The Near Death Experience of Dr. Eben Alexander


Dr. Eben Alexander graduated from Duke University in 1980 and was a resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and American College of surgeons. He has been employed at some of the top hospitals in the world. These hospitals include Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Boston, Dana-Farber Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Alexander comes from a scientific background and has followed in his fathers footsteps in neurosurgery. Once a true believer that there is nothing after death, which his upbringing and education taught him, Dr. Alexander now questions everything he has learned since suffering from a meningitis induced coma in 2008.

His book claims that our consciousness is independent from the brain and that death is simply an illusion. He also says there is a perfect life after death that includes butterflies, Angels, clouds, and our departed loved ones.

Dr. Alexander slipped into a coma as a result of severe bacterial meningitis. Having no brain activity he was considered “brain dead”. His journey began in a dark formless place without memory, language, or time. He was saved by a spinning melody of light that came closer and closer until it opened up to a world full of vivid colors and millions of butterflies. Flowers blooming and blossoming as he floated by. By his side was a beautiful girl with blue eyes. She would look at him without saying a word and the thought would mystically enter his mind that she was telling him he was loved and cherished but he must go back, it was not his time. After seven days in a coma, he miraculously opened his eyes. Due to his amazing experience Dr. Alexander had a different view of life and life after death.

After going public with his story prior to the publication of his book, he has been terminated or suspended from multiple hospital positions and subject to several malpractice lawsuits. Other medical professionals claimed that Dr. Alexander was in a medically induced coma and was conscious and hallucinating.

Although Dr. Alexander states his near death experience occurred while his cerebral cortex was shut down and inactive, neuro-scientist Sam Harris disagrees. He states Dr. Alexander’s claims are not only inadequate but insults him by saying he doesn’t know anything about the relevant brain science. Neurologist Oliver Sacks states that it was impossible to establish a near death experience while the brain was shut down. The most plausible explanation is that it occurred not during the coma but as he was resurfacing from it and his cortex was returning to full function.

What is your opinion? Do you believe in life after death or is it just a hallucination?


4 thoughts on “The Near Death Experience of Dr. Eben Alexander

  1. I see, hear, and smell things that a lot of other people do not. Some of which terrify me to my core. I felt my dad passing and went to him. He has been with me since. My mom appeared to me minutes after she passed to let me know she was here. My husband’s parents are around me. I pull a lot of spiritual activity some of which is unsure and dark. So yes there is another place including heaven and hell.


  2. I do believe in life after death! These stories really fascinate me! NDE cannot all be hallucinations or drug induced right? I have read many stories about people who were presumed dead, and they see heaven, and are greater by relatives that are deceased! Good one Scott!


  3. Personally, my opinion on life after death is reserved. I’m waiting for more information. But that being said I do not believe that the claims of lights, tunnels and relatives etc. are evidence of life after death. These visions are perfectly consistent with a dying brain. The brain dies from the outside to the center, this much has been proven. The area near the center of the brain is responsible for old memories and the processing of light visions. It just seems to me that this a “near death” experience as opposed to an “after death” experience.


  4. Most people report a long black tunnel with a light at the end that they enter when there brain EEG is straight lined for more than 8 minutes. This is like a Einstein Rosen Bridge or Worm Hole, Vortice that people seem to be going down the rabbit hole.Buddhist Monks and Edgar Cayce believe in Reincarnation and life after death.There are scientist working on proving not just believing it.Before the sperm and egg came together you did not exist, so it seems after death you go back to not existing.I am not closed minded i am open to other possibilities.Your consciousness and long term memory reside outside of space and time. The Akashic Records of Edgar Cayce and God supposedly reside outside space and time. So Consciousness, Long Term Memory, Akashic Records and God are non local (outside space and time)
    Is there life after death, the jury is still out, we will see.
    I will go along with the Theory that you exist in other Universes were you are not dead
    When Hans Holzers medium contacted the so called dead they would say they are alive, They could be telling the truth if they are alive in another
    Universe while they are dead in this Universe
    Hugh Everett ( The Many Worlds Interpretation) Parallel Universes
    Edgar Cayce and the Buddhist Monks could be right we will see.
    The way Dr. Eben Alexander thinks is wishful thinking but i do not buy into it at this moment.
    Bill Hicks (ITS JUST A RIDE)


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