Eben Alexander was convinced that there is nothing beyond this life. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1976 and received his M.D. from Duke Medical School in 1980. After he completed a fellowship in cerebrovascular neurosurgery at Newcastle-Upon Tyne, he served for 15 years on the faculty at Harvard Medical School with specialization in neurosurgery. As a physician and a scientist, he concluded that when the brain dies all consciousness ends. The person ceases to exist.
All that changed on November 10, 2008 when he suffered a severe attack of
bacterial meningitis that left him on life support and, by every measurement,
brain dead. After existing in this comatose condition for a week, Eben
Alexander miraculously woke up. When he did, all his preconceived scientific
assumptions about life and death were changed. The dramatic Near Death
Experience (NDE) left him convinced that life beyond this physical existence is
not only real, it is the greater reality.
He documented his experience in his book, Proof of Heaven. He writes, “The
physical side of the universe is as a speck of dust compared to the invisible
and spiritual part. In my past view, spiritual wasn’t a word that I would have
employed during a scientific conversation. Now I believe it is a word that we
cannot afford to leave out.”
Luke, a first century physician, after conducting exhaustive research and
extensive interviews wrote, “He also presented Himself alive after His
suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40
days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3).
Paul, arguably one of the greatest minds in history, stated, “For I delivered
to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was
raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to
Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred
brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen
asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all,
as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” (1 Cor. 15:3-8). Every other
event in history is dated by that singular life that gave the world its
greatest “proof of heaven.”