Proof of Heaven by Dr Eben Alexander

There is a lot of books about heaven nowadays. For the most part these contributions stems from a Christian perspective (i. e. Roberts Liardon's classic "I Saw Heaven"; Don Piper's 90 "Minutes In Heaven" and recently Lynn Vincent's "Heaven Is For Real".
But this time an unbeliever and neurosurgeon gives his account of Heaven after being in coma (in which his brain was shut down). Since MD Eben Alexander is a scientist and an expert on the brain his account is by far the best proof of the phenomena of NED (Near Death Experiences).

What disturbs me is not only that his experience and account of Heaven (and Sheol) lacks an encounter with the Judeo-Christian God i general and Jesus Christ in particular; but that the book promotes the idea that when we die, all humans will go to a heavenly-like existence which contains of only love and splendour. In one of Dr Eben Alexander's encounter with a heavenly figure - the being claims three truths (according to Alexander) about the nature of the paradise existence:
i. "You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever"
ii. "You have nothing to fear"
iii. There is nothing you can do wrong".

In sum: Dr Alexander message gives the unbeliever the assurance that heaven awaits all and death is nothing to fear and that our soul survives the body.

My problem with Eben's story, is that I do not think that that he made it up to make a bestseller; his credentials and the way he writes suggests otherwise.

I just dont know how to judge it really. What did he encounter anyway?

The book is right now number one on New York Times bestseller list paperback non-fiction and I think there is a lot of Christians who will read the book and be lead astray. There is also a lot of non-believers who will read it and think that you do not need to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to get to heaven.

Maybe anyone on this Sermonindex forum has any perspective on the matter or have read it.

BTW here is a link when Dr Eben met with Oprah to talk about his experiences:
http://www.lifebeyonddeath.net/oprah

Sincerely Magnus Nordlund Sweden

These kind of writings are very convincing. I had a customer who came to our store some time ago who taught something similar. He was absolutely convinced that what he saw was from God...and how did I know his vision was not? He showed me a ring on his finger and told me he is depending on it to reach heaven, or something like that. He never saw Jesus nor angels but felt a Presence; he did not have a repentant attitude. It was so secular. These kind of visions happen with surprising frequency. All you have to do is google visions of heaven and you will find too many and most are very deceptive. But how can one explain their existence? The Apostle Paul addresses this issue..consider:

2Corinthians 11:13-15 NASB:

13 "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

Galatians 1:6-9:

6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Yes, there are authentic reports of people having had a vision of heaven and they are precious and encouraging to the Believer. Let us not be swayed by the counterfeits that appear.

My perspective on this issue.

ginnyrose

Thanks ginnyrose! Yes, I do agree,
Sincerely Magnus

Let us see what Jesus told us about such visions in his story,

Luke 16 - 27:-

he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

The time when Jesus told this story, the Bible had only the prophets and Moses. But now we even have more than that in our Bible. If we do not listen to them and believe in the value of eternal life then what else will make us believe? Why do we expect someone from dead to come and show us that it is true? Are we blinded by the science that after death there is no life? If the Gospel is correctly preached to unbelievers there is no need for any such proof of heaven and hell stories to convict people. The scripture is good enough to make people concerned about their souls.

But in today's world it is a shame that even Christians are finding a need for such books to increase their faith. If Bible cannot bring faith in you then what else can?

Oh man-- I was really looking forward to the rainbow colored winged horses that Colton Burpo described in "Heaven is Real."

Of course I didnt read that book but have unfortunately heard tons about it.

ka-ching ka-ching (my best cash register imitation).

Hi Mangan, how are you?

After reading your post and reflecting on some of the issues it raises I think it will be better to call this thread: proof of heavenly places, rather than proof of Heaven itself. If we do that, it should put some of our questions into a right perspective. I'll explain.

Just as the word prophesy does not mean "to speak for God", nor does vision mean "a revelation from God", both Angels and Demons are spirits, and both prophesy and visions are spiritual.

While visions and experiences like these are not revelations from God when we test them with Holy Scripture, they are affirmations of the reality of the spiritual realm(which Paul called 'heavenly, or high places) and of the existence of mankind's soul, apart from his body. For that reason we might call something like this: proof of heavenly places and the soul of man apart from his body.

But not proof of Heaven, where Jesus Christ is. Or what happens to the soul, when we die or leave our body.

Remember, where did Paul say that our spiritaul warfare was and with whom we are fighting?

Principalities and powers...in high or heavenly places...

and where does Paul say in the same passages that Jesus Christ is?

Far above all principality and powers. The highest Heaven. The Abode and Throne of God.

So take visions as real spiritual experiences and with the blessedness of our having recieved the revealtion of Scripture, we prove them, put them to the test, hold fast to that which is good.

I have a Muslim friend who some time ago had a powerful dream. It was so incredible to him that he was relucutant to share it with me at first and only spoke to me about it in a vaugue hinting way. After sometime he came out with it. He had a dream where he saw a door and a bright light behind it. He wanted to go beyond the door to were that light was and the more he tried the more difficult he found it to be. The harder he tried to open the door the harder it became to open it.

Finally it opened on its own and he saw a man standing in the midst of the open door who was shinning with brightness all around him.

He was greatly disturbed by the dream and wanted to know who the man was.

I had no problem believing Who it was he saw standing in the door that opened it for him.

I know who the door is.

I know who shuts and no mans opens, who opens and no man shuts.

Who is the straight and increasingly narrow way.

And for us that is the blessedness of our having recieved the revelation of God in scripture, that we believe in the scriptures that testify of Jesus because we beleive in Jesus who has testified of the scriptures.

