Reddit mentions of Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife

I recently finished reading "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife". Pretty good book, I think most psychonauts would really enjoy it.

The jist of it is, some brain surgeon doesn't believe in NDE or God or Heaven, then he has meningitis, goes into a comma for 7 days during which the part of his brain responsible for human activity shuts down entirely. He wakes up miraculously after experiencing fantastic, timeless realms, meeting angels, the creator (he calls it Om), and now he believes in NDEs.

His book is freakishly convincing. I'm too afraid to believe in it, because it's just too good to be true. He basically met God and was told that we are always loved and we can't do anything wrong, and that the evil on Earth is only allowed because it makes us grow.

I took salvia multiple times, and there were beings there, or it looked that way anyway. It was always unpleasant and confusing as fuck, so I decided not to integrate anything I learned during these trips. Except for a single trip which had a profound impact on me. I left my body, and could clearly see my entire life, somehow, outside of time, as being such a tiny speck in contrast with who or what I really was, as though it was a short experience I was going through, but that which I really am is so far beyond this human life. A bit like if my entire life was just a game or a play or a dream, although that analogy really doesn't do the trip any justice. That was first hand experiential proof, as scientific as it gets, except for the somewhat alarming matter than it's not easily reproducible (until I get my hands on DMT). Still, I know what I experienced.

I think NDEs are peaks beyond the veil. I think life is in a way death, and death is in a way life, in a way that death makes life look like, well, death. And I think this is why I've had, for years now, this creeping suspicion that life isn't real, it's bogus, it's odd and something is up. The splinter in your brain, as The Matrix's Morpheus said (Morpheus is the God of Dreams haha).

Scientists assume that consciousness arises from matter. I think it's the other way around, or at the very least, they arise mutually. This is how science progresses: they come up with a rule, and roll with it until they encounter an exception or anomaly, at which point they need to come up with a better rule. Dogmatic scientists are hopeless, but true scientists will notice that exception and dare to question the depressing assumption that consciousness is an accidental derivative of matter. And when they do, they'll only be several thousand years behind Eastern philosophy.

Here's a list of books I've read that have had a big impact on my journey.

First and foremost tho, you should learn to meditate. That's the most instrumental part of any spiritual path.

 Ram Dass – “Be Here Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052 - Possibly the most important book in the list – was the biggest impact in my life.  Fuses Western and Eastern religions/ideas. Kinda whacky to read, but definitely #1

Ram Dass - “Journey Of Awakening” - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006L7R2EI - Another Ram Dass book - once I got more into Transcendental Meditation and wanted to learn other ways/types of meditation, this helped out.

 Clifford Pickover – “Sex, Drugs, Einstein & Elves…” - https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Einstein-Elves-Transcendence/dp/1890572179/ - Somewhat random, frantic book – explores lots of ideas – planted a lot of seeds in my head that I followed up on in most of the books below

 Daniel Pinchbeck – “Breaking Open the Head” - https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Open-Head-Psychedelic-Contemporary/dp/0767907434 - First book I read to explore impact of psychedelics on our brains

 Jeremy Narby – “Cosmic Serpent” - https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642/ - Got into this book from the above, explores Ayahuasca deeper and relevancy of serpent symbolism in our society and DNA

 Robert Forte – “Entheogens and the Future of Religion” - https://www.amazon.com/Entheogens-Future-Religion-Robert-Forte/dp/1594774382 - Collection of essays and speeches from scientists, religious leaders, etc., about the use of psychedelics (referred to as Entheogens) as the catalyst for religion/spirituality

 Clark Strand – “Waking up to the Dark” - https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Dark-Ancient-Sleepless/dp/0812997727 - Explores human’s addiction to artificial light, also gets into femininity of religion as balance to masculine ideas in our society

 Lee Bolman – “Leading with Soul” - https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Soul-Uncommon-Journey-Spirit/dp/0470619007 - Discusses using spirituality to foster a better, more supportive and creative workplace – pivotal in my honesty/openness approach when chatting about life with coworkers

 Eben Alexander – “Proof of Heaven” - https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195 - A neurophysicist discusses his near death experience and his transformation from non-believer to believer (title is a little click-baity, but very insightful book.  His descriptions of his experience align very similarly to deep meditations I’ve had)

 Indries Shah – “Thinkers of the East” - https://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-East-Idries-Shah/dp/178479063X/ - A collection of parables and stories from Islamic scholars.  Got turned onto Islamic writings after my trip through Pakistan, this book is great for structure around our whole spiritual “journey”

 Whitley Strieber – “The Key: A True Encounter” - https://www.amazon.com/Key-True-Encounter-Whitley-Strieber/dp/1585428698 - A man’s recollection of a conversation with a spiritual creature visiting him in a hotel room.  Sort of out there, easy to dismiss, but the topics are pretty solid

 Mary Scott – “Kundalini in the Physical World” - https://www.amazon.com/Kundalini-Physical-World-Mary-Scott/dp/0710094175/ - Very dense, very difficult scientific book exploring Hinduism and metaphysics (wouldn’t recommend this for light reading, definitely something you’d want to save for later in your “journey”)

 Hermann Hesse – “Siddartha” - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/siddhartha-hermann-hesse/1116718450? – Short novel about a spiritual journey, coming of age type book.  Beautifully written, very enjoyable.

