The idea of near death experiences (NDE) of heaven and God are "wonderful stuff", but "in my opinion, pure fantasy," Dr. Eben Alexander said before the encounter that changed his life. A neuro-surgeon for 25 years, Eben contracted a deadly E. coli bacterial meningitis that left him in a coma for seven days.
Dr. Eben Alexander chronicles his experiences in Proof of Heaven.
Despite the severity of the disease with a mortality rate of 97%, the prayer mantra of his loved ones had its effect:
"Receive the prayer.
"You have healed others. Now is your time to be healed.
"You are loved by many.
"Your body knows what to do. It is not your time to die."
And the impassioned plea of Michael had its effect: "Lord, bring Eben back to us. I know it's in your power."
One last time Sylvia and Bond looked into the eyes that had been "Staring dead and unmoored, askew like those of a broken doll."
But now, "My eyes opened" [the narrator returns]. Sylvia shrieked.
"And Eben's eyes began to look around."
Amazing as his survival was his complete mental recovery. The first thing Eben did was record all the details of his journey into heaven and the Divine encounter. Later he read books on NDE to discover common truths.
In Elizabeth Kubler Ross's On Life After Death a twelve year old describes a NDE to her father "...about travelling to an indescribable landscape full of love and beauty, and how she met and was comforted by her brother... The only problem, the girl told her father, "is that I don't have a brother."
Tears filled the father's eyes. He told her about the brother who died just three months before she was born.
After his NDE Eben sees the picture of his birth sister he has never met. His eyes mist. She looks strangely, hauntingly familiar. They had often said she was kind, practically an angel.
And Eben's guide journeying through the eternal realm had been "...a beautiful girl with cheekbones and deep blue eyes...peasant clothes...riding along on a patterned surface - the wing of a butterfly...guiding him through the places and processes to universes whose center was love and where all questions were answered instantly in an explosion of light."
"But now there was no mistaking her, no mistaking the loving smile, the confident and infinitely comforting look, the sparkling blue eyes.
"It was she. [His girl on a butterfly wing who guided him in the place where the higher and lower worlds met wasthe sister he had never met.]"
In Proof of Heaven" Dr. Eben Alexander expresses his absolute inability to explain the "richly interactive experiential tapestry" of his near death experience.
Eben was led to his ultimate realization: "I needed to completely embrace my role as doctor, as a scientist and healer, and as the subject of a very unlikely, very real, very important journey into the Divine itself."
