Why this book: Recommended to me numerous times by good friends, and it is also a recommended book in my Psi discussion group. I listened to it which worked well, as it was narrated with updates from the original publication, by the author, and includes updates on his experiences since its original publication in 2012.

Brief summary (edited from Amazon): Thousands of people have had near-death experiences (NDEs), but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander believed like his colleagues, that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress.

Then, Dr. Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness that completely shut down that part of the brain that makes us human – that controls thought and emotion. For seven days he lay in a coma, and as his doctors considered stopping treatment and pulling the plug on the systems that were keeping him alive, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back – a medical miracle.

But the real miracle of his story was that while his body lay in coma and his brain showed no activity, Alexander journeyed beyond this world, had vivid experiences, and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. This story would be remarkable no matter who it happened to. That it happened to Dr. Alexander makes it revolutionary.

My Impressions: A remarkable book that deserves its outstanding reputation. I, like so many others, finish the book believing the author’s description of his experiences, intrigued and inspired by what he claimed to be their implications, and asking myself, “Assuming he’s telling the truth about his experiences (it’s hard to doubt his integrity), what do I do with this?”

After describing his life and what preceded his NDE, then what he experienced while in a coma with no detectable brain activity, and then his return to his earthly life, he describes the reactions of his colleagues in the scientific and medical communities to his story. He understood their prejudice as scientists against believing such non-testable, not repeatable phenomena, because he had shared it – prior to having his own NDE. It has been frustrating to face challenges to the credibility of what he experienced. And then he dedicated himself to sharing what he beleives are the implications and spiritual meaning that can be derived from his unique experience. But it wasn’t unique – there have been thousands of such claims, but what was unique was that it happened to him – a man at the peak of science’s understanding of the physical principles of the brain. But he notes that science is still confused about “consciousness” what it is, what is its relationship to the brain, and which he now argues is separate from the biological brain.

There are several key conclusions that he draws from his experience.

1, WHO we are is much more than what is in our brain, our memories and our identity in our earthly life. We have a separate identity to which our consciousness is more closely tied.

2. We exist in multiple dimenstions, but our conscious awareness is limited to our physical selves and the physical world we live in. There is another dimension to our existence which is somehow connected to the larger reality which is spiritual, (somehow) beyond space and time. The “reality map” of our existence is much larger than we perceive.

3. He felt a “truth” while in that other dimension, that he was unconditionally loved by a being or presence that is beyond comprehension. And he says this truth applies to all of us – and that is the key reality of our existence

4. He said his experience was ineffable, beyond words to adequately represent, and he struggled to describe what he experienced and his insights with the inadequate tools of vocabulary. To describe what he felt and experienced would be like trying to build a rocket ship with a hammer and a screw driver (my analogy.)

5. That we are all connected on a level most of us don’t feel most of the time in our daily lives, but it there. He experienced a profound spiritual connection to this greater reality which if recognized and embraced, could/should be a primary source of our happiness

6. He experienced what he perceived as God – not the personal one that we learn about in Sunday school or church, but more of a “presence.” He called it “Om” rather than God, to distinguish it from the “God” we learn about in religion, which is a concept limited to our earthly experience and perceptions.

After reading this book, I contacted my friend John Alexander and noted that there were aspects of his experience while in his coma that (to me) had a flavor of western culture. I asked John if there had been studies that compare NDEs across widely divergent cultues – where were there similarities and where were they different. He pointed me to a book entitled After, by Bruce Greyson, another medical doctor, which I’m reading now.