“Proof of Heaven” by Eben Alexander, 2012

Eben Alexander is an American neurosurgeon. He is famous as the author of the autobiographical book “Proof of Heaven,” in which he relates his near-death experience. As a neurosurgeon, he studied the most advanced medical treatments, especially those pertaining to stereotaxic radiosurgery, which allows the doctor to scrutinize a given part of the brain. He was also one of the pioneers of using Magnetic Resonance Tomography to study the brain. He knew that the human brain is a mechanism that produces consciousness. Consequently, if the brain is destroyed, consciousness should disappear as well. This is the basic axiom of neuroscience. However, something happened that made him change his mind. Due to a rare case of E. coli bacterial meningitis, he went into a coma. His brain, specifically his neocortex, stopped functioning. It means that, according to science, his consciousness should have disappeared completely. Instead, he experienced a very profound state, known as the near-death experience. He definitely heard about this state before from patients who suffered cardiac arrest, but he dismissed it as some sort of fairy tale. In his book, Dr. Alexander says, “During my coma my brain wasn’t working improperly, it wasn’t working at all.” Basically, he acknowledges that the brain is not in and of itself the ultimate source of consciousness. It is just an instrument that connects it to the body, to the physical realm. I completely agree with him. Even today, in the 21st century, no one really knows what consciousness is. Despite our great advances in biology and medicine, and in fundamental science such as physics, consciousness remains a mystery. It cannot be simply reduced to the material world, to the function of the brain. It seems to transcend physical reality. It is something that places human beings apart from the rest of nature. Our intellect makes us fundamentally different than the rest of the animal kingdom. It is really unbelievable that humans can ponder the questions of existence, can study how the universe works. In fact, mathematics, which is a human invention, explains the world in which we live, which is supposed to be an objective reality,  with the utmost precision. How can that be? Perhaps, the material world is not all there is. Perhaps there is a spiritual realm that our senses cannot grasp under ordinary circumstances. Perhaps our brains are simply tools connecting our bodies to a different, non-physical, or spiritual reality.