Dr Eban Alexander is a neurosurgeon of some distinction. He describes himself and a C and E - Christmas and Easter - Christian, convinced that science had reduced us to an explainable tiny cog in the universe. He contracted E Coli Meningitis, very rare and nearly always fatal, that damaged his brain so badly that he was a deep coma with his conscious brain effectively dead.
During the seven days he was unconscious he experienced a near death experience (NDE) of such detail and intensity that it has completely changed his life - so that now he sees it as his duty as a scientist to tell as many people as possible what he saw and understood about the most profound truths of the universe.
When he recovered, he was desperately keen to find out more about NDEs. His son counselled him to write down, in all the detail that he could muster, his experience before anything that he read could influence his thinking. He has since read a vast corpus of writing on the subject - all listed in the bibliography.
In his coma he experienced such an infinite sense of love, God and understanding that his language can only partially describe it. His journey was different to most other NEDs in that he had no sense of his past self or his family.
It is an extraordinary book - and one where my bullshitometer was turned up high - but with no beeps. He is a man of patently high intellect and seeming integrity with advanced medical expertise in the area of the brain and the effect of his disease. He says that it has given him insights on the nature of consciousness as the central driver of the universe that are completely at odds with current scientific theory on the relationship of the brain and consciousness.
I want to find out more
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