Dr Eben Alexander used to believe that near-death experiences were the result of the brain misfiring under stress, but all that changed after he spent a week in a coma
A neurosurgeon who once dismissed near-death experiences as the “brain misfiring under stress” had a change of heart after nearly losing his life. Harvard-educated Dr Eben Alexander claimed that his “world will never be the same” after he supposedly visited the afterlife during his own near-death experience in 2008, and he has shared his visions from his time on the brink of death in hospital.
His remarkable case has been analysed by hospice nurse Julie McFadden, who often discusses death to alleviate people’s fears. In November 2008, Dr Alexander contracted a lethal bacterial meningitis and fell into a deep coma within four hours. He spent the following seven days in a coma while connected to a ventilator.
According to the medical expert, the combination of bacterial meningitis and his rapid neurological deterioration meant there was a 90% chance he would die. However, as his body and brain were failing him, he claimed something extraordinary happened.
Sharing the story with her half a million YouTube subscribers, Julie said in a video this week: “He fell into a deep coma and the part of his brain called the neocortex which is the part that creates thought, emotion, consciousness, ceased functioning. There were actual EEGs done on his brain to prove this.
“According to current medical understanding, what he should have been experiencing at that time was absolutely nothing. The part of the brain that creates those things was shut off. But what he experienced, he says, is everything.”
In his eye-opening memoir Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander shared his journey into what he describes as The Gateway Realm, a place of awe-inspiring vistas.
He vividly remembers: “The Gateway Valley was filled with many earth-like and spiritual features: vibrant and dynamic plant life, with flowers and buds blossoming richly and no signs of death or decay, waterfalls into sparkling crystal pools, thousands of beings dancing below with great joy and festivity, all fuelled by swooping golden orbs in the sky above, angelic choirs emanating chants and anthems that thundered through my awareness, and a lovely girl on a butterfly wing who proved months later to be central to my understanding of the reality of the experience.”
In this otherworldly landscape, a woman conveyed to him, without words, that he was deeply loved and had nothing to fear, before guiding him to another dimension known as The Core.
There, he felt enveloped by what he described as the “heart of the divine”, a space devoid of conventional orientation but brimming with an infinite, boundless love.
Dr Alexander recalls being serenaded by the most exquisite music and, despite not fully grasping the entirety of his experience, he knew there was nothing to fear due to the overwhelming sense of tranquillity.
Julie, interpreting his account, said: “Even though it sounds, even to me hearing it, almost too trippy, he said it didn’t feel like that. It was just constant feelings of peace and love and harmony and goodness.”
Dr Alexander also reportedly met the creator, not in the form of a figure but as an overwhelming force that felt like home.
Julie delved into another case study with echoes of Dr Alexander’s experience, stating: “Many people with near-death experiences express this feeling like home. He said the creator said to him, ‘You are part of the one, you always have been and you always will be.’
“The part of the book, because I did read the book, that I love the most is him talking about this vast being as like the creator. Instead of it being a figure it was more like a force.
“At first to me that sounds a little impersonal and it sounds too hard to grasp, but he also says in the book that although this thing felt all encompassing and massive, he could still tell that the creator knew him intimately and personally so it still felt super personal which I particularly love and can relate to that a lot.”
After being told by the creator it was not his time to stay there, he traversed spiritual realms before returning to life.
His astonishing recovery left doctors bewildered, marking the beginning of Dr Alexander’s transformation.
Reflecting on his journey, he concluded: “NDEs such as mine then represent the tip of the spear in a rapidly progressing enlightenment of the scientific community around the mind-brain relationship, and our understanding of the very nature of reality. The world will never be the same.”
He also expressed his belief that consciousness exists outside of the brain, suggesting that death is merely the beginning of another phase in life.
The doctor made a full recovery and months later received a letter from his biological family.
Included in this letter was a photograph of a sister, Betsy, whom he had never known and who had passed away. He asserted that the woman in the photo was the same angelic figure he encountered in The Gateway Realm.
This reinforced his conviction that his experience was genuine, despite some neurologists suggesting that his brain may not have been as inactive as he believes, or that his near-death experience occurred just moments before he emerged from his coma.