Early one November morning in 2008, neurosurgeon Eben Alexander awoke to a splitting headache along with significant and widespread body pain. As hismindrandesperately wild, self-diagnosing a potential cause, little did he know that just a few hours later, he would be fighting for his life in the hospital ER. For some time after his arrival, it was all a great and frantic mystery: what in the world was going on with this guy? And then, there it was. Results from a spinal tap revealed E. coli-induced bacterial meningitis, and lots of it!
No big surprise really considering the condition of the spinal fluid sample. Eben would later write in Proof of Heaven that during the procedure, his spinal fluid, which should have dripped out of the tap, “gushed out due to high pressure.” However, that was not all; while the slightest cloudiness in spinal fluid indicates trouble, Eben’s was “viscous white with a subtle tinge of green.” His spinal fluid, it so happened, was full of pus. But even this made little sense. While bacterial meningitis most often strikes children, Eben just so happened to be, literally, the one adult in 10 million who contracts it each year. Not only that, E. coli, once inside the brain cavity, mercilessly begins to systematically attack the brain, beginning with the outer layer: the cerebral cortex. The cortex, responsible for memory, language, emotions, and logic, among other things, is the portion of the brain thatsupportsouruniqueandhigher human qualities which make us human. Unfortunately, bacterial meningitis is so aggressive, and the decline so rapid that 90 percent of those contracting it die. No doubt about it, Eben was in big trouble.
At the same time his brain was being consumed, his consciousness began an odyssey that would last for the next six days. He would later explain that though he had no conception of having a body, his first impression was as if he were trapped in a thick, cold darkness that enveloped him like being stuck in mud. Although it was not frightening, these feelings soon gave way as he sensed himself rising above all the muck and mire, traveling toward a realm of indescribable beauty, all the while being personally guided by an angel. Indeed, Eben would later comment again and again that words were woefully lacking when it came to describing the beauty that he not only saw, but felt, as he moved closer and closer to the Divine. And then, beyond any doubt, he stood in the presence of God. Eben would describe the aura ofGodas“aninkydarknessthatwas also full to brimming with light.” The overwhelming presence of He who created all things enveloped him in peace, joy, and love. On day seven, with doctors poised to pull the life-supporting plug, Dr. Eben Alexander miraculously and spontaneously woke up from his deep coma.
Eben’s near-death experience (NDE) is unique in that there are very few other documented experiences where the person’s physical brain is nonfunctioning and being eaten alive (literally) by a foreign intruder. Over the next three years, he would write about his experience not to document yet another NDE, but rather to prove that the soul and spirit of man are something altogetherdistinctfromthephysical body. But here is the truly fascinating part: contrary to what neuroscience has thought for decades, the spirit of man, the consciousness, that aspect of what makes you, you, is not only a separate entity from the brain; it is thoroughly immaterial, indestructible, and immortal. This discovery, of course, presents an interesting question: If the spirit is immortal, from whence does it come? Turns out Solomon wrote about such things thousands of years ago, noting that upon death “The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecc 12:7). And that is precisely what NDEs seem to be telling us.
Oh yeah, Eben’s angelic guide, he later learned, was his sister who had died. A sister he had never known existed.
Having already glimpsed the splendor of heaven I have often wondered what Eben Alexander, or the millions of others—yes, millions— whohaveexperiencedataste of the afterlife through an NDE think when they hear Christian hymns like Sing to Me of Heaven?
Sing to me of Heaven, let me fondly dream, Of its golden glory, of its pearly gleam; Sing to me of heaven, sing that song of peace, Sing to me of heaven till life’s sorrows cease.
One, or a hundred, or even a hundred thousand may dare to lie, but not 25 million—surely that would far and away exceed the limits of credulity. But what if only ahundredNDEaccountsweretrue? What if there were only one? And what if that one was you? Would you still need to ask, Is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.