October 13, 2012
Proof of Heaven? No.
Steven Novella in Neurologica:
In 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
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