Reza Aslan - “Zealot” - https://www.amazon.com/ZEALOT-Life-Times-Jesus-Nazareth/dp/140006922X - Talks about the historical Jesus - helped me reconnect with Christianity in a way I didn’t have before

Reza Aslan - “No god but God” - https://www.amazon.com/god-but-God-Updated-Evolution/dp/0812982444 - Same as above, but in terms of Mohammad and Islam.  I’m starting to try to integrate the “truths” of our religions to try and form my own understanding

Thich Nhat Hanh - “Silence” - https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Power-Quiet-World-Noise-ebook/dp/B00MEIMCVG - Hanh’s a Vietnamese Buddhist monk - in this book he writes a lot about finding the beauty in silence, turning off the voice in our heads and lives, and living in peace.

Paulo Coelho - “The Alchemist” - https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0062315005/ - Sort of a modern day exploration of “the path” similar to “Siddhartha.”  Very easy and a joy to read, good concepts of what it means to be on a “path”

Carlos Castaneda - "The Teachings of Don Juan" - The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671600419 - Started exploring more into shamanism and indigenous spiritual work; this book was a great intro and written in an entertaining and accessible way. 

Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Mary” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Mary-Magdalene-Jean-Yves-Leloup/dp/0892819111/ - The book that finally opened my eyes to the potentiality of the teachings of Christ.  This book, combined with the one below, have been truly transformative in my belief system and accepting humanity and the power of love beyond what I’ve found so far in my journey.

Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Philip” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Philip-Magdalene-Gnosis-Sacred/dp/1594770220 - Really begins to dissect and dive into the metaphysical teachings of Christ, exploring the concept of marriage, human union and sexuality, and the power contained within.  This book, combined with the one above, have radically changed my perception of The Church as dissimilar and antithetical to what Christ actually taught.

Ram Dass - “Be Love Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Love-Now-Path-Heart/dp/0061961388 - A follow-up to “Be Here Now” - gets more into the esoteric side of things, his relationship with his Guru, enlightenment, enlightened beings, etc.

Riane Eisler - “The Chalice and the Blade” - https://www.amazon.com/Chalice-Blade-Our-History-Future/dp/0062502891 - An anthropoligical book analyzing the dominative vs cooperative models in the history and pre-history of society and how our roots have been co-opted and rewritten by the dominative model to entrap society into accepting a false truth of violence and dominance as “the way it is”

This book will blow your mind. A great read for what's waiting on the other side for good hearted people. No doubt there is a God and that he's Great in every way possible.

Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife https://www.amazon.com/dp/1451695195/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_Doq.Ab11JC0M5

Definely an interesting area of study, I appreciate Sir John Eccles parallel between the brain and the mind being like that of a piano and a piano player, with the music being the stream of consciousness.

So, if we switched the piano, what would happen to the music?

Quite a few interesting possibilities, perhaps the person would know they are themselves but need to learn how to play with a new instrument. What would be the implications of this?

Perhaps God has placed the part he gives to consciousness in a part or the whole brain which would lead to one personhood being in charge over another.


This seems to be the question your asking and I find it intriguing. It should be noted that any results could be interpreted to be in favor of dualism, so this isn't really the brain vs the soul. Theist are open to follow the evidence where it leads, by contrast, the atheist cannot, if for example, the person wakes up being the same person after surgery.






Have you heard of the neurosurgeon Eben Alexander that wrote a book on his near death experience while his brain wave activity was being monitored? If there are states of consciousness when there is no brain activity going on, then brain wave activity is not a necessary condition of consciousness.



Have you seen the studies by Benjamin Libet?



Libet discovered that prior to a person’s awareness of his decision to press the button, a brain signal had already occurred which resulted in his finger’s later moving. So the sequence is: (1) a brain signal occurs about 550 milliseconds prior to the finger’s moving; (2) the subject has an awareness of his decision to move his finger about 200 milliseconds prior to his finger’s moving; (3) the person’s finger moves. On a second run of the experiments, Libet discovered that even after the brain signal fired and people were aware of their decision to push the button, people still retained the ability to veto the decision and refrain from pushing the button! This is precisely what a dualist interactionist would expect to see.

