Posted by: Raza Husain | Oct 14, 2012 9:52:25 PM

Post a comment






Subscribe to this blog's feed  

PayAnywhere with iphone credit card swiper

Android Tablet

Bluetooth Headset

2013 New Style Dresses

Compare Car Rental Prices

DHgate.com Wholesale

3QD on Facebook

3QD on Kindle

3QD by Daily Email

Receive all blogposts at the same time every day.

Enter your Email:


Preview 3QD Email

3QD on Twitter

Miscellany

Lijit Search

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Add to Google

Recent Comments

Raza Husain on If Only We Had A Leader Like Chavez, Who Solved Real Problems -- Instead Of Debating Fake Ones Like The Deficit

Raza Husain on Think About Nature

Raza Husain on Getting Smarter

johnnyred on Getting Smarter

Lou on Throwing away ancient wisdom, painting with sound and staying awake: a conversation with radio dramatist and ZBS Foundation president Thomas Lopez

Sundar on If Only We Had A Leader Like Chavez, Who Solved Real Problems -- Instead Of Debating Fake Ones Like The Deficit

flowers rainbows on Lift up your voices: The century-long battle for women's freedom

mr.ed on wagner in new york?

mirel on Here’s how to change the world

mirel on If Only We Had A Leader Like Chavez, Who Solved Real Problems -- Instead Of Debating Fake Ones Like The Deficit

X on Getting Smarter

Ross Williams on Getting Smarter

oroboe on Lennon's "Imagine" and McCartney/Wings' "Band on the Run" overlaid: One way of reuniting (some of) the Beatles

Richard H. Randall on Obama must Make Fighting Climate Change National Project, or Die the death of a thousand Scandals

seth edenbaum on The First New Atheist? Kierkegaard

waqnis on Mortify Our Wolves

nogodrod on KFC smugglers bring buckets of chicken through Gaza tunnels

waqnis on Here’s how to change the world

Fernando on Mortify Our Wolves

seth edenbaum on The case against empathy

Dredd on Mortify Our Wolves

Max on Here’s how to change the world

Rohana on Mortify Our Wolves

Raza Husain on If Only We Had A Leader Like Chavez, Who Solved Real Problems -- Instead Of Debating Fake Ones Like The Deficit

mirel on If Only We Had A Leader Like Chavez, Who Solved Real Problems -- Instead Of Debating Fake Ones Like The Deficit

Acclaim For 3QD


"I couldn't tear myself away from 3 Quarks Daily, to the point of neglecting my work. Congratulations on this superb site."—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University.

"I have placed 3 Quarks Daily at the head of my list of web bookmarks."—Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

"Just wanted you to know I’m one of many who reads and enjoys 3 Quarks....almost daily."—David Byrne, musician, former lead-singer of the Talking Heads, artist, intellectual.

Read more here.

The 3QD Prizes

Subscribe to this blog's feed