We beleive in God who is a stone suspeneded in the midst of the air, a fire that burns with nothing to fuel it, Eternal and filling Eternity, Creator, uncreated,

His own witness and proof and testimony.

I. "You are loved and cherished dearly forever"
II."You have nothing to fear"
III. "There is nothing you can do wrong"

There is one word that all three of these supposed truths have in common and it is greatly disturbing.

Thanks to all of you who commented on this topic. I think the book is deeply disturbing and without doubt a false account of the true reality which awaits the fallen man after death.

One thing comes to mind in this critical hour and that is:
We need to pray for the true gift of discernment. Sure we got the Word; but we also need more of the Spirit.

Thanks again,
Sincerely Magnus Nordlund, Sweden

Chris wrote:

"While visions and experiences like these are not revelations from God when we test them with Holy Scripture, they are affirmations of the reality of the spiritual realm(which Paul called 'heavenly, or high places) and of the existence of mankind's soul, apart from his body."

This may be true, but no one is exactly sure what these "near death" experiences actually are. Their similarities (in general) would seem to indicate a 'fading out" of the chemical processes in the brain as a person is dying, not necessariy that their spirit or soul has left their body. Of course, their spirit/sould MAY be leaving their body- who knows. Some day, I will have to ask Lazarus what he experienced. I am very curious.

I heard a discussion on a talk show one time about a psychedlic drug "DMT" that south american shamans use in their "trances." The very interesting thing about this was that whoever took this conconction the shamans used had the **exact same** hallucinatory experience- being in a lush garden... encountering a "spiritual being" that was able to impart "deep knowledge."

Perhaps there are similar chemical processes in a dying human brain that can account for the similarity of these near death experiences (in general).

Hi TMK, thank you for the thoughtfull comments!

About this if I could:

"...no one is exactly sure what these "near death" experiences actually are."

Of course this is a fair statement to make as well. I certainly do not know what the experiences of other are and for Paul when he had his experience of Heaven, it was enough for him to say, whether in the body or out, 'I do not know'. Yet there is enough in the stories that I have heard, discriptions of things that people could not possibly have seen or known in their bodies, to convince me that there is more to chemical processes in the brain in the experiences that people have.

In fact I suspect that God made man's physicality to suite and receive his spirituality, whether it be his own spirit, or that of God's.

And God formed man from the dust of the Earth and breathed into him the breath of life and man became, a living soul.

God furnished the temple and then he filled it. He hewed out the altar and then He set in the fire.

Man IS spiritual, living in a physical world, which is itself no less miraculous or less worthy of the phrase 'supernatural' then when the Red Sea parted except it is our everyday home and we do not see it as such.

It would not surprise me if man's physical faculties have been arranged so as to respond to the spiritual(whether it is his own spirit or from beyond) in preorded and even predictable ways. Like chemical reactions in the brain for instance. It wouldn't surpise me then if sometimes those same processes could 'fire' of for some other reason than something spirital, and give a 'false positive' or psudeo spiritual experience. It may be the discovery of that very thing which led the ancients and pagan cultures to try to use and to manipulate it in order to contact the spirtual realms. Kinda like breaking and entering to raid the cookie jar or to get a meeting with somone when they wont answer the door. Like Saul.

The story of the shaman's and the repeatable experiences of their subjects through drug induced visions makes sense too. If man is wired in his brain with connections that are ready to connect with his spirit and that of what is beyond than it would make sense if those connections could be hit at other times and produce similar even repeatable results.

It makes alot of sense too that the word "sorceries" in Biblical terms has a connenction with drugs in the original language.

I would not be surprised at all if there are very real and explainable physical responses to things which are equally real and equally spiritual at the same time. And that sometimes the former can happen without the latter.

I've heard where people have spoken in other languages, languages they did not know, and the circumstances were not spiritual at all. And yet I'm fully convinced that the speaking in tongues of Pentecost and in modern times are both supernatural and spiritual from God.

I recall a long time ago before my conversion listening to the Art Bell show and his guest was there attempting to 'debunk' the existence of God by saying human beings had a God part of the brain that could be deavtivated.

I thought, well so what if we do? How does that disprove God's existence.

If anything, it made sense to me that God would put somethin in us, even a place in our brains, where we were ready to recieve Him or experience Him.

His thinking was, if it could be turned off, it was proof it was just some eveolutionary development in man's millions of years of trudging around in the mud breaking rocks into little rocks with bigger ones and being amazed by fire.

Of course, he might be the same person who would say, because we can explain how our genome works at a certain level, we've lost the ability to shout Hallelujah! when we see it in action.

What an idiot!

Anyway, sorry for so long a reply here and thank you for making some good points for balance!

Hi Chris-

I don't disagree with anything you have said.

I have heard something similar about "God" being found in the human brain; I seem to remember something about studies they have done to show that a certain part of the brain is very active when a person is having a "spiritual" experience.

Like you said, this would not prove the non-existence of God, just that parts of our brain are more active when having a spiritual experience! of course, the atheist would say that the person is having the spiritual experience BECAUSE that part of the brain is "lighting up" rather than the brain "lighting up" because of the spiritual experience.

I did a little more reading on near death experiences in wikipedia; interestingly one of the theories is that under stress of impending death the pineal glad releases a large amount of DMT (which is pruduced in the body and same chemical in the shaman's concoctions) which may account for these experiences. I was not aware that the human body produced DMT. Like you said, a release of a chemical in the brain like DMT might account for several things, including alien abduction accounts, hauntings, etc.