I believe, that, following the logic of quantum mechanics, the electrons firing in our brain exist somewhere else in the infinite multiverse, and that when we die, our consciousness transfers from here to there.
Read this book.

> This makes Colton Burpo the only little adorable liar to still claim he died, saw God, and then came back and cashed in.

Hah! What?

Richard Sigmund

Trudy Harris (on behalf of others)

Mary Neal

Eben Alexander

Marvin Besteman

Crystal McVea

Dale Black

James Garlow (on behalf of others)

Seneca Sodi

Sid Roth (on behalf of others)

Reggie Anderson


and on and on and Ariston...

Why the downvotes? Would you credit a neurosurgeon's near-death experience? "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife" http://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195

> "Proof of God."

“Proof of Heaven”?

Reviews

I don't know if you would be interested but there is a book written by a brain surgeon who believes that visited the after life. Basically this brain surgeon who knows the inner workings of the human brain has to have a surgery done on himself in which he does die for a few moments. In these few moments he experienced a world in which he could only describe as heaven.

Anyways during all of this they had machines doing extensive monitoring of his brain patterns in which he concluded that this couldn't have been a dream of hallucination because the brain patterns didn't line up to create them. I haven't read the book but my mother has and she said it is definitely worth the read.

Edit: you people will down vote anything with the word 'Heaven' in it won't you?

http://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195 < theres the book for those interested (if any)

Proof of Heaven: Neurosurgeon gets bacterial meningitis, is stuck in a coma for months, then comes out of it. No one thinks he was going to live due to the condition of his spinal fluid (He claims it was a yellow pus color) Great book.

My family has been passing this book around lately, and my mom keeps hinting I should read it because "it's by a neurosurgeon so he knows what he's talking about." I imagine it would at least have some more credibility than The Case for Christ.

I would have recommended that OP gives her a book like The Magic of Reality if he wanted to go with Dawkins. It's at least a more indirect criticism of a lot of the beliefs of different religions, and does a good job of explaining some of the key concepts. Bonus points for the iPad version, because it's got some neat interactive stuff as well.

"Sadly too much evidence against it."

hmmm that's interesting. As a computer scientist and mathematician who has a fascination with quantum computing and it's implications with regard to the loosely defined phenomenon we call consciousness, it seems there are many recent theories that point a metaphysical connection to what we describe as being self aware. To name few: Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, quantum consciousness studies by Dr. Stuart Haneroff, and of course the many anecdotal studies like Dr. Eben Alexander.

I'm interested to hear your specifics of "too much evidence against it."


God Bless

Depends on how open-minded you are

http://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evidence-Afterlife-Science-Near-death-Experiences/dp/0061452572

http://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-24509/Near-death-patients-afterlife.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-89926/Scientists-discover-near-death-evidence.html

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence02.html

A quick google search brings up more results.

I thought it was going to be Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife which would better be calledThe NDE: Evidence Of An Afterlife Nobody can KNOW what happens when we die and if you do you're not a scientist. One of the better scientific inquiries is the work of Dr. Gary E. Schwartz at Uni of Arizona

>As much as someone might want to believe in heaven, it's not a belief that the evidence around us supports well.

Ehm...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

And that's just a start. We are literally drowning in evidence of an afterlife, it's just that, as the last link I provided argues for at length, it gets ignored because it goes against the dearest tenets of both the materialists/atheists and the religious people. To quote one of his passages,

"One conclusion I have come to over the years is that both the atheist and the believer, from the fundamaterialist to the fundamentalist, share something in common. In fact, from an epistemological perspective, what they have in common is much more significant than what they disagree about. What they agree about is this: beliefs pertaining to the possible existence of a transcendent reality — God, soul, afterlife, and so on — are based on faith, not fact. If this is true, then there can be no factual evidence that pertains
to such beliefs. This metabelief — that beliefs about a transcendent reality cannot be empirically based — is so deeply entrenched in our culture that it has the status of a taboo. The taboo is very democratic in that it allows everyone to believe whatever he or she wants to believe about such matters. This allows fundamaterialists to feel comfortable in their conviction that reason is on their side, that there is no afterlife, and that those who believe otherwise have fallen prey to the forces of irrationality and wishful thinking. But it also allows fundamentalists to feel comfortable in their conviction that they have God on their side, and that those who believe otherwise have fallen prey to the forces of evil. Thus, although the fundamentalist and the fundamaterialist are on opposite extremes of the spectrum of possible attitudes towards an afterlife, their extreme positions unite them as strange bedfellows in their battles against the possibility that there are matters of fact about the afterlife that empirical research might discover. The very suggestion that empirical research might be relevant to beliefs pertaining to a transcendent reality—that such beliefs are subject to empirical constraint — runs strongly against this taboo, and is hence very threatening to most elements of our culture."