Brain surgeon claims he saw the afterlife while in a coma
<p>An academic neurosurgeon has recalled the "life-changing" near-death experience he claims he had while deep in a coma as his brain was ravaged by a rare bacterial infection.</p>
<p>Dr. Eben Alexander told The Sun that before his near-death experience (NDE), his many years as a doctor made him skeptical at the idea of an afterlife, rather believing that our consciousness dies at the same time as our bodies.</p>
<p>However, after his "life-changing" and "profound" NDE, the 68-year-old has experienced a "180-degree flip" in his belief system, claiming to have seen heaven with his own eyes, calling it more real and alive than the realm we currently inhabit.</p>
<p>“I basically used to have a very conventional, scientific and reductive materialist view that consciousness was created by the brain, and that only the physical world exists,” Dr Alexander said.</p>
<p>“And what my coma journey showed me … is that consciousness is something that is fundamental in the universe and does not originate in the brain."</p>
<p>“What I experienced was the most extraordinary, memorable, detailed, and ultra-real experience of my entire life,” Alexander continued.</p>
<p>“In fact, the world we live in, this material world, is more kind of cloudy and dreamlike than what I saw on the other side."</p>
<p>“That world is sharp, crisp and alive – and very real.”</p>
<p>On the morning of November 10, 2008, Dr Alexander woke up with severe pains in his back and what he described as "the worst headache of his life".</p>
<p>After being transported to Lynchburg General Hospital, where he worked as a neurosurgeon, he discovered he had contracted an incredibly rare and aggressive form of E. coli meningoencephalitis, which had started to gnaw away at his brain.</p>
<p>He was hastily placed in an induced coma and onto a ventilator, with his chances of survival diminishing by the hour.</p>
<p>According to Dr Alexander, his medical records show that his brain was "very badly damaged", with his brainstem also in "deep trouble".</p>
<p>As his chance of survival dipped to just 10 percent, loved ones gathered by his bedside, and although it seemed his grip on life was loosening, he insists his spirit had travelled to another realm in which he was experiencing a “re-birth”.</p>
<p>“People think going through this experience, in this state of almost amnesia, must’ve been very horrific,” he told The Sun, “and yet, I knew nothing else as a possibility, and therefore, to me, it all just seemed natural."</p>
<p>“This was existence. There was nothing foreboding about it."</p>
<p>Dr Alexander claims he was in a dream-like forest with plush clouds, tall trees, sweeping valleys and groups of joyous people dancing.</p>
<p>He says he spoke telepathically with a woman who told him, “You are loved. You are cherished. There is nothing you can do wrong.”</p>
<p>His peace in this heavenly realm was soon interrupted as he was thrown into an infinite depth and darkness before waking up.</p>
<p>As he regained his consciousness, he started to think he had truly glimpsed the afterlife.</p>
<p>“Those memories of that kind of [infinite depth] psychotic nightmare disappeared within a week or two, compared to memories of the deep coma experience, which was sharp, crisp, vivid, alive and detailed today, as if the whole thing just happened."</p>
<p>“As more than half of people who’ve had an NDE will tell you, it’s a much more real existence than this existence in the material world.”</p>
<p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>
